Building
the right foundation part 17
Acts 9:10-22
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said
to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”
And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street
called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus
named Saul, for behold, he is praying,
and he has seen in a vision a man named
Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his
sight.”
But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard
from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at
Jerusalem.
And here he has authority from the chief
priests to bind all who call on your name.”
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen
instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and
the children of Israel.
For I will show him how much he must suffer
for the sake of my name.”
So Ananias departed and entered the house.
And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus
who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that
you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
And immediately something like scales fell
from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was
baptised;
and taking food, he was strengthened.
And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying,“He
is the Son of God.”
And all who heard him were amazed and said,
“Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who
called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to
bring them bound before the chief priests?”
But Saul increased all the more in strength,
and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus
was the Christ.
English
Standard Version Anglicised
****************
Saul
has had the most amazing experience on his way to Damascus, he had
met with the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ who had spoken to
him from heaven. Through this experience Saul had to recognise that
he did not know God at all. The brightness of the Light of the Lord
had left him blinded which caused the great and powerful man to be
humbled and was then led by his accomplices into Damascas. For three
days Saul was blind and he neither ate nor drank. It is after these
three days that the events in our passage take place.
Our
purpose this morning is to consider how it was that Saul the
persecutor of the church can become an accepted member of the church
in Damascus. As we shall see in the weeks to come this is only the
beginning of his being fully accepted by the church. Saul was just
about to set out on a 17 year journey to acceptability! Chapter 9 of
Acts covers this whole period of time and is quite remarkable as an
historical account. At first reading the events of the chapter seem
to flow and give the impression that they cover just a few days or
weeks but it is only when you compare Acts with scriptures in the New
Testament that the reality is fully discovered, but more of that next
time.
Today
we will consider how the church in Damascus accepted Saul into their
number. It all started with:
- An unsung hero; who was:
- Led by the Holy Spirit; which resulted in :
- Saul being accepted by the church.
Ananias
an unsung hero:
It
just so happened that Ananias was a member of the church in Damascus,
he was a disciple of Jesus who had a very important and specific job
to do. As far as I can see this is the only time that this Ananias is
mentioned in scripture; he is best known for this purpose recorded
here.
If
we stop for a moment and consider what it was that the Lord expected
him to do it was a fearful task!
Just
imagine for a moment the scene:
Ananias
as a member of the church in Damascus knew well of Saul's reputation.
They all knew of the great harm done to the church in Jerusalem. They
had heard of the great persecution that he had orchestrated and so
for anybody to have anything to do with him would be foolishness at
the very least.
They
also knew of Saul's commission. They knew that Saul was there for the
purpose of arresting all of the Christians that he could lay his
hands upon. Later on in his letter to the Galatians Paul reveals how
he had persecuted the church with great violence in his attempts to
destroy it. That reputation had gone before him and hence the church
in Damascus clearly were afraid of his arrival. Saul had the full
backing of another Ananias (and his evil High Priestly family in
Jerusalem) to be about the business of killing Christians and ridding
Judea of the followers of Jesus.
BUT
Ananias
went into the house where Saul was staying and greeted him as a
brother. Ananias really put his life on the line in doing so. We of
course know of the leading that he had received from the Spirit of
God but before we look at that we need to see that being an ordinary
believer sometimes leads us into great adventures. I have just
finished reading the 60th
anniversary edition of Brother Andrew's “God's smuggler.” In his
conclusion to the book, Brother Andrew challenges his readers that if
God can use a man such as he who had very little schooling and had a
violent past and who after his conversion did not even complete a
bible school education then He can use any one of us for what Andrew
calls the great adventure of being a Christian. Ananias' visit to
Saul of Tarsus was the beginning of an adventure that Luke would
record until the end of the book of Acts. The key player in this
adventure from this moment on is Saul who would soon become known as
Paul.
God
on that day in Damascus was clearly working out His purpose in
getting the gospel to the Gentiles. Saul of Tarsus was God's chosen
man for the task and Ananias was chosen to heroically go to Saul's
house and help him. He was to pray for him and to lay hands upon him
whereupon Saul's conversion would be completed by the infilling of
the Holy Spirit.
What
a privilege that Ananias to be a part of this!
