“Death to Life on the Damascus Road” (Acts 9:1-19) | 4/17/21
Acts 9:1-19 | 4/17/21 | Will DuVal
We’re gonna be talking about CHANGE today, and when it comes to CHANGE, I am what they call in the marketing world, a “late adopter”. There are innovators, who create change, early adopters, who embrace change, the “middle majority”, who eventually ACCEPT change; and then there are people like ME. I’m LEERY of change, for THREE reasons:
I’m SKEPTICAL - this new change CAN’T be all that it’s cracked up to be; I mean, why do I need this new iPod thing anyway; my Walkman still works just fine!
I’m STUBBORN - I don’t WANT to change; I’m stuck in my ways. I LIKE printing off the Mapquest directions; I don’t WANT some “SMART phone” telling me where to turn; I’LL decide which route I’m taking, thank you very much.
But most of all, I’m slow to change because I’m SCARED - what if I don’t LIKE the change? What’s it going to COST me to change?
I was late to start DATING, cuz I was scared to talk to girls… scared of getting my HEART broken…
I was late to have KIDS, cuz I was scared of losing my freedom… scared of being a bad father…
And I was late to give my life to CHRIST, because I was scared of surrendering the reins to someone else; “Jesus take the wheel”? I don’t THINK so! I was clinging to that wheel like my life depended on it! I was STUBBORN - I LIKED being the one calling the shots - and I was SKEPTICAL - I’d been raised in the church, and I knew a WHOLE lot of “Christians” who didn’t APPEAR to be all that CHANGED; can Jesus truly CHANGE a person? Or is Christianity just a bunch of snake oil?
Maybe you can relate this morning. Maybe you’re a skeptical, stubborn, scared “late adopter” like me. Change can be HARD, otherwise we’d ALL be early adopters! But it can also be really GOOD. It worked out for me, anyway, with the iPod, and the iPHONE, with dating (eventually), and with KIDS for sure!
But most of all, with FAITH. I can’t COUNT how many times I’ve looked back over the last 10 years and thought, “Man, why didn’t I give my life to Jesus SOONER?”
And this morning, I hope to persuade YOU from the example of yet another late adopter, SAUL of Tarsus. If you’re a “Chreaster” - that’s what we in the Church call those of you who are only here on Christmas and Easter - you may know him by another name: the apostle PAUL, who would go on to author HALF of the New Testament; Paul is the artist formerly known as “Saul of Tarsus”. Or perhaps this is your first time EVER in Church, and you’ve never heard of Saul OR Paul (or the New Testament for that matter); If that’s YOU this morning, I just want to welcome you, we are delighted and honored that you’re with us. And the short answer is: God wrote a BOOK, called the BIBLE. And the second HALF of it is called the “New Testament”. And in time, God would use our main character for this morning, Paul (aka SAUL), to write it. But before Paul could pen half the NT, Saul first had to be CHANGED - dramatically transformed - by God.
This is the story all about how
His life got flipped, turned upside down.
In FIVE important ways, as you see in your bulletin inserts. And because the Bible IS God’s book - God’s word: it’s not just some boring, history textbook; it is LIVING, and ACTIVE - we are going to read ourselves into Saul’s story this morning; God wants to change YOU AND ME this morning, in the same 5 ways that He changed Saul, if we will let Him.
Here at West Hills, we are currently studying through the book of Acts, the FIFTH book in the New Testament, and we’ve already met Saul of Tarsus ONCE, back at the END of ch7 and the beginning of ch8; when an angry mob killed the first Christian martyr, Stephen, we read: “they cast him [Stephen] out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul… And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem… [and] Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” And by the time we pick up Saul’s story this morning in ch NINE of Acts, he has decided to FRANCHISE this persecution business and take it north to SYRIA, to the city of DAMASCUS. And that’s where we pick up the story.
I’m going to be reading from the English Standard Version this morning, but if you don’t OWN a Bible this morning, we would LOVE to give you one, at the Info Bar as well. Acts ch9, v1:
“But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord…”
Now let’s stop right there; we’re already introduced to the FIRST significant way in which Saul needed to change: #1 - he needed a new PURPOSE.
Some of your translations may read, “But Saul, still breathing OUT threats…”, but the Greek verb used there actually means to “breathe IN”; to “IN-hale”, with the implication being that PERSECUTING THE CHURCH has become like OXYGEN for Saul; it’s what FUELS him. Threatening and murdering Christians is the reason he wakes UP in the morning! It has become his life’s purpose.
