In surfing there used to be a popular slang word which surfers would use to label someone who wasn’t a real surfer, but perhaps a poser. They would call such a person a hodad. If you ever are called a hodad, it’s not a compliment. It’s actually a derogatory word that was coined when surfing became really popular in the Sixties due to the Gidget movies and the music of the Beach Boys. It was used to label guys who copied the clothes and the talk and the mannerisms of surfers, but they weren’t really true surfers.

I thought of that word as I was preparing for this message due to the similarity of the word hodad to a Greek word in our text which is hodos. But the meaning is nothing similar, of course. However, in a sense hodos can be looked at as an antonym for popular Christianity. Hodas is translated as The Way in our text in vs. 2. And I would suggest that in considering how the word Christian has been co-opted today in popular religious culture to bear little resemblance to the apostle’s doctrine, that we might be better off referring to our faith as The Way, rather than as Christianity, in order to differentiate what we teach from what is popularly believed.

Because I can assure you that many of the popular doctrines of Christianity are vastly different than what was once called The Way. Today many polls tell us that more than 75% of Americans consider themselves Christian. And yet from what I see of our culture, there must be a lot of hodads out there claiming to be Christian and yet are living a life that is completely at odds with what the Bible teaches.

So what I want to show you today from the story of Saul’s conversion, is what real Christianity looks like and what it consists of. I want to show through this scripture what constituted Christianity in the first century, as it was still called The Way, and how we can follow this example of Saul and come to saving faith in Christ; which is radically different than what is being passed off in many quarters as Christianity. Saul’s conversion is unique, it is miraculous and there are some elements to it that are unrepeatable. But at the same time his conversion is representative of everyone’s conversion and there are many characteristics of Saul’s conversion that are symbolic of becoming a true disciple of Christ, as someone who is of The Way.

First of all then, let’s start by looking at why it was called The Way and what that meant. I believe it was called The Way primarily because Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Jesus is declaring the exclusivity of the gospel. That there is only one way to God, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.   He is the only way to God. So if we are to get to God, we must follow Christ. There is no other name given among men by which we can be saved.

I think it’s interesting that hodos, or The Way, is sometimes translated as a road. As a highway. Christianity is not just a pit stop on your way, where you pull over to get gassed up once a week and then continue on the same way you were, but it is a different way, a different road altogether. It requires leaving the road you’re on, and getting on a completely different road. And Jesus said in Matt. 7:13-14 that it is a narrow way. He said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Secondly, I want to point out that the world’s way, the way of all men before conversion, is enmity towards God. Let’s look at Saul as the premiere example. Saul, who had been the organizer of the stoning of Steven in chapter 7, was now going outside of Jerusalem to the neighboring regions and arresting disciples who were of The Way and bringing them back to Jerusalem to be tried and possibly imprisoned or even executed.

Some years later Paul would recount his actions in Acts 22:4 saying, “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons…” Our text here in chapter 9:1 says that he was breathing threats and murder against the disciples. Saul was an enemy of God. He even thought he was serving God by putting these disciples of The Way to death, but in effect he was attacking God Himself.

In verse 4, a blinding light flashed from heaven as Saul and his companions were on the road to Damascus, and a voice called out, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And Saul said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” So Jesus confirms that Saul was an enemy of God.

But do you realize that all men are enemies of God before their conversion? Romans 3 says that all of us were under the bondage of sin and at enmity with God before salvation. Vs. 10, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE. THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING, THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS; WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS; THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN. THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.” All men are by nature lovers of evil and hateful towards God.

James 4:4 says, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” So the second step of coming to be a disciple of The Way is to recognize as did Saul that you are an enemy of God, that we are all antagonistic towards God. We love darkness rather than light because our deeds are evil.

So as we read in vs.3, in order to be converted, there needs to be a light from heaven to illuminate our minds. “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.   You know, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry He preached a message in which He quoted from Isaiah 9 as recorded in Matt. 4:16; “THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.”

