Acts 26:12-18 (NIV)
“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
“‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘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.’”
A centerpiece of Paul’s evangelistic efforts was always his own testimony, especially among the Jews who had known how zealous he had been in persecuting the Church at an earlier stage of his life. Something had to justify the abrupt about-face he had experienced, his complete transformation, and a face-to-face encounter with the risen Jesus was exactly that something.
Paul noted that one of the foreign cities to which he had pursued Christians with the full authority of the chief priests was Damascus, far to the north in Syria. His intent was to find any Christians in the city, arrest them, take them back to Jerusalem in chains, to see them tried and executed as heretics.
But as he neared the city, the brilliant light of Jesus flashed around him, outshining the sun itself. The light was visible to Paul’s companions as well (Acts 22:9), but they did not see the form of Jesus. And though they heard a sound (Acts 9:7), they couldn’t discern the words that Jesus spoke (Acts 22:9).
As soon as Jesus identified Himself, Paul was filled with terror. This was the one he had rejected, refusing to believe the eyewitness testimony of His resurrection, choosing instead to believe the myth of collusion cooked up by the Jewish leadership (Matthew 28:11-15). In his own mind, he had placed himself, far above the “ignorant people” who dared to believe in Jesus. But now that he was lying at the feet of this glorious person, definitely not a ghost and seemingly far more than a man, his mind and heart instantly surrendered.
Jesus’ commission to Paul had four parts to it as he recounted it in greater detail than in the other two places it is reference in the book of Acts:
- Paul’s job from that moment forward was to bear witness to Jesus, to both what Paul had already experienced of Him, and to what Jesus would reveal to him later.
- Paul would need to be rescued from the people Jesus as going to send him to, because there were many out there who would consider him a rebel and a heretic, just as he had considered followers of Jesus to be until that moment. But Jesus would provide the deliverance that he would need.
- Paul’s purpose from that moment forward would be to spread the good news of the kingdom to Jews and gentiles alike, not just out of obedience, but so that the people walking in the darkness could have their eyes opened to the light of Jesus (Isaiah 9:2), just as his own had been.
- By receiving Jesus, those people would be enabled to not only receive forgiveness and sanctification by faith, they would be able to turn away from their enslavement to Satan, and instead serve God wholeheartedly.
Paul was doing far more than merely sharing his story at that moment. He was aiming it directly at the hearts of those who were listening, in the hope that they would see their need of the same kind of transformation that he himself had receive. Being freed from prison would be great, but continuing his mission, leading Festus, Agrippa and Berenice to a place where they could meet Jesus for themselves was the real goal that morning.
Father, Paul was always on duty, always looking for a place into which he could speak the name of Jesus. He never saw evangelism as an activity that he did. It was his mission, his reason for existing. So, he shared constantly, always alert for the next opportunity, and then stepping into any space that presented itself. He wasn’t always successful in leading his hearers into your kingdom, as was the case with those listening that day. But if they didn’t come that day, he looked for another chance soon. Lord, when we come to You and receive life through Your grace, we become Your servants as much as Paul was, and with the same commission to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19-20). Help me to give that mission my all, today and every day. Amen.
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