Acts 9:1-22, "The Risen Jesus Changes Everything"

Ken MacLeod

Community on Mission • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Acts 9:1–19

Jesus

Conversion and Call of Paul

Saul (Name)

0 ratings

· 22 views

Notes

Transcript

How many truly life-changing experiences have you had? When was the last time a church service was one of those life-altering events? Could there be someone in this room today who could change your life forever? Could today be one of those life-altering experiences, or will it just be another day? I believe the Bible is not a story that tells the origin mythology of two of the world’s great religions. I believe it is a record of the experience of people with God, and it is to be experienced, not just read. I hope today is an experience for you.

For 2,000 years now, Christians, followers of the way, truth, and life of Jesus of Nazareth, have claimed that He is the Messiah sent from God, was crucified at the hands of sinful men to establish a covenant of peace with God for sinners, and that He rose from the dead on the third day, today, and ascended to rule at God’s right hand!

If all of that is true, how does that change my life today? Jesus can not be seen, touched, or measured in a modern laboratory today. Is Jesus real, or just a story we tell to make ourselves feel better?

How could you encounter the risen Jesus today in a way that would change you forever? I would like use our text in Acts 9, make some observations, tell you the implications for our lives, and leave you with some application. Our passage is telling us that Jesus is risen from the dead, He has changed everything, He is active in our world, and changing people who keep changing the world. And maybe He wants to do that with you.

Our first observation is historical.

Jesus Changed History

This text is not an ancient mythology of the beginning of a new religion. It is written about people who really lived, at times and in places that can be identified and have been corroborated.

Historians, believers and non-believers, agree that Saul of Tarsus began his career as a bright and influential student of one of the most significant rabbinical schools in Judaism, a school that exists today and that still quotes his teachers as their authorities, and that he persecuted Christians as a threat to his religion. They also agree that he was radically transformed to become an Apostle for Jesus we know as Paul and wrote half of the New Testament and died as a martyr for faith in Jesus. What changed this man? Whenever anyone asked him, he would tell them about this day recorded in Acts 9, the day that Jesus of Nazareth, who had been crucified, showed up alive and in charge on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus.

Gary Habermas, probably the leading authority in scholarship on the resurrection of Jesus uses what he calls a “Minimal Facts Approach” to establish the historical reliability of the resurrection of Jesus. There are some facts that scholars, both believers and non-believers agree happened.

“my three chief Minimal Facts regarding Jesus’ fate: (1) Jesus died due to the process of crucifixion. (2) Very soon afterwards, Jesus’ disciples had experiences that they believed were appearances of the resurrected Jesus. (3) Just a few years later, Saul of Tarsus also experienced what he thought was a post-resurrection appearance of the risen Jesus.” (“The Minimal Facts Approach to the Resurrection of Jesus: The Role of Methodology as a Crucial Component in Establishing Historicity “, Gary R. Habermas)

Add a few more facts, like an empty tomb no one could explain, the total absence of Jesus’ corpse, the fact that Jesus’ previously skeptical brother James and almost all of Jesus’ apostles boldly suffered torture and death proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead.

Chuck Colson, who became a Christian after he had been convicted in the Watergate scandal said, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world—and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” Charles Colson

Add to all of the above that the records of the resurrection were written within twenty years of Jesus’ ministry when they could still be investigated, there is more evidence for Jesus’ resurrection from the dead than there is prove Socrates, Julius Caesar, or William Shakespeare even existed, that the Pilgrims shared a feast with their Native American neighbors, or that George Washington had wooden teeth.

So, out of the possible explanations, the most reasonable may actually be that Jesus in fact rose from the dead just as He promised would happen, that everything He said is true, and He is alive and has been interacting with people ever since. And the evidence grows as history proceeds.

As Athanasius of Alexandria said 1700 years ago, “The Saviour is working mightily among men, every day He is invisibly persuading numbers of people all over the world, both within and beyond the Greek-speaking world, to accept His faith and be obedient to His teaching. Can anyone, in face of this, still doubt that He has risen and lives, or rather that He is Himself the Life? Does a dead man prick the consciences of men?”

Or for a more recent example, Jerry Trousdale, a missionary in Africa, has been recording testimony from people across the Muslim world who are radically converting to Christianity at risk to their own lives and giving the credit to Jesus who has been appearing to them to show them He is real.

But that’s the historical record and the testimony of others. How can he change your life? Our passage in Acts 9 can guide us as we make a few more observations.

Jesus Sees

When we meet Saul of Tarsus, he is filled with blinding hate, “breathing threats and murder” against disciples of Jesus. He oversaw the stoning death of Stephen. Stephen had said that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has made the Temple redundant. The New Temple would be as expansive as the whole creation and as intimate as the human heart. Anyone who would repent of their sin and pledge allegiance to Jesus as King would be filled with the Spirit of God. Stephen taught that Jesus had established the New Covenant, making the law of Moses subservient to the Holy Spirit empowering believers to obey God from the heart. Saul of Tarsus had made his whole live about learning, teaching, and living by the law of Moses. Jesus and His movement are a threat to everything he holds dear.

