Damascus

Children’s Sermon

Putting a dollar in the plate…having to pay a toll…so much of our lives are built around transactions…trip to Kansas…but where do we place hope?

Scripture

Acts 9:3-7 - As Paul journeyed and came near to Damascus, he was suddenly dazzled by a flash of light. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say, “Saul, Saul, why are you harassing me?” Paul said, “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, the one you’re harassing.” “Get up and enter the city and you will be told what to do next.” Those traveling with Saul were shocked speechless as they heard the sound but didn’t see anyone.

Acts 9:10-18 - There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him through a vision, saying, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” Ananias answered. Jesus instructed him, “Get up and go to Straight Street and to the house of Judas. There you will find a man from Tarsus named Saul. He’s there praying and he has seen you, Ananias, in a vision coming to lay hands on him and restore his sight.” But Ananias responded, “Lord, I’ve heard many reports about this man and how much evil he has done to your disciples in Jerusalem. And, he has authority from the chief priests to arrest anyone he finds following you.” Jesus responded, “Go! I’m going to use Saul to introduce me to many Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel. I will show him how much suffering his calling will require.” So, Ananias obeyed, found the house and Saul, and placed his hands upon him. He said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who you met on your way here has sent me so you can see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell off the eyes of Saul and he could see again. Then he rose and was baptized.

Engage

Have you ever been dazzled by a light? I’d think most of you have experienced, perhaps some in the military or other group activities, sleeping soundly in relative darkness and then having someone flick on the lights…Ouch! I have experienced, and perhaps you have as well, a type of temporary blindness caused by snow. For example, you’re inside (particularly at elevation where UV rays are intensified), and then you step outside without your sunglasses / goggles on and the sun is reflecting off the snow…It can really dazzle you. Dazzling, temporary blindness caused by rays from the sun. S - U - N. Well, today, we have Saul of Tarsus temporarily blinded by rays from the Son as well. S - O - N. In a way, you could say he’d been walking in darkness (along with many other Jews) his entire life. They had not properly understood their relationship to God and their calling from God to reach the hurting world around them through the law. This event of Paul’s encounter with Christ is given to us three times in the book of Acts in one form or another…it was IMPORTANT to Luke and to Saul/Paul.

Encounter

Paul and his fellow Jews, living under the rule and oppression of the Romans, really felt as if they were still in Exile. They were in the promised land, sure, but not on their own terms. They had hope in God but their hope had become more situational than it should’ve been. It had become, in a way, a transactional hope. Transactional in the sense that, they believed, that with perfect or near perfect obedience to the law by the Jewish community, God would send the Messiah, the Messiah would conquer the Romans (militarily if necessary) and the Jews would be restored to the throne of Jerusalem. Their hope was situational in the sense that they allowed their circumstances to dampen their hope much more than they should’ve.

Friends, they teach us, Jesus teaches us, our faith teaches us that our hope should be rooted in the timeless, not in the transactional. When our hope is tied to our feelings about our situations as life unfolds, it will ebb and flow and, perhaps, almost disappear at times. I know of one person here in Angelo, not in this church, whose emotions, joy, and hope swing pretty wildly depending on the events of a given day. I heard the daughter of this person say one day, “Boy, they’re really in a mood today.” When our hope is rooted in the timeless, truly timeless (outside of time), eternal rule of Jesus, NOTHING can extinguish it. But we must do it by faith in the timeless. Practiced faith in the timeless. When we have hope rooted in the timeless, it is a virtue and not a feeling. Feelings come and go, virtues stick and stay. Our faith in God leads to hope in God, that God will sort everything out. That things will be ok. When we hope in God, God then in turn infuses us, as a free gift, with a hope born in heaven that is impossible to remove, no matter the circumstances.

Paul really had a remarkable experience. In a few short moments, his hopes and dreams were shattered and then fulfilled more spectacularly than he could have seen coming. He wasn’t really converted, he was transformed. God took a sledgehammer to his beliefs and expectations only to recreate them into something remarkably more beautiful in an instant. Imagine his emotions…his feeling, his shock. Not only had the Messiah come, but he’d come without anything even close to perfect performance of the law AND he’d personally appeared to Saul, who was trying to exterminate his followers! The grace of Christ is so wonderful here…no long condemnation, no recounting of all the horrible things Paul had done, no need to do that. Hey, stop it. Now, let’s get to work.

There’s another remarkable person in our Scripture today as well. Ananias. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. Christ is telling you to go and minister to a man who, as far as you know, is still trying to arrest and/or kill you. A man present at the stoning of your friend, Stephen. He does question the order, as most anyone would, but once Jesus explains briefly, Ananias obeys. And not, I don’t believe, with gritted teeth or clenched fists. But, perhaps, with some nervousness. N.T. Wright said that, “when something has to be done, it will be done through an obedient, but quite likely nervous and worried disciple.” Yet, even likely being nervous, what is the first word that Ananias says to Saul…Brother. Wow. A term of close, familial relationship. Remember in the gospels when Jesus says, “Who are my mother and brothers? Those who do the will of my Father in heaven, he says, are my mother and brothers…THIS episode with Ananias and Saul is an example of this teaching of Jesus applied, lived out! From arch-enemy murderer to brother in a flash. Remarkable.

Friends, THIS is the timeless Jesus we place our hope in. Lord, don’t let our hope be tied to the transactional, let it thrive in the timeless!

Empower

You know, Jesus didn’t just appear to one zealous Jew on his way to Damascus nearly 2K years ago. He has appeared to countless people then and now. For example, take an Iranian migrant in Turkey just a few years ago. He showed up at a refugee center at 6am, very upset. He told his story to a Persian pastor at the center…During the night, he had seen someone dressed in white raised his hand and say, “Stand up and follow me.” The Iranian man asked, “Who are you?” The man in white replied, “I am the Alpha and the Omega. I’m the way to heaven. No one can go to the Father, except through me.” The Iranian man asked the pastor, “Who is he? What am I going to do? Why did he ask me to follow him? How shall I go? Tell me.”

The pastor then held out a Bible and asked the Iranian man if he’d seen one before. No. Do you know what it is? No. The pastor then opened to Revelation 22:13, Jesus saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” The Iranian man started crying…How can I accept him, how can I follow him? The pastor led him in prayer and peace flowed over him. The pastor then gave him a Bible and told him to hide it, since Muslims in the camp could cause him trouble. But, the Iranian said, “The Jesus that I met, he’s more powerful than the Muslims in the camp. He left and returned with 10 more Iranians an hour later and said, “these people want a Bible.” Nobody had to teach him with an evangelistic strategy!

Missions Frontier magazine reports that out of 600 Muslim converts to Christianity, 25% experienced a dream that led to their conversion! Others experience light, or the presence of Jesus in some way, as Paul did. If you have doubts, don’t hesitate to ask him to appear to you. You already have enough information…but he just might anyway.

Pray