"The Lord is Gracious" (Acts 9:1-19)

Transcript:

Well, our sermon text this morning is from Acts, chapter 9, verses 1, through the first part of verse 19. If you're using a Pew Bible, this is on page 1090. 1090. Hear now the word of the Lord from Acts, chapter 9, verses 1 through 19. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Now, as he went on his way, he approached Damascus. And suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, saul. Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground. And although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight and neither ate nor drank. Now, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ananias. And he said, here I am, Lord.

And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called Straight. And at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. For behold, he is praying. And he is seen in a vision, a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. But the Lord said to him, go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately, something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.

Then he rose and was baptized. And taking food, he was strengthened. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

And as you're taking your seats, let's Join our hearts together this morning in prayer. Pray with me. Gracious Father, we pray that you would give us hearts to understand, eyes to see and ears to hear all that is contained in the good news of the gospel of your crucified and resurrected son, Jesus Christ. Father, though we do not see Jesus with our eyes this morning, I pray that you by your spirit would lead us to see him by faith, resurrected, powerful, alive. And I pray that you would lead our hearts to faith in him this morning.

Take away whatever scales that may be in front of our eyes and lead us to your throne where Jesus your son, sits at your right hand. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

Well, this morning our sermon text testifies to the triumph of God's grace. God's grace is something that we cannot celebrate too much. We could spend all of our time thinking and meditating and trying to get our heads around the great grace that God has shown toward us. Us who are utterly unworthy, guilty, condemned, foul, sinners. And yet God loved us so much that he sent his pure, spotless, beloved, eternal Son for us and for our salvation.

He entered into this world, and he did this not simply to be born, but to be rejected and despised. To be a servant and not to be served, to die, even though he was innocent. To be condemned for our sins in our place so that he might rise up on the third day from the dead in victory over sin, death and the devil forever. And even if we had a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer's praise, there are so many ways in which our God has been so gracious to us that we could never get beyond it, never get over it. And so we pray that our that in our study this morning of God's grace, we would have a new and fresh glimpse of God's grace towards sinners.

We'll give a moment here to collect ourselves and to think about the text that we have read today.

Good morning. It's all right. We've all been there.

Well, our theme of this morning is that the Lord is gracious to sinners. The Lord is gracious to sinners. And we are going to see God's grace in two particular ways in this text. First of all, that there is grace toward the Lord's people. Grace towards the Lord's people.

And then grace toward a blind man. Grace toward a blind man. So let's start with grace toward the Lord's people. In verses one through nine, we read in verse one about a man named Saul. Now, this is not the first time that we have encountered Saul.

Again, to sort of go back to the history of what we have learned about Saul so far, what we learned about Saul started in Acts, chapter six, verse nine, in a synagogue, the synagogue that eventually brought Stephen before the Sanhedrin. And we don't read about Saul by name, but we read that this Saul, that the synagogue is attended by many, including some from Cilicia. Cilicia is the region in which the city of Tarsus is. And here we read about the fact that this man is from Tarsus. His name is Saul.

Well, later we read when Stephen is given his testimony before the Sanhedrin and when he is condemned, we read that the witnesses who condemned Stephen, the witnesses who then go to cast the first stones at Stephen, that first they laid their garments at the feet of Saul. Apparently he had some kind of official proceedings. Execution of the first martyr of Jesus Christ, Stephen. Then in Acts, chapter 8, verse 1, we read that not only was he there, he was not simply a passive witness of the proceedings, but he approved of Stephen's execution. And then in Acts, chapter 8, verse 3, we read that not only did he approve of Stephen's execution, but that he ravaged the church, going from house after house and dragging men and women to arrest them in persecution against the church.

Now, since chapter eight, much has happened in the Lord's providence. That persecution that Saul had been the spearhead of, it scattered the church beyond Jerusalem and Judea and into Samaria. And it was by that means, by the means of the great evil that Saul had perpetrated. The Gospel went into Samaria. And we read much about Philip's work and preaching the Gospel in Samaria and about Philip's work.

Last week we studied the passage where he brought the Gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch who was on his way back to his country. But Saul has not forgotten, even though we have moved the spotlight away from Saul in our reading through Luke's account of the history of the early church. Here Luke has moved the spotlight away from Saul for a time. But Saul has not gone away. He has not been satisfied.

He has not received his fill. And we read that he is still, in verse one, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Recognizing that the church has largely scattered out of Jerusalem, he asked for permission to start pursuing the church farther as far as Damascus. Damascus was the capital city of Syria. It is farther north than either Samaria or Caesarea that we read about.

