Sunday, July 13, 2008: The First Steps of Faith

The First Steps of Faith
Acts 9: 1 – 20.

I. Introduction.

Tomorrow will be the first day of our annual Vacation Bible School. I expect this week will be one of my favorite events of the year, because VBS always is. I like VBS week, because I get to watch our church pull together and do something as a church that no individual church member could accomplish on his or her own.

We try to use people where they are gifted. People with the gift of hospitality are in charge of providing snacks for the children and adult workers. People with the gift of teaching are utilized as Bible Story teachers. People who are gifted with organization and administration do their very best to keep us on some semblance of a schedule. Musicians lead the children in music and worship. We even have a place for crafty people turn toilet paper rolls into works of modern art.

I like to think of VBS week as an investment. We are investing our individual and collective resources into the future generation of leaders for this church and for churches all over the world.

We invest ourselves in children, so that these children can learn the stories about Jesus and what it means to live as a follower of Jesus as Lord. Some children come to us with a foundation of faith on which we can build. We pray that these children will take childlike steps of faith through the week and carry these lessons with them as they grow into the Christian men and women God wants them to become. Other children come to us without a foundation of faith. We pray that these children will hear the Gospel in ways that are age-appropriate so they can respond accordingly.

It was during VBS 1980 that I took my first steps of faith. It was not the first time I had ever heard about Jesus. My parents had taken me to church all my life. It was not the first time I had heard stories from the Bible. My parents had read Bible stories to me every night of my life. But it was the first time I realized that I had to make my own profession of faith.

The profession of faith I made in 1980 was not the end of my faith. It was the beginning of a journey that continues today. And just like any journey, my journey of faith started out with a first step.

Today, we read the story in Acts about a man named Saul who took his first steps of faith. This was not the first time Saul had heard about Jesus. But it was the first time he realized he had to make his own profession of faith. This was not the end of Saul’s faith journey. It was just the first step. If this had been the end of Saul’s journey, our world would be incredibly different today.

Read Acts 9: 1 – 20.

For most of us, the story of Saul on the road to Damascus is not a surprise. We have heard this story dozens of times and have reviewed it numerous times in Sunday School lessons and in Sunday morning sermons. For some of us, there is nothing “new” remaining to be discovered in this story.

Understanding this story is very important to us, if we hope to understand the rest of the New Testament. After all, this is the story of Saul the Pharisee, who became Paul the Apostle and the author of approximately one-half of the New Testament. So, we can say that Luke has told us a story which has far-reaching impact on the spread of the Christian faith from the First Century through the Twenty-First Century and beyond.

The story of Saul on the road to Damascus has always been one of our favorite conversion stories in the Bible. Conversion is another word for change. We preach this story, because it shows how the Gospel can and does change lives. Saul was changed from a judgmental and angry Pharisee to a Christian who preached about the love and grace of Jesus.

Luke introduced our story today by re-introducing us to Saul. This is not our first time to see Saul in the story of the early church. Saul quietly gave his approval when the Jewish leaders condemned Stephen to death. Saul collected the coats and outer garments for the individual members of the mob that stoned Stephen to death. Saul then went on a rampage against the Christian church.

Luke tells us that Saul began interrupting Sunday worship services in house churches. He burst into the doors of the house, arrested the men and women present, then led them off to Jerusalem to stand trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin. Now, Saul is expanding his persecution to the city of Damascus.

Saul requested the membership records from the Jewish high priest. Evidently, the Jerusalem Temple had a record of every Jew who held membership in the various synagogues. Saul’s motive was to find out if there were any more “good Jews” who had converted to Christianity. Then, he would arrest these men and women and bring them to judgment. But, Saul never fulfilled this plan.

On his way to arrest Christians in Damascus, Saul was himself arrested by a vision of bright light. The light was so bright that it actually blinded Saul for three days. But the light was not the only thing Saul encountered. He also heard a voice, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
The Bible tells us that Saul answered the voice with a question: “Who are you?” The voice answered, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting…”

I’m certain this was confusing to Saul to hear Jesus identify himself and to claim that Saul was actually persecuting Jesus. It was confusing, because Saul was not directly persecuting Jesus. He was persecuting the church. There is an important theological point to be drawn from Jesus’ words to Saul. When you mess with the church, you are messing with Jesus.

Jesus then instructed Saul to go into the city of Damascus and wait for further instructions. At this point, Luke shifts his emphasis away from Saul in order to tell how this story intersects with the life of a man name Ananias.

II. Encounter With Jesus.

The first thing that happened in Saul’s experience was beyond his control. Jesus stepped into Saul’s life at a time when no one would have expected. This first step of faith was a real life encounter with Jesus.

We are not talking about knowledge of the Bible or even an awareness that Jesus died for our sins. Saul experienced something intensely personal that can only barely be contained in words.
I believe this is why the New Testament was written in the first place. The Apostles lived with Jesus and experienced him in personal relationship. They wrote about their experiences with Jesus so that you and I could have the same kind of experiences. Yes, the words of Scripture are important. Yes, the Bible teaches us facts about the life of Jesus. Yes, the Bible teaches us about correct doctrine. BUT, the most important thing we can find in the Bible is not a thing at all. It is a person. Jesus is a real person, who continues to live today.

You might memorize the entire Bible and know all the facts, yet miss Jesus. Faith begins when we realize Jesus is a real person who knows us intimately and wants to be known intimately.

