Life After Jesus Series

LIFE AFTER JESUS

Text: Acts 22:6-23

Introduction

1. Many years ago – in the confines of a barracks room, a young sailor decided not to go out partying with his friends. He invested that evening reading the Bible - very specifically – reading the Gospel of John. The room was mostly dark except for the light of the little study desk in the room.

a. Up until that time, religion and church had not occupied much of this young fella’s time or energy. In fact, up until then, reading the Bible had been only about finding the contradictions and the problems in it, so that he could throw these in the face of a Christian friend.

b. Well, if you haven’t guessed it by now – that young sailor was me. I read the entire Gospel of John that evening. When I got to chapter 20 and read about Mary Magdalene going to the tomb and finding it empty and then Jesus appearing to her and talking to her -- something happened. Jesus finally became real to me. He was no longer just a story or some fairy tale or fable or Sunday School lesson. It finally sunk in that Jesus was alive. In fact, that reality became so overwhelming that it seemed to me that Jesus was in that dimly lit barracks room. That night – in that mostly dark barracks room, I was amazed by Jesus and He made me one of his followers. (From a sermon by Eloy Gonzalez, "Amazed by Jesus" 1/31/2009).

2. Years ago, when Pastor was a young man, there was a popular movie called, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Well, today we are going to talk about “Close Encounters of a Jesus Kind!

3. I’m sure you’ve heard people refer to Jesus as their “personal savior.” The reason for that is that Jesus is personal, and he encounters us on a one-on-one basis.

4. Read Acts 22:6-23

Transition: In the testimony of Paul, we learn the…

I. Power of a Personal Encounter (6-13).

A. I am Jesus the Nazarene

1. Paul begins his story of his personal encounter with Jesus. In vv. 6-9 it says, “As I was on the road, approaching Damascus about noon, a very bright light from heaven suddenly shone down around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 “ ‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked. “And the voice replied, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, the one you are persecuting.’ 9 The people with me saw the light but didn’t understand the voice speaking to me.”

a. Paul was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians. Then he says, “about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me.”

b. Light is a key word here in this verse. the word “light” appears nearly 50 times in the Gospels and Acts. Light is synonymous with spiritual life, and therefore, synonymous with God himself.

c. “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” (1 Jn. 1:5).

d. This was a divine intervention, a personal encounter with God.

e. To further illustrate this fact, Paul tells us that it was about noon. Now, when is the sun brightest during the day? Around noon. However, Paul is saying that this light from heaven was even brighter than the noon day sun. In other words, it was a manifestation of God. Jesus was trying to get Paul’s attention.

f. Next, as Paul fell to the ground, he heard a voice that referred to him by his former name, asked, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

g. Jesus not only displayed himself with a great light, but he also spoke directly to Paul.

h. Then Paul asked the one speaking to him whom was he. The voice said, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you are persecuting.”

i. To show that this was a personal encounter with Jesus, Paul says the others with him saw the light, but they didn’t understand the voice.

j. The reason for this was it was specifically for Paul. It was a direct message. On social media, if you want someone to contact you in private, you ask them to send you a DM, a direct message. That’s what Jesus was doing to Paul.

k. The audience to whom he was speaking must have been utterly amazed. Paul wasn’t using an Old Testament prophecy or giving a theological teaching, but rather he was telling them what happened to him. He was telling them his story of how he came to faith in Jesus as the Messiah.

2. A personal testimony is hard to argue with.