Paul, Who Met Christ 2

This sermon deals with the life and the attitude of faith of the apostle Paul after he met Christ. Paul was transformed from a legalist into an apostle of the gospel, and he never forgot the grace he had received and remained faithful until death. The sermon emphasizes the importance of the Jewish view of time, in which the past lies in front of us: an attitude of remembering grace and trusting the future.

Because the present immediately becomes the past, when we live by faith without forgetting the grace we have received from God, the future that follows is secure. Paul grew spiritually through a time of isolation, praying for three years in Arabia, and came to realize that God's power is made perfect in his weakness. Even amid illness and chains, he boldly proclaimed the gospel before the powerful of the world.

Today's passage asks believers to live a life rooted in the truth and the cross rather than in the world's standards or splendor. It leads us to examine whether the church is compromising the truth by dressing itself up in the world's abundance, and whether we have the courage to stake our lives on preaching the gospel even when we look humble.