People of God, this is holy, inerrant, saving word of God. Please give it your careful attention. As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, may I say something to you? And he said, do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness? Paul replied, I am a Jew from Tarsus and Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people. And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. When there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying, brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said, I am a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women. as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus, and there you'll be told all that is appointed for you to do. And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing by me said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, God of our fathers appointed you to know His will, to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name. When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance. And I saw Him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that I, that in one synagogue after another, I imprisoned and beat those who believed in You. And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever and ever. Amen. Let's pray once more. Oh God, it is good to read your word and there's so much profit in simply hearing it read. Oh God, we thank you for the privilege now of digging deep into this text and finding what is there, the treasures that await us. God, thank you for giving us your word. Thank you for allowing us to open it in this way, in the preached word. We pray for your help in this. Man is worthless without your aid. All of our work is meaningless without your blessing. And so God, we pray that you would bless this moment now. Bless this time for your people, that we would hear your voice speaking through this text. And that you would remind us of some things that you would have us know today. Thank you, God, for loving us in this way. And bless this time, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. There's a popular word that floats around these days in our culture, the word narrative. Have you heard this word? Everyone has a narrative. Everyone has a different competing narrative. You often hear the word narrative as it relates to the media. The media is this particular branch of the media's narrative as opposed to this particular branch of the media's narrative. It's just a fancy word for story, but narrative, I guess, sounds smarter. But you hear about competing narratives, competing storylines, competing perspectives about what's real or what's true. Conservatives will say, we have a better story to tell, and so forth. Well, this is a text before us that has Paul giving a narrative. His narrative is personal. It's quite personal. But in a way, it's quite big as well, far beyond him. Everyone has a narrative, and if I may use this also frequently used phrase, a meta-narrative, a big story. Everyone shares a big story. Regardless of opinions, there is one great big story that every single human being, past, present, and future shares. That is God's story. And all of our little narratives, all of our little stories, our live stories fit into that great big meta-narrative, that great big giant story of history. And so what Paul does here is quite interesting because he gives his defense of Christianity in the form of a story. He gives his story. But really he gives his story as it relates to his story. He gives his personal narrative as it relates to God's narrative. God's plan for the world in Christ. So as we look at this text, a little context, we've been seeing in the book of Acts, Paul is being given these unctions by the Spirit. He's been given these revelations by the Spirit that you must go to Jerusalem And you must go and you will suffer there. That's been very clear to Paul. We've seen that at least twice, chapter 19, chapter 20. We see Paul saying that the Spirit told me to go to Jerusalem. Even when his friends hear that and they say, Paul, don't go, you mustn't go. The Lord's warning you not to go. No, Paul reads it differently. He says, no, the Lord's telling me to go. He's simply preparing me for what awaits. I must go to Jerusalem. And so he goes. When he arrives, we see in chapter 21, when he arrives there, he is coerced by the elders there to enter into this vow, and it's a long story why he gets into this vow. He does it to sort of bring reconciliation amongst the Jews. But he takes this public vow, which requires him to go into the temple. And the minute he walks into the temple, they start to slander him, harass him, and then they lay hands on him and begin to beat him. And so now Paul sees this is the step that God has ordained for him to enter into this next phase of his ministry, which is going to be one long trial. One long legal battle in the courts of Rome. But you see, Paul understands what this really is. He understands that though it is severe persecution, the Jews are quite wicked in what they're doing. They're trying to slander him and destroy him. and use Rome to do it, Paul sees God using Rome and the Jews and their slanders to bring the gospel to far more Gentiles. So he is going to willingly enter