The Only One

This is an excerpt from a sermon I preached on August 2. It covers Acts 9:1-9.

"Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." Acts 9:1-2

In these verses we see a man that is doing what he thought was the right thing to do.

He was not hunting down this new sect in secret.

He was not hiding.

He was not ashamed.

He went through the proper channels to continue this hunt that gained steam with the murder of Stephen.

Saul was doing something he thought he had to do.

Saul was a Pharisee. This was a group that fervently sought after God.  

They wanted to do everything that they could to protect their version of who God was and to follow Him.

The problem for the Pharisees started to come in with how they dealt with the Law and what they did with Oral tradition. The problem was with their “version” of God.

So if there were a Pharisee in our presence, it would be someone that loved the Lord and did everything he or she could to follow Him.

They would be devoted to doing what they thought was right.
It would be their life goal.

It would happen at whatever cost.

For Saul, it took what we would call an extreme route.

It went this route because he took offense to what was going on.

He found it to be offensive to the version of God that he knew.

He made it his task, his burden, his righteous duty to do something about. We see this carried out in the end of Acts 7 and beginning of Acts 8.

He was not hiding.

The problem for Saul starts in verse four:

"Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Acts 9:3-4

This is where Saul’s worldview starts to come crashing down.  

This is where Saul started to realize that he had not been making good choices.

This is where he realized he could not make himself righteous.

Think about what Saul is doing at this moment.

He is traveling to Damascus.

The distance from Jerusalem to Damascus is 135 miles.

Imagine the thoughts going through Saul’s head in this situation.

He is doing what he knew to be right.

Everything was right in his head.

He was seeking justice for his God.

He was approaching Damascus and probably prepping himself for the task he had at hand.

And then, blinded by the Light. Literally.

Imagine the thoughts that might be going through Saul’s head:

“Whom am I persecuting?”

“I am not persecuting anyone. I am doing my duty.”

“Could this be Jesus, the heretic?”

“Could this be God?”

“Does this mean I am going to die?”

“If this is God, death is probably the best option now.”

For Saul everything he knew to be true was shown in an instant to be wrong.

Everything he knew to be true and was doing was predicated on the fact that Jesus was not who He said He was.

It was predicated on the fact that Jesus was a fake, was a blasphemer.

It was predicated on the fact that Jesus was not resurrected.

It was predicated on falsities.

Verse 5 says:

"He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”"Acts 9:5

And the shattering of Saul’s worldview is now complete.

This is where Saul’s questions were answered.

This is where everything appeared to be final.

This is where he probably should have died.

If we were judging things, this is where he would have died.

I imagine that there were some followers of the Way that wanted him dead too.

Thankfully, we are not the judge because if we were, our New Testaments would be severely lacking. 

This is where Saul realized that Jesus was actually who he said he was.

Think about Saul’s shock at hearing the name, Jesus.

This Jesus that he had heard about, actually was true and righteous.

Jesus was the righteous one.

Saul was not the righteous one.

He could not carry out the righteous act because he had a wrong idea about what was righteous.

He had a wrong idea about God.

His version of God was wrong.

His version of God did not include Jesus.

His version of God was incomplete.

Jesus helped to complete Saul’s view of God.

Jesus helped to show Saul his error.

Jesus offered redemption.  

"But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank." Acts 9:6-9

The word “but” is huge here. This shows that Saul’s story was not done.

This shows that Saul was going to get another chance.

Saul was likely relieved and now we start to see a different Saul.

We see everything starting to come full circle for him.

We see a man that is starting to understand the weight of what he had been doing.

We see a man that realized he had chosen poorly on many of his life decisions.

We see a man that thought his life was correct.

 But now he is seeing that the only way to change is through Jesus.

Missed Opportunity

[Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.]
James 4:13-14

This is a sad time of year for my family. 
One year ago on July 15, my grandma, Memaw, passed away. 
It was unexpected. We were shocked. It was difficult to process.
She was not young, but there were no signs showing that this was going to happen. 

