“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 you are 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.” — Acts? ?9:5-9
I grew up in a church with one of the smartest pastors I’ve ever had the pleaser of serving under. We were there from set up until tear down every Sunday. I’ve been to so many bible studies that I could probably quote certain lessons word for word. I could tell you all the Bible stories and give one lesson from each. I knew all the hot worship songs at the time. But I didn’t know Jesus.
In the verse above we see Saul a.k.a. the Christian serial killer get radically saved by Jesus. Why? Because he saw Jesus. The men with him “heard but did not see” what Saul saw. Yes, they heard Jesus’ voice and they were in awe, they even carried Saul away from where glory had fallen, but they did not see Jesus.
Let me preface this by expressing that I am in no way saying that we should not preach, write music, write books, or have bible studies, these are all necessary things in the life of a believer, and in a lot of cases, it is what brings people into relationship with Jesus. But we have to remember that our sermon will not save them, nor will the words written in our blog post, or the killer bridge in Elevations new worship song. Those are all merely avenues in which they can see Jesus.
In order to abandon your old life and take on an entirely new purpose you’re going to have to do more than hear a good sermon, you’ll need to meet Jesus face to face. Just one look will ruin you. It will change everything in your life.
And so please, give money to the homeless, write songs about Jesus, tell people that He loves them, because He does. So much. But never stop praying for people to truly encounter the person of Jesus on their own. He’s still capable of taking Saul’s and turning them into Paul’s, let’s pray like it.
