158. Rock Goes The Gospel - BB King "I Got Some Help I Don't Need, I Believe to my Soul"

L.A. Midnight is the twentieth studio electric blues album by B. B. King released in 1972. It features two extended guitar jams with fellow guitarists Jesse Ed Davis and Joe Walsh ("Midnight" and "Lucille's Granny"). It also features Taj Mahal on harmonica and guitar. ("Can't You Hear Me Talking to You" and "I've Been Blue Too Long" respectively). "Can't You Hear Me Talking To You" also features Davis on guitar."I Got Some Help I Don't Need, I Believe to my Soul" is one of the tracks on this album. The Youtube track here is performed by BB King from his "Live in Africa 74" tour.

All of your affection is gone baby and your love is growing cold
I've said all of your affection is gone baby and your love is growing cold
Hey, I've got a new story to tell you this evening, baby
One that ain't never been told

I went to work the other day
But I thought that I would double back
And that car I saw sitting in front of my door
Looked like a brand new, a brand new Cadillac, yeah!

I ain't got none now baby
I think you've been cheating on me
I believe to my soul baby, that you've given me some outside help
That I don't think I really need

The iceman came by this morning
And you know he didn't leave no ice
The postman came by later baby
And he didn't even ring twice

I think you've been cheating on me
I think you're running out on me
I believe to my soul baby, that you've given me some outside help
That I don't think I really need

Now, I want you to tell the iceman
The next time he'd better leave some ice
And I want you to tell the postman
He'd better ring more than twice

And when I come home from work in the morning
Better still be some groceries on the shelf.
I want to tell that slick insurance man
That he'd better write some insurance on his self.

Yes, I think you've been cheating on me
I think you're running out on me
I believe to my soul baby, that you've given me some help, some help
Some help, I don't really need

This song is a song about coming to the revelation that you are being taken for a ride. It's a song that has at it core the hurt that comes from discovering and admitted to yourself that you are being taken for a mug. It's a moment of revelation. A moment of being stopped in your tracks. It's song of discovery of sorts. The reading this morning is one of discovery too, not a discovery that you have been taken for a mug, but the discovery that the truth you have been following has been false and you have had a revelation to something different. This is what is happening in the reading from Acts 9. In the reading Paul has been following what he has considered the truth only to find that he has been duped and discover that he needs to turn around. This happens by a vision on the road to Damascus.

Imagine for a moment that this is the week of Saul’s arrival at Damascus. By this time Saul has gained a reputation as the ringleader of the movement to make Christianity extinct. A devout Hellenistic Jew, of the tribe of Benjamin, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, Saul was a member of the Pharisees and was taught by none other than Gamaliel, whom we have already met (Acts 5:34-40). Saul did not agree with his teacher, Gamaliel, on how the Christians should be dealt with, however. Rather, he sought the arrest, trial, conviction, and punishment (with imprisonment the norm and death the ideal, it would seem) of those in Jerusalem. His career as a persecutor of Christians seems to have begun with Stephen, but it quickly spread to all of the Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 7:58–8:3). Saul was not content to punish some and to drive the rest from the “holy city.” He did not want to merely contain Christianity or to drive it from Jerusalem; he wanted to rid the earth of Christianity and its followers. Thus, his opposition to Christ and His church took on a “missionary” spirit. Saul went to other cities where he sought to arrest Christians and to bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. Damascus, a city some 150 miles to the northeast of Jerusalem, was one such city. Word was out that Saul would soon be arriving.

Suppose you were a Christian who had just arrived in Damascus, and you had been able to learn the whereabouts of a group of believers. Let us suppose further that the church had gathered on this particular evening for a time of prayer, prompted by the news that Saul was soon to arrive, with all the necessary legal machinery (that is, the authorization of the chief priests and the Sanhedrin) to arrest and extradite the saints who were in the city. What do you suppose the saints would have prayed at this special prayer meeting? We are given a little insight from the account in Acts 12 when Peter was imprisoned and it appeared he would soon be executed, as James had already been, and as we would infer Herod purposed to do with Peter (Acts 12:1-4). In this occasion, no one seems to have prayed for Peter’s miraculous escape. At least we can say that no one had enough faith to believe it, even as Peter stood at the door, knocking to get in (12:12-17).

I very much doubt anyone prayed that this Saul might be saved. I can believe someone might have prayed that Saul be waylaid, or “terminated,” in some divine act or providential accident (“act of God”). I can believe the saints who gathered to pray would have prayed for the protection of the church in Damascus and for the safety of individual saints, especially the leaders and the most visible Christians. No one, it would seem, was even thinking of what God was about to do. Ananias is not only surprised by his commission; he is resistant to it, at least initially.

There would likely be another group of people meeting on the evening before Saul arrived in Damascus—those who did not believe in Jesus as their Messiah, and who eagerly sought the eradication of the church in their city. Were these people as eager as Saul to destroy the church? Did they send for Saul? Or did they somewhat dread his arrival, knowing how zealous he was in his opposition to the church. If he were viewed as a reactionary, a trouble-maker, perhaps there were some unbelievers who thought Saul was too much trouble. Nevertheless, there must have been those who intended to use Saul’s coming to oppose the church. They may have been attempting to compile a list of known (and even suspected) Christians, along with addresses, to facilitate Saul’s task.

What a shock Saul’s conversion must have been to both groups! To the church, Saul turned out to be a friend, a fellow-believer, in fact, a flaming evangelist, who proclaimed Christ more clearly and powerfully than anyone had previously done in Damascus. The church did not shrink or suffer for Saul’s arrival, but it grew because of it. And the second group, who were waiting for Saul to come and help them deal with the followers of “the Way,” were about to discover that Saul had joined them, perhaps bringing other members of the opposition along with him. Did they think their task would be a simple one? They found that their cause was literally shut down by Saul’s arrival, and the wind was taken out of their sails by his conversion. What can you say about Christianity when its most outspoken and zealous opponent suddenly claims to have seen the risen Christ, and to have trusted in Him as the Messiah?

The importance of Saul’s conversion can hardly be overestimated. Three times in the Book of Acts it is reported, the first time in the third person (“he”) by Luke (Acts 9:1-31), the second time in the first person (“I”) by the apostle, as he spoke to his Jewish unbelieving brethren in defense of his ministry (Acts 22:1-21), and the third time, again in the first person, as his personal testimony to King Agrippa, Festus, and Bernice (Acts 26:1-23). This three-fold repetition is a clear indication of the importance of this event, especially in the themes Luke is seeking to develop in the Book of Acts.

It is not just in the Book of Acts that the importance of Saul’s conversion is evident. On various occasions in his epistles, Paul made either direct or indirect references to his former life of opposition and his radical conversion. Paul’s theology, his lifestyle, his ministry, and his methods all are rooted in his conversion. This text portrays one of the historical landmarks of the church when Saul became Paul and he believed to his soul.