Called to Follow Christ

Paul's Background, Conversion, and Early Ministry

Then [Paul] said: "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in [Jerusalem] at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way up to the point of death."

—Acts 22:2-4

Point of Departure

Choose two pieces at random from a jigsaw puzzle. On a blank sheet of paper, trace the puzzle pieces. Draw and doodle around the traced shapes to turn them into one of the following—or something entirely different!

• A remarkable new mode of mass transportation

• The first confirmed sighting of extraterrestrial life

• A caricature of a movie, TV, or music star

• A map of your hometown

• The prototype for a fantastic new piece of manufacturing machinery (be sure to describe what your contraption will make!)

Scripture

• Acts 9:1-29

Video (Optional)

• Watch the video for The Call, Session 1.

Getting Our Bearings

My grandmother Mimi loved solving jigsaw puzzles. She'd sit at her table for hours, sipping tea as she surveyed the brightly colored, weirdly shaped fragments of some unrecognizable image spread out in front of her. She'd sift this kaleidoscopic mess, looking back and forth between it and the picture printed on the puzzle's box. Every now and then she'd let loose a little cry of discovery—"Aha!" She'd snap a few pieces into place, nod her head in satisfaction, then lean back and look for more connections. Some she solved quicker than others, but she never met a jigsaw puzzle she couldn't master.

In The Call, Adam Hamilton says God used the "puzzle pieces" of the apostle Paul's life to "do something beautiful." Paul thought he knew how everything about him fit together. But like Mimi working those jigsaw puzzles, God patiently, persistently snapped Paul's "pieces" into place to reveal the picture they'd always been meant to show.

Bridging Two Worlds

Two important "puzzle pieces" framing Paul's life and work were his religious upbringing and social status.

Paul was a Jew. He was born into the tribe of Benjamin and was circumcised when eight days old, just as God's Law, the Torah, prescribes (Philippians 3:5). He learned to speak not only Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire, but also Hebrew, the language of Torah and one not every Jew in Paul's day still knew. From an early age Paul studied Torah in Jerusalem, the Holy City itself, under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), a rabbi (teacher) who was a high-ranking member of the Sanhedrin, the most important Jewish court. By birth and belief, Paul belonged to God's chosen people.

Paul was also a Roman citizen. In the mid- to late first century A.D., the Roman Empire was reaching the height of its power. Emperor Augustus (ruled 31 B.C.–A.D. 14) established a time of peace and prosperity called the Pax Romana, or "Roman peace," that would last over two centuries. The empire's network of roads—some fifty thousand miles of them, cutting straight, secure, water-repellent paths across varied terrain—ensured relatively easy movement of soldiers, commerce, and culture.

Most people who lived under Rome's authority were not imperial citizens, but Paul was privileged to be a citizen not only of his birthplace, Tarsus (Acts 21:39), but also of the empire. As a citizen, Paul enjoyed more rights and fuller legal protection than noncitizens, including the right to vote, make contracts, avoid flogging, and appeal a case to the emperor.

Paul's background prepared him to bridge two worlds. Even his name points to his position: Hebrew speakers called him Saul, Greek speakers called him Paul, and he answered to either. He was always a Jew, as were Jesus and his disciples, and he used his Roman citizenship to gain the gospel a wider hearing.

Passion Repurposed

If Paul's life really were a jigsaw puzzle, it would be an exciting action scene—maybe even a 3-D image that "pops" when you view it through special glasses. Paul's life was full of excitement because Paul was passionate about faith.

Like his teacher Gamaliel, Paul was a Pharisee. Modern Christians tend to think poorly of Pharisees. We often assume they were mustache-twirling bad guys, because most Pharisees we read about in the Gospels are arguing with Jesus about how to understand Torah and plotting about putting him to death for his supposed blasphemy.

We forget those Pharisees didn't represent all Pharisees. In general, Pharisees were motivated by a desire to see all God's people, not just priests, living holy lives. Keeping the Law meant keeping the community's identity alive. In fact, when Rome destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in A.D. 70, the Pharisees' emphasis on every Jew's obligation to keep Torah helped Judaism survive.

Gamaliel was a reasonable, tolerant man (see his attitude toward Christians in Acts 5:33-39). Paul somehow missed that lesson! In his passion to protect Jewish faith from what he saw as misguided, dangerous ideas, he "persecuted this Way"—the Christian church's earliest name was the Way—"up to the point of death" (Acts 22:4). Luke, the Gospel writer who also wrote Acts, says Paul set out for the city of Damascus "breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1). Whenever I read that verse, I can't help picturing Paul as Darth Vader, breathing heavily as he sets out to crush a religious rebellion once and for all.

Had Hollywood dreamed up Paul's story, it might end with God smiting Paul dead—surely a fitting end for an enemy of the divine. The true story, however, is more unexpected and more wonderful. God smote him, all right, but with grace and a new beginning. The risen Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and told him that Paul, who had spent so much energy and passion persecuting the Way, had been chosen to join it and had been given a key part to play in its growth.

Paul's conversion story is undeniably dramatic. It's so impressive, some Christians feel guilty if their own stories of coming to faith in Jesus don't pack the same spectacular punch. Paul, however, would be the last person to expect or demand that other Christians' "puzzles" look like his. As far as he was concerned, the real drama of his story was the joyful truth that God had given him new life, filled with new purpose—or, more accurately, a purpose new to Paul, but planned for him before he was born (Galatians 1:15).

The Son of Encouragement

Paul would also point out that the "puzzle" of his life doesn't picture him alone. His story is a story of people working together to do God's will—or of God working through them all.

One of...