into this legal battle, into this long lengthy trial that will lead him all the way to Rome, so that he will have more opportunities to preach the gospel to Gentiles, including high officials and later, though it's not recorded, Caesar himself. And so, what we have now is this, the beginning of this stage, chapter 22. And this is the very first defense of the gospel that he makes to the Jews in Jerusalem after he's been beaten, taken away from the crowd by the tribune, this Roman authority, this soldier. And he takes him away. The key verse is verse 1, Acts 22, verse 1. Brothers and fathers, hear the defense Greek word, apologia. The defense that I make before you is not an apology, not like I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for what I'm saying here. No, it's a defense. It's a robust, strong defense as to why what I'm preaching and doing is God's will. So that's what he means by an apologia. Three big observations about what we're about to see here. Number one, Paul's defense is in the form of an autobiographical story. He tells his story, but his story, as we're going to see, is one small part of Christ's perfect plan to save the Gentiles. Paul is a part of it. He's not the main event. In fact, the centerpiece of this chapter, the centerpiece is this marvelous conversion in which Christ appears in glory and knocks him off his feet and reveals himself in a very amazing way. Just note that. It's interesting. He gives his testimony. And the way I'm going to approach this text is really very practical insights about how we can also give our testimony as well. Secondly, Paul's defense virtually repeats the events of Acts chapter 9 in which Saul was converted to Paul. And we're going to see this very same speech given again in chapter 26. Very little difference. Huge chunk of material here. Almost verbatim. And there's a wonderful quote as to why this is. You might wonder why Luke did you record the same thing virtually three times. Let me read Dennis Johnson's statement here. We may find it odd that Luke did not economize papyrus by inserting a terse summary in chapters 22 and 26, such as, then Paul told them about his conversion. But Luke's extravagant repetition is the better way. He will not let us forget the world-changing significance of the call of the Apostle to the Gentiles. He will have us listen to that call again and again. And with each repetition he adds details that increase the luster of this conquest of grace. persecutor turned propagator, paragon of self-righteousness reduced to penitent dependence on another's righteousness, aloof zealot for Israel's purity sent to mingle with polluted pagans as the preeminent exhibit of God's cleansing mercy. So there's great wisdom in God and inspiring Luke to record this passage virtually three times. One more observation, we'll dive into the text. Paul's defense of the gospel focuses on explaining God's plans. It's not about him. God's plans for the world, both for Jew and Gentile alike. We talked about this last time, but he wants the Jews to understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a threat to your Beloved traditions. This is not a threat to the keeping of the ancient feasts or even circumcising your children. If you wish to do the dietary laws, all of that's free for you. This isn't a threat to your beloved heritage. You don't have to stop being a Jew when you become a Christian. You become true Jew, actually. True Israel. Likewise, the gospel of Jesus Christ and his kingdom is not a threat to Roman civil rule. The gospel is not a revolution to overthrow Caesar's authority. It is the building of God's spiritual house in every nation, and welcoming all nations, Gentiles and Jews alike, into the house of God. That was the great irony of last time's sermon, is that you see them kicking Paul out of the house of God, slamming the door shut, when the reality is, Paul is, and they were slandering him, saying, look, he needs to be put to death. He's welcoming the Gentiles into the temple. The huge irony is, in a way that's true, Paul is welcoming all the Gentiles of the world into the house of the Lord. Not the stone building in Jerusalem, into the true house of God, the church. So his message is that to Jew and Gentile alike, this isn't a threat to those things. He's only going to set you free to enjoy these good things even more. To be a better citizen, a better Jew. And so here Paul gives his apologia, the defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the content of his testimony, and this is my main idea, the content of his testimony is you could say a template for all believers as we tell our story in Christ. So we're gonna see three main ideas, and I'm gonna just announce these headings as we come to them. This is a pretty long section, so we're gonna go through it fairly briefly. Look with me at verse two. First thing that Paul does is he signals to his audience what we all are outside of Christ. He signals to his audience a sympathy and understanding of what we all are outside of Christ. Verse two. Notice how he begins. When they heard him speaking in the Hebrew language, they became quiet. Now, if you notice in the previous verse, he spoke to the Tribune in Greek. He spoke to the