18 Jan

April 22, 2018    Acts 9:1-20    “You Gotta Love Change!”

I would guess that if I went around the room today we would find that many of you don’t really like change.  I know I’m like that and mamy people I know are like that.  I guess that there is nothing really wrong with this unless it inhibits your ability to function.  You don’t get to live as long as I have without being able to adapt.  That is different than change.  We adapt because we have to and we may not like it.  As I said last week, get used to it.  Anyway, today we are going to look at a different kind of change.  This is a change that is fiercely resisted because Satan’s owns this world.  It’s a change that is always good and yet so many don’t have it.  Let’s take a look at the story of Saul and see if we can see ourselves in his life.

Not too many years ago there was a movie about Jackie Robinson that was supposed to be quite good.  He was the man that broke the color barrier and changed major league baseball for the better.  But he did not have it easy.  Fans jeered him at every stadium.  Other players stomped on his feet and tried to kick him.  Last week I preached about how life isn’t fair and it sure wasn’t for Jackie Robinson.

One day when he was playing at his hometown stadium in Brooklyn, he made a mistake, an error.  The fans were on him right away as they jeered him and ridiculed him while he stood at second base.  The shortstop, Pee Wee Reese, came over to him, put his arm around him and faced the crowd.  They became quiet.  Robinson said that that gesture probably saved his career.  So often we don’t realize how our actions hurt someone else.   Often times we make a mistake or we are like the fans in the crowd and do something very shameful.  You should always remember to praise the Lord during these times because He comes up to you and puts his loving arm around you so that you may try again.  He loves you that much.

God also wants you to reach your full potential.  The main problem here is that we really don’t know what that potential is.  This is an example of why we should be doing all the little things that might help someone like Jackie Robinson.  It will never hurt you to get to know the checker here at Hornbacker’s or where ever you shop.  You never know who they might be.

Warren Kimball tells of a Sunday school teacher who led the famous D.L. Moody to Christ in the 1800’s.  Then in 1870, Wilbur Chapman attended a D.L. Moody evangelical meeting in Chicago and received personal counseling and was led to Christ by D.L Moody himself.  He became a friend and coworker of the famous evangelist. Then he hired a former baseball star, Billy Sunday, to work as an advance man for him.

In 1924 Billy Sunday held an evangelist ic campaign in Charlotte NC.  From this event grew a men’s prayer and fellowship group named Billy Sunday’s Layman’s  Evan’gelist ic Club, later to be known as the Charlotte’s Businessmen’s Club.  This group of men invited Mordecai Ham to an evan’gelist ic event in 1934.  At one of these meetings where Mordecai Ham preached, a young 16 year old lad named Billy Graham came forward and received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.  And of course, Billy Graham has preached to millions around the world.  The point of all of this is that you do not know what God has in mind for the person sitting next to you or anyone around you and that includes you.  His plan could be for something great to come you now, 50 years from now or continuing from 2000 years ago.

That is what we have in this morning’s scripture.  In the first two verses we meet a Pharisee who is a leader among Pharisee’s.  He is very intelligent, very persuasive and on a mission that He thinks comes from God.  He is out to destroy everyone involved with the new religion called the Way, which is what Christians were called.  He had already murdered Stephen.  And now he is making murderous threats against all of the disciples with the blessing of the high priest.  His name was Saul and he was possessed to do away with the disciples.

You know the tough part of a situation like this is that Saul thinks that he is doing the work of God.  These kinds of people are hard to figure out.  They do what they do with little regard to anything else because they know they are right as God told them to do it.  Organizations have done this for centuries.  The Catholic Church knew they were doing God’s work when they sold indulgences for cleansing sins in the Middle Ages.  The Church of England knew they were doing God’s will by only ministering to the rich people.  Even governments today will say that they are doing the work of God as they are murdering and oppressing millions of people.  What is wrong with us?  Why can’t we learn?  Why can’t we see that Jesus is the only way?

It has not just been organizations that do this.  Adolph Hitler thought that he was a wonderful Christian and look what he did.  I am sure that no one could have talked any sense to Jim Jones before his cult committed mass suicide.  I’m sure those lunatics that caused 9/11 knew they were right.  And we don’t have a clue as to what is wrong with all these people who shoot up our schools or other places where crowds gather.  We are one sick society!

