Full sermon summary

Frank Vargo returned to Acts 9 with the familiar words of ‘Amazing Grace’: ‘I once was lost, and now am found; was blind, but now I see.’ John Newton, who wrote those words, had once been a slave trader known for drunkenness and foul speech. After encountering Christ, he became a pastor, wrote Christian hymns, and worked with others to abolish slavery. Frank used Newton’s changed life to introduce the transformation of Saul of Tarsus. Both men had done great evil, yet neither was beyond the reach of a great Savior.

Jesus did not come for people who imagine themselves righteous. Quoting Luke 5, Frank emphasized that Christ came to call sinners to repentance, just as a physician comes for the sick. A person who recognizes his sin and need for a Savior is precisely the person God wants to forgive and transform. Saul had hated Christians, supported Stephen’s execution, ravaged the church, and traveled toward Damascus to arrest more believers. Then the risen Jesus confronted him. Saul’s questions—‘Who are you, Lord?’ and ‘What do you want me to do?’—show the surrender that marks true Christianity. Belief in Christ changes the direction of a life.

Saul’s blindness also humbled a man who had once commanded others. He now had to be led by the hand. In Damascus, God called a devoted disciple named Ananias. His response, ‘Here I am, Lord,’ expressed readiness to obey. The Lord sent him to Saul, who was praying and waiting. Frank contrasted Saul’s former religious prayers with prayer that comes from the heart through Jesus Christ. Rather than approaching God only to ask for things, believers should pray to know and do God’s will.

Ananias knew Saul’s reputation and initially answered the Lord with fear. He had heard of the evil Saul had done and knew the authority Saul carried to imprison Christians. Yet God did not need Ananias to advise Him. The sovereign Lord had already chosen Saul as an instrument who would carry Christ’s name before Gentiles, kings, and Israel. Frank urged the church to stop telling God what He already knows and instead submit to what He is doing. Ananias obeyed, entered the house, laid hands on the former persecutor, and called him ‘Brother Saul.’ Christ had turned an enemy into a brother.

Saul’s calling would include suffering. Frank cautioned new believers against assuming that following Jesus removes every problem. God uses trials to build character and can make a believer’s faith through suffering a witness to others. Some sacrifices are small and some suffering is severe, but God does not abandon His people. First Peter 5:10 promises that after suffering, the God of grace will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish those He has called. Christians can trust Him to give the strength they need and to complete that restoration, whether in this life or the next.

When Ananias laid hands on Saul, the scales fell from his eyes and he regained his physical sight. That healing pictured what Jesus had already done within him: the man who had been spiritually blind could now see. His salvation was entirely grace—God’s gift, not an achievement Saul could boast about. He was baptized, spent time with the disciples, and immediately began proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God. People who knew his former life were astonished. Frank closed with a pastoral prayer that the same kind of change would be visible in the lives of the church: different speech, different conduct, joy, peace, and a surrendered heart. A transformed life becomes a powerful witness to the transforming grace of Jesus.