Acts 9:1-31: Saul is Blinded by the Light

The Rev. Dan Eddy, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Beloit, WI, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Acts 9:1-13. Saul, the fierce persecutor of Christians, embarks on a journey that will forever alter the course of his life and the Christian faith. En route to Damascus, a divine encounter with Jesus leaves him blinded. Guided to the city by his companions, a faithful disciple, Ananias, steps forward to restore Saul's sight and spirit, baptizing him in the name of the Lord. Transformed and rechristened as Paul, he sets forth to preach the word of God, the very faith he once sought to dismantle. The Book of Acts takes us back to the earliest days of Christianity, unveiling the incredible acts of the apostles and the growth of the early church. Acts offers a firsthand account how the Apostles and Jesus’ disciples respond to his death and resurrection. It makes us witnesses to the beginning of fulfilling Jesus’s command to spread the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. We encounter miracles and wonders, we see the church struggling to organize itself in the absence of Jesus, and we learn of the trials and tribulations the early Christians faced in a world that rejected them.