Today I want to take a little bit of a break from our conversations about the Person, Purposes and Plans of the Holy Spirit and I want to talk to you about one of my biblical heroes and by doing so I hope that I can use his example to address our current cultural climate. Acts chapter 9 is the story of the salvation of Saul of Tarsus, known to most of us as the Apostle Paul. In the middle of Saul’s testimony is the introduction of, in my opinion, one of the most amazing people in Scripture, Ananias. Saul was on his way to Damascus for the sole purpose of finding Christians, arresting them and taking them back to Jerusalem to face the council. As he approached Damascus the Bible says “suddenly a bright light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice . . .” Saul the Pharisee, Saul the persecutor, Saul the angry, the proud, the powerful, Saul the terrorist to use our current day language, was on a mission to disrupt and disband the church in Damascus when suddenly he found himself on the ground and in a conversation with a voice from heaven. Luke writes that Jesus spoke and simply said “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” A question that Saul responded to with a question of his own, “Who are You, Lord?” Again, from heaven the voice sounds “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” For just a moment consider the kindness of Jesus and the terror of Saul. Saul is convinced that Jesus was a blasphemer and that His followers must be destroyed and as he makes his way to expand his territory of fear Jesus comes to him not to destroy him, to mock him or even to correct him but Jesus comes to save him. No wonder Saul would later write to the Romans and ask them “do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” What Saul learned is the same thing we must understand, that Jesus didn’t come and knock Saul down with a bright light and speak to Him from heaven because of Saul’s sin or Saul’s persecution of the saints, Jesus came and met Saul because He loved him. The same reason He came and revealed Himself to you and to me is why He revealed Himself to Saul, not because we were about to do something terrible but because He wanted to reveal His love for us through His kindness toward us. Jesus identified Himself and Luke tells us that Saul was “trembling and astonished” and he simply said “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Saul was afraid, he was amazed, he was overwhelmed and in that moment he didn’t debate, he didn’t fight, he didn’t even question he just asked how he was supposed to respond. This is why our work in being witnesses is about compassion and not coercion, when the Holy Spirit makes Jesus known, whether it is through a dream or vision, a bright light and voice from heaven, a loving conversation or a cup of cold water, when Jesus is made known by the work of the Holy Spirit a response is given, our task is not to cause the response or find a clever way to get the response we think is most needed, our task is simply to be empty vessels that the Holy Spirit can use to reveal Jesus, He will also then call for the response. On the day of Pentecost Peter preached and the Holy Spirit revealed Jesus in such a way that the people simply asked “What should we do?” Here, Jesus revealed Himself in such a way that Saul of Tarsus asked the same question, “What do You want me to do?”
Jesus’ instructions were simple, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Luke then writes that the men that were with Saul were speechless, they had heard the voice, they had heard the entire conversation but they never saw anyone other than Saul. Those men then helped Saul get to Damascus and when he arrived at the house where he was supposed to stay, he fasted, specifically he drank no water and ate no food for the next three days. This is when Luke introduces us to Ananias, a man never mentioned in the Bible before and never mentioned again other than when Paul gave his own testimony in Acts 22, nevertheless a man chosen by God to do something miraculously humble, faithfully courageous and eternally important. Jesus had already come to Saul but now He wanted to send Saul a brother, a friend, an example, a person that would believe in the work of God and model the character of God, a person that would affirm the change that God was making in Saul’s heart and in Saul’s life. This morning I want to try to share with you that every one of us needs an Ananias in our lives, but just as much, every one of us is called to be an Ananias in the lives of the world around us. My prayer is that we will push past fear, worry, discomfort and human wisdom and that we will see that citizens of the kingdom of heaven and sons and daughters of God will sometimes live in scary places and get called to dangerous purposes but the Spirit who lives in us is also the One who calls us and He does not flood our hearts with fear but rather, He provides for us power, love and self-control.