We have people like Saul all around us today.  One of the most disheartening things that I hear is when someone tells me that God has told them to tell me something.  I have red flags go up all over.  These people think that they have a special pipeline to God that no one else has.  I feel that these people are not quite the prophets that they think they are.  If God wants me to know something from Him, chances are He will tell me or you.  Jesus came to this earth so that we could speak directly to him.  We do not need an intermediary anymore.  We can go directly to God.  And that is Good News.  Praise the Lord.

Suddenly Jesus appears before Saul who was on his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians.  Even though Saul has been one of the worst enemies of Jesus, Jesus only makes him blind.  He does not do anything else even though He had to power to do anything.  He just makes him blind and tells him to go and he will be told what to do.

For three days Saul is blind.  Three days he is in total darkness.  He is led to the city and stays.  I would imagine that Saul did some real soul searching in those three days.  I can’t begin to imagine the thought processes of such a high and arrogant leader as Saul.  These high power leaders have a hard time to admit that they are wrong.  Some of you remember Richard Nixon.  It took him a couple of years or so to admit that he was wrong.  Some leaders like Bill Clinton never do admit they were wrong.  Satan works this huge problem in our lives called ego.  It seems that we have a very hard time getting past our egos.  We would rather be blind!  Then Jesus strikes Saul blind and he has no choice really but to reexamine his life.

But that is not the most unimaginable event happening here.  We have Ananias being told by the Lord to minister to Saul.  He knows of Saul and knows that he has come to Damascus to arrest the Apostles and maybe even kill them.  He knows of all the terrible things Saul has done.  So basically he tells the Lord, “Are you crazy?  Do you know who this man is?  I can’t go and minister to him. He is a terrible enemy!”  Now this is not exactly what he said, but it is what I probably would have said.  I think that it is wonderful that we can take everything to Jesus, even our anxiety and anger.  I want you to notice once again how the Lord deals with this.  Just as he did with Saul, God does not get angry with Ananias either.  He just tells him to go and Ananias went.  Ananias also had to swallow his ego.  Ananias is a regular person just like you and I.  We all have our egos and they can stand in our way of God.

Now we come to the most important part of the Scripture.  Saul is in a bad way.  He is blind.  In those days blind people had to fend for themselves.  There were no programs for them.  As a matter of fact there was very little sympathy for them.  Normally he would have been left to find his own way.  We need to remember that this is a primitive society by our standards.  It was Jesus who brought compassion into our world.  Jesus is responsible all our compassion programs.  Before this time there was very little compassion for anyone less than you.  This can be seen as how those like the Romans treated the Jews.  But Jesus loves Saul even though he is a down and out rat.  Through Ananias, the Holy Spirit is given to Saul because Jesus has big plans for him.  He has such big plans for him that Luke, the author of Acts, writes about him for the next 18 chapters of the book of Acts.  He has such big plans for him that he will go on to write a majority of the New Testament books.  Saul is a changed man.  We talked about this last week.  Jesus changes people for the better.  Saul is no longer that evil scoundrel of a Pharisee.  He is now a dedicated follower of Jesus Christ, the very man he had hated just a few days before.

He is so changed that his name will even be different.  He will soon be known as Paul.  Paul will be the one to take this gospel and spread it to the Gentiles throughout the area and the known world.  He will go on to affect every generation from then until now.  He is not unlike an unknown Jackie Robinson or a 16 year old Billy Graham.  God sees the potential and gets events started so that they come back to honor Christ and not us.  I stand here today and I see all the potential good sitting before me.  It’s up to you go get started.  Spread the name of Jesus where ever you go.

Now the question that comes to some minds when we read a passage such as this is how do you know that you are indeed saved?  All I can say is that if you aren’t sure you are saved then you probably aren’t.  Last week I talked about how many people are sitting in our churches who think they are Christian but are not.  Most of us aren’t being led by God to be another Billy Graham or Paul.  We are just regular folks.  I would like to say that after almost two years of getting to know you, there are many Christians in our midst.  But I do not know for sure.  And it is not for me to know.  All I can do is present the Gospel in such a way that it is pleasing to our God.  He does all of the rest of the work.  He has sent a group of missionaries to Israel from this church.  When I was still leading churches we would have our confirmation classes stand before the congregation and say their vows that they were Christian.  But I do not know for sure if they were or not.  I might have had a good idea but there was no certainty.  That is between them and God; you and God.  Then you will know for sure, for sure and you will try to act accordingly.

