Acts 9:1-19

¹ Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s

disciples. He went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues

in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether

men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

       ³ As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed

around him. ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why

do you persecute me?”

⁵ “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.   “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.

⁶ “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” ⁷ The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.

⁸ Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. ⁹ For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

       ¹⁰ In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision,“Ananias!”  “Yes, Lord,” he answered. ¹¹ The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. ¹² In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

¹³ “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”  ¹⁵ But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.

¹⁶ I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

      ¹⁷ Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, ¹⁹ and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Dear Christian Friends,

 

            As we read through the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John it becomes evident that perhaps much of Jesus’ ministry years revolved around the Sea of Galilee and the fishing business that was there.  He seems to have chosen the town of Capernaum, on the shores of the lake as his “base of operations” when he was in Galilee; maybe because it was where Peter lived.  Four of the twelve men he chose to be his disciples – Peter, Andrew, James and John - were commercial fishermen on that lake.  When Jesus called them to be his disciples three years earlier, he did the fishing for them, as he did in the appearance after his resurrection we read about a few minutes ago (John 21).  After he had used Peter’s fishing boat as a pulpit to speak to the people on the shore, Jesus told Peter and the others to push out into deep water for a catch of fish.  Peter confessed that they been fishing all the night before and had caught nothing, but because Jesus told him to do it, he did.  So many fish swam into their nets that they began to tear and the boats began to sink because of the weight.  When they reached shore, Peter fell in front of Jesus and told him get away from him, “for I am a sinful man.”  He recognized the power of God used in his presence.  Jesus then told Simon and the other to not be afraid, from now on they would be fishing for men (Luke 5). 

 

Jesus spent much time around that lake of Galilee and with the men who fished it.  At the very least we can say that Jesus didn’t mind fishing.  And perhaps we could even go so far as to say he liked to fish.  It seems that Peter, Andrew, James and John didn’t totally give up fishing after Jesus called them to follow him.  Occasionally we read of them going out to fish.  No doubt they still had to make a living.  And that may have been the case in our John 21 reading which describes Jesus’ third appearance to the disciples after his resurrection.  Peter, now up in Galilee perhaps a couple weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, decided to go out fishing, and six other disciples went with him.  And so did Jesus!  They got to shore after hauling in the big catch Jesus had “caught” for them only to find that Jesus had already done some fishing of his own, as they found him cooking some fish over a fire.  It seems the risen Jesus still liked to fish!

 

But our focus today isn’t on that appearance of the risen Jesus at the Sea of Tiberias (Galilee).  Our focus is instead on his appearance after his ascension, perhaps several months later, when he appeared to Saul as recorded by Luke in Acts 9.  There we also observe that…

Our Risen Jesus Still Likes to Fish!

1.      He takes on “the big ones” and overcomes those “fighters”.

2.      He converts the “throwaways” into “keepers”.

 

Picture in your mind the deep sea fisherman who snags a marlin.  You’ve probably

seen video of it.  The big fish jumps out of the water, twisting and shaking, fighting to free itself from the hook and line that pull it toward the boat.  Finally, after hours of fighting that big fish, the fisherman overcomes it, and hauls it into the boat. 

 

            In picture language, Saul was a big fish.  He was well-known among the high and powerful in Jewish circles.  He was heading to Damascus with the authority of the High Priest himself to arrest as many followers of “the Way” as he could.  He was a big fish, and he was a fighter.  His fight at the time was against, as Luke calls them, “followers of the Way”, meaning they were followers of Jesus, who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6).  In reality, Saul was fighting against Jesus.  That’s exactly what Jesus told him when he struck him down on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting ME?”   And in answer to Saul’s question, “Who are you, Lord?” Jesus said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

 

            But Saul’s fight against Jesus had begun long before this time.  He had been fighting Jesus from the beginning of his life.  By nature, as King David says in Psalm 51:5, he was sinful.  Although Saul didn’t see it that way, he viewed the true God as his enemy.  From youth on he was taught to fight against the true God.  He was taught and he believed that he had to, and could earn God’s favor and acceptance by living a life of obedience to God’s commands and of sacrifice.  As he grew and learned more from Bible teachers called Pharisees he believed that living by the rules they added to God’s commands made him even better in God’s sight.  And he believed that as he persecuted these followers of Jesus he was doing God a favor.  So he believed that God in heaven should be very appreciative to him for his obedience and going beyond the call of duty in tracking down these people he thought were blasphemers.  In reality, he was fighting against God by refusing to hear God’s call in his commandments to honestly look at himself in the mirror of those commands to see how far short he fell in keeping God’s demands and to simply throw himself on God’s mercy, seeking forgiveness for the sake of the Messiah of God. 

