I have to admit that it is extremely difficult to dedicate
a series on the life of the apostle Paul and not have to
talk about his conversion. How do you talk about Paul and
not talk about his testimony? And that is not personal
opinion. I believe the weightiness of the
Bible leans toward the fact that his testimony is something to be
greatly considered. It's not a secondary or tertiary
idea. And the reason why we can say
that is because Paul's testimony in the book of Acts is not
mentioned just once, not just twice.
It is recorded for us three times.
Surely this emphasis given to us by the Holy Spirit is meant to
convey that his conversion is of weighty significance.
And one of the reasons for that significance is because he was
not one of the original 12 disciples who walk with Christ,
who ate with Christ, who was with Christ during his
three-year ministry. But he would play a vital role
in establishing the foundation of the Church and so the origins
of his encounter with Christ. And his experience of the
resurrected Christ had to be unmistakable, had to be
undeniably clear for the sake of his credibility as an apostle
who had laid down so many important truths that you and I
are experiencing and learning and are walking in today.
So his story is part of Scripture.
And because it is part of Scripture, it not only does it
hold historical value. But the same Paul who we're
learning about said that all Scripture has been what breathed
out by God because it's been breathed out by God, it is
absolutely useful for the man of God to be complete, complete and
ready for every good work. And guess what?
Paul's testimony is part of Scripture, and so we can look to
his testimony for practical truth.
For personal applicable things in our own walk with the Lord.
And so I want to encourage you, though we're not going to
explore every single detail about his testimony today.
What a thrilling thing it would be to take the mentions of his
testimony. Do a comparative study.
You'll find it narrated in Acts Chapter 9.
You'll find it given by the Apostle Paul's own words in Acts
chapter 22 and also in Acts chapter 26.
But many of us in here have studied the Word of God, I
assume. I've grown up hearing about
Paul, surely. And so we're very familiar with
his Damascus Rd. experience when he was on his way, with
permission from authorities, to persecute the church.
We all can really recite that testimony, that part of it at
least. But I want to consider a part of
his testimony that is often overlooked.
An ingredient, a fragment of his story.
That is mentioned two times out of the three times that the
testimony of Paul is mentioned in the book of Acts.
It deals with a person, a person who played an integral part in
his genesis of the Christian journey.
That person is named Ananias Ananias.
Ananias was a man who played a very crucial role in Paul's
beginnings as a believer in Jesus Christ.
Many of us know again that Acts chapter nine story of Paul
meeting Jesus in a very humbling way, but I'm not sure many of us
realize how important and how many things you can learn from
Ananias who is part of his story.
So I encourage you to come to Acts Chapter 9 with me and let's
go to verse 10. Verse one to nine is the report
of his personal experience of Christ, but that's not the whole
story. And I know we're here to talk
about Paul, but intertwine with Paul's story is this man
Ananias. So let's read here in verse 10,
we read now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias.
And he said, here I am Lord. And the Lord said to him, Rise
and go to the street called Straight, and at the House of
Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
For behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man
named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he
might regain his sight. But Ananias answered, Lord, I
have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done
to your Saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the
chief priest to bind all who call on your name.
But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of
mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer
for the sake of my name. So Ananias departed and entered
the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul,
the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you
came has sent me, so that you may regain your sight and be
filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately something like
scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
Then he rose and was baptized and taking food, he was
strengthened. There's no debate of the
incredible role that Paul played in the life of the church, and
understanding his importance would make us think that the
person who would be used by God to direct Paul as a baby in
Christ to nurture Paul, to instruct Paul would also be
somebody of great significance. So here's just me thinking, OK,
if there's going to be any person.
Who's going to go to Saul, who now will become Paul in a few
chapters? It has to be a big guy.
It's got to be a Peter, maybe John James.
What about Philip the Evangelist who in a chapter before saw a
revival in Samaria and who was transported supernaturally after
seeing that Ethiopian eunuch come to Christ?