See, Saul was a Pharisee. And the Pharisees saw themselves as the DEFENDERS of the one, true, Jewish faith. Later in life, Paul remembers how he used to actually take PRIDE in persecuting Christians: I was “a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church” (Phil. 3:5-6).
Now, you may not be sold on Christianity just yet, but I bet one thing we can ALL agree on is if MURDERING people lands you at the top of your religious hierarchy… if being so ADAMANT about your faith leads you to KILL people who disagree with you… whether it was Saul with Judaism in the FIRST century, or Osama Bin Laden with Islamic fundamentalism in the TWENTY-first century, you need to rethink your religion - AMEN?! Re-evaluate your life’s purpose; can we ALL agree on that much? Okay, good; let’s keep reading, still in v1…
“So Saul… went to the high priest, and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”
To PROVE his zeal, Saul goes all the way to the TOP, the head boss, the high priest, to ask for permission to go to DAMASCUS, to arrest Christians there. Damascus was located some 150 miles northeast of Jerusalem, a WEEK’S journey, but Saul would’ve traveled to the ends of the EARTH to lock up Christians! (Hughes, 127)
By the way, did you catch how the CHURCH was referred to there? They won’t be dubbed “Christians” until ch11; here, they are called those “belonging to THE WAY”. THAT’S why Saul was so zealous to silence them; because they had the AUDACITY to claim an opposing religious exclusivity. Not “A way”, but “THE Way”. But after all, they were just following JESUS, who claimed “I am THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life; NO ONE comes to God, except through ME!”
Maybe that’s what has turned some of you here this morning off to Christianity: its exclusivity. If so, I just want to quickly point out two things. First: EVERYONE is exclusive. The “inclusivist”, who prides himself on accepting ALL beliefs as equally valid, actually refuses to accept the exclusivist’s beliefs! The inclusivist says, “ALL people go to Heaven”; the exclusivist says, “Only SOME people go to Heaven; many people DON’T” - both of them can’t be right. That means the inclusivist must exclude the exclusivist’s beliefs as invalid.
Does your brain hurt yet? Maybe you’ll like my second point better, and that is simply that of ALL the exclusivists out there - which is ALL of us - Jesus is the most radically INCLUSIVE of them all. He got criticized CONSTANTLY for it - the Pharisees, guys like SAUL - were disgusted by Jesus’ friendships with prostitutes and tax collectors, that Jesus would touch lepers, welcome children, allow women into his inner circle.
So if you have ever felt EXCLUDED, unloved by Christians, by so-called followers of Jesus - because you weren’t…
“good” enough, weren’t
“GODLY” enough, weren’t
“successful” enough, weren’t
“White” enough, “Straight” enough, “conservative” enough - whatever the BOXES were, that you didn’t check, so you were made to feel like Jesus must not be for YOU - on behalf of “the Church”, “the WAY”, I just want to apologize this morning, and assure you that:
Jesus LOVES you!
Unlike everyone else in your life, Jesus doesn’t have a set of hoops for you to jump through to EARN his love; He loves you RIGHT where you’re at. Now, He loves you too much to LEAVE you there. Jesus loves you enough to point OUT when you’re not WALKING “the [right] Way”, not following “the Truth”, not living “the [best] Life” possible, that He wants for you. But Jesus isn’t waiting on you to clean up your act before you can come to Him. He didn’t wait for SAUL; Saul was literally on his way to KILL Christians!, when God grabbed HIM. Showed HIM mercy, and love.
Back to Saul; v3:
“Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.””
Saul has made it his life’s WORK to persecute, to STAMP OUT, Christianity. But Jesus - the RESURRECTED Jesus, who had ascended back to the right hand of God the Father back in Acts ch.1, steps OFF his throne momentarily here, to come back DOWN, and CONFRONT Saul, and give him a NEW purpose; he says, “Get up, and I’LL tell you what you are to do”; I will show you a BETTER “way” to live, Saul. A better path, purpose.
How about YOU this morning? What is YOUR purpose? Maybe you don’t roll outta bed every morning to round up and MURDER apostates. But there are all SORTS of BAD reasons to get outta bed:
Maybe you live to PLEASE people. Your parents, your friends, your boss.
Maybe you live for material success: money… things… they drive you.
Maybe you’re living for pleasure: nice meals, nice vacations, nice sex.