tribute in Greek and he gained an audience with this Roman tribune. Now he speaks to this great crowd of Jews in the Hebrew language, gains an audience with them. And so there's something here I think worth taking away. Had he spoken to the crowd in Greek, obviously there would have been a horrendous scene. But he speaks in the Hebrew language, obviously to get a hearing. He spoke in their mother tongue. It reminds them that he's one of them. So what's going on here? I think basically we're seeing Paul using wisdom and gaining hearing. In other words, he's not emphasizing their stark differences yet. He's building a bridge. He's building a bridge to communication. I think everyone knows this sort of cliche, the cliche of the brand-new Christian. or the brand new reformed Christian, perhaps more accurately. He's very zealous for the truth. He wants to get in debates with everyone he meets. And what do they call that? He's in the cage stage, right? He's in the cage stage. He ought to be locked up and put in a cage for a while because all he wants to do is get in fights. You always want to emphasize your differences. No, Paul is wise. He's emphasizing things that are common. He's building bridges, not walls here. The second thing we see is he understands their spiritual context. He understands their spiritual commitments. Verse 3, I am a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. So why does he give all this detail? He's letting them know. He understands them. He understands their commitments as Jews. He knows where they're coming from. This is a huge part of communicating with people is, again, letting them know they're understood, that you understand something about their perspective. You understand something about their state of mind or why they believe what they believe. Notice here, this is amazing. This is very gracious. He even compliments them on being very zealous. This is the same group of people that were just beating him to a pulp just a few minutes before. And here he is complimenting them on their zeal. This is clearly the Spirit's guidance in Paul's life. So he understands their spiritual, religious commitments. Thirdly, he understands their opposition to Christ. He lets them know, he understands why they are against the gospel. Verse 4 and 5. It says, I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the elders can bear me witness. I journeyed toward Damascus, he said, to bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. Paul here is, there's a little sly statement in here about how the elders can bear me witness of these things. He's kinda saying, yeah, you're the guys that actually sent me on this mission. You're the guys that actually sent me to kill the Christians and put them in jail and stuff. So here he's saying, look, there but for the grace of God go I. If it weren't for the grace of God, I'd be doing exactly the same thing that you're doing, opposing Christ. He understands that 1 Corinthians 2 tells us the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit. They are spiritually discerned. He understands that these are like the Israelites of Romans 10 verse 2, that they are zealous for God, but a zeal without knowledge. He understands it very well. He was once in their shoes. So I think we can take away some things here just from what we've seen already. As we're called to be God's witnesses, as we're called to speak to our neighbors about Christ. And we are, by the way. These are very practical observations, simple observations, but very powerful. In witnessing to our neighbors, brothers and sisters, it is important to build bridges of communication as opposed to building walls of hostility, to emphasize our common human experience, our common human nature, and understand that left to ourselves we would all be in the same exact place that our neighbors are, without hope and without God. So, three things, just very briefly here. Look for common ground with your neighbors when you're seeking to reach the lost, when you're seeking to talk to someone about Jesus. Look for common ground culturally, socially, religiously even, providentially. Sometimes I think we get into a mindset of an us versus them. Do you ever find yourself thinking that way? We get in this mindset of it's us and them. We're enemies. Remember what Ephesians 6 says, that our enemies are not flesh and blood. Our enemies are spiritual in nature. They are primarily principalities and powers of darkness. They are demonic. And so yes, it is true in a sense that a flesh and blood person can be an enemy, but the true enemy is the one who's motivating him and who is compelling him to do what he does. And so we have to remember that when we find ourselves in this mentality of us versus them, I think a better and more biblical way to think is what Paul does here is he says, these are my neighbors who God has called me to serve. These are my neighbors whom God has called me to do good. Part of doing good is simply speaking the truth in love. And does that mean sometimes that people will hate us for that? Absolutely, we'll talk about that. But you can find something if you look long enough, you can find something in common with your neighbor who's made in God's image just like you are. Second