At
midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of
the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we
were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in
the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to
kick against the pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared
unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these
things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto
thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I
send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from
darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith
that is in me. (Acts 26:13-18)
If they have celestial DVD players in heaven one of the
first discs that I would like to play is the scene where that murderous
tyrant Saul was confronted by the Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven
above. In the passage above Paul [formerly Saul] is testifying
about his salvation experience before King Agrippa. Paul told Agrippa that
there was a light from heaven which was even brighter than the sun at
midday. Folks the sun in the middle of the day is extremely bright, and
you cannot look directly into it without having to cover you eyes. So this must
have been an incredibly bright light which Paul saw that
day.
The passage then tells us that Paul heard the Lord talking in the Hebrew language, asking why he was persecuting Him. I don’t know about you, but if I was on a continual mission of persecuting and murdering believers in Jesus Christ, as Paul was, I would have been amazed that I was even alive at that point! Incredibly the Lord then goes on to tell Paul about the plans that he has for him regarding ministry.
This is one of the
most powerful passages in the entire Word of God. The Lord told Paul that
he would be a minister and a witness, speaking about the very things which were
happening to him right then and there and other things also. Paul was
called to preach this awesome Gospel of Jesus Christ mainly to the Gentiles
[though he preached to the Jews also] and it was for this
purpose:
1] To open their [spiritual] eyes.
2] To turn them from darkness [spiritual] to light [spiritual].
3] To turn them from the power of Satan unto God.
4] So that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance
through faith in Jesus Christ.
That is the very
center of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is the message for all
mankind. This man Paul truly appreciated his salvation in CHRIST and this is what he said in one of
his letters:
This is
a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew
forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on
him to life everlasting. (1 Timothy
1:15-16)
That passage of
scripture should put great hope in anybody’s heart. If the Lord can show
mercy to a murderous tyrant such as Paul then that means that there is also hope
for the rest of us wretches. Does that mean that there is hope for people
who have committed murder? Absolutely yes! In fact that is the main
reason why I do not believe in capital punishment. I know that
the mercy and grace of God knows no boundaries. Each and every one of
us who truly knows the Lord realizes that we deserved nothing but the wrath
of God but have received His mercy instead.
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)
For
the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans
6:23)
Word For Today
Receive salvation, and go tell others about the mercy that God offers them in Jesus Christ!
YES, God can, and will use you
too!
THERE IS HOPE AND MERCY
FOR THE WORST OF
US!