Flipping The Lights On

Read: Acts 9:1-19

Walking Blind; Saul’s Conversion (Part 1)

You know what it is like when you first wake up and someone immediately flips on the lights. Maybe it was when you were growing up and a parent or sibling came in to abruptly wake you up for school, or work, or whatever. It is so harsh. You cringe and recoil back… you don’t want to see it! Maybe you wish that you could simply go back to sleep… but there is no turning back… it is time to get up. Sometimes this is what it is like when Christ shows up. The light of Jesus bursts into the darkness of our life as if someone flipped a switch. We might cringe and recoil back at first… wanting to go “back to sleep”… but Jesus will not let us! When it is your time to get up… it’s your time to get up.

When Saul first experienced the “light of Christ”, he fell to the ground and shut his eyes. It is kind of an odd response in a way. (v.4) I understand the closing his eyes piece, but the falling to the ground part is odd. Was this out of fear? Was this out of reverence? Was this a sign of worship as in other passages of the scriptures? Notice how the men who were with Saul remained standing, although experiencing the same event - they do not respond in the same way. (v.7) While on the ground Saul hears a voice. “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.” (v.4-6) Jesus was speaking to Saul, and he had no idea who it was. He heard his voice, but needed to ask, “who is this”. Sometimes in life, Christ is speaking to us and we do not know it is him. We might have the posture of worship (like Saul falling down to the ground) but not actually know the voice of Christ. Once again, we have an example of Jesus asking someone to walk in faith. He doesn’t say exactly what is going to happen, he simply tells Saul “But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” (v. 6) Do you think Saul realized that he had gone blind in this encounter? How do you think he felt when he opened his eyes and realized that he was blind!?! (v.8) Talk about walking in faith… walking “blindly” to where Jesus has called you without knowing what is next. Stumbling into this new life of faith like you stumble into the world when you just wake up abruptly… when someone “flips the light switch” on you.

Here is the truth, sometimes we don’t see what is going on because we don’t want to… we close our eyes. Other times we don’t see because we can’t… we are BLIND. The light of Christ is bursting forth into this world, and into our lives but we don’t always see it. Some of you are closing your eyes… recoiling back… squinting at the light… wanting to go “back to sleep” when it is time to wake up. Some of you are “blind”, you cannot see… but you can HEAR the voice of Christ and he is calling you to walk in faith to the city and you will need those around you to guide you there. Not everyone experiences Christ showing up in the same way. A group of people may be in the same place, at the same time, and experience the same thing and yet one person (here it is Saul) is profoundly changed and the others just “stand in awe”… retaining their sight and not falling to the ground in reverence or fear. When the light of Christ bursts into your life, how do you respond? The hard truth is that, it often involves a drastic moment in our lives to make our faith real… to drive us to be willing to walk blindly with Christ… to walk in faith when we do not know exactly what is next. We all actually start out blind… “dead in our trespasses and sin”. (cf. Eph 2:1-5, Col. 2:13) There will always be a stretch of walking blindly in faith with Christ before the”scales fall off” and we are able to truly see. (v.18)

Look for the light of Christ today. It may be uncomfortable at first because of how “bright the light from heaven” truly is. It may even cause you to drop down to one knee… to hit the ground as you realize how much you have actually been living “in the dark”. Maybe for some of you, today will be a “Damascus road” sort of day? Have you been holding your eyes shut, trying not to see? It is time to wake up. It is time to listen to the voice of Christ. It is time to walk into the place Jesus is telling you… even if you don’t know what happens next. If you feel “blind”, lean into those around you. They hear the voice as well (cf. Saul’s traveling companions) and can guide you. Spiritual blindness always precedes spiritual sight. Spiritual death precedes spiritual life. These experiences with Christ… this walking with him… will change you at your core… will transform your life forever! Love you guys. - JDP