Great People of the Bible | The Apostle Paul | Full Movie

Three years after Christ died on the cross, his followers still lived in fear. One man struck real terror into their hearts. His name was Saul. Yet this same man would become Christ's greatest messenger, Saint Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. His journeys would take him to distant shores, into the heart of pagan territory, from the deserts of Arabia to the very pinnacles of Greek and Roman culture. This is the story of how Saint Paul, once Christianity's most ruthless persecutor, laid the foundations of the worldwide church. Beneath the Taurus Mountains, on the southern coast of Turkey, lies the city of Tarsus. Here, Saul was born in the year 5 AD. Growing up in the comfort of a wealthy family, Saul was Jewish by faith and Greek by culture. And through his father, he was also a citizen of Rome whose empire embraced the Mediterranean from Judea in the east all the way to Hispania in the west. From the age of six, Saul was schooled in the books of the Torah. He was taught to obey the Jewish law and the rituals of the temple in Jerusalem, the center of Jewish authority. But the young Saul also lived in the midst of paganism. Differing beliefs existed side by side, often in conflict. Cult religions grew and died. But for Saul, there was only one faith, one path to the one God. When he was barely 14, Saul was sent to continue his studies in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the capital of the Promised Land, where Solomon had built his temple to house the Ark of the Covenant. Its leaders would not tolerate new thought, new ideas. Their laws were set in stone. Any challenge was blasphemy. But a challenge had arisen from a rebel named Jesus of Nazareth. He defied the elders' laws, threatened their leadership. He had to die. Yet his followers still spoke out. One man was determined to silence them. Saul, now a temple leader himself, fervor drove him to hunt down the followers of Jesus. His mission? To wipe the name of Christ from the earth. I persecuted the followers to the death, binding both men and women and delivering them to prison. Yet it was a disciple of Jesus who was to change Saul's life forever. Crowds flocked to his sermons. He defended Jesus, and he too defied the laws of the temple. His name was Stephen. Taken before the high priest and charged with blasphemy, Stephen was defiant. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not prosecute? They killed those that foretold the coming of the righteous one, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. Dragged from the temple, taken beyond the city walls, Stephen's fate was sealed. The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. When Saul gave the word, the stoning began. This was the law of the temple. As he lay dying, Stephen begged for forgiveness for Saul. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge, for they know not what they do. Stephen had died a true Christian, forgiving his killers. But Saul could not forgive. That night, many Christians fled in fear of their lives. They sought refuge in Cyprus, in Antioch, and in Damascus. Saul wanted the rebels crushed forever. Authorized by the temple elders, Saul was to pursue the heretics to Damascus. His path took him through the land of Galilee, where Jesus won over his first disciples. thoughts. His mind turned to Stephen and his terrible fate. How could Stephen forgive him, the man who ordered his death? While the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving. Struck Saul to the ground, a voice spoke from the heavens. Saul, why do you persecute me? And Saul answered, who are you, Lord? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Lord, what shall I do? Go to Damascus. There you shall be told. Saul entered Damascus helpless, sightless, and humbled. One of the very men he had come to destroy had been told in a dream to seek Saul out and give him shelter. When Ananias laid his hands on Saul, the scales fell from his eyes and his sight was miraculously restored. In the blinding white light, it had been Jesus himself who had spoken. Saul begged Ananias to baptize him. Saul, the persecutor, was dead and reborn as Paul, the follower of Christ. Tormented by the guilt of his past, Paul left Damascus. What was he to do now? Where was he to go? I did not confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those apostles who were before me, but I went away to Arabia. On Mount Sinai, where Moses had received the commandments from God, Paul made up his mind. Just as the word had been revealed to him, so he would now reveal it to others. He returned to Damascus, went straight to the synagogue, and began his mission. If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. His words met with stunned silence. Was this not Saul, the exterminator of Christians? Had he become a traitor to his Jewish faith? They decided the heretic must die. Paul fled. The Damascus Christians smuggled him out over the city walls. In secret, he returned to Jerusalem to seek the forgiveness of those he had once persecuted. He was greeted with disbelief and suspicion, but one man had witnessed Paul's courage in the synagogue of Damascus and welcomed him to the brethren, Barnabas. He led Paul to Peter, the leader of the Christians, but even the approval of Christ's first apostle could not protect Paul. For some, the memories of Stephen's death were still too raw. They could not forgive Paul for his past. Once again, Paul was forced to flee. Betrayed and rejected, Paul retired to his native Tarsus. For nine long years, he worked in his father's business as a simple tent maker, but he never lost sight of what he believed was his mission. Was it not he whom God had chosen on the road to Damascus? When would God find a purpose for his faith? The answer lay in Jerusalem. It was time to spread the word of Christ beyond the borders of Judea. The Christian leaders chose Barnabas to lead the mission. He, in turn, chose Paul, whose courage he remembered so well, to accompany him. Could this, at last, be the sign of God's forgiveness? As they set off, Barnabas knew he had chosen wisely. Paul was a Greek scholar and a Roman citizen. He had grown up surrounded by pagan faiths. No one was better qualified to take the word of Christ to distant lands. Their voyage began in Cyprus. Preaching first to the Jews on the east side