Resurrection Road to Life — Leonard Ravenhill

Paul's Damascus-Road Encounter With the Risen Christ

Acts of the Apostles the 26th chapter. Verse 12,. Whereupon as I went into Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday O King, I saw in the way lights from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them that journeyed with me.

And when they were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord?

And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand upon my feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.

Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which is sanctified, by faith that is in me.

Whereupon O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. That hardly sounds like an Easter morning subject. And yet the emphasis I want to put out of that amazing revelation that Paul had here is this.

I have appeared unto thee. There were many wonderful resurrections of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet in its outworking, it seems to me that this is the greatest revelation of all. He appeared unto me.

And if he appears unto us, we certainly would never be the same again. The great chapter that we have read this morning, is surely the, to some people the most marvelous chapter in the whole of the Word of God.

The Resurrection as Christianity's Foundation

Because it states, it iterates, and it reiterates the fact, that Jesus Christ the Son of God, is risen from the dead. As I've said before, the Apostle Paul builds a pyramid, fourteen epistles if you include Hebrews.

And he builds the pyramid like that, then he turns the pyramid over, and he stands it all on one fine point, and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christianity stands or falls, not through the death of Jesus, that's one half of the story.

The other half is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, because the scripture says, we're saved by his life. You know Christianity, Christianity could have been shattered in the first hour. There was no need to corrupt men that were already corrupted, and make greater liars out of men who were already liars, and bribe men who had been already bribed.

There's a very simple solution. Men have used mountains of paper, and rivers of ink, to write against the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. One of the greatest was Strauss, the great German rationalist.

And yet he did admit this, he said, the core of the core of Christianity, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Sir Ambrose Fleming, the great scientist, said of the resurrection, it's the best attested fact in history.

Our great and wonderful friend Dr Samuel Chadwick said, that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the standard miracle of the New Testament. The standard miracle of the Old Testament, was the children of Israel coming through the Red Sea.

Whenever the children of Israel began to flag, and waver, and get discouraged, they were reminded of the miracle, the supernatural operation of God, in dividing that Red Sea, as easily as you might part your hair.

But the standard miracle of the New Testament, is the mighty power of the Lord Jesus Christ, being raised from the dead. In his letter to the Ephesians, and in the first chapter, and well verse 18, we see here this, this, this, this verse, it to me, it's, it's, breathes energy, life, power, authority.

The Exceeding Greatness of Resurrection Power

He says, that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of his glory, of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the listen, the exceeding greatness of his power.

If that isn't strength on strength, what is? The exceeding greatness of his power, to us who do believe according to the working of his mighty power, when he made the world, no, when he raised Jesus from the dead, he said.

This is the exceeding greatness of his power, that's more than bringing the world into being. Because then the world wasn't encased with sin. When he made the world, it wasn't encased with devilish power.

But Jesus Christ again is in the tomb, and there's the stone, and there's the wax, and there's the seal, and there's the soldiers, and there's the sin of the world, and there's every demon against it.

And yet we see, we talk about Jesus, God being omnipotent, we talk about the super power of God. And he says that power, the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above principalities and powers.

Above this world there's a belt of iniquity. It's the authority, it's the place of Satan's power right now. The prince of the power of the air is brooding over this world, and yet Christ is above the power that broods over this world.

And yet he says that power only works, do you know how it works? By just some sovereign act of God, yes it does. But he says according to the power that worketh in us. And I don't believe the hold-up is in God, I don't believe the hold-up is in communist systems, the hold-up is in the church of the living God.

There's a bottleneck somewhere, there's something which is resisting the power of God's breakthrough. It is according to the power that worketh in us. Now I say Christianity could have been shattered in the first hour, very simply how?

The Empty Tomb and Christ's Victory Over Death

Produce the body. Produce the body of Jesus, Christianity has no hope. You think they didn't search every nick and crack in Jerusalem, to find out where the body was? I think they'd already searched. I think they tried everywhere.

And they could not find, of course they couldn't find his body. This is the union act. You remember when one man says, one man says listen Jesus Christ you better watch your step here because I'll put you to death.

