ENGAGE
I’m going to begin this morning with a question: How many of you want to be like Ananias?
No one? That is probably because many of you either thought to yourself “Who is Ananias?” or else you were thinking of the Ananias back in Acts 5 who was immediately killed by God when he and his wife Sapphira lied about how much of the proceeds from the sale of their land that they had given to the church. But the question I asked was actually a trick question because there are actually 3 people named Ananias in the Bible, so before you answered the question, you probably should have asked me “Which Ananias?”.
The first Ananias mentioned in the Bible is the one in Acts 5 and I’m pretty sure none of us want to be like him. The third one mentioned is the high priest named Ananias who brought charges against Paul when he was brought before the Roman authorities in the last part of the book of Acts. So I doubt any of us would like to be like him.
The second Ananias mentioned in the Bible is the one we’re going to look at this morning and if you’re not familiar with him, you’re not alone. He is one of those people in the Bible who appears on the scene briefly and who never appears in the Scriptures again. We saw that a couple weeks ago in Acts 6, where only 2 of the 7 men appointed to serve the Hellenist widows are ever mentioned again in the entire book of Acts.
It’s really easy to just kind of skip over the account of this Ananias and just assume that because he is not heard from again that he really didn’t have any kind of important role in the early church. But, as we’ll see this morning, nothing could be further from the truth.
TENSION
Perhaps you’ve felt like that yourself at times. You feel like because nobody really takes much notice of you that you don’t really have an important role in the church. And I can assure you that you’re not alone in feeling like that. I often feel that way as a pastor.
This past couple of weeks, I’ve been a part of two meetings with other pastors and church planters from throughout the state of Arizona. At one of those meetings I listened to a pastor from Phoenix describe a church planting network in the Phoenix area that has helped plant a number of new churches that have experienced explosive growth and who had hundreds, or even thousands, of people attending those new churches within only a short period after they were planted.
At the other meeting, I was sitting around a table with leaders from churches here in Tucson, most of whose attendance is many times what we have each week and who have large staffs serving those churches.
And when I’m in meetings like that and see the tremendous things that God is doing through these other pastors and churches, I have a tendency to begin to wonder whether what I’m doing here at TFC really matters at all to the kingdom of God. So if I feel that way at times, my guess is that probably many of you do too.
TRUTH
If that’s the case, then I pray that the passage we’re going to look at this morning will be real encouragement to you like it has been to me this week.
Last week we left off in Acts chapter 8 as Philip leaves a thriving ministry in Samaria to go bring the kingdom of Jesus near to an Ethiopian eunuch who is traveling on a desert road on his way back home.
As chapter 9 opens, we see the account of Saul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Saul, who had earlier watched approvingly as Stephen was murdered, was on his way to Damascus to arrest any Christians he found in the synagogues there. Jesus confronts Saul and strikes him blind and the men who were traveling with him take him to Damascus, where for three days he remains blind and goes without food and water. Most people are probably at least somewhat familiar with Saul’s conversion there in the first part of the chapter. But my guess is that most of us are far less familiar with what happens next. Let’s pick up the account in verse 10.
[Read Acts 9:10-18]
The only other time this Ananias is ever mentioned in the Bible is in Acts chapter 22 where Paul is recounting his conversion experience and he calls Ananias a devout man who was well spoken of by all the Jews who lived in Damascus.
Ananias, is described here as a disciple of Jesus. It’s important to note here that just like Philip, he is just an “ordinary” Christian. He is not an apostle nor does he hold any position of authority in the church. But God uses him here to play an extremely important role in the early church.
I think most of us can relate to Ananias. When God comes to him and tells him to go meet Saul in the house where he is staying on Straight Street, Ananias is understandingly reluctant. He obviously knew of Saul and what he had done to Christians in Jerusalem and why he had come to Damascus.
It would be like Jesus coming to one of us after 9/11 and telling us that Osama bin Laden was staying just down the street praying and waiting for us to come lay hands on him. I’m pretty sure that just like Ananias, we would have checked with Jesus to make sure we had really heard him right.
But once Jesus confirmed what Ananias was to do and revealed that Paul was his chosen instrument to bring the gospel to the Gentiles as well as to his fellow Jews, Ananias immediately obeyed and went to the house and laid hands on Saul. Immediately Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit and regained his sight and was baptized as a public testimony of his faith in Jesus.
There are probably many things we could take away from this passage, but here is the one that I want us to focus on this morning:
The kingdom of God is brought near to others when
I take a risk for the sake of the kingdom
Before we pursue that idea in a little more detail, I want to take a few minutes to clear up a couple of issues that will be important as we continue our study in Acts.
Earlier this week on our Faithlife page, I challenged all of you to find the passage where Jesus changed Saul’s name to Paul. But apparently none of you could find that. Which is good, since it doesn’t exist.
