SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2026 | THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL, YEARS ABC
Acts 9:1–22 | Matthew 19:27–30
Chosen to Carry His Name (Acts 9:1-22)
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Grace, Mercy and Peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
During the season of Epiphany, our sermons have been about living a Well-Ordered Life. Our human family was meant to live by the law of God. We were meant to bear the image of God. And a life lived before God in this way, is pleasing to God. It is well-ordered, and it abounds in righteousness and purity.
But in the Scriptures and in our world and yes, even in our own lives…We see that there is a lot that is Out-of-Order. That’s because sin rejects the Law, and rejects the image of God, and rejects the good and blessed order that God intends for us. Sin is a chaotic force, which opposes God’s Word and seeks to undo what God has done.
So God says, let the be light… But sin says No …I want darkness… And that sinful impulse which is opposed to God is alive in each of us. As we read in Genesis 4, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” (Genesis 4:7)
This week that reality was highlighted for me as I heard news that someone I know personally had committed a heinous crime. Of course, whenever something like this happens, we want to distance ourselves from it. We say things like, I can’t believe it! I guess I didn’t really know him for well. I can’t imagine how anyone could do something like that.
But the problem with distancing ourselves from sin in this way is that it doesn’t deal with the truth. The truth, dear Christians, is that sin is crouching at the door. It was crouching at my friend’s door. It is crouching at my door. And it is crouching at your door. Temptations, big and small, are all around us, waiting to devour us.
Temptations to gossip about our co-workers, our our fellow church members. Temptations to reject the Godly advice of your pastor; or to dismiss the admonition of God’s Holy Word. Temptations to ignore the duties of your calling. To ignore the responsibilities at home, at work, at church, and in our community…because you have better things to do. Or because you need some me time, in which you scroll mindlessly on your phone or binge watch something on a streaming platform. Temptations to bitterness, anger, and violence; temptations to amass treasure for yourself but withhold it from your neighbor and your church.
And dear friends, all these temptations to sin, are temptations to reject the Law of God, and to reject the image of God in you, and to reject the good and blessed order that God intends for you. All these temptations will lead to an out-of-order life, which is neither fruitful nor effective. All these temptations are darkness instead of light.
But this is the season of Epiphany. And epiphany means light shining upon us. The light of Christ shines upon us. The light shines in the darkness. The darkness is exposed and we are enlightened.
This is why the Catechism teaches us in the explanation of the Third Article of the Creed that the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel AND enlightened me with His gifts.
Enlightened. As in the light shines upon us. And this true enlightenment is not the enlightenment of eastern religion or of western history. It is not the nonsense of nirvana; or the notion that we are smarter than our ancestors. But in fact, true enlightenment comes only when we hear the Word of Christ and receive His gifts. The light of Christ shines upon us, and shows us the truth, about who we are and about who He is.
Now on this day, January 25th, the church commemorates St. Paul and His miraculous conversion. Remember that Paul– whose name at that time was still Saul — was a persecutor of the church. Paul thought He knew sooo much. Pharisee of Pharisees, taught by the great scholars of his age, and so soo pious. But Paul made himself a fool by resisting God, by fighting against the King of Creation and His Holy People.
Paul’s case also illustrates something very significant for us. Paul, you see, was very successful at his work. The evidence is in his reputation with the Jews and the Christians. They all knew him. And they all knew he got the job done.
But notice this. He was successful at the wrong thing. Maybe that’s you. Maybe you’re very successful at your work. Very successful at achieving your goals. And meanwhile the things of God; the things that He desires, fall by the wayside. Well, friends, that’s not really success, is it? In fact, that is the definition of disorder, according to Augustine. Loves that are not in the right order.
So it was with Paul. And so it is with you and me and with our whole human family until the light of Christ shines upon us.
For Paul, on the Damascus Road, the light of Christ literally shone upon him, all around him, and he learned the truth. The truth about who he was and the truth about God.
In the midst of this epiphany, Jesus stopped Paul in his tracks. Paul fell to the ground. And he was blinded. This new physical blindness, though, was just a reflection of the deeper spiritual reality. He was blind. He was in darkness. This is evidenced through the questions asked in this text.
The first question comes from Jesus to Paul. And again, remember that his name is still Saul at this time. Jesus asks: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? (Acts 9:4)
And the second question comes from Paul to Jesus: Who are you, Lord?” (Acts 9:5)
The first question is a Law question. Paul encounters one who can stop him in his tracks, knock him down to the ground and blind him. He encounters the one who is powerful over all. The mighty one. And he hears this — that he has been persecuting the mighty one. He has been in rebellion against the Lord of all things. The Law teaches him the truth about himself. He is NOT wise. He is NOT powerful. He is NOT successful. He is an enemy of God.
The second question is a confession of Paul’s ignorance. Who are you Lord? I don’t even know who the mighty one is. I don’t even know God, whose Law I have broken.
And then comes the answer. The mighty one says:
I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. (Acts 9:5-6)
Here we see mercy. Here we see the beginning of the Gospel. The Mighty One reveals Himself as Christ, crucified and risen for the sins of the world. And the one who has been knocked down before the Mighty One is now permitted to rise and to hear the Word of the Lord.
In fact, you can see in this the same pattern that we follow in the Divine Service. When the service begins, immediately after the processional hymn, we confess our sins. In the LSB, the Lutheran Service Book, we are even encouraged to kneel as we confess. I know, we don’t kneelers at Fatih. But nonetheless, kneeling embodies humility. And frankly, we don’t like to do it — because it often hurts. But that’s kind of the point. Paul fell down before the Lord, heard the Law and confessed His ignorance His spiritual blindness. And all of this hurts. To be honest, to tell the truth about your sin and your ignorance. To admit before God that you are a poor, miserable, sinner. This hurts. It is humbling.