Listen, the only way that Saul, this great enemy of the gospel, could be saved and turned completely from the road that he was on, in order for him to become a disciple of The Way, he needed to have the light from God dawn upon him. It takes a supernatural event to be saved. Did you know that? You cannot be saved by simply becoming religious or trying to be a better person or by doing some ritual or ceremony. The only way to be saved is for God to first shed His light on you so that you can see what before you were too blind to see. To see your sinfulness and God’s righteousness. Paul was blind to the truth. He thought he was pursuing the truth, but in fact as we noted he was an enemy of God. In order for him to be turned, God had to shine the light of revelation upon him, revealing his condition before God.

John 1:9 says, Jesus “was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.” All the world is in darkness. No man can see unless the Spirit of God opens His eyes and shines the light of Christ in their hearts. 2Cor. 4:4 says, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” We were all blind, helplessly lost. But then in vs.6 we read, but “God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

The next step that I want to show in becoming a disciple of The Way is to hear the word of God. Vs. 4, we quoted earlier, but here it is again; “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, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”

True salvation requires hearing the word of God. Rom. 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” In 2 Timothy 3 Paul speaks of “the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” He goes on to say that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.”

Well, I’m sure that when Saul heard the words of Christ, he was not only rebuked and corrected, but he was convicted of his sin against God. He realized that he was persecuting the very Son of God. That he was an enemy of God. And I believe that because of the next verses which tell us that Paul was led away, blinded by the light, and spends the next three days fasting and praying. I’m sure during this time he mourned over his part in the killing of Steven. I’m sure he mourned over those Christians he pursued to the death.

That’s the next essential step of becoming saved. Repentance is an essential part of conversion. The message Peter preached back in chapter 3 was “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” I don’t believe you can be saved without repentance. That’s why the first message that Jesus preached was “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” John the Baptist preached repentance. Peter and John preached repentance. And eventually Paul will preach repentance, which  lesson he learns thoroughly as he sits in this room in his blindness for 3 days, considering and mourning over his sin. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that a requirement for entrance into the kingdom of heaven is to mourn over your sin.

The next step to conversion to The Way is seen in God dispensing his minister to go to Saul and explain the gospel to him. The Bible doesn’t say that Ananias was a preacher. We know he wasn’t an apostle. As far as we know he had no official position in the church. But he fulfilled the duty of every believer. He was a reluctant minister. When God told him to go to Saul, he offered an objection. He had heard of Saul and how he had done great harm to the church and so he was afraid to go to him. But the Lord told him to go and so he did.

I don’t know why God chooses to use frail, failing, weak men and women to be the ministers of His gospel. But we know that he does. All that have been saved have been commissioned to go into the world and proclaim the good news. And many times we are told to go to those who seem the least likely to be good prospects. We are told not to go to the righteous, but the unrighteous. To seek out those that are lost, those who are the outcasts of society. To proclaim the gospel to those who are enemies of God. Rom. 10:14 “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”

In another passage some time later Paul recounts this meeting with Ananias and I want you to hear some additional details he adds about that conversation. Acts 22:14 Paul recalls Ananias as saying, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth. ‘For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard. ‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’”

I believe it is at this point that Paul is converted. He is repentant, he confesses his sin unto God, and he calls upon the name of Jesus for salvation, for forgiveness, and his sins are washed away. That is salvation. Not only is he saved from the penalty of his sin, he is converted from death to life. He is transformed from an enemy of God to a friend of God. To be born into the family of God. And that happens as he receives the Holy Spirit.

In vs. 17, it says, “Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is who gives us new life in Christ. In John 6:63 Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

And that new life is symbolized in Saul’s life by the scales falling away from his eyes and he is able to see. That is what happens spiritually for all those who are converted, who call upon the Lord for salvation. He gives sight to the blind. He gives understanding where they once was none. He opens up our hearts and our minds to comprehend the Word of God.   We cannot be born again without the agency of the Holy Spirit. Ezekiel 11:19-20 “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.”

John 3:3-6 “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” There must be a calling out to God for a new heart, a new spirit, that we would be converted.

