“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 26:18
I love those words. Acts 26:18 is Paul doing what he does numerous times throughout Acts, is he’s being tried and accused, and he’s basically sharing his testimony about when he encountered Jesus. And so this is Jesus speaking to Paul here as Paul’s recounting it, how Paul said, “I’m appointing you to go and to preach the gospel to the Gentiles to open their eyes so they might turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. They may receive the forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
Lord help us to play our role in You opening the eyes of the lost and bringing them out of darkness into the light.
Now, obviously, Paul is sharing his testimony here. It’s unique in the sense that God was calling him a certain way to the Gentiles. However the picture in a sense is the same for all of us who are in Christ, right? We have been sent by Jesus, every single follower of Christ, sent by Jesus, empowered by His spirit to share the gospel so that Jesus might open eyes to see salvation in Him, so that people might turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God.
We get to do this. Get to share the gospel in a way that God opens eyes, brings people from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, and they receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus. Jesus has called us all to do this. He’s empowered us all to do this. He’s commissioned all of us to do this.
This Verse Asks Us To Share The News Of Jesus
So let’s do this. Think about we get to do this. We get to share the good news of God’s love for people who are on a road that leads to an eternal Hell. We get to share the good news. Get to speak the good news of God’s love in Jesus in such a way that God will. So as we speak, supernaturally open eyes, will bring people from darkness to light, to bring people from the power of Satan to the power of God, to receive forgiveness of sins, to be sanctified by faith in Him.
Oh God, we pray that You would help us to do this today, tomorrow, God, even right now. We pray that you would bring to my mind, our minds, people in our lives whose eyes are not opened to the beauty of Jesus right now, who are living in darkness, away from light, and who have not received forgiveness of their sins.
So, God, we pray, we pray that you would help us to share this good news today, tomorrow with somebody, one of these people you’re bringing to our mind right now. And God, we ask that You would do this work as we do what You’ve called us to do, that you would open eyes. God, please open eyes. Supernaturally open eyes. Bring people from darkness to light, we pray, from the power of Satan to You. So that they might receive forgiveness of sins, be sanctified through faith in Jesus. So God, please may it be so. May it be so among people right around us.
Acts 26:18 Prays For The Hausa People
And then God, far from us, God, we pray for the Hausa people in Cote d’Ivoire, over a million of them, God, Muslim Hausa, over a million of them. So few Hausa who even know the good news of Jesus, that they can be forgiven of their sins through Jesus, that they can be sanctified through faith and Jesus. God, we pray send laborers, send workers, that their eyes might be opened. Open the eyes of the Hausa. God, we pray. Open their eyes to your salvation. Bring them from darkness to light. Please bring them from the power of Satan to You. Please bring them forgiveness of sins.
Acts 26:18 Prays For The People Around Us
God, we pray for that for people right around us, coworkers, neighbors, friends, family members. So we pray that our churches, when we gather together this week. God, we pray that you would bring people from darkness to light. In fact You would open eyes as the gospel is sung and prayed and preached. That you would open eyes, that people would be saved.
And then, God, we pray for the Hausa and people groups where the gospel’s not yet gone. Please cause the gospel to go there that this eye-opening work might be done. Thank you for the privilege, God, of being a part of this supernatural eye-opening, life-changing, power-transforming work in people’s lives. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
