When Saul met the Lord calling out to him, he asked the Lord 2 questions:

Who are You, Lord?

The Lord answered him personally and introduced Himself as, “I am Jesus of Nazareth”. This tells us that the God of heaven once came into the world and dwelt among us. The Lord was well-known to the people of Nazareth because He dwelt among them. By the revelation of the angels, His parents named Him Jesus. He came into the world to deliver His people from sin. The name “Jesus” tells us that He is a God that wants to dwell among men and wants to be the Saviour of mankind.

After Saul heard of the answer to the first question, he asked the second question:

Lord, what do You want me to do?

This allows us to understand that when God calls us, He must have His purpose. Through a devout man, Ananias, God revealed to Saul that he will testify to all nations what he had seen and heard. This was a very great and important commission. But before he embarked on this commission to preach the gospel, there was one more important matter for him to do, which is to arise, call on the name of Jesus to have his sins washed away. This is very important.

We know that the Lord of heaven is Jesus and His purpose on earth is for us to remove the barrier between us and God. Jesus taught us that we have to be baptised in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. Then, we’ll be able to reconcile with God. Following that, our purpose in life would be to testify for Christ.

Our Lord in heaven not only wants to call on Saul, but He also wants even more people to know the Lord in heaven so that more men would be able to receive His grace and blessings. We’ll take a look from a passage in the Bible in Acts 26:12-18;

12 ‘“While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
13 at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.
14 And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
15 So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
16 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.
17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you,
18 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.’’

This was Paul recounting on his own experience of him coming to believe in Jesus. Acts records of Paul encountering Jesus thrice; in chapter 9, 22 and 26.

V16 tells us of God’s purpose of calling Paul;

But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you.

The Lord wanted to make him a minister to witness to the people about Christ. To witness both the things he had seen and the things God revealed to him. Such a commission would present many problems and challenges but our Lord promised him that He would be with him and deliver him. Paul’s purpose was to overcome difficulties and preach the words to whom God wants to save. V18 tells us of Paul’s commission;

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.’’

So that they could be like Paul to have their spiritual eyes enlightened to know who God really is and to receive the salvation God has prepared for them. “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.”

Jesus wanted Paul to go forth and preach the gospel. One of the messages of the gospel is to let them receive God’s blessings and turn them from darkness to light; from a state of without peace to a state of security and protection. When you’re in darkness, you’re uneasy and worry about meeting with dangers. Therefore, the light of salvation will lead men to the light of the truth.

When Jesus was preaching the gospel, there was a woman who had a flow of blood for 12 years who wanted to come before Jesus to have her sickness healed. She had a very simple thinking, “I would be cured as long as I touched the garment of Jesus.”

With such a simple faith, she wanted to hold on to Jesus. When she touched Jesus, miraculously, her sickness was healed. The Lord Jesus knew of her needs. When she acknowledged what Jesus did for her, He said, “Daughter, go in peace.”

She turned from darkness to peace. She had money, but couldn’t buy peace. She looked for doctors, but they couldn’t cure her. Very often, we feel that in Singapore, we feel that we have many things but don’t have everything. As long as we go to supermarkets, we’re able to buy our daily necessities. We seem to have everything.

But in supermarkets, would you be able to buy the product “peace”? The salesperson there would find you ridiculous; there’s no way for you to find true peace in the world. If one could buy peace in the world, this sick person wouldn’t need to find Jesus. She had money, so if she could buy peace with the money she had, she would. Unfortunately, we can’t buy peace on earth because peace comes from God.

A Christian went to a hair salon. The barber was an atheist and the both of them started to debate on what they believed in. The barber proclaimed very loudly that there’s no God in this world, “If there is really God, there’d be no one on earth suffering!”

At that point, the Christian couldn’t give an immediate answer. The Christian left the salon feeling defeated and disappointed. He thought about how he should answer the statement of the atheist.

When he was walking by the road, he saw someone dressed poorly with messy and untrimmed hair. When he saw that person, he went back to the barber shop. He shouted loudly , “There’s no barber in the world!”

The barber asked him, “Why are you shouting and exclaiming this so loudly?”

The Christian replied, “I saw people with untrimmed hair and hence I concluded there’s no barber in the world!”

He answered, “That’s because they didn’t come looking for me! That’s why their hair is like that!”

The Christian answered, “Likewise, these people who’re suffering didn’t come looking for God. If they went to look for God, they would’ve received peace from God.”

We know God wants to give us grace and peace and this is the gospel God wanted them to preach, that is, to turn men from darkness to light.

Next, the Lord wants to give men the blessing of having freedom, to turn men from under the power of Satan to freedom in God.

Satan’s work is to restrain us and destroy the work of God. But everyone on earth is afraid of the devil. Why? We read Hebrews 2:14-15;

14 ‘Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ‘

Here tells us that everyone on earth fears the devil because men are unable to overcome death and all humans by nature are afraid of dying. Therefore we see many superstitions arise because of the fear of death.

If we do not remove sin, the wages of sin is death. This fear and bondage of death will enslave us. If the Lord Jesus don’t clear our debt, there’ll be no way for us to be free from the bondage of the evil one.