Couldn't the Lord transferred him from Caesarea here to
Damascus and meet with Paul? But God doesn't do any of that.
God doesn't send an apostle. He doesn't send a teacher, a
pastor, an evangelist, a revivalist.
No, all we read here in verse 10.
Now there was a disciple, a disciple, a Damascus.
Nobody of prominent position, nobody of great talent, no
miracles necessarily associated with his name before this time,
just a disciple. Don't read your Bible too fast,
please, lest you miss marvelous insights about the heart of God.
Doesn't it warm your heart to know that the Lord, when he
recruits people to be used, does not bypass ordinary disciples?
He's not automatically magnetized towards those who are
known with notoriety, with significant public gifts.
No, He even looks for men like this Ananias, and the only thing
associated with his name in the scriptures that he was a
disciple. You know why that's encouraging?
We're all disciples. We're all disciples.
And as we study and admire the testimony, one of the greatest
leaders in the church, you and I are also in reading his
testimony, discover that God, that God uses lesser known
believers to do significant things.
And this is something to encourage you.
And when the Lord recruits people, he does not look for
what you and I look for if we're going to look for somebody of
great purpose. And I remember looking at this
and thinking about different people who've been used by God
that have really shifted history.
And we know them. We read their biographies.
We are inspired by their stories.
Books have been written about them.
But we never consider the people who played a role in their lives
that we'll never hear about on this side of eternity.
And I stumbled upon the testimony of a person that
you've heard of, I'm sure, John Bunyan.
You've probably read his book Pilgrim's Progress if you
haven't. It's one of the most read books
in all of human history, and it is certainly the most popular
Christian allegory of all time. A brilliant man.
They said of John Bunyan that if you cut him, he would bleed out
the Bible. He loved the Word.
He knew the word, and God used them to make an impact.
The Kingdom of God to this day. But what's so incredible John
Bunyan was not just his writings, but the events leading
up to his own conversion. And you can find this in great
detail. One of my favorite episodes in
John Bunyan's life is that when he was still a tinker.
Have you ever heard of the word? A tinker was somebody who, by
way of profession, would fix people's pots and pans.
And so they would travel from town to town with utensils, and
they would knock on people's doors and ask if they would have
any of their kitchenware fixed. And so John Bunny, before he was
an author, before he was a preacher, he was a tinker.
And one day he finds himself in a specific place and he
encounters in Bedford a group of women, three or four women, who
were sitting at the front door of one of their homes and they
were talking and he was nearby. Unfortunately for some, when
three or four women get together and talk, it's dangerous.
But that wasn't the case here because when John Bunyan walks
by, he, he heard these women who were poor, unnamed, discussing
the things of God. And this attracted Bunyan
because he never heard people talking about things like this,
things about God saving their souls, heaven.
The Bible, what they read. And John Bunyan, he wasn't a
person who grew up in the church and had some kind of knowledge
of these things. He was an atheist at heart, very
rough upbringing, but something that there was a fragrance in
the air that drew him to to just draw a little closer and lean
in. And we're told there that he
didn't really understand what they were talking about, but he
interpreted that they were speaking from a place of joy,
and he realized that they were speaking.
Of another world and that made an impact on this man John
Bunyan. That was just one link in the
chain that would eventually cause him to be bound to Christ.
4 poor unknown woman who were talking about the love of their
hearts, and a man in the neighborhood heard them, and
that would be used to push him closer to the foot of the cross.
God uses nobodies, but just because God uses nobodies, which
we rejoice in, it doesn't mean he uses anybody.
You can say that Ananias was a nobody, but he wasn't just
anybody. Because there are standards in
which God looks for when he recruits.
And thankfully, he doesn't look for talent looking, doesn't look
for prestige, it doesn't look for pedigree, but he does look
for something. And we're told not in Acts 9,
but again, in the parallel account of Paul's testimony,
something about Ananias as Paul talks about his own conversion.
That's worth looking at for you and I to see.