And we read that what he did was he was asking for letters from the synagogue to the synagogues at Damascus, so. So that if he found any belonging to the Way. The Way is a phrase that is used often to describe early Christians. It's Old Testament terminology, Old Testament language, where the paths of faith and obedience to the Lord are regularly contrasted against the paths of wickedness. So the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

We read in Psalm 1, verse 6, for example, we read that if there were any who were belonging to the Way, the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he might arrest them and notice that he is seeking to arrest either men or women. Again, in Acts, chapter 8, verse 3, we read that Saul had been so ruthless that he had dragged men and women as well out of their homes. This shows us just how ruthless that he is to be doing this, to dragging off these men and women to bring them to prison. Now, it is interesting. One of the things we will discover about Saul is that he was a student of the teacher Gamaliel.

Now, we read about Gamaliel earlier in Acts, chapter 5, verses 38 and 39, when there was a real question, what should we do with these Christians? And even though the Sanhedrin wanted to start executing Christians, Gamaliel stood up and said, keep away from them, leave them alone, because you may be found to be opposing God. Well, this was the teacher of Saul. And as one commentator, Schnabel, points out, either Gamaliel had perhaps changed his mind, or perhaps Saul thought Gamaliel's approach was too soft. And so here we see Paul, or Saul, he will later be called Paul.

Here we see Saul doing everything he can, pursuing Christians as far as he might go to try to bring them bound back to Jerusalem. And yet on his way to the Syrian city of Damascus, we read that suddenly a light from heaven shone around him, that he is on his way to arrest Christians. Something remarkable happens. The Lord Jesus Christ arrests him. Now, I take that phrase not just as sort of a creative interpretation of what happens.

That's actually how Paul describes it in Philippians 3, verse 12. There he is talking about how much he is pursuing after the Lord Jesus Christ. And the King James Version has a phrase, a translation that really captures this idea, the play on words that he's making. But he says, but I follow after. In other words, after Christ, if that I may apprehend or lay hold of that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

He was taken into custody. He was arrested by Christ Jesus to be devoted to a purpose that Christ Jesus had for him. On his way to arrest Christians. Jesus is the arresting officer arresting him. And as this light shines from heaven, we read in verse four, falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

This is the first statement of the charges against Saul that Jesus says, why are you persecuting me? Now Saul says, who are you, Lord? Trying to discern exactly who is speaking to him, although certainly he must have been terrified about the answer that he was about to receive. In the end of verse five, we read the second statement of the charges. I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting to protect his people.

Jesus acknowledges to Paul that he is so identified with them, so united with them, that violence against them, persecution against them, is persecution against him. Why are you persecuting me? Now we're going to have to meditate more on this deep unity, this union that Christ reflects, that he possesses with his church as the head of his body and as the husband of his bride, this great unity that Jesus expresses to us all here. But what we must note, initially at least, is that Jesus Christ is protecting his church. We are seeing God's grace toward the church as Jesus Christ intercedes, interposes himself to protect his church from the murder and the threats that Saul was still breathing against him on his way to Damascus.

Well, in verses six through nine, after stating the charges, nothing else is stated here. There's no promise, really, here. There's simply a command. There's simply law. Here's what you're to do, Saul.

You are to go into Damascus, and you will be told what you are to do. And after all this happens, Jesus, as quickly as he appeared, he vanishes. And the men who were traveling with Saul stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one. And Saul rose from the ground. And although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

Now, this is a very important idea here, that Saul was struck blind in this moment. Why? Because it is a fitting punishment to match the crime. Saul had been spiritually blind. He had absolutely refused to see Christ by faith.

And so his physical eyes were struck with a blindness that was fitting, that matched his spiritual condition. And so he goes there. He isn't eating or drinking. He's waiting to see what is going to happen to him. Now, again, we have to see clearly what Jesus is doing.

The first part of this passage is showing the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ to protect his people from this man who has been and continues is still breathing, threats and. And murder against them. He personally appears, personally takes Saul into his own custody on the charges of persecuting him. And that is extraordinary grace toward the church to protect them from this great enemy. But we have to see, and we're going to see this in the next section.

It is also extraordinary grace to this man, this poor, pitiable blind man. Yes, he is wicked. Yes, he is guilty. Yes, he is undeserving of grace. But that's what grace is.

That's what grace does. It shows unmerited favor to people who do not deserve it. And so for this man who has been spiritually blind and now has been stricken with physical blindness, we are going to see the way that the Lord Jesus. Jesus heals both sides of Saul's blindness. In the next section, the part two, grace toward a blind man.

