Jump Start # 1474

Acts 9:5 “And He said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” 

  Recently I took a friend on a cemetery journey here in southern Indiana. We went to the old brick church and stood at the grave of Absalom Littell, one of the first preachers of New Testament Christianity in New Albany, IN. He died before the Civil War. Then we traveled to a little place outside of Salem, IN and walked through the woods to the old Blue River cemetery where John Wright was buried. He was a Baptist preacher that changed for the simple New Testament system. He was adopting the New Testament pattern early in Indiana history. All through this area are the histories of folks who changed and left creeds and doctrines of man for just the Bible and only the Bible. They patterned worship and organized the churches according to what the New Testament said. They wanted to be known simply as Christians, and nothing else. These early preachers, heroes, fueled a movement that spread throughout the Ohio Valley. Churches changed. A new spirit of simply doing things the Bible way grew and grew.

Our verse today fits in with all of this. It is taken from a conversation between Saul of Tarsus and the Lord. Saul was on a rampage. He was determined to stamp out and crush this growing movement called “Christians.” It must have amazed him that the leader, Jesus was killed and the movement grew. Prominent spokesmen, like Stephen were killed, and the movement kept growing. Saul took this personal. He was traveling from city to city to arrest and bring back both men and women who belonged to Jesus. He was on such a mission when the Lord appeared to him in a vision. Saul was blinded. He heard someone speaking to him but did not know who it was. Our verse reveals who the voice was. It was Jesus. It was the leader of this movement. It was the one that Saul thought was dead. Shortly, a preacher was sent to Saul. The vision did not save him. Talking to Jesus did not save him. Saul was taught about Jesus. He came to understand who Jesus was and he obeyed the Lord by being baptized. Saul changed. Instead of standing in the way of the progress of Christianity, he now believed and supported Christianity. He changed.

Change is hard. It is especially hard to change what one believes. There is a process that takes place. Underling this process is a humble and honest heart. The proud never change. The stubborn never change. Even with proof before them, they won’t change. But for the honest and the humble, change is possible.

The process begins by realizing that a person hasn’t been right. They thought they were, but they were not. Saul thought he was right in persecuting Christians. The Law of Moses supported putting to death blasphemers. That’s what Saul was doing. He had the law of God behind him. The problem is, Christians were not blasphemers. Christians were part of God’s plan. Christians belonged to Christ, God’s chosen Messiah. There were some dots that had to be connected. Prophesy fulfilled by Jesus. Understanding resurrection. Seeing that Jesus was how God was going to bless all the nations of the world, the promise to Abraham. Jesus was the seed of woman that was going to crush Satan’s head, the promise to Adam. Jesus was the son of David, the rightful heir to the throne. Saul had been wrong about Jesus. Saul had not understood things correctly. All this time he was fighting God. This is how change begins. A person sees that they are not right. Evidence from the Bible shows that. The lights come on. Now they are at the crossroads of what they ought to do. Do they ignore what they now know? Do they find excuses? Do they change?

The honest and humble change. They admit that they were not right. This is very hard for some. Many can’t do it. This not only means that they have been wrong, it brings in thoughts about their family. Their parents were wrong. Their brothers and sisters are wrong. How could this be? Why didn’t someone tell them before now?

This change is huge. For many, it means leaving a church that they have been a part of. That’s embarrassing and people ask all kinds of questions. The change means they now realize that they have not been worshipping God correctly. This change most often leads to the personal discovery that they were not saved. They thought they were. They were told that they were. But when they looked in the Bible, they realized what was taught in the Bible was not what happened to them. They discover that there is no “Sinner’s Prayer” in the Bible. They assumed it was. They were told that it was. But no one could ever actually find it. They were shocked to lean that they had to be immersed, as Saul of Tarsus did, to receive forgiveness. They were never told that. They were told that a person was saved based upon faith and only faith. But the Bible showed otherwise. All this time they thought they were saved and they were not. They learned that faith wasn’t the same thing as feelings. Faith was based upon the word of God and not an emotional experience. They were wrong all this time. That is huge.

This is where change really snowballs. From that moment, they begin to check other things that they always believed. The Bible becomes the proving ground. If it’s not in the Bible, why are we doing it? How the church raised money was questioned. How the church was organized was questioned. Even worship got a new look. Every night there was a feverous look in the Bible. New discoveries were found again and again.  Change came because they wanted to do what the Bible said. They wanted to be Bible right. When they asked family and others about former practices, no one could give them a correct Bible answer. No one seemed to care.

Saul changed. He realized what he was doing wasn’t right. He did what the Lord wanted him to do. If you have never read the book, “Muscle and a shovel,” I would encourage you to get that book and read it. It is the story of one man’s journey to learn the Bible way. See yourself in that book. It is the journey that many have already traveled. Better yet, just sit down and ask yourself why is it that I believe what I do? Look in your Bible and see for yourself. Be Bible right.

Change is hard. To know and not change is dangerous. God wants you to follow Him.

Roger