thing, try to understand their spiritual commitments and convictions. He understood his audience thoroughly. He understood Roman culture. He understood Jewish culture for sure. How much do we know about our neighbor's view of the world? When you look at your own neighborhood, literally your own neighbors next to your home, do you know what they believe? Do you know their religious convictions? Do you know their perspective on these things? Their authority structure upon which they build their religious and moral commitments? Do you know your neighbors? I want to say brothers and sisters, if we don't know the people around us then there's something deeply wrong. God's placed us in these places where we live, where we work, where we go to school, where we play sports. He's put us there. Providentially He's placed us there. Sometimes we're on autopilot. We're not thinking this way, but God has placed us in these places for a reason. He's put these people that we see regularly around us for a reason. Your bank teller, a person at the grocery store that checks you out, or whoever, soccer coach, whatever it is. How much do you know about them? Have you asked about them? One more thing before we move on here. Paul shows sympathy, I believe, with his audience. He sympathizes with their natural opposition to Christ, knowing that he would be exactly the same way. He acknowledges his past sins here. He acknowledges his past hatred for Jesus Christ, his commitment to destroy Christianity. He acknowledges all that, understanding that he is what he is by the grace of God. Can we sympathize, really sympathize, with our unbelieving neighbors? I think sometimes we see the kind of things that happens in the world. We've been Christians for quite a while now. We've lived in these comfortable circles of relative peace and kindness and love and we get a glimpse of what happens in the world again and we see the ugliness of it. Obviously there's some of that in our own hearts still, but we see things that shock us sometimes and go, oh, how could people be that way? Brothers and sisters, we need to think biblically. We could be exactly like that. Can you sympathize with them? Understand that there's a story there. Have we begun to forget what we were in our BC days? Some of us, to be fair, don't remember BC days because all of our lives we've had this testimony of knowing Jesus and loving the Savior since you were born. That's a wonderful testimony by the way. I remember when I was a brand new Christian, we'd go to these Christian rallies and they would put on the stage people to give their testimonies. But they were almost always these testimonies of, I was this horrible drug dealing, drug addict, violent gang member, X, Y, Z. It was always the same picture of this train wreck of a life. Almost to the point where people, I think, were thinking to themselves, oh, I wish I had a testimony like that. I wish I could say I was a crack dealer. Brothers and sisters, the testimony that you've always known Jesus and always loved the Savior is a wonderful testimony. And in some ways, it's far more marvelous than the one about the one who was saved from all of his depravities. Whatever your testimony is, I think God would have us to say, can we sympathize with those who are lost? Can we have genuine compassion and sorrow for their state? To the point where we are actually compelled to reach them. I'm appalled, frankly, I'll be honest with you. I'm appalled at my own hardness of heart at times. My own lack of care for the lost. Perhaps you feel the same way, but God says it's not right. Never forget your BC era. Never remember, never forget what you could be now were it not for the grace of God. God wants you to have sympathy and compassion for the lost. I can state that authoritatively. So we look here, already there's a lot to think about here in Paul's testimony. This is just the beginning. Now we come to the centerpiece. The center of his talk, this is the focal point, right? This is what he really wants you to go away with. Verses 6 through 13. So he tells us what we all would be apart from the Lord. He understands that. Secondly, he wants us to know who Christ is and what he does. This is where the spotlight is shining here, almost literally. Verse 6, as I drew near to Damascus about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. So here's Saul on his merry way to Damascus to go put some more Christians in jail. Maybe he gets a little extra bonus on his paycheck for getting a few extra Christians in jail. And he's on his way, perhaps he's walking, perhaps he's on a donkey, I'm not sure. That's in the text, but whatever it is, he sees this awesome light. Notice the text says it's at noon. Alright, so this is the brightest part of the day, the hottest and brightest part of the day. And this light was so bright that it blinded him. This is the light of heavenly glory. This is the light that comes from the crack of the door of heaven when it's opened. Jesus Christ opens the door to heaven and allows the glory of heaven to shine down on earth for a few minutes. And then Jesus does the astonishing thing of stepping out into earthly time and space to meet with Saul. This is important. God is watching us. God is, His