Look at this here in Acts chapter 22.
Turn there with me, would you? And this is when Paul speaks
about his own testimony. And look what he says about
Ananias in verse 12. I want you to take note of two
things that will secure us as candidates for God's service.
The first thing which is not included in the two, but it's
automatic, is you need to be a disciple.
But there are two additional things, and they're found here
in Acts 22 and the other one back in Acts 9.
Look at verse 12, Paul speaking, and one Ananias, a devout man, a
devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews
who lived there. So what was it about?
Ananias #1 he was devout. What does it mean?
To be devout means to be pious. This man was holy.
This man was blameless. This man had true character and
he stands in contrast to another Ananias.
This is not the same Ananias of Acts chapter 5.
Acts chapter five was Ananias and his wife Sapphire.
Remember those two? They came into church thinking
that they can lie. And Ananias and Sapphire, seeing
Barnabas give this charitable gift thought, wow, I mean, look
at all, look at all the people who are moved by Barnabas
generosity. Let's do something like that.
And so they, they faked it. They pretended to give
everything when they actually gave some.
And so Ananias walks in and he lies to ultimately God and he's
stricken dead. And his wife comes later on and
he's she's confronted by church leadership.
She lies as well. And that church service became a
funeral service. But this is a different Ananias.
Listen, he doesn't have a position.
He didn't possess anything significant, but he did have a
praiseworthy reputation. So much so Listen, he wasn't
just well spoken of by the Christians.
What did Paul say? Well spoken of by all the Jews,
the Jews. The Jews were enemies of the
early Christian movement. And yet we're told here that
they were well spoken. They, they were speaking well of
this man because he was no hypocrite.
He was consistent no matter what context he was found in, whether
people love them or hated. And they they could not deny
that he was a devout man. He was committed to the thing
that he said that he believed in.
And the example of Ananias here teaches that none of us should
expect to be recruited by the Lord if we are not first
committed to maintaining and pursuing Christian character.
Christian character, but the extent of his faithfulness
doesn't just end here. Go back to Acts Chapter 9,
Right? He's a devout man, but when you
look at the main text, you see the extent of his faithfulness
in Acts 9. Look at verse 13.
This is when the Lord said, I want you to go to Saul.
And this is his response in Acts 913.
But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this
man, how much evil he has done to your Saints at Jerusalem.
And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who
call on your name. Look at the first few words of
verse 14. And here he has authority from
the chief priest to bind here. Well, Damascus.
So Ananias realized it. It was on headline news in the
church that there is this saw of Tarsus coming to Damascus to
eradicate Christianity in this region.
He is coming to harass the church.
So Ananias was aware that he was on dangerous territory and yet
he didn't move. Isn't that what we get from
this? And here he has authority, but
that didn't diminish his dedication.
His devotion was not deterred. It was not diluted.
And so you have this disciple. Yes, but all men.
Did he love Christ? He was willing to be arrested
for Christ. He was willing to die for
Christ, surely. So he was devout according to
the law, yes, but this law was so real to me.
It was so good to him, it was so cherished by him that when there
was persecution against it, he was willing to dig his heels and
Damascus and stay put. A disciple, Simply put, a
disciple who is devout, who loved the Lord, who loved God's
law, who loved Christ to this extent.
And so listen, that's what you have to be encouraged by,
because you, you can achieve this.
You can walk in this. Businessman mother who stays at
home with her children. You can be devout.
And as you walk in that devotion to the Lord, you make yourself a
greater candidate for his service.
But it's not just that there's a second thing.
He was devout, but he was also ready.
So look here at verse 10 again of our main text.
Now, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said,
here I am Lord, here I am Lord. What a response for your name
being called. Here I am Lord.
Now you would think, well that would be the obvious response if
you're visited by Christ and a vision, right?
What else are you going to say? But I don't believe that this is
just a spontaneous submission. I believe that Ananias had this
yielding this in his heart instilled in him.
How do we know that? Because we just learned that he
was a devout man according to the law.
