Stubborn Eyes - February 2, 2014
______________________________________________________________________________
Scripture Reading: Acts 9:1 – 19
Theme: Stubborn Eyes
I am continuing to address what I believe the Holy Spirit has called us to regarding this year or season. That theme appears on the slide: 2014 – A Year of Expanded Perspective.
I have a growing sense that it is easy to do with this what we do with much of what is shared in sermons or Bible studies; much of what we read in books or hear sung in songs: We embrace the concept on an intellectual level but stumble over the truth when it starts to work out in our lives. We struggle to see in the details of our lives how God is bringing about the very thing we have embraced intellectually and said “Amen” to.
Remember that perspective has to do with what you see but more importantly how you see what you see; the interpretation you give to what you see. This means that as my perspective changes, grows and expands I will see the same things differently tomorrow than how I see them today. That does not mean that my present view of them is wrong. It does mean that I am seeing them more fully, seeing them with a greater understanding and therefore I am seeing them differently.
The hardest thing we will ever change is our mind. Much of the reason for that is that we tend to think it is the mind of our neighbour that needs changing and most of our energy goes into that.
The Bible has a great deal to say about the mind. The Psalmist cried out: Ps.26: 2 Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. We read in Prov.23:32 Your eyes will see strange things. And your mind will utter perverse things.
Note how this Proverb links the eyes and the mind. That fact will be important to this ongoing study. In addition to the eyes the ears are equally important. Perspective is directly tied to what we see and what we hear.
Listen to these words of Christ, and note the connection between these words: eyes, ears, seeing, hearing, understanding and heart.
Matt. 13: 14 – 17 In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.“For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
God tells us through the prophet that it is possible to have eyes and see nothing, ears and hear nothing and a heart but understand nothing. This is the reality of stubborn eyes, stubborn ears and a stubborn heart. When Jesus quoted Isaiah the prophet He then contrasted the people Isaiah described with a very different type of people. Of these people Christ described their eyes as blessed because they actually saw and their ears as blessed because they actually heard.
Look carefully at these two people groups and understand this fact; they exist side by side in every single church on this planet. And secondly understand that the perspective within each group is going to be extremely different and even violently contrasted and conflicted. And why?; – because of the state of each person’s eyes, ears and heart.
In our Acts 9 story we meet two men with very different and extremely strong perspectives. Both will experience a transformation or expansion of perspective.
In Acts 6 we meet a Christ follower named Stephen. He is appointed to serve as deacon in the Jerusalem church. Here is what we read of him: ‘And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.’ At the end of the chapter he is in court and we read this: ‘And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.’
When we come to the final scene in Acts 7 we find Stephen being executed by stoning. Here is what we read of him: ‘But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.’
Remember the core of what I have been saying; perspective is determined by what our eyes see. And then look at Stephen’s perspective: ...he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”
In all of this we discover this tiny detail: ...and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. This is followed by the chilling opening statement of Acts 8: Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. Join that with the opening statement of chapter 9; Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord... Do we need further clarity regarding Saul’s perspective? If he hated the followers of Christ then it stands to reason he hated the Christ they followed.
In all of this – and this is a huge essential to come to grips with – as horrifyingly and diabolically wrong as Saul’s perspective was he himself was not insincere, dishonest or hypocritical. This was his honest perspective regarding Christ and the followers of Christ. This was his sincere perspective regarding the message of Christ and the teachings carried on by His disciples.
You may wonder how a sincere and honest and highly religious person could arrive at such a perspective as this. In Acts 22:3 we find the root or core of it all in the words of Paul himself: I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but reared in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated according to the strictest care in the Law of our fathers, being ardent [even a zealot] for God, as all of you are today.
In this story we meet a second man. His name was Ananias. He too had a strong perspective – a perspective regarding the first man, Saul of Tarsus. Note his response to the Lord: “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” Notice, his perspective was based on what he had heard, he had heard correctly and his perspective was accurate.
