Sr. Pastor-Teacher: Rev. Mark A. Cain 

SERIES:  THE STUDY OF THE BOOK OF ACTS

                                                                            "Who are you Lord?"

CHAPTER 22:  KNOCKED DOWN IN ORDER TO                       STAND UP FOR CHRIST

TEXT(L71):         Acts 22:12-22

CHARACTERISTICS OF SAUL'S CONVERSION

1. Saul's salvation was the salvation of a sinner. Saul, prior to his encounter with the resurrected and glorified Jesus Christ, was ignorant of the true position each held. He prided himself for his faithfulness to Judaism and viewed Jesus as the sinner and himself as the saint. What a shock to his system when he learned the truth      (1 Tim. 1:15-16).

2. Saul's salvation was the exclusive work of a sovereign God. Saul was saved in spite of himself. Saul was a man who was not only running from God, but one who was actively opposing Him. God chose Saul and had his destiny mapped out (Eph. 1:3-6).

3. Saul's salvation was personal. The election of Saul to salvation was specific and personally evident in the way he was saved. The risen Lord selected him out of a group with which he was traveling, that Saul might hear, see and understand Him (Acts 22:9).

4. Saul's salvation was miraculous because of what happened on the inside. Saul's conversion was a miracle not so much as a result of the external miracle of the bright light and the voice of the Lord as the internal transformation and the illumination, which God produced. A lost, blind and dead soul came to life (Gal. 1:15-16; Rom. 6).

5. Saul's salvation was an act of divine grace. He realized that it was nothing which he had done nor would ever do, but only what Jesus Christ had done that saved him. Saul spoke of his conversion and call to ministry as an act of divine grace (1 Tim. 1:12-14).

6. Saul's salvation lead to a conversion and radical change. Salvation is a revolution, not an evolution. Conversion is not a transition, but a transformation. It is a miraculous and dramatic reversal, first of one's beliefs and then of one's behavior              (Titus 2:11-15). 

7. The salvation and conversion of Saul was Christ-centered. When all is said and done, the miracle which took place on the way to (and in) Damascus was that Saul saw Jesus as the Son of God, as the Messiah and as "his" Savior and Lord. He was focused on one thing and one thing alone, Christ (Phil. 1:21; 3:7-10).

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