A Gospel That Transforms (Acts 9:1-19)

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Well, thank you, first to the pastors and also to all of you for welcoming me in. It’s been such an honor, and I’ve learned so much being here. So thank you for that. I want to say good morning to all of you when I ask you to get your Bibles out and turn to Acts chapter nine. We’re gonna be looking at verses one through 19. Acts nine, one through 19. And while you’re turning there, I want to prepare us for our message today by telling you a beautiful testimony of another Christian brother. His name is Kamal Saleem. Kamal was born in Lebanon to a devout Sunni Muslim family, and from a very young age, being born into this family, he was indoctrinated into this radical Islamic belief, and he eventually got recruited into the PLO, or the Palestinian Liberation Organization. This organization taught him how to carry out what we would call terror attacks. So from a young age, he’s learning all of this, and he’s taught that his life purpose is to wage jihad or struggle against all the enemies of Islam, especially Jews and Christians. And as the years go on, Kamal gains status in the PLO. He’s rising in the ranks. He’s taking part in lots of operations that they’re putting on. And then the 1980s he’s actually sent overseas to the US with a new mission. His mission is to go into western civilization, to infiltrate it and find new members of jihad. And for many years, he did just that really well. He was heavily active in many radical Islamic circles. He was in mosques recruiting people for his cause. But then one day, everything changed. Kamal was driving, and he got into a terrible car accident. He was terribly injured, and so what happens is, he’s in the hospital. He’s injured, he’s recovering, and he needs someone to take care of him, but Kamal is here in the US alone, away from his family. So who does that? A man steps up. A Christian man takes him in. Doesn’t know Kamal, who he is, what his story, what his life is, but he takes him in and cares for him. And this Christian man, his family and his friends cared for him so well, loving Him, showing him compassion and kindness that he’d never seen, especially from the very people that he sought out to destroy later in his life, Kamal said, I felt the love of Christ through them before I had even heard the gospel. So this family’s care had softened Kamal’s heart and prepared him for what came next, because one night in a dream, Kamal encountered Jesus. Jesus showed up to him and said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life No one comes to the Father except through me. Kamal woke up terrified, obviously, and after this encounter, Kamal picked up the Bible and began studying it and comparing it to the Quran. And a little while later, he gave his life to Christ and was born again. Kamal then became a passionate follower of Christ. He was speaking out against the dangers of radical Islam, but he was also preaching the transforming power of the gospel. Maybe you’ve heard this story before. You probably haven’t, and it makes you think of something else. For me, it makes me think of one of the most influential people in our New Testament, a man named Saul. Saul was a devout Pharisee. So when the Jews began preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, Saul did what he believed was right. But first, Saul is another name for Paul. We hear Saul change from Paul, and we think, Oh, wow, look at the way the Lord changed his name and gave him this new identity. That’s not what it is. It’s not that deep. Saul is his Hebrew name. So when he’s hanging out with his Pharisee friends or his Jewish friends, they’d call him Saul when he’s hanging out with his Roman friends, and when he became the apostle to the Gentiles, they call him Paul. It’s much like if I were to go to Puerto Rico and my dad’s family were to call me Alejandro, but here, everyone calls me Alex or Alexander. It’s the same concept. So these two stories of Saul and Kamal are so incredibly similar, because, like Kamal, Saul was so zealous for his religion, even to the. Point of violence, just like Kamal Saul had an encounter with Jesus that changed everything, like Kamal Saul was transformed from a persecutor to a Proclaimer of the gospel. So today, as we look through our passage, we’re going to watch how Saul goes from an infamous sinner to a kingdom servant in four scenes. Well, first, I want to give you a little background, as these are one off series. It’s good to get that. So the book of Acts written by a man named Luke. It’s his second letter. The first one was the book of Luke. Yes, good job, we’re waking up. It’s the book of Luke. And acts as a follow up to this gospel of Jesus Christ that he was sending to his friend named Theophilus. And this is a continuation where, after Jesus has ascended and has in his absence, the church is now being his disciples. Luke says, Look at the way that