Heading in a New Direction - Sermon on Acts 9:1-22

1. Introduction

Here is a story of a massive change of direction – a person out to destroy the new emerging Jesus movement, converted on the road to Damascus, to the person who would become Paul … Christianity’s greatest missionary. William J. Larkin calls this “the most important event in human history apart from the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth”.

What made the difference? An encounter with Jesus Christ!

All people, through the journey of life, try, in their own way, to make sense of why they are here. Some will get it pretty close to right early in life, and despite some ups and downs along the way, they will grow and mature in their relationship with Jesus. Others will either not hear about Jesus, or in the form they hear about him … be unwilling to give him any attention. Such people though will still have needs and ambitions, and some will pursue these vigorously. Often such pursuits will still prove to be meaningless, causing frustration, and leading to addictions and depression.

2. The Damascus Road Incident

Saul’s personality type and life experience led him to be a motivated, driven person. Here was a committed man who just needed a credible cause! He had come from Tarsus and excelled at his religious studies in a rabbinical school in Jerusalem. So, when he was under the impression that these Jesus followers were perverting the orthodox message of Jewish religion, he decided to strike out and strike out hard at the Christians (no half measures with Saul); for this Jesus had claimed to be on a par with God, and his followers were claiming that he was resurrected from the dead – this could not be tolerated.

Yet in that scene on the Damascus Road (north of Jerusalem) with the light flashing, do we sense that Saul has already had misgivings about what his life had become. We read in Acts chapter 7, at the stoning to death of the Jesus follower Stephen … that Saul was present, close to the action, looking after the coats of those involved in the execution, approving of this killing. Yet was there something in what Stephen had said, or in the radiance of his appearance, or in the integrity and courage and faith in which he died, that had unsettled Saul, and planted some seeds of doubt about the direction in which he was going. The last thing Saul heard from the lips of the dying Stephen was, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (7:60). {Let us be assured that an offer of forgiveness in the face of a gross offence is the most powerful dynamic in the world!}

Sometimes when we’re faced with people who we might judge to be way away from the Kingdom of God, giving them a whole lot of packaged theology will not be helpful. What they need to experience is a life that exhibits integrity and goes to prove that the Gospel of Jesus has merit. We’ll have to earn the right to speak about Jesus through first being able to live him out (in everyday life).

It’s possible that Saul carried the picture of Stephen in the back of his mind, yet, as often is the case, his unsettled feelings multiplied the violence in his heart; we read in verse 1 about the threats and murder Paul was engaged in (against Jesus followers far and wide). Stephen’s representation of Jesus threatened everything that Saul up to this time had worked so hard to achieve. Saul sought and received sanction from Jewish officialdom to carry out a planned assault on those following the Jesus way, whilst the Roman authorities turned a blind eye. Saul would ferret out Jesus followers who were also maintaining their traditional ties with the local synagogue and arrest them.

This was of course until he met Jesus for himself on the road to Damascus! Having completely bought into the concept that a person could only be acceptable to God through perfectly obeying the religious law, Saul had set himself on a path of disappointment. Once he came to understand the grace of God offered through Jesus, Saul would then be on the path of hope and freedom.

It was as if this was an undeniable encounter with God. The remarkable overpowering light that caused Saul to fall to the ground, the voice that cut straight through into the reality of Saul’s violent heart, the authority that impelled Saul to take whatever action was commanded; the impact being that Saul’s spiritual darkness was now matched and symbolised in physical blindness. It was as if the darkness within Saul could not stand up to the intensity of the light from heaven – the light of Jesus.

Saul would now, having been assisted on into Damascus, have time to think through all that had happened to him. And no wonder he couldn’t eat or drink, given the dramatic circumstances surrounding him. What sort of things would Saul be contemplating?

· All the effort he’d put into defending God, and it seems to have turned out that in effect he was actually persecuting God. For a person like Saul, this must have been a tremendous shock to the system – he was actually doing the opposite of what he was intending.
· That Stephen was right – Jesus is the Messiah, the risen Son of God standing at God’s right hand in glory.
· That through his actions in attacking the followers of Jesus, he had revealed his spiritual bankruptcy – something he must now do something about.

Times of quiet reflection on the incidences of our lives, rather than just continually battling on, might help us learn a little more about ourselves, and gain some understanding of what God might be trying to say to us. Saul, in this time of reflection (v.12), was ready to experience the encouragement that his physical sight would soon be restored – through the laying on of the hands of a man named Ananias, who would be coming to Saul in the name of the Lord.

3. Along comes Ananias

So, Saul wouldn’t be left in this blind condition {both physically & spiritually} for too long; he would be confronted again, but this time a human disciple of Jesus named Ananias would be chosen by God to bring to completion this work of conversion. [In this sense, to be converted means to move from self-centred independence to an admitted dependence on God and mutual interdependence with other believers.]

But we can see in verses 13 & 14 that Ananias was understandably reluctant to obey God due to his knowledge of the reputation of Saul and all the damage he had done. God responds that what we see, hear and experience in the earthly realm may not be the total picture. God knows more about people than we know, and if God chooses or calls someone, even if this doesn’t make any sense to us, then we have to get with God’s agenda. God knew that if Saul would only respond positively to the gospel himself, then he was the perfect choice to confront and challenge the whole of the known world with the truth about Jesus.

Having been so reassured, Ananias was up to the task, and became the human vessel through which Saul would experience healing, salvation and the receipt of the Holy Spirit. In the midst of his concern for his own welfare, Ananias approached the one who would have previously put him in chains, and called him “Brother Saul” – for if God had chosen this man, who was Ananias to do anything other than offer hospitality and ministry. This offer of acceptance and fellowship would have been a powerful encouragement to Saul.

Saul would be in darkness no more … he had become a child of the light, and witnessed to this in baptism. Now the confusion and anxiety had passed, he could eat and drink again. Such was the dramatic change in Saul, and the wisdom of God’s choice of servant, that he soon began preaching about Jesus in the same synagogues that just a few days earlier he was planning on arresting the disciples in. Saul would be allowed to speak in these places due to his heritage and training, yet there would be great surprise when the synagogue leaders heard what he now had to say!

Saul had only been with the disciples a couple of days, so this acute understanding of the gospel of Jesus he had already gained … must have essentially been placed within him directly by God. This was truth that Saul could no longer deny, and already it was just bursting out of him.

4. Conclusion

What other things can we learn from this passage?

(a) We learn that if God can turn around the fiercest opponent of Christianity to become its most courageous advocate, then God can save anyone.

(b) We learn, that despite a past that has guilt and shame attached to it (like Paul had), we can be used in the present and future by God to remarkable effect. Whereas we cannot erase the past, we can be totally forgiven for it, and newly empowered for future effectiveness.

(c) We learn that those who become followers of Jesus are not destined for an easy journey. Decisions have to made, not just with ourselves in mind, but with a whole new ethical framework and God agenda factored in. Jesus becoming the centre of our life impacts us in a whole lot of possibly uncomfortable ways. When Ananias complained to God about God’s choice of instrument being an enemy (vs.13-4), God told Ananias that this would not necessarily be a dream result for Saul – that Saul would not proceed through his calling unscathed by the complexities of life (v.16). We know that Paul suffered much in his promotion of the gospel message, yet look at the results!! This begs the question as to whether we limit our full appreciation of the Christian life through an unwillingness to risk some of the cost!