A new beginning
Acts 9:1-22
When Jesus enters our lives, everything changes.
Just ask Saul of Tarsus. He did such a complete turnaround that he was completely unrecognizable and baffling to everyone who knew him. Nether his old friends nor his old enemies could quite take in the change.
Arguably, Saul was at a point of transition in his own life.
• He had been a student of the Rabbi Gamaliel and was nearing an age when he could be recognized as a rabbi in his own right
• A new stream of teaching was arising, surrounding the followers of the Rabbi Jesus who had recently been condemned by the people he respected
• The appropriate response to this sect had been firmly established by the stoning of Stephen, so Saul had a clear direction on how to treat this sect, oddly enough, it was in direct opposition to his mentor
So Saul got official sanction and went after these followers of The Way. He arrested and deported them. He traveled to foreign cities to track them down. He personally signed their death warrants.
This event is extremely important to Saul. We can tell, because it appears three times in the book of Acts.
• A terrible mission of destruction in Damascus
• A flashing light that blinded him
• The voice of the one he opposed giving him transitional directions
• A wait in Damascus for Ananias to come and help him
• New vision and baptism
• A new purpose for his life
Saul was motivated by ambition, hatred and fanaticism. He was working toward the destruction of others and his own elevation. He was stepping on the heads of Christians on his way to eventually becoming a member of the ruling body of Jerusalem.
His life was defined by selfishness and animosity. He was well known and trusted by his superiors but feared by his enemies.
He was headed down a path that would certainly make his name well known. It had already begun. He was going to be a person of note and significance. Saul’s arrogance was firmly established in his own heart. He saw his own position as being one of prestige and importance. He was going to be a pharisee of pharisees.
Then a call of Jesus came on his life
• A light so powerful it knocked him off his feet
• A light so bright it blinded him
• Instructions so specific they could not be doubted
• A voice so compelling it demanded a response
I have often wished for an experience like Saul’s. I have wondered why God gave Saul a profound, physical experience that could be neither denied nor doubted. In my darker times, I doubt my faith and struggle with the substance of what I believe. It seems a little unfair that somebody like Saul could hear an audible voice of Christ and be compelled by measurable facts, while the rest of us must believe without the benefit of those proofs.
I still don’t know. I can only that God knows why He calls each of us the way He does. He knows what we need and meets us at that place. If Saul was so arrogant that he needed blinding lights and audible voices, I can only thank God that my own arrogance is not so well developed.
Whatever Saul’s encounter with Jesus, his belief was so cemented that it transcended religion and experience. For the next few days, it became the focus of his meditation.
• He was blind
• He fasted
• He waited
He allowed the voice that spoke to him from the light to be the guide in his actions until the whole meaning of the event became clear. When Ananias showed up:
• he prayed
• he was healed
• he was baptized and
• he was given the purpose of his new life
Immediately, Saul became a preacher. This should be qualified a bit. He was already a teacher of the Scriptures, now he developed a whole new interpretation for the Scriptures that he had been teaching all along. His new interpretation was centered on the idea that Jesus was the Messiah.
It also should be qualified in that by being a teacher, he did not assume leadership in the church. In fact, he was not trusted by anyone. The church distrusted him because he had come there to arrest and harm them. His old friends in the Sanhedrin distrusted him because he had gone to Damascus for a reason and then flipped over to the other side.
This is the nature of following the Way of Jesus
It transforms everything about your life. If you have made a decision to follow Jesus, everything becomes new. We tend to see the faith in terms of our own forgiveness and our assurance of eternal life, but there is much more to it than that.
• It changes your purpose
• It changes your relationships
• The kingdom of God is not of this world, so your political allegiance changes.
• It changes your outlook
When Saul met Jesus in a flash of light on the road, he was blinded. It took him three days to regain his sight when Ananias laid hands on him and it was miraculously restored.
The bible says that "something like scales" fell from his eyes. Century English Version interprets it as something like "fish scales." The idea is the thing that was blinding him was physically visible and tangible, crusty. When he was touched, the scales just fell off.
