Has Jesus Changed Your Life?
Bethel Baptist Church, David Rising
Romans 1:1; Acts 6-9; February 22, 2026 Sunday AM
Has Jesus Changed Your Life?
Thirteen years ago in March we began a study in Romans. It’s time to study it again.
Romans is the first letter in the New Testament. The first four books – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John – are narratives, gospels as they call them, telling of the birth, life, death, resurrection, and teaching of Jesus.
Acts which follows shows the story of the early church and beginning in chapter 9 focuses on the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
The title of this message gets to the heart of what I want us to see today in the life of Paul – change. We sometimes don’t like to hear that word, but if there is no change in our lives or churches, something is wrong.
As we begin Romans this morning, I want you to keep at the forefront the question: has Jesus changed your life? For the author of Romans, there was tremendous change and I want us to see that this morning. Pray.
1. Paul, Before Christ (Acts 7:58-9:5)
1:1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
Paul did not always identify himself this way.
In fact, this is 180 degrees from where we first meet Paul. Actually his name was not known as Paul, but rather Saul.
The first time we encounter this man in the NT is at the end of Acts 7. You can turn there and follow along if you desire.
In Acts 7 we have a man by the name of Stephen. He is noted in Acts 6 as one of the seven men chosen by the apostles and congregation to assist in the work of ministry, practical ministry to those in need within the church.
Acts 6:5 says that Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. He was a man of good reputation that these believers and apostles deemed fit to handle important ministry to those in the church who needed material assistance by a man of spiritual character.
As this young church continued to organize and operate, there arose some tensions between non-native Jews (Greek speaking Jews) and native Jews – a tension that will appear in many places in the NT as Jew and Gentile come together to worship God.
This new entity, the church – a Jew-Gentile group – was very new and those who did not understand what Christ had come to accomplish were having a hard time with this mixing together.
This man, Stephen, began to become controversial to some individuals who were identified by the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Acts 6:9) and they argued with Stephen.
They said to Stephen that he was speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God. As a result, Stephen was dragged away and brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council that would settle matters.
They came up with a charges against him that he had quoted Jesus as saying that He would destroy the temple and change the rules that Moses set down. Before the Council, with face shining like an angel (Acts 6:15), he gave his defense.
As Stephen gave his defense, he reviewed Israel’s history from the start to the present: Abraham’s call, his promise of an offspring, a land, a nation, the rite of circumcision and what that meant, Moses, his call, the Exodus, the Law, Israel’s golden calf, the ark, David, Solomon, Solomon’s house for God, and the eventual quote from Isaiah 66 about the fact that ultimately God does not dwell in houses made by man because heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool (Acts 7:49).
It is an amazing sermon and when he made his concluding remarks, he was bold: he calls these men ‘stiff-necked’ and ‘uncircumcised in heart and ears’ and accuse them of doing exactly what their fathers did – rebelling against God and killing the prophets.
In his final comment he accuses them of not keeping the law that God had given.
Now our sermons here don’t exactly conclude like this, but if they did I can imagine there would be some anger as there was there.
In response, these men began gnashing their teeth at Stephen (7:54).
They also react to his vision of Jesus standing next to the Father by rushing upon him, driving him out of the city and stoning him.
Acts 7:58 (NKJV) 58 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Now obviously this is not the King Saul of the OT, and at this point in Acts we don’t know anything else about him other than the fact that he was a willing participant in this stoning, although he does not actually pick up stones.
Acts 8:1 makes it clear he was on board:
Acts 8:1 (NKJV) Now Saul was consenting to his death …
This Saul was completely in agreement with the sentence of death the Council allowed to take place as a result of their charges against Stephen. Acts 8:1 continues:
At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
This stoning began a persecution of the church that caused these believers to scatter from Jerusalem to these surrounding areas.
This Saul continued his anger against followers of Jesus as verse 3 notes:
Acts 8:3 (NKJV) 3 As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.
Saul was no friend of the church.
The rest of Acts 8 continues with more details of how the gospel of Christ was continuing forward, including the conversion of the Ethiopian. We don’t encounter more about Saul until chapter 9.
Without the Lord intervening in Saul’s life as we see in chapter 9, what would the rest of the NT look like? It would be quite interesting.
Something changed in Saul’s life, and we want to see now what that was.
Notice Acts 9:1: Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Saul asks and gets permission from the high priest to be able to arrest any man or woman he might find in Damascus and bring them back to Jerusalem.
“Apparently his [problem] were ones who had fled Jerusalem and sought sanctuary in Damascus. Roman practice allowed the Jewish Sanhedrin to control Jewish affairs even outside Palestine proper. Synagogue rulers at Damascus could therefore be expected to cooperate with anyone who bore such authorization from Jerusalem” (Homer Kent, Jerusalem to Rome, 82-83).
Saul was on this mission with the hopes of finding these believers and taking them out of circulation.
However, something changes for Saul along his journey.
Look at Acts 9:3
3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
Saul no doubt was beside himself, startled by this light and voice. This does not typically happen along one’s journey.
Jesus Himself speaks directly to Saul, repeating his name twice and asking the reason for his persecution.
