Acts 9:3-19 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:… I. ITS CIRCUMSTANCES. 1. In the Bible proper names frequently had meanings. Now this Saul, or Shaul in Hebrew, and especially in Arabic, means not only asked for, but to seek diligently or to be sought out. And here you have in the very name the history of every sinner who comes to God; he is not one who is seeking God first, but one who is sought for. Was it not the case even with Abraham? "And He said, Abraham, Abraham; and he answered, Here am I." Did Moses call God first, or seek for God? Far from it; "Moses, Moses; and he said, Here am I." 2. In what state was this Shaul at the moment he was sought out? "Yet breathing out threatenings, "etc. Such a man cannot have been in his sound senses. And you may see his own candid confession of that. (chap. Acts 26.). I "compelled them to blaspheme." I experienced something of this lately at Cairo. From eleven o'clock in the night till three o'clock I was with several Jews, who continually tried me to say "only once, only once, curse the name of Jesus." And why did he do this? "Being exceedingly mad against them." And it is said — "yet breathing out." Why yet? Something must have gone on before, which might have changed his opinions and his conduct. And many such things went before, but without use to him. The Son of God nailed on the Cross had fulfilled every prophecy regarding His sufferings. Here is Stephen praying amidst the shower of stones, "Lay not this sin to their charge"; a thinking mind, like Paul's, one should suppose would have been struck with this. And he "went unto the high priest." He had the approbation of the ecclesiastical authorities. We can have the approbation of the world and the orthodox churchmen, and yet be still far from God. He desired of him letters that if he found any of this way. I was often struck with this expression, when I heard the Arabs speaking about religion; they do not say "the religion of Jesus," but "I want to know your way." "What is your way?" And do we not often find this the ease in England? Speak to men about vital conversion, and they answer, "Oh! I am not of that way." 3. "And suddenly." We find often that the grace of God comes suddenly. And so we find frequently that genius is awakened. An Italian forty years of age lived at Rome, and went every day to St. Peter's, but he never was struck with the masterpieces of Raphael; but one day he went there, and suddenly struck with them his genius awakened, and he exclaimed, "I am also a painter"; and from that moment he became the great painter Correggio. So very often the grace of God comes. A man is journeying on and on carelessly towards eternity, when, suddenly struck by the grace of God, he exclaims, "I am also a sinner ransomed." Paul saw a light — that described Isaiah — "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light" — "the Sun of Righteousness." "And he fell to the earth." I had an exact illustration of this when I was brought to Turkisthaun in slavery. After I was ransomed, the dungeons of hundreds of slaves were opened; these poor people had not seen the daylight for many months, and when they so suddenly were brought into it, they were so struck that several were as if they were going to fall down; they were overpowered. "Oh!" they said, "we cannot see the light, it is too powerful." So it is with people, when they are so suddenly overpowered with this "light from heaven." It makes such an impression upon them, that they cannot bear it. "And he heard a voice, saying unto him." We see our Lord does not use much learning or much eloquence to put down a man, to bring him to Himself, but very few words. I read this chapter to a Persian several years ago, a man of great powers; and he said, "There is one thing I find in Christianity which I do not find in our religion; it is a religion of the heart, it speaks to the heart." And this he found in these very words, in which here our Lord asks of Saul — "Saul, Saul!" — thou who art sought out, thou sought for, thou whom I am seeking like a mother her child, like a father his wayward child — "why persecutest thou Me?" What a striking contrast! In the first verse it is said, "Yet breathing out threatenings against the disciples"; bat here the Lord asks, "Why persecutest thou Me?" Persecute the mother, the child will feel it; persecute the child, the mother will feel it. And for this reason only the Christian religion deserves the name of religion. What is religion? To bind again together man to God. "And he said, Who art Thou, Lord?" — at once confessing his ignorance, as everyone struck by the grace of God will do. As long as we think ourselves wise we shall never come to the truth. But here — "who art Thou?" Very modest; he did not know Him, though he persecuted Him. But he felt His power, and therefore he called Him "Lord." "And the Lord said, I am Jesus" — Jehoshua, God the Saviour. This is very affectionate. "I am not come here to destroy thee, though thou hast persecuted Me; I am still Jesus." Whilst you may not yet believe in Him, it is Jesus, the Saviour, who came to seek those that were lost. "And he, trembling and astonished, said" — How natural this is! How little an infidel, however clever, knows or understands the Bible! Schiller says, "We are still in want of a kind of Linne for the human heart" — i.e., in want of a person to give us a development of the human heart, as that celebrated Linne did of the natural kingdom. Now if he had only studied the history of Paul, he would have found a development of the human heart. A man who had stood for many days near a precipice, and never knew that he was near it, but had his eyes suddenly opened and was instantly snatched away from it — he must "tremble." But a real believer does not remain trembling. "And he, trembling and astonished, said" — not, "Now I will go and read the books of our Rabbis"; and a really awakened sinner would not say, I will go and read Paley, or Dr. Adam Clarke or other writers on the evidences; but like Paul, "Lord! what wilt Thou have me to do?" verifying those words of our Lord, "Except ye be converted and become as little children," etc. A little child does not say, I must speculate to get a thing from my father; but it asks him for it. Now see how the Lord takes him by the hand. "And the Lord said unto him, Arise." 4. Let us pursue this history. Here you will see how a real believer has to suffer, and from a quarter where he does not expect it — from believers. What has the Jew to expect when he once boldly confesses the name of Jesus? Mistrust from a quarter where he ought not to experience it — from believers. If Ananias had lived in our time, they would have called him a cautious and prudent man. Now let us hear the answer of the Lord: "Go thy way" — (for "His ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts"); that very Saul who was going about "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" is "a chosen vessel." In Arabic, Paul means an instrument; he was a Shaul, a sought-out — he is now a Paul, an instrument, "a chosen vessel to bear My name." And now Ananias at last was convinced. II. ITS RESULT. "And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales." At first he was like the blind man, who was receiving his sight; things were still indistinct to him, and he "saw men like trees walking"; but now that there fell upon him the Holy Ghost, he conceived what it is to be a Christian, was baptized, and joined the disciples. "And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues." When the believer enters a beautiful garden he invites others to enter. "Straightway" — no round-aboutery. And a believer is not ashamed; he preaches Him who had been "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence." III. THIS HISTORY IS A TYPE (1 Timothy 1:16) — 1. Of the conversion of the Jewish nation. He was "one born out of due time." And so in every century one has seen Jews "born out of due time." In the middle ages there was Sixtus Senensis, a Jew at Rome, whose writings still exist, and from whom we may say that the most spiritual part of the Roman Catholic Church, the Jansenists, still derive all their Biblical knowledge. So De Lyra was the teacher of Luther. And so in our time. 2. Of the future conversion of the nation. He was a Saul, a sought-out; and to Jerusalem it is said, "Thou shalt be called sought-out, a city not forsaken." The light "shone round about him from heaven"; and to Jerusalem it shall be said, "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." And as the Apostle Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, so my nation shall be the great national apostle to the Gentile world; "and Gentiles shall come to Thy light, and kings to the brightness of Thy rising." And as there was peace in the Church at the time of the conversion of Saul, so "thy walls, O Jerusalem, shall be called Peace, and thy governors Righteousness." (J. Wolff, LL. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: |
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