Introduction
I said last week that there are reminders throughout the book of Acts that the early years of the Christian church were extra-ordinary times when lots of extra-ordinary things took place which do not happen in our day. For instance, last week we read that an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip the Evangelist to tell him where he should travel. Angels don’t normally speak to people today. And then, when the Ethiopian eunuch passed by, the Holy Spirit spoke to Philip directly to tell him what to do. The Holy Spirit normally speaks to us today through the reading and preaching of the Scriptures. And then, after Philip had baptised the Ethiopian eunuch, the Holy Spirit transported Philip to another place. We have to travel by car or public transport. And so, the early years of the church were extra-ordinary times when extra-ordinary things were happening. And the account of Saul’s conversion and commissioning is another reminder that those were extra-ordinary times.
Many of us grew up in Christian homes and we were always brought to church, where we were taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. And in a sense, we grew up believing in the Saviour and we can’t remember a time when we did not believe. That’s was my experience. Others here today can perhaps remember a time when you didn’t believe and you can also remember a day when you first trusted in Christ for salvation. For some it was still when you were young, but for others it was when you were older. And perhaps for some of you, your conversion was quite dramatic because you were deeply convicted of your sin and you were overwhelmed with a sense of God’s love for you in Christ. But none of us has experienced what Saul experienced when he was converted to faith in Christ and commissioned as an apostle of the Lord. Although we sometimes talk about someone having a ‘Damascus Road conversion’, no-one has experienced what Saul experienced on the road to Damascus, when the Risen and Exalted Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him in a bright light and spoke to him directly from heaven. This was a unique event. And by means of this event, the Lord Jesus conquered one of his fiercest enemies and transformed him so that Saul the great persecutor became Paul the great preacher. After the Risen and Exalted Lord Jesus appeared to him and converted and commissioned him, Saul — or Paul as we now know him — went about preaching the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the Roman Empire.
Let’s turn to the passage and remind ourselves of what happened.
The passage
Luke tells us in verse 1 that Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.
The first time Luke mentioned Saul was right at the end of the account of Stephen’s martyrdom. When Stephen was being stoned to death, Saul was there, giving approval to his death. And immediately after that Luke tells us that a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem and Saul began to destroy the church by going from house to house, dragging off men and women and putting them in prison. And here he is now, at the beginning of chapter 9, and he’s still trying to destroy the church.
Luke says he was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. I don’t think this means that he was killing them himself, but that he hoped that, once he arrested them and they were tried by the Sanhedrin, they would be sentenced to death. And Luke tells us that he went to the High Priest and asked for letters to the Jewish synagogues in Damascus. Presumably he wanted the High Priest to write a letter commending him to the Jews in Damascus and encouraging them to give him all the assistance he needed so that he could find and arrest all the Christians in Damascus and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial.
And in verse 3 Luke tells us that as he neared Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed all around him. So, this was an extra-ordinary light which did not come from the sun or from some other natural source. This was a supernatural light which radiated from heaven, where God is enthroned over all. And when Saul fell to the ground, he heard a voice. And the voice said to him: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ And Saul replied, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ His question indicates that Saul didn’t know who was speaking to him, but he called him ‘Lord’ out of respect for whoever this heavenly being is.
And the voice answered him and said: ‘I am Jesus’. The Risen and Exalted Lord Jesus Christ, who now sits enthroned in heaven at his Father’s right-hand side, was appearing to Saul on the road to Damascus. No doubt up to this point Saul agreed with his fellow Pharisees that the Lord Jesus was a false teacher and a blasphemer who claimed to be the Son of God and who deserved to die. But now it was becoming clear to Saul that everything the Lord had said about himself was true and he really is God’s Beloved Son and our Saviour.
And the Risen and Exalted Lord Jesus commanded Saul to get up and to go into the city where he will be told what he must do. And Luke adds for us in verse 7 that the men who were with Saul heard the sound, but they did not see anyone. The Lord’s appearance was for Saul alone. And when Saul got up, he discovered that he was blind and could not see so that his companions needed to take him by the hand and lead him into the city.
Some of the commentators suggest that this blindness is significant because blindness was one of the covenant curses which the Lord warned his people about in those days. So, just before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the Lord announced both blessing and curses on them. He promised that he would bless them and fill their lives with good things if they remained obedient to him in the Promised Land. And he warned that he would curse them and fill their lives with trouble if they disobeyed him in the Promised Land. And according to Deuteronomy 28:28+29, the Lord warned them that he would afflict them with madness and blindness and confusion of mind. He said that at midday they will grope about like a blind man in the dark.
And so, it’s possible that making Saul blind was the Lord’s way of showing him that so long as Saul remained an enemy of Christ and his church, then he is under the curse of God. Up until this point, Saul probably assumed he was doing the Lord’s will and he could expect blessings from the Lord. But the blindness would indicate to him that in fact he’s under God’s curse for his unbelief.
And Luke now directs our attention to Damascus, where there was a disciple named Ananias. And the Lord called to him in a vision, which is another reminder that those were extra-ordinary days. And in this vision, the Lord commanded Ananias to go to a certain house and to ask for Saul, who is waiting for Ananias to restore his sight.