And so he was already committed to the written word of God.
So that when God came in a supernatural way, he came to a
man who already was willing to do all that the Lord said.
And you have many people who want experiences with the Lord.
They want subjective kind of ecstasies and and testimonies.
But here's a question for you. How responsive are you to what
God had already told you in His Word?
How does your heart move according to what He has said
already in the scriptures? Because you and I have no reason
to expect anything more if what we've been given is not honored
and loved to begin with. So Ananias was devout according
to the law. God saw a man that when the word
was heralded, when it was read, when it was studied, his heart
was ready to do anything that the Lord said.
And so this man would receive further instruction because he
was a ready man. Some of the greatest servants in
the Scriptures have been people who responded like Ananias did
when they were visited by the Lord.
Abraham, here I am, Genesis 22 Isaiah says, Whom shall we send?
What did Isaiah say? Here I am, Lord, what?
Send me. You know what I love?
About that, he didn't even know what the job description was
yet. Whom shall we send?
I'll do it. I don't know what it is, but I'm
ready. OK, good.
I want you to preach. And nobody's going to ever
listen to your sermons. How long, Lord?
He asked later on when he did it.
Here I am, Lord. He was a devout man.
And he was a ready man. He he maintained a posture of
servanthood. Whatever the Lord say, I'm going
to do it. Now I've mentioned this so many
times, but we are creatures of repetition, so I like some of
the apostles in their letters and not ashamed to repeat
certain things. David was a man after God's own
heart. Is that not true?
Do you even know what that means though?
What does it mean for David to be a man after God's own heart?
The Lord qualifies that the Holy Spirit tells us exactly what it
means, and I want you to see it quickly before we come back to
this text in Acts 13. Look at Acts 13 and notice here
what the Bible says about David being a man after God's own
heart in verse 22. And when he had removed him, he
raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and
said, I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my
heart. If it's if it ended there, it
could mean a million things what it means to be a man after God's
heart. But we're told exactly what it
means. Who will do all my will.
So if you want to know if you're a woman, if you're a man who has
a heart after God's heart. That will be recognized by how
you respond to the revealed will of God.
Whatever you discover, whatever is learned, whatever is new,
whatever is something that you've forgotten about, is now
an object of remembrance. Are you willing to do it?
Ananias was a man who was willing to do what the Lord told
him. So he was devout and he was
ready. But let's come back and realize
that the Lord understood that this man, though he was devout,
though he was ready, was a man. Still look at verse 11 of Acts
9. He almost preemptively wants to
reassure Ananias from this dangerous task that it's going
to be OK because he understands the reluctancy of any Christian
Christian concerning Saul and encountering him.
And the Lord said them rise and go to the street called straight
and at the House of Judas pause there.
Isn't that amazing? The Lord knows your address and
he knows the members of that household.
But notice what the Lord tells Ananias to comfort him.
He says in the House of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus name
Saul, for behold he is praying. You know, the word behold is
pause whatever you're doing and look at this for a second.
Behold, he is praying as though Paul praying was a spectacle.
And he wants to blanket this man's soul and he wants to
console him out of all the things he could have said.
He says, don't worry, Ananias, Paul is praying.
Do you know why that's important?
Because it tells us one of the one of the marks of true
conversion. According to Jesus, one of the
indications that a person has truly changed is that they pray.
But wait, wasn't Paul a Pharisee?
He was a Pharisee, didn't Pharisee.
So he was probably more inspirational among the
Pharisees in his prayer life than anybody.
But you remember what Jesus said generally about the prayers of
the Pharisees. Vain, self seeking,
hypocritical. But now that Paul met Christ and
his heart was changed, it's as though the Lord is saying, ah,
now he's really praying. Now he's really praying.
Charles. Spurgeon said that prayer is the
Holy Ghost autograph on the heart of a regenerated soul.
