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.
a. You can tell people, “Well, the Bible says,” and they can, and probably will, tell you that they don’t believe in the Bible.
b. But it’s hard to argue about something that happened in your life.
3. Then, in vv. 10-13, Paul asked Jesus, ““I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ “And the Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.’ 11 “I was blinded by the intense light and had to be led by the hand to Damascus by my companions. 12 A man named Ananias lived there. He was a godly man, deeply devoted to the law, and well regarded by all the Jews of Damascus. 13 He came and stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And that very moment I could see him!”
a. Now, if what happened to Paul that day was true, Jesus wasn’t just a traveling preacher looking for a following, He was who He said He was, the Son of God and the resurrected Messiah.
b. From that moment on, Paul’s life and belief was completely changed.
c. Notice how Paul referred to Him; he called Him Lord! He knew his life was going to be taking a new direction, and Jesus was going to be the one calling all the shots.
d. The Lord told him to go to Damascus, and that once he goes there, he would be told what to do.
e. Please keep in mind that Paul was still blinded at this time, and for a time he would be dependent on others.
f. So, his companions took him by the hand to Damascus. This must have been difficult for him because he was a very independent and proud person. But the Lord was going to change him.
g. The change had already begun, but it was going to continue. Once he got to Damascus, he would have an encounter with a believer name Ananias.
h. Paul points out to his audience that Ananias was a devout Jew and well respected among the Jews in Damascus. God was going to use this devout man to help Paul make the next step in his faith.
i. Notice how Ananias refers to Paul. He calls him “Brother.” This wasn’t easy for Ananias because he knew all about Saul and what he was trying to do, but he went to Paul anyway, and God used him for Paul to get his sight back.
j. He once was blind, but now he could see!
B. New Life has Begun
1. Illustration: There was a young man who had been raised in a very religious family, but he’d never had a personal encounter with Jesus. He got involved in alcohol and drugs to try and cope with the pain and hurt in his life. Little did this young man know that people were praying for him. He was invited to a concert, and the leader of the band talked about having a personal relationship with Jesus. That young man cried out to God, saying, “God if this isn’t a joke prove it to me?” At that moment God lifted the drug filled haze in that young man’s mind. He said, “okay God, you’ve got my attention!” He had a personal encounter with Jesus. That young man was me.
2. A personal encounter with Jesus has the power to do something that all of the atomic bombs in the world don’t have the power to do; to give someone a new life.
a. “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Cor. 5:17).
b. Some people say, “I wish I could go back in time and do it all over again.” We all need a second chance in life; a chance for a new life.
c. Well, you can have that new life, that second chance, if you’d just have a personal encounter with Jesus.
d. Jesus gave a hateful, self-righteous, Pharisee, and made him a soul winner and a church planter.
e. He took this hopeless; drug and alcohol filled young man and gave him the privilege of preaching the Gospel.
f. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been, a close encounter with Jesus can open you heart and your eyes and give you new life.
g. He can change your old person and give you second chance at a new life.
Transition: Everyone who has this personal encounter with Jesus is given a…
II. Mission After a Personal Encounter (14-23).
A. You Are to be His Witness
1. Paul was going to need his sight because the Lord had a job for him to do. In vv. 14-16 it says, ““Then he told me, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak. 15 For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard. 16 What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’”
a. Ananias makes it clear that this encounter that Paul had and the miraculous healing he had received was the work of the “God of our ancestors,” and the Jesus who spoke to him was the promised Messiah.
b. He was not contrary to the Jewish faith, but rather the fulfillment of it. Paul was going to be a witness to Jesus and what He had done for all humanity.
c. Then Ananias tells Paul to get up and get to work. But first, he must be baptized, have his sins washed away by calling on the Lord.
d. Water baptism is a key component of discipleship. Jesus said in the Great Commission, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matt. 28:19).
e. If you are here this morning and have not been baptized in water, I highly suggest that you consider doing it! It is a sign of what Jesus has already done inside of you, and a huge step in becoming a disciple of Jesus.
2. Then Paul talked about his mission and calling. In vv. 17-21 it says, “After I returned to Jerusalem, I was praying in the Temple and fell into a trance. 18 I saw a vision of Jesus saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem, for the people here won’t accept your testimony about me.’ 19 “ ‘But Lord,’ I argued, ‘they certainly know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. 20 And I was in complete agreement when your witness Stephen was killed. I stood by and kept the coats they took off when they stoned him.’ 21 “But the Lord said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles!’ ”
a. Paul is answering the accusations against him by the crowd.
b. First, they accused him of being against the temple. But here he shows himself respectful of the temple and a regular attender of this holy place.
c. In fact, one time while he was in the temple, he fell into a trance when Jesus again spoke to him. In this vision, Jesus tells Paul to leave Jerusalem because the people there would not accept his testimony.
d. Then when Paul tries to argue with the Lord of why he should stay, but Jesus says He would send him far away to the Gentiles.
e. Now, this should prove to you that trying to argue with the Lord is a waste of time. If it didn’t work for Paul, it’s certainly not going to work for you!
f. If God tells you to go somewhere or do something, just go!
3. But Paul made a mistake by stirring the crowd up all over again. In vv. 22-23 it says, “The crowd listened until Paul said that word. Then they all began to shout, “Away with such a fellow! He isn’t fit to live!” 23 They yelled, threw off their coats, and tossed handfuls of dust into the air.”
a. Paul used “that word!” Saying to the Jews that God is sending you to the Gentiles is like a southerner saying, “I’m sending you to the Yankees!”
b. As soon as Paul used the word “Gentiles,” the crowd, who had listened to him up to this point, got angry all over again and it showed how prideful they were.
c. They were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles, but instead, they separated themselves from and refused to take up the mission God had given them.
d. This is what happens to us when God tells us to go, and we refuse to listen.
e. God has given us a mission to be His witnesses, and we need to be willing to go wherever He sends us.
B. Word of Their Testimony
1. Illustration: In his magnificent little book, "A Faith to Proclaim," James S. Stewart referred to Paul’s declaration to the Galatians (2:20), "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me..." And Stewart said, "To be thus taken command of, so that our testimony, when we go out to speak of Christ, is not ours at all, but Christ’s self-testimony – this is our vocation and the hope of our ministry."
2. Once you’ve had a personal encounter with Jesus, you now have a testimony, your story, to tell, and there’s no greater power than the power of a testimony about Jesus.
a. “And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.” (Rev. 12:11).
b. Talk about power! It’s the power to overcome the devil!
c. We overcome the devil by the blood of Jesus and our testimony.
d. When you share your story with someone it has the power to change lives.
e. It has the power to declare that Jesus Christ died for our sins and given us the gift of new life.
f. The story of Jesus never giving up on you tells someone in need of hope that Jesus won’t give up on them either.
g. It’s the power to do the miraculous!
Conclusion
1. Having a personal encounter with Jesus is…
a. The power to change a life
b. The Mission to share your story
2. What’s the point preacher? Having a personal encounter with Jesus gives you a second chance in life and sharing that testimony with someone else gives them a chance at new life.
