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Sermon
Douglas J. Deuel
Edwin Markham's little poem has so much to say to us about the ability of love to transform. He drew a circle that shut me out -- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in.1 One of the most amazing stories to come out of the Bible is the account of Saul's life. Through this story we see a leading opponent of the church being transformed ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
Saul's conversion is important to us because we are always wanting detailed accounts of the journey of those people who have become great or famous. They always fascinate us. We avidly consume all the minute specifics we can find about them, sometimes even stooping to seek out tidbits of gossip. We are titillated by the trivial. Why was Sir Winston Churchill buried in a small country cemetery rath...
Sermon
Carl Jech
Introduction Long before the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts came on the scene, I had been seeing preachers "roasted" at church banquets. The idea of honoring someone by kidding or insulting the person is nothing new. At a recent convention a United Methodist bishop (I'll call him Bishop Anderson) was roasted with this story: A recent Methodist arrival in heaven was being shown around by St. Peter. A...
Sermon
Carl Hoefler
A brilliant light flashes. It strikes like lightning. Paul is shocked by a charge from heaven, and he is knocked from his horse. A voice vibrates about Paul which holds his attention in a vice-like grip. Paul is converted. The persecutor becomes the preacher. The surprising element of this event is the realization that the conversion of Paul was the conversion of a radically religious person. Paul...
Sermon
Carlyle Fielding Stewart
Who would believe it? Saul, the primary punk adversary of the followers of the way, blind in Damascus? Saul, the instigator of Stephen’s stoning and death, the one who breathed out murderous threats against the followers of Jesus, now in Damascus in a spiritual safe house? Is this a bluff? Could this be a trick? Could this be a game concocted by the enemies of Jesus to lure us into a trap? How cou...
Sermon
King Duncan
Have you ever noticed that most of us fit into one of four styles of behavior? That's what some psychologists tell us ” four distinct styles of behavior. Some of us are dominant. Dominant folks like to be in control. Nobody has to ask dominant people what they think. They are blunt, direct ” fast to make judgements and ready to take action. Then there are those for whom life is a party. These are ...
7. Terminator 3
Acts 9:1-20
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The power of Christ can turn "Terminators" into "Transformers." A few years ago the big rage among the 5- to 10-year-old set were little plastic toys known as "transformers." These ingenious little gizmos looked like any average robot-like alien creature. But with a tutored pull, twist, flip and click, small fingers could transform them into a car or tank or flying-killer-attack-weapon. Whee...
8. Conversion or Credentialing?
Acts 9:1-5, 10-12, 17-19
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
It's been an eventful week in the Olds' household. Sandy and I flew in from vacation last Tuesday and immediately drove to Lexington, Kentucky to participate in the service of ordination of our son, Wes, who is now a full elder in our denomination. As I recessed from that service a long-time friend of mine asked, “Howard, which was the best, your ordination or the ordination of your son?" Wit...
9. God All Along
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Sermon
David J. Kalas
See him as he travels along the road to Damascus: the inten­sity in his eyes, the purposefulness of his pace. He is a man on a mission. His name is Saul, and he is making the 135-mile trip from Jerusalem to Damascus for a deliberate and expressed purpose. He and his companions are sort of a posse, tracking down dangerous criminals in order to bring them to justice. But this is not a scene fr...
Sermon
Frank Ramirez
There has rarely been a transformation from sinner to saint as dramatic as that of Paul, former persecutor of Christians, who became the apostle to the Gentiles. However, the story of Cain Lackey from PatrickCounty, Virginia, comes close. Cain Lackey was known as the Meanest Man in PatrickCounty. He was rough and tough.  The year was 1892 and PatrickCounty, Virginia, was a place of dirt fields an...
Sermon
King Duncan
There is a silly story about a man who went to his doctor complaining about terrible neck pains, throbbing headaches and recurring dizzy spells. The doctor examined him and said, "I’m afraid I have some bad news for you. You have only six months to live." The doomed man decided he would spend his remaining time on earth enjoying himself. He quit his job, bought a sports car, and a closet full of ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Former President George H. W. Bush, the elder Bush, was speaking to an appreciative audience some years back, immediately after leaving office. He explained what it was like to go from being Vice President for eight years and President for four years, to being a private citizen. “The first day I woke up,” he said, “I reached over to push the button to get somebody to bring me some coffee, but the...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
At the end of the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, there is a curious story of how the eleven remaining apostles filled the vacancy in the band of the Twelve left by Judas’ suicide.  The record says that the choice came down to two: a man named “Joseph, called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.  And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias; and he was enrolled ...
