DEALING WITH YOUR FEARS
Acts 9:8-16
My brothers and sisters when you turn on your television, you will find yourself watching a variety of programs. We have Religious programs; Discovery programs; History programs. We have movies, soups and games programs. All are there because of the different taste that the TV viewers have. Now we should know that too many hours in front of the TV can rob you of your study time for Sunday School research and family devotion. Whether we like it or not TV has evolved into something that is addictive in our lives. You can take a poll, and discover the ages and eras in which our congregation was reared, simply by speaking of a certain TV program or commercial. For example if I would say “You’ll wonder were the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.” Or if I would bring up Rin Tin Tin, Sky King, or the Zane Grey Theater there would a group that can identify, if Roy Rogers or Cisco Kid there is another, if I mention Ozzie and Harriet or Father Knows Best another group would raise there hands. And if I bring in The Jefferson, or Good times most likely I would get three different groups. But TV programs today are entirely different then when many of these programs were viewed. We should note that there is a lot more profanity, blood shed and sex being shown. You can even turn to the Health Channel and watch a doctor perform surgery. But the popular shows on TV today are the reality shows. There’ American Idol, and Home Make-over, the Apprentice and The Nanny just to name a few. But there is one that is really related to the subject and that is Fear Factor. Fear Factor is a program that dares it’s contestants to deal with known and unknown fears. They eat worms and bugs, they go into snake pits and they try anything that could be a person’ fear. And the person that can push themselves pass their fears by doing the most or spending more time with there fears, usually end up being the winner.
As we look at this text we see two versions of fear. The first being in Saul. Who is now blind and vulnerable and is not sure of what he is to face when he gets to Damascus. The second is a disciple named Anani’as. Who is called on to go to this man named Saul. He too is not certain of what he is to face when he see this man named Saul, and although the Lord had given him his instructions, he simply have a fear that is being fed by the things that he had heard.
In the last lesson we talked about The Conversion Of A Persecutor. There we found Saul getting letters from the High Priest allowing him to go down to Damascus to again intimidate and apprehend yet more followers of the Way. But something happened on the road to Damascus that would change Saul forever. He met the very One that he had been persecuting, Jesus Christ, The Righteous Lamb of God. It was on this road that his life would change from an arrogant, murdering keeper of the law, to the making of a powerful champion for Jesus Christ. It was also on this road that he for the first time in verse 6 will call Jesus Lord (Adonai). I tell you the man’ life was changed forever.
In this lesson we see Saul being picked up from the ground, and when he opened his eyes, he discovered that he could see no man. So they took this once proud determined Pharisee by the hand and led him like a child into Damascus. And for three days he was blind and did not eat nor drink anything. In fact verse 11 lets us know that he was spending much of his time in prayer. The New Living Translation says that the Lord said “he is praying to me right now.” But Saul is not the central focal point of this lesson. That honor belongs to Ananias. While the Lord is working on Saul. We find one of the Lord’s disciples needing a little work. Ananias is a Disciple with a fear. He must have misunderstood the Lord when He told him that Saul was praying to him. Maybe he thought that the Lord said that he was preying [p-r-e-y-i-n-g] on Him. Evidently, Ananias believed everything that he had heard about Saul. And he had every good reason to believe it because most of it was true. But Ananias had the fault that many Christians have today. They believe in what they hear more then they believe what our Sovereign God is telling us. Yes, Saul persecuted the Christians. Yes, he intimidated them and put them in prison. He even consented to have Stephen stoned. But we should realize that we should not fear them who can destroy the body, but we should learn to fear the One who can destroy both body and soul (Matt. 10:28).
So let’s take a look at Ananias’ fears and maybe we can learn how to deal with our own.
First of all in verses 13...
