Bible Studies
Resurrection Light to the Blind (Acts 26:4-18)
Series: ResurrectionIntroduction:
1. Have you ever been hit in the face? I have.a. The first time was with a fist inside a boxing glove.
b. Another time I was slapped unexpectedly by a girl.
c. Both times I was stunned.
2. “Stunning” is the word that G. K. Beale uses to describe Jesus’ appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus. 3. It is recorded in Acts 26:4ff in Paul’s own words. This is what he said . . . 4. Similar accounts are given in Acts 9 and 22. 5. Already in this series we have identified various resurrection appearances, but this one is different. It occurs after Jesus’ ascension. All the other recorded appearances were before. (Acts 7:56 describes Stephen seeing the resurrected Lord, but the purpose there was different.) 6. Why did the Lord appear to Paul in this stunning way?Discussion:
I. Paul’s experience is presented as a prophetic commission. (Often people see the Damascus road experience as related to Paul’s personal salvation, but his personal salvation is not the focus.)A. This is evidenced in the similarity between what he experienced and what other prophets experienced when commissioned.
1. Ezekiel’s prophetic call was similar to Paul’s.
a. Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord (1:28). Paul saw a light from heaven shining all around him (26:13).
b. Ezekiel fell on his face and heard a voice speaking (1:28). Paul fell on the ground and heard a voice speaking (26:14).
c. Ezekiel was told to “stand on your feet” (2:1). Paul was told, “stand on your feet” (26:16).
d. Each was commissioned to take God’s message to the people.
2. Jeremiah’s prophetic call was similar.
a. Jeremiah was set apart from his mother’s womb (1:5). Paul refers to God having set him apart from his mother’s womb (Gal. 1:15).
b. God said he was sending Jeremiah (1:7). He said to Paul, “I am sending you” (26:17).
c. God told Jeremiah he would deliver him from the people (1:8). He told Paul he would “rescue him from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles” (26:17).
d. God said to Jeremiah, “I have appointed you” (1:10). Jesus said to Paul, “I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness” (26:16).
B. Jesus’ statement in 26:16-18 commissions Paul as a prophet. While the word “prophet” is not used this is the effect of appointing him as a “minister and a witness” of the resurrection.
C. This is what Jesus had told Ananias in Acts 9:15-16. Ananias states the same in 22:14-15.
1. “Go for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
2. “The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.”
II. Paul’s prophetic mission was to continue the work of the Servant of God (Christ) in Isaiah in bringing light to the Gentiles.A. There are three striking statements in Acts 26 about bringing light to Jews and Gentiles.
1. The first one that I want to consider is found in vs. 22-23.
a. Paul here states that he is testifying to what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place. Namely, that the Christ was to suffer and by reason of His resurrection be the first to proclaim light to the Jews and the Gentiles.
b. It was Christ that was first to proclaim light to the people. He did this by reason of His resurrection. Thus, this ties the preaching of light with the resurrection of Jesus.
1) Jesus is the first to proclaim light.
2) Paul’s mission is to continue the work of proclaiming light. He is among the second front (the witnesses) proclaiming light.
2. The second is in verse 18.
a. The resurrected Jesus tells Paul that he is sending him to open the eyes of Jews and Gentiles that they might turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God.
b. Cf. Col. 1:13-14 where Paul uses kingdom imagery: “He (God) rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
3. The third statement is in v. 16 where Jesus says to Paul, “I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness.”
a. Paul is a witness to the resurrection.
b. He is given this special task along with the other witnesses.
B. Isaiah’s prophecies identify God’s coming Servant as “a light to the nations.”
1. 42:6-7 says, “I am the Lord, I have called You in righteousness, I will also hold You by the hand and watch over You, and I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.”
2. 42:16 says, “I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them.”
3. 49:6 says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
C. Is it any wonder?
1. That when Paul was rejected in Pisidian Antioch in the synagogue that he turned to the Gentiles saying, “For so the Lord has commanded us” (Acts 13:47). He then quoted Isa. 42:6; 49:6 as his authorization?
2. That when some from Judea taught circumcision and observance of the Law of Moses that Paul opposed them? See Acts 15.
3. That when Peter was carried away so that he would not eat with the Gentiles that Paul opposed him to his face? See Gal. 2.
4. Paul was doing the work of bringing the light of the resurrection to the lost.
a. It is interesting to consider that Isaiah’s commission involved him seeing the glory of the Lord and from that experience then preaching God’s glory to the people (cf. Isa. 6). In effect this was like Paul’s commission. He had seen a bright light.
b. It is also interesting to observe that he was blinded by the light and was three days without sight (Acts 9:8-9) and from this experience was commissioned as a witness to the Light.
III. Christ’s resurrection appearance revealed Jesus as the Messianic King to Paul. It initiated for him the beginning of the new creation and defined his mission as the messenger of light. Note the emphasis in Paul’s preaching on new creation.A. He diminished circumcision and uncircumcision and exalted “a new creation.” “Neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal. 6:15).
B. For Paul baptism is a point of transition from death to life (Col. 2:12-13).
C. This transition necessitates a new walk that does not allow for sin to reign in one’s body (Rom. 6:1-14).
D. This resurrection with Christ involves death to sin and putting on deeds characteristic of the new life (Col. 3:1ff).
E. It involves living as “sons of light” in anticipation of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 4:13-5:11).
F. And who can read 1 Cor. 15, Paul’s discourse on the resurrection, without going from his reflections on the Lord’s resurrection appearances, especially to his own Damascus road experience, without hearing his confident expectation of “death being swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54; Isa. 25:8)?
G. And so Paul said, “We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:5-6).
H. As blind as Saul was, persecuting the Lord, his eyes had seen the resurrection, this matter of first importance, that brought light to the blind.
Conclusion:
1. Have you seen the Light? 2. Will you proclaim Him to the world?