I don't think Jesus smiled at that, but Jesus stood back and said, no man taketh my life from me. My life will not go till the moment he said, I will lay it down. And I will take it up. In essence come hell or high water, come sin or demons, I will lift it up.

I will raise up myself from the dead. You see this is a unique thing. No you know you say he raised up the, he raised up Lazarus from the dead, he raised up his daughter. No, no, no, no, no listen. They were all raised up by someone else's power.

He was raised up by his own power. They all died again. He didn't die again, hallelujah. Death hath no more dominion over him. Not only did they die again, but when they rose from the grave, they came out in the grave clothes.

He didn't do that, hallelujah. He didn't take the winding sheath and unwind it. He slipped out of it just like a caterpillar comes out of a cocoon and it becomes a butterfly. They saw the clothes and the napkin lying by itself.

Why? Because Jesus was always tidy. I hope you are, but Jesus was always tidy. And he folded his napkin always the same way, like my daddy did. We didn't have these paper napkins when we were home. We had linen napkins and after dinner we we would take our napkins.

I didn't always fold mine right, I'm sure. But my father used to fold his exactly with the initial at the top, so you knew Walter Ravenhill sat there. He put his napkin there at the side of his plate.

And Jesus shows order here. He doesn't need anybody to. How do you liberate, how do you liberate resurrection life? He has dominion over everything. Even the clothes he gets out of them. Lazarus came out shuffling.

He was alive but he was still bound hand and foot like most Christians. They're alive but bound. Bound by tradition, bound by fear, bound by theological precepts. Jesus Christ here the Son of God comes forth in great power.

I like the statement I just made, I've quoted there. I think I've quoted it every resurrection morning for 40 years. Today he rose and left the dead and Satan's empire fell. The only people that have got over the shock are the Christians.

The devil hasn't because he's still fighting. We're the ones that somehow can take this super miracle of miracles and just walk away from it as though it's nothing in the world. There is nothing to equal this in any religion in the world.

Brother this is the unique thing about Christianity and Paul he's not afraid to gamble on this. He predicts or predicates everything on the resurrection. Listen, listen to this I'll read it for you and, and, and gulp over it if you like.

But he says if Christ is not risen, number one our preaching is vain. Well that's a terrible thing. Number two your faith is vain. Number three we're false witnesses. Number four if Christ died, if the dead raised not, then it's Christ not raised.

And if Christ be not raised your faith is vain. Oh that's bad but this is worse. If Christ is not risen we're still in our sins. If Christ is not risen then all who fall asleep in Christ have perished.

But oh that lovely verse again, my sin all the bliss of this glorious thought. Now I'm glad didn't Jesus didn't do half a job. He did a complete job. He took our sins and our sin in his body on the tree.

Saul's Conversion: From Persecutor to Apostle

And Paul has this amazing encounter on the Damascus road. The first thing Jesus did was say to him rise and stand upon my feet. Well isn't that what he does to everybody, put us on our feet if we really get into a relationship with him.

On that Damascus road you remember that Paul was going down there and he had a thing in his pocket which a cult they called a toga. And in it he carried credentials the death sentence of the early church.

It was signed and validated that he had authority to put to death everybody who named the name of Jesus. Isn't that ironic? No it's beautiful. That the man who was going to put Christianity to death became the most superb example of the grace of God.

He's going down down the Damascus road breathing out threatenings. He's going to leave a trail of blood. He's going to be a modern Hitler and leave a bloody trail of massacre. Why Jesus was hardly out of his mother's womb before Herod designed to put him to death.

You find the same thing in the in the life of Moses. But Moses was hardly born when they ordered a massacre. You know there's nothing that's really born alive that the devil doesn't hate. I don't care whether it's a fellowship.

I don't care whether it's a person. If it's designed for the glory of God and it has this the birth marks of being really mighty in God. He's going to be after it. He's going to pursue it. He's going to try and put it to death.

And so there the apostle Paul just as Herod was going to kill the early church. The apostle Paul was going to kill the pardon me as Herod was going to kill the infant Christ. Saul was going to kill the infant church.