In that sense, I certainly understand the writing of James. Memaw was here one moment and gone the next. She was gone as fast as the mist. 

The first place I went to was regret. 
I wished I had called more. 
I wished I had lived closer. 
I wished I had made the trip more often. 
I had to realize that despite what I wished, it did not change the outcome. 
I could not change the past. 
My wishing was not going to bring Memaw back.  
I lamented this. 
The night before things went downhill, I thought about calling but found some reason to not call. 
I put it off and told myself that I could another day. 
This "other day" did not come. 

By human standards, one would not call my Grandma's life a mist. 
She lived a full life. 
She married the love of her life and they remained married and in love for 64 years. 
This set the bar extremely high in our family. There was never far to look to see the example of real love in a relationship. This is the same legacy my parents carry. 
They had three children, five grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. 
She loved all of us well. As children every year we looked forward to Christmas and summer break because it meant going to Camden, Arkansas to see the grandparents. 
She loved having everyone over for those times. She loved it when her family was close. 
My grandma's life is something to be celebrated. She ran her race well and lived her life wondrously. 

The truth is not that I should continue to feel regret for not calling or seeing her more. 
The truth is that she loved all her grandchildren and me with her entire heart, and she also loved her Savior that way. 
The truth is that anyone could be gone in an instant. 
Death carries no prejudice. It comes for the young and the old. 
The truth comes in realizing this and understanding the importance of love in all of life's encounters. 
It comes in realizing that love and contact with those that one loves, should not be put off for tomorrow because it might not come. 
The truth comes in realizing the importance of the greatest commandment: 
[He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”]
Matthew 22:37-40. 

In this realization, one can love fearlessly and understand that people need the love of Christ. 
In this realization, we have the motivation to love with the love Christ spoke about and demonstrated today, for that is all that we are guaranteed. 

Unmerited Favor

[But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamites for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.]
2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Lately, this passage has not left my thoughts.
There are a few reasons for this but most are probably tied to the word, "grace."
Grace is something that I will need for the rest of my life. It will likely be impossible for me, or anyone, to live a life that does not need the grace of God. I would assume that most do not know how much it is truly needed and how much life grace gives.

To call grace undeserved is an understatement. That is simply made known through the definition of the word: "The free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners." Perhaps the trouble that people sometimes have with grace stems from one simply knowing himself. In my life, I do not have to look far to see things that I have done or thought that tell me I am unworthy of grace.
I know the depths of my mistakes.
I've seen some of the hurt my decisions have caused.
I know the thoughts that would make many blush.
I know that when looking at my life, I fit the description of a wretch.
It is easy for me to condemn myself.
It is easy for me to think that I do not deserve it.
It is easy because it is true.
I do not deserve grace.
I do not deserve to be forgiven.
I deserve death.

That is the importance of grace, and that is the Gospel.
I am not the only one that deserves death, everyone does.
Life is not about me and my failures.
Life is not about my screwups.
Life is not about how many people I have hurt.
I lose my place in life when I dwell on these things and think about how terrible I have been.
It leads to being in a place filled with gloom.
It leads to believing that I am in this alone.
It leads to a secret life. It leads to hiding important details of life from others out of fear, shame, or pride. This is not the intended course for life.
This is a life away from the realization of grace being sufficient.

To understand the sufficiency of grace, one must realize he is not above grace.
To need grace does not make one less of a person.
Needing grace is part of the basic human condition.
Understanding the sufficiency of grace allows one to be the person God created him or her to be.
It allows one to have an identity that is not rooted in selfishness or sin.
It is a step towards living a life that is worthy of the name, "Christian."

Reliability

The Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord’s power limited? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.'" Numbers 11:23

This verse contains a very direct question: "Is the Lord's power limited?"
Most people that believe in the Lord would quickly dismiss this question and say something along the lines of "of course not." But are their lives being lived in a manner that shows this belief to be true? Can I answer honestly that I believe this? Of course I want to say yes, but does my life give evidence to the fact that this is true for me?

