Sermon Notes
- Big Idea: An encounter with Jesus should change everything.
Opening
- Conrad began with a saying most of us have heard: the only consistent thing in life is that things change.
- Change and loss: People do not really resist change; they resist loss. Winning the lottery is a change nobody fights, but a crash brings a loss everyone would resist.
- Conrad marked five years at Living Oaks: a move from Orange County, three children and two homes, along with spiritual and relational change.
- Change takes effort and energy, but it can be the best thing that ever happens to us when we encounter Jesus.
- In his opening prayer he thanked God that he does not change: he is the same yesterday, today and forever.
01 · Acts 9:1–2
1. Saul's Way vs. the Way
- Saul before Acts 9: Acts 7:58: the witnesses at Stephen's stoning laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. Acts 8:1: Saul approved of the execution. Acts 8:3: he ravaged the church, dragging men and women off to prison.
- Conrad traced a pattern from implicit to explicit to systemic. Up to this point, Saul is set in his ways.
- Saul's way: Still breathing threats and murder, binding men and women and taking them to Jerusalem. Conrad thought this way was deeply ingrained, perhaps by Saul's background and his education under Gamaliel.
- The Way: One of the earliest names for those who belong to Jesus. In John 14:6 Jesus says he is the way, the truth and the life.
- We all have our ways, shaped by our backgrounds, education, upbringing, finances, closest relationships, conversations and the news we watch, and we justify them.
- Conrad was convinced Saul thought himself to be the good guy, not the villain of the story. He was just following his way.
- Isaiah 55:7–9: God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways. When our ways are confronted by the Way, Conrad said, "we are the ones that must change."
- Proverbs 14:12: There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
- Not every difference is about right and wrong. Conrad and his wife have different nightly routines, and that is fine. But when our ways meet God's ways, something has to give.
02 · Acts 9:3–9
2. The Encounter on the Road to Damascus
- A light from heaven, a fall to the ground, and a voice asking a purpose question: why are you persecuting me? Saul answers with an identity question: who are you, Lord? The next words are, I am Jesus.
- What an encounter is: Two parties meeting, sometimes shocking or unexpected. The more shocking the encounter, the more impact it has on our ways.
- Conrad told of surfing on a cold, still morning in college when something touched his foot: a seal that seemed to think his surf booties were a snack. That encounter marked him but did not change his life. A spiritual encounter should mark us forever.
- The one point: "An encounter with Jesus should change everything."
- Three days without sight: Saul was blind for three days and neither ate nor drank. Conrad said this left him vulnerable, slowed down, alone with his thoughts, and "open to be led."
- Conrad had the church close their eyes for 15 seconds to feel how vulnerable that is.
- Psalm 139:23–24: Because the next time we see Saul he is praying, Conrad led the church in praying Psalm 139:23–24, asking God to see if there is any grievous way in us and lead us in the way everlasting.
- Conrad prayed it during the week and at first nothing happened. Then, as he went to bed the night before, he felt the Lord show him a way he could connect with the Lord on a deeper level.
- Loss and gain: In Philippians 3 Paul lists his old record: of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, a persecutor of the church, blameless under the law. After the light, he counted it all as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.
- When change is hard, look less at what we are losing and more at what we are gaining: a relationship with Jesus.
03 · Acts 9:10–17
3. Ananias's Encounter
- There are two encounters with Jesus in this passage. Saul's is the famous one, but Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, has one too.
- A disciple is a learner. If you are a disciple of Jesus, you have already had an encounter with him and are now following him on the way.
- Conrad remembered his own first encounter: September 5, 2008, at Alumni Park, Pepperdine University. He had problems before and after, but the Lord changed everything, and is still changing him.
- Ananias objects: He had heard how much evil Saul had done to the saints and knew Saul had authority to bind believers. The Lord answered, Go.
- Brother Saul: Ananias went and greeted the man he feared as "brother Saul." Conrad called it brotherly language: Ananias's relationship to Saul had changed.
04 · Acts 9:15–16
4. The Chosen Instrument
- Jesus called Saul "a chosen instrument of mine" to carry his name before the Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel.
- A nuance: Jesus does not always change the facts or the details of our story. He changes our position to them.
- Conrad held up drumsticks: played on a keyboard, they make a bad sound and might wreck it; on a drum kit, they do what they were made for.
- Saul had been playing his instrument incorrectly his whole life. The encounter did not make him a different instrument. It redirected him to free people from their spiritual prisons.
- Saul and Paul: A common belief is that Acts 9 is where Saul becomes Paul. Acts keeps calling him Saul (Acts 9:22; 11:25; 12:25; 13:1, 2, 7) until Acts 13:9: Saul, who is also called Paul. Saul was his Hebrew name and Paul his Roman name, fitting for an instrument sent to the Gentiles who ended up in Rome.
- For us: We are each a tool in God's hands. We can use it for destruction or to build up the kingdom of God, like a hammer that can break down a wall or fasten a building.
05 · Acts 9:18–19
5. Immediate vs. Gradual Change
- Something like scales fell from Saul's eyes immediately, and he regained his sight. Conrad saw a spiritual side to that as well.
- Some change is gradual. Saul took food and was strengthened. Paul did not know everything about Jesus right after his conversion, and he did not write Romans or Philippians right away. He learned, studied and grew in knowing his Savior.
- Immediate change can bring joy; gradual change can frustrate us and slow us down. Conrad's counsel: keep persisting.
- Conrad said we should be encountering Jesus every single day. Though he reads God's word and prays daily, he asked himself when the last big change in his life was because of an encounter with Jesus.
Closing
- What an encounter should change: Our relationships, our speech, our emotional temperament, our parenting and grandparenting, our finances, our prayer life, hobbies and free time, our thought processes, our cravings, and how we see people who are different from us.
- How to encounter Jesus: Pray Psalm 139:23–24 at least once this week. God may show you something right away or later in the week.
- Conrad pointed to John Piper's book Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, which he said he had not read, and to its counsel: look at the Jesus of the Bible, fill your eyes with his portrait in God's word, and ask God for the grace to do his will.
- In his closing prayer Conrad thanked God for his patience with our stubbornness, and asked him to make us humble and pliable and to help us look to the gain of knowing Christ rather than to what we think we are losing.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible, © 2001 by Crossway. Text Edition: 2025. Used by permission. Permissions. Prepared for this small group from the August 2, 2026 sermon; questions and applications are editorial study material.