So if Jesus didn’t change his name, how was his name changed? The most likely explanation is that it really wasn’t ever changed. Paul went by two different names, as was quite common in that culture. His Jewish name was Saul, the same name as the first king of Israel. As a Roman citizen, he went by the name of Paul. Later in Acts, Luke confirms that he was known by to different names:
But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him
(Acts 13:9 ESV)
Interestingly enough, from that point forward in the book of Acts, he is always referred to as Paul as he begins in earnest his ministry to the Gentiles with the conversion of a Romans proconsul.
The second issue I want to address is the timeline here in Acts.
(Dates are approximate)
35 AD Saul’s conversion on road to Damascus Acts 9:1-25
35-38 AD Saul in Damascus and Arabia Galatians 1:17-18
38 AD Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem for 15 days; then to Tarsus Acts 9:20-30
43 AD Barnabas gets Saul from Tarsus Acts 11:25
49 AD Jerusalem Council Galatians 2:1, Acts 15
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.
(Galatians 1:17–18 ESV)
So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.
(Acts 11:25–26 ESV)
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
(Galatians 2:1ESV)
The main thing to note here is that even though Saul immediately began to be a witness for Jesus, it is not until 14 years after his conversion on the road to Damascus that he returns to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles to address the issue of whether the Gentiles need to become Jews before they can become Christians.
With that background in mind, let’s return to our main theme:
The kingdom of God is brought near to others when
I take a risk for the sake of the kingdom
As I mentioned earlier, the fact that we don’t see Ananias mentioned again in the Bible does not diminish at all his importance to the development of the early church. While the Bible is clear that God’s plans cannot be thwarted by man, it is also true that Ananias played a significant role in initiating the ministry of Paul, which was essential to the development of the early church. Not only did Paul establish new churches throughout the known world at the time, but he also wrote over one quarter of the New Testament Scriptures. Had Ananias not been willing to take the risk and go see a man who was known for killing and imprisoning Christians, who knows how the ministry of Paul might have been impacted.
So even though many of you may not have even been aware of this Ananias before this morning, I think we would all agree that he mattered to the Jesus and to His kingdom. And that truth ought to encourage us when we sometimes think that how we serve Jesus really doesn’t have any impact on His kingdom. Like Ananias it may very well be that what we do for the kingdom will go unnoticed and we will be unknown here on earth, but that does not mean that Jesus doesn’t notice or that what we do can’t make a significant difference in bringing His kingdom near to others.
APPLICATION
In encouraging us all to take a risk for the kingdom of God this morning, I am not in any way suggesting that we just do something stupid. From what we see here in this account, it seems that there is a right way and a wrong way to take a risk for Jesus. So let’s use our remaining time to explore…
THE RIGHT WAY TO TAKE A RISK FOR JESUS
1. Make sure that it is Jesus who is speaking
This is by far the most important principle we’ll cover this morning, so I’ll spend a little more time here. If we do something that we consider risky, but it isn’t Jesus who is leading us to do that, then we’re just being foolish rather than faithful.
A lot of the commentators that I read this week compared Ananias’ initial reluctance to the excuses that Moses made when God first called him to go lead the people out of bondage in Egypt. And I suppose that is possible. But the sense I get here is that Ananias questions God at first because he wants to make sure that if he is going to take the risk of going to see Saul, that it is Jesus who is giving him those instructions. And I think that’s pretty wise, don’t you?
Obviously, for us, it’s a little more difficult to discern when it is Jesus speaking because He doesn’t normally speak to us in an audible voice, like He did with Ananias. So how do we know when it is Jesus speaking?
In his book Listening to the Voice of God, Pastor Roger Barrier points out that there are three voices that speak to us – self, Satan and God. And in that book, he provides some great principles to apply in order to discern when it is God that is speaking. I’m going to paraphrase and share with you just three of those principles that I consider to be the most important:
How to know when Jesus is speaking:
1) It is always 100% consistent with the Bible
This ought to go without saying. But I’m amazed at how many times I’ve heard people say they are taking a risk for Jesus when what they intend to do violates the clear teaching of Scripture.
I can guarantee that Jesus will never ask you to take a risk that conflicts with what He has already revealed in the Bible:
• He will not tell you to marry an unbeliever
• He will not tell you to file bankruptcy in order to avoid paying your debts
• He will not tell you to violate the principle of Sabbath rest in order to make more money, even if you claim you’re going to use that money for Biblical purposes like investing in His kingdom or supporting your family
That last example is especially important because it reminds us that God will never lead us to obey one command in Scripture by disobeying another one.
2) He tends to speak when I am seeking Him
Jesus began to speak to me about probably the biggest risk I’ve ever taken for Him in a completely unexpected way. One day I was sitting in church listening to a sermon when I sensed that He was saying to me that I would be preaching like that someday. I didn’t hear any audible voice, but I was pretty sure that it was Jesus speaking.
