The “Light Bulb” Experience

Posted by David on April 25, 1999 under Sermons

This morning I want to begin by asking two questions. They are easy questions. They will not make you feel uncomfortable or embarrass you. I want you to answer each question by holding up your hand.

If you have ever taught a class of any kind, you have been a teacher. Question number one: how many of you have ever been a teacher? All of you who have taught a class, please hold up your hand. (Pause for response.) Thank you!

If you have been a teacher, you taught at least one student “who just did not get it.” This student was not stupid, or dumb, or lacking in basic intelligence. He or she simply did not understand what you were trying to teach. Having been that student too many times, I have great empathy for students “who just do not get it.”

Everyone of us has been a student. Everyone of us has been taught by a teacher. Question number two: when I ask who was your favorite teacher, how many of you can remember a specific person who was a favorite teacher? If you can remember a favorite teacher, hold up you hand. (Pause for response.) Thank you!

A teacher becomes a favorite teacher for many reasons. Commonly, all those reasons are connected to one basic truth. A favorite teacher is a teacher who helped you understand things that you had difficulty understanding.

Both those questions involve the “light bulb experience.” The “light bulb experience” is that moment when I see things that I never saw before. Because I see, I understand.

When you are a Christian, you allow God to lead you from one “light bulb experience” to another. As long as a person follows God, he continues to have “light bulb” experiences.

Isaiah 42:6-9 “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon And those who dwell in darkness from the prison. “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images. “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)

1. “David, can you show me a specific example of a real person for whom God ‘turned the light bulbs on’?” I surely can.
   1. There once was a man who was a major Bible scholar, who was one of the most devout, conscientious people to follow God (Galatians 1:14).
      1. This man’s Bible teacher was the greatest scholar of his day (Acts 22:3).
      2. This man was a member of a religious group known for its devotion to the authority of Bible (Acts 26:5; 23:6).
      3. To use our terminology, this man could quote book, chapter, and verse with the best of them–his knowledge of scripture was astounding.
   2. BUT, while he had an incredible knowledge of scripture, he did not correctly understand what he knew.
      1. He believed that Israel and only Israel was God’s people.
      2. He believed that Jesus was a fraud, a false prophet, and a terrible threat to God’s true purposes; he certainly did not believe that Jesus was the Christ.
      3. In his knowledge of scripture this man was so certain that Christians were God’s enemies that he arrested and voted to kill Christians in the absolute confidence that he was accomplishing God’s purposes (Acts 26:9-11).
   3. In fact, this man was traveling to another country to arrest Jews who believed in Christ and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial when he had his “light bulb experience (Acts 9:1-9).
      1. That literally is when Paul was struck to the ground by a light that was more brilliant than the noon sun.
      2. The resurrected Jesus spoke directly, personally to Paul.
      3. After three days of praying and fasting, this enemy of Christians was baptized to be a Christian (Acts 22:14-16).
   4. From that moment, his understanding of his knowledge changed 180 degrees.
      1. He did not receive new knowledge; he was the same scholar after the experience that he was before the experience.
      2. It was not new knowledge that totally turned Paul’s life around; it was a new understanding of what he knew.
      3. When Paul had his “light bulb experience,” do you know what Jesus told him?
         1. Acts 26:16-18 But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish 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 dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’ (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
         2. Before this experience, Paul would never teach that Jesus was the Christ.
         3. Before this experience, Paul would never go to Gentiles, non-Jews, to teach them.
         4. And what did Jesus send him to do?
            1. To open their eyes so that they could turn from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to God.
            2. To open their eyes so that they could receive forgiveness of sins and the inheritance of those sanctified by faith in Jesus.
      4. Is it surprising when Paul the Christian wrote a prayer to the Ephesian Christians, he prayed, [Ephesians 1:18] “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
2. Did Paul really come to a new understanding of his knowledge?
   1. Allow the book of Romans to illustrate the “light bulb experience.”
      1. In Romans 1:16,17 Paul the Christian wrote, “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 to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
         1. Before Paul had his eyes opened, he declared that the law was the power of God to save.
         2. After Paul’s eyes were opened he declared that the gospel was God’s power to save.
         3. Before Paul had his eyes opened, he declared that salvation is found among the Jews.
         4. After his eyes were opened, he declared that God extends salvation to people who are not Jews.
         5. Before his eyes were opened, Paul would not have used Habakkuk 2:4 to prove that a righteous man lives by faith.
      2. In Romans 4:3 Paul wrote, “For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
         1. Before Paul had his eyes opened, Paul declared that God made a person righteous through Jewish ritual circumcision and obedience to the law.
         2. After Paul had his eyes opened, Paul declared that God always had looked on a person as being righteous because of the person’s faith.
         3. Before his eyes were opened, Paul would not have used Genesis 15:6 to prove that truth.
      3. In Romans 4:7,8 Paul wrote, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” (The New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, La Habra, California: The Lockman Foundation, 1996.)
         1. Before Paul had his eyes opened, he declared if you disobey the law you paid the consequences.
         2. After he had his eyes opened, Paul declared that a form of divine forgiveness not only forgave, but it covered sins because God would not take a person’s sins into account.
         3. Before his eyes were opened, Paul would not have used Psalms 32:1,2 to prove that truth.
      4. One major argument the Jewish people made against Christianity was that salvation by faith was unfair to God’s chosen people.
         1. In Romans 9:6-13 Paul explained that salvation by faith is an act of the sovereign God.
         2. As proof Paul cited the fact that God decided to work through Jacob instead of Esau before those twins were born.
         3. God is sovereign; He can do what He chooses to do.
         4. Before he had his eyes opened, Paul would not have used Jacob and Esau to prove God’s sovereignty.
3. God is the God who sees–everything.
   1. For example, God knows everything about each one of us.
      1. Jesus said that He knows how many hairs we have on our heads.
      2. He knows every weakness, flaw, evil desire, wrong motive, failure, mistake, and undesirable fact about everyone of us.
      3. And knowing all that, He still loves each one of us, still has compassion for each one of us, and still extends mercy and forgiveness to each one of us.
   2. When we let God open our eyes, we begin to see people as God sees people.
      1. With all their flaws and failures? No.
      2. With love, compassion, mercy, and forgiveness.
   3. This world is filled with people who hate and in their hatred destroy people.
      1. Kosovo is just one example of people hating people.
      2. Often if you trace hatreds to their roots, the tap root is religion.
      3. Too often one religion that created and sustains hatred is Christianity.
      4. I understand that the present violence is a product of atheistic communism.
      5. However, in the Kosovo tragedy, guess who received Christian teachings? The Serbs.
      6. The hate began more than 600 years ago when those who worshipped Allah invaded those who worshipped Jesus.
   4. Tears come to my eyes.
      1. When I see the refuges flooding out of Kosovo, tears come to my eyes.
      2. When I hear from Christian brothers and sisters in Serbia living in terror of the bombs, tears come to my eyes.
      3. When hatred rules, we desperately need something beyond a military solution or a political solution; they don’t work; they never have worked.
      4. What we need are “opened eyes,” “light bulb experiences.”

Prayer: God open the eyes of our hearts. Help us see with Your eyes. Once we let You change our world in sixty years by opening eyes.

Have you had Paul’s “light bulb experience”? “Light bulb experiences” do more than change lives. They change families. They change communities. They change nations. They change the world.

Through “light bulb experiences,” we understand. We understand what we always knew. Knowledge changes your life just a little. Understanding turns your life upside down.