1. HE BELIEVED WHAT HE HEARD (vv. 13) “Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem;”
The Lord had spoken to Ananias in a vision. He had given him instructions to go down to a street called Straight to the house of Judas and enquire about Saul of Tarsus. Now the reasons were clear. (1) Because he was praying. (2) Because the Lord had showed Saul in a vision that Anani’as was coming to him to lay his hands upon him so that he could receive his sight. But instead of Ananias following the instructions as given, he is found telling the Lord about what he had heard others saying about Saul. And we must admit that what they were saying was true. But that was before Saul’s Damascus road experience. Now grant it that Ananias did not know about Saul’s Damascus road experience. But isn’t it amazing that he heard that Saul was coming with letters to apprehend the brethren, but didn’t hear of the conversion. It goes to prove, even during those times that bad news traveled faster than good news. But instead, Ananias tried to hide behind what he had heard instead of having enough faith in what the Lord was saying in the vision. We too have that problem. The Lord would be directing us to someone that had been hard to convince that He is Lord and instead of us following the Lord’ lead, we would say to Him, “Lord, they say that he is the worst of the sinners.” That is a classic example of hiding behind what you heard, some of us act as if it is easier to believe the crowd, than to believe what the Lord is saying. You see we have to understand that God is all knowing, that is He knew everything before we knew anything.
Secondly, verse 14 showed that...
2. HE FEARED THE DOCUMENT THAT SAUL HAD IN HIS HANDS (V.14)
“And here he hath authority from the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name.”
In this text we find Ananias continuing to share with the Lord the many things he heard and is found putting credence into the law of man. Now we should realize that Ananias was a Disciple of the most High God and his fears had caused him to put too much confidence in what Saul could do with what he had. They were authorization letters from the high priest to allow him go into Damascus and to apprehend the brethren. Not only did Ananias fear Saul but he also respected greatly the people he represented. He knew what they could do to a follower of Christ. He also knew what they had done to the Master and if they would do that to Him, he really knew what they could do to him. So his fear was two fold. (1) Because he was afraid of Saul’s reputation and (2) because he was also afraid of the high priest and theirs. Now we shouldn’t be to hard on Ananias because there are some Sauls and high priest in our lives. There are the Sauls that intimidate us simply by their reputations, and there are high priest that threaten us with their words. But we should remember that we are the people of the most High God, and we must understand that people can intimidate His Church and threaten His Church but they cannot stop His Church. So Ananias feared what Saul could do with what he had in his hands.
Finally, if we are going to deal with our fears, then verse 15...
3. ASSURES US THAT OUR LORD IS ALWAYS IN CONTROL.
(V.15).
“But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel;”
Regardless of what people think of us and how they treat us, we must understand that the Lord is in control. Instead of us believing that our God is sovereign, we allow our fears to cast a shadow on our faith in Him. You see in God’s sovereignness, God can do what ever He wants to do, when ever He want to. Things and situations are not in our control but the Lord’s. Saul thought that he and the Pharisees were the ruling powers other than their God, and they thought that they were doing the will of God. But they fell to realize that without the Son they can not come to the Father. Up to this point the Lord allowed Saul to think just that. But now thing have changed. No longer will their intimidation be tolerated. No longer will they be looked upon as the ruling authority of the land.
In the text the Lord said to Ananias “Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me.” In this sentence Ananias should have realized that the Lord Jesus and Jesus alone was in complete control. He should have understood that before he got to this point, because verse 10 let’ us know that Ananias knew his Lord’s voice. He answered Him by saying I am here, Lord. I tell you many of us know the voice of the Lord and yet we still ignore what He is saying. He’ll say go witness, and we would just pass out a track. He would say mend a broken relationships, and you would say that you would forgive, but you will not forget. I appears that His will becomes one point of two wills. Our’ and His. You see His will to many is considered as a will of convenience. When He instruct us to do something that is in His will, we usually have an excuse not to do it. So, Ananias knew the Lord’s voice but he acted as if he did not what to do the Lord’ will. But look what the Lord had to tell him in order for him to move in verse 15. He said, “Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel;”
If you would note that the Lord did not share His strategy for Saul in order to conquer the fears in Ananias. Note that He did not tell Ananias to tell Saul all that He had planned. That would have been too much too soon for the blinded Saul. We should know that the Lord seldom gives us our life plan all at once. He gives us just enough to help us set our long-range goals in Him and then walk in obedience each day.
CONLUSION
Well as I take my seat. I hope we’ve learned that we need to put our complete trust in Jesus. We don’t have a problem recognizing His voice, but from time to time we have a problem doing His will. And the reason we have a problem is because from time to time we are afraid to do the hard things for the Lord.
But we must learn from a converted Saul whose name will be changed to Paul. He said in Romans 8:31, What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
