This is the Baymont Podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co-host Brent Billings.

Today we meet Saul, the persecutor of Jesus, and wrestle with the questions of his identity and his experience.

We also encounter the entrance of some unlikely characters into God's narrative.

Yep, absolutely. We kind of met Saul in the last episode actually, made a little cameo appearance,

and we said, hold it, we'll meet him later. So here it is, we're meeting him later. As promised,

it's like that thing where you see somebody across the, across the hall of the party, and you're not ready

to talk to them yet, so you turn around. That's right. We weren't ready to see you. But now we are,

so now we make the introduction. So yeah, this next chapter tells us the stunning story about

this guy named Saul. Saul, later known as Paul, but Saul and his transformation. If you remember,

like we said, introduced him way back in the last story, as he held the coats, and he oversaw the

execution of Stephen, and we're told that he is in this intense pursuit of the church,

and that this movement is being scattered because of the persecution that he's leading. Then all

of a sudden, Jesus enters Saul's story and everything radically changes. Saul is on his way to

Damascus. He's got letters in his hand from the high priest himself to arrest any of Jesus's followers.

We probably had a note, by the way, those letters are intended for who do you suppose, Brent?

I suppose those letters are intended for, perhaps Jews who wanted to convert.

Maybe. Definitely Jews though. Synagogues is where I was headed. Definitely intended for a Jewish

audience, right? Ten for synagogues. Apparently this early church is still very much Jewish and is a

part of the world of Judaism right there in our text. As he gets closer to Damascus, a bright light

sends him to the ground. See, here's the voice of Jesus, Jesus. Asking Saul why he is trying to

persecute him. When Saul asks who is speaking to him, Jesus responds it is he whom Saul is

persecuting. So Brent, how about we actually read the story? Tell us we're in X9. So we're doing

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