Acts: Hope for the Unredeemable (9:1-22)

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Our second lesson this morning is taken from the Book of Acts, chapter 9, verses 1 to 22.

Acts 9:1–22

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, 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.

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him.

And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said, Who are you, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.

The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.

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 there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.

The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias.

And he said, Here I am, Lord.

And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called Strait, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.

For behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.

But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

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.

And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.

Then he rose and was baptized, and taking food he was strengthened.

For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God.

And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is this not the man is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name?

And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?

But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank be to God.

Heavenly Father, we just come before you to hear you speak to our hearts and our minds.

Father, just pray if there's any distractions from the this week that they would just fall away.

Any distractions from busyness, any distractions of good news or bad news, would just fall away, Lord, because we want to hear from you.

And Father, just pray that you pour your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So about two months ago, um our beloved budgie, and many many of you know that we look we are bird people and we have two budgies.

Um but one of them actually flew into a window and um went through we went through this whole ordeal uh bringing her to the emergency room.

Um it seemed like that uh she was not gonna make it.

She was in pretty rough shape.

And uh so we left her at the emergency place and we came home.

And then later that night, the vet called around 10:30, telling us that it doesn't look good, um, that she probably like he didn't say that we should expect um the worst, but uh it was pretty obvious what he was trying to say to us in a nice way as vets do.

Um so we had a sleepless night, and then in the morning when we went, um she was in really good condition.

She was perching again on the perch.

Um it's a good sign for birds if they're actually perching, they're not just laying in the bottom of the cage.

Um and then he comes in saying, Oh, it's uh it's good news that um that she's gonna make it.

It looks like she's gonna make it.

So it was interesting because he was the bringer of two messages.

He was the bringer of bad news, and then he was also the bringer of good news.

Um it was hard to trust him after he brought the bad news.

It was really hard to take um his word seriously because it's just after someone says that to you, how can you trust them again?

Um but this text that we're looking at this morning has many similarities to the idea that someone brings bad news, but then at the end he brings good news.

And that there's someone in this, Ananias, struggles with trusting that he's actually bringing good news until he listens to the Lord.

So if you haven't already, please turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 9, verses 1 to 22.

Acts 9:1–22

It's also in the bulletin, and I'm assuming it'll also be on the screen behind me.

And just a quick disclaimer Saul and Paul are the same people.

Um, you might hear me go back and forth between the two because it is really hard to remember the say Saul when he's called Paul everywhere else in the New Testament.

So just give me some grace for that, because I'm gonna go back and forth, talking about the same person.

So, point one, um, I called it the Saul the messenger of death, but I think I'm gonna call change it to Saul the messenger of bad news.

Because he gets this message and he takes it forward.

So let's look at it.

Verses one and two.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogue at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Now, Saul, earlier in chapter 8, if you look back very quickly, it talks about how he approved of the execution of Stephen, and how he brought this great persecution to all the disciples in Jerusalem.

He was a man that was ravaging the church, as it said, entering houses after house, and dragging men and women off to be committed to prison.

This was a man that had this one vision in his head that he had to do this because he was so committed to his Jewish faith.

He thought what he was doing was righteous.

He thought what he was doing was perfect, that he was honoring God.

He would have been called the Jewish zealot or zealot.

And his in his mind, he thought he had to stamp out all heresy.

You see this also later in history with other um other religions.

But he was so utterly one-track focused that he had to do this.

Everything he did was to advance this one purpose of getting rid of this sect called the way.

The a way I can compare this um idea of being completely focused on one thing, one thing that he was focused on, was I have a friend back in Ottawa who's a professional rock climber, professional athlete.

And everything he does in his life is for that one goal of improving at climbing.

Everything he does, down to what he eats, to when he goes to bed, to where he travels on vacation, anything he does, to who he hangs out with, he's a great guy, but he's very committed to this one goal, and he won't let anything take away from this one goal.

It's to improve to get better.

So Saul here, he's not an athlete, but he's trying to get rid of this one way, this Jesus following way.

And he's trying to stamp it out.

That's what's going on here.

He is a man so on fire for doing this one thing.

He's so convinced he's doing the right thing.

To bring those who follow the way that they must be punished.

And when I say the way, I'm talking about people who are following Jesus, saying that he rose from the dead.

The way is, if you take it another way, it's the way to salvation.

That's what's going on here.

So Saul is after these people.

So he goes to the to the high priest in Jerusalem to get a letter.

And he's granted this letter.

