Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God… I. THE DIRECT WORK OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. "I send thee to open their eyes." The work is described, and the power is in the sending. If Christ sends, He will also give the power. 1. So then, before Him who looks on it from heaven, humanity lies as it were sleeping. The eye is closed: the eye of the understanding, of the heart, of the soul. Very remarkable is the contrast between this and the tempter's promise. "Then your eyes shall be opened." He prevailed, and the eyes of them "both were opened — they knew that they were naked. That opening was to a consciousness of shame. To everything save wretchedness it was a closing. As Christ looks on from heaven, He sees man blind. He sends Paul "to open their eyes." It was the first thing done for Paul himself. "Brother Saul, receive thy sight." Look up, the word is, see again! What Saul needed man needs now. 2. The came eye may be opened to some things and closed to others. The very clearness of its vision for some things — say, for near objects — may be a mark of its dulness as to the mere distant. A man may be quick to discern his own rights, interests, pleasures, in the life that is; and yet utterly mistaken, or indifferent, as to his highest interest, happiness, duty, as a being born for immortality. Oh, how dull oftentimes is the man of business, politics, literature, or philosophy, when the thing presented to him is the work of Christ or the hope of heaven! He, too, needs to have his eyes opened. 3. And this is the office, we here read, of the Christian ministry. As Christ's witness, if he cannot say, as St. Paul could say, "Listen tome, for I have seen Jesus Christ"; at least he should be able to say, "Listen to me; for I know Jesus Christ; I have heard His voice, I have talked with Him in my soul, and He by His Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and death." It is here that we fail. We bring a hearsay message, but we have not felt it ourselves, and therefore we have no evidence to bring of facts known, of things seen. Alas! it is too much with us, as it was with the prophets of old, who "prophesied out of their own hearts, followed their own spirit, and had seen nothing." 4. In a true sense, all of us have at least seen the light. Light, the true light, is come into the world, but "some love darkness rather than light," etc. II. THAT WORK HAS A FURTHER OBJECT; IN WHICH NOT THE MINISTER, BUT THE HEARER, MUST BE THE AGENT. 1. That they may turn. Turning, or conversion, follows upon the opening of the eyes. The communication of light, by the faithful preaching of the gospel, is the work of another; but this turning is (under God) a man's own work. A minister may enlighten, but he cannot convert. That is (under God) an act of the will, of the individual will, consequent upon conviction. "I see that this is true. Now therefore, seeing the light, I must turn to it. Therefore I awake and arise, and Christ shall give me light. I will walk in this light which He has brought to me. I will accept this two-fold blessedness which He offers me, of a forgiven past and a cleansed future." That is conversion. Oh, how unlike the dreams of many; who have mistaken the opening of the eyes for the turning to the light; more often a startled, feverish, fleeting feeling, for a deliberate self-surrender to a forgiving Saviour and a holy God! 2. But we must not exaggerate man's power, or forget the difficulty of that change. Satan has great "authority." Let a man honestly turn from darkness to light, and then, if never before, he will become conscious of the strong grip of evil. Habits of life, habits of mind, habits of feeling, are not changed in a day. Let him turn, then, not only from the darkness to the light, but also from the authority of Satan unto God. There is a Stronger than the strong man armed. III. THE ULTIMATE OBJECT OF THE WORK IS THAT MEN MAY TURN TO GOD SO THAT THEY MAY RECEIVE — 1. Forgiveness of sins. I know how lightly sin can sit upon the conscience of a transgressor. He has only to keep out of the light, and he may travel smoothly enough along a considerable stage of life's journey. But let the light penetrate, let conviction come, and then see whether it is an easy thing to bear, or an easy thing to escape, that sense of sin! If it he true, as men say, that nature has no forgiveness; that the body and the life of man must still and forever be found out by iniquities long past, long repented of or forgotten; how much more does this magnify the unspeakable gift of God. He who heartily turns receives at once forgiveness, yea (for it is the very meaning of forgiveness) dismissal, of sins. Where, save in Christ, will you find this? 2. Dismissal of the past: and now an inheritance. Properly, a lot; and so an allotment; a portion falling to one by lot. It may remind us of those chapters of the Book of Joshua, in which we read of the assignment by lot to the tribes of Israel of their inheritance in the land of Canaan. And so in the Psalms, "The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground: yea, I have a goodly heritage." The inheritance itself waits to be bestowed: but there is an earnest and a foretaste of it now. 3. Who are the sanctified? The consecrated; those whom God has taken to be His own; free from the contaminations of sin, and from the profanenesses of the world. This is not an attainment of man, but a gift of God. The word denotes not those who have made themselves holy, but those whom God has set apart for Himself by anointing them, as His kings and priests, with the Holy Ghost. We all have received the sign and pledge of this in baptism: which of us has the reality of it? 4. "By faith that is in Me." He who speaks from heaven, still, even as when He spake on earth, makes faith everything. (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. |
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