You know I make mistakes. I guess you didn't know that. But I do sometimes. And I've often said you know that Jesus never appeared to anybody on the Damascus upon me. He never appeared to anybody outside of the inner circle.

He appeared to his disciples. He appeared on the Emmaus road. He appeared to the twelve. He appeared to the woman there at the sepulcher. But he never went to anyone ungodly except one. I think this kind of staggered the apostle Paul for the rest of his life.

He says he appeared to me. I can almost hear him saying under his breath, my God, my God, my God. I was going to destroy everything he had. Isn't this love so amazing, so divine? That he takes a man with the death sentence of the church and breeding out threatenings.

And he says that's the very man I want. God does strange things. Aren't you glad he doesn't have a committee? We'd all give him our marvelous advice and mess him up. When he wanted to shake the Roman church, what did he do?

Find a brilliant theologian outside. No he found a man right dead in the center that knew every answer. He found a wonderful Luther. When he wanted to shake the church of England which was dead and decaying in deism, what did he do?

He found a man right from the center by the name of John Wesley. Time and again he's found a man. Why one of the startling things I learned not too long ago is one of those Manson men, one of the worst men with Manson got marvelously saved in jail.

And he's the assistant chaplain in jail now. The man that went running with blood. Doped and drunk and devilish. And God reaches down into a hellhole like a jail that's full of filth and every despicable thing you can.

It's still true what said by the prophet in the first of Samuel. He lifts the beggar from the dunghill and makes him a prince unto God. He took a swearing blaspheming tinker that was going down the road staggering and in those days women made their bread you know and they put the bread by the fire and they were sitting in the sunshine.

And one of them began to talk about being born again and poor old drunken immoral debauched little fellow went past and he listened. And when he heard them he thought that that's a strange thing that a man can be born again.

It wasn't a mighty sermon that moved Bunyan it was a testimony of two women. And John Bunyan was redeemed by the grace of God. We're just celebrating the 300th anniversary of his book which has been published more than any other book in history apart from the Bible itself.

The Resurrection as Personal New Birth

But you see this man is all excited about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's unique it's startling. He's standing here before a heathen king, a gripper. The first king of Israel was Saul the last king was a gripper a Jew.

He knew all the answers. Paul says to him a king a gripper do you understand this? And before he can answer he says I know that you understand otherwise you have no excuse. And he says in the 8th verse why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?

You see the resurrection is not just a part of my theology the resurrection is a person. Again Jesus says let's go to the grave and raise your brother. And Martha says well I know my brother's going to rise at the last day.

I believe in the resurrection I'm fundamental. I wonder she didn't fall in a faint when he looked at her and he said I am the resurrection. Isn't that beautiful? That's why I laugh when that old bachelor he's been sick this week that old bachelor in Rome says that he has the keys.

He's a liar he doesn't. Jesus says I am he that liveth and you see with all the testimony that you have there the most effective witness is the man himself. And he stands at the end of the line in revelation he says listen I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and of hell.

The pope hasn't got them they have some old plastic things somebody gave him but the real golden keys of death and of hell Jesus Christ has them. Why because he rose and he led captivity. Captivity gave gifts unto men.

Oh that we could explore what Lowry calls the possibilities of grace. Oh that again the church had its apostles and prophets and evangelists and teachers and every other gift you like. But we need these ministry gifts right now to shake a sleepy indolent careless church.

The house of God needs to become more magnetic and more magnetic than any other place on God's earth. And sure it would be if he had all his way and if he had his resurrection power. You see this man believes in the resurrection.

Why because he'd been raised from the dead. You say not yet not when he stood before it. Oh yes he had. You hath he quickened to a dead in trespasses. He wasn't a bad man he was a dead man. There's many a man is not bad he's more sans than to dissipate his body and ruin his brain and take some stinking vile drugs.

He's a good man but he's not a born-again man. He's not a bad man he's a dead man. You remember what Jesus says he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me he is brother Joe. Not he's going to do he has passed from death unto life.

