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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’”
“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’”
“‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”
Acts 26:12-18
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
If Paul was guilty of anything, it was that at one time in his life, he was just like the Jewish religious leaders who persecuted him. He arrested Christians and took great joy in punishing them, even endorsing murdering them in many instances. The scriptures affirm one such incident as a servant of Jesus named Stephen was stoned to death for his belief in Christ as Savior.
This was the apostle’s confession part of his speech to King Agrippa and the august group of people gathered with him in the audience room of the Roman governor Festus.
You’ll recall that Paul was delivering this message at Agrippa’s request after he had appealed his case to Caesar. Festus had asked if Paul was willing to return to Jerusalem for questioning by the high priest and the Sanhedrin but the apostle wasn’t about to do that and so he demanded his case be heard by the Emperor himself. Not having any charge against Paul, either by Roman or Jewish standards, he sought to find something that would justify sending Paul to Rome during his speech before Agrippa.
And so Paul told his story and today, we see him share how he ended up following Jesus after so much time rejecting Him and abusing those who believed in him. As we look at our passage for today and the continued study of Acts 26, we find Paul detailing what is widely called his “Damascus moment”. Look again at his words here:
“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’”
“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’”
“‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’” Acts 26:12-18
It had been just another day of doing what he took delight in, doing everything he could to eliminate anything having to do with Jesus. He was fully invested with the Jewish religious leadership, many of which were Pharisees as he was. The Sanhedrin had already managed to eliminate the one who said He was sent by God to be the Messiah and King of the Jews. Now all that was left to be done was to systematically eradicate all of Jesus’ followers.
And so after gaining the approval of the chief priests, Paul was on his way to Damascus to seek out Christians there, arrest them, and bring them back to Jerusalem. That was Paul’s plan but little did he know that the Lord had something else in mind, a Damascus moment, moment that would change Paul’s life forever.
Detailing what happened, Paul tells Agrippa that it was about noon when a brilliant light brighter than the sun suddenly descended from heaven and “blazed around” Paul and his traveling party who all fell to the ground. It was there that Paul, and only Paul, heard a voice ask him in the Aramaic language:
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
Not knowing the voice of Christ because he was in no relationship with him, Paul asked:
“Who are you, Lord?”
To which, Jesus answered that it was He who was addressing his future apostle before giving him the following orders:
“Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
In other words, Paul was formally commissioned to serve Jesus. He had worked against Him before that day on the road to Damascus but from there on out, he would work for Him to carry out two specific tasks that included:
1. Opening the eyes of the Jews and the Gentiles to their sinful ways and the need for a salvation they couldn’t gain for themselves.
Of interest, we know that when Jesus finished speaking to Paul, who was then called Saul, on the road to Damascus, He left him blind. His traveling companions had to lead him into Damascus where the scriptures tell us he fasted and prayed for three days before the Lord sent a man named Ananias to go to Saul, touch his eyes, and restore his sight.
Saul’s eyes were opened and he knew what he needed to do. Jesus was ordering him to help others regain their proper sight as well.
2. Paul was also ordered to help sinners turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of their Messiah Savior.
During his ministry, Jesus said this about Himself:
“I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12
Anyone living separate from Jesus was living in darkness and powerless against the power of Satan and the wickedness he led people to. The only way to escape this was to believe in the One who was the Light of the world, the only One who could provide the Light of life.
What was the purpose of bringing people out of the dark and into the Light of Jesus?
Jesus tells us as He finishes offering His direction to Saul. For when people were brought from the dark into the Light of Jesus, they would receive “forgiveness of sins”, washed absolutely clean by the precious shed blood of the Lamb Jesus, who God sent to take away the sins of the world (John 1:29). This cleansing and pardon set new Christ believers apart from the world, sanctifying them through their faith in Him.
It was true in Paul’s time and it remains true today.
Through his words in today’s passage, Paul essentially tells King Agrippa how he got from where he was as a Christ persecutor to where he was presently, a Christ believer and servant. Through testifying about his Damascus moment, Paul let his audience know that Jesus was indeed very much alive and working powerfully in the lives of the people God had placed Him in full authority over. If Jesus could do what He did to Paul, He could do it to anyone of those listening to him in the audience room, to include the mighty King Agrippa.
This same Jesus moves in power today. He still seeks and comes to people in ways to bring them to His service and, like Saul, He never leaves any new followers to wonder what they are to do. For we know that Jesus gave us this great commission, our marching orders as we work to bring the people of the world out of darkness and into His Light. Our tasking is as follows and it’s time to get to work:
“…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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