This letter is to take, and he wants to bring it to Damascus, and he wants to get rid of these people.

He wants to bring them back so they can be tried, most likely stoned or jailed for a long time.

So in the in a sense, he is the messenger of death, he's the messenger of bad news.

Maybe you're watching here and you're thinking to yourself, well, I feel similar to Paul.

Not in the sense that I want to kill people, but that I am so angry at the church, I am so angry at Christians that they've been so utterly, I've they've so utterly hurt me.

Or maybe you're here and your life hasn't turned out the way you thought it would.

And you're so angry at God.

You're so devoted to rejecting him and trying to live your own life.

Or maybe you feel there's no hope for you, or you don't think you're a good Christian.

Well, I'm up here, I'm privileged to be up here to come before you and talk about God, talk about Jesus.

I am privileged to remind you about Jesus, about the gospel hope.

And that gospel hope is that God in his loving mercy sent his son into the world to take on flesh, to get rid of, to take, to to um, that Jesus took off all his divine prerogatives, all his worship due to him, and he came down and was born in the form of a baby and lived a life perfect.

And he took on our sin and died for us, and then he rose again, and that there is a great hope that he'll return, that all will put their faith and trust to him, will have everlasting life.

That is a great hope.

So as we go into this, we have to remember that always.

See, we might be thinking that Saul was a man, that there's no hope for him.

Many people would look at him and be like, really, he's a lost cause.

There's absolutely no hope.

But there is a gospel hope.

It may seem that everything in his life is completely hopeless, that he is a man that God would never redeem.

But that's not the case, because we see it in the next verses.

So, point two, and this is one of my favorite parts of the book of Acts, verses three to ten, but we're gonna break it down here.

So, verse three and nine, let's look at it.

Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, and falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And he said, Who are you, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.

The men who are traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.

Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were open, he saw nothing, so they led him by hand and brought him into Damascus.

And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

See, point two is that there is hope for the unredeemable.

He here we see a man with a singular purpose in life, to jail and kill Jesus' followers.

And then Jesus shows up and speaks directly to him.

And you may be thinking, well, here's a perfect example, a perfect description of someone who has just experienced a mental breakdown.

Or somebody who's just experienced heat stroke, because you know he says later on in Acts chapter 22, verse 6, when he's recalling his testimony here, that it was midday and he's traveling at midday in direct sunlight, so he's probably just having a heat stroke.

Acts 22:6

Or you other people say that he might be having, I might pronounce this wrong, an epileptic episode.

Some many people write about this.

Is there's lots of stuff written about this?

Well, let's look at it.

And I'm aware that there's a doctor in the congregation that could probably talk about this.

But it's been argued that these are classic signs of someone under mental issues.

Well, let's let's talk about it.

Because here, if you see, he's looking like he's having this divine experience that he's surrounded by blinding light, but he's still holding a conversation.

It's recorded that he's holding a conversation.

When um the high school I went to um growing up, after you get expelled from the normal high school, you go to this other high school where this is the high school where no other high schools will let these kids in, so they get sent to this school.

Um and in in my class, um, someone had an epileptic or epilepsy episode right in front of me.

And he clearly could not have a conversation.

And it was a very mild one.

It wasn't an extreme case one, it was very mild.

And then also with my school, because this is a place that where a lot of people are struggling in life, myself included at that time, would have they would have kids and they would be struggling with trying to find their kids' daycare properly.

And they'd be struggling with all the pressures of life of having to provide food for them.

So they'd have to work full-time jobs, but at the same time be in school.

So there would be a lot of people having mental breakdowns, like actually mental breakdowns.

This is that'd be also a classic example of someone who cannot have a good conversation.

But here we see Paul, even though he's having this experience happening to him, he's still able to hold the conversation.

He's still thinking in his mind.

Another way we can look at this is that through this one man, Saul, history is changed forever.

This is not the symptoms of someone who has something loose in their head.

History is changed through Saul and it continues on.

You see it through history.

This is a man, as you read on in Acts, brings the gospel to all the surrounding Mediterranean Sea.

It's it is history is changed to this one man.

This isn't someone who has something going on in his head.

Or another thing that says right here that the travelers who were with him saw the light and they heard the voice.

And then later on in Acts, when he's recalling this moment when he's being tried, says that they fell down with him, but they didn't understand what happened.

These people were eyewitnesses to this event, and that's something we need to remember in the book of Acts.

That these are eyewitnesses' accounts of the of um of moments that the Holy Spirit works and the the early church being formed.

