Speaking about his past, Paul testifies in Philippians 3:
[4] Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
[5] Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
[6] Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
"When Paul says he was circumcised the eighth day, he's saying, 'Listen, I'm not a proselyte; I'm not a Johnny-come-lately. I'm a blue-blood. I'm the authentic real thing.'
"Then he says he was of the tribe of Benjamin. You remember when Joseph was in Egypt and his brothers came and wanted food and he found out he had a brother he didn't know about named Benjamin?" says Jordan.
"He said, 'Don't come back without Benjamin. You can't have bread if you don't bring him.' There's no bread for Israel without Benjamin. That special little tribe and the southern kingdom is Judah and Benjamin. Benjamin stayed true and faithful to God's Word when the northern tribes apostasized.
"Paul said, 'I'm the real deal; I'm from a lineage of people who stood by the stuff. A Hebrew of the Hebrews.' He's a right-wing fundamentalist Bible-thumper.
"There's a guy who's got a podcast he entitles, 'Bible-thumping Wing Nut.' My boy had a neighbor once from Eastern Europe who told him and his wife one day, 'I don't want anything to do with these Bible Bumpers.' Her English was a little different.
"Paul's saying, 'I'm a Bible Bumper!' Paul had a heritage, a pedigree he could trust in; that he could fully rely on when he was Saul. By the way, that verse says he was also called Saul. Paul was not only called Saul, because Paul was not only of the stock of Israel, circumcised the eighth day, a Hebrew of the Hebrews--he was also a free-born Roman citizen.
"In Acts 16, they take him and beat him and Paul asks, 'Is it okay for you guys to beat a Roman citizen without any charges brought?' Scared the Roman soldier to death because he knew he made a bad deal. One of the centurions later comes to Paul and asks, 'How did you get your citizenship? I paid a great sum of money.' Paul says, 'I was free born.' You see, Tarsus was a free city to a Roman citizen.
"If you think about it, if you want to take a person who's going to be an example for the Body of Christ, a Jew and a Gentile put together in one body, there's Saul, who's also called Paul.
"So Paul says, 'I know who I am. I know who I used to be. I know where I was and I've been saved out of all that religious identity and placed into a new ministry.'
"Jesus said to the 12 apostles, 'You 12 will sit upon 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.' That's why there were 12 apostles and not five or 30. One for each of the 12 tribes. The reason that it's one man for the one Body of Christ, who is both Jew and Gentile in one, is he's a perfect picture for what's going on.
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"The epistle starts, 'Paul, an apostle.' He's saying, 'This is who I am; this is what I'm doing.' I'm the representative of something God's doing that's different than anything He did prior to me.'
"An apostle is someone who's been sent. In Acts 9, something radically changed in the life of Saul of Tarsus. He was on his way with official legal documents to gather together the worshippers of the Messiah, put them in jail, torture them and execute them if necessary. He literally was the leading representative of Israel's rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ and the 'little flock' and he had official status for that.
"When Paul says to Jesus, 'Who art thou, Lord?' after falling on his face and hearing a voice ask him, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest me?', I've thought about that verse for years. Paul believed in the God of Israel. He believed in Jehovah. He believed, 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.'
"He knew the God of the Bible was the God of gods. He knew the God of the Bible was the God of Israel. More than 200 times in your Bible, the God of the Bible says, 'I'm the Lord God of Israel.' Paul understood that, so when the heavens open up, BOOM! and a voice says, 'Saul, Saul,' he didn't think he was talking to Allah; he knew he was talking to Jehovah. When he asks, 'Who art thou, Lord?' I think he must have been thinking, 'Who art thou Lord, oh, please, don't say Jesus!'
"There's a fascinating little play on words in Philippians 3 that I think explains something back there in Acts 9. After talking about the confidence in the flesh he had, Paul says in Philippians 3:7: [7] But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
"That word 'counted' is past tense. There's a point in time in the past where Paul made a decision that, 'All that stuff I was trusting wasn't valuable, and I trusted Christ instead.' That's what happened on the road to Damascus.
"In the next verse the word 'count' is in the present tense: [8] Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
"The decision Paul made to trust Christ alone on the road to Damascus, that same attitude was what he continued with all his ministry. People ask, 'When do you think Paul got saved?' and I think it was in verse 7 right there, when he counted all the things he could do and hold confidence in as 'loss for Christ.'
"He realized, 'I'm not going to trust my ability in what I'm doing; I'm going to trust Christ to be my righteousness, my acceptance, my identity.' And then he says, 'Yea doubtless I count all things . . . '
"He's saying, 'I just keep on with that attitude . . .' It's, 'I'm Paul. I'm the one who's met the Lord Jesus and has been radically changed because of it.' "
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