Highlighted Text: Acts 9:1-19

Summary and Themes for Preaching:

The purpose of this “Summer Settings” sermon series is to connect people’s favorite summer destinations with the biblical and theological importance of similar settings.  The hope is to help people see the stories and events in the Bible with new eyes and new understanding, identifying with our ancestors in the faith in ways we might not have known possible.  In so doing, we can gain a better understanding of how God worked in their imaginations and how He is longing to work in ours.

Going deeper, this series is a set of four two-week themes: mountains, lakes/streams/rivers, beaches, and road trips.  The first week features an Old Testament passage with a passage that transitions toward the New Testament.  The second week focuses on a New Testament passage. 

Last week, we considered Abram and the way that God may send us out on a journey, waiting to see his will without knowing the destination.  Today we move forward to Saul on the Damascus Road and consider how God meets us in the midst of our journeys and sends us onward with a course correction.  In each case, we go out and look for direction from God and hope to respond faithfully.  A major difference, however, is that Abram went out with a willingness to be shown while Paul went out already thinking that he knew God’s way.  The same can be said for the characters in our additional passage, Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan.

Saul’s backstory is well known: a student of Gamaliel, a persecutor of “The Way” (the early church…more on that later), a Roman citizen, and an up-and-comer in the ranks of the Pharisees.  He set out for Damascus with the intent to round up followers of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem as prisoners.  Jesus encountered him on the way, blinding and questioning him, and then sent him to Damascus to be healed (in multiple ways).  Saul thought he was going to Damascus for one purpose, but Jesus sent him there and beyond with another.

Last week we asked whether we meticulously plan our road trips or whether we leave enough room for the Spirit’s leading, because being at the whim of the Spirit can yield a much greater experience than we might plan for ourselves.  That is a question of starting with openness and seeking, while this week’s is a question of purpose: why are we going?  In the case of a road trip, are we going in order to force a family bonding moment (contrived posture)?  Are we going because we are bent on seeing or doing something specific, like Wally World (narrowly focused posture)?  Or, are we just going simply to be going, without expecting anything unforeseen to happen on the way (obligatory posture)? 

Obviously, similar questions can be asked of our lives in general, and not just road trips.  Saul set out on the road with the intent to force (contrived) a specific outcome (narrowly focused) that he saw as part of his duty (obligatory).  Jesus encountered him and changed his course.  For Saul, it probably took Jesus encountering him to change his course.  Jesus isn’t always as “on the nose” with us, which can be good because it’s less disruptive but bad because we often don’t notice.  As a result, we remain unchanged, and we return from the trip with the same mind we had before it.

There is an extra note about Saul’s initial mindset that can be easy to miss.  Saul was “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (v.1 NIV).  That is a common but questionable translation, since the word for “breathing” is a hapax legomenon, empneo, that more literally means “breathing in.”  In other words, Saul—accomplished but still young, ambitious, and impressionable—was in an environment in Jerusalem in which he was steeped in his colleagues’ hatred for the early followers of Jesus.  That’s the air he was breathing, and it poisoned him against Jesus’s followers.

Jesus encountered Saul and we usually take note of the blindness, but we often miss the breathing.  Saul’s companions—the ones who had breathing that same toxic air to Saul—were “speechless.”  Later, when Ananias spoke with Saul, he said, “Jesus…has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (emphasis added).  “Spirit” (pneuma), of course, connotes breath and wind.  Jesus had stopped the breathing of Saul’s companions and had given Saul a breath of fresh air through one of his own followers.

When we journey, are we really open to taking in fresh air?  Do we actually try to exhale the toxic things we’ve been taking in and allow Jesus to fill us with his Spirit?  Do we think of ourselves as being sent to refresh others?

One downside of road trips—and perhaps vacations in general—is that they are self-serving.  They are consumeristic.  How often do we set out for the mountains, beach, lake, or road with the opportunity to bless others built into our plans?  Or, how often are we simply going our own way and not attentive to the opportunities Jesus puts there?

The parable of the Good Samaritan helps with these questions because both the priest and the Levite were simply going their own way.  The priest “happened” to come across the injured man “by chance.”  The Levite was going “in the same way” (mixing translations in each case).  The Samaritan, however, was “on a journey” (“as he traveled” in NIV), suggesting purpose.  He was also equipped for a journey.  His plans did not initially include helping an injured man, but he was equipped to do so and understood in his own purpose that God might give him additional purpose. 

When we are on our way with Jesus, do we allow him to be our way?  That is how he defined himself (John 14:6- “I am the way,” with “way,” ‘odos, meaning “road”).  Are we intentionally following him, already equipped with the Spirit, ready for him to show up in our path and even to lead us to others?  We can still take journeys in which we wait for God to show us His own purpose and plan, but we already know a good bit of that purpose and plan, which includes us as His messengers.

Allen Thompson is senior pastor at Fairview Presbyterian Church in North Augusta, South Carolina.  Allen attended Pittsburgh Seminary (M.Div.) and Fuller Seminary (D.Min.)  His wife, Kelsey, is a Marriage and Family Therapist, and they have two children.

Allen enjoys golf, hiking, camping, cooking pigs, ice climbing, and live music.  He loves to imagine being in the story and culture of the Bible, wondering how we might have responded to God then and how we can follow Jesus now.  As an “ideas” person, Allen is passionate about working with others to find out how God is calling us to use the many gifts and resources the Holy Spirit provides.  

Allen holds a Doctor of Ministry (Fuller Theological Seminary) and a Master of Divinity (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary).

Call to Worship

Prayer of Confession

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Assurance of Pardon

Benediction