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THE LIFE OF PAUL

THE LIFE OF PAUL. UNIT TWO. HOW HARD IS IT TO CHANGE?. Think of a physical object or a personal habit that you have had for years and that you have no intention of changing. Or, what should your spouse never even dream of changing about you?. HARD TO CHANGE.

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THE LIFE OF PAUL

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  1. THE LIFE OF PAUL UNIT TWO

  2. HOW HARD IS IT TO CHANGE? • Think of a physical object or a personal habit that you have had for years and that you have no intention of changing. • Or, what should your spouse never even dream of changing about you?

  3. HARD TO CHANGE • Why won’t you change? What’s at stake? • By extension, consider the upheaval in Paul’s life when he first hears the message about Jesus. • What makes change so difficult for him?

  4. ACCEPT A FREE GIFT • Why not accept the news that: • A crucified man now lives • God forgives all men equally • You need not and cannot keep God’s law perfectly

  5. CAN YOU BE TWO THINGS AT ONCE? • A central problem to Paul’s acceptance of the Jesus as the Christ is his crucifixion. • Imagine someone wearing a Packer’s sweatshirt under a Bear’s coat. What ‘s wrong with this picture? • When Christ is the crucified Messiah, Paul finds this completely contradictory. Read Deuteronomy 21:23.

  6. THE RESURRECTION MEANS LITTLE • To Saul, the Pharisee, the Christian’s claim that Jesus rose from the dead was irrelevant. He couldn’t be the Messiah if he was crucified. Resurrection can’t undo that sort of death. • The Messiah is assumed to be the blessed of God; the crucified one is cursed of God. For Saul, it was just that simple.

  7. FURTHERMORE, LOOK AT THE LAW AND TEMPLE • Besides the crucifixion, there is the issue of the Law and the temple. Read Acts 6:13-14. What is the charge which infuriates the Jews against the Christians? • How does this recall parts of Jesus’ teaching? • What is incorrect in this summary?

  8. NOW COMES THE CHANGE • Read Acts 9:1-9: How does Jesus meet Paul? What impression is made on Paul as to the nature of Jesus? • If Paul later speaks eloquently of the love of Jesus, why does Jesus not begin speaking to Paul about his love for him? • How is there a combination of sudden sound and productive silence?

  9. THREE DAYS IN DAMASCUS • What do you imagine Paul expected would happen to him? • Does he expect to see in three days, or ever? • Read Acts 9:10-19. How is Ananias in a delicate and even dangerous spot? What temptations face him, given who Paul is?

  10. A NEW BEGINNING • Read Acts 9:20-30. How do you find irony in the reaction that Paul receives from the Christians? • How is Paul’s earliest time as a Christian exemplary of the rest of his life?

  11. I DON’T DO IT THAT WAY ANY MORE • Think of activities that you no longer do? What products do you no longer use? What work do you no longer have to do? What clothes do you no longer wear? • How would Paul say, after the Damascus Road, “I don’t do it that way anymore?” • Read especially Galatians 3:21-25 with regard to the Law.

  12. GRACE AND FAITH BECOME THE CENTER • After the Damascus Road, Paul emphasizes his dependence on grace and faith. How does his conversion depend utterly on grace and faith? Remember his blindness and the type of introduction he had with Jesus.

  13. THINK OF THINGS ABSOLUTELY DEPENDENT • How do these two things need each other? • Bolt and nut • CD and a CD player • Key and lock • Consider how grace and faith need each other. Read Rom. 4:5, Ephesians 2:8-9, and Gal. 2:20-21

  14. FAITH NEEDS GRACE IN ORDER TO TRUST • Faith, since it does nothing but trusts, must find all hope outside of itself. • Its hope then must be in the nature, decisions and action of God--his grace. • Faith is an open hand. As it extends itself towards God, it must trust that God will fill it kindly and not slap it. See Hebrews 11:6.

  15. GRACE NEEDS FAITH TO LISTEN • Grace acts and looks for a recognition of that action. Like music, it performs but does so in order to be heard. • Faith listens to grace. Grace, the music of the compassion of God, needs the listening ear of faith in order that its own purpose can be accomplished.

  16. A FINAL QUESTION • Paul begins his missionary work from the Damascus call. What if he were not successful? Would he have begun to question his right to be an apostle and the sense of preaching? • How might the Damascus Road come up again in his ministry? See Acts 26:12-29 for the intensity of the Paul’s mission.

  17. SUMMARY • Paul is radically turned from his expectations of what the Messiah should be • His conversion plunges him into the work of an apostle, changing him from the persecutor to the persecuted. • He radically changes his dependence from Law to grace and finds in that an energy and direction for his life.

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