eyes are on us. We don't always see Him, obviously, but He is there at any time. He can break into our mundane lives at any time and at any place. He can intervene and interject Himself. He is in no way dependent on us. He kicks the door in to our house when we lock the doors on Him. All right, so there's nothing in us that holds him back from us. He does what he pleases. He goes where he will, and he saves who he wants. And he chose that day to save Saul. He could have saved, by the way, I thought about this this week, he could have saved any of those guys that were on the road to Damascus. Any of those guys could have been the apostles of the Gentiles, but he chose Saul. There's God's sovereign, sovereign electing grace. When did Jesus break in your life? When did Jesus kick the door in your house? When did He intervene in your life? When did He make Himself known to you? I remember when He made Himself known to me. I won't tell that story now. I remember that day. But here He breaks in and solves life This is the context for meeting Christ. Verse 7, this is his conversion. This is Saul's conversion. He says, I fell to the ground, verse 7, I fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Now kids, this is very interesting. Why does Jesus say, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who was Saul persecuting? Who was he going after? He was going after the church, wasn't he? He was hurting the church. He was hurting Christians. But Jesus says something interesting. He says, Saul, Saul, why are you hurting me? What does that mean? Doesn't it mean this, if it means anything, that Jesus so identifies with his people. He so loves his church that when you touch us, you're touching him. When you would lay your hand on one of God's children, you're laying your hand on Christ. And he is offended that Paul, Saul, would dare lay a finger on his precious church. This ought to give you great comfort and encouragement when we look at dark times, when we look at the possibility and perhaps probability of persecution in our own land against Christians. that Jesus takes great offense when someone lays a finger on one of his disciples. So, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's profound and profoundly encouraging as well. Here, Jesus reveals Saul's sin to him. One of the first things that he does when he converts a man or a woman or a boy or a girl is he makes you aware of your sin. Now if you're here and sitting here today and you're thinking, I'm pretty good. Your stock and trade is comparing yourself to other people. You usually compare yourself to other people who are far worse than you are. Obviously far worse than you are morally or whatever. And if that's your way of justifying your own self, if that's the way you justify yourself before God and you're standing before God and men, is comparing yourself to other people, let me tell you right now, you're probably not a Christian and you're a legalist at heart. Comparing yourself to the shifting standard is... is sad and foolish. God has given us one standard for all of us. One standard only and that's the law of God. And guess what? Not a single person in this room or on earth ever meets that standard. No one meets that high bar. There was only one man that did. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, comparing ourselves to others is folly and sin and will lead you to hell. Our righteousness, my friends, in Christ is our righteousness. He declares us righteous who trust in Him. When we trust in Christ and we say, we are sinners to the core, we're helpless, we're hopeless, we're depraved, we're wicked by nature, and we deserve hell and nothing more, then that's when Jesus says, yeah, I can deal with that one. I can save that guy. He is near to the kingdom of heaven. When you say to yourself, I'm righteous and good and I'm better than that guy, you're far, far away from the kingdom. And so here, the first thing he does to Saul is he says, look, Saul, this is your sin. This is your great sin. You think you're doing God a favor. You're a terrible blasphemer and a persecutor of God himself. And I love Saul's response. Who are you, Lord? Who are you, Lord? I think it's obvious by now, right? You know, when the heavens open up and the man in white stands before you, I think it's pretty obvious who you're speaking to. Who are you, Lord? But what he says is this. Who are you, Master? He already knows. He's far above him. He's God. This is God he's speaking to. And Jesus answers in the most curious way. I don't know if you noticed this or you've thought about this, but look at how Jesus answers him and identifies himself. I am Jesus of what? I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Why would he say that? He could have said anything. I'm Jesus, the Son of God, the glorified Son of God, the righteous Christ, the King of the universe. I'm Jesus of Nazareth. Remember what Thomas said? He said, yeah, we found this man, he's from Nazareth. Thomas says, oh, can anything good come out of Nazareth? That's like, I'm from the backwoods of nowhere's land. And he says, I am Jesus of Nazareth. You know, see the humility of Christ, the glorified Christ, the risen Christ, still identifying himself in this way. This