of the island, Paul and Barnabas then crossed to the west, to the pagan city of Paphos, where magicians and sorcerers were still held in awe. There they were summoned by the Roman governor who wanted to hear of their strange new god, but they were mocked by his court magician. Paul turned on him angrily. You son of the devil, the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun. The governor, astonished by Paul's powers, accepted the faith. Paul had gained his first powerful convert. Inspired by God's clear approval for his mission, Paul now turned his sights towards Asia Minor. He would travel to such far-flung cities as Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and beyond, willing to overcome every hardship to take his message of salvation to the furthest reaches of the empire. As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. But when he eventually reached the city of Antioch in Pisidia, he was met with ridicule from the assembled Jews. How can a man rise from the dead, they jeered. Since you reject the word of God and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. With these words, Paul changed the course of history. By taking the word to those outside the Jewish faith, the Gentiles, he opened the way for Christianity to become a world religion. With renewed fervor, Paul went in search of pagan converts. Few along the way cared for Paul's new God. Until at last, Paul and Barnabas arrived at the city of Lystra, where Paul performed another miracle. With healing hands, he enabled a lame man to walk again. Astounded, the crowd hailed Paul and Barnabas as the pagan gods Zeus and Hermes. Sacrifices were prepared in their honor. Paul was horrified at their pagan offerings. We are ordinary men like you. Turn from your idols to the true living God. Incensed by this rejection, the mob turned suddenly. They dragged them from the city, stoned them, and left them for dead. Against the odds, Paul and Barnabas survived. And over the next year, the seeds they had sown began to bear fruit. The word spread to Cappadocia, where early Christian communities flourished in the caves hewn from the soft rock. At journey's end, Barnabas returned to Jerusalem. Paul remained in Asia Minor and wrote letters of inspiration to his new Gentile converts. Remember that at one time, you Gentiles were separated from Christ, having no hope. You are no longer strangers, but are members of the household of God. In the year AD 50, Paul reached the Aegean Sea on the western edge of Asia Minor. Across the water lay a world as yet untouched by Christianity, Roman Europe. That night, Paul dreamt of a man from Macedonia calling him. Paul was convinced that God was telling him to continue his journey, that his ultimate destiny lay in Europe. His first stop was the capital of Macedonia, the city of Philippi, now part of northern Greece. A century before, Philippi had fallen to Rome. Its gates declared it was controlled by the Senate and the people of Rome. Roman law governed the city. All religions were tolerated as long as they caused no breach of the peace. Shrines to many different gods were carved into the rocks surrounding the city. In these bustling streets, Paul could sense the people's minds were open to new faiths. Here in the busy marketplace, Paul set out his own ways, his faith. He spoke of a mortal woman named Mary who had given birth to a god. It was a message which was to touch the hearts of women throughout the ancient world. The first to embrace the faith was a wealthy merchant named Lydia. She took Paul here to her house and here she was baptized. Her home became Europe's first Christian household. Paul was now joined by Silas who had come from Jerusalem to help the mission. One day, they were followed by a slave girl who was possessed by evil spirits. She was making her owners rich through sorcery. She kept taunting the missionaries. Paul ordered the demon to leave her body. The evil spirits were exorcised. Her owner's livelihood destroyed. A crowd gathered. They dragged Paul and Silas here to the courthouse. These men are disturbing our city. They are advocating customs unlawful for us as Romans to observe. The magistrate ordered them to be stripped and flogged, then cast into prison. In his cell which still stands today, Paul asked whether God had forsaken him. At midnight, the ground began to tremble. An earthquake rocked the city. The prison walls were destroyed. Terrified that his charges had escaped, the jailer drew his sword to kill himself. But Paul reassured him, do not harm yourself for we are still here. The jailer was baptized before dawn broke. The following day, Paul demanded that he and Silas be released. As a Roman citizen, his beating was unlawful. Parting company with Silas, he left for Athens alone. Five centuries before, Athens had been the birthplace of Western civilization. She had produced writers and thinkers, artists and politicians whose ideas had shaped the modern world. Her days of political supremacy were long gone, yet she preserved her reputation with superstition. In the great city square, Paul spoke to the Athenians. He was disturbed to see their city full of idols. We ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. This idea interested the philosophers. They invited Paul to speak to them on the hill, below the Acropolis, the Areopagus. Paul addressed them from this spot. Men of Athens, I found an altar inscribed to an unknown god. What you worship as unknown, the god who made the world, does not live in shrines made by human hands. But when Paul spoke of the resurrection of Jesus, the philosophers dismissed him as a babbler. Most lost interest. Paul left the philosophers to their debates. Ahead of him lay an even bigger challenge, a notorious port just to the west of Athens called Corinth. Humbled by the thinkers of Athens, Paul trod this road towards a city famed for its licentiousness. For Corinth stood in the shadow of a mountain. Its peak was crowned by the temple of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. The temple was served by a thousand slave girls, who attracted men from all over the empire. Corinth was a place of wickedness and depravity, where Dionysus, the god of wine and song, these pleasure-seeking Corinthians. Dare he speak out without fearing for his life? Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you. With renewed strength, Paul returned to the marketplace. Neither the immoral, nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers will inherit the kingdom of God. Preaching from this podium, he spoke of a very different kind of love. Love is patient. Love is kind. It bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things. For two long years, Paul continued to preach amid the debauchery of Corinth. The disillusion which lay beneath the city's decadence proved fertile ground for Paul's message of hope. By the end of his stay, he had won the hearts and souls of many Corinthians. Now, one more conquest awaited him. He returned to Asia Minor, where stranger gods and defiant Here, the gods of the woods, the seas, and the stars were venerated. Pagan worshippers made living sacrifices at the altars of their gods. In Asia Minor, all roads led to Ephesus, one of the largest cities of the ancient world. Free from the laws of Rome, Ephesus governed itself according to its own unique laws and pagan customs. They built magnificent edifices. This great theater could seat 25,000, one-tenth of the entire population. Millions came to worship at the great temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. They paid homage to the goddess of fertility. Silver statues were bought in their thousands to offer to the goddess. But the temple was also a sanctuary for hundreds of thieves and murderers who had claimed the right of asylum. Outsiders thought that the citizens of Ephesus deserved to be strangled, one by one. Entering the city along this road, Paul knew his task was to give the people the will to reject the empty pleasures of paganism. Here, in the great theater, Paul stood alone to address the Ephesians. Put on the whole armor of God, put on the breastplate of righteousness, raise the shield of faith, take the helmet of salvation, and draw the sword of the spirit. Paul's sermon made such an impact that one group of sorcerers publicly burned all their books of magic. But in Ephesus, Paul was destroying much more than just paper and superstitions. The trade of the silver idol sellers was suffering as the people turned to the new Christian prophet. The silversmiths met. One man whipped up the crowd. Not only is this trade of ours being brought into disrepute, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis is being scorned. They formed a mob against Paul and stormed the streets. They entered the great theater shouting, great is Artemis of the Ephesians. When the great theater was filled with people, the city magistrate reasoned with them. These men are neither temple robbers nor blasphemers of our goddess. If the silversmiths have a complaint, the courts are open now. Not one man stepped forward, but the crowd dispersed. Paul could now devote time to the other Christian communities he had founded and encouraged the infant church in Rome. I will come to you in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as I have among the rest of the Gentiles. His letters would now come to make up over half the New Testament. In order to nurture his fledgling churches, he retraced his steps to the cities he had visited. But his ultimate destination was always Rome. Paul began that fateful journey by traveling one last time to Jerusalem. The voyage was filled with foreboding. He was met by a prophet named Agabus who took Paul's belt. The Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt. Paul was undeterred. I am ready even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Paul was greeted by his converts. They had come in hope of worshiping at the temple. Like Paul, they saw the Christian and the Hebrew God as one and the same. But ancient Jewish law forbade Gentiles from entering the holy place. Death awaited any Jew who broke this law. Undaunted, Paul took his followers into the temple. The guards seized him. This is the man who brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place. The Jews formed a mob. They attacked Paul. Roman soldiers beat their way through, not to save Paul, but to arrest him for causing a riot. Imprisoned for many months, Paul's spirits were sustained by the voice of God. Keep up your courage, for just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome. With that, Paul knew that he would reach the eternal city. In the autumn of AD 65, Paul was escorted to the port of Caesarea. He had insisted on his right as a Roman citizen to be tried by the emperor himself. In Rome, not far from the island of Malta, Paul's ship was struck by a storm. A fragile vessel was tossed against the rocks. But even a shipwreck could not prevent Paul from fulfilling his destiny. Paul and his captors were swept up on the shore unharmed. The final steps of his journey were taken along this road, the Appian Way. It led directly to the place Paul had longed to reach for half his life. Rome, the most powerful city in the world. Although still a prisoner, Among them was his old friend Peter, who had reached Rome before him. Even under house arrest, Paul continued to preach. He and Peter baptized new converts together. Tolerance of the new religion was to be short-lived. Rome had become steeped in decadence. The city's social order was beginning to crack. Conflict was rife. The emperor Nero was desperate for a scapegoat. He set light to Rome and watched while it burnt for seven days and seven nights. Even before the fire was out, Nero blamed the Christians. His soldiers seized Paul and the slaughter began. But with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished nailed to crosses. Doomed to the flames and burnt, they served as a nightly illumination. Peter felt unworthy of dying as Christ did. He pleaded to be crucified upside down. Knowing that his time had come, Paul wrote his last letter. I am ready to be sacrificed and my time of departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. At dawn, they came for him. He was led out of the city to the place where the church of the three fountains now stands. As a Roman citizen, Paul was spared the indignity of crucifixion. The executioner raised his sword. Like Stephen, 30 years before him, Paul died a martyr to the faith. In death, Paul had found victory. The brotherhood of Christian communities that he had founded through his faith and courage would grow in strength from year to year until the day more than 200 years later when the Roman Empire itself would finally embrace the word of God.