If we borrow money from someone and don’t pay him back, there’ll be loan sharks knocking on your door to demand to pay back what you’ve owed. If you owe money and don’t return them, you’ll be chased for your debt. They’ll stop coming when you’ve paid your debt.

The devil is the loan shark of the spiritual realm because we owe a debt of sin. There is no other way but for you to be under his bondage. We thank God that He has paid our debt of sin by His death. Because of our faith in Jesus, we’re able to overcome death and receive peace. Therefore the Lord Jesus has promised that those who believe in Him will be free. When we meet with problems in life, we can rely on our Lord Jesus. This gospel of Jesus allows us to have peace and enjoy freedom in this world. In addition, the Lord Jesus wants to give us eternal life. Acts 26:18 tells us;

‘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.’’

After you’ve known and believed in Jesus, He wants to give you 2 gifts:

1. The forgiveness of sins
2. The inheritance of heaven

Once the Lord brought Paul to paradise and he experienced that it was much better to be with Christ. Apostle Peter also experienced this. The Lord Jesus once brought him and a few other disciples up to a mountain and was in a glorious form before them. Peter immediately said, “It is good to be here!” It is indeed good to be with Jesus! This is the greatest hope for us Christians. There is no place on earth comparable to being with Jesus.

A few years ago, the speaker had the opportunity to visit northern Thailand. At that time, Pr Kong was in charge of the missionary work there. He brought the speaker to a place in northern Thailand. The place was beautiful and it was about 1000 feet above sea level; the view was amazing. Many tourists specially visit that place for relaxation. They went to a famous restaurant for coffee and the view was really beautiful.

There are many beautiful places which God has created. If we think about the place God has prepared for us in the future, it’d be so much more beautiful! God has prepared for us to receive the heavenly inheritance. He has also given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee.

The speaker would like to share a testimony of Sister Chen from Taiwan:
From young, she didn’t have a good impression of Christianity because she would read of messages along the road, “Jesus wants to save you because you’re a sinner.”

She thought to herself, “I’m a law-abiding person, why am I a sinner? I’m already living a good life, why would I need to rely on this God?”

She came to the conclusion that there was no need for her to believe in Jesus. Her mother was a member of our church and was always looking for opportunities to preach to her.

There was once she was sent to Europe to work for 2 years. Her mother reminded her that the Lord Jesus is the God of heaven and He’ll look after her. When she meets with problems, she needs to pray to Him for help. Her mother bought her a Bible to bring with her. However, she thought that there was no need for her to have a religion for a good life.

One night when she was about to fall asleep, she suddenly felt a dark shadow strangling her and she couldn’t breathe. She wanted to shout aloud and was unable to. When she was helpless and afraid, she suddenly remembered that her mother told her to cry out to God when she is in need. As she thought that, the shadow that was strangling her immediately left. She got up and switched on the lights in her room. There was no one.

From that experience she realised Jesus could help her. Since then, she put the Bible next to her every night because she felt safer like this. After she studied the Bible, she understood that it wasn’t Bible that was protecting her but the Lord Jesus.

Once she went to Germany for a holiday. She saw the wrong timing and arrived at the station after the train departed. She had to wait a few hours for the next train and so she went to a cafe for rest. From the news, she heard there were people against asians and would attack them but she thought that it wouldn’t happen to her.

Then 3 men in black jackets enter the cafe. When they looked at her, they saw that she was an Asian and walked towards her. She was wearing a jacket and she quickly covered herself. One of them knocked off her hat her head and asked her if she could speak German but she could not. They asked if they could speak English and she also couldn’t. One of them got very angry, snatched her book and drew a Swastika symbol on her book to ask her if she knew what the symbol was.

She was very afraid. Once again, she prayed to the Lord Jesus. After she prayed, the 3 men talked among themselves and left. She kept on praying that these 3 men wouldn’t return. Up to the time the train arrived, these 3 men didn’t return. From these 2 experiences she knew the Lord would answer her in her time of need. When she returned to Taiwan, she went to TJC to seek the truth. In the year 1995, she was baptised into TJC.

During her university days, she injured her knees while climbing the mountain. The doctors told her she couldn’t kneel on the floor. As a result when she came to church, she sat on the bench instead of kneeling down for prayers. However, she thought it was insincere of her to sit on the bench because there were older folks kneeling down. Hence she knelt down to pray. After 5-10 minutes, there was no pain in the knees.

If she knelt down to do chores or other work, her knees would feel painful. But when she knelt to pray, she wouldn’t feel pain. This God is marvellous.

There was once she had the flu as a result of her asthma. After she took the medicine, there were side effects; her heart started to palpitate and she felt uncomfortable. She had heard many testimonies of God healing their illnesses. Then she prayed to God earnestly for a week and don’t take her medication. She recovered and never got this illness again.

In the past she thought she didn’t need the Lord. But from the experiences of the Lord answering her prayers and healing her illness, she was convinced that she needs Him.

This gospel is for us to enjoy. The Lord wants to give us peace, freedom and the heavenly inheritance.

May the Lord bless each and everyone of us with this precious gift of salvation.