And Ananias is understandably alarmed, because he’s heard all about Saul and all the harm he has done to the believers in Jerusalem and he’s heard that Saul was coming to Damascus to round up and to arrest all the believers. But the Lord re-assures him by saying that Saul is his chosen instrument to carry his name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. And the Lord adds that he will show Saul how much he must suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus.
And so, Ananias went to Saul and placed his hands on him and announced to him that the Lord Jesus, who appeared to him on the road, has sent him to Saul so that he can see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he could see. The Lord’s curse was removed and instead of being under God’s wrath and curse, he received the gift of the Holy Spirit to enable him to believe and to live for ever in the presence of God. And we read that he got up and was baptised. I explained last week that baptism is not so much a sign to signify something we have done. It’s not a sign of our faith and obedience. Instead it’s a sign of what the Lord has done for us and or what he promises to do for our children. For the children of believers, it’s a sign of God’s promise to wash away their sins the moment they trust in Christ. And for adult converts like Saul, it’s a sign that God has washed away their sins for ever, now that they have believed in the Saviour. Just as water washes away dirt from our bodies, so God washes away the guilt of our sins because of Christ who died for us.
And in the follow up to Saul’s conversion and commissioning, we read that at once he began to preach in the Jewish synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. And those who heard him were astonished, because isn’t this the man who caused havoc in Jerusalem among the believers? Hasn’t he come to arrest them? Well, he is the man, but he’s not the same man, because the Risen and Exalted Saviour of the world has changed him and made him a new man. Once he hated the Lord Jesus and his church, but now he loves the Lord Jesus and his church. And it’s the Lord who has made the difference in his life, because the Lord gives us his Spirit to make us part of his new creation.
And we read in verse 22 that Saul became more and more powerful: presumably his preaching became more and more powerful. And he baffled the Jews by proving to them that Jesus is the Christ, God’s Spirit-Anointed and Conquering King who came into the world to save us from our sin and misery in this world and to give us eternal life in the new and better world to come.
And look at verse 23. The persecutor became the persecuted. The Jews conspired to kill Saul, but he managed to escape from them by being lowered from the city in a basket.
And in verse 26 we read how he came to Jerusalem and tried to join the disciples there. In Galatians 1, he tells us that there was a three year gap between the time of his conversion and his visit to Jerusalem. And when he arrived in Jerusalem, the believers are understandably afraid, because they remembered what Saul was like when he was in Jerusalem before and how he breathed out murderous threats against the church. But Barnabas spoke up for him and convinced the others to accept him. And so, he stayed with them and he moved about freely and he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. And once again he faced opposition: this time from the Greek-speaking Jews. And so, once again he had to flee for his life.
And the section ends in verse 31 with one of these summary statements which Luke gives every so often to tell us about the state of the church. And it’s good news: the church enjoyed a time of peace and it was strengthened. That is to say, it was strengthened by God. God enabled his people to grow in their faith. The NIV changes the order of what Luke wrote, because he finishes the summary by saying that they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit encouraged them and they were able to honour the Lord Jesus in their daily lives. And the church multiplied. The number of believers grew.
Application 1
So, that’s the passage. One of the main lessons we learn from it concerns the Lord’s amazing grace to sinners. In 1 Timothy 1 Saul — or Paul as we know him now — said about himself that he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man. And a few verses later he calls himself the worst of sinners. He was the worst of sinners because of his unbelief and because of all the harm he once did to the church of Christ. And therefore he was justly liable to the wrath and curse of God for his unbelief and sin. He not only deserved to be blinded, but to be cast into the depths of hell to be punished with everlasting destruction away from the presence of God. That’s what Saul deserved.
And yet how wonderful! How wonderful, because instead of treating Saul as he deserved and instead of repaying him according to his iniquity, the Lord was gracious and merciful to him and the Lord was willing to pardon him and to wash away the guilt of his sins for ever. And the Lord was able to do this for Saul, because the Lord Jesus gave up his life on the cross to pay for Saul’s sins. He bore in his body the punishment that Saul deserved for a lifetime of disobedience.
And that’s not all the Lord did for Saul, because not only did the Lord give up his life to pay for Saul’s sins, but he broke into Saul’s life and enabled him to believe the good news of salvation, which Saul had previously rejected. The Lord Jesus appeared to him on that road and confronted him with the truth that he is indeed the Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. The Lord overcame Saul’s unbelief and opposition and his enmity and the Lord made Saul one of his people.
It’s astonishing. And though the Lord Jesus does not appear before us now in the same way as he did with Saul, he nevertheless sends his Spirit into our lives to take away our hard, unbelieving heart and to give us a new, soft and believing heart so that we’re able to believe in him and to love him and to receive from him forgiveness and the free gift of eternal life. If you’re trusting in Christ today, then that’s what he did to you. He not only gave up his life for you on the cross to pay for your sins, but he sent his Spirit into your life to enable you to believe and to receive the salvation which he won for you on the cross. If you’re trusting in Christ today, it’s because of his mercy to you. And in his mercy, he died for you to pay for your sins; and in his mercy, he sent his Spirit into your life to enable you to believe. And he continues to send his Spirit into the hearts of men and women and boys and girls throughout the world to enable them to turn from their sins in repentance and to turn to him with faith for salvation.
