Well, last week we read a verse about a guy named Saul.
We kind of read right through it last week, Acts 8 3.
But Saul was ravaging the church and entering house after house.
He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
That was Acts 8.
Now in Acts 7, just the chapter before that, two weeks ago, Acts 7.58, we also read right through this verse two weeks ago.
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him.
And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
So if you remember here in this Acts 7 story that we talked about two weeks ago, this was right when Stephen, this follower of Jesus, he's given this amazing sermon about Jesus being the way, the rescue.
Not religious law or religious rules, but actually the fulfillment of the law and the Messiah.
So the holders of all these rules, these religious authorities, this enraged them.
And so they go to stone this guy, Stephen.
Now, according to second century Jewish writing, the stoning came after a guilty trial, about 15 feet from the place of the stoning, they would demand the guy to say that he was guilty, to confess.
And then about six feet from the stoning, they would strip the guy of all his clothes.
And then they would get up to the edge of a cliff.
Usually the cliff was about twice the height of the guy's height.
So maybe about a 12 feet foot cliff there, and they'd push him off, naked guy, just falls right down, falls over.
He'd have to roll over, they'd drop a huge stone on his chest.
Now, if that didn't kill him, all the congregation comes up and they stone him.
Just a great, loving, small group.
People to join, good faith community.
After they did this to Stephen, all the people, they lay their garments at this religious leader who's there, this guy named Saul.
So in Acts 9, Saul's on his way, the same guy, on his way to Damascus to arrest some Christians.
He's going to round them up, he's going to bound them, rip them from their families, rip them from their homes, haul them back to Jerusalem, and put them in prison.
But on his way to Damascus, suddenly he sees a bright light, a bright light shone above him.
So Acts 9, 4 through 9, let me reread this passage.
And falling to the ground, he heard.
Saul heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
And he said, Who are you, Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what to do.
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice, but seeing no one.
Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus, and for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Point number one is this we are blind to our blindness until God reveals our blindness to us.
Everything has to begin with the unsolvable problem of human nature.
Paul Zal, priest and author, he says this if your understanding of human nature is inaccurate, everything else collapses.
Nothing else will work if you don't see yourself clearly.
Everything else collapses.
We say it every week in our confessional prayer.
We say, humanity, we are created beautiful in God's image, and yet there's an unsolvable problem.
We are self-oriented.
We are sinful, we're flawed.
Beautiful yet flawed.
We can never quite find our value, we can never quite get our acts together.
We never quite get over our guilt.
No matter how good we get, no matter always not quite getting it together, never quite feel accepted.
We can't solve the human nature problem without a breakthrough.
We would call this God's grace, this breakthrough.
One-way love is the way we like to say it.
One-way love to us in Christ that pursues us in our horror and our helplessness.
And if you've ever been there, wow.
Right?
I mean, your grandfather shows up, you've been jailed from that DUI you haven't told anybody else about, and your grandfather shows up, he bails you out, and on the drive home, you're you're waiting for the lecture because you deserve the lecture, you know what the lecture is going to be.
And he never lectures you.
He could have, he could have, he could have just let it rip.
He never lectures you.
All he says is how much he loves you and he believes in you.
He told you that in your horror, in your guilt, in your shame.
And you know what happened?
If you ever had that happen to you, that kind of love into your horror, that kind of one-way love, your heart toward your grandfather or to whoever it was, is just endeared to him.
Because you have experienced the breakthrough of one-way love to you.
It's a breakthrough.
A light shown above you.
For 18 years, Christy and I have been smooshed together in a queen-sized bed.
Anybody else still smushed together in a queen-sized bed?
It was really sweet in those early years.
Not lately.
Just keep waking each other up.
Haven't slept well in years.
So last year, Christy said, we gotta get a king bed.
We have to get a king bed.
We're not even sleeping anymore.
Like, we've gotta get it, we've gotta get a king bed.
So I Googled that.
That was not a number I was prepared to see.
That mattress, that bed, I should be able to drive that to Florida.
That's the kind of number that was.
And so I'm like, no, like we're good.
Let's just keep doing this not sleeping thing.
Let's do that for a while.
That'll be a great path forward.
But then I was talking to my friend Joe.
And my friend Joe told me, he said, Man, we got a king bed.
And it is roomy and it is wonderful.
Apparently, you can just roll over whenever you want.
That sounds, I was like, that's amazing.
I didn't think about that.
And I saw the light when Joe told me that.
I saw the light.
I first saw that I was wrong, and then I saw the goodness of the king bed.
So we bought one this week.
And last night, I slept in it.
Last night.
I couldn't even see Christie over there.
I just waved good night.
