I Am Blind So That I Might See
Acts 9:1-18
Rev. David Rogers Bethlehem Baptist Church
April 24, 2005
I have asked myself many times how blind I must be. Things that are right there in front of me and I can’t see them. Sometimes It is physical objects that I can’t see and other times it might be something as simple looking at the facts and seeing reality but for some reason I can’t see it. How often do we do this?
I don’t know about you but I am blind to a lot of things. Saul was a lot like that. He was very well educated. He had been trained by Israel’s best teacher of that time and he was the star pupil. He knew the Old Testament from cover to cover but to the prophecies about Jesus Christ he was blind as a bat. He persecuted the Christians and fully believed that he was doing God’s will when he was attacking God’s Children. In a sense Saul could see physical but spiritually he was blind. We was blind because of his devotion to religion and tradition. The persecution of the Church continued because Saul would not allow it to cease. Even after the Christians had fled and scattered throughout Asia Saul traveled to search for them and bring them back in chains. Saul was even so zealous to traveled over 150 miles to Damascus to persecute the Christians. You see his blindness to the truth caused him to go to extreme lengths to justify his position. People do that today. We persecute people, because we don’t like them or because they are of a different race or speak a different language. Whenever we look down on someone because they look different, act different, or speak a different language from us we are persecuting them, just as Saul was persecuting the Christians because he was blind to the truth. Because of this blindness many Christians throughout history have been persecuted.
1. John died of extreme old age in Ephesus.
2. Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, hanged himself.
3. Peter was crucified, head downward, during the persecution of Nero.
4. Andrew died on a cross at Patrae, in Achaia, a Grecian Colony.
5. James, the younger brother of the Savior, was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple, and then beaten to death with a club.
6. Bartholomew was flayed alive in Albanapolis, Armenia.
7. James, the elder son of Zebedee, was beheaded at Jerusalem.
8. Thomas, the doubter, was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel, in the east Indies.
9. Philip was hanged against a pillar at Heropolis (Abyssinia).
10. Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows.
11. Simon died on a cross in Persia (now Iran).
Yes Many of us have been persecuted often by people who claim to be well educated. We can assume that Saul came from a very wealthy family. Now the Bible does specifically say this but we can make this assumption because we know 1. he was a Roman citizen and 2. he had studied under the foremost teacher in Israel at that time. Paul was a Jew and the Jew of this time period were extremely racist especially the wealthier people. We know that Saul was very zealous for Judaism and it was very much a part of his life. He simply could not believe that Jesus was the Messiah because Jesus said that He had come to save the world not to build a physical kingdom that would make the Jews top dogs in the world’s dog fight.
The 19th-century Danish theologian Soren Kierkegaard identified two kinds of religion—Religion A and Religion B. The first is “faith” in name only (2 Tim. 3:5). It’s the practice of attending church without genuine faith in the living Lord.
Religion B, on the other hand, is a life-transforming, destiny-changing experience. It’s a definite commitment to the crucified and risen Savior, which establishes an ongoing personal relationship between a forgiven sinner and a gracious God.
This difference explains why for many years British author C. S. Lewis had such great difficulty in becoming a Christian. Religion A had blinded him to Religion B. According to his brother Warren, his conversion was “no sudden plunge into a new life, but rather a slow, steady convalescence from a deep-seated spiritual illness—an illness that had its origins in our childhood, in the dry husks of religion offered by the semi-political churchgoing of Ulster, and the similar dull emptiness of compulsory church during our school days.”
Saul was blind because of his pride and racist attitude. Notice that God would take Saul the racist giant and turn him into the Apostle to the Gentiles. God would take Saul’s blindness away. Saul had visibility zero before God healed him of his blindness.
On November 30, 1991 fierce winds from a freakish dust storm triggered a massive freeway pileup along Interstate 5 near Coalinga, California. At least 14 people died and dozens more were injured as topsoil whipped by 50 mile-per-hour winds reduced visibility to zero. The afternoon holocaust left a three-mile trail of twisted and burning vehicles, some stacked on top of one another 100 yards off the side of the freeway. Unable to see their way, dozens of motorists drove blindly ahead into disaster.