And his promise is that whoever turns to him with faith receives forgiveness. He washes their guilt away and he remember their sins no more. And he gives them peace with God. And he gives them his Spirit who is the Lord and giver of life so that they will live for ever. And then, he also renews them in God’s image and enables them to live a new kind of life.
Application 2
And that takes me to my next point which is that we can see the difference the Lord made in Saul’s life. The Lord made him a new man.
The Lord made Saul an apostle. That’s clear, isn’t it? He announced to Ananias that Saul was his chosen instrument to carry his name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. And as soon as he was converted, he began to preach about Christ. He preached about Christ in Damascus and he preached about Christ in Jerusalem. And later in the book of Acts, we’ll read about the other places he went and how, wherever he went, he preached the good news of salvation through faith in Christ.
The Lord made him an apostle and a preacher of the gospel. But that’s not what I mean when I say that the Lord made him a new man. I mean how Saul was changed from being a man who hated the Lord to being someone who loved the Lord. And he was changed from being a man who hated the Lord’s people to being someone who loved the Lord’s people. And so, when he arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples. He wanted to join them and to be among them. And when they rejected him at first, he didn’t give up, but he was willing to go back to them and try again with the help of Barnabas. And after they accepted him, Luke tells that he stayed with them. And throughout his letters to New Testament churches, he expresses his love for his fellow believers and his appreciation of them and he commands his fellow believers to love one another and to serve one another.
Once he hated the church. But then the Lord made him a new man so that he began to love the church. He loved his fellow believers. And the Lord today doesn’t make us apostles. There are no more apostles, because an apostle was someone who was an eye-witness of the resurrection. And now that Saul had seen the Risen Saviour, he was qualified for that special office. So, the Lord doesn’t make us apostles. And he doesn’t make everyone a preacher. But he makes every believer a new man or a new woman or a new boy or girl, because everyone who believes becomes part of his new creation. And he gives us his Spirit to renew us in God’s image and to enable us to love one another and to serve one another. His Spirit displays his fruit in our lives so that we become more loving and more joyful and more peaceable and patient and kind and good and faithful and gentle and self-controlled.
And so, the Lord not only forgives us, but he changes us. He makes us new people. And we must ask the Lord to keep renewing us and to keep restoring us to what we were always meant to be, which is people who love God and who love one another.
Application 3
Notice now the question the Lord Jesus asked Saul in verse 4. He said: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And when Saul asked him who he is, he replied: ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’ So, Saul was persecuting Christians. He was persecuting the church. But the Lord doesn’t ask him ‘why are you persecuting the church?’ He asked him ‘why are you persecuting me?’ He said to Saul: you’re persecuting me.
And this shows us how the Lord loves his people so much that he identifies himself with them. As Paul puts it elsewhere: the church is the body of Christ. He is the head and we are his body. And the Lord loves his body. He cares for his people. And so, in Revelation 1, the Apostle John received a vision of heaven. And he saw the Risen and Exalted Lord Jesus Christ. And John tells us that the Lord Jesus was walking among the lampstands. And that won’t mean anything to you until I tell you that the lampstands in the vision represented the churches. And so, it’s a picture of Christ’s love and care for his people. He’s walking among his people, watching over them, helping them and encouraging them. When necessary, he rebukes his churches. But he’s continually with his people, watching over them and caring for them. And that’s because the church is his body and he identifies himself with them.
And when anyone hurts or harms his church, as Saul used to do, the Lord knows it and he regards an attack on the church as an attack on himself. And just as you and I naturally protect our own body from harm, so the Lord Jesus will protect his body, his church, from harm. He’ll keep his people safe. And if he ever lets his people suffer harm — and we were hearing on Wednesday evening about the suffering of God’s people in Somalia — we can be assured that there’s some good reason for it, because his will for his people is always good.
And if we ever worry about the church in the world, we can re-assure ourselves that the church is the body of Christ and Christ is watching over his people at all times to help them.
Application 4
And the final point I want to make is that the Lord’s words to Ananias about Saul are a reminder to us of God’s love for the world. God so loved the world that he sent his Only Begotten Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. And God so loved the world that he appointed Saul to take the name of Christ before Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. He was sending Saul into all the world to declare the good news to everyone. And so, when Saul arrived at a new city, he normally went first to the Jewish synagogue to preach to them the good news of the gospel. And then he would go to the Gentiles and he woud preach to them also. In the book of Acts, we’ll also read how he stood before kings and preached to them about Christ.
And God still loves the world and he’s still sending preachers into all the world and to every nation to proclaim the good news of salvation to everyone, because the message of the gospel is that whoever believes shall not perish, but shall have eternal life. The gospel is for everyone. And the gospel is for you. Jesus Christ comes to you in the preaching of the gospel and he’s saying to you today that if you believe in his name, then no matter what you have done wrong, your sins are forgiven and you have peace with God and you have the hope of eternal life and you have the Holy Spirit to renew you in God’s image.
Sermons and Stuff 