And what I love about Acts Chapter 9 is you see the change
in what Paul does with his breath, saying, what do you
mean? Look at here verse one of Acts
Chapter 9. But Saul still breathing threats
and murder against the disciples of the Lord.
That's how we find palm Acts before he comes to Christ.
And then you read here in verse 10 and 11 that he's no longer
breathing threats. He's breathing sighs of
adoration and love and petitions to the Lord.
When you meet Christ, one of the things that will happen in your
life is that you will know a longing and a practice of
communing with the Lord. He is born.
One of the things that I'm sure doctors look for, I'm no doctor,
but I know this to be true, is one of the vital signs of a
healthy baby is what it cries. The baby cries.
That the lungs are. Working right, it's no different
in the new birth. If a person is born again and
there's no cry, there's something not right, something's
wrong. And so a born again person will
supernaturally have this instinct to lift up their voice
and seek the Lord. Will the flesh challenge that?
Yeah. Will there be days where you
don't want to seek the Lord? I'm aware of that.
But you can at some point in the beginnings of your walk,
recognize this shift that you now want to know the Lord and
you know him in this thing called prayer Ananias.
You can go and see Paul, who is at this time known as Saul, and
not have to worry about a thing. He's a change man Why?
Because he's seeking me. He's inquiring of me, he's
communing with me. And I love this about the Lord
because before Paul preached the sermon, before Paul established
the church, before he made any disciples, he prayed.
And so soon after his conversion, the God of heaven
and earth heard him. He didn't wait for Paul to
perform anything or to to build his resume and his rapport.
No, the moment he was changed, while he still had scales on his
eyes, he was seeking the Lord. I hear that man and he knows the
exact GPS location of where those prayers are coming from.
This thought moved me years ago when I was flying and I looked
out the window and I saw the city of Chicago as I was taking
off to another state. And I began to see all these
different homes and all these cars.
And I thought to myself, how many people are here?
Like, what does the Lord see from the heavens?
And yet when a man prays, he knows the exact house, the exact
St., the exact room he's in. Behold, he's praying, he's
praying, he's he's actually praying and a nice you can go
now. And so he's ready to go and meet
this man because the pulse of a regenerating work of the Holy
Spirit is identified by real praying being offered and not
public prayer. May I add, this was Paul
praying, praying privately alone, and that's what we're
supposed to learn from his conversion with all true
conversions. You will no desire to actually
lean in and seek the Lord. So what happens?
Look at verse 13 now, but Ananias answered, Lord, I've
heard from many about this man about how much evil he has done
to your Saints at Jerusalem. It says though, the moment he
heard Saul of Tarsus, he didn't, he didn't even hear the behold,
he's praying part Saul of Tarsus gulp.
That's all he heard. It was ringing in his ear.
The Lord said, Behold, he is praying Saul of Tarsus.
That's all I heard, Lord, and here's what here's what
encourages me about this man. Was he devout?
Sure. Was he ready?
Absolutely. But he was human.
He had real fears. And we have to be merciful to
imagine the Lord visiting you and saying, I want you to go
travel to this place and one of the ISIS leaders is there ready
for you to lay hands on him and give him instruction.
So let's be kind to Ananias way of principle here.
You have a man who has genuine hesitations and he's able to
verbalize that. And the Lord is so compassionate
to hear him out. So even in our weakness and
obedience communicate your weakness, your your your reasons
why the Lord is so much more tender than you can imagine.
So he says, Lord, I've heard many from many about this man,
how much evil he has done to your Saints at Jerusalem.
And as we read earlier, he's here and he has authority to
kill us in a sense that I hear Saul of Tarsus and.
I must mention something here. This is just me because I can't
ignore certain things that are brilliant in terms of Nuggets of
revelation. Look what he says here about the
Christians in his region. Lord, I have heard from many
about this man, how much evil he has done to your Saints at
Jerusalem. This is the first time in the
book of Acts the word Saints is used to identify Christians.
Do you know what the word Saints means in the original?
