There is an Icelandair ad that started circulating this month where a rep goes to the streets of London with photos of Iceland, asking people whether the photos are AI generated or real. Go ahead and watch it, but you may end up booking a trip if you do! The punchline of the ad is that they’re all real photos; no AI. Iceland is stunningly beautiful. The ad validates the issue: we’re at a place where we can’t trust our eyes or our ears. AI has compromised our senses. We don’t know what’s true, what’s real.

In one sense, though, this isn’t new. When Jesus was explaining why he spoke in parables, he said, “Because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.” People in his day had a hard time figuring out what was true and what wasn’t.

In our passage this week, Acts 26:12-23, the Apostle Paul is giving yet another defence of the gospel before a tribunal. Leveraging his own story, he spoke of spiritual light revealing the truth that the people in darkness needed to hear. Paul, in fact, was commissioned by God 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.”

That’s the message. We need to have our eyes opened by the Holy Spirit to see the truth. It’s a critical message at a time when truth is hard to figure out.

Series: The Book of Acts

Message: 66 – Open Their Eyes

Text: Acts 26:12-23

Todd Dugard

Harvest Bible Chapel

January 25, 2026

John 20:29

When my spiritual eyes are opened…

…God stops me in my tracks (v. 12-14a)

Romans 3:10b-12

Ephesians 2:8-9

Remember, therefore, it is not your hold of Christ that saves you—it is Christ; it is not your joy in Christ that saves you—it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that is the instrument—it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to your hand with which you are grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to your hope, but to Jesus, the source of your hope; look not to your faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. We will never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul.

- Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (Morning June 28)

…speaks his word to me (v. 14b)

Goad: verb; is to provoke or compel someone to do something; eg. I goaded my friend to jump off the bridge; I goaded my wife to try sushi.

Simul justus et peccator; At the same time saint and sinner.

Hebrews 4:12-13

…revealing his Son, Jesus Christ (v. 15)

Acts 4:11-12

…and turning me around (v. 16-23)