Thursday, January 8th

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Thursday, January 8

Acts 9:17-22

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

Let’s stop here just for a moment because this is an amazing scene! Just days earlier Ananias would have been one of Saul’s targets, but now he’s been sent by God to minister to Saul!

And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God." And all who heard him were amazed and said, "Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?" But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

One of the great conversion stories of my lifetime is the story of Charles Colson. Colson rose to political power during the Nixon administration and was often referred to as “Nixon’s hatchet man.” He was known for his ruthless ness and was once quoted as saying he would “walk over his grandmother for Richard Nixon.” By his own admission Colson was responsible for a good measure of the moral decay in the White House in the early 1970’s.

In 1974 he was convicted on charges related to the Watergate scandal and served 7 months in prison.

But something happened to Charles Colson along the way.

The turning point in Colson's life came when he met with an old friend named Tom Phillips, who was the CEO of a company called Raytheon. Colson was hoping to jump start his own legal career but discovered that Phillips had had recently experienced a spiritual awakening after hearing Billy Graham preach. Instead of talking about business Phillips talked with passion about his newfound faith and read aloud some passages from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

Colson first thought his friend’s new faith was ridiculous, but the reading from the chapter on pride in Lewis's book struck home. He was also impacted by the prayer his friend prayed at the end of the evening, asking Jesus "to open Chuck's heart and show him the light and the way." Later that night, Colson broke down in tears at the wheel of his car and offered a prayer of his own. As he climbed into bed, he told his wife, Patty, that he thought he'd had a conversion experience—but he didn’t know what the term meant.

To make a long story short, Colson served his time in prison and emerged from with a new mission: mobilizing the Christian church to minister to inmates. He launched a ministry called “Prison Fellowship” that eventually reached thousands of prisons all over the world.

Of Colson’s spiritual conversion the Boston globe wrote in 1973 “If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everybody.”

“Conversion” means to be changed.

The New Testament word most closely associated with conversion is the Greek word metanoia. In Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2 he says:

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:36-39

The word translated “repent” is metanoia, and it carries the primary meaning of change of mind; change of heart; change of direction.

In it’s fullest sense conversion, metanoia, means to be saved from something and to be saved for something.

We see both in the story of Saul.

And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, "He is the Son of God."

Through his encounter with the risen Christ, Saul was transformed from a hate-filled persecutor of the church to a grace-filled apostle of good news. He was saved from his own pride, arrogance and self-righteousness; and he was saved for the great purpose of taking the gospel of Jesus to the Gentile world.

Here is the beauty and power of the gospel! Jesus loves us and pursues us as we are; but he doesn’t leave us as we are! He saves us from our sin and he saves us for his great purposes. He wants to change our minds; change our hearts and change our direction.

We saw the change in Charles Colson. We see the change in Saul of Tarsus.

What changes has Jesus made in you?


Pastor Brian Coffey