God Uses the Unlikely

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In our text today, you will hear about the encounter of Jesus, after His resurrection, with a man named Saul.  His other name, which is not given because of his conversion but is another name that he goes by, is Paul.  This may have been a Roman name that he took in addition to his Jewish name of Saul.

Acts 9:1-20 

9  Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. ³ As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

⁵ “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. ⁶ “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

⁷ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

¹⁰ In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

¹¹ The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. ¹² In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

¹³ “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”

¹⁵ But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. ¹⁶ I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

¹⁷ Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, ¹⁹ and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul in Damascus and Jerusalem

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. ²⁰ At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. ^[1]

 

When I think of Paul, I think of someone who is very Jewish, standing up for what is “right”.  Doing what is right, following the law to its fullest extent.  I to believe when I was younger I believed I was doing what was right.  Following the laws down to the last letter.  Now I was not following a religious law but secular law.  When I was a police officer, I was rarely lenient to those I encountered.  After all the law is black and white, you are right or wrong, guilty or not there is no grey in the law as I saw it.

Some might say, just getting older softens people up.  I have seen that with my own family.  However, there is something else that brings about change.  Anyone have an idea of what can change a person who sees everything as black and white, someone who hunts down, legally the people as followers of “the way” and one who has people imprisoned and even stands by to watch the cloaks of those that are stoning a follower of “the way”?

There can only be one thing that can truly change someone.  God makes changes to people all the time.  However even with making changes, it is never done against our free will.  God patiently keeps coming to us, prompting us, seeking us, asking us are you ready?

When Paul was confronted by Jesus, he asks him why he is persecuting Him.  This is very significant in how Jesus sees us as His followers even today.  Whatever you do to the least of these you do to me.  If a follower of Christ is persecuted so is Christ Jesus.  Jesus stands with the people of God, in the good and the bad.  What is done to His followers, is also done to Him.  What is NOT done is also NOT done to Christ.  Whatever happens to Jesus’ followers happens to Jesus.  So, when Christ confronts Paul, it is serious.  Later in Acts, Paul admits to being the person who held the cloaks of those that stoned Stephan to death, which caused the disciples of Jesus to flee and spread out for fear of the same treatment.  Did Paul stone Stephan?  No..but did he stop it?  He is as guilty for his failures as if he threw a stone himself.  Paul hunts  down and turns over any Jew that has become a follower of Christ.  Paul is the lowest of low, helping others to imprison Jesus by virtue of imprisoning His followers, by persecuting the follower and thus persecuting Christ Himself!

When Jesus appears to Paul, there is a blinding light.  In later texts, Paul tells us that he was able to see Jesus but the light was blinding, which as we know from the text that for a time Paul unable to, neither see nor eat.  This is not a punishment but the after effects most likely of the appearance of Jesus.

Is Paul then one of the most unlikely characters to serve God?  He did not kill anyone but sure either assisted in putting people in the position to be killed or failed to prevent it.

What about someone like Noah, now there is a character used by God.  Noah liked to drink wine an awful lot.  So much so, one of the first things he does after getting onto dry land, he plants a vineyard and later he becomes so drunk that he lay naked in his tent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When his son Ham sees this, Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan, who becomes a slave.  This may have even been reflective of some of the fate of the Canaanites population later in Israel.  Yes another fine example of a person that God has chosen to do God’s work.

How about Moses, he was a murder on the run when God chose him to be the one to lead God’s people out of Egypt.  Yet, ……another unlikely choice.  Later God chooses David to be king over the Israelites.  David sleeps with a woman that is married to one of his soldiers.  To help cover this up, he sends the solider off and makes sure that he is put on the front line and worse yet had the troops pull back so there was no protection for him.  Yet God uses David to provide for God’s people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bible is full of unlikely characters that God uses to accomplish God’s mission.  God’s mission is to restore humanity to how it is suppose to be, from this brokenness that we have lived in and continue to live in today.  God comes down through the Holy Spirit and becomes incarnate in the form of a man known as Jesus.  Jesus’ mission was to carry out God’s mission of restoring humanity.  Jesus gives a mission as well.  That mission is sometimes referred to as the great commission.  Go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   Although this was said to the eleven disciples, it applies to all disciples.  How, if you are a disciple of Jesus the Christ, can you NOT do this?  Either you are a disciple or you are not.  There is no, well, I am a disciple when it is comfortable, when it fits my needs.

You, me all of us here have it easy.  When we speak of what God does for others, the good news that is here and is to come, the worst that may happen to us is someone may say, no thanks, go away, I do not want to believe.  At the worst, we are rejected because we live as a disciple of Christ and do not conform to this world and stand different from the world, in the name of Christ.  We have it easy.  No one is trying to kill us for our beliefs and because of that, I think this makes me sometimes a very complacent Christian and I do not live up to being a disciple of Christ.

There are people all over this world, men, women, children, mothers and fathers all kinds of people who are reaching out in their discipleship to carry out what Christ Jesus asks us to do as the body of Christ in the mission of the church.  They sacrifice everything for discipleship, for Jesus.  Despite amazing odds, they profess their faith all day long.  For it, they are beaten, imprisoned, and killed as martyrs.  They die for Christ to be His disciple.

The unlikely..you, me us.  We too are the unlikely.  I have a past, boy do I have a past.  I have been shaped by it but it does not define me.  God loves me in spite of my past and asks that I be a disciple of His Son.  It is not the job of the Pastor, or the Deacon to carry out the mission in discipleship.  It is all of our jobs.  Your jobs, my job, all of our jobs.  We all have a past and I bet there is more than just I that would be ashamed of some of the things we have done or failed to do.  The Spirit is longing to reach you to help you to be with you in your journey on true discipleship.

Look now at your neighbor, seriously look them in their eyes.  Look deeply in there.  There is hurt, there is sorrow but there is also joy, there is the Holy Spirit, do you see the Sprit?  Do you see Christ wanting to be with you as you reach to God’s people in carrying out the mission of Christ, the mission of God, to all of humanity?   God wants us to be part of this, Jesus calls us to be part of this, the Holy Spirit empowers us to be part of this.

 

How can we stay centered as disciples?……We are going to fail, no doubt about it.  I have something that I have started and I offer it to you as well.

 

In the morning, begin your day with a prayer.  It is fairly simple and centering.  Just pray to God; “Lord, please be with me today and help to remember in all things.  I am not you.”

 

In the evening, after dinner, after you fill your tummy, fill you soul with a reflective prayer of the day of self-examination that St. Ignatius practiced.

 

1. Become aware of God’s presence.

2. Review the day with gratitude.

3. Pay attention to your emotions.

4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.

5. Look toward tomorrow.

 

 

It is not and will not be easy being a disciple of our Lord and Savior.  People may make fun of us.  They may reject us and we may not feel good at times.  What people do to us because of Christ, they do also to He who calls us to be His disciples.  Jesus is there, Jesus gives us the words, the confidence to speak boldly and to live out as disciples and be a community of believers that live in contrast to the world, as God intends us to be, different than others, attracting others to our community to also be disciples in Christ and thus reconciling the world back to the way…. God intends.