III. Conversion.

The second step of faith for Saul is his conversion. Again, conversion is another word for change. And Saul’s life before and after Jesus demonstrates a radical change. He changed from being a judgmental Pharisee to a missionary who can’t stop talking about God’s grace. He changed from being the church’s chief persecutor to the church’s chief ambassador.

This is one part of the story that differs among God’s followers. Saul had a radical transformation in his life. I was a nine year old boy when I became a Christian. Yes, there was a change in my life. But how much trouble can a nine year old boy get into? I mean, I didn’t even know what all Ten Commandments meant. How could I have broken those commandments?

Yes, every one who becomes a follower of Christ will go through a change or a conversion. But not all conversions are radical changes. Saul had a radical conversion. Zacchaeus had a radical conversion. But what about Andrew, Peter, James and John? We know there was a change in their lives, because they gave themselves fully to follow Jesus and even faced extreme persecution as a result of their faith. Yet, their stories in the Gospels seem like a relatively easy transition from following their parents to following Jesus.

It is a wonderful thing for us to teach our children about Jesus and lead them to profess faith in Jesus as Lord at an early age. We save them a world of heartache and pain by introducing them to Jesus at an early age.

After Jesus spoke to Saul, Jesus spoke to Ananias. Just as Jesus called Saul by name, Jesus called Ananias by name. However, there is a difference in the ways these two men responded. Saul did not recognize Jesus’ voice and asked Jesus to identify himself. Ananias immediately recognized Jesus’ voice and responded, “Yes, Lord.”

That is when Ananias probably wished he had not heard Jesus’ voice. Jesus was asking him to do something that no Christian wanted to do. Jesus wanted Ananias to meet with Saul face to face.

Ananias did what you and I often do when Jesus calls us to a specific job. He argued against doing what Jesus wanted him to do. “But, Lord, I have heard about Saul. It would be dangerous for me to meet with him.” Jesus replied with a simple command, “GO!” Ananias was afraid of Saul, because he did not know about Saul’s encounter on the road to Damascus. He did not know that Jesus was already working in Saul’s life.

IV. Community.

The third step of faith for Saul was his experience of community. This is best seen in the biblical story through Ananias’ first words to Saul. Ananias did not address Saul any differently than he would have addressed any other Christian man. He addressed him as “Brother Saul.”

No matter what you have done or how badly you have failed, there is a place where you can still be welcomed as a brother or sister.

Ananias obeyed Jesus’ call and did two things that are very significant. First, he accepted Saul. He indicates that he accepts Saul by greeting him as “Brother.” From a purely human point of view, Ananias was not willing to accept Saul. It took a divine encounter with Jesus to prepare Ananias for what was taking place in Saul’s life.

The second thing Ananias did was to lay hands on Saul. Laying on hands is a symbolic gesture described several times in the book of Acts. It is a symbol of the coming of the Holy Spirit. There are stories of people receiving the Holy Spirit apart from laying on hands, like the 120 men and women who received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And, there are stories of people receiving the Holy Spirit through laying on hands, like Saul in this story and the Samaritan Christians in Acts 8.

V. Spirit-Empowered Mission.

The fourth step of faith for Saul was participating in a Spirit-empowered mission with God. Another way to say this is to say that Saul joined God in the work God was already doing in the world around him. Another way to say this is to say that Saul realized that he had not been saved just to sit. God saved him so that Saul could do God’s work in the world.

I find it significant that when Ananias lay hands on Saul, Saul immediately received the Holy Spirit AND regained his sight. The physical sense of sight is a biblical symbol for understanding and knowledge. It functions in the same way in the story of Saul on the road to Damascus.
Saul knew the Bible. He had dedicated his life to reading the Bible and learning all the rules and regulations of Jewish tradition. He had heard the reports about the Apostles’ teaching about Jesus. He was present in the Sanhedrin when Stephen preached the Gospel message about Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesy. Yet, despite all his biblical knowledge, Saul was still blind. He lacked spiritual knowledge and insight. The only way Saul could have this kind of spiritual knowledge was for someone to come along side and help him. Ananias was the human person God sent to “open Saul’s eyes.” The Holy Spirit was the Divine person God sent to provide Saul with spiritual understanding like he had never experienced before.

After receiving both his physical sight and his spiritual sight, Saul went on a different kind of mission. Saul was no longer trying to destroy the church. Now, he was being used by God to expand the church. Notice what happened when Saul received the Holy Spirit. As soon as Saul received the Spirit, everyone around him knew it. Saul demonstrated an external sign that something invisible had happened inside him. The sign that Saul demonstrated is the same sign we find throughout the book of Acts. Anytime someone received the Holy Spirit, they did something…They preached the Gospel of Jesus. The evidence of the Holy Spirit in our lives can be confirmed when we begin to tell others about what Jesus did for us.

VI. Conclusion.

What would the world be like today if the story we read this morning was the end of Saul’s spiritual walk? What if there had been no Ananias to come alongside Saul to include him in Christian community? Or what if Saul had never participated in God’s mission to tell the world about Jesus?

Every man, woman, child and teenager has a God given mission to complete. For some people our mission is like Saul’s mission. It is public and extraordinary. For some people our mission is like Ananias’ mission. It is behind the scenes, but it is just as important.

Profession of faith that Jesus is your Lord is only the beginning of a great adventure. We must take the next steps of community and mission, whether that might be…