Paul & Bob
Written perhaps a half-century after the fact and not unlikely taking up exciting stories that were circulating, Luke's lively account of the conversion of Saul is more detailed than what Saul/Paul himself says at Galatians 1 and 1 Corinthians 15. No matter, it's Luke's story, and preachers across the Christian ages, including myself, have been inspired to imaginative sermons about Paul on the Road to Damascus.
The most memorable one I remember was by Dr. Bob Jones, that I listened to on my car radio while driving cross country on business, must have been about 1980, a couple years after my Navy retirement. It was moving and inspiring and stuck with me for several years until I found myself capturing the spirit and much of the content of it while in my first pulpit, as a transitional deacon at our church in Pennsylvania. My feelings about all of it may have been stirred by knowing that the first, Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.
had founded Bob Jones College at Lynn Haven and operated it there from 1927 until the Great Depression forced it's closure, and moving it to Tennessee in 1933, thence to South Carolina in 1947 as Bob Jones University.
When I was a boy, our family often went for a Sunday Afternoon Ride, and sometimes we rode out SR77, which I remember as a road of ruts worn through the grass, past the landing field that was on the west side of the road about halfway, all the way out to Lynn Haven and around the abandoned area of roads and maybe deteriorating buildings or at least building foundations that had been the first campus of Bob Jones College. In my life, remembering that we were in our 1942 Chevrolet, that would have been between December 1941 and April 1948 and was at what is now for that reason called "College Point." This may be a strange way to introduce TGBC Acts reading for today, but there you have it.
I still love Luke's story now as much as I did those years ago.
Acts 9:1-31
The Conversion of Saul
Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground
Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ He answered, ‘Here I am, Lord.’ The Lord said to him, ‘Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.’ But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.’ But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.’ And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.
Saul Preaches in Damascus
For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem among those who invoked this name? And has he not come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?’ Saul became increasingly more powerful and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Messiah.
Saul Escapes from the Judeans
After some time had passed, the Judeans plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night so that they might kill him; but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
Saul in Jerusalem
When he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples; and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, brought him to the apostles, and described for them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He spoke and argued with the Hellenists; but they were attempting to kill him. When the believers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
Meanwhile the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and was built up. Living in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.
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DThos+
first pic above: Bob Jones College, Lynn Haven, Florida