Arguably, Saul had been "blind" before he saw the light. In a couple of places, the NT describes people who are unaware of the spiritual need as "blind." Saul was certainly unaware of his spiritual need and Jesus, in appearing to him in the light, was revealing that need to him.
So when Ananias touched him, he not only received his physical sight, he received a deep spiritual insight as well. He immediately got up and was baptized.
The change that takes place in our lives when we put our faith in Jesus is that drastic. It is as if we have been walking around blindfolded all our lives. We’ve been searching for something, but we have not opened our eyes.
I am aware that I am saying something quite harsh. I believe it is the truth, though. If you have an encounter with Jesus, you will change, just as Saul changed.
• It will change your purpose in life
• It will change your relationships
• It will change your politics
• It will change your outlook
If we go through life, blind to our spiritual condition, coming to Jesus will open our eyes to truth we have never been able to take in before.
One of the Cable Networks is premiering a new show called "In Plain Sight." It looks like a show with a lot of things going against it morally, but the main story line follows a Marshall who works for the Witness Protection Program. She explains what she does as giving people a fresh start.
We have many junctures in our lives where we are offered a fresh start.
• Graduation from school or college
• A change of school
• Marriage
• A move to a new home
• Divorce
• A new job
At these times of transition, we notice the opportunity to reinvent ourselves, to be someone we would rather be than the person we have been in the past.
As believers we actually may see these crossroads even more profoundly than others. They may represent to us an opportunity to live more in keeping with our faith than we have lived before. They may seem to us a chance to reset the expectations of our friends and acquaintances to be more in line with what we want our faith to look like.
All of the above and more
Are good times to merge our lives into the place Jesus wants them to be.
Perhaps you have been walking with Jesus for a long time, but change is hard. We don’t like the attention we attract when we move to a holier place. We don’t like answering questions about it.
But these are good things. Jesus has promised to change us constantly, and to give us repeated chances to begin a new life. Each new place He brings us is the opportunity to take a bold step and to be a more open witness to His transforming power. It should be relatively painless.
Saul moved from being violent to being gentle
He moved from arresting people to persuading people
He went from struggling against the God of the universe to working for him
This last thing Jesus called "kicking against the goads." It was as if Saul was trying to take a step, and every time he swung his leg forward, he ran his shin into a pointed stick. What Jesus was saying to Saul was this.
What you are doing is hard for you. You are resisting the one thing that you most need to embrace, and it is causing you pain. Why don’t you just give in to the truth that you are fighting so hard to defeat?
You are at a time of transition
For some of you, the transition is more obvious than others. For some of you, it is a major transition, for others, a minor one.
Just like Saul, you must seize the opportunity to find a clearer view of Jesus. Saul was looking through the lense of his respected leaders to find a Jesus that was counter-cultural and anti-traditional. These views had some valid truth, but they missed an important point. Jesus as Saul was discovering him to be was expansive. He called Saul to a life that did not just reject tradition, but included a broader view of what God intended in the Scriptures. Jesus was taking Saul out of his strictly Jewish surroundings and sending him to a dominantly Gentile world. Jesus was revealing himself not just as the Messiah of the Jews but the Lord of the whole world.
Chances are, as you read the Bible and memorize your passages, you are learning things you never knew. If you are graduating from school, your perspective has been changing for years. If you are trying to find new ways to live consistently with the faith you embrace, you are discovering that some things in your life just will not stand the test and you must change.
Take this opportunity
Take the transitional time God has given you to adopt new life goals and habits that are more in keeping with Jesus:
• I am newly married, so I will be the kind of man or woman I should be in order to reflect Jesus as a husband or wife, a father or mother
• I am graduating, so I will take this opportunity to abandon the restrictions of my former academic surroundings and begin exploring what it means to be a believer in my place of work or my new school
• I am a new parent, so I will explore what it means to be a parent who reflects the grace and wisdom of my own heavenly father
This type of transition will mean that you must read your Bible with a purpose to learn and change. You must pray with a purpose to conforming yourself to the answers you receive. You must memorize the Bible with a view to reflecting the truth you make a permanent part of you.
In other words, don’t waste this opportunity to reinvent yourself. Embrace your new beginning, as part of the change that Jesus is making in your life.