is something to take note of. It's remarkable really. Verse 9. It says that those who are with me, Paul says, saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. Interesting, the men who were with Saul, they knew something was happening, but they could not understand the words. The words were for Saul alone. Again, this is God's sovereign election of Saul. So they could not understand the words, although they knew something was happening. Verse 10. And Saul said this, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus. Now, we're going to come to this idea of why Saul was blinded in just a few minutes, so just hold that thought. But the reality was he was blinded in the text and Acts 9 tells us he had some kind of scales on his eyes that was created by the looking into this light. But first thing here is interesting. Jesus begins to teach him how to walk. Babies, we're seeing this in our own household. I know some of you guys are too. Babies, they are not born obviously knowing how to walk. In every little thing they do is this big deal. You know, when they roll over on the bed, it's like, whoa, everybody claps when they roll over on the bed. When they push up on their little hands for the very first time and they raise themselves up, it's like, wow, that's awesome. And then they start doing the little commando crawl, and that's like a big deal. But they're not born knowing how to do these things, and so we have to teach them like little bitty steps. Here is the baby steps for Saul. Jesus says, here's what I want you to do. I just want you to go into Damascus and there you'll be shown what to do by another. Turns out to be Ananias. And here he begins to learn to see for real. Now he's blind, but he has to learn how to see in a whole new way. He has to learn how to see with eyes of faith now. He has to learn how to walk not according to his own wisdom, but according to the Word of God. Verse 12, this is one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing by me said, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. Now, just the takeaway on this. What can we take away from this that we've seen, this conversion? Just a few things. One, is focus on who Christ is. When we tell our story, when we tell our testimony, when we witness to others, don't let the focus be on yourself. Paul makes the focus on Jesus Christ. And he does give autobiographical stuff here, but it's all for a purpose. the context of his past life, the people that God used in his life, such as Ananias, to lead him to the way. That's all important, but it's not the focal point. The focus is who is this man, Jesus? What has he done for me? He's the one who intervened in my life. He's the one who broke the clouds open, who stepped into my darkness, and exposed my darkness with his light, and then he gave me new life. What was the impact that Christ made on you when He first met you? Have you forgotten those details? Have you forgotten what it was like on those first days when you were a brand new Christian? Try to remember those things. And then share the effect of what happens when you met Him. Notice here that everything changes for Saul. His life is completely reversed. in one day. He went to bed one night, Saul of Tarsus. The next night when he went to bed, mind racing, probably couldn't go to sleep. He was now Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles. His life was changed forever. Who is Jesus Christ? These are the most important questions. Who is Jesus Christ? What has He come to do? How has He done it? And what effect did that make in your life? So we've seen two things so far in Saul's testimony. One, he's shown us what we all are before Christ. He's shown us also who Jesus Christ is and what he does for us. And thirdly, he tells us what Christ calls us all to be in light of his witness, in light of his gospel. First of all, He gives a call, this is particular to Paul of course, to be a witness, but this is true for all of us. All of us can be included here. God of our fathers appointed you to know His will. Now this is Ananias speaking. The God of our fathers appointed you to know His will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. Now, you may have passed this over. I know I did. But, studying this week there's something that appeared to me in this text that I've never seen before. This little phrase that Ananias uses, he refers to Jesus as the Righteous One. Now, this is very interesting. This is a phrase that comes directly out of the Old Testament. The Righteous One is a term used for the suffering servant of Isaiah's Gospel. It appears in Isaiah 53, 11. The Righteous One is the title of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 42, we see that the work of the servant's role is to open the eyes of the Gentiles and turn them from darkness to light. Isn't that interesting? To open the eyes of the Gentiles and turn them from darkness to light. He says this, Paul, you who have been made blind, now you see. Now you are to go and tell everyone of what you have seen. And guess who he goes to? The exact people that are prophesied to hear that gospel message in Isaiah 42. The Gentile nation. Now, if you've not caught what's happening so far, this is the gist of