These are during this time, people could say that no, that story didn't happen like that.

It actually happened like this.

So we can trust these this manuscript that this is what happened, because there would have been so many eyewitnesses in these moments that could back up or disagree with this.

This is what comes forward, this is what we see coming forward.

So when Jesus so we see this, we see Saul, we see that Saul didn't have an episode, he has a divine experience.

And this experience, as John Stott calls it, is a conversion of the will.

It's a conversion of the intellect, it's a conversion of the emotion that changed the course and purpose of his life forever.

You see, when Jesus enters your life, you become a changed person.

You don't continue on in life as this same person as you were before Jesus coming into your life.

A part of you, your whole being changes.

And if we look, can if we continue to look at this section, when we look at Jesus' words, we see, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

If you notice it says it twice.

This is a double word.

And what the original language is trying to show here is that there is emotion in this language.

That Jesus feels an emotion as he says this to Saul.

Here we see Jesus' heart for his followers who are suffering for the gospel.

Because Saul is killing Jesus' followers.

He's persecuting the church.

He is one that is so on like on fire for that purpose to get to stamp out these people.

And then we see another double word thing where he says, Persecuting me.

He says it twice.

So what we get from this, from these words of Jesus is that those who are in Jesus are intimately connected to him.

When you put when when you are mocked, when you are bullied for your faith, when people laugh at you for it, or you have family members who push you out or who mock you right to your face or behind your back, they're actually mocking Jesus.

That is something that we can that Jesus is with us in these moments.

He is at our side.

This is what's going on here because Saul has been persecuting people, not Jesus, but then Jesus is saying, Why are you persecuting me?

There's a direct line with between the believer and Jesus.

That's something that we can really hold on to, that Jesus is with us, he's walking with us.

So Saul is faced with the reality that he has been persecuting the Lord, the very person he thought he was protecting.

He thought he was protecting God by going out in this religious zeal and trying to get rid of these people he thought were blasphemy.

And then he's engulfed by light.

And this light blinds him briefly for a couple days.

Here we see we see this posse coming from Jerusalem, all prideful, all getting ready to like, we're gonna we're gonna kick some butt in Damascus, we're gonna get those people, those crazy people.

And then he's blinded and they're knocked to the ground.

He is humbled, his pride, his self-righteousness is crushed in a moment.

The one who leaves Jerusalem, all prideful, enters Damascus blinded and humbled.

If anyone has led someone who struggles with vision, you know that when they're in new areas that they're not familiar with, they're very helpless.

So this is what would be going on here, because Paul, for the first time in his life, cannot see.

So he would have been so helpless because he wouldn't know how to be led.

So they have to lead him by the hand and bring him into Damascus.

He's completely helpless.

So if we continue looking now, let's look at verses 10 to 19, because it goes on.

We get to see what happens next.

So 10 to 19.

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.

The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord.

And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight, and at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.

For behold, he is praying, and he has seen a vision of a he has seen a vision, a man named Ananias, come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.

But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem, and there and he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is the he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

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.

And immediately sounding And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and regaining his he regained his sight.

Then he rose and was baptized, and taking food, he was strengthened.

Interesting fact about this the street called Strait is still is the oldest inhabited street in the world.

It's still there.

You can still go see it, and there's still people living on it.

I just I find that fascinating.

Um Saul's experience isn't an individualistic heavenly experience that only he can confirm.

He has someone here come to him and confirm this experience that he has.

So it's not an individualist individual experience.

Ananias confirms it.

Now Ananias is the Christian we all hope to be in these moments.

He says, Here I am, Lord, when God calls to him, when Jesus calls to him.

He does the classic Old Testament response.

And it appears he's you can tell he's nervous, that he questions God when he says, Really, God?

This guy has persecuted the church.

He is commissioned to persecute us.

Now we all would most likely have the response of, really?

That guy, Lord?

Really?

I thought he was hopeless.

I thought that there is no possible hope for him to become a Christian, for you to do anything with him.

He's really, he's killing people.

He's bringing people to jail to be killed.

And you might be also thinking, why does the why does the Lord say that he has to suffer?

Isn't that cruel?

But the thing with the Christian faith is when you become a Christian, you're not free from a life of suffering.

There's still things that happen in our life that could be horrible.

You could be faced with cancer, you can be faced with an accident, something happening to you that completely changes your life direction completely.

Many of us face challenges and suffering, and many of us will suffer at some point in our lives.