WHATEVER your reason, if it’s not GOD’S purpose for your life, it probably boils down to this: you’re living for YOU.
Pleasing people is about MY reputation.
Success is about MY security, MY peace of mind.
Pleasure is about maximizing MY happiness.
If we’re honest, even our ostensibly self-LESS deeds are mostly self-ISH. It’s about feeling good about… MYSELF.
Can I be really honest with y’all this morning? Sometimes people ask me, “Wow, you graduated divinity school as an ATHEIST, and you were a 27 year-old YOUTH pastor when you finally trusted in Jesus; what HAPPENED? What CHANGED, to convince you of the truth of Christianity?” And sometimes I wish I had a better answer, like I devoted a whole year to studying “The Case for Christ”, like Lee Stroebel, and I discovered that the evidence for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection was just too overwhelming to ignore, I just HAD to believe! But can I be honest; my answer is way more SELFISH than that:
My life just wasn’t WORKING.
I had NO joy, I was addicted to PORN, my marriage STUNK, my so-called “ministry” was a JOKE, because teenagers can see right through a FAKE, a youth pastor who’s not walking with the Lord - my life was a MESS. That’s where ME being in charge had gotten me. And my own “Damascus Road” experience was far more PRAGMATIC than it was intellectual, or theological, or anything else - I’d lived mostly unhappy for 27 years with ME calling the shots, so I decided to let GOD have a try at it; I figured He wasn’t gonna screw things up more than I had already!
And can I just encourage you this morning, from the OTHER side of it now: living for GOD is SO much better than living for SELF. It’s not always EASIER. It doesn’t even always bring the most PLEASURE. But it brings JOY. And PEACE. And HOPE. And meaning and purpose.
Jesus wants to offer you new PURPOSE this morning.
#2 - We need a new VISION. vv7-9:
“...Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”
Now, how do you make sense of that? Saul’s eyes were OPENED, but he saw NOTHING. Well, of course there’s the purely physiological interpretation - his literal eyes remained opened, but he couldn’t SEE, because apparently, as we’ll learn in v18, something like SCALES had grown over them.
But I think v8 here is pointing us to an even DEEPER truth. Because this is the event, the very moment, when Saul’s SPIRITUAL eyes were opened, when he gained SPIRITUAL sight.
Now, I admit, this may sound a little “out there” for some of you. If you are a strict materialist - if you believe that MATTER is all there is - if I can’t physically SEE it, touch it, measure it, observe it, then it must not exist - then you’re gonna have TROUBLE with point #2 here. Those of us who DO believe in IM-material reality may try and HELP you, by appealing to concepts or feelings that are incorporeal, but no less REAL, like LOVE. You can’t SEE love, you can’t MEASURE love, unless you count the Michael Scott definition of a PRESENT: You know, “A present is a tangible thing you can point to and say, “Hey man, I love you THIS many dollars-worth”. But otherwise, you can’t SEE love, yet FEW of us doubt its existence. Christians would say that’s a lot like God. As a matter of fact, God IS LOVE; not just “lov-ing”; He is the very SOURCE and DEFINITION of all other love.
So we believe there’s this whole other plane of existence, that is incorporeal but no less real: a SPIRITUAL world. And you and I HAVE these things called “spirits”; actually, we don’t HAVE them, we ARE them. We HAVE bodies; we ARE spirits. On average, the cells in our bodies die out and replace themselves every 7-10 years, but I’m still Will DuVal. If I’m arrested for a crime I committed 10 years ago, my defense can’t be “That wasn’t ME, your honor; that criminal DIED and I’m the guy who replaced him”; no, because I’m not my body. I’ve GOT a body; I AM a spirit.
And so is God. (Jn 4:24) That’s why Hebrews 11:27 can say of Moses: he was “seeing [God], who is invisible”. Sounds like an oxymoron. But Moses was spiritually seeing God, who is physically invisible.
Paul prays in his letter to the Ephesians that they would “hav[e] the eyes of [their] hearts opened”. And towards the end of this same book, Acts, Paul retells his own conversion story again, rejoicing that God opened HIS spiritual eyes, that he might go to OTHERS and “open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, and… receive forgiveness of sins”.
And friends: THAT’S the kind of vision YOU AND I need this morning. The SPIRITUAL vision to see THREE very plain yet powerful, incorporeal realities:
God is SUPREME. There IS a God, and you’re not Him. There IS a Creator, a Sustainer, a TELOS of everything that exists in the universe, and He is infinitely higher and greater and more GLORIOUS than you or I could ever even imagine.