God is still working, even through the ascension and absence of Jesus. So what is going on in this ancient world at this point? Acts? Gives us a pretty clear description in the upcoming chapters. It says there is a separation in Jerusalem between two groups of people, a group that our passage today is going to call the way, and the other group, the Jews. And as this tension continues to build and rise, the way sends out this man named Stephen. And Stephen is preaching. He’s speaking to the Pharisees, and he tells them, You guys are wrong. You’re not opening your hearts. You’re not opening your minds to what God is truly saying. You’re not listening to the messages and the messengers that God is sending to you. And the Pharisees are furious at this, so they take Stephen, they stone him, and Stephen becomes the first recorded Christian martyr. And at the beginning of chapter eight, we meet Saul for the first time, because acts 81 tells us that Saul approved of their killing him. Saul approved of the stoning of Stephen and the stoning drove all of Jesus’ followers out of Jerusalem and into the surrounding cities. But they didn’t just sit there idly. They didn’t just stay and not do anything. Jesus’ followers did good work. Acts 84 tells us that those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went, and this is where we get to chapter nine. The Jewish higher ups, the Pharisees, have started noticing these followers of the way in the surrounding cities, preaching the gospel of Jesus and being good Pharisees, they decided to do something about this, and this is when we re meet Saul at the beginning of chapter nine, where we see our first scene, a merciful confrontation. So follow along with me as I read verses one through five. Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared near Damascus on his journey, suddenly, a light from Heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul. Saul, why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord? Saul, asked, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting? He replied, so. Jesus meets Saul at the height of his rebellion, on the way to persecute his people with mercy, not with destruction. Saul was, and has been for a while, breathing out threats against the Lord’s disciples. In other words, Saul was so consumed with hatred towards Jesus’ disciples, he wasn’t just misguided, but this was the very thing that gave his life breath. This was his life purpose. He was actively hunting down Christ’s followers all while believing he was honoring God. Saul is obsessed. He’s active on a mission to arrest, persecute and silence Christians. And yet Jesus shows up. Think about this. While Saul was on the road to Damascus, Jesus could have done a couple things. Could have sent a wild animal, and had Saul killed right there on the spot, he could have struck him down where he stood. We could have opened the earth to swallow Saul up. And if God had decided to do that, his plan would still be done. We would all still be here today. The gospel would be spread. God could have ended Saul in one flash of divine judgment, and his story could have ended right there in Acts nine. We even would probably read that and say, that’s fair. Saul deserved that, but that’s not what Jesus does. See Jesus blinded him. He doesn’t break him. Jesus confronts him and gives him a new mission. He doesn’t condemn him and push him to the side. That’s mercy, instead of ignoring or destroying Saul, Jesus intercepts and redirects him. We live in a time where we’re so quick to condemn and cut people off, but Jesus shows us a better way. He didn’t avoid Saul like he was some disgusting mess up. He didn’t destroy him like some unredeemable monster. He intercepted Saul with truth and love. So are we following Christ’s example, when a co worker lets you down or is annoying or bad at their job, are you going to say bad things about them? Are you going to ignore them? Are you going to sabotage them, or are you going to choose to meet them with mercy, pushing them to something better while loving them? In our cancel culture today, when someone makes a mistake, do you count them out? Do you let their life get ruined, refuse to pay them any peace of mind, or do you meet them with mercy? Do you allow yourself to love and forgive those that have done terrible things? Do you follow Christ’s example, or do you follow the world’s example, because if Jesus did not confront Saul, mercifully, the way we look at Saul today, would be so much different, but he mercifully allowed Saul into His kingdom and turned a murderer into an apostle. And the same goes for you and for me. If Jesus had not mercifully encountered us while we were on our path to sin, where would we be today? Christ has given you new life. He’s given you a new heart. He’s given you new motives and a new way. So are you going to live out Jesus’ example of mercy, or are you going to follow the world’s way of condemnation? Now I want