“Paul- Apostle to the Gentiles”
Series: Heroes of the New Testament"
Sunday, October 5, 2008: Philippians 3:4b-11

Introduction: In the movie “The Matrix,” starring Keanu Reaves, Reaves plays a man named Thomas Anderson who lives an ordinary life. He makes a living by being a computer hacker. Then one day he meets another man by the man of Morpheus. After their friendship develops Morpheus shows him that world Thomas is living is make-believe; Morpheus awakens him to the real world. After this meeting, his named is changed to Neo where he will start a crusade to bring down the oppressing system of the Matrix… There is similarity to this movie and the life of the apostle Paul. Before we knew him as Paul, he was called Saul. He was living a life as a Pharisee (a religious leader) until he encountered Jesus Christ. This morning, as we continue our series on “Heroes of the New Testament,” we will look at how Saul becomes Paul, and begins a crusade to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the people of the world!

I. Paul’s Call to the Gentiles- (Philippians 3:4b-11; Acts 9:1-6, 15; Romans 1:5, 15:16-19, 16:26)
a. Paul’s past- To understand Paul’s transformation through the call of
Christ on his life, we have to first understand his past. In the book of Philippians 3:4-11, we just read a brief account by Paul about his life before meeting Christ. As he readies himself to talk about this, he says that he has as much right as any to have confidence in the flesh; in his physical abilities and opportunities through his status as a Pharisee. In this passage, Paul talks about circumcision on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, born of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews, a Pharisee, and a persecutor of Christians.
You might not see this, but these were all attributes that caused Paul to be set above others. The reference to circumcision was that he came from a family that followed the law; he was circumcised as he should be, on the eighth day, not later on in his life. As his belonging to “the people of Israel,” this showed that Paul was part of God’s elect people; he was a full-blooded Jew. This gave him special status. He was from the tribe of Benjamin whose land contained the holy city and where the first king of Israel came from. And he was faithful to his call as a Pharisee; a religious leader which gave him power and status.
In today’s world, it would be like someone bragging that they were born in Beverly Hills, to parents who were rich and influential, and then they became a powerful political figure. They would be seen by others, in terms of the world, as someone who had received great privileges, and who had great power and position.
In a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, Calvin is seen playing with his tinkertoys, but his wild imagination is at work. He thinks to himself: “First there was nothing, then there was Calvin!…Calvin, the mighty god, creates the universe with pure will! From utter nothingness comes swirling form! Life begins where once was void! But Calvin is no kind and loving god! He’s one of the old gods! He demands sacrifice! Yes, Calvin is a god of the underworld! And the puny inhabitants of earth displease him! The great Calvin ignores their pleas for mercy and the doomed writhe in agony!” In the last frame his dad says to his mom: “Have you seen how absorbed Calvin is with those tinkertoys? He’s creating whole worlds over there!” To which his mom says: “I’ll bet he grows up to be an architect.”
Paul mentions all this because he realizes that what is really important is not status, power, and money you have here on this earth, but what you do with the life and power and opportunity you have been given for the sake of God, the creator. That is why he says in Philippians 3:7- “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.”
b. Paul’s call- Some people have had stories about how their life
changed from before they knew Christ, to after they accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. Others have a story that is pretty benign in terms of profound change. Mine is probably in between…I come from a stable family. My mother and father stayed married until well after I was married. They were parents who provided for me all that I needed, as well as some of what I wanted. They supported me in many ways: coming to my events at school and sports; my dad was my baseball coach, and my mom was the team mom. However, when I got to high school I began to hang out with kids who were doing some bad things…drinking, drugs, partying, etc… Their example began to lead me to the place where I made some bad choices. This led me away from the Lord. But when I was 15, a friend of mine took me to church where I was introduced to Jesus Christ, and in January of 1976, I gave my life to Christ!!
Paul has a profound call. He received this call by having a conversation with Jesus. Let me read it to you from Acts 9:1-6, “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ 5’Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 6’Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’” Here we see Paul not only get saved, but the Lord let him know that he would be receiving his call in Damascus. There Ananias came and healed his blindness, and then in verse 15: “But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles…” Ananias told Paul about how his call was to go to the Gentiles and share Jesus with them.
This was significant, because up to this point, the gospel had mainly gone to the Jews. With Paul’s conversion and call, now all people would hear the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ! Paul himself would talk about this often; for example in Romans 1:5, “Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” And Romans 15:16, “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”