Jesus tells Saul that He knows what Saul is doing is actually persecuting Jesus. This shows the union that believers in Jesus have with the Lord Jesus. This is comforting for us to know.
Saul responds:
5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
Saul responds and seems to answer his own question in the response, even though the title ‘lord’ could simply be a respectful term, like ‘sir.’ Some say that it may be unlikely that this was merely a term of respect because as a rabbinically-trained man, he would probably have recognized the divine confrontation).
Notice in verse 5 the response of Jesus:
Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
The Lord identifies Himself as Jesus, the one Saul was persecuting.
Saul repeats this encounter in Acts 26:14 as he later gives that testimony.
The final phrase is not in some of your translations (textual issue), but it is in Acts 26 and this phrase emphasizes the point that it is useless to try to persecute Jesus.
When an ox kicks against the goads that are being applied to direct the ox, the more one kicks, the more the ox hurts himself.
In other words, Saul, you are not going to succeed in your project to arrest believers and thwart the church’s progress.
1. Paul, Before Christ
2. Paul, After Christ (Acts 9:6ff)
Notice how Saul responds in Acts 9:6:
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”
This response indicates a major change in this man’s life.
Saul was persecuting believers and Jesus said this was persecuting Jesus.
We might wish to get more details here, but Saul’s new question indicated that he had a new outlook.
Saul now asks Jesus for direction for his next move.
This reminds me of the crowd’s response to Peter’s preaching in Acts 2. They too asked: what shall we do? What is our next step?
This is the kind of response that preachers, teachers, anyone sharing the gospel truth wants to hear.
This is an amazing story and one that forever changed Saul’s life.
Notice how Jesus answers Saul’s question in verse 6:
Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Saul, get up and continue into the city of Damascus and there you will get the answer for what you will next do.
When our eyes are opened to Jesus and we receive Him into our life, our first response will be like Paul’s – to desire to know and do what He wants us to do.
Saul listened and obeyed the Lord’s direction.
And so he makes his way to Damascus and the Lord directs the steps of another individual:
10 Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision, “Ananias.”
And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”
11 So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. 12 And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”
As Luke writes this down, he is putting together two stories that are being directed concurrently by the Lord.
By the way, this is how God continues to work in all of our stories that may seem unrelated.
Jesus speaks to Ananias in a vision and tells him to go to the house of Judas and ask for Saul of Tarsus. And He tells Ananias that Saul would also be expecting him to come so he could get back his sight.
Ananias appears to be just an ordinary believer, not some high official or apostle.
Notice in verse 13 that Ananias responds to this vision:
13 Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.”
Ananias was aware of the news and he knew about this man, Saul.
Ananias responds just like you and I would have responded.
Many of Ananias’ friends and neighbors had spoken about Saul, and his frightening reputation and threats were well established.
Saul was not in Damascus for a vacation.
Ananias is necessarily pushing back on what Jesus had said, but he is concerned still. Saul was not a nice man, and he had authority to take Ananias away.
Notice how Jesus calms his nerves, verse 15:
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
The first thing Jesus tells him is direct: go. Don’t worry about it. Don’t be concerned about Saul and what he might do.
But Jesus didn’t simply tell him to go, but He explained.
Saul was a different man now. He was chosen by God as a vessel, a container to carry the name of Jesus to the world – to Gentiles, to kings, and to Jews – the children of Israel.
Yes, Saul had carried a letter with authority to extract believers back to Jerusalem, but that was now old news.
Now he would operate by permit from another authority – the Lord Jesus. You’re not going to get a higher authority than that!
Notice in verse 16 that that Saul would also suffer for the sake of Jesus as a result of his work. This is the same fate that many believers had already suffered as a result of what Saul was doing.
Surely when Ananias heard this he was relieved, though he still had to carry this message to Saul. But he does:
17 And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Ananias follows the Lord’s command to go and he brings the message to Saul.
He identifies him as ‘Brother Saul’ indicating that Christ had brought about this amazing change in his life and now Ananias saw him as a brother.
The Lord through Ananias brings to Saul sight and also the Holy Spirit.
What an amazing change that Jesus brought about in Saul’s life.
Notice the results of Ananias’ coming in verses 18-19:
18 Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.
19 So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.
In a matter of 19 verses over a small amount of time, we see Saul go from seeking to arrest followers of Jesus now to being a preacher of Jesus to the world.
Paul brings out his resume in Philippians 3 and explains that being a zealous Hebrew, of the tribe of Benjamin, even a Pharisee, meant that persecuting the church was normal. That was evidence that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was a model Jew.
But the Lord changed him. He was not the same.
His change did not come about because he watched a video, read a book, or attended a seminar.
The Lord changed him. When Paul writes in the first verse of Romans …
Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God
… he is telling an amazing story of the transforming power of Jesus in his life.
The book of Romans explains in detail the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ that changed Saul, later known as Paul.
Romans 1:16–17 (NKJV) 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
Jesus Christ changed his life.
Has Jesus Changed Your Life?
I invite you to join with us as we explore the rich study of Romans so that we can understand more fully the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives and in the lives of those who even at this moment are 180 degrees running away from God.