“Let’s Get It Right!”

Scripture Acts 9:1-19a

As we know, Saul was a Pharisee, and a totally committed one at that! He was present at the stoning of Stephen, he became the great persecutor of Christians in Jerusalem and throughout Judea, and he was, by his own definition, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, zealous in the law, and righteous to a fault (Philippians 3:4-6).
He was the type of person who all of Israel looked up to as an example of how a child of Abraham should live. And yet, he was anything BUT an example of how the Lord would have us live.

Read Acts 9:1-3

His passion for the law wouldn’t let him stay close to home – he had to go wherever faith in Christ was beginning to grow, and Damascus was one of those places. His fame had already grown to the point that he was highly respected in the highest religious circles of the land, but that wasn’t enough – he felt that he had to continue his vendetta against believers in Jesus Christ wherever they might be found. He believed that it was his duty, as a faithful member of the household of Israel, to wipe out these heretics of the faith.

But isn’t it interesting that, no matter how committed our lives may be to some personal direction, the Lord may have other ideas, and, no matter what we may think, can turn our lives around in the blink of an eye. As dedicated as Saul may have been to the law of Moses, as focused as he was in his misguided faith,
God was about to set him on a new course, a new understanding of divine will, and would redirect Saul’s passion and zealous heart to the good. And that direction was about to take him to the same city he had planned to make an example of what would happen to all who followed Jesus – and it still would, except that it would happen in a totally different way.

We will all meet the Living Lord Jesus in unique ways, and Saul’s was no different. We might even wonder when God began to work in his life – whether it was long before, in the humble way that Stephen sought forgiveness for those who were in the process of stoning him, or in the way that, even in the face of his murderous persecution, faith in Christ continued to not only grow, but to flourish, or during the time that he traveled through the region of the Galilee where Jesus’ ministry had had the greatest impact, or did the Lord wait until this incredible flash of glory that finally got Saul’s attention.

Read Acts 9:4-9

Even to this day, the power of the gospel to grow in the midst of hated and opposition and subjugation, continues to amaze and bless people throughout the world. The only places where the faith becomes stagnant is where peace and contentment and prosperity exist.
Persecution not only can’t put a halt to the spread of Christianity, it seems to promote it! Only God would ever do it this way – and he did it for Saul, and he does it for us.

Saul would meet Jesus on his own road of destruction and ruin, but the ruin wouldn’t be for believers, it would be in the cold, calculating, legalistic heart of the Pharisee. And he would soon discover that his hatred for believers was actually his distrust for God Himself. Jesus would tell him “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
Saul, an intellect, a self-important and highly respected man, one who was committed to his own brand of faith, a man who followed his own direction, was about to lose it all, and in Philippians 3:7-8, we read “whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.”, and he would even see his former life, and his misplaced understanding of God, as “rubbish”.

He would be blinded, and would have to be led, by the hand, into the very city he had planned to devastate, and yet, he was no longer lost – he was on a new way, with a new vision, and new purpose in his life.
And yet, the story doesn’t end here – it is only beginning – for Paul and for us.

Read Acts 9:10-16

The man Ananias, already a believer, already a man of God, was about to experience his own brand of change, just as Saul was being changed into Paul. Ananias had been living in fear – a fear that was founded in his perception of earth’s power. But just as the Lord’s change will do for each of us, he was about to experience the power of God at work – the work of overcoming the ways of the world.

The murderous Saul had been a powerful force in the world’s campaign of terrorism against Christ’s people, and Ananias had been a faithful but timid and reluctant force for God. And in this unexpected twist of fate for both men, they would be brought together to initiate the beginning of an entirely new direction in Christian faith.
Belief in Jesus Christ would no longer be limited to people of the Jewish faith – the Door would be thrown open to people of all nations, of all classes, of all walks of life! The power of God would become most evident in the humble, not in the powerful; it would accomplish the most good in those who surrendered to the will of God, not through those who exercised their own will; the greatest witness could come from those who accepted the world’s hatred, not from those who fought to preserve their own lives.

Ananias had been chosen to offer God’s blessing to one who hated him, and the one who he feared the most. And the words that he was given were ones of reassurance, that Jesus “has sent me so that you may see again, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” No great sermon such as the one Peter was given at Pentecost, no great presence like the one that Paul and Silas would receive in prison – just a few simple, God given words, that would come to Paul through the faithful obedience of a simple man - words that would set the false teachings of earth aside, and would put the righteous way of Almighty God in motion.

Read Acts 9:17-19a

The blind Paul knew exactly who was coming – it was one of the people he had planned to arrest, and hopefully, to torture and execute. But his blindness would never let him carry out his threat, even if his emotions could! The Lord’s voice had set him on an entirely new path in life, and as he waited for Ananias to arrive, his mind must have been racing!
He had been told that this man would tell him what he must do, but what would that be? Was God going to turn the tables on him, bringing suffering and persecution to his life? Was he going to be chastised severely for all that he had done? Or was the Lord going to give him some difficult sacrifice to make everything right again? What was this great secret that he was to hear?

And when the meeting happened, what does he hear? The very first words out of this man’s mouth were “Brother Saul”! Brother? What does that mean? And before he can begin to make sense of this, Ananias continues, and tells Saul that Jesus had spoken to him, too, and that he had been sent to heal his blindness! No words of condemnation, no fear, no direction, nothing that would tell him what was about to happen! Just that he was about to see again, and that he was to receive the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t sure that he knew what that meant, but it was as powerful a moment as the one he had experienced out on the road.

And suddenly he could see again, and he felt that he just had to be baptized – he had to receive Christ for himself. He didn’t understand any of it, and I suspect that Ananias didn’t either! But Saul, now Paul, knew that. whatever was happening, life was about to take on an entirely new complexion. And that is what happens every time our Almighty God is given control of our life.

Paul was about to go to places and people who he would never have associated with before, and his faith in, and relationship with, his Lord God Jehovah was taking on a whole new dimension – for him, and for countless thousands of Gentiles. And through both Paul and the prophet Jeremiah, we discover that there is nothing that our Lord God can’t do (Jeremiah 32:17) – if we let him.

Will you let him - today?