When Christ Calls a Man

Acts 9:1-20

We like conversion stories like the one of Saul of Tarsus. In fact, some Christians feel a little cheated if they don’t have a dramatic conversion story like: “I was getting drunk six nights a week and pushing nuns into traffic, but God changed me and made me an evangelist.”

Have you ever envied a story like that because you can’t point to such a radical change in your life? I know a lot of people do. While it’s good to hear stories of transformation, that’s not the only way that God works. In fact, it’s not even the normal way that God works. What makes you a Christian isn’t necessarily having a dramatic conversion experience; it’s having faith in Jesus. If you can’t remember a day in your life when you didn’t have faith in Jesus, that’s a good thing. That’s what your parents, godparents and the rest of the church prayed for at your baptism even if you were too young to remember it.

Sometimes, when celebrities come to Christ, they are tempted by the lure of branching out into a different platform. It is as if faith can become just another way of marketing oneself. It can happen to all of us, not just celebrities. Remember when Jesus tells His disciples that when they fast, they shouldn’t be showy about it but should rather do so in secret? He doesn’t mean you hide your faith, but He does mean that faith isn’t a public performance for adulation.

One way you can tell that the call of Saul is authentic and not just someone looking to branch out into a different market is what Saul is called to. The Lord says regarding Saul:

“This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

Acts 9.15b-16, NIV (emphasis added)

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."^[1]

As much as God is able to transform a persecutor into someone willing to be persecuted, He can transform you from someone who is fearful into someone who is filled with courage – the courage to speak the truth boldly, the courage to love others, the courage to serve others and the courage to find your significance not in the size of your platform but in the love of your Heavenly Father.

[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship