It is good to remember the Lord and all that flows from that wonderful sacrifice He gave. One brother in prayer quoted that verse from Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.”
In the Hebrew, I am told that there are several words for “creating.” One of them is “create out of nothing,” and that is the word used there: create out of nothing in me a clean heart, O God. And so He does. We are so glad to be standing in Him and in His righteousness, able to receive His life.
As we come again to the Word of God, there is a principle of Bible study that I remind myself of, and I delight to remind you as well: an indispensable principle, a principle for which there is no substitute. That is total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
God has given us the Bible, and only God can show us the Lord in the Bible, as He did to those dear saints on the road to Emmaus. He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and showed Himself in all the Scriptures. This is His delight. He wants to do it, and so we need to trust Him to do that.
Let me give a couple of verses, and then we will look in the Word together.
One is from Psalm 24:7. It is also repeated later in the psalm, but the verse is:
Lift up your heads, O ye gates;
And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors:
And the King of glory will come in.
Now, many commentators refer to that as the Ascension Psalm. They picture when our Lord Jesus ascended to heaven and opened the gates: the Lord, strong and mighty, coming in; the Lord of hosts, the Lord of the armies of heaven and earth, coming in.
But the thing that gripped my heart is that little word: “Lift up your heads, O ye gates; be lifted up, O ancient doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” If He is the King of glory, He does not need your permission to lift up your head and open the gate. He can knock the door down. But He does not. He does not.
Listen to this verse now from Song of Solomon 5:2:
I was asleep,
But my heart was awake.
A voice! My beloved knocketh:
Open to me, my sister, my love,
My dove, my undefiled.
When we think about a voice, we think about a word. That is a word—a voice. Every time you have the Word, your Beloved is knocking. “A voice! My beloved is knocking.”
And so the Lord invites us again, as we come before the ministry of His Holy Spirit in the Word. He invites us again to lift up our heads and open wide the gates, and the King of glory shall come in. A voice—my Beloved is knocking.
And such a gentleman is the Lord that He seeks an invitation for His entrance. So let us give Him that invitation, and then we will look into the Word.
Our Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your Word. And Lord, work in our hearts an openness. We want to open the gates. We invite You. We hear Your voice. Come in, King of glory. Come in, Bridegroom, Lover of our soul. Show Yourself today, we pray. And we thank You in advance that You are going to do it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, we have come to our final look at what we are calling final preparation. Our Lord Jesus appeared over and over again during those forty-plus days between His resurrection and His ascension. He appeared for perhaps many, many reasons, but at least to show that He was not dead, and at least to show that He was not gone.
He was preparing them for that discovery that would be theirs on the fiftieth day, at Pentecost, when He sent His dear Holy Spirit—the Comforter, the other Advocate—to come into the heart: to show them, to prepare them for the discovery that He is neither dead nor gone, but He is very much alive. He is alive in me.
They needed to be prepared for that. That was so other, so different, so unusual. They had never considered that the One who was before them would come and live inside them, and that they would have to relate now in a new way.
We have been looking together at that wonderful preparation illustrated by His post-resurrection appearances. By His appearance to Mary, He prepared them by teaching us not to cling to Him in the flesh, but that now we are going to have a new relationship in the Spirit.
And it is all about relationship. It is all about Him calling your name, and then you departing with the only testimony that you will ever have worth anything: “I have seen the Lord.”
If God could allow us the grace to leave this place this weekend and go back, and someone says, “What happened? What did you talk about? What was it? Describe the experience”—if you could honestly say, “I have seen the Lord,” there is your testimony. There is your testimony.
Then, by His appearance to Thomas, He prepared us that it is not by sight. Blessed are those who believe without seeing. Sight does not help faith. God had called Thomas to stand in the place where we stand, where, on the testimony of reliable witnesses—which has become our Bible—we can just believe.
I do not know what kind of week Thomas had between the testimony of the brothers that he missed and finally seeing Him. I do not think he was too happy. Blessed—happy—are those who can trust the Lord and believe on the basis of this Word.
