When the Risen Savior Breaks Into Your Life

When the Risen Savior Breaks into Your Life... Ac 0:1-19a 041413M

Some events alter history, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Think of 9/11, Pearl Harbor, or inventions like the television, cell phone, or computer. It's the same with church history. Think of Luther's nailing of the 95 Theses, or the split between Eastern Orthodox churches and the WesternChurch centered in Rome. It's the same with our congregation: decisions to stay here and build a new church in the 1970's, or a decision to be part of a Lutheran elementary school association. There's also the decision to request Synod help for a second pastor to do Hispanic outreach at St. Andrew, a request that has been granted. This is a decision that will alter our congregation's history. It's the same with our personal lives, with such things as marriages, career changes, or the birth of a child. But there is one event that we all have in common that changed us more than any of the others. And it's the same one that is described in our lesson:

When the Risen Savior Breaks into Your Life...

1. He reveals your sin against God.

2. He chooses you by his grace.

3. He prepares you for a life of service.

1. "Lord, 'tis not that I did choose you, that, I know could never be," the hymn writer said. It was that way with Saul (later the apostle Paul), and with us too! The Lord broke into his life in a big way. When the Risen Savior breaks into your life, He reveals your sin against God.

The Lord stopped Saul in the act of sinning. It was like when you stop a child in mid air as he is about to throw a toy or hit a sibling. Saul was rounding up Christians as prisoners, and confiscating their property. They were part of the "Way," what Christians were called before they were called "Christians," because of Jesus' statement that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It shows they believed in one way of salvation, through faith in Jesus alone, and, naturally, people didn't like to hear that. We're told, 1 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.

Note whom Saul was REALLY sinning against: 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. In persecuting Christians, Saul was persecuting Christ. And obviously, Christ was God! If the Lord points out that disciples who give food, drink, or go to visit people in need are really doing those things for the Lord himself, then it is also true that person who harms Christians is also harming the Lord himself--and he is God. Saul realized instead of helping God, he had been opposing him! Saul recognized his sin in sorrow. That's why he considered himself the "chief" or worst of sinners--because he persecuted the Church of God.

Our Lord reveals the same sin in our lives. No, it's not like we went around arresting Christians and taking their stuff. But whenever we sin in any way, we are bringing shame on the Lord's Church, and therefore on the Lord himself. We're opposing God! We're certainly not helping his cause when we sin! In addition, when we sin against others, especially fellow believers, we're sinning against the Lord at the same time. When you wives disrespect your husbands, you're disrespecting Christ. When we husbands fail to love our wives, we're failing to love Christ. When you're inconsiderate of others' feelings, you're "dissing" Christ at the same time. God says to you as he says to me, "Pastor Miller, Pastor Miller, why are you persecuting me?" We oppose our Lord and persecute his Church no less than Saul, and the Lord wants us to admit that.

2. Yet, the Lord breaks into our lives not just to reveal our sin. When the Lord breaks into your life, it is also true that He chooses you by his grace.Jesus revealed himself to Saul to show his love for him. He had died and arose again to win his forgiveness. That's what seeing the risen Lord meant for Saul. As he would later write the Romans, [Christ] was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification(Ro 4:25). The Lord wanted Saul as his own, playing on his own team rather than the devil's: 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.

Now Saul could have the assurance that the Lord himself was guiding his life for his good, and for the good of his kingdom. That's why the Lord stopped Saul from persecuting his church, and then sent Ananias ahead to look for Saul and ask for him by name. Otherwise, who would have believed that Saul was a Christian! The Lord took charge of the situation. See how the Lord worked out things so Saul would be accepted as a fellow believer whose life had been changed?

The Lord also revealed his grace toward Saul by restoring his eyesight, and assuring him of new life in Christ through baptism: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. Paul later related how Ananias told him:"The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name" (Ac 22:14-16). Notice how Ananias told Saul God had "chosen him to know his will" and hear his words. Notice how he assured him that in baptism his sins were washed away.

The same grace that led the Lord to reveal himself to Saul has come to you and me. No, he hasn't revealed himself to us in the sky, or in a vision, but in his Word, the Bible. He came to you and me in baptism when he washed away our sins. Yes, even our sins of persecuting his Church and working against him rather than for him.Does he chastise too? Yes, not necessarily with scales on our eyes, but other things he allows to happen for our good. Sometimes he comes with physical healing for us too. Sometimes not. But he gives us the assurance that he's working behind the scenes of our lives too so that everything works out for our good, and for the good of his kingdom as it comes to us and others. One day, like Saul, we will see him face to face too!

3. The Lord gave evidence of his grace toward Saul--later Paul--to use him to build the Church he had tried to destroy. It was just has he had come to Peter and reinstated him by saying, "Feed my lambs" and "Feed my sheep." When the risen savior breaks into your life, He prepares you for a life of service.

He did that for Saul, as he revealed to Ananias: 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." The Lord also revealed this to Saul, as Paul later recounted the event. The Lord told him: "Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me" (Ac 26:16-18).All the energy, all the talent, all the time Saul had spent opposing God he would now use in proclaiming him! That God would use him as his tool to bring other sinners to repentance was amazing.

And no less amazing for you and me! The Lord did the same for us. As we confess, "All this he did that I should be his own, and live under him in his kingdom and serve him...." As a rock artist once sang, "Everybody's gotta serve somebody." Who are you serving? Do you see yourself as the hands, feet, ears and and mouth of your Lord? You are! He took you and me from serving the Prince of this World to serving the Lord of Life! We're not deserving of the privilege. And it is a privilege, not a drudgery. How sad when we make it out to be that way. God is using us to bring others to him!

And that's why our conversion is such a momentous event. Just as events like 9/11 and the 95 Theses altered history, and the arrival of a new pastor will alter our congregation's history, so our Lord altered your story and mine when he came into our lives. When the Risen Savior breaks into your life, He reveals your sin against God, he chooses you by his grace, and he prepares you for a life of service. And you're never the same as you were before! Just ask Saul! Amen.

Ac 0:1-19a

When the Risen Savior Breaks into Your Life...

1. He reveals your sin against God.

2. He chooses you by his grace.

3. He prepares you for a life of service.

1 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.

[Christ] was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification(Ro 4:25).

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.

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.

"The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name" (Ac 22:14-16).

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."

"Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me" (Ac 26:16-18).