Can You Relate to Paul

Who do you best relate to in the bible? Do you identify with Moses, who wasn’t sure if he had the abilities that God was looking for? Maybe you identify with Martha, who was committed to serving the Lord but sometimes needed to be reminded that you need to stop working long enough to just sit at his feet and listen to his Word. Maybe a bit reluctantly, you can relate to Adam, who had problems with his wife, or Joseph, who had a prison record, or David, who was a peeping Tom and an adulterer, or Elijah, who was prone to depression. Maybe you relate well to John the Baptist, who slept outdoors and ate insects. Maybe not. Who do you best relate to? Maybe a more important question is, who should you want to relate to? What’s God expecting from you? Take the Apostle Paul. Can you relate to him? He wrote 13 books in the New Testament, went on three different and difficult missionary journeys, raised people from the dead, gave birth to brand new churches, restored life to dying ones, served as traveling pastor to I-don’t-know-how-many different congregations, defended Jesus in front of powerful governments, antagonistic crowds, and mobs that wanted to kill him, and, in his spare time, he made tents. What have you done today? Do you know what the answer is? You’ve done enough; enough to make God look at you in the same way he looked at the Apostle Paul; enough to judge you exactly as he judged Paul. In Paul’s letter to a young pastor named Timothy (oh yea, he also mentored young men so that the ministry wouldn’t get the best of them), Paul uses six verses to tell his life’s story, which I think is amazingly analogous to the one you would tell if you were to write yours down. (12) I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. (13) Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. (14) The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. (15) Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. (16) But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. (17) Now to the King eternal immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. Can you tell me who said this: “I am fighting so that I can die as a martyr and go to heaven to meet God”? It’s the same person who said this: “The pieces of [their] bodies were [falling from the towers] like dust particles. If you would have seen it with your own eyes, you would have been very pleased, and your heart would have been filled with joy.” These are statements of Osama bin Laden, talking about how pleased he was with the death and destruction of 9-11. He also said that he grew up hating every American, saying, “We do not [even] have to differentiate between military [personnel] or civilian. As far as we are concerned, they are all targets.” He has never met you, but he doesn’t like you. Do you know who Osama bin Laden can relate to best in the bible? Paul. His statements relate very well to Paul’s. Paul describes himself before he became a Christian when he said that he was a blasphemer (someone whose mouth only speaks against the Lord), a persecutor (someone who chases after people like they’re hunting wild animals), and a violent man. Do you remember how harshly Jesus was treated when he was beaten and insulted by the Roman soldiers and the Sanhedrin? That’s what Paul did to anyone he found who carried the name “Christian.” He may have never previously met them, but he despised them. And, just like bin Laden, he believed that he was doing something godly, that he was walking a straight highway to heaven. Can you relate to Paul here? Probably not, huh? After all, I don’t know if any of us have ever been on America’s Most Wanted. Very few, if any, of us have ever spent time in prison, or murdered, raped, ripped off, robbed, or assaulted anyone. And even if we have, unless you are currently a fugitive, it’s not like anyone out there is looking for us. Aren’t you glad that you can’t relate to Paul here? It kind of makes whatever sins you have going on in your life seem pretty insignificant. Your little struggle with materialism and greed looks pretty good compared to someone who’s blood-thirsty. The coarse jokes that you laugh at and the late night show sexual inuendos you chuckle at, if that’s the worst you do, it keep Homeland Security pretty far off your back. Isn’t it true, though, that people sometimes treat your smaller sins like the biggest and most vile thing, and yell at you like you just committed another 9-11? Has it ever happened to you that someone confronts you when they don’t even know for sure if something happened. They just tell you that they had a hunch or a hint that you were doing something immoral, impure, or improper for God’s people. We know Paul sinned. Paul’s sins were all out in the open, which is why so many people in the early church didn’t want to accept him. And for Paul, there was no use denying it. So he just openly admitted it and grouped himself with sinners, “of whom,” he said, “I am the worst,” Paul said. Hard to disagree. “I am the worst,” he said. “That title belongs to me.” “I am the worst” Paul wrote in his letter to Timothy. Notice he didn’t say, “I was the worst.” Do you disagree? When was Paul’s conversion? Jesus stopped him on the road to Damascus sometime shortly after Jesus returned to heaven, which means that Paul (under his given name, Saul) was persecuting Christians until the mid-30s. Paul wrote his letter to Timothy shortly before he died, sometime in the mid-to-late-60s, which means that Paul had been a bible- writing, church-growing missionary who hadn’t touched a Christian for about 30 years before he said “I am the worst of sinners.” Do you know who Bob Vernon is? Bob Vernon is the former Assistant Police Chief in Los Angeles. He wrote about a young man he once arrested who went by the name “Cool Aid.” One day as a high school homecoming parade was going by, Cool Aid took out a gun and began to fire at the Queen’s court sitting on one of the floats. The crime was carried out in broad daylight, and he didn’t even run. He calmly waited for the police to arrest him. In the interrogation room, Chief Vernon asked him why he shot those girls. He said he needed to do some prison time because he had a venereal disease and he knew he would get