Acts 9:1-19
What encounters have you had that changed your life? A sickness, loss of a job, death of someone you loved, a son or daughter that is living a troubled life or a divorce? Many things we encounter change our lives.
My dad told a story about a man that lived in his community in his growing-up years. This was the early years of the 1900’s. The men of the community would get together and cut logs to clear land to expand the land that could be cultivated. He said that one of the men named Wilson was a big strong man with a very bad temper. It did not take much for Wilson to turn on someone and beat them into a pulp. He was feared by all the people that knew him. A small wiry man moved into the community. He joined the group of men one day cutting logs. He said something that Wilson did not like and Wilson told him to shut his mouth or he would whip him. The new man said something else and Wilson came after him but to Wilson’s surprise the small man knocked him down and set on his chest and gave him the beating of his life. The beating changed Wilson’s life. He became a kind and caring person after that. A few years later after that fight someone asked him what had changed his life. He told them that the whipping taught him a lesson that was life changing. He said that he had learned that there is always someone quicker and tougher than him. He said, “I also learned in that encounter that there is a better way to live life.”
In today’s scripture we meet Saul, the Pharisee that hated the disciples and followers of Jesus. He stood in the crowd that had arrested Stephen. The high council had paid some men to lie about what Stephen had been teaching. The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the Holy Temple and against the law of Moses. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
Stephen told them who Jesus was, and is, for us and then the mob took action. “Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. The man watched Stephen die praying for those that were killing him.” Saul took action. He wanted to bring an end to this movement that Jesus started with his teaching, preaching, death and resurrection. Saul went to the high priest. “He requested letters addressed to the synagogue in Damascus asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of The Way he found there. He wanted to bring them – both men and women – back to Jerusalem in chains.”
This trip to Damascus would bring a life changing encounter for Saul. In that encounter Saul fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
“Who are you Lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus the one you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do.”
God would use the faith of Ananias to complete this life changing event for Saul. God spoke to Ananias and told him to go help Saul. In an act of trusting faith Ananias went to help Saul. “He laid his hand on him and said, ‘Brother Saul the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. Afterward he ate some food and regained his strength.”
Saul regained much more that just his sight in this encounter with Jesus. He gained a new life, a new name and the very purpose that God had for his life. In this new life Paul would bring hundreds of people to meet the Jesus he met on the road to Damascus. His witness and word gave life and birth to the church.
Where did you encounter Jesus? Who helped you become a believer that Jesus was your Savior? Have you ever prayed and thanked God for the person, or persons, that helped you become a child of God? Have you ever allowed God to use you so someone else would come to know the love, forgiveness and grace that gave you a new life?