It was awesome.
I went to the bathroom in the middle of night because I'm old now and I do that.
When I came back, I'd been having to be like a ninja into the I just kind of like cannonballed into the bed.
Didn't have to worry about it.
She never woke up.
It was amazing.
What an amazing night.
Now, I could not be converted until I saw I was blind.
I couldn't see something I needed until I saw I was wrong.
We are blind to our blindness until God's grace breaks in.
For three days, Paul is in darkness.
He has to come face to face with this unsolvable problem.
It's just horrible.
I don't love that we have this problem.
It's very frustrating.
But it's there.
That we can't get our acts together.
We can't overcome our sinful nature.
We need forgiveness.
We need acceptance from outside of ourselves.
And Paul has to come face to face with his blindness, his inability, his anger, his self-righteousness, that inner weariness.
He says, Come face to face with all that.
I would love to have a whole book by Paul just about those three days.
And then we read this, Acts 9, starting verse 10.
A bit of a read here, 10 through 19.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias.
And he said, Here I am, Lord.
And the Lord said to him, Rise and go to the street called straight.
And at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
For behold, he is praying.
And he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might remain his sight.
But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.
And here he has authority from chief priests to bind all who call on your name.
But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.
So Ananias departed and entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
Then he rose and was baptized, and taking food he was strengthened.
Now, Saul is Paul, by the way, in case you didn't know that.
Same guy.
Actually, in Acts 13, Luke just begins to call him Paul, but it's the same name.
It's not a name change like Simon became Peter.
That was a name change.
It's not a name change, it's the same name.
Paul and Saul, the same name, kind of like Henry and Hank, right?
John and Jack, you know, William and Bill, Saul and Paul.
Same name just happens to be this little Bible study nugget.
Point number two.
Our conversion, our conversion is created by God's pursuit of us.
That's how we're converted.
God was on a mission to woo Paul to himself.
And he's with you as well.
That's the mission he's on with you in your heart.
The word for this conversion, this word, it simply just means a change of position or direction.
I was that, and now I'm this.
Right?
We love, us good Christians, love Ephesians 2, 8, and 9.
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
Paul wrote this, by the way.
For by grace you've been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing.
That's amazing.
It is the gift of God, not a result of works.
Isn't that amazing?
Wow.
So that no one may boast.
British pastor Martin Lloyd Jones, he explained it this way: Conversion is the first exercise of the new nature in ceasing from old forms of life and starting a new life.
It is the first action of the regenerate soul in moving from something to something.
So, if we kind of break this down, God's grace breaks the weary, stubborn, self-oriented, selfish will to see our need of help.
That activity of God's grace through the Holy Spirit reveals our need of Christ.
We can say it this way: regeneration, God's grace to us, we're getting technical.
Regeneration is the implantation by the Holy Spirit of new life in the soul.
That's regeneration.
Conversion is the experience of that regeneration as repentance and faith.
So maybe you were in a church and you prayed prayer.
Maybe you even filled out a cart.
Maybe you walked an aisle, maybe took your first communion.
Fantastic.
I don't know what experience that was for you.
Wonderful.
That meant something to you.
Wonderful.
All of that experience was because of God's gracious regeneration in your soul.
That's what enabled the conversion.
This is the power of the gospel that breaks into our hearts.
This is why we're not insecure and anxious Christians.
It's because our conversion rests in our regeneration.
And God just freely gives us forgiveness and freely gives us righteousness and this new life.
Suddenly, under this one-way love, just like if your grandfather bailed you out for the DUI, and you're on the way home, and he just pours out love on you, your heart is endeared because you've been loved in your horror and in your shame and guilt.
That's lavish.
Paul writes this about conversion, 2 Corinthians 5.17.
Therefore, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold, the new has come.
It doesn't mean you're perfect, but it means there's a new self that's endeared to God and walking in a faith walk.
Point number three is this conversion is the beginning of our faith walk.
Resting in Christ and learning to walk in the new self.
That's what a faith walk is resting in Christ and learning to walk in the new self.
When Christy and I got married, her Nana and Granddaddy, I've showed you a picture of Nana and Granddaddy before.
This is Nana and Granddaddy.
Sweet Nana and Granddaddy.
They've passed away at this point.
But they had this one-acre lot out in Launch.
They live in this little ranch house, one-acre lot.
They had a huge vegetable garden.
They had just beds of flowers, amazing, amazing yard.
We would drive out there when we were young and had nothing else to do.
And we would just drive out there, they'd just give us buckets of flowers, and we'd come home and plant them.
My favorite thing to get was a Linton Rose.
Anybody have Linton Rose?