I try to preach every Sunday like there are 99% of you who are saved.  I am probably a little high on that but that is another matter.  Anyway, if there is one of you is not saved then this is for you.  Ask Jesus Christ to live in your heart.  Confess your sins, accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and ask Him to live in your heart.  You see Paul and Billy Graham aren’t the only changed people in the world.  There are many people here this morning, including myself, who have been changed dramatically by the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives. And this change is not only good but it’s great.  This is not just for other people, this is for you.  Jesus wants to enter your life today so that He can wrap His arms around you in love and comfort.  Ask Him in today.

I’m going to get off track a little bit here but I hope that I can tie it in at the end.  One of the main objections that an evangelist will get for people not asking Jesus into their lives is that they can always do it later.  But we don’t all have a later.

We keep having terrible tragedies in our country.  I do not normally talk of current events but these jump out at us.  How many school shootings need to happen before we say enough?  Our daughter and son-in-law were at the terrible massacre in Las Vegas last fall.  These things can suddenly hit real close to home.  We have so-called terrorists doing bombings and other abhorrent deeds throughout the world.  By the way we should quit calling them terrorists and start calling them chickens because that is what they are.  Anyway my first thoughts go to all the families that have been left devastated with huge holes in them.

I think that the bottom line is this and I have said this many times.  We are a broken people living in a broken world.  And it is not just a little bit broken.  It is way broken.  The first thing that happens after one of these tragedies is we have to point the blame finger at someone.    We cannot come to grips with the fact that we are to blame for this.  God did not do this.  This is the work of Satan, not God.  Satan will try to get a hold of us any way that he can.  Finally someone breaks and these terrible things happen.  But God did not do this.  But He will get some glory out of this somehow.  Some people will come to Christ because of this and do great things.  Through all of this hurt and agony, God will shine through.  Satan may win a battle but God has already won the war.  He will triumph in this somehow.  I should be hearing ‘Amens.’

Another way to view this is that we do not understand death.  It is sad when someone dies.  It is a loss for us here in this world.  But we know better.  Deep down we know that when we die we will be in glory with Jesus.  Do you remember the transfiguration?  Moses and Elijah walked with Jesus centuries after their death in this world.  They were and they are alive!  Jesus walked with us for 40 days after he had died.  He was and is alive!  He came to this earth to show us that there is more to life than what we see now.  There is much, much more.  There is an eternity more.  I don’t want anyone mourning for me when I die because I will be walking and talking with Jesus during my funeral.

Anyway getting back on topic, as I mentioned Saul had to do some soul searching.  We know this because this formerly hardened instrument of Satan got up from being blind and was baptized.  We are talking a changed man here.  Just like Peter was last week.  He will eventually go on to become one of the greatest evangelists that has ever lived.  We need to take notice of this because of two things.  Jesus is always in control and our egos are not.  If your ego is in control then you will never get to know Jesus.

Terrible things happening have become far too common.  And I do not have any idea as to why these things happen.  But I do know that even in these times of tragedy, God’s love and presence will shine through.  Things will eventually happen for His glory.  Our job is the same job that Jesus shows us as He converted Paul to a believer.  We are to keep trying to win people, through the Holy Spirit, to Jesus.  We want everyone that we know to join us in glory and in heaven should something happen to us tomorrow.  And I would guess that at least some of the victims these shootings and tragedies wish that they could have five more minutes, just five minutes in this world to get right with Jesus.  So do not postpone your decision to follow Jesus because we do not know the hour in which He will come.

Today we have talked about Paul and how Jesus changed the life of a bitter enemy.  He also changed the life of one of His best friends, Peter.  Jesus changes people for the better.  This is one change that everyone should be seeking with unbridled vigor.  So whatever you are doing, do it in the name of Jesus.  Things will be better and that is a promise from Jesus who loves you more than you will ever know in this world.  His love for you specifically will never stop.  It goes on and on and on.  So grab ahold of it and praise the Lord.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.