God brings these two men of strong perspective together, and in closing out this message I want you to note the difference regarding what was required to bring about the transformation of each man’s perspective. Let’s begin with Ananias.
All it took was a single vision in which a conversation took place between the Lord and Ananias. And immediately we read this response to that vision: So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul...” Notice, he did not call him a religious, legalistic fanatic; he did not call him murderer of saints and persecutor of the church. He did not address him as a Jesus hater. He addressed him as BROTHER! And here’s why. He spoke out of his new, transformed and expanded perspective based upon the revelation of the Holy Spirit in a vision.
When the eyes and ears of the heart are as open and sensitive to the Holy Spirit as Ananias’s were, change of perspective comes relatively easy. Saul is a different story.
First you blind him with light and knock him down to get his attention. You blind his eyes in order to shut out all distractions. He hears the voice of the one he hates. You humble him by making him dependent upon others who lead him like a child. You bring him to a place he was not intending to be. You let him stew for three days, and then you send one of those very disciples he hated. Finally that disciple prays for you, and according to the record: And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and he was baptised.
This series of messages began when I read the story of Elisha praying for his befuddled servant: “Lord, open his eyes.” Last week we discovered the Lord opened the eyes of a donkey to behold the angel of the Lord. And then he opened the eyes of Balaam the soothsayer. Today we have seen the Lord open – what I am calling – the stubborn eyes of the world’s number one religionist. We have also discovered how the Lord opened the eyes of his disciple Ananias.
From this we take away two fundamental realities: First, the only way our perspective can be changed, transformed and expanded is for our eyes to first be opened. Second, the only one who can truly open eyes is the Lord himself.
I am going to ask a series of questions to which I invite all of you to respond. The response to each will be the same: “Only the Lord can.”
Who can open the eyes of Elisha’s servant? Who can open the eyes of a donkey? Who can open the eyes of a soothsayer? Who can open the stubborn eyes of a Saul of Tarsus? Who can open the eyes of Ananias the disciple? Who can open our eyes? Who can open the eyes of all those we are praying for?
I am continuing to address what I believe the Holy Spirit has called us to regarding this year or season. That theme appears on the slide: 2014 – A Year of Expanded Perspective.
I have a growing sense that it is easy to do with this what we do with much of what is shared in sermons or Bible studies; much of what we read in books or hear sung in songs: We embrace the concept on an intellectual level but stumble over the truth when it starts to work out in our lives. We struggle to see in the details of our lives how God is bringing about the very thing we have embraced intellectually and said “Amen” to.
Remember that perspective has to do with what you see but more importantly how you see what you see; the interpretation you give to what you see. This means that as my perspective changes, grows and expands I will see the same things differently tomorrow than how I see them today. That does not mean that my present view of them is wrong. It does mean that I am seeing them more fully, seeing them with a greater understanding and therefore I am seeing them differently.
The hardest thing we will ever change is our mind. Much of the reason for that is that we tend to think it is the mind of our neighbour that needs changing and most of our energy goes into that.
The Bible has a great deal to say about the mind. The Psalmist cried out: Ps.26: 2 Examine me, O Lord, and try me; Test my mind and my heart. We read in Prov.23:32 Your eyes will see strange things. And your mind will utter perverse things.
Note how this Proverb links the eyes and the mind. That fact will be important to this ongoing study. In addition to the eyes the ears are equally important. Perspective is directly tied to what we see and what we hear.
Listen to these words of Christ, and note the connection between these words: eyes, ears, seeing, hearing, understanding and heart.
Matt. 13: 14 – 17 In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.“For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
God tells us through the prophet that it is possible to have eyes and see nothing, ears and hear nothing and a heart but understand nothing. This is the reality of stubborn eyes, stubborn ears and a stubborn heart. When Jesus quoted Isaiah the prophet He then contrasted the people Isaiah described with a very different type of people. Of these people Christ described their eyes as blessed because they actually saw and their ears as blessed because they actually heard.