I need to see Him, Mary Magdalene. I need to see Him in this Book, Thomas. He appeared to the brothers on the Emmaus road to say, “It is not enough to open the Book. You need Me to open your heart, and open the Scriptures, and open your mind, open your understanding.” It is by revelation.
He is laying out a pattern: How can I relate to the One who is neither dead nor gone, but He is alive, and He is alive in me? I need to see Him. I need to see Him in this Book. I need to see Him in this Book by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
And then, in the upper room, when He breathed on them and announced a new creation: I need to see Him. I need to see Him in this Book. I need to see Him in this Book by the revelation, the illumination, of the Holy Spirit. And I need to see Him in such a way that He breathes on me, and there is a new creation.
That brings us, then, to the final preparation. He also appeared, last of all, to the apostle Paul. And in that road to Damascus, we have the model conversion and the model convert.
More space is given to that one event than to anything else in the New Testament, apart from the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. The apostle Paul takes great pains to inform us what took place on that day when he saw the Lord.
Last night we looked at Paul’s explanation. Let me just read these verses, and then we will move on.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me:
And that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
Who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.—Galatians 2:20
In those words, “It is no longer I, but Christ,” he was declaring what took place that day was not a change, but an exchange. It is not me anymore; it is Him.
Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
—Romans 6:11
For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
—Colossians 3:3
Now, last night we looked at the explanation. What I want to look at this morning, God assisting, is the actual event. What are we explaining?
Just for interest, show of hands, please. Somebody who has—thanks. Wait until I give the question. I just saw his hand.
How many here have never heard any message on the road to Damascus? Okay, so I understand that. I am not trying to give you anything new. Everything I am about to share, I know you have heard, and you have probably heard many, many, many messages on this wonderful event.
We are going to look at it again, not to be novel, not to give you anything new, but to state again the great realities that we all know, we all believe, and we all need to be quickened unto.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
—1 Corinthians 15:8
“Last of all”—as to one untimely born—He appeared to me as well. Last of all, he puts himself in the same list. It would be impossible to exaggerate what took place in the heart of this man when he met the Lord on the road to Damascus.
We have a very clumsy way of dividing time by the clock. We divide it into minutes and hours and days and weeks and years, as if every moment were of an equal size. Every moment is not of an equal size.
Some hours are very long. It is still sixty minutes, but it is long. You get a brother or sister who is tossing on a bed of pain and affliction—an hour is a very long time. Somebody waiting for news, somebody waiting to hear, someone waiting to have contact from a loved one: that can be a long, long wait in a short, short time.
Some hours are short. This weekend was very short for me. It just hit—where is it? It is gone. And some hours are very long. Then I look back over the big picture and say, “I have been saved fifty-two years.” Where did it go? It is gone.
So we need to realize that what happens in a moment—that is the real measure of time. I have no doubt that this moment Paul had on the Damascus road, that moment was larger than his whole life.
What took place in that moment was a tremendous thing. He was never the same again. He saw Jesus. And in that moment, in that revelation, that was big. That was huge. That was grand. That was an amazing moment.
His whole life was understood and explained in terms of that single moment. And we need to look at that moment.
Let me start by reading the text. If you will turn to Acts 9, please, beginning at verse 3.
And as he journeyed, it came to pass that he drew nigh unto Damascus:
And suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven:
And he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?And he said, Who art Thou, Lord?
And He said, I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest:
But rise, and enter into the city,
And it shall be told thee what thou must do.And the men that journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but beholding no man.
And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw nothing:
And they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
And he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink.—Acts 9:3-9
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.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.”
“And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard much about this man—how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Your name.”
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel, a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. I must show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
And so Ananias departed and entered the house. After laying hands on him, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, Who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales. He regained his sight. He got up and was baptized. He took food and was strengthened. That is the reading.
Now, I think you are aware, brothers—I know you are aware, brothers—that the record of this conversion is not only in Acts 9. One is here in Acts 9, written by the human author Luke, telling the story. But then we have Paul’s own personal testimony recorded twice.
In Acts 22, twenty-five years have gone by, and now he is, of course, being persecuted. But he is giving his testimony in Hebrew on the steps of the temple to the Hebrew people. Two years later, in Acts 26, he stands before King Agrippa, twenty-seven years after the fact.