You're an old person like me and you actually know what that is, or you care.
None of y'all care, apparently.
So horror.
I knew it was a bad illustration when I wrote it, but I said, I'm just stick with it.
I'm just really stick with it.
Well, Thursday morning, I walk out my back door, and here's what I see.
Just fire that.
That's what I see.
Highlight of my week.
Linton rose.
Popped right up out of the ground.
It wasn't there before.
Now, here's what a whole bed of Linton Rose looks like, just so you get an idea.
That's a bed of Linton Rose as it develops and grows.
It's also called helleboral, in case you're wondering, that's free.
I gave that to you for free.
So Linton Rose arrives when spring arrives.
It's one of the first flowers to pop up.
Right when all that death is turning to life, like it is right now outside.
This flower leads the way.
Now, of course, Linton Rose is named Lent.
Lent is beginning.
Even this week.
Lent begins this week.
And that Linton rose, it dies back during the winter.
It stays a little green.
If you have it, you know what I'm talking about.
That's why we kind of like it.
It stays green till it.
But it slowly just dies back.
You have to have that new growth.
And then sure enough, springtime comes.
Springtime happens to it, and it is regenerated by the sun.
And a conversion occurs.
That's the point of this whole thing that y'all don't even care about because y'all don't care about London Rose.
That's the point.
Springtime happens to it.
And a conversion occurs.
New life comes.
It's a beautiful image, a horrible illustration, beautiful image.
The new self that we have, God's beloved child that we are in Christ.
It's amazing news if you're worn out at all, or tired, or beat down, or guilty.
That new life could come from outside of you, and you can be loved in that place.
That's amazing news.
Four implications of newness of life that we experience in Christ.
These are just four I thought of this week.
You might come up with four other ones this week.
Here's four that jumped out at me this week.
As we come alive to God's love for us, the guilt trip and the self-righteousness reports can cease as we are always forgiven and always righteous in Christ.
That's new life.
As we come alive to God's love for us, number two, as we come alive to God's love for us, we know our true selves, not as our wallets, bodies, or trophies, but as God's beloved children.
Number three, as we come alive to God's love for us, we are liberated from performancism to live by the Spirit and freedom and love.
Now think about this guy in Ananias in that Acts 9, before I say number four.
We know about nothing about this guy.
We don't get much information about this guy.
What a story here.
This Christian in Damascus.
This terrorist, murderer shows up into his town who's looking for people like him.
Right?
He's looking to arrest people just like him.
And then he's supposed to go to him.
Of course he's like, oh, hold on, like I've heard about that guy.
I've heard about him.
I don't want to go toward him.
But he goes.
Isn't that amazing?
That he goes toward the very man who's after him.
Ananias goes.
Here's the last implication.
As we come alive to God's love first, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live in love and bravery, not fear and timidity.
Darkness to sight, old to new, fear to love.
So I mentioned Lent does begin this week, the season of Lent, not church season.
Maybe you've heard about it.
This is the 40 days leading up to Good Friday, 40 or so days leading up to Easter resurrection Sunday.
Wednesday, this Wednesday is known as Ash Wednesday.
Sometimes you see people walking around this Wednesday, you might see a little cross made of ashes on their forehead.
Maybe you'll do that.
Those ashes were historically taken from the palms from Palm Sunday the year before.
Remember, Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter.
So all those palms taken the year before, it's celebrating that passage where Jesus comes into Jerusalem, everybody's waving the palms and saying hallelujah.
They would burn those palms historically, that celebration, burn them, take the ashes the next year, and use them for Ash Wednesday.
It's a way to say all my earthly hallelujahs get burned up.
It's a way to say I'm still more weary and more fickle than I want to admit.
And I still need God's grace to me.
It's about us as mortals understanding, remembering from dust you come and dust you return.
Buried in Christ in baptism, raised to walk in newness alive.
I'll close with this, Acts 9, 19 through 22.
For some days he, Paul, was with the disciples at Damascus.
And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue, saying, He is the Son of God.
And all who heard him were amazed and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name?
And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?
But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was Christ.
Darkness to sight.
Old to new.
And fear to love.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you for your grace to us that disrupts and interrupts our lives.
How much we need to be interrupted by you.
We need to be pursued by you, that any of our pursuit would be rooted, grounded, secure in your pursuit of us.
We need to see our blindness this morning that we might be able to seek and be open to your help.
Thank you for your lavish love to us that is so lavish and free.
Help us to know our true identities in you.
Help us to know and be free of guilt trips and self-righteousness reports and help us to be freed into courage, bravery, love, obedience, godliness.
A life of honoring you.
Not because we have to, but because our hearts have been endeared to you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.