I don’t often think about Nottingham. I can’t remember ever visiting it. It’s 200 miles away and we haven’t had reason to go there. But Nottingham is an up-and-coming city. A few years ago, The Times newspaper named it as the most improved city in its survey of the best places to live. Nottingham wants to develop further. In the centre of Nottingham was a large shopping centre called Broad March. Imagine something as long and wide as Boscombe Precinct. Nottingham City Council asked people what they’d like in the city. People said they wanted more green space. So, the council decided they’d turn this very large shopping centre into a green space. It’s called the Broad Marsh Green Heart regeneration scheme. Here are a few pictures. It’s going to be a big job. Last month, the council announced the contractor to do the work. It was a firm called Willmott Dixon.
Choosing a contractor is a big step in a project. Nottingham Council’s choice of contractor for their regeneration scheme didn’t get into the national news but it got into lots of local newspapers and construction and business journals.
At this point in Acts, something a bit like that is happening. God was planning a regeneration. And it was much bigger than Nottingham City Council’s. God told Abraham three times that through him, ALL nations would be blessed [Genesis 18:18, 22:18, 26:4]. Isaiah prophesied three times that Israel would be a light to the nations [Isaiah 42:6, 49:6, 60:3]]. God’s plan was always to reach out, not just to Abraham, not just to the people of Israel, but to the whole world. God always wanted men and women from every nation to be saved. In fact, God wants the whole of creation to be saved, to be regenerated. At this point in Acts, Jesus, Son of God, is going to move God’s regeneration plan forward. In his life on earth, Jesus restricted his mission to the people of Israel. But now, he will reach out to every nation, to Gentiles as well as Jews.
Nottingham City Council appointed a contractor to implement their regeneration scheme. Jesus didn’t employ a construction company. He chose a person to be his instrument. He tells Ananias that Saul ‘is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel’ [Acts 9:15]. Jesus appointed him to spread the Good News [Acts 22:14; cf. Romans 1:1 in CEV].
But isn’t God’s choice, God’s appointment strange!? It’s VERY strange! Why? Saul was not a nice person at all.
Our passage today started, ‘But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord…’
A little earlier, Stephen had been stoned to death. His Christian brothers and sisters mourned him. But the church didn’t get a respite. In the following verse we read, ‘But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison’ [Acts 8:3]. Saul was like a Gestapo officer in the Second World War, going from house to house to drag Jews away. I listened to a sermon on this passage. The speaker described Saul as a monster. Saul wasn’t a person WE would appoint for ANY position in the church. And yet, Jesus chose him for one of the most important positions of all. What can we learn from this?
I’d like us to try to put ourselves in Saul’s position and then in Ananias’ position.
IN SAUL’S POSITION
Why did Jesus reach out to Saul? Later in his life, Paul wrote a letter to a young minister called Timothy. He wrote:
‘The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life’ [1 Timothy 1:15].
‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’ That’s the business Jesus is in. Jesus saves sinners. If I’m a sinner, Jesus can help me. But someone might say, ‘I’m a TERRIBLE sinner. I’m TOO bad. Jesus can’t help ME.’ But Paul says, ‘You’re wrong. I was the WORST sinner and Jesus saved ME.’ That’s the whole point. That’s why Jesus saved ME. No one is too far gone for Jesus to reach out to them.
Saul’s story tells us that God has power to save. Not only that, Saul’s story tells us that God has extraordinary power to change people.
At the beginning of the 18th century there were two men. Lord Lyttelton went to Eton and Oxford and then entered Parliament. He had a cousin called Gilbert West. West also went to Eton and Oxford but he didn’t go into politics.
Lyttelton and West didn’t believe in the Christian faith. They believed the Bible was wrong and they decided to prove it. Lord Lyttelton chose the conversion of Paul. Gilbert West chose Jesus’ resurrection. They got to work. But when they next met, they agreed that they’d been entirely wrong. They now believed that the Bible was the word of God. The conversion of Paul might seem a strange topic to choose. But Lord Lyttleton’s conclusion was that ‘The conversion and apostleship of St. Paul alone … was … a demonstration sufficient to prove Christianity to be a divine revelation.’
Why is Saul’s conversion such a powerful demonstration? Because people don’t change like Saul changed without God’s power. If the change in Saul had come about by God’s power – and could only have come about by God’s power – then God’s revelation through Paul was true.
Let’s go on to the end of the story.
Ananias went to Saul, laid his hands on him, and his sight was restored. Then we read that Paul ‘rose and was baptized.’ This is very brief. But later in Acts, Paul tells the story of Ananias coming to him. He is speaking to a crowd of not-very-friendly Jews in Jerusalem. He says this:
“And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name” [Acts 22:12-16].
Ananias told Saul, ‘Why do you wait?
Paul has seen Jesus. He has acknowledged Jesus. But Ananias tells him to ‘Rise … be baptized and wash away your sins.’ Get cleaned up, in other words.
Suppose you’re in Saul’s situation. Jesus has appeared to you. You’ve seen him. I’m not saying that you’ve had a vision, but you know he’s real, you know he’s accepted you and you want to follow him. What’s the first step? You should get baptized. That’s what Ananias told Saul to do. He asked Saul, ‘And now why do you wait?’ It’s a no-brainer. Get on with it. If anyone here is in that position, come and talk to me after the service. We’re a Baptist church. We baptize people.
IN ANANIAS’ POSITION
Let’s now put ourselves in Ananias’ position. Ananias doesn’t know why Jesus has chosen Saul. It doesn’t make sense to him. But Jesus told him to go. So, he puts his fears and worries aside and gets on with it.
Jesus does the non-standard as standard. He chooses people we wouldn’t choose. Moses was about 80 when God chose him to lead God’s people out of Egypt. David was the youngest in his family. Jesse, his father didn’t even bother to present him to Samuel when he visited. Jesus chose Matthew, a tax collector, as one of his disciples. In the Bible, God repeatedly chose people others wouldn’t have chosen.
God does the same today. He chooses people who we might not think are suitable. China Inland Mission didn’t think Gladys Aylward was suitable to be a missionary. But God knew better. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was initially rejected for ordination by the Bishop of Kensington. The bishop told him: ‘There is no place for you in the Church of England.’
God sees things in a different way to us. His choices might seem strange to us. But if we believe that God is calling someone to a task then we have to put our fears and concerns to one side and do what God has told us – as Ananias did. Ananias went to Saul. The first words he said were ‘Brother Saul.’ Ananias accepted Saul, persecutor of the church, because Jesus had accepted him.
Churches are funny places. God calls all sorts of people to be part of them, to be instruments in his hands. He calls people we might raise our eyebrows at. But if Jesus has accepted them then, like Ananias, we need to too.
Prayer
We thank you, Lord, for this wonderful story. We thank you that you chose Saul to be your instrument, to take the gospel to the Gentiles – to us, in other words. History shows that you knew what you were doing.
We thank you that you showed, by calling Saul, that there is no one too bad for you. There is no one you cannot reach out to and change. We pray that we will believe in your great power and tell everyone your message of love.
We thank you for Ananias’ example, of following your instruction and receiving into the church the person you had chosen. We pray that we will do the same, welcoming into your family all whom you call, even if your choices might seem strange to us.
We ask this in your name, Jesus. Amen
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 10.30 service, 27 August 2023