When
he spoke to Saul, Ananias knew the purpose had for Saul. He told him
that he knew of his experience on his way into Damascus and that he
was now about to receive his sight once again which would
authenticate that this was the work of Jesus. Isaiah in chapter 35:5
of his prophecy told of the day when the work of the Messiah would be
proven by the blind seeing or the deaf hearing. Saul's sight restored
was a sign that proved to both himself and Ananias that this was a
work of God.
What
a privilege it is to see God at work!
We
can only expect to see God at work when we are faithful and bold as
was Ananias. Do not undervalue what it was that this unsung hero did,
it was like one of us going into the home of the leader of Islamic
State and speaking of Jesus to him. Saul was just as dangerous as any
other enemy of the gospel and yet Ananias went to him.
How
could that happen?
It
was because he was:
Led
by the Holy Spirit:
See
how the Holy Spirit led Ananias to go and do such an heroic thing. It
might seem obvious but firstly the Holy Spirit of God came to
Ananias. For Ananias it was by way of a dream but the more we study
scripture we find that the Holy Spirit came to various people in a
variety of ways. He always comes with a purpose which is to speak to
them and to direct them in the way that they should go. The New
Testament tells us that formerly God spoke through the prophets but
now He speaks through His Son. The scripture is the normal way that
God speaks today and so God will never instruct His people to do what
or to go where scripture forbids.
The
Holy Spirit of God on this occasion instructed Ananias to go to Saul.
His instructions were specific; Ananias was told exactly where to go
and to whom. He was also told that Saul would be expecting him
because the Holy Spirit had also spoken with Saul.
God
never works in a vacuum, as He works out His purposes He also
prepares the way for all who are involved.
Saul
was already waiting for a man called Ananias to come to him. Just
consider for a moment what would have happened if Ananias had refused
to go. God's sovereignty would have been compromised and then who
could ever trust Him again? But of course that did not happen.
We
do however see the grace of our God in this, He is not above being
questioned by His people. Ananias articulated to God the difficulties
that he had for such a commission. We have looked at them earlier and
so we now see how God dealt with them. He had already told Ananias
that Saul was praying, in other words Saul is a changed man and his
prayers were now heard and accepted by God. He is then told to
simply go to him because Saul is chosen by God and will take the
gospel to the Gentiles and also to royalty and Israel.
Saul
was to be a much better known servant than Ananias was but Ananias
was to be instrumental in Saul's commissioning.
We
also are called to be faithful to the calling of God on our lives, it
is never wrong to question God about His calling; we are not
expected to be automatons who are unquestioning, God expects us to
check out our calling but then when it is confirmed then we are to
be like Ananias who went and did exactly what God had instructed him
to do. When he did Ananias was the first Christian that Saul would
have met, he was the first to greet him as a fellow Christian and he
was the man that introduced Saul to the church.
Ananias
was immediately making a disciple of Saul, he was mentoring him by
introducing him to the company of believers. I am glad that this
account is recorded by Luke because it is a challenge for us. Do we
introduce people to the church or are we so negative towards our
brothers and sisters that we would never bring others to meet the
church and to be a part of it? Would we be as bold as was Ananias
with Saul? Are we willing to go where God directs however difficult
it might seem to be to us? We must be faithful to God's calling
otherwise we will miss out on the blessing that faithfulness brings.
I can imagine Ananias after this following closely the ministry of
Saul and being proud of being part of what God was doing through him.
Saul
was also accepted by the church in Damascus:
Luke
simply records that Saul was for some days with the disciples at
Damascus. A small statement of fact but it was massive in content.
All that Ananias had gone through in accepting Saul the whole church
now had to come to terms with. Ananias I am sure had to convince
every single believer that this was a genuine conversion and not a
deception that would bring about their annihilation. But he was
clearly successful in doing so and Saul was accepted by the church.
I
can think of few people who would be more odious than Saul of Tarsus
and yet he was embraced by the church.
How
do we accept new people, are they really welcome amongst us or do
they feel the suspicion that comes towards them from us? The church
must be a place of total acceptance for true believers and yet it is
so often by reputation a place of negativity towards one another.
Who
knows who it is that comes amongst us and what the Lord has in store
for them and through them and us together!
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