But the thing with the Christian faith is that as you give up parts of your life, as you the more and more you give up your life, you give up your finances, the more you give up your time, the more you give up your Sunday morning to be in a building with other Christians, the more you give up your sexuality, the more you give up every part of your being to follow Jesus, is that you become more free of a person.

You become more of the person you're supposed to be, that God has created you to be.

The more you give up of yourself, the more you become free, and the more you become a real person.

You see, everyone is not no one's promised a life of no suffering.

No one's promised a life of no hardship.

But everyone is promised forgiveness of sins and redemption through Jesus if you call on him as Lord and Savior of your life.

The Lord is about to commission Saul to bring the gospel to a place it's never been.

Of course, he's going to face hardships and suffering.

Go to a place and tell people about Jesus who have never heard about Jesus, who are very hostile about Jesus, and you're gonna face persecution, you're gonna get laughed at, or even worse, it's gonna happen.

But when the Lord calls you, you have two options to trust in his plan for you, or to say to say no and not follow him.

But here we see Ananias go.

He goes.

Even though he's nervous, even though he doesn't know what's gonna happen, he's just trusting that the Lord has called him to go.

And he goes to the one who brought a message of death to Jesus' followers to bring them back and kill them in Jerusalem.

He goes to the one who appears to be hopeless.

But there is great hope.

There is hope for those we consider unredeemable.

No one is unredeemable.

Imagine if you didn't go, what would happen?

When Jesus calls, we must go.

But look at verse 17 again.

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.

See, he welcomed him as a br as a brother.

He welcomed him as one as who's not an enemy.

He welcomed him into the family.

This would have been quite a sight.

And for one thing, he had scales falling from his eyes.

I'm not a medical person, but that would have been something to see right there.

But this whole this whole idea that this man was so on fire to stamp out these people, he would have there's clearly something that he must have been such a lonely person to do this, to be so committed to this purpose.

And here we see he's welcomed in as a brother.

That's the church at its best.

Point three, the messenger of life.

And we'll continue on in verses 20 to 22.

And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God, and all who heard him were amazed and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem, and those who called upon this name?

He has not come here for this purpose to bring them back.

Has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?

But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived, and in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

See, the one who brought the message, the bad news, is now the one who is redeemed, the one who appeared to be hopeless is redeemed, and he's also now a messenger of life, being used by God as an instrument.

See, he is commissioned.

He was if you it's really interesting.

At the beginning of this, he's commissioned by the high priest in Jerusalem to bring this message, this bad news.

But now he's commissioned by the heavenly high priest in heaven to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the world, to the Gentiles, to the kings, to the people of Israel.

He becomes this person He becomes his true self, who God has created him to be, to bring a message of hope, a message of good news.

And what's that message?

That because of Adam and Eve in the beginning, everyone was unredeemable.

But God in his loving kindness provided a way that all who put their faith and trust in Jesus and proclaim that he is alive, that he is the Son of God, will have eternal life.

And that changes everything if he rose from the dead.

And if you call yourself a Jesus follower, you have a great privilege of sharing the message of life with the world.

And we see that all through Acts.

It's a great privilege.

And that's something we should hold on to and find so much comfort in.

But you also might be saying to yourself, I find it so hard to share the message about Jesus that I am so afraid of being yelled at, being made fun of, being that one that those single out and no one wants to talk to anymore.

I don't want to lose my friends, I don't want to lose my family members.

See, Jesus is with you.

See, Jesus says, He says in the double in the double voice, Margaret, Margaret, trust in me.

Judith, Judith, trust in me.

Reg, Reg, Wallace, Wallace, Jake, Jake, Pauline, Pauline, trust in me.

Rachel, Rachel, Mercine, Mercine, Ned, Ned, Suzanne and Suzanne, trust in me.

And if you're here and you aren't following Jesus, see, now is the time to call out to him.

Now is the time to say, Lord, I need your help.

I need Jesus to make me right with you.

You see, when you call out to Jesus, he hears you and he calls your name.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you.

Uh thank you for converting Saul.

Um, Father, thank you that for you use those who appear so hopeless.

Um, you don't use the strong and the powerful and the mighty.

You use the weak.

You use the broken.

You use those that the world has regarded as useless.

And Father, I just pray that that would ring home to our hearts and to our minds, that we would know that you are with us.

You call us to trust in you, you call us to go when things seem so uncertain.

Um, help us to hold on to that truth, Lord, that we are redeemed because of Jesus Christ.

I pray that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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