Now, in verse 10, we read that there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. Now, Ananias name is no accident. The name Ananias means the Lord is gracious. The Lord is gracious. And the Lord Jesus in his grace appointed this man, whose name means the Lord is gracious, and appointed Ananias to be a minister of the grace of Jesus towards Saul.

Now, when the Lord appeared to Ananias in a vision, notice Ananias response, Here I am, Lord. If you know your Old Testaments, this is a very famous phrase. Some of the greatest servants of the Old Testament respond in this way to the Lord. When the Lord appears to Abraham and is ultimately going to ask Abraham to sacrifice his own son, the Lord appeared to Abraham, and Abraham said, here I am, Lord. And on the way, when Abraham's son Isaac asked him a question, he says, here I am the second time.

And then when Abraham is about to slaughter his only begotten son, the Lord appears from heaven to stop him. And at that moment, in response, Abraham said, here I am, Lord. This is also the response of Samuel when he hears the voice of the Lord speaking to him as a little boy in the temple. Here I am, Lord. That Eli taught him to say.

After three times he had come to Eli, saying, what do you want? It must be you speaking to me. But no, it's the voice of the Lord. Well, here this great man of faith responds to the Lord immediately, here I am, Lord. And the Lord gives him a mission.

You are to go to the house of Judas on a street called Straight, and to look for this man of Tarsus, Tarsus in Cilicia. And this man whose name is Saul. For behold, he is praying. Now note what happens in verse 12. The Lord says that this man Saul has already begun to see in One sense.

And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him. He's already starting to see. Spiritually, he's still physically blind, but spiritually he's starting to see what the Lord has for him. This man Ananias is going to come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight. But in verse 13, we read an expression of concern, an expression of fear from Ananias.

He says, lord, I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has the authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name. He's expressing a particular fear. He's saying, lord, I don't know if I will be safe if I go to this man. Are you sure you want me to go to see him?

And yet the Lord is very clear. And he expresses to Ananias that he must indeed go. Now here we see again an expression of grace toward Ananias to make it very, very clear you are indeed to go. But then he talks about the way that Paul later named Paul. Now Saul is going to be the Lord's chosen instrument of grace, to carry his name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel.

And this is exactly what we will see Saul, later named Paul, doing through the rest of the Book of Acts, everywhere he goes, whether he's debating with Jews in synagogues or whether he is preaching in Athens on Mars Hill to gentiles proclaiming to them Jesus Christ, who was then resurrected from the dead. So there's grace toward Ananias go. There's grace toward the world in the one who is going to be appointed a preacher. And then in verse 16, we read about the grace that the Lord Jesus has in mind for Saul. Although it might not sound like it, he says, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.

Now, this is grace toward Saul, although it may not look like is grace, because it is the primary tool suffering is that Jesus will use to conform Saul to his image. This is going to be something that Saul doesn't learn immediately, although he will certainly experience the first parts of this lesson immediately. But it's going to be something that he struggles with and wrestles with his entire life until late in his life. In the letter, the second letter that he writes to the Corinthians, we read him struggling with still more suffering that has been appointed to him. Three times he prays to the Lord to Take away the thorn in his flesh, and the Lord Jesus Christ appears and speaks to him again, saying, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Saul is a man that in his flesh depended on his flesh. Saul is a man that his flesh had strength to propel all the greatest of his ambitions. He was going to go as far as Damascus to make a name for himself in arresting these Christians. And yet Saul would be taught that he must strip away all the strength of his flesh in order to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in the grace of Jesus Christ, which alone will be sufficient for him. Now Saul right now is walking through suffering.

And we read that as Ananias comes. Even though Ananias was hesitant, notice what he calls Saul. He calls him brother Saul. He admits him to the fellowship of the household of God. You are my brother, he sang.

Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And although we did see that Saul had been seeing earlier by faith in this vision that he received back in verse 12, we read that Jesus continues to heal him. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight. Certainly this is a statement about his physical sight that matches the scales that have been taken away from his spiritual sight. He's able to see clearly with his eyes again, and he's able to see clearly the glory of the Lord Jesus.

And so now we read, then he rose and was baptized. And taking food, he was strengthened. Ananias then became an instrument of. Of Christ to proclaim Christ's grace to Saul. When commentator Lenski points out, I think this is really important.

When the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to Saul personally, it was to proclaim law and condemnation. You are guilty of persecuting me, states the charges twice. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But then he sends a minister, someone who will go in his stead on his behalf to proclaim the gospel to Saul. Law Jesus proclaimed.

