We Are Witnesses | No Superheroes Here, May 1, 2022

May 1, 2022
Acts 9:1-20

Our stories of encountering the risen Lord are how we bear witness to Mary’s Easter morning discovery of the empty tomb.

We are witnesses to the very voice that knocked Saul on his behind, who spoke to Ananias, who overcame the power of Sin and Death, and who continues to speak to us today.
Luke tells us Saul was completely changed – from Enemy-Number-One to being the person who would carry the Good News of God in Jesus Christ to the Gentile world. To people like you and me.

We stand today as witnesses to the awesome work of God along the Damascus Road.
It would have been easy, maybe even justified, for God to write off Saul. After all, Saul was Enemy-Number-One of the Church. But as we read each year on Good Friday, God is not in the business of writing people off. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, he prayed for the forgiveness of the very people who killed him.

And that is Grace – the nothing you can do to earn or lose it love and forgiveness of God.

Right now, it is yours, just as it is Saul’s and Ananias’.

Right now, it is yours, just as it was extended to the soldiers who put the nails in Jesus’ hands and who mocked him.

Right now, this amazing Grace is yours just as it is for the person you might believe deserves it the least.

The conversion of Saul is a story of God’s Grace before it is the story of Saul being converted or changed. A story of the work of God in the people and times we least expect.

As resurrection people, this is what we bear witness to – the work of God.

To one another.

To the world.