Very close after this, he himself was martyred and went into the presence of the Lord. By pulling those three accounts together—Acts 9, Acts 22, and Acts 26—we have the full record of what happened on the Damascus road.
Now, let me just say in passing what I am sure you already know: there are additional facts given in his testimony that we did not read in the Acts 9 account. That does not mean there are contradictions, and it certainly does not mean, as I read in one commentary, that through the years people tend to embellish things.
They say this testimony got a little fatter, and it was enlarged and embellished. They say there is a tendency to exaggerate in order to make the original event more dramatic. Probably that is true of me, and maybe that is true of you. But that is not true of the apostle Paul. This is inspired. There is nothing exaggerated here.
For example, in Acts 9 we did not know this took place at high noon. We learn that from his testimony. We did not know that the light which shone around him he described as brighter than the noonday sun. We learn that later.
In Acts 9, we only read that he asked one question: “Who are You, Lord?” But later we find out he asked two questions. He also said, “What would You have me do, Lord?” I think that is important.
In Acts 9, it looks like only Saul fell down to the ground. But when you read the other records, everybody fell down to the ground. In Acts 9, it looks like they all heard a voice, but later we find out some heard a sound, but it did not register as a voice. They did not understand what was said.
It looks as if, in Acts 9, there was a small conversation between Saul and the Lord: “Who are You?” He gives an answer, and then He says, “Arise, go to Damascus, and it will be told you what to do.” That is it.
If it were not for Acts 26, we would not know it was quite a long conversation. They had a back and forth. It was an amazing amount of information that was given. It is only his testimony before Agrippa that tells us he had a problem with his conscience: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
If it were not for Acts 22, we would never have known that Jesus called Himself the Nazarene. In the original record, it just says, “Jesus, Whom you are persecuting.” But then we find out it is Jesus the Nazarene, and so on.
So we are going to look. I am going to try to pull it together as we tell the story. But we are not out to just hear all of the correct facts. We want principles. We want life. We want to know the revelation of the Lord.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.
And I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.—1 Corinthians 15:8-9
“Last of all”—not literally, but finally. He did it last of all. Later He will appear to John and so on, but He did it last to say, “This is the last preparation.” Jesus is not dead. He is not gone. He is alive. He is alive in you.
He is alive to breathe on you and give you a new creation—not to change your life, but to give you an exchanged life. Look at my exchanged life. I explained it yesterday. It is not a change; it is an exchange.
What did he see? Now, it is called a vision. In Acts 26:19, he told Agrippa, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” That could throw you off a little because, oh, it is called a vision.
It is not a vision as we usually think about a vision. People who have visions in the Bible see something in their mind, in their brain, in their spirit. Zechariah had eight visions in one night. That was a long night for him. Vision after vision, one right after another. He had eight visions, and he was lying in his bed.
He did not actually see, but God showed him in his mind, like in a dream. This is not that way. The Holy Spirit is calling this a vision to call attention to your eyes—your vision. He tells the story in terms of vision. What did he see?
He claims that he saw Jesus literally—not just some dream that God gave him, not some vision in his spirit. It was literal. It was true. It was actual. It was physical. He had a revelation of the Lord, and that is why he puts himself in the list.
How did Mary see Him? How did Thomas see Him? Was that just in the mind? It was a vision, but it was literal. With their eyes, they saw Him. And he is saying, “I saw Him as really as Peter saw Him. I saw Him as really as the five hundred saw Him. I saw Him as really as the disciples on the Emmaus road saw Him.”
“I saw Him as really as when He appeared in the upper room and invited them to take the fingers of their hand and put it in His glory wounds. I saw Him.” And he uses that later to prove his apostleship: “I was an eyewitness of the resurrection. I saw Him.”
Now notice with me, please—and I am not making this up—that the Holy Spirit seems to tell the story in terms of vision, in terms of his eyes. When Saul rode into Damascus that day, he had one set of eyes: these eyes.
That journey from Jerusalem to Damascus was between one hundred thirty-six and one hundred sixty miles, depending on which route you took. In those days, travel was slower than it is today, and a considerable portion of that journey had to take him through the desert. They say that was about a six- or seven-day trip.
There is reason to believe the saints knew he was coming, because Ananias made some comments: he had been to the high priest, he had the papers, and they knew what he could do to them.
Now, in addition to that first set of eyes, we know he had a conscience that was bothering him. The Lord fills us in on that in Acts 26:14:
And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying unto me in the Hebrew language,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.
We know he had a conscience—that built-in preacher. A goad was a sharp piece of iron that was put on the end of a stick and used to prod. The ox driver would prod the ox and urge the animal either to stand still, go on, or change direction.
He was skilled. He knew how to use the goad, and he would poke that animal. If the animal kicked, resisted, held back, was stubborn—who got hurt? Exactly right: the animal.
That is what God was saying: “I have been poking you. I have been pricking you with this goad. I have been working on you, and you have been kicking back. And who is hurt?”
Now, we can guess how God was using that goad. I am quite sure the stoning of Stephen—that was on his mind. That made a tremendous impression. Later on, he calls attention to that. That was bothering him.
Then, when we read the testimony, one of his statements was, “I tried to get them to blaspheme.” You know what is implied in that? It did not work. “I tried to get them to blaspheme.”
It must have been an amazing thing to watch these Christians and how they responded to persecution. Not only Stephen was bothering him, but all these Christians, as they were suffering, were bothering him. His testimony: he was kicking against the goad.
His own inner conscience was sort of another set of eyes. So he comes in with these eyes, and he has that bad conscience. Then we read in Acts 9:3, “Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.” Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing.
He comes to town with good eyesight, and then he has a little conscience in there, and that is looking at him too. Then he sees a light, and then he sees nothing. See how the story is being told in terms of his eyes?
In Acts 22, he gives the same testimony: “Since I could not see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.” We know that blindness lasted three days. Acts 9:9: “He was three days without sight.”
So now he comes to town with this set of eyes and a conscience. All of a sudden, he loses this set of eyes. He is blind.
Then we read in Acts 9:11-12. This is God speaking to Ananias:
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight,
And inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus: for behold, he prayeth;
And he hath seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him,
That he might receive his sight.
So he comes to town with one set of eyes, and then he has a conscience that has been bothering him. Then he sees the light, and then he loses this set of eyes, and then he gets a vision.
Now, what is the vision? It is not with these eyes. It is a different use of the word “vision.” Now, in his mind, in his spirit—however God communicated—he gets the information that a man is going to come whose name is Ananias. He is going to lay hands on him, and he is going to be able to see.
I am not trying to confuse you. I am saying, as I read how the Holy Spirit wrote this, I think He is saying, “Pay attention to his eyes. Watch what is going on.” He has eyes, then he has a conscience, then he sees a light, then he does not have eyes, and then he has a vision.
Then, as the story goes on, Ananias comes in and says, “God has sent me to you.” Scales fall from his eyes, and then he sees. Once again, attention is called to the eyes.
He comes in with one set. He has a conscience. He sees the Lord. He loses that set. He gets a vision. God opens his eyes. Scales fall off his eyes. It is all told about the eyes.
Because his testimony is going to be this: last preparation. Twenty-seven years later, they are saying, “Explain yourself. Explain your life. Explain your ministry. Explain your message.” He can only say one thing: “A long time ago, I saw Jesus.”
That is his testimony: “I saw Jesus.” That is what Mary said: “I have seen the Lord.” That is Thomas: “My Lord and my God.” “Did not our hearts burn within us?” It is all about seeing Jesus, and that is what Damascus is all about. It is about seeing the Lord.
Since he is the model convert, he says, “You need to understand what I saw that day when I saw Jesus, and how these eyes were closed, and these eyes were opened, and then scales fell off these eyes, and then I got new eyes, and then I got a new light.” He wants us to understand: it is all about seeing Jesus.
May God help us understand this. So what did this dear brother see when he saw Jesus? I am going to mention three things. There are probably a lot more, but you need three points for a good sermon. I speak as a fool.
When he saw Jesus, his eyes were also opened to this present evil world. He saw this world.
Acts 9:18 says, “Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight. He got up and was baptized.” When those scales fell from his eyes, he saw.
