5 And Saul said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting. It is dangerous and it will turn out badly for you to keep kicking against the goad [to offer vain and perilous resistance].
I used to be really cheeky to Jesus Christ before I ever believed in him. I used to say bad things about Jesus, and I used to make trouble for anybody that believed in Jesus. I didn’t know the true story about Jesus at that time, so I didn’t believe in him. But God felt sorry for me, and he was really good to me. He let me turn around and join up with Jesus Christ, and now Jesus helps me to trust God, and he helps me to love everybody.
Paul kept on talking. He said, “You know, at one time I thought I had to stop people from following Jesus, the man from Nazareth. I did a lot of things to try to stop them.
But if God told them to do these things, you can’t stop them. If you try to stop them, you might find yourselves fighting against God.” The Jewish council men listened to Gamaliyel, and they agreed with him.
We all fell down on to the ground. Then I heard the voice of somebody talk to me in the Hebrew language. He said, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you making trouble for me and hurting me? You are hurting yourself too, you know.’
I’m not saying that I have already done all that. I’m not saying that I’m properly good now. But, you see, Jesus Christ picked me to be one of his people, so I’m trying hard to be the sort of person that he wants me to be.