The truth is God is using you. Whether you are a Christian or not, whether you know it or not, the sovereign God of the universe knows everyone and is orchestrating everything either by intervening or by taking his hands off. He uses all human beings to fulfill His purpose. The question becomes is he using you to build his kingdom, or to hamper the building of his Kingdom by allowing you to be led by the world and Satan, or by the Spirit of God. He allows both in His church, I don’t why, but He does, and I’m sure he has a good reason.
Let’s watch the first part of our Scripture passage today from Acts chap. 9.
Saul was a very devoted religious person, and he believed he was doing a service for the true God by capturing Christians and causing strife in the early church. And we see from this event that God can and will save and use anyone to build his church. It’s never too late even for those who are farthest from God.
We also see that true encounters with God will always be dramatic, this is God, they will change you, and they may not be comfortable. Now it might not be this dramatic, but it will change you. And encounters with God including your conversion, if indeed it was a true conversion, will always put you on mission for Him. Ask yourself, since you were saved, are you on mission for Him? Or are you a part of the Christian country club?
What about this whole blinding thing? It’s obviously metaphorical (not meaning that it didn’t happen) but it’s to show that before Christ got a hold of him he was blind to the truth, and it is Christ by His Spirit, who allows us to see clearly. And he may use people in the body of Christ to help make it happen as he does here with Ananias.
Also I think everyone has something in their life that needs to be healed by God. Maybe it’s an emotional issue, maybe physical, maybe behavioural, and God will want to do this healing after our conversion, as part of the sanctification process. I believe that if we haven’t healed the issues that Jesus wants to heal in us, we will struggle to be followers of him. It’s like a marriage, all your issues will come to the surface in your marriage, and if they are not dealt with, will greatly interfere with the quality of your marriage.
The same is true with our marriage to Christ, only he doesn’t have any issues.
As soon as Saul is restored he goes on mission. He is first immediately baptized, and then he goes preaching powerfully. Remember this preaching means proclaiming, and here with all the theological training he has, he is simply proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God. All of us should be proclaiming that with our mouths whenever we can.
As we see in the last part of that video in verses 22-25, when the truth is proclaimed there will rise up people who want to refute this truth to the point of wanting to get rid of the preacher. So Paul had to escape because God wasn’t done with Him yet.
Now we know from the first chapter of his letter to the Galatians, that after this escape he spent three years in Arabia and Damascus before coming to Jerusalem. We see here that their must be a time of training after our conversion. Saul was well trained in religion prior to this, but he needed some sanctification time before he could be used to the extent that God wanted to use him.
And God will use other believers to help us heal and grow after we meet Jesus, if we let Him.
Paul himself says to Timothy that overseers in the church should not be recent converts. We sometimes wonder what recent means, but maybe here we see a possible approximate timeline. The book of Hebrews says a lot about growing in maturity as does Ephesians chapter 4.
Read vv 26-28. So another thing is that the church may have trouble accepting some new converts, especially if they have a notorious past. But we must "make disciples" regardless. We must be impartial if God puts someone in our midst and saves them, even if we’re a little afraid of them. Everybody needs a Barnabas to bring them to church.
And new converts, especially those who have had a real change of life, tend to share Christ more than older believers and those who didn’t have as dramatic a conversion experience. Big changes in a person helps our witness obviously.
Why did Saul continue to increase in strength as we read in verse 22? What is he doing?
He is proclaiming Christ as the Son of God and confounding the Jews who didn’t believe.
Christians listen please. The word is the power. Paul in 1 Cor 1, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” We can empty the word of its power by trying to put too much human ingenuity into it. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
It is the word of God that is powerful and living and active, not our programs, or eloquent sermons, or creativity, unless they are proclaiming the Word. God will surely strengthen those who proclaim Christ and his teachings.
Ok so what does verse 31 mean? Read…
Let me get back to the initial question. Can God use you, absolutely? Can Satan use you in the church? Absolutely. If you look closely at the New Testament, the Jews are still God’s people. Some of them believe in Christ as the Messiah, some don’t.
You also see that Jesus, the apostles, Paul, and other disciples continued to worship in the synagogues and the temple. That was still part of their church experience.
The early church in terms of God’s people and actual worship gatherings consisted of Jews and Gentiles some who followed Christ and some who didn’t. The true church of Christ was and still is the remnant within the churches that believe in Christ, are baptized, and follow the teachings of Jesus. And there are many in the church today as well who don’t meet those qualifications.
A disciple is a person who follows Jesus, and the definition is in the Great Commission – one who is baptized and seeks to obey all that Jesus commands. God will use these people to equip and build up the church in love.
But there are others in the church then and today who, because they are consumers rather than living sacrifices, may be used by Satan to try to tear down the church. They may be technically believers, but they are often on the fringe and have not made a commitment to follow what Jesus commands. They are in it to receive, like Judas.
God does not exist to be useful, he may be at times, but He exists to be adored, worshipped and obeyed simply because of who he is, more than even what He has done. Many people come to North American churches Sunday after Sunday with an expectation of receiving something. We should not expect God to do anything else, even though He may. What else should he do after saving us through allowing his son to be killed for our sake so we can have eternal life? True worship is never transactional. True worship expects nothing in return.
One of the speakers at our conference last week noted that most of the complaining in our churches comes from the people on the fringe, people who have not committed to giving themselves to the church, and covenanting with the church, but they are those who go to church in order to receive and have their personal desires met. They rarely offer any specific biblical suggestions, or ideas for improvement, they just tell you what they don’t like and do only what they like to do.
If you came to me as a counselor and I said to you, I don’t like the way you are behaving and thinking, you should change that, and I didn’t at least offer you some useful suggestions for change, you probably wouldn’t be too eager to come back and pay 100 bucks an hour, would you? If you’re gonna complain, offer something.