Now, it is very possible that that chorus we sing took place:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim.
It is very possible that that took place. I know it took place spiritually for him, but it might have taken place literally for him. Commentators call attention to the fact that Paul had bad eyesight. Have you ever heard that? Have you ever read that?
They get that from Galatians, where in Galatians 4 he calls attention to the fact that, when he first came to them, they were willing to give their eyes for him. Then, as he closes the epistle in Galatians 6:11, he says, “See with what large letters I am writing this.”
That was his idea—that he had to write with large letters. Maybe he had bad eyes before Damascus. We do not know when he got bad eyesight. I happen to think perhaps after seeing Jesus. I love to picture him now seeing the world blurry. You know, because that is what it is. It is that way.
But I know it is spiritual. By seeing Jesus, he has a brand-new vision of the world. Listen to his testimony in Philippians 3:7-8:
Howbeit what things were gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
For Whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ.
He saw Jesus. Now he sees the world, but it is all different. From that moment, everything is different, and now he sees it for what it is. He sees through the veneer. He knows that what Solomon said is true: “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity and a striving after wind.”
When I say “the world,” I am not just talking about flowers and trees and birds and animals and the deep blue sea. I am talking about the world as John records it in 1 John 2:16:
For all that is in the world,
The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vainglory of life,
Is not of the Father, but is of the world.
He saw all of that when he saw Jesus. I love the way John divides that, because that is really a description of the world. That is all it can do. The world can only appeal to your flesh. That is it.
It is all show. It is not real. It is all vanity. It is all glitter. You can have all these beautiful colors in a bubble, but try to lay hold of it. It is not there. It is nothing. It is not true.
It appeals to man’s pride and his honor and his dignity, but it is vanity; it is vexation. It is not real. It is so artificial. He saw that. It is all imaginary. Man makes it up.
Where do we get value on this stuff? Gold is a stone. It is pretty, but it is a stone. Gems are just stones. That is all they are. We say they are worth something.
When we come to town, they say, “Oh, we like beads. We like glass.” Okay, that is your value. I will trade you. We will give you beads and glass, and you give us those yellow stones. Man just makes it up. Then he will die for it, and fight for it, and covet it, and try to hold on to it. But it is not real.
Hanging jewelry on a body—I am not speaking against jewelry—but you might as well hang it on the limb of a tree. It does not add anything. It is just all fake.
You get a bed frame made out of brass—you are going to sleep better? A golden bed? You get food served on a silver platter—is it going to taste any better?
What is perfume? It is the sweat and mucus of beasts and trees. And silk is the excrement of worms. It is a bag of dirt. They call it a treasure.
He saw that when he saw Jesus. He saw everything as it is. It is a lie. It is deceit. One evidence of it is this: if you are a billionaire and you have a toothache, are you going to enjoy your money? A billion dollars are not going to help you. You have a toothache.
Then you go to the deathbed. Is that going to help you then?
Riches profit not in the day of wrath;
But righteousness delivereth from death.—Proverbs 11:4
There is nothing. You get a man on a deathbed; he would give his whole fortune in order to live. For him, life is better than gold. It is only to the Christian that lovingkindness is better than life. It is only to us who have seen the value.
Only those who see Jesus see the world for what it is. You know, I meet a lot of Christians, and it makes me laugh sometimes. Well, also, I have been through a lot of this. But how Christians struggle with surrender! They say, “Oh, I cannot give that up, and I cannot give this thing up.”
They do not need to work on surrender. They need to see Jesus. If you see Jesus, you will see the world for what it really is. I have never yet met any person who struggled giving up rubbish. That is easy.
The King James calls it dung. Think you would have a hard time surrendering all of that dung? “Oh no, I do not want to let it go. It is so precious.” It is because you do not see it for what it is. Until you see Christ, you cannot see the world.
Let me make another comment about 1 John 2:16: all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. We talk a lot about worldliness, and we do not want to be worldly Christians. We want to be spiritual Christians.
In that verse, what is the opposite of the world? He said, “All that is in the world,” but there is an opposite to the world.