Now what did the Lord do to this one who was humble before Him? He commanded him to rise and enter the city where He would listen to the Word of the Lord. Where the Lord Jesus would tell him what to do.
So also in the Divine Service, we rise up after hearing the Lord’s absolution, and we sing the Introit, which is the Psalm of praise to God as we enter into the Service of the Word. And in the Service of the Word we hear the Word of the Lord. We hear God, our Savior, telling us what we are to do as His forgiven people.
This happened to Paul, through the ministry of Ananias, and scales fell from his eyes and he could see. The light had truly shone in the darkness to enlighten the heart and mind of the one who would later become a pastor, apostle and missionary.
And it is this enlightenment that we celebrate during the season of Epiphany. The enlightenment of God’s Law which shows us our sin. Which shows us how Out-of-Order our lives are. And the enlighten of The Gospel which shows us our Savior, who seeks always to re-order our lives by the power of His Word and Sacraments.
That re-ordering begins when we confess our sins, and when we hear and believe what God says to us…that for the sake of the holy, innocent, bitter suffering and death of Christ, our sins are forgiven.
That gives us peace. But the call of God doesn’t end there. Christ continues to set our lives in good order. He brings His Word to instruct us in faith and virtue. And He welcomes us to His table…to receive His body and blood.
This true body and blood of Christ is, as we confess in the liturgy, salutary. Salutary means it produces good. It is beneficial. It is health and life-giving. And every time we receive it we thank God for giving it to us. It’s the post-communion collect. We say,
And when have been so enlightened by God’s holy word, we learn to live in the light of that salvation. We don’t live perfect lives, but we are guided by the Law, and comforted by the Gospel. Because Christ has done it all for us. In His Word and Sacrament, through His work on the cross, He has rescued us and set us on a new path. A path that is well-ordered, according to God’s Holy Word. A path in which we listen to Him as He tells us what we are to do.
And what, exactly, are we to do?
Well, we’ve seen some of these things in the Scriptures these last few weeks.
First, we are to gather together for Worship, every week. I know this week is exceptional, because of the storm. But dear friends, the Lord commands us to Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. We should never make it a habit to do otherwise. We should never despise worship and God’s Word by coming infrequently to worship. Come, every week and receive God’s gifts.
Second, we are to pray. Solomon prayed for wisdom. We also need God’s wisdom. Not once, but every day. And we have some opportunities each week to pray together. Sunday mornings at 9:15, come to the altar and pray before worship. Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm, join us in the Board Room and pray before Wednesday night Bible Studies. And come to the monthly school prayer time. Pray for the students and families at Faith Lutheran School.
Third, we are to lead our families in daily Scripture reading and Prayer. I’ve given you the Orders of Daily Prayer as a resource to help you with this. But do it. Set aside time each day and lead your family in the order for the morning or the evening. While you’re doing that, use a devotion or reading plan. We’ve given you the Come, Follow Me devotionals, so use that resource.
Fourth, I’ve encouraged you to recite and memorize the 10 commandments. We have all of our first communion students do this. All of our confirmation students memorize them. The meanings too. I know…we live in a fast-paced world, we have information at our fingertips. Memorizing things seems so antiquated. But when you memorize something. The commandments. Passages of Scripture. What happens? It gets in your head, it gets your heart, and you carry it with you wherever you go. You have the truth deeply implanted so that when you face trials you can stand firm in the one true faith; and when you face temptations, you are ready to fight against them, with the help of God.
And fifth, as we learned last week, we are to make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue. Make every effort to listen and obey when God tells you what you are to do. We have our first, First Saturday coming up on February 7 at 10am. And this is just the beginning of us getting out of the church and into our community. We will be walking around the neighborhood and praying. And I’ve heard it said…I don’t really want to do that.
I know it will feel awkward to do this. But do you know what I say to my kids when they get grumpy and don’t want to do the things I ask of them? Get over it! Get over yourself.
Because we need to pray for our neighbors. We need to see our neighbors. We need to open our eyes and our hearts in love toward the people right here in our own neighborhood. And toward the students at KSU. And toward the families at our school. And toward anyone that God has put into our lives.
Why? Well, it’s simply the same thing that God says of Paul. When God sent Ananias to minister to Paul, what did he say about Paul?
He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9:15-16)
The reason we must do these things is that we are a chosen instrument of God. We are chosen to carry His name before all people. And that might involve some suffering. Some discomfort. It might involve doing some things that we would really rather not do. Because that’s how our lives are re-ordered under God’s Law, under God’s Word.
Peter affirms this in the Gospel. He says, we have left everything and followed you. (Matthew 19:27)
We leave everything to follow the Lord. We leave everything because we affirm that everything we have and everything we are belongs to God. It came from Him and it will return to Him. And we are simply stewards of His gifts for such a time as this.
And so let’s be good stewards. That’s number 6. And that’s where we’ll turn our attention during these last weeks of Epiphany.
Let’s be good stewards. Let’s give our Lord everything. Let’s come and follow the Mighty One, who has shown us the Truth about who we are and who He is. Let’s follow the one who raised us up with His Word of Forgiveness, Life and Salvation. Let’s truly give ourselves to Him and follow Him. For He has called us out of darkness and into the light. And He is the light of the world, the light of our lives, who shines upon us, today, and forevermore. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
The Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in the one true faith unto life, everlasting. Amen.