This past week, Stan Rodda, our Linton Hall Campus Pastor, kicked off our “At the Movies” series with X-Men: Days of Future Pasts. He used the movie as his illustration of Redemption. In the movie, Wolverine is sent back in time to correct/redeem a mistake that was made many years earlier. If you missed it on Sunday, you can watch it below.
Stan pointed out that to redeem means: “to compensate for the faults of something or someone, to save or vindicate.”
Let’s take a few minutes now to build on that and look at Acts 9:1-22. Then answer these questions:
- Who was Saul? What was he going to do in Damascus?
- What happened to him on the way to Damascus?
- If you were Ananias, how would you have responded?
- What was God’s mission for Saul? Did Saul do what God has planned for him?
On his way to Damascus, Saul had an encounter with Jesus. Saul knew very well who Jesus Christ was, but did not believe that Jesus was the Redeemer promised by God. However, on this day, Saul saw Jesus for who He really was and he began a path that led him to be redeemed by God.
When it was all said and done Saul, who became known as Paul, was responsible for spreading the true Gospel of Jesus throughout the known world of his time. All this, from a guy who hated the followers of Christ for many years.
If Jesus can redeem Paul, how likely do you think he can redeem you?
Colossians 1:20-22 says, “And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,”