treatment. He also had a tooth that needed filling, and he knew it would happen in prison. He also wanted to spend time in prison getting “buffed out,” he said, that is, building up his body by lifting weights. But before he could get in, he had to establish a reputation so no one would mess with him. Did Paul not know about guys like Cool Aid? Granted, he wasn’t alive back then, neither was bin Laden, but there have always been plenty like them. And maybe Paul was in their category before his conversion, but to call himself the worst of sinners at the peak of his Christian living, just before he passes through death and walks into heaven seems to be either a typo or a stretch. But God’s Word is perfect, so it isn’t a typo. And, for Paul, who knew himself very well, it wasn’t a stretch. Paul knew that when God judges him, God isn’t going to stand him side-by-side with Cool Aid or bin Laden and choose which one looks better to him. God is going to stand Paul all alone and compare all of Paul’s actions with every one of God’s holy laws; laws such as the ones we read in the book of Ephesians, where it says, “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person – such a man is an idolater – has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” Who is the worst of sinners by that definition? Paul knew. That title belonged to him. It belongs to me, and it belongs to you. Paul called himself the worst of sinners because he knew that any little sin, no matter how it compares to the sins of anyone or anything, brings you the worst of life far away from heaven. Did you hear about this Dr. Richard Batista who sued his wife for her kidney? In 1991, Dr. Batista’s wife needed a kidney transplant in order to live. Not wanting to wait for her name to come up on the list, and not wanting his wife to die, he decided to donate his. The surgeries, both hers and his, went well. The transplant was a success. 18 months later, while living in their million dollar house and wearing the nice clothes and expensive perfume he would buy for her, Mrs. Batista said “thanks for saving my life” by cheating on him. She began having an affair. He filed for divorce in 2005, which is when she allegedly began preventing him from seeing their three children for months at a time. And so what do you do when someone treats you like that? You hit them where it hurts. He sued her for the kidney that saved her life. He wants it back. What does God do when his people cheat on him; spend their time going after quick thrills and quiet sins, disregarding his laws for marriage, relationships, and sex so they can live with a little more convenience and fit in a little better with the world that isn’t shy about how much it hates him; what does Jesus do when the people he calls his bride spend their time getting intimate with the sins he condemns, all the while living in the world he made for them, wearing the clothes he provides for them, and breathing the air he supplies for them? He doesn’t sue them. He dies for them and saves them. Verse 15, Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. Are you a sinner? Then you can relate to Paul; then you are just like Paul in that Jesus Christ came to save you. You think you have shortcoming? You think you’re unworthy? Paul was too. You think you’re bad? You think you’ve done some terrible things in your life? Paul did too. And he wasn’t shy about talking about it. He didn’t hesitate to tell others about his sin because it only emphasized more the grace and mercy God had given him. (16) But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. If you try to come to Jesus convincing him that you’re a saint, he will send you away as a sinner. But when you come to Jesus as a sinner, he forgives you, cleans you up, and receives you as a saint. And there is nothing you can do to change that grace, but you can throw it away. There is a key word in verse 13 that we should not overlook. The word is “once.” “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man,” Paul writes. Paul was those things “once,” as in, he wasn’t those things now. And he had no desire to be. When Paul received his new calling to heaven, he knew that it meant leaving the old life behind. You have all received a calling to heaven. And so, when you hear that God hates materialism, it means that you need to stop being materialistic. When you hear that God hates any sin, it means you need to stop playing around with that wretched thing. If you have no desire to be known as someone who once was a liar, who formerly was an adulterer, a greedy, arrogant, lazy person, or any other type of sinner, then you are not only rejecting the gift of God’s grace, you are throwing away the gift of his strength. How was it that stuttering Moses stood up to Pharoah and successfully led a million complaining people? How was it that an adulterous murderer named David became one of the greatest kings of Israel? How is it that a prostitute named Rahab was responsible for saving God’s people? How did Jeremiah, a crazed and depressed prophet become the voice of sanity for Israel? How did a fly-by-the-seat of your pants fisherman named Peter become the rock of God’s church? And how did a monstrous murderer named Paul become a powerful apostle? Verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength. He said it a bit more famously in Philippians this way, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” And so can you. With the strength he’s already given, you can turn from a sin that is very tempting, you can say “no” to a dark world that’s incredibly appealing, and you, like Paul, can know the worst of what you’ve done, and know that it doesn’t change one bit how God looks at you, how much he loves you, or take away his promise that, through Jesus, you are forgiven and made for heaven.

Heavenly Father, we praise you for your forgiveness in Jesus and the power that takes our sin’s place. Like you did with Paul, tell us the truth about our lives. Convict us of our sins so that we might repent and, in Jesus, find forgiveness. Empower us, then, to do what we have not before, to overcome the sins that plague us, to turn away the temptations that assault us that you and your love might be glorified through us. Amen.