1. The most famous conversion in the history of Christianity is recorded in Acts 9, and it is also mentioned in Acts 22 and 26.  
2. I am referring to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus
3. Here in Acts 22, Saul, better known as the apostle Paul, gives his testimony to an angry mob assembled in the castle (the Fortress of Antonia) next to the temple (Acts 21:34).
4. When Paul came upon the stairs, leading up to the castle, the soldiers were forced to pick him up in their arms, and carry him to keep him from “the violence of the people” (21:35).
5. More than likely, these angry Jews would have pulled Paul limb from limb if they could. They followed after Paul, crying out, “Away with him” (21:36; cf. 22:22, 23).
6. The Roman captain gave Paul an opportunity to speak, and it is this interesting speech that we will look at this morning.
7. Paul gave his testimony, before the mob of angry Jews and roman soldiers. He would tell this story again in Acts 26 when he was talking to King Agrippa.
8. We often sing:
   “I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory,
   To tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love.”
9. And that is what Paul did (Acts 22:7-10).

I. THE LORD’S INTERVENTION (22:1-16).

1. The Lord graciously intervened in a marvelous way.
2. Here was Saul of Tarsus.  In his own words, he was “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious” (I Timothy 1:13; cf. Acts 26:9-11).
3. The Lord had told Ananias to, “Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth” (Acts 9:11).
4. Ananias seemed a bit apprehensive, and answered, “Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem” (Acts 9:13).
5. But God assured Ananias that he was to go because Saul of Tarsus was a “chosen vessel unto me” (9:15).
6. The Lord had intervened in the life of Saul of Tarsus, and transformed this injurious blasphemer and persecutor into the greatest preacher of all time, second only to the Lord Himself.
7. Have you ever heard how the Lord intervened in the life of John Newton, the English preacher and writer who wrote “Amazing Grace” and many other beautiful hymns?
8. At the young age of 11, with only two years school­ing, John Newton went out to sea with his fa­ther. While his life at sea was filled with won­der­ful adventures and es­capes, he grew into a wicked sinner.
9. He was once flogged as a de­sert­er from the British Na­vy, and for 15 months lived, half starved and ill-treated, as a slave in Africa.
10. God saved John Newton when he was 23 years old.
11. Before he died, he wrote his own epi­taph, which is on a plaque at the last church he pastored.

JOHN NEWTON, Clerk
Once an infidel and libertine
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST,
restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach
the Gospel which he had long laboured to destroy.
He ministered, Near sixteen years in Olney, in Bucks,
And twenty-eight years in this Church.

12. Not long after I was saved I started hearing stories about this gangster from Chicago who was gloriously saved by the grace of God.  One of my professors at Bible college said he knew him. The Lord intervened in a marvelous way in the life of George Mensik. 
13. George Mensik had been a criminal since he was a young boy. He had been a thief, a bootlegger during Prohibition, a gambler, and a marijuana smoker.
 
14. In 1935, George Mensik’s wife faced a serious operation. At the hospital a few days before the operation she turned on the radio looking for a program that might bring her some help and comfort.
15. God intervened in a wonderful way.  She tuned into a Gospel broadcast that touched her and she accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour, just a few hours before being wheeled into the operating room.
16. Six months later their young daughter Shirley was saved listening to another Christian radio program.  The mother and daughter prayed together, and in 1937, George Mensik agreed to go to church with them.
17. They went to the Marquette Manor Baptist Church in Chicago and the pastor led George Mensik to the Lord.  George Mensik got baptized and joined the church.  He quit his life of crime, stopped gambling, stopped smoking marijuana, and went on to become a great soulwinner for Christ.
18. The history of Christianity is full of remarkable conversions – when the Lord graciously intervened and saved a lost sinner.
19. The Bible is full of such conversions – the Ethiopian eunuch, Cornelius, Lydia, the Philippian jailer, and many others. 
20. If you are saved then you can look back and recall how the Lord intervened in your life.
21. If you are not saved, then it is by God’s grace that you are here today listening to the Gospel being preached in this church.

II. THE LORD’S WILL (22:12-14).

1. Saul of Tarsus was very religious but he did not understand the will of God until he met the Lord on the road to Damascus.
2. God has a perfect will for you and He has a perfect will for me. 
3. Furthermore, God wants us to know His will – “The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will” (22:14).
4. Ephesians 5:17 says, “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
5. Romans 12:2 says we can know “what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
6. Our Lord taught us to pray, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9, 10).
7. James 4:14 says, “For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”
8. I heard about a young man who had great plans but God was not part of his plans.  A wise older man asked the young man, “What are you going to do with your life?”

• “Go to college.”
• “And then?”
• “Graduate from college.”
• “And then?”
• “Go into business.”
• “And then?”
• “Make a lot of money.”
• “And then?”
• “Get married and start a family.”
• “And then?”
• “Make enough money so I can retire.”
• “And then?”
• “Travel around the world.”
• “And then?”
• “Well…I guess I will die….”
• “And then?”
• “I haven’t given that any thought.”

9. How sad that most people do not give the things of God any serious consideration!
10. The Lord told Paul he was to be a “witness” for Him (22:15).  Why is that so important?  Because it is not God’s will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (II Peter 3:9).
11. First Timothy 2:4 says God “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
12. Galatians 1:4 says the Lord Jesus Christ “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.”
13. If this is the will of God, then we ought to be busy telling others about it.
14. Our Lord said in Matthew 18:14, “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.”
15. It is God’s will that men and women be saved, sanctified, and pure. First Thessalonians 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication.”
16. Christian, it is the Lord’s will for you and me to spend eternity with Him in glory (John 17:24).
17. It is God’s will for us to pray, and it is God’s will to answer our prayers.  First John 5:14 says, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.”
18. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”

III. THE LORD’S PLAN (22:15).

1. Paul was told, “For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard” (Acts 22:15).
2. The work of a witness is to testify what he has seen and what he has heard. 
3. Paul was to bear witness to “all men” (22:15; cf. 22:21; 26:12-19).
4. God called Paul to be His witness, and we are to be witnesses too.
5. Right before He ascended into heaven, our Lord said, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
6. Paul was to be a witness for the Lord (22:15).
7. John the Baptist was a witness for our Lord.  Speaking of John the Baptist, John 1:8 says, “He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.”
8. John 1:15 says, “John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.”
9. And we are to be witnesses for the Lord as well.
10. To whom?  “unto all men” (Acts 22:15).
11. Are you a faithful witness?

CONCLUSION:

1. In Acts 22:14, Ananias told Paul, “The God of our fathers hath chosen thee.” 
2. Many people are puzzled by this, but they shouldn’t be.
3. God has chosen us for a specific purpose (cf. John 15:16; Acts 22:14, 15).