Text: Acts
9:1-22
U Misericordias Domini (3rd
Sunday of Easter) Full of Surprises In the name of him who was slain and
by his blood ransomed us a people for God, dear friends in Christ: Early on the first Easter morning the women
went to the tomb in order to finish the customary Jewish burial preparations on
the body of Jesus that had been hastily and incompletely performed the eve of
the preceding Sabbath. As they walked
along, they wondered how they were going to get the tomb open, for they had seen
it sealed with a heavy stone – one they didn’t think they’d have the strength
to move. When they arrived however, they
were surprised to find the tomb already open.
And, as you know, that was probably the least of the surprises they had
that day: first angels telling them that
Jesus had risen, then Mary surprised to see the risen Lord, then Peter saying
the same thing – that Jesus had appeared to him, followed some time later by
the breathless Emmaus disciples just having run back to town to say that they
had spent the whole afternoon talking with Jesus – and that they didn’t even
know it was him until the last second, and when they did he vanished in an
instant. And then, of course, the
biggest surprise of all: Jesus suddenly
appearing in the room where they were all gathered. Yes, the first Easter was a day full of
surprises for the followers of Jesus. And so also were the days that
followed. Take for instance the story we
heard this morning about the miraculous catch of fish and the appearance of
Jesus to his disciples at the Or, to say it another way and as
strange as it sounds, they must have come to expect to be surprised at God’s
work in the world. And if so they were
growing in their understanding of the Lord himself because he is a God full of
surprises. He consistently does things
and operates in ways that are exactly the opposite of the way we think and
expect. And this should be evident when
considering the heart of the Gospel itself.
I mean, think about it: the Lord
looks down from on high at all the sinful rebellion mounting against him in the
hearts of the people he created. They hate
him and everything he stands for. He
ought simply to wipe them all out in righteous anger and be done with it. Instead, he is moved by unfathomable love and
compassion so that he sends his only-begotten Son to die for the sins of the
world. It’s beyond belief. I suppose we are so used to hearing it that
it no longer astonishes us like it should; but it really is something
completely unexpected. And from that,
the biggest of all surprises, flow the many others that follow. Several of which we see highlighted
in this morning’s reading from the book of Acts. There are four surprises in particular that
I’d like to take under consideration. First
we have Saul on the road to This is his mindset as he approaches
the city of What do you suppose it would be like
to suddenly have everything you were certain of proved wrong? What do you suppose it would do to you if you
thought you were 100 percent in God’s will and faithfully doing his bidding—only
then to discover that you were instead actively campaigning against him,
cursing his name, and that you were in fact fully on the side of Satan? And remember, Saul was a man who lived by the
Law. Thoughts of God’s mercy, grace, and
forgiveness are as a foreign to him as Swahili is to you. He must have concluded that as a result of
his actions he was about to be destroyed and cast down to the deepest pit of
hell. He is told to get up, go into the
city (which he now cannot see), and wait.
“You will be told what you are to do.”
Ouch. That must have sounded
pretty ominous. Saul’s first surprise was
the absolute overthrow of everything in his life. The second surprise in this section
that I’d like to point out concerns a citizen of And now the Lord Jesus comes to him in a vision and says,
“Ananias, I’ve got a job for you.”
“Sure, Lord, anything you want.
Just name it.” “Good, I want you
to go to the house of Judas on But as astonished as he surely was, Ananias went as the Lord
directed and found Saul who, as you recall, has spent an entire three days imagining
himself on the death row of eternity. The question in his mind is not whether the
Lord will consign him to the flames; but when and just how terrible it will
be. He sits in darkness seeing only the
pictures in his mind of what horrors await him. Each sound he hears startles him. “Will this be it? Is this when I’m going to get it?” He takes no food or drink. He can’t.
He just sits and waits for the hammer to fall. But strangely, it doesn’t. He was certain that the Lord’s retribution
would be swift and terrible – and justly so … but this waiting … it’s almost
worse than whatever judgments are coming.
And yet you see what the Lord is doing:
he’s using the combination of time and pressure to work on Saul and
destroy in him the proud legalism he had built his life and reputation on. He’s breaking him down to repentance
precisely so that he can raise him up again in Christ. Saul comes at last to point of total despair
so that he casts himself completely on the Lord’s mercy – and only then he is
given the vision of a man named Ananias coming to his aid. This vision seems too good to be true – but then it happens. Saul experiences firsthand the big surprise
of the Gospel I mentioned earlier – that in Christ Jesus and his atoning death
God is reconciling spiritually lost, blind, sinners to himself. Saul – his eyes now truly opened for the
first time in his life – discovered that when he thought he was living for God,
he was in fact digging himself deeper into hell; but that when he died to himself
and his imagined good works, he was able to live through faith in Jesus. It was the last thing he would have
expected; but there is was: God’s
infinitely surprising love and compassion through his Son. Ananias baptized Saul on the spot and the two
former enemies became brothers in Christ. Which leads us to the last surprise
mentioned in the text. Imagine being a Jew in a So Saul gets up to speak.
He reads aloud several passages of Scripture and then begins to explain
how they are all about Jesus of Nazareth, and how he is God’s Son and the long
expected Messiah sent to save the world from sin. Jaws must have hit the floor. Here was Saul eloquently proclaiming the very
faith he had been sent to destroy. And
the funny thing is that Saul had a letter from the High Priest that gave him
the authority to speak at all the synagogues in But my whole point this morning is that Easter and the
season that follows is a time of surprises.
And since we are living as followers of Jesus in the post Easter period,
we can and should expect that God has surprises for each of us. I mentioned before that the disciples must
have approached each day wondering what new and surprising thing God was going
to do next. What I would encourage you to
do today is to capture that same sense of anticipation. God does amazing things through the power of
his Gospel – things we do not expect. What am I talking about?
Let’s talk about sin. Each of us
has certain areas that we struggle with – places in our lives that are still in
full blown rebellion against God. We
tell ourselves, “I’ll never get over this.
I can’t change. This is my
weakness; I just have to live with it. Surely
God understands.” Nonsense. That’s the spiritual and moral equivalent of
harboring a murderer in your home – one that plans to kill you in your
sleep. And you can change – though not
by your own effort. God will have to do
it. But if he could change the murderous
Saul to his side, then he can certainly change your heart – and with precisely
the same means: the death of repentance
and the washing away of your sin through Jesus.
Turn it over to him and you will be surprised at what happens. Or how about that certain someone (or some-ones) you just can’t seem to get along
with? You tell yourself, “We will be
enemies for life.” Really? That’s what Ananias thought about Saul. Whoops.
Guess he was wrong. Could it be
that you are too? Or how about that
person you want to share the Gospel with; but just can’t seem to find the right
words or the most opportune moment. Maybe
you’ve written that person off as one who will never come to faith in
Jesus. Maybe you’ve convinced yourself
there is nothing you can do to help. Don’t
be so certain. God’s grace and mercy in
Christ Jesus to lost sinners is able to do amazing things. In fact, you should expect it. And expecting it, you should cooperate and
participate with it so that you can be part of making God’s surprising things
happen. They will. You can count on it; because, as we’ve seen,
he is a God full of surprises for those who live by faith in the biggest
surprise of all: the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and the life we have in him.
Expect to be surprised. You will
be. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria! |