Sermon
Elizabeth Achtemeier
We have three different accounts of the conversion of Saul in the Gospel according to Luke (9:1-20; 22:6-16; 26:12-18). They differ in a few minor details, but essentially they are the same. In addition, Paul writes of his conversion in Galatians 1:11-16, and in 1 Corinthians 9:1 and 15:8-9, stating that at the time of his conversion on the road to Damascus, he saw the Lord. For Paul, that made hi...
15. Risky Business
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Sermon
David E. Leininger
High drama. The story of Paul's miraculous conversion from pious persecutor to proud preacher. We all remember it from Sunday school: the Damascus Road, the light from heaven, the voice. Some of us have had similar experiences as well, although perhaps not as dramatic. The drama in this one is heightened once Saul is brought into the city. Following a three-day pause in darkness (is there somethi...
Sermon
James Merritt
On April 9, 1996, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia delivered an address to the Mississippi College School of Law. What he said generated a firestorm of criticism in the liberal press. He gave a brilliant and blistering portrayal of a society that now mocks religious belief, and especially the beliefs of Christians. Here is what he said that was so "controversial." The worldly wise do not bel...
Sermon
James Merritt
You hear a lot of people say a lot of times, “Nothing surprises me anymore!” Just about the time I believe nothing surprises me anymore, something surprises me. In fact, it didn’t just surprise me, but frankly shocked, amazed, and astounded me. There is a website called, “Top-10-list.org” I went to it to see what they said would be the top ten most important events in history. As I put these up o...
Sermon
Rodney Thomas Smothe
It is very difficult to think of the New Testament without thinking about the Apostle Paul. So much of his influence and thought is found in the letters and epistles of the New Testament writings. Apart from Jesus no person influenced the history of the Christian community more than Paul. Paul's teachings have formed the foundation upon which many of the disciplines of our faith are anchored. In ...
19. A Vexing Vision
Acts 9:1-6 (7-20)
Sermon
Charley Reeb
Have you have heard the expression, “Something got lost in the translation?” On the Internet there are programs which will translate an English document into several different languages. All you do is type in a phrase or a word and the program translates it into French, Spanish, German, or whatever language you desire. Sound helpful? It is, especially if you are learning a foreign language. But ho...
Sermon
Robert Beringer
Flashing Lights There is a hunger in human hearts for an experience of God that transforms human life. Years ago, the shrill ring of the telephone awoke me in the night. It was a local doctor asking me to join him in the emergency room where a boy had been taken after a bad drug trip on LSD. The parents were frantic as the boy mumbled incoherently, describing bright flashing lights, beautiful col...
Sermon
George Bass
This week, falling as it does between two minor festivals - the Confession of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul - might best be observed by a pilgrimage to one of the ancient "station" churches common to the liturgical heritage of Rome, the Church of St. Sebastian. It is located south of Rome on the Appian Way, not too far from where the Apostle Paul was supposed to have been beheaded, and ...
22. Seeing with Eyes Closed
Exodus 34:1-28, Exodus 34:29-35, John 1:1-18, Acts 9:1-19a
Sermon
Lori Wagner
When Joe Campos left for work on Long Island during heavy rains Monday a week ago, he never imagined he would return home entirely changed. Joe worked for Ramon Stone Construction Company. He had just lifted a heavy metal chain when he saw lightning hit the ground about 20 feet in front of him. It took less than a second to travel from there to him, knocking him to the ground. Joe described the ...
23. True Colors
Acts 9:1-19a, Acts 9:19b-31
Sermon
Lori Wagner
“The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord binds up the breach of his people and heals the stroke of their wound.” (Isaiah 30:26) “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the ...
24. Step Four - Courage
Mt 26:69-75 · Acts 9:1-9 · Ps 139:1-6
Sermon
John A. Terry
Step four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. The psalmist talks of the God before whom such a searching and fearless moral inventory is both possible and necessary. Ours is a God who, in traditional language, is omniscience and omnipresent, a God who knows all and is everywhere. This Psalm is sometimes called the Psalm of the unavoidable God. We believe that before our ...
25. Go!
Acts 9:10-19
Sermon
Will Willimon
About a year after he graduated from Duke, he left an excited message on our telephone answering machine. "I've got my big break! I got hired for a TV show! I'm going to be on 'Friends,' tonight, Eastern Standard Time, 8:00 p.m. Watch for me." I was surprised, but pleased for him. I had advised him, just before graduation, that attempting to go into acting was the dumbest thing I had ever heard o...
Showing 1 to 25 of 29 results