You are a SINNER. Because God is the “telos” the “ultimate END”, the purpose for which we were all created - Isaiah 43:7 says that God created us for HIS OWN glory - and yet, none of us has actually GIVEN God the full glory that is due him; instead, we are glory THIEVES: we want the glory for ourselves. We live like WE are the telos, the purpose, the center of the universe. The Bible calls that SIN; trying to take God’s place. And IN our sin, we rightfully deserve to be discarded by God. We were made to BRING him glory; instead we STEAL it. Imagine if you got a PUPPY, my neighbors just got this adorable little lab; but why do you get a puppy? For the unconditional LOVE, right? For the JOY you get, being greeted by that wagging tail, that excitement every time you come home - NOW imagine every time you walk through the door, it’s GROWLING at you instead… ATTACKING you! A dog’s supposed to bring you peace of mind: you can sleep easier, knowing it’ll ALERT you if there’s an intruder; what if the dog treated YOU like the intruder, stood by your bed and just barked incessantly, all night long. How long are you keeping that dog? That dog is BROKE. It doesn’t SERVE the purpose for which it was created. Friends: that’s you and me. Made to give God glory. Doing the exact opposite. And yet,
JESUS is SAVIOR. Jesus showed God the obedience that we failed to. He brought God the glory we failed to. He was sin-LESS. But then on the cross, the Bible says Jesus TRADED his righteousness for OUR unrighteousness. He took the punishment rightfully owed us, in our sin, to satisfy God’s righteous JUSTICE, while simultaneously pouring out God’s undeserved MERCY on us by granting US the eternal life that was owed JESUS by virtue of his holiness. And the ONLY thing you have to do - the only thing you CAN do! - to be saved BY him, is simply BELIEVE! “Whosoever BELIEVES in Him, in JESUS, shall NOT perish, but have EVERLASTING life!” Believe in JESUS, and be SAVED, this morning!
That is the gospel, the “good news” of the Bible.
But it takes vision - SPIRITUAL sight - to be able to see that. I was raised in the church and probably heard the gospel a THOUSAND times before the scales finally fell off MY eyes. I pray - I PRAY! - that this morning might be someone’s “Damascus Road” experience. That you might FINALLY be able to sing after this morning:
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a WRETCH like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was BLIND, but now… I SEE.”
#3 - (and we’ll move QUICKER on these last 3 points, I promise) We need a new FAITH. Vv10-16:
“Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias… Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul… But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine…”
There’s a LOT there that we could dissect and digest if we had more time, but here’s the gist of it:
it’s not just the NON-CHRISTIANS who need to change!
Who need a new depth of FAITH in the Lord. It’s not just the SAULS out there who need to learn to trust God; the ANANIASES in HERE need it just as much! I think it’s telling that the biggest chunk of text we’re looking at this morning - in this famous story about Saul’s conversion - is actually devoted to ANANIAS! HIS lack of faith. Now, in Ananias’ defense, Saul DID have a reputation that preceded him, for MURDERING Christians! (“Saints”.) So I’m sure Ananias was just thinking, “God, I’m sorry; I must have MISHEARD you - did you say, “SAL” of Tarsus; or perhaps “Saul of Tangier”? Because I know you couldn’t POSSIBLY have said, “Saul of Tarsus” - because THAT’s the guy who came to town to try and drag me off to the GALLOWS!
But Christians: don’t we essentially do the same thing every time we question something God has called US to? Every time we question something God has brought into OUR lives. Tim Keller tweeted the other day: “If we knew what GOD knows, we would ask for EXACTLY what He gives us.”
“If we knew what GOD knows, we would ask for exactly what He gives us.”
Tim Keller, who by the way, has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. I don’t know about you, but I want THAT kind of faith; faith that looks at a DEATH sentence and says, “God, I don’t understand it. But I still TRUST you.”
#4 - We need a new FAMILY. V17:
“So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
How can Ananias call a man who just traveled 150 miles to arrest and KILL him his “BROTHER”? Because, according to the Bible, to be “filled” with the HOLY SPIRIT is to be ADOPTED into the family of GOD! And when you get adopted into God’s family, you not only gain a heavenly Father, you also get a whole bunch of new spiritual brothers and sisters. And sure, it’s a little like the foster care system. Most of us got pretty neglected and abused out in the world before we came in and joined the family. So we’ve got some baggage we’re bringing with us. And sometimes being a good brother or sister means taking care of the guy who was trying to KILL you the day before. But after all, how many of us who HAVE siblings can honestly say you’ve NEVER wanted to KILL them? And yet, you still LOVE them, don’t you? They’re still FAMILY.