In this passage, Moses is dealing with people that are doubting God and his goodness. The people have just fled Egypt in a miraculous way and everyone saw God perform many miracles on this journey. Yet, the Torah contains many examples of the people of God complaining about God after the fact that they just recieved freedom from Egypt. If they were not complaining about traveling, it was about the food they had to eat. If they did not like the food that God then provided for them, there would be complaints about there not being meat. This is the cycle of this population. They were never satisfied. They saw things happen that could only be described as miracles, yet they still doubted. They were hard-headed, selfish, and relied on themselves more than they relied on God. 

Just a few chapters after this, a scouting party was sent to the Promised Land. It is painfully obvious from this story that the people of God did think that the Lord's power was limited. Instead of looking at God and knowing that they were His people and all that they had to do was follow Him, they looked inward and realized that they were inadequate. Because of this, an entire people group was forced to wander aimlessly for forty years to rid itself of a generation of people that doubted God. 

The Answer was right in their face and had helped and guided them at every corner. But fear crept in and the people focused on that instead of their God. 

So, do you trust the Lord? 
Is His power limited? 
Is fear a plague on your life that keeps you focusing inward instead of upon Him? 
What is keeping you from trusting Him?
Are you ready to trust yourself more than God and wander aimlessly? 
Is it worth it?

Assurance and Certainty

Faith is an interesting and divisive word.
On one side, some say it is not necessary and that it is a hindrance to the human race.
It leads to people blindly believing in this fairy tell and is detrimental to all those around.
But is that what faith is supposed to look like?
What does God expect us to do with our faith?
If I believe in an unseen God and have faith, does this make me crazy?

¹³All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 
Hebrews 11:13

Does it make me more crazy if I hold out for a promise that does not happen in my lifetime?
Does that mean that God lied to me if something was promised but I was not around to see it come to fruition? If that is the case, why do I think I am more special than those listed in this chapter?

This entire chapter deals with the idea of faith and what it should look like and even defines it. It talks about many people that had great faith in the Bible. 
It deals with the idea of motivation. 
Where is motivation found?
Why do we do things?
Is it only to protect self and to further our brand?

When it comes to following Christ, that brand of motivation is not acceptable.
This self-first motivation leads to covering our own self and making sure that we appear great to all that see. It leads to everyone wearing a mask.
It leads to the deathnail of the local church, pride.
Why is pride so tricky and deadly?
It eliminates God from the equation.
It means that we think that we know best.
It means that we are so focused on control and doing things our way, that we do not care what happens to all those around us.
It kills empathy.
It promotes an ungodly desire to see our name lifted higher.

Is it possible to live out a faith that is so real that we do not care if we see promises come to fruition in our life?
Is it possible that this is an acceptable version of faith?
Is it possible to have a faith that eliminates pride?

A real Faith has no need for pride.
It has the assurance of an unconditional love that is beyond comprehension.
It has the assurance of an unrelenting forgiveness and understands the need for that forgiveness.
A real Faith has experienced this love and forgiveness.
A real Faith knows the acceptance that is found in Christ and is forever thankful.
A real Faith understands that we are not on this earth for self glory and promotion.
A real Faith can confound the proud.

The Complication

Micah 6:8
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Is there more required of me than what this says?
There must be. We are taught that life must be complex.
But this short little verse is simple.
So it cannot be right.
Life has to be more complicated than this.
There has to be steps.
There has to be hurdles to jump and hoops to go through.

But what if there doesn't?
What if the complications that come along are minor and ultimately inconsequential?
Maybe we have so much trouble finding meaning and purpose to this existence because we look everywhere but the most obvious place? Maybe this is caused by our strange desire for complication?

Where is the trust in those situations?
Is it in the problems and focusing on the minutiae?
There is an Answer.
There is a way to a simpler life.
There is a way to a fulfilling life.
There is a way to make a difference in your world.