to shift our attention over to the name of this early Christian church. The way, I almost wonder if Christ’s followers gathered together to come up with that thinking of something catchy. And they’re like, yeah, the way, that’s it right there. But in the wisdom books, we kind of see where they get this, because there’s a lot of contrast between ways, the right way, the wrong way, the way of the righteous, the way of the unrighteous. And here we see that Christ’s followers are acknowledging that this is the right way, this is the way to salvation. This is it. This is the way we were meant to live, not any other way away from Christ. But we see that Saul is going on his way. Saul has made his own mission. He’s dedicated his own life to his own goal. But for the first time, when Jesus confronts him, Saul’s mission is messed up, and later we’re going to see in the passage that Christ tells Saul to go and wait to hear what Jesus is going to have him do next. Saul was called to sit and wait. He wasn’t sit told to go, think of what to do next. Go, plan out your life. He wasn’t told to go plan out his next adventure and what he’s going to say next. He said to sit and wait for God’s call. His life is no longer going his way, but it’s going the way of Christ. And then Jesus asks Saul a question that hits heavy. Saul. Saul, why are you persecuting me? It’s not why are you persecuting my people, but why are you persecuting me? Jesus identifies so deeply with his church that when his people are persecuted, he is persecuted. That is the deepness of a relationship that Jesus has with us. Saul thought he was getting rid of heretics, but he was actually attacking the Son of God Himself. And what does Jesus do? He doesn’t shame Saul, but he calls him to him. He doesn’t destroy Saul, but he names him as one of his own. Jesus meets us where we are, even if we’re running the wrong direction. No one is too far gone, not a murderous Pharisee, not a Muslim terrorist, not your annoying neighbor, not you or me. No one is too far gone. And it’s interesting the way that God changes Saul’s life. He doesn’t drop this giant weight on him. Says, Saul, your entire life, everything you’ve worked toward is a lie. And then says, All right, let’s go on mission. He says, Saul, you have time to reflect now. And that’s where we come to our second scene, where we move from the merciful confrontation to a humbling blindness. Verse six through nine tells us this in. Jesus said, Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. And the men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the sound, but didn’t see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes, he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus for three days he was blind, did not eat or drink anything. Saul, the great Pharisee, rises from the ground blind, and this blinding of Saul was not merely physical. It was an outward expression of an inward reality, a picture of what’s been true of Saul this entire time, Saul has been spiritually blind to Jesus this whole time, but now, in losing his sight, he’s being prepared to truly see God brings him to a complete stop. Saul is helpless, humiliated. He has to be led by the hand like a child for three days, he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t drink. He sits, reflecting, breaking, listening, sometimes, before God can use us, he has to undo us. He has to strip us down of what we think matters, not to hurt us, but to prepare us for what he has next. Saul needed to unlearn everything before he could be remade by grace, and that’s what a lot of us miss. You want the clarity, you want the calling, you want the purpose, but to get this, you need the brokenness. You can’t be sent on mission for God until your heart has placed him above everything else and is prepared to serve Him, just like how God blinded Saul so he could finally see he’s seeking to humble you, not to harm you, but to heal you, to make you better for His kingdom. So are you in a space right now where you feel stuck or quiet or unseen or even useless before God, then I encourage you to open up your heart to the possibility that this season of weakness is preparing you for a new kind of sight and a new kind of mission. But maybe that’s not where you’re at today. Maybe you’re weighed down by something else. Maybe you’re weighed down by a burden for someone else. And that’s where our scene sort of shifts its attention from Saul to another man, Ananias. In our third scene, a courageous welcome. Follow with me in verses 10 through 17. In Damascus, there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in event. In a vision, Ananias, Yes, Lord. He answered. The Lord told him go to the house of Judas on straight street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul for he is praying. In a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight. Lord, Ananias answered, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem, and