Acts 9:3-5 – Now as he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting”.

The story of Paul’s conversion has the smell of authenticity on it. Paul had been trained by Gamaliel, the leading teacher of the Pharisees, to be a teacher and leader in the Pharisaic tradition for the next generation. Paul had made his reputation refuting and persecuting the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. He sneered at the talk of the resurrection of Jesus treating it as an old wive’s tale and scorned the idea of the Messiah dying by Roman crucifixion. These things were repugnant to Paul until….until he met Jesus for himself. You see it wasn’t a vision or dream that Paul had on the Damascus Road, Jesus Himself, in all of His resurrected glory, appeared to the angry Pharisee as he was determined to stop the spread of what he considered as heresy. Those plans came to a screeching halt when Jesus Himself appeared to Paul. Here is John Pollock describing this moment.

“He (Paul) heard a voice, at once calm and authoritative, say in Aramaic, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”

He looked up. Within the center of light, which blinded him from his surroundings, he faced a Man of about his own age. Paul could not believe what he heard and saw. All his convictions, intellect, and training, his reputation, his self-respect, demanded that Jesus should not be alive again. He played for time and replied, “Who are You, Lord?” He was using a mode of address that might mean simply “Your honor.”

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you, this kicking against the goad.”

Then Paul knew. In a second that seemed an eternity he saw the wounds in Jesus’ hands and feet, saw the face, and knew he had seen the Lord, that He was alive, “as Stephen and the others had said, and that He loved not only those whom Paul persecuted but also Paul himself: “It is hard for you to kick against the goad.” Not one word of reproach.”

This moment not only changed Paul’s life, this encounter changed history. Paul’s revelation of Jesus, which makes up much of the New Testament, flows from this supernatural moment in time. In a flash he saw the marks of the cross that redeemed us from our sin, he saw the man, Jesus of Nazareth, alive from the dead the first man to be resurrected in an eternal body. In that moment Paul recognized the mystery of all mysteries, God Himself had taken on a human body and was Lord of all. Paul reflected and preached on this encounter until the day he gave his life for His faith. Today, all of us drink from Paul’s encounter with the Lord. As we do, we often find ourselves lost in His glorious love and grace.