2022.05.01 What Amazes You?
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What Amazes You?
What Amazes You?
Acts 9:1-6 • Acts 9:7-21
Do we believe this story?
I mean, do we really believe this happened?
Do we believe it happened like it’s recorded?
Do we believe Saul was knocked off his high horse?
Do we believe he was blinded?
Do we believe he and his companions heard Jesus’ voice?
Do we believe Jesus said what’s recorded here?
Do you believe Ananias heard God’s voice?
Do you believe God made a believer go lay hands on this persecutor of believers?
Are we too sophisticated to believe any of this? If we believe all of this … or if we believe ANY of this: What part of this is most amazing? Perhaps we can say, “Well, that was biblical times. God doesn’t do these things anymore.”
I’ll tell you, I find all of those elements amazing. But we often miss one of the amazing parts in this story.
Saul is left blind, and Jesus tells him to get up and go into the city. How? He has to rely on the help of the others with him to get there. I think there’s a message there for us.
Saul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He had been raised and studied the Jewish law under one of the greatest Rabbinical teachers of his day, Gamaliel.
But even he can’t just go out and arrest Christians.
Acts 9:1–2 (NLT)
1b So he went to the high priest. 2a He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest ...
He needs the cooperation of other people. First, the High Priest. Then, the synagogues in Damascus. He believes he’s doing righteous work, so he enlists the help of others who want righteousness to prevail.
Then, along the road, he has this experience, and he’s left blind. So he enlists the help of others to get to where the Lord tells him to go.
Acts 9:6 (NLT)
6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Get up and go into the city?! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?!?!
Paul has this amazing experience with the risen Christ! And then he’s stuck!
Saul is like a bully who finds himself down and out and needs the help of his former target. Someone else may be able to help Saul into the city … but who can restore his sight and vouch for him in this new community except one of the very people he went to arrest?
Ironic, right? The very people he’s persecuting have to participate in his recovery.
If Saul converted and just disappeared … faded into oblivion, perhaps it wouldn’t have happened that way. Perhaps the slight irony would remain, but we likely wouldn’t even know the name Saul or Paul if he had become a follower and just sought to live his life quietly and not make waves. But, there’s a second stage to his conversion.
We usually focus so much on the big deal of Saul’s conversion, that we miss the even bigger deal of his calling! We get the irony of his conversion to the same thing he’s persecuting. But we miss the irony that he will now suffer unspeakable persecution because of his answering God’s call.
The mountaintop experience left Saul blind and could have been abandoned. So Stage 1 tells Saul - YOU’RE PERSECUTING THE GOD YOU THINK YOU’RE DEFENDING! Jesus basically tells him, “You’re ‘friendly firing’ on me! STOP IT!”
Stage 2 tells Saul that he can’t do anything alone. Ananias doesn’t want to help him. And who would?! He has nothing but enemies on the Christian side of things, and he’s just become an enemy to everyone on the Jewish side of things.
Stage 3 is the biggie, though … let me tell you what you should do!
Acts 9:6 (NLT)
6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
In 1988, Scott Wesley Brown released a farcical song to Christian radio stations, but the lyrics were less farcical if we look at them honestly:
O Lord I am Your willing servant
You know that I have been for years
I'm here in this pew every
Sunday and Wednesday
I've stained it with many a tear
I've given You years of my service
I've always given my best
And I've never asked You for anything much
So Lord I deserve this request
Please don't send me to Africa
I don't think I got what it takes
I'm just a man I'm not a Tarzan
I don't like lions gorilla or snakes
I'll serve you here in suburbia
In my comfortable middle class life
But please don't send me out into the bush
Where the natives are restless at night
“Please Don’t Send Me To Africa” • Phill McHugh | Scott Wesley Brown • © 1988 Universal Music - Brentwood Benson Publishing | Pamela Kay Music | River Oaks Music Company
The scariest part of discipleship isn’t converting. It’s the realization that the mountaintop isn’t the end!
Conversions are exciting! Pentecost is coming, and it’s exciting to think about several thousand people converting at the same time. If you’ve ever been to a Billy Graham crusade, watching people stream down from the tops of the stadium is awe-inspiring. When I worked in Christian radio, as the station’s photographer, I got to stand on the turf for a Billy Graham crusade and watch them stream TOWARD ME! I can’t really put words to it.
Even a single conversion is miraculous and exciting! Transforming from death to life is unbelievable! I've told many people about my conversion and it’s an exciting story to tell. But the even better news is that God doesn’t leave us where we are!
He follows the conversion with a calling. It’s not always as soon or as specific as Paul’s, but as exciting as it is to move from death to life … it’s equally exciting to shift from directionless to called!
Many in the church today have gotten up and gone into the city … but they didn’t wait to be “told what [they] must do”. They returned to their old life and wondered why their faith doesn’t seem to stick … why their life isn’t different beyond a day or so.
What Amazes You?
What Amazes You?
In fact, many of us have even brazenly told God where we will and won’t serve him? Friends, that is not surrender. Even Jesus didn’t want the cup God had for him! Remember? (Lord don’t send me to Africa)
Meatloaf sang in the 1990s: “I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that.” And God has a sense of humor … whatever you put in that box will likely end up being God’s calling on you.
Moses didn’t want to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Elijah didn’t want to face Jezebel. King Saul didn’t want to fight Goliath. Jesus didn’t want to die on a cross. Saul didn’t want to start making disciples. Peter didn’t want to work with Gentiles. We stand in a long line of people resisting God’s calling.
This could be God demonstrating his sovereignty or just us resisting what we already know is our calling.
Either way, conversion is followed by a calling. If you haven’t received a calling, is it possible you’re resisting it? You can resist your calling, but you will not change your calling. God may, but you won’t. His calling is his calling, and I trust it is neither capricious nor random. He saved you, and is ready to give your life purpose … HIS purpose.
That’s amazing to me, but what’s more amazing is how often we fight that purpose.
Are you ready to surrender?
[shift to Communion]