Look carefully at these two people groups and understand this fact; they exist side by side in every single church on this planet. And secondly understand that the perspective within each group is going to be extremely different and even violently contrasted and conflicted. And why?; – because of the state of each person’s eyes, ears and heart.
In our Acts 9 story we meet two men with very different and extremely strong perspectives. Both will experience a transformation or expansion of perspective.
In Acts 6 we meet a Christ follower named Stephen. He is appointed to serve as deacon in the Jerusalem church. Here is what we read of him: ‘And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.’ At the end of the chapter he is in court and we read this: ‘And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.’
When we come to the final scene in Acts 7 we find Stephen being executed by stoning. Here is what we read of him: ‘But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.’
Remember the core of what I have been saying; perspective is determined by what our eyes see. And then look at Stephen’s perspective: ...he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!”
In all of this we discover this tiny detail: ...and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. This is followed by the chilling opening statement of Acts 8: Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. Join that with the opening statement of chapter 9; Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord... Do we need further clarity regarding Saul’s perspective? If he hated the followers of Christ then it stands to reason he hated the Christ they followed.
In all of this – and this is a huge essential to come to grips with – as horrifyingly and diabolically wrong as Saul’s perspective was he himself was not insincere, dishonest or hypocritical. This was his honest perspective regarding Christ and the followers of Christ. This was his sincere perspective regarding the message of Christ and the teachings carried on by His disciples.
You may wonder how a sincere and honest and highly religious person could arrive at such a perspective as this. In Acts 22:3 we find the root or core of it all in the words of Paul himself: I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but reared in this city. At the feet of Gamaliel I was educated according to the strictest care in the Law of our fathers, being ardent [even a zealot] for God, as all of you are today.
In this story we meet a second man. His name was Ananias. He too had a strong perspective – a perspective regarding the first man, Saul of Tarsus. Note his response to the Lord: “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” Notice, his perspective was based on what he had heard, he had heard correctly and his perspective was accurate.
God brings these two men of strong perspective together, and in closing out this message I want you to note the difference regarding what was required to bring about the transformation of each man’s perspective. Let’s begin with Ananias.
All it took was a single vision in which a conversation took place between the Lord and Ananias. And immediately we read this response to that vision: So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul...” Notice, he did not call him a religious, legalistic fanatic; he did not call him murderer of saints and persecutor of the church. He did not address him as a Jesus hater. He addressed him as BROTHER! And here’s why. He spoke out of his new, transformed and expanded perspective based upon the revelation of the Holy Spirit in a vision.
When the eyes and ears of the heart are as open and sensitive to the Holy Spirit as Ananias’s were, change of perspective comes relatively easy. Saul is a different story.
First you blind him with light and knock him down to get his attention. You blind his eyes in order to shut out all distractions. He hears the voice of the one he hates. You humble him by making him dependent upon others who lead him like a child. You bring him to a place he was not intending to be. You let him stew for three days, and then you send one of those very disciples he hated. Finally that disciple prays for you, and according to the record: And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and he was baptised.
This series of messages began when I read the story of Elisha praying for his befuddled servant: “Lord, open his eyes.” Last week we discovered the Lord opened the eyes of a donkey to behold the angel of the Lord. And then he opened the eyes of Balaam the soothsayer. Today we have seen the Lord open – what I am calling – the stubborn eyes of the world’s number one religionist. We have also discovered how the Lord opened the eyes of his disciple Ananias.
From this we take away two fundamental realities: First, the only way our perspective can be changed, transformed and expanded is for our eyes to first be opened. Second, the only one who can truly open eyes is the Lord himself.
I am going to ask a series of questions to which I invite all of you to respond. The response to each will be the same: “Only the Lord can.”
Who can open the eyes of Elisha’s servant? Who can open the eyes of a donkey? Who can open the eyes of a soothsayer? Who can open the stubborn eyes of a Saul of Tarsus? Who can open the eyes of Ananias the disciple? Who can open our eyes? Who can open the eyes of all those we are praying for?