When we speak about not being worldly, we have our little list, you know, and it depends on what part of the country you come from. They say, “I am not going to be worldly. I am not going to smoke, and I am not going to dance, and I am not going to play contact sports, and I am not going to gamble, and I am not going to drink—or at least I am not going to excessively drink.”
“I am not going to get involved in materialism. I am going to choose the right friends and the right clothes,” and on and on. “This is how long my hem will be.” It depends on where you are. That is worldliness.
God includes more under worldliness than Christians do. Listen to the verse:
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:
But he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.—1 John 2:17
The opposite of worldliness is the will of God. What is worldliness? Anything that is not the will of God. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride—anything that is not the will of God.
In that moment, when he saw Jesus, he was delivered from worldliness in all its forms and delivered unto the will of God.
When Jesus said, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” He was actually saying, “Be of good cheer, for I have overcome everything that stands in the way of the will of God.”
No wonder: be of good cheer. I have better cheer for you, brothers. The One Who has overcome the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life—Who has overcome everything that stands in the way of the will of God in your life, is neither dead nor gone, but He is alive. He is alive in you.
Awesome, awesome thing. And he saw that when he saw Jesus.
Listen to this summary that Ananias gives. You want a summary of the Christian life? Here it is. Acts 22:14:
And he said, The God of our fathers hath appointed thee to know His will,
And to see the Righteous One,
And to hear a voice from His mouth.
Is that something? He is the model convert, because He appeared to you. When He showed you Christ, He said, “You want to know what the Christian life is? Know the will of God, see the Lord, hear His Word.” That is it. Glorious truth.
When I see Jesus, I will see the world for what it is. But let me show you another thing. He not only saw the world by seeing Jesus; I am sure you have heard this: he saw the church. Have you heard that? He saw the body of Christ.
There are a couple of indications of it. I love Acts 9:17:
And Ananias departed, and entered into the house;
And laying his hands on him said, Brother Saul…
Can you imagine what that meant to that man? “Brother Saul.” When you read the record, it is amazing. There is a little play on words, because Saul was coming to town to lay his hands on the Christians. Isn’t that interesting?
What happened instead? Ananias, blessed be God, laid his hands on Saul. Quite a difference. If Saul had had a chance, he would have grabbed Ananias and grabbed his family, and if he had children, grabbed all his children—off to the dungeon.
But instead, he hears a word: “Brother.” That had to be humbling to hear that.
Some question whether, when Paul got saved, did he get saved on the Damascus road when he saw the light? Did he get saved three days later when the scales fell off his eyes? Did he get saved when Ananias said, “Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins”? When exactly did he get saved?
I do not know, but I do not think Ananias would have said “brother” if he was not brother at that point. I think at least that satisfies it for me.
In this connection, I love Romans 16:7, where he says, “Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen, who are in Christ before me.” In other words, he had family members who knew Jesus before he did.
We just sort of read this: he is coming to town to lay hold of Christians. He is coming after his family. He would have killed his family. If you had asked anyone at that time who was the number-one enemy of the Lord Jesus Christ, without question, all the way from Jerusalem to Damascus, they would have said, “Saul of Tarsus, number-one enemy.”
But now, because he saw Jesus, he is brother. Brother Saul. He is in the family. Do you realize the change there? The glorious difference? He is in the family now.
There is an even stronger evidence that he saw the church, and that is in Acts 9:4-5:
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
And he said, Who art Thou, Lord?
And He said, I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest.
He could have argued, “I am not persecuting You. I am persecuting people. I am persecuting men and women and children. Why do You say I am persecuting You?” Because we are one. You cannot touch them without touching Me.
In that moment, he saw so much. He saw that he was part of a family. He saw that the church, the universal church, was united to the Head. They are one. He saw the Lord; by seeing the Lord, he saw the church.
So many today are trying to fight the world and struggle with the flesh. They are looking at the body. There is a lot to talk about in body life. They are looking at the body. If you see Jesus, you will see the body. You do not have to worry about seeing the body. Make sure you are seeing the Lord.
There is one other thing he saw, and we will sort of wrap it up with this. Acts 22:8:
And I answered, Who art Thou, Lord?
And He said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, Whom thou persecutest.