So this man knows there are three deaths. Dead in trespasses and in sin. A death which I may have to have or you may have to have when we pass. Ah but there's another death there is another death. We don't preach about it hardly.

The Word of God says there is a second death. You see hell is God's eternal graveyard for those who are dead in trespasses and in sin and unrepentant and rebellious. Death is a cessation of life. Death is separation.

And the Apostle here says you know what this amazing Christ the Son of God he's already raised me from the dead. Do you think there ever was a conversion like this? I don't. Jesus says rise and stand upon my feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose.

The Calling of a Minister and Witness

To make thee a minister and only God in heaven can do that. You can send somebody a Bible school you can train them through seminary but if God hasn't called them they're in bad shape. Wasn't it the Word of Jesus when he said to those disciples here you follow me and I will make you.

And he says to this man listen don't just look at what you've got listen it's not what the clay has it's what the potter can do with that clay. And therefore he says I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister and a witness.

There's many a minister who isn't a witness and there's many a witness who isn't a minister. But unless the miracle has worked in us we've no right to declare what God can do. And this is why Paul is so confident.

You see you can bring in any any exhibit of twisted, dwarfed, perverted morality and he says well that's not difficult for God to do. And you say why not? Well he says I once had an encounter with a man called Jesus and at that time I happened to be the chief of sinners.

We'd have thought he was the best model man in the world. He's a super edition of Nicodemus almost. He's a scholar and a gentleman, impeccable morality, a great mind, a Pharisee of a Pharisee. He was a Pharisee, his father was a Pharisee, he inherited many great things.

And yet he says I'm the chief of sinners. Why? Because I rebelled against the Son of God, that's why. The greatest sin is not drunkenness and immorality, sexual immorality, bad as they are. The greatest thing is to rebel against God.

And he says I rebelled against him but he loved me and he gave himself for me. I've appeared unto thee to be a minister and a witness both of the things which thou hast seen and of those things in which I will appear unto thee.

You know that kind of sense my mind going a thousand different ways. Here is a man, he isn't in an ecclesiastical building, I think he was thrown from his horse. He was never going to get, do that long journey.

Walking would be impossible. And God pitched him off that horse, threw him down in the dust. And he says I've appeared that you may be a minister and a witness only of the things which thou hast seen.

Well he'd just seen Jesus Christ. I have appeared unto thee. This vision never dimmed. Somewhere there or when he was back there in the wilderness, for three and a half years. I believe that Paul entered into a marriage contract with Jesus.

And he never got divorced. I believe he came, became a love slave and he never deviated. However big the burden, however hard the burdens were. Man, this man's life is a pageant of triumph. It's a pageant of misery in one sense.

He spends more time in prisons than palaces. He's persecuted of his brethren, he's persecuted. He says I'm persecuted, persecuted. It doesn't say whimpering, he says it rejoiced, joyfully. He says everything that Satan has he's tried out on me and he hasn't won yet.

And then if you think he hasn't got a sense of humor, he says well I've tribulation, distress, famine, peril, nakedness, sword, imperils of the deep, imperils of mine own countrymen. And he says and anything else the devil wants to bring okay.

And I want to tell you I write it off. If this isn't humor, what in the world is? When the devil is exhausted and put every burden and tried to break his body and break his spirit. He just stands back and says you know our light affliction which is but for a moment, light affliction for a moment.

Man, you've been in misery ever since you were saved almost. You spent 36 hours in the deep without any lunch, without a cup of coffee or anything. Hanging on a piece of wood 36 hours in the Mediterranean, think of it.

You took your shirt off, they not only took your, you not only lost your shirt, you lost the skin off your back. They ploughed your back like a field. And weariness and painfulness and fastings and hardship.

And then his revival party broke up. They said well we knew it was a bit strange but you know this man seems to have more fanaticism than faith anyhow. And we're not putting up with it. So everybody left him.

That's a blessed thing. That's a blessed thing. A man wrote me this week and he said you know I'm getting more and more doors open for ministry. And I thought brother you must be failing. John Wesley preached 600 sermons.