The next step of Paul’s conversion that I want to make today is that he was obedient to do what God told him to do. This really goes back to what it means to belong to The Way. It’s not just a destination, it’s a road. It’s following the Lord in obedience in the road or in The Way that He reveals to us. This is so important and so misunderstood today. Christianity is far too often looked at as getting a new paint job on your car, but continuing to drive it in the same direction, just now it looks a little brighter and shinier. But as I said at the beginning, this is a new way of living, going in a new direction, with a new destination and a new purpose, living for God instead of living for your self.

So Saul first of all is obedient, and that is evident by the fact that he is baptized. He didn’t have to pray about it. Didn’t have to think about it. The Lord said it, so he did it. He made public proclamation of his faith. Baptism is an external representation of what has transpired inwardly. We are buried in the water, that is we acknowledge that we bury our old man, the old ways, in the water, and we are raised from the water, symbolizing that we are raised into a new life in Christ. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. We signify that we have left our old sinful ways in the water, we have died to the world, and we are raised in new life, to live by the Spirit of God.

And the next evidence of his obedience was that he was a witness of the gospel as the Lord told him to be. Acts 9:20 “and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’”   He began to conclusively prove to the Jews in the synagogues in Damascus that Jesus was the Son of God. Folks, God doesn’t need any secret disciples. He doesn’t call us to be secret disciples. He calls us to tell others of the good news of Jesus Christ. To declare to whoever will listen, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

Finally, the last point of Saul’s conversion is that God called him to suffer for His name’s sake. As the Apostle Paul, he would probably suffer more hardships than any other Christian before or since. But what becomes clear as we study the life of Paul is that God used Paul’s suffering to bring about the glory of God.   We just get a little preview of his sufferinng here. But God said to Ananias in vs. 15, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

Listen folks, I never want to be guilty of sugar coating what it means to become a follower of The Way. Becoming a follower of The Way is following a path of suffering. Jesus said, “whoever would be My disciple, let him take up his cross and follow Me.” Paul’s suffering was more than I can ever imagine having to bear. We get a glimpse of it starting almost immediately upon his conversion. Vs. 22 “But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. When many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death; but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.”

From this point on, Saul is always having people plot his capture or his death. He spends much of the rest of his life in one prison or another. Towards the end of his life, Paul recounts the suffering he experienced for Christ’s sake in 2Co 11:23-27 “Are they servants of Christ?–I speak as if insane–I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.”

I hope that none of us here have to suffer the way that Paul suffered for the sake of The Way. But I will assure you that if you are a Christian you are going to suffer in one form or another. One thing we all must suffer is the loss of our pride. We must suffer the loss of our worldly ambition if we follow Christ. We must suffer the loss of our will if we are going to do God’s will. We must suffer the loss of our self determination if we are going to submit to Christ’s Lordship over our lives.

But I trust that we can also say, even as Paul would one day say in Phil. 3:7-11 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

That is the goal of belonging to The Way. That we might receive by grace the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. That we might know Christ and achieve the resurrection of the dead. Paul would go on to say in Rom. 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” One day, if we have suffered with Him here, we shall be glorified with Him there. I hope when that day comes, you will be counted as one that was willing to suffer the loss of all things in order to be called one who belonged to The Way.

In the mid 1700’s there was a man named John Newton who became a sea captain. And like many sailors of his day, he lived a depraved and ungodly life. For many years, he worked on slave ships, capturing slaves for sale to the plantations in the New World. Eventually, he became the captain of his own slave ship. A combination of a terrible storm at sea one night coupled with his reading of a testimony of a Christian planted some seeds in his heart that eventually led to his conversion. He was miraculously transformed from a depraved slave trader to a minister of the gospel. He went on to become a leader in the spiritual awakening in the 18th century in England. He wrote his own epitaph, which is inscribed on his tombstone. It reads, “John Newton, Clerk. Once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy.” He was the author of the famous hymn we are going to sing in closing, Amazing Grace, a grace that he knew first hand.

I hope and pray that you will take this opportunity to examine yourself today in light of Saul’s conversion and ask yourself if you are of The Way. Jesus has paid the penalty for your sins if you will just repent of your sins and have faith in His atoning work on your behalf, and call upon Him to save you. He is willing and waiting to save those that are lost.