Jun 23, 2020
By Pastor Rick Crouch
Last year before we left our old building, we discovered that there had been an unwelcome guest living underneath the church. Actually, this guest had been living underneath the platform at the front of the sanctuary and might have been for years—yet we had no clue about this unwanted guest until a terrible odor gave him away.
Grace was the first to pick up the scent and at first we thought there might be a leak in a sewer line. But as the stench began to build and permeate the entire building, we realized that there was a dead animal somewhere. We searched underneath the building and in walls until we finally pinpointed where the odor was the strongest.
After cutting a hole in the platform and removing some insulation and debris, I shined a light into the darkness and saw a big mass of hair. This mass of hair was much bigger and much hairier than I expected to see or wanted to see, and so I let it sit overnight until Ewald was able to come in the next day and remove it. I will spare you the gory details, but when Ewald pulled it out, we identified our unwanted guest as a dead possum.
Possums are nocturnal animals that like to live in dark, secure places. This one had found the perfect spot underneath our platform. But possums aren’t the only things that like to live in dark, secure places. That is also where sin likes to dwell.
Those who are living in sin are living in darkness. There are few people who ever lived in a darker place than Saul—but in Acts 9:1-22, Saul is brought from darkness into the light and his life is changed forever.
We were first introduced to Saul (who is known better to us as Paul) at the end of Acts 7 as the young man who watched Stephen get stoned to death. Then in Acts 8:3, we read that he is making “havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.” (NKJV)
Now in Acts 9:1, Saul is “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” (NKJV) He is on his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians when God puts a stop to Saul’s plans.
God does this by introducing light into the darkness. Verse 3 says, “As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.” (NKJV) This light is accompanied by the voice of Jesus which says in verse 4, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (NKJV)
Saul is understandably shaken by this turn of events. The light caused him to fall to the ground and then, when he finds out that the voice belongs to Jesus, he is trembling and astonished.
It is interesting that he doesn’t put up a fight. From his previous behavior it seems like he had a lot of hatred for Jesus. But now that he is in the presence of Jesus, that hatred has melted away and he is immediately humbled and ready to obey.
In verse 6 he asks, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (NKJV) This is a great question. This is the question that each one of us should be asking when we get up in the morning—”Lord, what do You want me to do today?”
Saul is given instructions and he follows them. If only we could hear our instructions as clearly as Saul heard his, and if only we obeyed our instructions immediately and completely, who knows what we could accomplish for the Lord?
Anyway, the men that are with Saul hear the voice, but they are speechless because they don’t see anyone. We don’t know what happens to these men, but we do know what happens to Saul.
Saul is blinded, so the men who are with him lead him by the hand to Ananias, a disciple in Damascus chosen by God to minister to Saul so that Saul can receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. When Ananias lays his hands on Saul, verse 18 says, “Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.” (NKJV)
Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus and then he immediately began to preach Christ in the synagogues. Verse 22 says that he increased in strength and “confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ.” (NKJV)
The conversion of Saul is probably the most dramatic conversion from darkness into light that we see in Scripture. The account of it in Acts 26:12-18 gives some more details. From this account we see that the encounter happened at midday and that the light was brighter than the sun.
This makes me think of Genesis 1:3 when God said, “Let there be light” and there was light on the first day and yet the sun wasn’t created until day 4. It also makes me think of Revelation 21:23 which, in describing New Jerusalem, says, “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.” (NKJV) I also think of John 8:12, when Jesus said of Himself, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” So the light of Jesus is an extremely bright light, brighter than anything we can imagine.
We also learn from this account in Acts 26 that Jesus tells Saul the purpose of their encounter. In verse 18, Jesus says that he is sending Saul to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” (NKJV) And Saul did an excellent job of fulfilling this purpose.
God has a plan and purpose for each of us. We may not be called to do all of the things that Paul did, but we are called to live the way that Jesus taught us to live and the way that Paul and the apostles, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, taught us to live. We are repeatedly instructed to come out of the darkness and into the light.
Jesus teaches us this in John 3:19-21, which says, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
As a kid, I never understood why businesses with the big glass storefronts left lights on inside when they were closed. I thought that it would just make it easier for criminals to see what they wanted to steal. But then I realized that the threat of being seen by people was what kept the criminals away. They don’t want to be seen just like possums don’t want to be seen. If our platform had been made of clear glass or plastic and was not covered by anything, that possum never would have made his home where he did. The light would have shone in and he would have had no place to hide.
We have a window to the nursery and security cameras in the kids’ classroom to let the light shine in so that evil wouldn’t have a place to hide. What kind of precautions do we take in our personal lives to keep the darkness out and to let the light shine in?
We are quick to complain about the lack of transparency in our government and in business dealings, but shouldn’t we start by being personally transparent with God? And shouldn’t we have transparency in our marriages and in our churches? If we love Jesus the way that we say we do, then we should have no problem letting the light of Jesus shine in so that our deeds can be clearly seen.
Paul reiterates the teaching of Jesus in Ephesians 5:8-14. Verse 8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” (NKJV) Paul goes on to say in verse 11 that we should “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” (NKJV)
How many of us actually do this? In my early days as a Christian I did not follow these instructions at all. I thought that I could have one foot in the light and one foot in the darkness. However, light and darkness cannot coexist. It wasn’t until Grace and I got married that I really began the process of sanctification that I should have started years earlier.
For me this process began with being convicted about the music that I listened to, and then the movies and TV shows that I watched. These were unfruitful works of darkness that I had to give up. Then I became convicted about how poorly I kept the Sabbath—and I gave up some more things. The light of Jesus has continued to spread from there into other areas of my life.
More recently I have become convicted about the damaging effects of ignoring sin or covering over sin. When I got out of the army and couldn’t find work, Grace and I started a cleaning business. The majority of what we did was clean rentals after tenants moved out to get them ready to rent out again. Barracks inspections in the army had taught me to clean every nook and cranny of a place and now I had the opportunity to put what I learned into practice in apartments and houses. We cleaned some disgusting places, but I’ll just share one example with you.
It was a house that overall didn’t seem too bad. It had some obvious dirt, like sliding glass doors that were filthy from their dogs putting muddy paws on them, but everything else seemed to be fairly clean. But when we moved the refrigerator to clean underneath it, we discovered a puddle of grease and who knows what else that was so thick that a mouse was stuck in it. The mouse was still alive, but it couldn’t get itself out.
What would have happened if we had just moved the refrigerator back and pretended that the puddle of goop and the mouse weren’t there? The house would have looked spotless, but there would have been a secret hidden in the darkness that had the potential to ruin our business. Eventually that mouse would have died, someone would have smelled it, and our secret would have been discovered. We could have tried to talk our way out of it and claim that we just forgot to clean there, but that would have just compounded our sin.
Turning a blind eye to sin or hiding it under a refrigerator doesn’t help anyone. That sin will just rot and contaminate everything around it. If sin had an odor it would smell like death and no amount of air freshener could hide it. Too many Christian families and churches reek of sin that has not been properly dealt with. The only remedy for sin is to confess it and to bring it out into the light of Jesus.
1 John 1:5-10 says, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But
if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (NKJV)
Jesus forgave Saul for his sins and Saul had done some terrible things. Jesus will forgive you and me also, but we need to confess our sins and repent. Jesus loved Saul so much that He called him out of the darkness into the light. Jesus loves us and is calling each one of us as well.
1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (NKJV)
Don’t be a possum and hide in the darkness. That is the path that leads to death. Come into the light where there is love, forgiveness, healing, redemption and salvation—and then share the light of Jesus with others.