He did not say, “I was Jesus the Nazarene.” That is how I would have written it. “I used to be, when I lived on the earth in My incarnate body for thirty-three and a half years, I was Jesus the Nazarene.” But now He is glorified. He is ascended. He is at the Father’s right hand, and He still identifies Himself as Jesus the Nazarene.
I will be honest with you: I was a little surprised that the word Nazareth made it to heaven. I did not expect that. I did not expect Him, in His glorified state, to identify Himself that way.
It is Nathanael’s question: “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” I think the point He is making is this: Saul not only saw the Lord Jesus and had to identify with Him, but he was identifying with a rejected Savior.
Jesus the Nazarene. Immediately, he is outside the camp. He is identifying with Christ outside the camp.
When Paul received the revelation of Jesus, he had the whole ball of wax right there. I told you there are three different accounts, and I went through the accounts to see how they are different. But I also went through the accounts to see what is the same. What is the same in every account? What does God emphasize?
In all three accounts, we have this same thing: the lordship of Jesus Christ. In all three accounts, he stresses, “Lord, Who are You? Lord, what would You have me to do?”
There is none of this talk: “I will accept Him as my Savior today, and maybe someday down the road I will come to know Him as Lord.” There is none of that.
As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.
—Colossians 2:6
You see, when Paul was blinded by the revelation of the Lord Jesus, according to Acts 9, he went straight to prayer. This was real. This was radical in his life.
When he heard the name Jesus of Nazareth, he identified with a rejected Savior. When he was told to arise and be baptized for the remission of sins, he identified with guilty sinners. He is entering in. This is an amazing moment.
Ezekiel 36:26 promised that God would take away the stony heart. His heart was stony, insensitive, had no feeling. Now, all of a sudden, he has a heart of flesh. He is sensitive. He is tender.
You open the epistles, and now what are you reading about this maniac, this terrorist who was terrorizing Christians? We read about his tears—over and over again: his tears of suffering, his tears of concern for all the churches, his tears of love.
Where did he get those tears? It is Jesus, His life. He is weeping over Jerusalem through Paul. It is not Paul anymore. It has been an exchanged life.
Acts 9:15-16:
Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me,
To bear My name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel:
For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.
I do not know if it is instructive or not. There are certain names that you just associate with certain things. I am sure Saul had heard these two names: Ananias and Judas. I just have an idea he knew those two names.
All of this would take place in the house of a man called Judas and involve a man named Ananias. You know how the other Judas was involved in having our Lord crucified. He knew these names. Now, all of a sudden, in this place, his life is redemptive.
Ananias begins to tell him about the outworking of his ministry: “You are going to be a witness here. You are going to go here.” All of the missionary journeys that took place were nothing more than an outworking of that moment.
He saw Jesus, and he saw the world for what it was. He saw Jesus, and he saw the body of Christ. He saw the family. He saw all Christians united to the Head. He knew to touch one was to touch the Lord Himself.
He saw Christians. He also saw the will of God. He saw his ministry. He saw his calling. He saw his destiny. He saw how his life would be redeemed. He identified with a rejected Savior. He saw His lordship. All of that because one day he saw Jesus.
Acts 26, beginning at verse 16:
But arise, and stand upon thy feet:
For to this end have I appeared unto thee,
To appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen Me,
And of the things wherein I will appear unto thee;Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send thee,
To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light
And from the power of Satan unto God,
That they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Me.—Acts 26:16-18
All he did was see Jesus, and now he has his whole ministry laid out before him. His ministry is rooted in his experience. He got blind. He could not see. God opened his eyes. Now he sees. He said, “Now you are going to go out, and that message is going to go to others.”
The message comes out of his life, and his life comes out of his vision of Christ. He has seen Christ.
Notice in verse 16, He said, “Not only in what you have seen, but in the things to which I will yet appear to you.” Damascus was only the first revelation. He was going to get more.
He said, “As I have appeared to you, I will continue to appear to you over and over again.”
So we come to this end, and we are back to this: brothers, it is thrilling for me to be able to address you because I know a little of your background. You have heard it before. You have heard it so many times. You have read it. You grew up on it. You cut your teeth on it. You know.