That is how Satan subtly works in the church today especially in areas where there is little outside persecution. And it is this last verse that tells us how the church will be when the influence of Satan is not present. They had peace and they became stronger. Why? “As the believers lived in the fear of the Lord”. And then with the “comfort and encouragement of the Holy Spirit, also grew in numbers because they had courage through that comfort”.
So let me just clarify what this fear means here. It is to see someone with awe and respect, which causes us to submit to and want to please them. We sometimes have reverence for the dead person we respected, for teachers, it could be anybody. And of course we sometimes use a title for pastors that has gone out of vogue, that of “reverend”.
I never really liked that term, but initially this was used because we were to look at faithful clergy with this kind attitude out of respect for Jesus, assuming these pastors represented Him and His Word and of course that isn’t always the case.
My point is that the secret recipe for powerful, peaceful, growing churches, that isn’t so secret if you look at the Bible, is the fear of the Lord. Proverbs says this is where all wisdom begins. Its everywhere in the Bible from start to finish. Then as we step out in submission we have the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and He works through us.
Paul’s letters tell us how to have success especially in our Gentile churches, and I’m quite certain these principles were meant to be universal, telling us what to do and what to avoid. For some reason though, we have decided that we have better ways, and what we see in our day are churches that are not growing, have little Spirit power, and are laced with strife and division. Or they can be simply popular places of entertainment with lots of people, where you get good coffee and don’t have to put up with smoking and alcohol.
Do you see anywhere in Scripture that the church exists to keep us happy and comfortable?
The church is there to equip us as disciples and carry out the mission of Jesus Christ, and if this is occurring, true disciples will be happy, those who are not will complain.
In Ephesians 4 Paul urges us strongly to walk in a manner worthy of our call, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The opposite is mentioned later in that chapter, “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity”. So we are to put off our old self that is corrupt through deceitful desires and be renewed in the spirit of our minds.
He continues: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
How do we grieve the Holy Spirit? Well he continues, “Let all bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamour (which we would translate as whining) and slander be put away from you along with all malice (or harm). Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Notice there are no conditions there. It does not depend on the other person, how they behave, who they are, we are simply to treat people that way regardless, including our leaders in the church. Again from Paul in 1 Thes 5, “Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard amoung you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work (not because of who they are). And live peacefully with each other.”
Does that mean you can’t disagree with your leaders? No, but it does mean showing them respect and if you do disagree, you have the courage and consideration to talk with them about it. Obviously if they are not leading according to the word of God, you have the right to address that. Some leaders in the church don’t take feedback very well.
Otherwise, if it’s simply because of personal preferences, we are to keep our mouths shut, let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths. Or if we have serious doctrinal issues with the church, we find another church that feeds our beliefs and personal preferences. But we don’t cause strife or dissension wherever we go.
"Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." (Heb 13:17). God will judge them/us if judgment is necessary, and that’s true of everyone, we are not to judge and condemn, but to leave that up to God. Otherwise are we not playing God?
In an article by an organization called the good shepherd, it says, “Many times people take this for granted and do not sense any sort of accountability to their elders. Rather they are always in a non-committed state, choosing to remain "a visitor" wherever they go.
While there is no Scripture that says you must have a "home church," it is assumed in Scripture that you will be connected to the Body of Christ in a local assembly, where you are accountable to the elders there. That does not necessarily mean you need to be part of an institutional church, as we normally think of church in the twenty first century. It could be a house church, as well.
It would also seem to go beyond Scripture to suggest that elders are accountable for the souls of every visitor who attends their services on occasion. At least, it's not the same level of accountability as that which concerns the people who have made a commitment to be an ongoing part of that local expression of the Body of Christ. Therefore, it's necessary for the elders of a local assembly to know who are the ones whom the Lord has led to commit themselves to serve under their oversight.”
And in 1 Timothy ch 6 Paul who was the bad guy, accurately points out the people to watch out for. “Anyone who does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing (He’s talking about his former self). He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain”.
So after all that it seems like verse 31 in Acts 9 is simply saying that peace, strength, power and growth in the church comes from a desire to please the Lord, to fear the Lord, to obey the Lord’s teachings, and to live in the comfort of the Spirit.
Everywhere Paul went, he was persecuted, more often than not by the religious people, and he couldn’t stay very long in one place. I wish you could hear some of the stories of pastors in many churches today, who are doing their best, following God, and are being treated very badly by the people they minister to.
That’s not how it’s supposed to be, and I am grieved by what I hear at these conferences sometimes.
But it’s also Paul who said as a leader now, “I have learned to be content in every situation”, the leaders have immense responsibility, and we know that the leaders we have read about in the church so far, rejoice when they are persecuted for doing the Lord’s work and telling the truth, because they know that Jesus promised it would be those who truly serve the Lord and represent the truth of Christ, who would be persecuted as he was. They understand that they are to please God and not people. And when everyone has that attitude the church is healthy and powerful and grows.
The story of Saul’s conversion to Paul is relevant for all of us. We all need to ask, am I a Saul, very religious, but very critical and unwilling to follow Christ, or am I a Paul, who was saved by grace in order that he could serve Jesus with his entire life, and strive like an athlete or soldier to live by His will and commands, and to proclaim Jesus Christ to a lost world.
Some of you will walk away today completely untouched or even offended by what you heard, others will be positively convicted. You may have sat there angry, or bored, or sad, or maybe thrilled to hear the truth. Either way you and I need to wrestle with what we heard today if we want to be part of a healthy, powerful, growing church here or anywhere.
As I pray today, I encourage you to make a decision about how you want to be used.
Like Saul, or like Paul?
