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.