"I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles- to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'" Acts 26:16-18 ESV
In Acts 26 we read of the account where the apostle Paul appeared before King Agrippa and shared his testimony about his conversion and his call to the ministry. He reports the spectacular encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road. Then he reports the commission that Christ gave him. It’s the words of the commission that are so amazing to me and so relevant the times we live. He makes an incredible statement about evangelism and missions. He says "I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me"(Acts 26:17-18). Jesus says: I am sending you to open their eyes.
How does that strike you? This is incredible! True evangelism and missions involves opening non-Christians eyes so that they might see the light, turn from sin to God, receive forgiveness and a place among those set apart by faith in Jesus Christ. Why do people need to have their eyes open? 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” People who don’t believe in Christ are blind. They can’t see Christ as supremely valuable, and so they won’t receive him as their Treasure and so they are not saved. A work of God is needed in their lives to open their eyes and give them life so they can see and receive Christ as Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives. That is the ultimate problem in regards to the sinfulness of man.
Look also at the solution to this condition of blindness and perishing in 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This is a description of conversion. The God who created light in the beginning does the same thing in the human heart. Only the light this time is not physical light, but “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Or as verse 4 calls it “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”
God causes the human heart to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ—the glory of Christ. And when we see him for who he really is, we receive him for who he is. "And to as many as received him he gave power to become the children of God" (John 1:12).
But what is remarkable about all of this is that though conversion is a sovereign work of God, He uses means. He told Paul that he would be sent to open the eyes of the gentiles. But how, if God opens eyes alone, is Paul going to open eyes? How are we going to open anyone's eyes? Look at 2 Corinthians 5:5: “What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Paul’s role was to proclaim Christ from a heart of love and a life of service. That proclamation is called the gospel in verse 3: “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.” It’s the glory of Christ and His gospel that spiritually blind people can’t see and spiritually deaf people can’t hear.
Now read again carefully what Jesus says he is sending Paul to do in his gospel-telling ministry in Acts 26:18: “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” According to 2 Corinthians 4, people are spiritually blind until God gives them eyes to see, that is, until God causes them to be born again. But here Jesus says in verse 18, “I am sending you to open their eyes.” The point is not hard to see. God opens the eyes of the blind to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ. But he does by sending people to tell the good news from hearts of love and lives of service. We are sent by God to those who are blind in sin, darkness, and unbelief, we tell and proclaim the truth of the gospel.
This is especially important in the light of postmodernism which de-emphasizes proclamation and overemphasizes friendship, service, and loving acts. The fact is we need both, but no one is saved by anything but the gospel . Romans 1:16-17 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." Saving faith comes only by hearing the word of God and people are born again through hearing that news, and never born again without it. Romans 10:17 says. "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”. The new birth, which is what conversion really is, comes by the word of God. 1 Peter 1:23 says , “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God”—followed by the explanation in verse 25: “This word is the good news that was preached to you.”
In other words, God brings about the new birth through the gospel—the good news that God sent his Son into the world to live a perfect life, die for sinners, absorb the wrath of God, take away our guilt, provide the gift of righteousness, and give eternal joy through faith alone apart from works of the law.
Oh what a difference this can make when we as a church and as Christians really believe this! Can you imagine how this would affect our view of people all around us and throughout the world. Would we see more conversions and more people going out to the unreached peoples of the world? Jesus said to Paul in Acts 26:18: I send you to open their eyes. Perhaps you are thinking and feeling a disconnect with what Jesus says. You are thinking I can't open anyone's eyes. I can't open my neighbors eyes, my families eyes, my work places eyes, the Muslims, Hindu's, Buddhists, Hip Hoppers, Pierced and Tattooed, Intellectuals, Rappers, Crackheads, Suburbanites, and the numerous sub-cultures eyes. Don’t stop because you can’t. Of course you can’t. But the fact that you can’t make electricity or create light never stops you from flipping light switches. The fact that you can’t create fire in cylinders never stops you from turning the car key. The fact that you can’t create cell tissue never stops you from eating your meals. So don’t let the fact that you can’t convert people stop you from telling the gospel.
Jesus has called you and sent you to proclaim His gospel, that is how people are saved and born again and He will use it to open people's eyes. God will do his work through the gospel, and the surpassing power will belong to him and not to us. Be encouraged, Christian. You are appointed, precisely in your inability to make anyone see, for the greatest work in the world: “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.”
I am praying for the Lord to fill my church and my life and you with a passion to open the eyes of the blind. I am praying for the Lord to fill us with a passion to do what God uses to bring about radical conversions to Jesus Christ!
Pastor Bill
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