Facing Prometheus — Week 11 | “Transformed by Encounter” | Pastor Howie Smith
Coming off the momentum of Resurrection Sunday, we now move into a new season in our series — one that will press into the most practical areas of life: marriage, family, sexuality, work, relationships. Primarily from Ephesians chapters 4–6, Paul is about to speak into every corner of how we live.
But before we can receive what Paul has to say, we need to understand who is saying it, what shaped him, and why he speaks with the authority he does. In Week 11 of Facing Prometheus: A Letter to the Ephesians and the Future Church Dilemma, Pastor Howie Smith walks us through the biography of the Apostle Paul — and anchors it in a truth that changes everything: a life transformed by encounter.
The Text — Ephesians 3:1–4
“For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles — assuming you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that he gave me for you. The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.”
— Ephesians 3:1–4 (CSB)
Who Was Paul?
Before we can take Paul’s words seriously, we need to understand who he actually was. His biography is not what you’d expect from the man who would write nearly half the New Testament.
- Born in Tarsus (modern-day Turkey) — making him a Roman citizen by birth
- Raised in Jerusalem with a strict Jewish education
- Trained under the respected rabbi Gamaliel
- A Pharisee — deeply devoted to the law and Jewish traditions
Jewish and Greek. Roman and Pharisee. A unique and unusual blend — but one that would prove extraordinarily useful.
Physically? Paul was not particularly impressive. An early Christian text, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, describes him this way:
“He saw Paul coming, a man small of stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of grace. For sometimes he seemed like a man, and sometimes he had the countenance of an angel.”
— Acts of Paul and Thecla 3
His critics in Corinth made no attempt to hide their assessment either:
“His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”
Paul himself didn’t argue the point:
“When I came to you, brothers and sisters, announcing the mystery of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.”
— 1 Corinthians 2:1–5 (CSB)
Before the Encounter: Saul the Persecutor
When we first meet Paul in Scripture, he goes by his Hebrew name — Saul. And this is not a man who is neutral toward Christians. He is violently opposed to them.
“Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, ‘Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ And after saying this, he fell asleep.
Saul agreed with putting him to death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem… Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.”
— Acts 7:55–8:1, 3 (CSB)
In Acts 7–8, Saul witnesses and approves the execution of Stephen, actively persecutes the church, and drags men and women from their homes. This is not passive disagreement. This is aggressive opposition. Saul is driven by zeal, conviction, and certainty — and he is completely wrong.
The Encounter That Changed Everything
“Now Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul said. ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting,’ he replied. ‘But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.’ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the sound but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. He was unable to see for three days and did not eat or drink.”
— Acts 9:1–9 (CSB)
Something happened on that road that changed Paul’s life entirely. And it didn’t happen gradually. Not through debate. Not through self-reflection. Through an encounter.
Paul didn’t discover truth. Truth confronted him.
Historians and theologians have tried to explain the Damascus road experience away — a seizure, a psychological breakthrough triggered by the trauma of Stephen’s death. But the only conclusion that remains faithful to the actual text is to believe what it says. Scholar W.G. Kümmel writes:
“We must conclude that the Damascus experience has made a disciple of Christ out of the Pharisee and persecutor of the Christians, without knowing anything about any sort of transition.”
— W.G. Kümmel, Paul the Apostle
Even a Jewish scholar concedes: “The historian of religion is expected to recognize the faith of Paul in the manifested Son of God to be the factual result of his encounter with the crucified and exalted Jesus of Nazareth.” (H.J. Schoeps)
After Ananias came to him and prayed for him:
“At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized… Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were astounded and said, ‘Isn’t this the man in Jerusalem who was causing havoc for those who called on this name?'”
— Acts 9:18–21 (CSB)
From that moment, his beliefs changed. His direction changed. And his life became harder — not easier. He had a good position, respect, education. The next verse tells us the religious leaders are already trying to kill him. Where does he get the conviction to endure it? His encounter. He knew the Bible, but had missed the relationship. He knew the traditions, but had missed the person.
Four Marks of a Life Transformed by Encounter
1. Identity Over Identification
Identity is who you are in Christ. Identification is what describes you.
“For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles — assuming you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that he gave me for you.”
— Ephesians 3:1–2 (CSB)
Paul never denies who he was. But he always anchors it in who he is now. We love adjectives and labels as a society — personality types, backgrounds, achievements, failures, preferences. We stack them up like labels on a coffee order that’s longer than the cup itself.
★★★ Labels describe you — they don’t define you.
Paul had plenty of labels. In Philippians 3, he lists them without embarrassment:
“If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.”
— Philippians 3:4–6 (CSB)
Hebrew of Hebrews. Pharisee. Blameless in the law. And also: persecutor, violent, opponent of Christ. Paul never forgets who he was — but he lives out who he is in Christ. His past doesn’t disqualify him. It becomes part of his testimony. The good and the bad.
