Acts 9 - Chosen For A Purpose Series

How do you feel if someone comes up to you and say, “You’ve been chosen…” – chosen to represent the school, represent the company, or the country…

• We feel good. It is an honour to be chosen. Yet the truth is we are all chosen – chosen by Jesus to represent Him while on earth.

• The Lord says His disciples in John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last.”

We are chosen for a purpose. If you see your life that way, everything changes.

• We cannot find this purpose by looking at ourselves, or derive it from this world.

• It all begins with Jesus Christ. We are made to worship God. We are created to become like Jesus. We are shaped for serving Him.

• We are made for a mission - to introduce people to Christ and get them on this same journey.

• We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to make disciples for Christ.

(1) DISCIPLES ARE CHOSEN FOR HIS PURPOSE

Since the beginning of the book of ACTS we have been reading the exploit of the disciples of Jesus.

• In the last few chapters, we began to see individuals being highlighted - individuals who responded to God’s call.

• It started in Acts 6 when the deacons were elected to serve, and we read what Stephen and Philip did in the last few weeks.

God continues to make those choices in Acts 9 and 10.

• Jesus confronted Saul and ‘grafted’ him into His Kingdom, almost by force – by the force of His grace! God enlightened him, literally and spiritually!

• And then God chose Ananias, an unknown disciple who was staying in Damascus.

• Ananias was in the right place, at the right time, to do the right thing for God, just as Philip was in Acts 8.

In ACTS 10 we see God making those choices yet again, when He called Apostle Peter to go to a Gentile’s house (Cornelius’ home).

• His family became the first Gentile (non-Jews) converts.

• We see wave after wave of the Gospel being preached, from Jerusalem to Samaria and now the regions beyond.

God is clearly at work, but what the author Luke wanted us to see, I believe, is that God works through individuals.

• God chooses His disciples. God choose them for a purpose. God choose them for HIS PURPOSE.

• We saw that in Stephen, Philip, Saul, Ananias, and Peter. God is doing the same today. He is calling us, because we are chosen for His purpose.

Do you feel unqualified? Look at SAUL. He was the most unlikely candidate. He was an enemy of God!

• It did not begin with what he has to offer; it begins with what God has to offer him - a new life.

• Offer yourself and God will make you His disciple.

You see the same picture again - who is reaching out to this man? God is.

• Who reached out to the Ethiopian eunuch? God did. Who reached out to you? God did.

• For that matter, who is reaching out to any man? God is. It’s all of God’s grace.

(2) DISCIPLES ARE THE PRODUCTS OF GOD’S GRACE

You don’t qualify to be one; you are CALLED to be one.

• God reached out to Saul and changed him! He turned His greatest enemy into His greatest advocate. He changed the greatest threat into His greatest voice.

• No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. No one can stand up to God’s grace.

God said, “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.” (Acts 9:15).

Saul was unaware of this: that he was on God’s radar screen. God wants him!

• We are all chosen BY GOD’S GRACE. The things we are called to do are different but we are all CHOSEN because of His grace.

• Ananias was a disciple staying in Damascus – he was in the right place, at the right time.

• If you are in the right place and at the right time, you may just become the right person God calls, to do the right thing for Him.

• Avail yourself and God will use you.

God’s instruction to Ananias was specific, just as He did for Philip in Acts 8.

• Acts 9:11-12 - The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”