It is all about seeing Jesus. And after I see Him, then what? See Him again. And then what? See Him again. He will keep appearing to you.
You want an explanation, he says to Agrippa, of my life, of my ministry, of my message, of my missionary journeys, of my persecution, of why I am standing here? A long time ago, twenty-seven years ago, I saw Jesus. That is it.
Seeing Him, I saw the world. Seeing Him, I saw the church. Seeing Him, I saw the will of God. Seeing Him, I saw my ministry.
Brothers, let me just sort of pound it home one more time, just to release the little bit of burden that is still on my heart. I shudder when I think of how much time Christians spend not seeing Jesus.
They spend it on, you know—I said, “You see Jesus, you see the world.” Well, they spend it on the lust of the flesh: how to have victory over the lust of the flesh. “I need to study that. I need to study how to deny myself. I need to study how to face temptation.”
“We have to have a lesson on spiritual warfare—how to fight the devil, how to stand, how to know his wiles,” and all of that. Brothers, you need to see Jesus. You will see the world, and you will have deliverance from that.
I shudder to think how much time Christians spend on the lust of the eyes, on the problem of surrender: “How can I lose my grip? How can I get rid of all this materialism?” Things that are temporal, things that are physical, things that are shakable. Programs on how to have your finances and how to order them.
I promise you: see Jesus, and all that is going to fall into place. I shudder to think how much time Christians spend on all these other things—the pride of life, position, human glory, standing, and how to get the testimony out.
I shudder to think how much time Christians spend on the will of God rather than the God Whose will it is. All of this fell into place when he saw Jesus.
You do not have to say, “Now, are the three lights lining up? Do I have the Word of God, and does that line up with circumstances, and does that line up with peace in my heart? And if that all comes together, then I know the will of God.”
“Peace in my heart—now, there is the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the voice of the human spirit, and the voice of the evil spirit. How am I going to know which is the voice of this?” You do not have to worry about any of that. See Jesus, and all of that falls into place.
You do not need to study the early church and see how they did it. You do not need to get your eyes on the body, and on the members, and on how we are all supposed to get together. See Christ, and you will see the unity of the body.
See Christ, and you will see the church. See Christ, and you will see the will of God. See Christ, and you will see your place in the history of redemption. It is all about seeing Jesus.
And when you are done seeing Him, see Him again. Paul said this: that is the last preparation. Because the real issue is that He is neither dead nor gone, but He is alive, and He is alive in you.
If you want to really know Him—the One dwelling in your heart—Mary says you have to see the Lord. Thomas says you have to see Him in His Book. The Emmaus disciples say you have to see Him in this Book by the Holy Spirit.
The upper-room disciples say you have to see Him in this Book by the Holy Spirit in such a way that the Spirit of God breathes on you and you become a new creation.
Then Paul comes along and says, “You have to understand the new creation. The new creation is not a changed life; it is an exchanged life.” As you behold Him, He manifests Himself through you.
All you need to know about this world, about the will of God, about the church, about your place, your ministry, your identification—all you need to know about everything—is a byproduct from seeing the Lord.
You saw Him. I know everybody has, at least once, and you are never the same. That is just a threshold. See Him again, by revelation.
Have you seen Him as the Vine? Have you seen Him as the Shepherd? Have you seen Him as the Potter? Have you seen Him as the Smelter? Have you seen Him as the Comforter? Have you seen Him as the Guide? Have you seen Him as the Groom? Have you seen Him as whatever—the Rock, the Fortress, the Door?
Every time He reveals Himself, another Damascus takes place. There is a—I almost said “change.” There is a change, brother, when you see Him. You are transformed, and He is allowed to live through you more and more and more. That is what He has called us to.
May we leave this place with the testimony of Mary Magdalene: “I have seen the Lord.” Seeing the Lord.
Let us pray. Father, thank You so much for preparing Your people by these appearances. Now, Lord, we thank You that You have prepared us as well, and that all these things are so true.
You do indwell us. You live inside of us. You have overcome the world and everything that stands in the way of the will of God in our life.
Keep showing us the Lord Jesus, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Thank you, brothers.