It's the word hagios. And it means most holy thing,
most holy thing. And I want to bring this up just
just kind of as a just, we're stepping over here a little
rabbit trail and we'll come back.
There are some, actually many in the world who believe that
sainthood is only achieved by certain out of the ordinary,
remarkable Christians. But what you read here is that
Saints, that word is applied to all believers.
All Christians are Saints, not just a select few that you
Revere and dare I say, do more than Revere.
All of them are Saints. And then even in this we have
the qualifications for saintliness.
What is it? Look here and here.
He has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on
your name. So who's a St.
According to the Holy Spirit, any person who calls on the name
of the Lord to be their righteousness.
So we are Saints by faith. We are made the most holy by
faith. What an amazing thing.
Yes, you, you are a St. according to the Scriptures.
And so he says here, Lord, Are you sure?
This man is here to destroy us. This man is here to harm us.
And in this very same passage we learn in Paul's conversion,
something about our conversion, that we are also Saints because
of faith. And the Lord says, I'm sure.
And he says in verse 15, go, for he is a chosen instrument of
mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the
children of Israel. Look at that phrase there for a
moment. But the Lord said to him, Go,
for he is a chosen instrument of mine.
The idea of God sovereignly choosing makes some people very
nervous, and it makes other people very happy.
There is no doubt here that the Lord said, I have prepared for
this man a certain task, that he will walk in, that he will
perform, that he will honor. And as much as God has appointed
a will, not just for Paul but for each of us, you have to also
understand that that sovereignty does not nullify personal
responsibility. So look at this phrase again.
He is a chosen instrument of mine, right?
OK. But again, there's two other
places where Paul's testimony is mentioned.
And I want you to look at Acts 26 and notice what Paul says
about his response to this revelation that he has been
given a task as an apostle. Look at Acts 26 and look at
verse 19. Actually, let's read beyond
that. Let's go beyond 19 and let's
just get the context here. Acts 26.
Look here at verse 16. This is the Lord speaking, but
rise and stand upon your feet, for I've prepared.
To you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and
witness for the things in which you have seen me and to those in
which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people,
from the Gentiles to whom I'm sending you to open their eyes
that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of
Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and
a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
Verse 19. Check this out.
Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly
vision. The God chosen for a work.
Yes, the God prepare for him a ministry absolutely.
The Paul have a choice, you better believe it.
He did have a choice and he says here I was not disobedient to
that vision. Does God have a call for your
life? Yes, according to Ephesians 210,
he has prepared for each of us a work that we should walk in
them. It's prepared, but you got to
walk in it. You got to walk in it.
And so Paul here says, I chose to walk in it.
Was he knocked down by that vision?
Did he have an amazing, credible, supernatural
experience of Christ? Yes.
With all of that said and done, he still was at a threshold and
he had to make a decision. Will I obey this or will I turn
my back on this? And he says to Agrippa, I'm
going to obey this. And I did obey this.
I wasn't disobedient to this vision.
I think that's an important remark to make.
He's chosen, but he has a choice.
Look at verse 17 of Acts 9. So Ananias departed and entered
the house and laying his hands on him he said, Brother Saul,
Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came,
has sent me to you, that you may regain your sight and be filled
with the Holy Spirit. I wish there was a little like
video clip of Ananias hearing from the Lord and the Lord
saying I know he solitizes but go, go go.
He's a chosen instrument of mine.
What did this man look like? Did he walk?
Did he walk around that street called straight a few times
before he walked in? There's no sense of that.
He he obeyed. He obeyed the Lord and he had
this boldness and he had this courage and he walks into this
place and notice this again. Don't read your Bible too fast.
What are the first words of Ananias when he meets Saul?
Brothers Saul. Wow, brothers Saul.
Just a few verses ago, he was like, this guy wants to murder
us. He's changed, He's praying, and
he believed that. And when he saw Saul listen to
this, before Saul's eyes would even see, remember the scales
were falling off his eyes After this, you know where the first
one of the first words he heard a person that he was determined
to kill calling him brother. So Acts 9/22/26 really details
for us the supernatural nature of Paul's conversion, but within
it are other supernatural occurrences, including this one.
