Acts 9:3

THE HEAVENLY VISION

‘And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.’

Acts 9:3

The story of the conversion of St. Paul is repeated three times in the Acts of the Apostles. It is told in Chapter s 9, 22, and 26. We may well be thankful for his ‘wonderful conversion.’ For think how large a part of our New Testament came from the pen of St. Paul. He wrote thirteen Epistles, and was besides the foremost of the missionaries of the Gospel.

I. What sort of a man was this St. Paul before his conversion?—He had been brought up in the strictest of Hebrew homes, and was an earnest professor of religion (Acts 22:3). He acted up to the light of his conscience (Acts 26:9). As far as his outward conduct went he was blameless (Php_3:6). Doubtless he had a good deal to do with the murder of St. Stephen, because in Acts 7:58, it is stated the ‘witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet whose name was Saul’ (see also Acts 8:1; Acts 22:20). St. Paul also confesses that he compelled the Christians to blaspheme (Acts 26:11). It is bad enough to sin oneself, but to cause others to sin is the very worst of sins. It is bad enough to be a drunkard, or a swearer, or a thief; but to teach others to drink and swear and steal is a thousand times worst. Besides which, not only men, but women also he caused to be imprisoned (Acts 8:3; Acts 9:2; Acts 26:11); and tearing up happy homes, what misery it must have caused to helpless women and children! Take two texts, and you will see what a bitter persecutor of the Christians Saul was. (a) ‘Saul … made havoc of the Church’ (Acts 8:3). (b) His own confession: ‘I compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceeding mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities’ (Acts 26:11. Cf. also 1 Corinthians 15:9). Put these thoughts together, and you will have a true picture of Saul of Tarsus when his Lord met him.

II. And now we come to the most thrilling part of the story.—Breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of Jesus, Saul is riding on his way to Damascus. His mission is to bring the Christians who were there bound to Jerusalem. But as he draws near the city, suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven above the blaze of the fiery eastern sun; and he heard a mysterious voice which must have struck his ear like a funeral knell, ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest Me?’ And there and then he learned for the first time how Christ identified Himself with His people. Those journeying with him heard a voice or sound (Acts 9:7), i.e. a confused noise, but not the voice of Him that spake (Acts 22:9). When that voice speaks it is done! It possesses resistless authority. Ask yourselves, How did all this come about? How was this man made a gentle, child-like Christian? ‘ But by the grace of God I am what I am.’ If we believe in a God, why should we doubt the fact of grace? For ‘grace is the magnetism of heaven.’ And so Saul’s hard heart was softened by the grace of God stealing down into it like the dew.

III. And that one day turned all Saul’s gains into losses.—‘What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Php_3:7-8). The only true standard by which to measure men is their knowledge of and devotion to Christ. And judged by that standard, who is like St. Paul? ‘I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die … for the name of the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 21:13). And he was as good as his word. He did die at last for the Name of Christ. He was a martyr as well as a missionary.

—Rev. F. Harper.

Illustration

‘It is high noon. The sun is nearly right overhead. Its hot rays strike upon the burning sand, and seem to bound up on the scorched face of the traveller. The palm tree’s shadow does not stretch long and thin upon the ground, as when the sun sets, but lies a small round circle, at the bottom of the stem. At a little distance, the white buildings of beautiful Damascus, surrounded by groves of dates, and palms, and oranges, and plums, look like “a pearl among emeralds,” as beautiful as it looked two thousand years ago. You may catch a sight of its rivers, as they run, glistening like threads of silver, through its groves. It is a sight which at once fills the eye of the traveller, as he first sees it, with intense pleasure. But it seems to have no power over this traveller, who is rapidly approaching it at the head of his company. He heeds not its green groves. He thinks not of its cool, shady roads, over which the trees throw their boughs that meet in the midst, loaded with their sweet cooling fruits. The glorious prospect has no charm for him. What is this? What is this sudden torrent of unearthly brightness that has burst upon this band, as if ten thousand lightnings had fallen in one cataract of light, so intense, so overpowering in its brightness as to make the very noonday Syrian sun look pale and dim? It has struck them all down! Leader and followers, they are all fallen to the earth, helpless and motionless. From the midst of that blaze of unearthly glory sounds are heard. The men all hear, but they cannot understand them. Yet there are words. Saul hears, and—though it would seem as if one glance into that tremendous glory would paralyse the very nerve of sight, and burn up the daring eye that ventured but to look towards it—yet Saul looks up; and there, glory streaming from His Body, His Face shining above the brightness of the sun in his strongest might, he sees a Man, and the look of His countenance is that of unutterable love and deepest pity. It is Jesus, the blasphemed, looking on His chief blasphemer.’