Friends: the Church is God’s “FAMILY”. And the Bible also calls the Church the “BRIDE” of Christ; in God’s eyes, when you get MARRIED, two become ONE. That means Christ is UNITED with His Church - one body, with Christ as its HEAD. That’s why Jesus didn’t say, back in v4: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting MY CHURCH?”; he said, “why are you persecuting ME!”
To persecute the church is to persecute Jesus.
To dislike the church is to dislike Jesus.
To be apathetic toward the church is to be apathetic about Jesus.
But to LOVE the church, is to LOVE Jesus.
Maybe some of you this morning are adopted children of God, but you ran away from home a LONG time ago and you haven’t even bothered to CALL in a VERY long time. If that’s you, and your being here this morning is you “calling to check in”, on behalf of “the Church”, let me just say: we are really glad you’re here. We’ve missed you. Welcome back home. You belong here.
And you NEED to be here. The Church, the spiritual family, is one of God’s greatest GIFTS to us. We ALL need folks like Ananias to PRAY for us, to HEAL us (emotionally, spiritually), to encourage us, and remind us of God’s promises, when we inevitably doubt. To keep us on the right path.
I don’t know how people get THROUGH tough times - things like stage 4 cancer - WITHOUT it! I don’t know why you’d WANT to! Why you wouldn’t WANT a loving, supportive faith family to walk beside you? Maybe that wasn’t your experience at a previous church, and if that’s the case, I apologize AGAIN. It’s a BIG family; there’s BOUND to be a few rotten apples out there; the truth is we’re ALL rotten! Listen: if you’re new here, we would love to have you stick around West Hills, and if you DO, we’re gonna do our best to love you well, like Jesus does. But we’ll fail. Because no family’s perfect. But they’re still FAMILY. Still better than NO family. And if JESUS hasn’t given up on us yet, given up on the Church, after 2,000 years, then maybe it’s worth YOU giving Church a second chance as well.
Lastly, #5 - We need a new LIFE. vv18-19:
Saul has hit his rock bottom. He can’t see, he hasn’t eaten or drunk anything in THREE days, which is about as long as you can SURVIVE without water, especially in the Syrian heat. But worst of all, the reality is starting to sink in that he has devoted his entire life not just to a LIE, but to an ATROCITY. He has been persecuting GOD!
But when Ananias prays for him, v18:
“ immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened.”
Sight? Restored. Not just physically, but now he can see SPIRITUALLY too.
Strength? Restored. Again, not just physically, but he is baptized as a sign of his SPIRITUAL renewal as well.
Friends: Saul experienced NEW LIFE in Christ. Here’s how he put it years later, in one of his letters: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Maybe you need NEWNESS this morning. Maybe you’re a “late adopter” like me, and you’ve been skeptical, you’ve been stubborn, you’ve been SCARED, but maybe like me 10 years ago, like Saul, you’re approaching rock bottom and God has GOT you there because He knew that’s exactly what it would TAKE for you to CHANGE. To finally let HIM take the wheel for a change. And begin to change YOU.
Maybe you’re afraid you CAN’T change - you’re right: on your own, you can’t. But with God, ALL things are possible.
Maybe you feel like you don’t DESERVE new life in Christ - you’re right again: you DON’T. Join the club. Paul’s the President of our club - the “I don’t DESERVE to be SAVED” club; he claimed: “I am FOREMOST of sinners” (1 Tim 1:15).
Let me just ask you: have ya KILLED anyone lately, for believing in Jesus? If not, then be encouraged: God’s saved a lot worse than YOU. And then God USED him - Saul - to change more lives than anyone else in history; why? Paul tells us: “I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost [of sinners], Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.” (1 Tim 1:16)
Do you want new life, ETERNAL life, this morning? It can be YOURS, in Christ!
Are you AMBIVALENT? Or worse, you’re not interested in changing ATALL! This sermon can’t get over soon enough for you! Well, good news: I’m done with you. But BETTER news: God’s NOT. SAUL wasn’t looking to make a change either; he wasn’t looking for a new life; it found HIM that day. Because JESUS found him. And I trust the Hound of Heaven will hunt you down in due time as well.