Receiving Someone Different

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Southeast Christian ChurchSoutheast Christian Church

Feb 14, 2023

In Acts 9, we read that the Holy Spirit often led the Church to people who were outside the comfort zone of these early believers. This would've been tough, especially because it would've been natural for the early church to take a more tribal approach to their faith and only include those who have similar perspectives, similar beliefs, similar politics, and similar preferences. But the Church was going to be really challenged with embracing messy outsiders when they reluctantly welcomed a man named Paul.

Paul first shows up two chapters earlier, and his name at that point wasn't Paul – it was Saul. In Acts 7, we read about a follower of Jesus named Stephen, who's dragged out of town by a mob to be stoned to death for preaching about Jesus. Verse 58 tells us that it was Saul’s job to make the stone throwers feel comfortable with their throwing arms so he holds their coats while they're stoning. Then in Acts 8:3, we read that Saul has become the leader of this movement to destroy the church. He dragged off both men and women, and he put them in prison. The best word to describe Saul, in our culture, would be a terrorist to these early believers and to the early Church.

Acts 9 begins by telling us that Saul is breathing out murderous threats to the Christians. Saul hears that Christianity continues to spread despite his efforts and it's spreading to a town called Damascus. What happens on that road to Demascus would change the course of Saul's life and really change the course of history. He is blinded by a bright light then brought into the city, where the early believers would have likely been both terrified and angry at him for what he has done to fellow believers. But they respond in an unlikely way that would have shocked the rest of the world.

How do you respond when a person with a bad reputation or the person who wounded you shows up? How do you respond to that when it's somebody who said something they can't take back or did something they can't undo, but is now asking you to forgive them?

Reflection/Discussion Question: How would Jesus want you to respond to a person like Paul?

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