Your story is a platform for God’s grace. If Paul’s past doesn’t disqualify him — why would yours disqualify you?
2. Revelation Over Preference
Revelation is what God shows you. Preference is what you like.
“The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.”
— Ephesians 3:3–4 (CSB)
When Paul uses the word “mystery,” he doesn’t mean something unknowable. Think of a good mystery movie — by the end, the mystery is resolved. It’s something that was hidden but has now been revealed.
Paul was a scholar of the highest order. Trained under Gamaliel, he would have had an expert command of the Old Testament and the oral traditions surrounding it. He studied daily. He memorized Scripture. And yet — he completely missed Jesus as the promised Messiah. Jesus had to reveal himself to Paul. Paul needed an encounter.
As Paul continued through Ephesians, he would speak with authority about marriage, sexual ethics, gender, parenting, work, money, singleness, and relationships — not as a cultural commentator or pundit, but as a recipient of divine revelation. His theology is not evolving opinion. It is revealed reality.
He was imprisoned for it. Beaten for it. Rejected for it. Ultimately martyred for it. People don’t suffer and die for opinions they made up.
3. Transformation Over Appearance
Transformation is a radical change of heart. Appearance is an outward change of behavior.
Think about a Rubik’s Cube. There are essentially two ways to “solve” it dishonestly — peel off the stickers, or take it apart and reassemble it. And there’s one way to actually solve it: learn the pattern and apply it correctly, over and over, until the cube reaches its true solution from the inside out.
A lot of us try to live the Christian life like we’re peeling stickers. Go to church. Say nice words. Smile. Wake up early. Read the Bible. Pray at dinner. And we go to bed and things are pretty much the same — sometimes worse.
That isn’t transformation. That is religion. And Paul was an expert at religion. But religion didn’t change his heart.
“For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles…”
— Ephesians 3:1 (CSB)
Paul calls himself a prisoner of Christ — and he means it as an honor, not a complaint. The physical chains linking him to a Roman soldier don’t tell the story of a plan gone wrong. They tell the story of the wisdom of a Creator God who has orchestrated the redemption of all people through Christ.
★★★ Transformation is not self-improvement — it’s surrender.
Paul moved from violent to sacrificial. From prideful to humble. From self-righteous to grace-dependent. Christ met him in his rebellion — not after he fixed himself. And this reframes everything about the harder teachings of Ephesians:
- Sexual purity is not repression — it’s redemption.
- Marriage is not control — it’s Christlike love.
- Gender is not oppression — it’s design.
The issue is never primarily behavior. It’s always the heart. Real transformation comes through encountering Jesus.
4. Perseverance Over Winning
Perseverance is the determination to complete something. Winning is just being first.
We are obsessed with winning. Paul was obsessed with finishing. His resume doesn’t look like a win column:
“Are they servants of Christ? I’m talking like a madman — I’m a better one: with far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death. Five times I received the forty lashes minus one from the Jews. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. I have spent a night and a day in the open sea. On frequent journeys, I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers; toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold, and without clothing.”
— 2 Corinthians 11:23–27 (CSB)
And yet Paul presses on. He considers everything he once counted as gain to be loss in comparison to knowing Christ:
“But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him.”
— Philippians 3:7–9 (CSB)
“I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”
— Philippians 3:14 (CSB)
If winning is the only definition of a life well-lived, there is no margin for error. Your mistakes become final. But a mistake is not a failure — it’s an opportunity to encounter Jesus again. Confession, forgiveness, peace, and hope all come through that encounter with the risen Savior.
Paul’s life, with all of its difficulties, remains centered on Christ crucified and risen. Following Jesus reorders your priorities. The Christian life is not comfort-driven — it is Christ-centered.
Conclusion: Have You Had an Encounter?
What changed Paul? Not education. Not effort. Not religion. An encounter with Jesus. And that same invitation is extended to us.
You can know about Jesus and still miss him. Paul did — until the moment he didn’t.
So the question is: Have you had an encounter with Jesus?
Not just knowledge. Not just tradition. Not just behavior. But a real, life-altering encounter. Because that’s where identity is formed, truth is revealed, hearts are transformed, and perseverance is sustained.
References
- Campbell, Constantine R. The Letter to the Ephesians. Edited by D. A. Carson. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2023.
- Cohick, Lynn H. Ephesians. New Covenant Commentary Series. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2010.
- Kümmel, W. G. Paul the Apostle. Translated by Howard Clark Kee. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1973.
- Ladd, George Elden. A Theology of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993.
- Marshall, I. Howard, Stephen Travis, and Ian Paul. Exploring the New Testament: The Letters and Revelation. Vol. 2. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2011.
- Schoeps, H. J. Paul. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1961.
- Acts of Paul and Thecla. In The Apocryphal New Testament. Edited by J. K. Elliott. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