Now, as the Jesus movement spreads, Saul has become a zealot. He’s on the warpath. He is going to travel more than 150 miles to contain the spread of the Christian faith. What can take a hate-blinded zealot off the warpath? Give him eyes to see.

Acts 9:3 (ESV)

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

Acts 9:4 (ESV)

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

Saul may think He sees clearly, but when Jesus opens the dimension of heaven to Saul for one moment, it demonstrates just how blind he is. He has no idea what is going on.

Acts 9:5 (ESV)

And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

Jesus not only sees everything going on, He is taking things personally. When someone becomes a believer in Jesus, we are baptized into union with Him. Jesus then takes anything done to you as something done to Him. He said,

Mark 9:41 (ESV)

For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.

Do you believe that Jesus really sees you? The risen, glorified Jesus takes personally what is done to you, good and bad. How would one glimpse of Him change your perspective on your own life?

For Saul, one glimpse of the risen Jesus changed everything. The man he thought was his biggest threat was gloriously powerful, but also filled with mercy and compassion, not just for His followers, but for His enemy Saul. He doesn’t destroy him. He has a wonderful plan for him.

Our next observation is that

Jesus is in Charge

Acts 9:6 (ESV)

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

Jesus blinds Saul and puts him in the corner for three days. In the meantime, Jesus appears to another man in a vision. Ananias is a Christian living in Damascus. He has heard that Saul of Tarsus is coming to arrest him and everyone in his very new church. They’ve just started following Jesus together, and it’s all about to end in a Jerusalem jail. But Jesus has other plans, which he instructs Ananias to carry out, “Go, restore Saul’s sight.”

What’s really amazing about this interaction is that it doesn’t seem to phase Ananias at all. He doesn’t ask, “Who are you, Lord?” He interacts as if this was perfectly normal and natural to be talking with Jesus. How does this compare to your experience? How do you treat Jesus? Is He just a concept to you? He will probably remain conceptual. Is He a literary figure you have read about? He will forever be a word on a page. Is Jesus real? Have you ever invited Him to show Himself to you in some way? Are you engaged in conversation with Jesus to the extent that if He chose to appear to you for some special reason, it would seem perfectly natural?

The record of Acts is of people who were all going about their business until they had some encounter with the risen Jesus of Nazareth and He changed everything in their life. But not all had the same encounter. Not everyone saw a vision or heard an audible voice. Many more encountered Jesus the same way that you and I do, in the changed lives of those who testified to His reality as a risen Messiah. In fact, this is how most people will encounter Him.

Clarence Jordan, who started a cooperative farm shared by blacks and whites as equals in Georgia in 1942 as a demonstration of the kingdom of God said, “The crowning evidence that [Jesus] lives is not a vacant grave, but a spirit-filled fellowship. Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church.” Clarence Jordan

If you are already a believer in Jesus, you most likely came to faith through the testimony of someone who demonstrated a life that had been transformed by the presence of Jesus by His Spirit. Many of you have been that demonstration to someone already. But the reason many Christians don’t demonstrate this transformation is that it requires suffering.

This brings us to the final observation

Jesus Fills Empty Vessels

Jesus tells Ananias about his plans for Saul.

Acts 9:15–16 (ESV)

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.”

The word Jesus uses for “instrument” is the word for vessel or jar. A vessel is useful when it is filled with the right stuff. Saul of Tarsus came to Damascus filled with so much. He mouth filled with threats, his heart filled with murder, his hands filled with arrest warrants. He was filled with pride, his own self-importance and power, and there was no room for humility, grace, or love. In other words, no room to carry Jesus’ name to the nations. Before Saul could truly be of use to God, he had to be emptied. Jesus wants to change everything about you.

“The evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is so strong that nobody would question it except for two things: First, it is a very unusual event. And second, if you believe it happened, you have to change the way you live.” Wolfhart Pannenberg

The way God empties us of our pride, our hate, our self-importance so that we can learn humility, grace, and love is always the same. It requires affliction and suffering. If we will walk in love and the power of the gospel as Jesus did, we must walk the way of the cross that leads to resurrection life. We die to our old self that lives according to the ways of this world. We can then be filled with the presence of God by His Spirit to carry the good news that Jesus is Savior and King and lives to save us. He walked the way of the cross first.

So, what fills you? If you are not encountering the life-changing presence of the risen Jesus Christ, this could be the day you do. I invite you to take a moment to empty yourself at this table in prayer. Empty out your fear, your hate, your anxious thoughts, your shame, your regret, your self-worship. Invite the risen Jesus to reveal Himself to you and change you. And then by faith, to be filled with Him. Communion.

Questions for Discussion

What Easter celebrations and traditions are most meaningful to you?

What are some reasons you believe Jesus rose from the dead?

What do we learn about Jesus in our passage?

What do we learn from Acts 9:4? How does this help us in our lives as Christians?

Why does Jesus blind Saul for three days? Have you ever had an experience of being “put in the corner” for a time by Jesus until He showed you something new and life-changing?

Why does Jesus involve Ananias in Saul’s healing? What does this tell us about how Jesus works in the church?

Why would Jesus use Saul, an enemy of the gospel, to do what others like Stephen could have done, taking the gospel to the Gentiles? How does this passage shape our understanding of the gospel?