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by Sandy Shaw
In Acts 9, we see the risen and living Lord Jesus Christ coming to a man who does not believe that Jesus is alive! Jesus meets Saul as he nears Damascus. He was out of Israel. Sometimes we have to get out of our own religious prejudices before we are able to meet the Living God. Sometimes we have to be broken or melted, before we are ready to believe in and follow Jesus.
Saul was a deeply religious man. Did he suspect that these disciples of Jesus might just be right? They were willing to go to prison and die for their faith, and if they were right, then all he had hoped for and held to and worked for was wrong and invalid. He had wasted time and energy. Jesus knew his name, and Jesus knew his need. He knows that about us too. As Saul lies there he realises that he is guilty before God - but there is no rebuke - and no punishment from Jesus. But Jesus does command him.
When Jesus Christ comes to us with mercy and love and grace and forgiveness, He also comes with commands. There are many who would like to have His mercy and love but NOT His commands. It has to be both. Saul surrenders to Jesus Christ is totally. When he gets up he is blind. This proud arrogant religious fanatic is now in a dark sightless world, and he is led away like a little child into Damascus. Sometimes God has to take us and shake us and do something like this with us so that we can be re-shaped and re-made and re-fashioned and re-moulded.
For three days he has no food and no water. He is praying and fasting. Perhaps this is the first time in his life he has prayed. O, he would have said prayers before, but now he is praying. There is a difference. He is alone with God. He is communing with the Risen and Living Christ. It is as if Jesus is choosing the most unlikely character for the ministry. Jesus is already preparing someone to visit him and minister to him. Speak about the expansion of the Gospel - the kingdom extending - it is happening spontaneously. But, here is a new believer, spending his first three days in prayer and fasting. If more did that we might see fewer fall away.
What happens after we are born again? The test of true conversion is what happens to us afterwards - three or four days later - three or four years later - 30 or 40 years later. You can have moving experiences, but where do they move you to? What does it lead to? How long does it last? How did you fit in to the local fellowship, and how did you relate to all the other disciples of Jesus over the next months and years?
Saul desperately needed a friend at that moment. We all do, and Jesus is about to send a man named Ananias to minister to him - to visit him - to help him at this traumatic time. Saul was totally transformed. It lasted. Yes, he developed and grew. Yes, he moved on and matured in the faith, but he never forgot this day. He never forgot his experience outside the city of Damascus, and never once did he try to explain it away, nor did he ever tire of telling his story.
When a man meets Jesus Christ, he never wants to explain it away. Normally he wants to speak about it, and tell the whole world, and share what Jesus says is for sharing.
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!
Gifted as a Biblical teacher, Sandy is firmly committed to making sure that his teachings are firmly grounded in the Word.
Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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