 

            Additionally, Saul fought against Jesus by seeking a messiah of his own ideas, not God’s.  If Saul held to the common thinking about the promised Messiah, and he probably did, he was looking for a political savior; a person who would rise up to be a leader for the Jews in freeing themselves from the control of any other earthly nation in order to again be a “big fish” nation in the world.  Jesus, who said he was the Messiah, didn’t fit Saul’s idea of what the Messiah should be, so he fought against Him and his followers.  Jesus was just some weakling who allowed the Romans to crucify him, rather than freeing his people from Roman oppression.

 

            But Jesus powerfully overcame the big, fighting “fish” named Saul.  If Saul wanted to see physical power demonstrated by Jesus, he got it.  In a blinding flash of light from heaven Jesus appeared to Saul.  Jesus knocked him from his feet to the position of total humility, face to the ground.  Jesus took away his physical sight.  And when Jesus told Saul who he was, that was another demonstration of his power.  Saul undoubtedly believed Jesus to still be dead.  More than likely he joined in promoting the rumor that the disciples of Jesus had stolen the body of Jesus while the guards at the tomb slept and then announced he had risen.  But here was Jesus, alive and powerful, talking to him.  Obviously Jesus had overcome the Jewish leaders, death and the grave.  What was said about Jesus was true.  In speaking to Saul, Jesus overcame that “fighter”.  Saul was forced to give up the fight.  Jesus had shown him his utter powerlessness to be right before God.  He couldn’t see.  This independent, once powerful man had to be led by the hand to Damascus.  And there in Damascus, through the hands of one of the lowly followers of “the Way” his sight was powerfully restored and he was given a new life with God through the washing of baptism into Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life!  Jesus had tangled with a “big fish”, a “fighter”, and overcame him.

 

            That’s a fight and a victory that Jesus has had often.  Saul isn’t the only “fish” Jesus has fought and overcome.  Every believer, you and I included, have fought Jesus.  We were born into this life with a natural animosity toward God.  For many of us, in baptism at a young age he overcame us, washing our sins away and making us his.  And he still overcomes us fighters.  Our sinful nature still rises up to fight Jesus, daily opposing his will in and for our lives; daily pushing us to rebel against his commands for our lives.  But Jesus overcomes, sometimes knocking us down physically, too.  He may use tough times and other struggles to show us our weakness and to cause us to see Him as our only Way, Truth and Life, our only hope for time and eternity.  Then Jesus, who obviously still likes to fish converts “throwaways” into “keepers”.

 

            Jesus once told a parable about the kingdom of heaven in which he pictured God’s final judgment as a fisherman sorting through the fish he had caught in his net (Matthew 13:47ff).  Some fish aren’t good for eating and are therefore “throwaways” and others that are good for eating are “keepers”.  Saul had been a “throwaway”.  Left to his own ways and strength and righteousness, he would have been on the path to hell forever.  In chasing down believers in Jesus and imprisoning and killing them he believed he was paving his path to heaven.  Really he was doing just the opposite, he was paving his path to hell.  He would be a “throwaway” in God’s judgment.

 

            But in mercy Jesus converted Saul from a “throwaway” to a “keeper”.  Jesus had told the Damascus disciple Ananias that Saul was “his chosen instrument to proclaim my name before the Gentiles…”  In his baptism Saul’s sin and guilt was washed away by connecting him in faith to the innocence of Jesus.  Now, far from being a “throwaway” he was a “keeper”, a chosen instrument for Jesus’ “tangles” with other “fish”.  What comfort those words had to be to Paul, as he would now be known!  As he looked back on his life he saw an ocean of sin; hatred, misplaced trust for heaven, persecution, murder, and more.  Yet Jesus had called him his “chosen instrument”.  He was forgiven fully and freely by God’s grace in Jesus!  With great thankfulness and purpose Paul went on to “fish” for Jesus among the non-Jewish people of Turkey, Greece and Italy (maybe even Spain). 

 

            What comfort is ours in the love of Jesus that converts us “throwaways” into “keepers”!  Like Saul, we fit into the confession of Isaiah, “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…” (Is. 53:6).  Through our rebellion and disobedience of God’s commands for us we have also put ourselves on the path to hell; we’ve been “throwaways”.  Isaiah continued though, “…and the LORD has laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all”.  Jesus hooked us through baptism, pulled us in and made us “keepers”, his “chosen instruments”.  He has converted us from “throwaways” to “keepers”; changed us to love his commands rather than despise them; turned us from trusting ourselves to get to heaven to trusting only him for that perfect life with him.  And now he gives us the privilege he gave Peter, James, John, Paul and others – to go fishing with and for him!  He’s given us what we need – the reel, the nets, the line, the bait; it’s the good news of what he has done and has waiting for us.  Yes, indeed, our risen Jesus still likes to fish!  And he invites us to fish with him!