But then Jesus sent a minister to proclaim grace to him. And because of this minister's proclamation, Saul would never be the same. He would now walk by faith and not by sight. So what then are we to do with this passage?

Our application is that we too need to cultivate dependence on the Lord's grace. Cultivate dependence on the Lord's grace. You may be here this morning, just as estranged from the Lord Jesus Christ as Saul was back in verse one. You may not be as violent toward the Church as Saul was. But you may nevertheless be guilty of a wide variety of sins.

Greed and covetousness, of theft, lust, sexual immorality, hatred, murder, abortion, idolatry. Whatever sins have ensnared you, whatever sins under which you are languishing, whatever has brought you low by guilt and uncleanness, in shame and condemnation before the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ today may be arresting and apprehending you, taking you into his custom, Thee out of this world by his grace and for your glory today. He does not appear before you personally, but he sends a minister to declare this word for you. And far more than me, he sends His Holy Spirit to make the gospel real in the hearts of sinners through the preaching of the Word of God.

Just as Saul needed to be filled with the Spirit, so you also do through the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus. The law declares that you stand guilty before the Lord of Glory, who dwells in unapproachable light. But because of the blindness of your sin, you don't see it. You continue stumbling about in the dark, living your life in whatever way makes sense to you. And now the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is the judge of all the earth, declares to you that as you are, you stand guilty of an eternal condemnation in hell forever.

But he also proclaims what he has done well. We celebrate this time of year that the Lord of Glory, the eternally begotten Son of God, begotten, not made. This is not a creature who entered this world. This is God Almighty, who entered this world into the frailty of a human baby, who lived a life not where he was served, not where he was adored, but where he was despised and hated and rejected, having no form of loveliness, someone whom our eyes did not see, his beauty, and yet he lived the perfect life that you deserve, or that you were required to live, but failed so that, as the spotless sacrifice, he might go to the cross to die in your place for your sins. And as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I declare to you that the same Lord Jesus who appeared 2000 years ago will one day return as a judge.

But he declares to you the same Gospel that Ananias proclaims to Saul. Repent from your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. You have no other hope in heaven or in earth. I plead with you. Depend on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ask him to take away the scales from your eyes that you might see the Lord's glory this morning.

But the reason that is important not just for those who are far off, but for all of us, is that the Christian life does not end our dependence on the Lord's grace when we turn to him in faith for our justification. Our whole life is about learning to grow in dependence upon the grace of the Lord. Now, if you have a copy of my sermon notes, John Calvin has just some tremendous pastoral material on thinking about what we see about Jesus posture toward his church, the identification that Jesus makes with his church there. I mentioned this a moment ago in this sermon, but I want to return to it. First of all, the Lord Jesus Christ has not only saved us, he didn't just accomplish our salvation.

Then he goes about his life as though he sort of rescued someone from the ditch and then gets back to his work. No, he is so identified with us that in salvation he cannot refuse himself. He loves you and will not be separated from you even at death. When your body lays in the grave, he is united to you until he raises you up on the last day. Second, when you suffer especially at the hands of enemies who hate Christ, Jesus declares through this passage that he bears that burden with you.

Why are you persecuting not them? Why are you persecuting me? Jesus says, third, those who persecute you are persecuting the Lord of glory. And that should give you as much comfort as it should strike fear in the enemies of the church, because our Lord will not remain silent. Fourth, we are the body of Christ, and He, our head in heaven will revenge our miseries.

And fifth, what this means is that you can suffer confidently because Jesus grace truly is sufficient for you. His power truly is made perfect not through your strength, but in your weakness, where the Holy Spirit provides for you what you cannot do for yourself. And what this calls us is that each day, as we look at what's happening in our lives, as we look at the work ahead or as we look at the suffering ahead, we look at this and say, how am I going to juggle all of this? How am I going to bear up under all of this? How am I going to get through this?

And what Jesus tells you is that he will be gracious to you. He will be gracious to you in such a way that it will be sufficient for you. He doesn't show you all that he will do, but he promises that each day his mercies will be new every morning. The Christian life, from beginning to end, is about trusting. Not in your strength, not in your goodness, not in your power, not in your abilities, not in your merit, but trusting in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose grace is sufficient for sinners.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would comfort us in the knowledge that Jesus is indeed gracious toward us. That he, our Savior, your Son, loved us to the point of death on a cross. And if you did not spare your own son, but graciously gave him for us, how will you not freely grant to us all things? We pray that we would be confident in that even when we don't have any idea where your grace is going to come from or how it's going to provide for our needs.

That we'd simply be confident that what you provide will be enough. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.