II. Paul’s Impact for all Christians- (Romans 1:13, 15:17-19, 16:25-26)
a. Paul’s response- Continuing in Romans 15, we read in verses 17-19,
“Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.” Paul was overjoyed to receive Christ as his Lord and savior. To Paul, it didn’t just impact his mind, but his spirit and his actions as well. His total goal was to speak of Christ, and minister for Christ. And we see that Paul went to many places to make this happen.
Paul was possibly the most traveled person in the New Testament. We know of at least 3 missionary journeys that he took: Paul went to Galatia and Ephesus in Asia, he went to Cyprus in Greece, he went to Rome in Italy. The book of Acts catalogues Paul’s journeys from chapter 13 to chapter 28. And how did Paul see this call to the Gentiles? He saw it as an opportunity. As we read in Romans 16;25-26, “Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him.”
We see Paul understanding that God wanted to reach all the nations. Just as he told his disciples in Acts 1:8 to be witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Ex. In my life, I have had the opportunity to go to Mexico (on several occasions for mission trips) as well as to Japan twice. I have been blessed by getting to know people from other cultures and sharing my faith with them. But what is amazing about our world now, and especially the United States, is how we have so many cultures all around us. In fact, right here in Long Beach we have many cultures that are represented. Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Samoan, Hispanic… In our 90805 zip code, there is 53% Hispanic, 8% Chinese, 6% Korean, 17% Vietnamese! We don’t have to travel the world like Paul to reach out to the nations for Christ; we can reach out right here in our community.
How often do we think about sharing Christ with those who are of a different nationality with a negative view? We need to see how Paul was a hero to joyously receive this opportunity from the Lord and reach out to those who were not necessarily like him! We need to take the Lord “to the nations.”
b. Paul’s impact- Because of Paul’s willingness to respond to this call, we
see that he had a great impact for Christ and for the Christian church. Paul’s journeys not only gave him opportunity to “make disciples” for Christ. Paul’s journeys gave him opportunity to establish churches! So, let’s look for a moment at the churches Paul established.
One of the first churches that Paul established was the church in Galatia, which is known as Asia-minor. Actually, it is believed that he established more than one church, and that when he wrote his letter to “the Galatians,” it was actually to a group of churches in the Galatian area. Paul had wanted them to understand that they didn’t need to give in to the Zealot Jews who were trying to get the people to participate in Old Testament practices such as circumcision.
Another church was in Corinth. Paul was the first to preach the gospel in Corinth. In fact, Paul was the first to preach about Jesus in many of these far away places. Could you imagine going to an area, and being the first one to tell them about Jesus? That would be exciting and scary at the same time. Corinth was a city that worshipped many gods, and so Paul had a challenge to bring Christ to them. But by his being there, he led many to the Lord, and established a Christian presence in this non-Christian city.
A third church was the church in Ephesus. Ephesus, which we now know as Turkey, was the most important city in Asia Minor since it was an important intersection for the trade routes. Because of this, Ephesus became a commercial center. Paul chose to stay in Ephesus for 3 years, since it had a pagan temple that dominated the culture and was so influential. Paul’s influence turned Ephesus into a center for evangelism and the church flourished under Paul’s leadership.
The last church I want to talk about in regards to Paul is the church in Rome. Rome was a city of great political importance, and a magnificent empire. In Rome Paul found the opportunity to express the love of Christ to all classes of people in spite of great opposition, and having gotten arrested several times. To have a church established in Rome was of great importance, because Rome was so influential around the world.
Ex. In Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book “Life Together,” Bonhoeffer talks about the need for community and fellowship with ALL God’s people. But he lets us know that we can’t do this without God’s help. On page 35, he says: “Contrary to all my own opinions an convictions, Jesus Christ will tell me what love toward another brethren really is. Therefore, spiritual love is bound solely to the Word of Jesus Christ.. Human love can never understand spiritual love, for spiritual love is from above; it is something completely strange, new, and incomprehensible to all earthly love.”

Conclusion: Paul is a hero, because he was the one who God chose to take the gospel out into the world. But even more, he was the one who willingly did this. Not only because Jesus called him to do it, but because it was agreed upon by the other leaders as well. Last week we read in Galatians 2:9 these words: “James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews.” Paul went from persecuting Christians, to being a Christian, and making Christians. But even more, he, a Jew of Jews, went to the Gentiles! God wants us to learn from Paul, and be open to share with others around us the news that Jesus Christ loves all, and wants all to believe in Him as Lord and Savior. Let’s ask God to give us these opportunities, starting today! Amen.