he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name. But the Lord said to Ananias, go, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim My name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. Then, Ananias went to the house and entered it, placing his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So our scenes shift from Saul to Ananias. God is telling his disciple go lay hands on this notorious killer that has given his entire life to hunting down people just like you. And Ananias does what many of us would use, as you know God, not to question you in all your infinite wisdom and everything, but you sure? I mean, this man is pretty dangerous. Saul has a reputation, and it’s not a good one. He’s infamous, infamous, known for the terrible things that he’s done. He’s the one who’s probably arrested many of Ananias friends probably allowed them to be killed, and now Saul is going to be welcomed by this man, all because God called Saul his chosen instrument. God didn’t just forgive Saul, he turned his life around and gave him new purpose. And I can imagine the fear in Saul here. He has been against this for so long. They have feared him for so long, and now God is telling him go and join their ranks. How could he ever live up to this call from God if they viewed him this way? And. They would never accept him. He would be an outcast. But Ananias follows the Lord’s call, walking in obedience. He lays a hand on Saul and says, brother, Saul. Imagine this moment. Saul just had his life flipped around. He’s unsure of what to do next. He’s lost, he’s probably terrified, he’s hungry, and Ananias is told to welcome one of his greatest enemies, someone he’s avoided for so long. This statement, brother is not just a title, it’s a sign of full inclusion. Ananias is recognizing and inviting Saul. He’s basically saying, Saul, you belong here. You are one of us. You are part of the family. And there are some of you today who feel like this. You feel like Saul, you think God can’t use me because of what I’ve done. My sin is too far past the limits of what God can redeem for His glory. And I want you to I want to point you to Saul and tell you joyously that you’re wrong. God uses broken people. He doesn’t wait for you to have everything under control and for you to feel ready in your timing and your ability. God is going to use you, and is using you in miraculous ways when he sees it fit. All it takes is allowing him to be the True Lord of your life, or maybe, and you don’t recognize this, but you resonate a little bit more with Ananias. Here, you see some people, and you think to yourself, God can’t use them. There’s no way God could save them. They’re too far gone for God. So why would I waste my time worrying about them? And again, I want to tell you, you’re wrong. God met Saul at the height of his hatred towards Christians. There’s a surge of prisoners right now coming to Christ. There are stories of drug abusers, terrorists like Kemal murderers and so many more that are giving themselves to Christ. Even look at ourselves one more time. If I am not too far away from God to be used by him, then no one is be like Ananias. Listen to God’s call to accept those around you. Accept them because God accepts them. That’s going to bring us to our next and final scene, a commissioned life verse, 18 through 19. Say this. Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Now Saul sees, he truly sees. He sees the church. He sees himself and he sees Jesus. His vision has been restored. But more than that, His purpose is restored. Saul has been really good at being a Pharisee. He was, in the Pharisee eyes, a great man. He followed the law of God well. He devoted himself to studying the biblical text and knew them very well. If he didn’t have them memorized on paper, his life was morally good. So then why in Philippians 38 does Paul say that he counts it all as loss. It’s because he did it all without true surrender to God. He did it all his way apart from God. This was his power, his doing, and he could only go so far. But when he surrendered his life to Christ, he became so much greater, and He’s baptized, a declaration of a new beginning and his new allegiance to Jesus. But his story doesn’t end here. Saul then goes and for the first time in three days, he eats some food, gets his strength back, he is now physically and spiritually ready to serve. Your story does not end at the moment of salvation. If the President were to get elected, walk into the White House, walk into the Oval Office, maybe crack his fingers and then hang up his coat and take a nap for four years, we’d have some problems. You can’t treat your mission from God that way. Salvation is just the beginning. Conversion isn’t the end of Saul’s story. It’s the beginning of a lifelong mission after acts nine, there are 11 more chapters that tell us about his missionary journey. There are 13 books of the Bible written by Paul, and they are some of