On the road to Damascus Saul had a dramatic meeting with Jesus Christ, it was here that Jesus caused Saul to be blinded so that he had to give up his pride. Saul was so proud of being a Jew that he refused to see Jesus. Saul knew the Old Testament. He knew every reference that was made in the Old Testament about Christ’s coming. But he could not accept the reality of Christ. You see Saul in his racial pride was expecting a Messiah that would make the Jews the dominate power in the world. They finally would be able to give back some of the persecution which his people had endured. Saul was fighting against his master and could not see it because of his pride. He refused to even consider that he might be wrong.
Many today are like Saul. We are fighting Christ. Some say the Bible is not relevant for today. Or that life has changed and we must change the Bible to fit the times. Others allow things of this world to come between them and Jesus. Jobs, Hobbies, attitudes, family, wants, and precieved needs have come before service to Jesus. The Super Bowl keeps thousands home to watch it and not fellowshipping and worshipping God. One hour of service has become to difficult to give Jesus because we want to do something else. Hey was this not Saul? He refused to hear what Jesus was saying because he wanted something else.
Then on the road to Damascus Jesus came to Saul face to face. He said Saul why are you doing this to me. Saul had no choice but to recognize Jesus. His pride was blown away. Saul replies who art thou Lord and Jesus said it is I Jesus who you are persecuting. When something is done by on of us or to us Jesus feels it.
Saul fail down to his face. He recognized that He was in the presence of God. I don’t know about you but if Jesus spoke directly to me like He did Saul I would have fallen down too. Saul said what do you want me to do Lord. Jesus said follow me. God where I tell you to go and do what I tell you to do no matter what you think, want to do, or want to believe.
To teach him humbleness Jesus caused Saul to go blind, making him dependent on the 3 men with him to get him to Damascus. For Three more days Saul is forced to depend on others for what he needed.
Now God called Ananias and said go to Saul. Imagine Ananias surprise when God told him to go and see Saul. I can here him now “Lord don’t you realize this man is intent on killing your children are you sure this is what you want me to do.” And God said go. Ananias went after a moment of rebellion. He went to Saul and told Him that Jesus had sent to give Saul his sight and fill him with the Holy Spirit.
Immediately Saul received his sight. He saw Jesus for who He really was. Saul wasted no time in getting baptized and learning from the Christians at Damascus.
How much are we like Saul? We know what we are supposed to do. We know the signs, we can talk the talk, we know what the walk is supposed to be like but we compromise, we avoid and refused to do that which we know is right. I remember a time two years ago when I felt that there was no need for me to be in church during morning and night services on Sundays and don’t even talk to me about Wednesday night service. I can remember the excuses as to why I could stay home. Oh my back hurts, I don’t need to go I know more about the God’s word than most at church do (pride), I don’t need to go, there is a really good tv show on and I want to see it, the car broke down, I needed to work in the yard or on the house, someone came by, that preacher doesn’t know what he is talking about and so many more that I don’t have room to place on the paper. Sometimes ask Carla about my excuses. I could get down right mean when making excuses as to why I did not need to worship God. The main one I came up with was I could worship God just as well at home as I could at church.
I like Saul let my pride lead my thoughts and reason and not the Lord. But also just like Paul Jesus brought me to the I was wrong so terribly wrong. I was blind by my pride just as surely as Paul was blind. I was not seeing Jesus. No, what I was seeing was my pride and what I wanted to see. I was doing things my way and not Jesus’ way because I was unable to see past me to Christ.
Many today are facing the same thing. I had to turn to Christ and ask Him to let me see before He opened my sight. We as servants can be blind when we allow the world to come between us and our personnel relationship to God. If you allow anything to come before Jesus you are blind like Saul on the road to Damascus. The scales of want and precieved needs, desires closes our sight just as surely as if someone had plucked you eyes out. Only Jesus can take these scales away we can not.
Saul did something very important. He surrendered everything, every want, every need, every desire, to Jesus. He was willing to let Jesus lead. Saul was also willing to follow. What about you today are you ready to surrender your willful pride to Jesus? To allow the scales to fall from your eyes. Are you ready to serve the Lord? If you are ten listen quit groping in the dark turn to Jesus and let Him lead you out of the Jungle that we live in.
