Friday, May 15 –
I, with you, am reading thru the
New Testament in a year, and we come today to one of the great stories of the
book of Acts - the conversion of Paul. Read Acts 9:1-19, then come back and
we’ll walk thru the story together.
If you are not aware at this point, Saul is to become the Apostle Paul, and Luke, the author of Acts, is his traveling secretary (literally, an amanuensis, a writer for someone). Luke has already mentioned Saul previously to this story, but now the details begin to take shape of how Paul became a large figure in the early church. In the simplest form, Luke tells us: “Saul, was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Saul hated these people called “the Way” (vs 2), and so he got written authority from the Jerusalem leadership to hunt them down, arrest them, and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial. Luke had already introduced Saul to us - at Stephen’s stoning where “they laid their cloaks at Saul’s feet and he approved of what they were doing.”
Saul then began a reign of terror in Jerusalem,
“ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and
women, he would put them in prison” (8:3). This attempt to destroy the early
church may have lasted as long as three years. Christians fled the city of
Jerusalem...some to evangelize, such as Philip...others to find safety as a
fellowship in a large city like Damascus. When Saul gets word of a community of
believers called “The Way” (probably a designation from the Jewish leaders of
those who believed Jesus was “the way, the truth, the life”) gathering there
for worship, he set out with papers in hand to stop their spreading the word
about Jesus.
The journey to Jerusalem is about
six days walking and from Luke’s account, it was when he was close to arriving
in Damascus - around noon - that something happened that couldn’t be explained
apart from God. The ESV translation in vs 3 states it as: “he approached
Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.” The words are
important because they explain something that is not natural, but quite
supernatural. First of all, it was “sudden(ly)”. It was not the natural light
of the noonday sun, but a brighter than normal light, “from Heaven”. Luke, of
course, is recording this from Paul’s own memory, but it is a consistent one
since Paul will give this same account three times in the book of Acts and each
time he says the same thing - a light “from” - “out of” - heaven becomes
centered, “shone”, around him. Later Paul will share this account with two
other Kings and each time the emphasis is on the heavenly nature of God
breaking through in an unexpected way. One minute Saul is on a quest to arrest
as many Christians as he can and the next he is lying on the ground, bathed in
a brighter light that has overcome him, and blind. It is God who found Saul,
not Saul who was seeking God. He thought he was doing God’s will, but he learns
that he indeed is not doing it now, but he soon will be.
As Saul lays on the ground he
hears an audible voice - “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul must be
confused, trying to figure out what happened, and who is this person who says
I’m persecuting them? “Who are you, Lord?” may have been nothing more than a
question of “who are you, Sir”? Then it happens, “I am Jesus, whom you are
persecuting...”. Jesus’ identification of himself is crucial. He does not say
to Saul, “you are persecuting my people”, or, “you are persecuting the church”;
instead, he says that in His persecution of the church, he is “persecuting me”.
All of Saul’s preconceptions melted that day on the Damascus road. Jesus was
truly alive as the people of Christ in the Church had been proclaiming. Jesus
was not only alive but he was identifying the Church as his own. We may often
hear someone say “I belong to such and such church”, but in reality, “we belong
to Christ and his people”. The Church is not an institution, but a living,
breathing family...Christ’s bride (Eph. 5)...Christ’s Body (1 Cor. 12). The
building motif of explaining to describe the church falls short of the true
biblical idea. The Church is Christ alive in his believers!
Saul hears the word of Jesus that
follows: “But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to
do.” There was one problem, “when Saul opened his eyes he was blind...” (vs8)
Later, the Apostle Paul recognized what happened to him is what happens to
every person who comes to faith in Christ. Over and over Paul uses the idea of
“blindness” to describe the state of a person outside of Christ. Saul was
brought to conversion by God’s grace and as we read the apostle’s own later
references to the event, He never mentioned his conversion without making this
clear.
‘It pleased God’, he wrote, ‘to
reveal his Son in me.’ (Gal. 1:15,16). God took the initiative - according to
his own will and pleasure. Paul knew that he had never sought out Christ, but
it was Christ “took hold of’ him” (Phil 3:12), literally, ‘seized’ him, the
verb suggesting that Christ ‘arrested’ him before he had the chance to arrest
any Christians in Damascus. Later, when the scales fell off and he could see,
he knew completely that it was all Jesus and would later write that when this
happened, it was God who commanded ‘Let light shine out of darkness’ (2 Cor.
4:6). God’s grace arrested him, shone into his heart, and changed his life
completely.
They led Saul into the city of
Damascus and for the next three days, Saul fasted and prayed (9:9). Paul would
later write that he spent that time talking to Jesus. He had gotten it all
wrong and there was much to learn, but God had a great purpose ahead for Saul.
It’s crucial we understand, while this all happened “suddenly” to Saul, it was
not sudden to God’s plan and purpose. As Saul sits in a house, blind, God speaks
to “the bravest man in Damascus”, my wife Linda called him - Ananias. Ananias
is a “disciple” - a believer who is committed to Jesus and has probably come to
Damascus as a part of those who had fled Jerusalem when the persecution broke
out. Now, in Damascus, enjoying the fellowship of the church without the fear
of the Jews invading their meetings, he heard the voice of God - again audibly
- “Ananias” and he answers “Yes LORD”.
Unlike Saul, he knows who it is that is
talking to him and he answers him with the acknowledgment that Jesus is LORD.
Still, he demonstrates his humanity as he hears the Lord telling him about
Saul, where he is, and how he wants him to go to him to lay hands on him and
pray for him. Ananias makes a mild protestation - as if the Lord does not know
what Saul’s reputation is - “really? this man has done much harm to your
people”... We don’t understand those promptings to go to this person or that
person, do we?
God is both patient and
persistent: “Go...!” Perhaps Ananias is thinking, “Why do you want me to go to
THIS MAN?” God reveals the plan to him - this man is a “‘chosen’ instrument to
proclaim my name to the Gentiles, and their kings, and to the people of
Israel”.
This much ought to be clear to us
- Jesus chose Paul, Paul did not choose Jesus! God’s call is a sovereign choice
and one that Saul has no knowledge of, nor any idea of all that will be ahead -
but Jesus tells Ananias it will include “suffering for my name”.
Ananias goes as directed, finds
Saul in his place, blind and waiting. The language Luke uses reminds me that
when “anyone comes to Christ, they are a new creation.” As Ananias meets Saul he speaks to him, also laying hands on him to pray for him at the same time:
“Brother Saul,
the Lord - Jesus, who appeared to you on the road...has sent me, so that you
may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
It is a beautiful scene as
this man who feared Saul, and Saul who was sent to find him, arrest him and
bring him back to Jerusalem, realize together they are no longer enemies, but
brothers in Christ.
Saul believed...the scales fell
off, he could once again see...there in front of him stood his first brother in
Christ, but it was only the first of thousands that would follow. Saul ate,
then asked to be baptized...the transformation has begun and there is much
ahead for us to see of this - in all accounts - the greatest Christian who ever
lived.
Peace
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