it. What Luke is doing, what the Spirit is doing here is telling us that Paul has now in a way taken up the mantle. of the Suffering Servant. Not the Suffering Servant. He's not the Suffering Servant. He's a Suffering Servant like the Suffering Servant. The Suffering Servant was the one who shed his light upon the world to show the truth to all who would hear. and all who would see by faith. Paul is now called to follow in his footsteps and to go into all the world and if necessary to suffer so that he could open the eyes of the blind and bring those who are in darkness into the light. So what's happening is quite dramatic here. He's saying now Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, is now taking up the mantle, as it were, of the suffering servant. And this is not going to be easy. Verse 18, And you saw Him saying to me, make haste, get out of Jerusalem, because they will not accept your testimony about Me. That was Jesus' warning. Get out of Jerusalem, they're not going to listen. You're going to suffer, Paul. Not like the one that came before you, but you will still suffer. And so it's a call to witness. And guess what? All of us have this same call. To witness. and if need be necessary to suffer for that witness. One more call is a call to worship. Verse 16. Just one verse. Why do you now wait, rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name? By the way here, to be baptized is not literally to wash away one's sins. That's not at all what the text is saying. It's a symbol of the fact It's a picture of the washing away, the forgiveness of sins, in addition to many other things. The basic point is, he says, Paul go out and do a public act of worship. Many of us don't understand that in parts of the world today, to go and be baptized publicly is to put a target on your back. To be baptized publicly is to become the enemy of the world. So this was not a little thing for Paul to go out and be baptized. It was basically for him to say, I'm casting my lot now with Jesus. For better or for worse. Whatever happens, happens. But I'm with Him. So this is our call as well, brothers and sisters, to first of all, be a worshiper. For us, there's little risk involved in getting out of our beds and driving on the pretty open highways and getting here in the morning. There's very little risk. For many of our Christian brothers and sisters, getting up, going to church could lead to kidnapping, could lead to their house being burned down, could lead to their family being hurt or being killed. In many parts of the world this is a very real risk of simply worshiping God. Can we not appreciate just that very fact and just be thankful for the call to worship that God gives us and for the many freedoms we now have. Let us never ever take it for granted. There are many who think, I think, sitting in pews, oh wow this is boring. I wish we had drums in here. I wish we had electric guitars. We could rock out a little more. If you understood, oh, that's so superficial and silly, isn't it? Because if you understood who you are with, whose presence you are with, you are with the risen Christ. Christ is with us. What a profound thing it is to be in His presence in corporate worship. You never forget. And secondly, call us to embrace our call to be a witness. To be a bearer of the light that we have seen. Now we have seen the light. Now we are carriers of the light as Paul was. And he's called us to carry that light to our neighbors. Who's the last person, let me ask you, who was the last person you told about Jesus? When was the last time you actively sought to lead someone to saving faith in Jesus Christ? If it's been a long time, let me encourage you, start praying. Lord, help me. to be a better witness. Help me to be a faithful witness and open those doors for me. Let me tell you, it's the most exciting, most joyful way of living. It truly is. And so all of us, as the Church of Jesus Christ, now carry the mantle of the suffering servant. We are called to be those who carry the light to the world, and if necessary, to suffer. And the last thing I'll say is this, we have the best story ever. we have the true meta-narrative. And so because we have a better story, we need to be telling that story. Let's pray. Our God, we thank you. Thank you for this great passage. We thank you for the insights that it gives us, for the template laid for us that we can also follow in this way of communicating with others to tell our story, but to tell primarily your story. in our story as it relates to yours. And we pray God that you would use us as witnesses. We pray that you would give us opportunities this week. That Lord, you would give us the privilege of leading someone to Christ. That you would allow us to make friends for this purpose, for those who need help. We thank you for those that you put in our lives. We thank you for faithful witnesses, whether it be parents, moms and dads, whether it was grandparents, or whether it was friends at school. Thank you for those people that you used for us. And we pray that we would be used in that way for others. So God, we thank you for the story that is true and the story that has the happiest of endings for all who are in Christ. And it's in His name we pray. Amen.