God can bring total turnaround for you and for anyone, no matter what state or stage your life is in right now. We see how this can happen by looking at one of the greatest examples in the Bible of how someone can radically change by knowing Jesus.
The first Christians were persecuted for their faith, including by a highly educated, religious activist called Saul. He was violently opposed to Christianity; he hated Christians with a vengeance and hunted them down. He rounded up whole families and had them put in prison. He supported the murder by stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Yet the great destroyer Saul, became Paul, the great builder and the apostle who founded powerful churches and who wrote much of the New Testament. And in a similar way, your life can be totally turned around by Jesus too.
1. You can be changed by a personal encounter with Jesus (Acts 9:1-9, Acts 9:18; 1 Timothy 1:13-15)
2. You can become a key part of the church of Jesus (1 Corinthians 12-14)
a. He was received as a brother (Acts 9:10-17)
b. He was baptised (Acts 9:18-19)
3. You can receive a new call to change the world for Jesus (Acts 9:15)
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Have you been changed by a personal encounter with Jesus? When Paul was least expecting it, Jesus met with him (Acts 9:1-9). Whether your experience of knowing Christ is or isn’t dramatic, what matters is that everyone needs to come to a moment when they know that Jesus is real and commit their lives to Him. This is a moment when you are born again and can suddenly see what you had not seen before. The eyes of the apostle Paul were physically and spiritually opened. His physical blindness symbolised the spiritual darkness in his life at that point but when Ananias laid hands on him, his sight was restored (v.18). You too can have your eyes opened as to who Jesus really is and come to experience his forgiveness and the new life he gives. It doesn’t matter what your background is or what bad things you have done: Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:13-15). So you too can be changed by a personal encounter with Jesus.
Have you committed to become a key part of the church of Jesus? When Jesus told Paul 'you are persecuting me', it showed that Jesus regarded the Christian community as His body on earth. Paul had never met Jesus, yet the Lord showed him that persecuting Christians was persecuting Him. Later on, Paul taught that the church of Christ, that is all those who believe in Him, is the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12–14). When we become a Christian it is not just about having a personal experience of God, we are also born into the family of God. And it was the family of God that quickly helped Paul grow in his new faith. We see that he was received as a brother (Acts 9:10-17). Can you imagine how Paul must have felt when someone from the people he had so violently persecuted came to him and called him ‘brother?’ We too, like Ananias, must be quick to accept and encourage new Christians, no matter what their previous history has been. And every new Christian, just like the apostle Paul, needs to be baptised (Acts 9:18-19). When we repent and turn from our sins and going our way, we need to be baptised as a sign that we are now dead and buried to an old way of life and raised with Christ to a new life as a committed follower of Jesus.
Have you accepted your call to change the world for Jesus? Right from the start of his Christian life there was a special mission for Paul (Acts 9:15) to powerfully spread the good news of Messiah Jesus or Yeshua, to the non-Jewish world and its leaders, without ever losing his love for ‘the people of Israel.’ His future ministry would involve much suffering which Paul would later faithfully and happily endure. It didn’t matter to him whether he lived or died because from the moment he experienced Jesus on the road to Damascus all his priorities changed. He now lived only to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and to tell the world of the lavish and eternal love of God. You also have a specific call of God to share the good news of Jesus wherever you are. You may be young or a new Christian but ask God to show you how you can best serve Him in your family, your school, your career and nation. For when you fully surrender to Jesus as the apostle Paul did, you too will touch many lives for Christ and His Kingdom.