The last 600 he preached, he preached the 30 ,000 I think. But out of the last 600 he preached, he preached only six inside of a building. He preached the others in the street. Nobody wanted him. And the Apostle Paul was ostracized and victimized and penalized.

A night and a day in the deep. His back is ploughed, he's tied to a whipping post. He receives 49, what 40 stripes save one, five times. Five fours is what? That's 200 minus five because it was five 39s.

Well that's pretty rough going. I'd settle for nine any time, rather than 39. And he knows the agony, he knows the brutality of it. And it happens and it happens and it happens. And he says Lord Jesus I ask you one day I could fill up the sufferings of Christ.

I told you I wanted to be like you. And everybody deserted you and everybody failed you. Demas has forsaken me loving this present world. Somebody else has gone with him. But he says so sweetly you know and everybody else failed me, the Lord stood by me.

Isn't that lovely? Hmm. Oh you nod your head now, so will I, but wait till it starts happening. And you lose everything and feel you've lost your shirt. And then you lose the skin off your back. I don't read anybody send him a letter to jail while he was there or send him even a sack of food.

And yet you can't get him to whimper or to whine. Why? Well he says you see Jesus says to me you preach those things which you've seen. Now you've seen me. And again a statement I love I said often to myself, never mind to you.

A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. I met him, I saw Jesus face to face. You saw him on the cross, you saw him on some other road. I met him face to face on that Damascus Road.

And he says go preach the things which you've seen. And not only the things that you've seen he says, but those in which I will appear unto thee. By that gives a lot of room for imagination doesn't it?

The things that will appear unto thee. You know I was going to say that means that when he was caught up in the third heaven and he had a revelation that may be equal or surpassed even the revelation John had.

And then I thought no I won't be telling you the truth. Those were not the things, because immediately he saw that glory the Lord said you never open your mouth about it. So it couldn't be the things he was going to see in that revelation.

That particular revelation when he was caught up into the third heaven. But it should, it must have been the unfolding of the mysteries of the grace of God. All right delivering from thee from the Gentiles.

And to whom now I send thee to open their eyes. This is the work of the ministry. To open their eyes. To turn them from darkness to light. From the power of Satan unto God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins.

And an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Now there's a program for you. I think every preacher ought to read that every week. I think it ought to be compulsory reading in Bible schools and seminaries.

This is what the ministry is. First you've delivered from people whether they're good or bad. Whether they like you or they don't. You've just got to deliver that which God has given unto you. And be delivered from the people.

And the Gentiles who are their enemies. To whom now I send thee. And this is my work now. Your work is to open their eyes. To turn them from darkness to light. And from the power of Satan unto God. I'll hear it.

Where is he? Right now he's in front of Agrippa. In the 24th chapter he's in front of Felix another king. Now look if a man is in chains made of solid gold, is he still a captive? I'm told that gold is heavier even than iron.

It is the heaviest metal. And here is a man sitting in splendor. As in the case of Felix he's sitting with all his retinue of servants and all the distinguished company. And yet you see Paul sees through that facade.

He sees through all the glitter. He sees through the gold. He sees through all the show as it were. And he sees a man on a throne with a crown. But he's crippled. He's destitute of God. He has a temporary kingdom.

But he's ruled. He's not a ruler. He's ruled by the powers of darkness. The same is here when he stands before Agrippa. You see nobody, nobody in my judgment has ever had the vision the Apostle Paul had.

I like this little poem. It's difficult to get. But if you see it, buy it. It's worth a hundred dollars. It's worth a thousand to me. It's Saint Paul written by FWH Myers. And he gives you an idea of this man.

Once God has bound him to himself. Let me use the words of Jesus. Come and I'll put my yoke upon you. And then we walk step by step. I'll carry the load, you carry the load. I'll give my burden, I'll share your burden.

I'll give you my vision, I'll give you my passion, I'll give you my power. And FW Myers has Paul saying this, about his preaching. Oft when the word is on me to deliver, lifts the illusion and the truth lies bare.