the most theologically rich. Paul, the most dangerous man, becomes one of Christ’s most devoted messengers. He went from hunting and taking down Chris Christians to recruiting them. Paul, a terrorist, to the Christian church, brings the gospel of A crucified Messiah to the Gentiles in. Incredibly unlikely messenger is taking an unlikely message to an unlikely group of people. Saul would have never thought that the Gentiles could be grafted into the body. Your mission may not make sense to you, but God is using you. Paul spread the church. He planted and raised so many leaders. He taught and preached the message of God. He was even imprisoned for his faith. If someone who spent the first years of their life killing Christians can do all of this for Christianity, imagine what you can do if you surrender your life and to the mission of Christ. Are you sitting where you are comfortable? Are you going to answer God’s call if today, those that are going to be baptized were to leave church and not come back or ever talk about their Savior again, they’d be in the wrong. Luckily, we know they wouldn’t do that. Of course, salvation, baptism, it’s the first part of our life in Christ. If you have truly encountered Christ, you will be led to an obedient and spirit filled life. So are you living as someone commissioned by Jesus? Have you moved from Salvation to surrender? This is how the gospel works. God doesn’t clean you up. And then say, All right, go take a breather. He calls you out. He doesn’t just forgive you. He fills you and he commissions you. Saul goes on to become Paul, the great missionary to the Gentiles, theologian and apostle. But it all starts right here, where He’s blinded, broken and then welcomed and sent Jesus rewrote Paul’s life, and that’s our big idea today, when Jesus opens your eyes, he rewrites your life. So let me ask you, where are you resisting Jesus while thinking you’re serving Him? Are you in a season of humbling where God might be preparing you for something more? Who is God calling you to even if it’s scary to you? Have you moved from Salvation to surrender, from grace to mission? Jesus meets us in our worst and he calls us to our best. He doesn’t wait for us to get it together. He meets us in our mess with his mercy. So let’s stop running. Let’s stop resisting. Let us say yes to the mercy that confronts, transforms and commissions us. If you haven’t made the decision yet to give your life to Christ. Jesus is calling you by name, even if you’ve resisted him for years or run from Him. He is not here to shame you. He is here to welcome you. There is a community here ready to welcome you with open arms and say, Welcome home. For those of you that can say confidently that Jesus is the Lord of your life? Who is your Saul? Will you say, Yes, like Ananias, don’t be afraid to share the gospel. God has changed your life. He has changed Saul’s life. So continue to pray, continue to plant seeds. God has the power to confront and change the life of anyone. Let’s go back for a moment to Kamal, the man who once carried hatred in his heart and was committed to destroying Christianity, now carries the gospel in his hands, and he’s committed to building up the church. Why? Because Jesus met him on his road to destruction, and he rewrote his story. Kamal was confronted with mercy, humbled by grace, welcomed by God’s people, and now he’s living a commissioned life, just like Saul, just like you and me are called to Jesus doesn’t just forgive us, he fills us and sends us. When Jesus opens your eyes, he rewrites your life. So I’ll ask again, who is your soul? Who are you afraid to welcome that God is already working on? Have you stopped at salvation, or are you stepping into surrender? Where are you resisting Jesus while thinking you’re serving Him? Kamal said in his testimony that he felt the love of Christ through the Christian man, his family and his friends before he had ever even opened the Bible or heard the gospel. May that be true today of this church, that people would experience mercy and grace and love through us before they even step into the sanctuary, before they even understand the message of the gospel, so that when Jesus opens their eyes, they too might find their life rewritten. Let’s pray, Lord, we thank you for meeting us with mercy, even when we were running from you, we confess. Us that we have resisted you in pride, in fear, in selfishness, we’ve counted others out when you were calling them in we stopped at salvation when you’ve called us into surrender. Lord, forgive us today. We lay down our plans and we want to pick up your purpose. We want you to humble us where we need humbling, to fill us where we need filling. So send us where you are already working. Make us people open to your mission and your way. Make us full of grace and truth ready to welcome the most unlikely of people. Thank you that when you open our eyes. You rewrite our lives in Jesus name, let it be so. Amen.