But I also knew that when random thoughts like that pop into my mind, it is much more likely that either self or Satan is speaking. In this case, I was pretty sure it wasn’t Satan putting that thought into my mind, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just hearing myself speak. So I had to take that idea to God in prayer and ask Him to confirm that it was from Him. And as I did that over a period of time, He did confirm that.
The words of God to the prophet Jeremiah are an important reminder here:
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
(Jeremiah 29:13 ESV)
When I am seeking God with my whole heart, it is much more likely that I will hear His voice. So when I’m in His Word and praying on a regular basis, it is much more likely that the voice I’m hearing is God’s and not my own or Satan’s.
3) His voice brings peace, not confusion
When I first sensed God calling me into vocational ministry, I won’t lie – I had a lot of questions and doubts. How was God going to use a guy who is about to turn 40 with a business degree and no seminary training to preach His Word? But the funny thing is I never had any sense of chaos or confusion, but rather a peace about the entire experience.
That is certainly consistent with God’s nature:
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
(1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV)
Satan wants to do exactly the opposite. He wants to confuse us and get us to doubt that God wants what is best for us, just like he did in the Garden with Adam and Eve.
2. Be available
Admittedly, you have to read between the lines a bit to see this, but I think this passage gives evidence that Ananias was available to be used by God. While he might have initially had some questions about what Jesus wanted him to do, he doesn’t seem to be surprised that that Jesus would speak to him or give him a task to complete.
We certainly can’t be sure from the text, but it sure seems likely that Ananias had been faithful in serving Jesus in the past and Jesus knew Hs could count on him now. He knew that Ananias had a heart that desired to say “yes” to Jesus because Jesus had already said “yes” to him.
I’m going to address this more in just a moment, but every single one of us needs to evaluate whether we’re really available to do what Jesus might call us to do in order to advance His kingdom. And the sad truth is that many of us are far too busy and have no margin built into our lives to be available to do what Jesus wants us to do. And if that’s the case then we need to make a careful evaluation of all the things we are doing and cut some of them out of our lives – sometimes even good things.
3. Respond immediately
I really like how as soon as Ananias knew that it was Jesus speaking, he immediately acted upon what Jesus had instructed him to do.
When God began to call me into vocational ministry, that didn’t mean that I was ready to go pastor a church yet. But what it did mean is that I needed to immediately begin to take certain steps that would prepare me to do that eventually. So I immediately began to seek counsel from some trusted advisors and made plans to get some education and training that would enable me to be an effective pastor some day.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case in my life. While I probably haven’t just told Jesus that I wasn’t going to do what He asked when He wanted me to take a risk for the sake of His kingdom, there have undoubtedly been times when I have put Him off by use the word “someday”. And maybe you done that, too.
• “Someday I’ll get around to witnessing to my neighbor, but first I need to get some things done around my house.”
• “Someday I’ll be a part of a small group, but right now things are just too busy in this new job.”
• “Someday I’ll get around to having family devotionals, but right now the finances are so tight that I have to work all this overtime.”
• “Someday I’ll get around to serving in the church, but right now I’m just too busy.”
The kingdom of God is brought near to others when
I take a risk for the sake of the kingdom
INSPIRATION
Ananias had no idea that day that the man who he feared so greatly because of his persecution of Christians was going to become the greatest church planter in the history of the world. He had no idea that because he was willing to take the risk of going to the house where Paul was waiting for him, he would play an important role in the transformation of Paul’s life that enabled him to be such an effective servant of Jesus.
If, like me, you’ve wondered if your life makes any difference at all for the kingdom of God, then the account of Ananias ought to be of great encouragement to you. That story demonstrates that if we are willing to take a risk for the sake of the kingdom, that even if no one else ever notices, Jesus does, and He can take that service, no matter how meager and inconsequential it might seem to us and use it in the process of bringing His kingdom near to others.
[Prayer]
ACTION
I’ve intentionally kept the message a bit briefer than normal today because I want to have time to do something a little different as we close the service today. The worship team is going t come back up and lead us as we sing “O Come to the Altar”. That song is an invitation for us to approach God through our faith in Jesus, so that God can minister to us. So as we sing that song, we want to invite you to come to the front of the sanctuary.
Once we finish singing we invite you to spend some time in prayer – either individually or with others. We invite you to take whatever burdens that you might have in your life right now and give those to Jesus. If you would like someone to pray with you, I’ll be at the front along with some of our Elders and their wives. Or just find someone else who is willing to pray with you.
We also want to encourage you to pray and ask God to show you how He wants you to apply what you’ve learned from His Word this morning. Ask Him to help you recognize His voice and to be available and to respond immediately when He speaks.
Finally, will you pray for our church and ask that God would help us become more outwardly focused so that we would be more effective in bringing his kingdom near to others.