Desert or throng, the city or the river, in a lucid paradise of air. Now look, he's looking at Agrippa here. Or he turns and he looks to the Gentiles. Or he looks at the Greeks, lost in their wisdom. The Jews lost in their religion.

Other people lost in their power, the Romans. And he says, only like souls I seek the folk there, I see the folk there under. Bound who should conquer, slaves who should be kings. Hearing their one hope with an empty wonder.

Sadly contented with a show of things. Then he says, with a rush the intolerable craving shivers throughout me like a thunder roll. All to save these, to perish for their saving. To die for their life, be offered for them all.

Therefore O Lord I will not fail or falter. Nay but I ask it, nay but I desire. Lay on my lips, thine embers of the altar. Seal with the sting and furnish with the fire. Give me a voice, a cry and a complaining.

Or let my sound be stormy in their ears. Throat that would shout, that cannot stay for straining. Eyes that would weep, that cannot stay for tears. Quick, in a moment, infinite forever. Send an arousal better than I pray.

Give me a grace upon the faint endeavour, souls for my hire. And Pentecost today, whoso hath felt the spirit of the highest, cannot confound, nor doubt him, nor deny. Yea with one voice, O world but thou deniest.

Stand thou on that side, for on his side am I. He never got confused on which side he was. I can't find in all his writings one single trace of his back sliding. He sees men bound, he must get them free.

He see men diseased in sin, they must be healed. They're lost, they must be found. When I think of this man, a veteran may be right at this time, or at least a little later. But when I, at least in the case of the poem, it's speaking of his maturity.

But you know when I see a man with passion and fervour like that, I have to, I have to level that great Apostle Paul. And I have to bring a little American that died at 28 years of age, burned his life out for the Indians.

And David Brainerd says, does it matter how I live? Does it matter where I live if men are lost? If this book is right? Can I conserve my life? Can I withhold anything? Can I withdraw anything? Can I try and moderate it?

Let others do it if they will, I cannot do it. And Paul says, there is a passion in me. I forget who wrote the verse for the moment, but he says, all for a passionate passion for souls. All for a pity that yearns.

All for a love that loves unto death. All for a fire that burns. All for a prayer power that prevails to pour itself out for the lost. Victorious prayer in the conqueror's name. All for a Pentecost. I admire Paul.

I admire his pedigree. I admire his morality. I admire his scholarship. But most of all I admire and I covet the fervour, the fire and the faith that this precious man had. Let me get to this for a few minutes here.

The Urgency of Evangelistic Preaching

He says, your business then is to go forward to all people, high, low, rich, poor, known or unknown. And your job is to open their eyes. Well we don't see people blind usually do we? We say, that man's smart, she's smart.

And yet every man outside of the grace of God is blind. They're blind to eternal truth. Well what are dangers? Well if a man is blind, he can get nearer to the precipice and he's only one step to go and you snatch him away from that.

That world out there has no idea that it's walking to a precipice of eternal darkness. Paul doesn't see men in their slavery merely. He sees them in their spiritual misery. He doesn't see them merely bound now.

He says they're going to be bound for eternity. They're not blind now, they're going to be blind for eternity as it were. The man who is blind doesn't know how near to the edge of the precipice he is.

He was said of the greatest perhaps evangelist England ever had. Of a man that really set fire to the nation before John Wesley and that was Whitefield. He was in a meeting and people would go hear him because of his oratory.

He had a beautiful musical voice. He was drawing crowds here by the thousands when he was still 22 years of age. The strange thing is you see he was born in a tavern and God took him right from the tavern and he mixed with all the society and semi-royalty of England.

And John Wesley was born in semi-royalty and God took him to the coal miners. Isn't God strange ways? He took the man that was used to spitting and swearing and setting with ladies with the lovely silks and gold and trimmings and he took John Wesley from scholarship and took him down to the roughest toughest men in the country at that time.

But these great meetings were attended by great people too for Whitefield. Now on one occasion he was preaching and Lord Chesterfield was in the meeting. Whitefield with his dramatic oratory and he didn't try to be dramatic.