Paul experienced Christ in a miraculous way, but there's a
miracle within the miracle in the story, and it's in the life
of Ananias because what Ananias shows is what a relationship
with Jesus Christ can do to us and how we view others.
Paul teaches us how Christ can save anybody.
Ananias shows us how we, because of Christ, can love anybody.
Brother Saul, if you are a devout, ready man who loves the
Lord, not only will you know potential moments of obedience
and service that will exhilarate your life and bless others, but
you will know a heart change in ways that you never thought was
possible. There is so much hatred in this
world. It's nauseating.
And if it's going to, if it's
going to be anywhere, let it be out in the world.
But God help us in the church. Only Jesus Christ can work in a
heart so powerfully where you can look at the person who had
governmental permission to hurt you.
And you say you're my brother because of Christ, because you
repented and put your faith, now you're my brother.
You can't love like that without Jesus.
You can't. And if you want to see miracles
in your marriage, miracles in your relationships, miracles
even with your enemies, listen. We're living in a world where
Satan is creating a sense of divide unlike any other time in
recent history. Because Satan knows if he can
divide, he can conquer. And the antidote to that is
Christ. So working in our hearts that we
can look at others and called them brothers, sisters Ananias
went and he called them brother Psalm.
And he lays hands on him. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Look what happens here verse 18. And immediately something like
scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
Then he rose and was baptized and taking food, he was
strengthened. So there was no waste of time
here. Ananias obeyed the Lord, and now
Saul is ready to obey the Lord. And one of the first few things
that you do when you want to obey the Lord when you first get
saved. It's OK.
Where's some water? I got to get wet and publicly
declare my faith in Christ. But notice this interesting
phrase. Here.
We're told that he was strengthened.
This is speaking about physical strength.
But it doesn't end there with Paul.
When you read down here, you realize that there was another
strength that he experienced. Look at verse 22.
But Saul increased all the more in strength.
But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the
Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the
Christ. That's not speaking about a
physical strength, that's speaking about a spiritual
strength. So yes, I mean, he was, he was
detained and confined for a few days.
So he needed some physical nourishment.
But shortly after that, he, he tastes and he now invests in
another kind of nourishment for his soul.
He, he was strengthened spiritually.
And can I tell you why he was strengthened spiritually?
Can I tell you why he gave that dedication to his spiritual
strengthened state? And vigor because Ananias told
them something. See Ananias is very brief here
in Acts 9, but when you go to Acts 2022, he elaborated more
according to Paul and look what he says to to Paul in Acts 22.
Look at verse 14 and he said, the God of our fathers appointed
to you to know his will to see the righteous, wanted to hear a
voice from his mouth. That appointment that Paul had,
yes, it was a unique as as an apostle, but let me give you a
thrilling thought this morning. We all have been appointed to
know his will, every single one of us.
And I wonder like Paul, if you are investing in discovering
that. See, Paul wasn't just focused on
the material. Paul wasn't just focused on his
physical condition. Paul realized that there was
something else. There was more to this life.
And it's going to require my participation, my willingness to
know it. I've been appointed to know it,
but it's required something for me to unfold it and to realize
it. And so Paul asked two questions
when he met Christ. And some of you've heard me say
this before, but I can never shake it off because what?
Paul asked when he met Christ is something that a true believer
will ask when he meets Christ and will continue to ask, ask he
as he walks with Christ. And this is where we're almost
ending in Acts 9. Paul asked two questions.
Excuse me, It's actually in this chapter in Acts 22.
So you don't have to go back and forth anymore.
Look back here, verse eight of Acts 22.
This is when Paul met Christ for himself before he encountered
Ananias. The Lord meets him, stops him in
his tracks. And verse 8 and I answered,
here's the first question, who are you, Lord?
And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are
persecuting. Listen, when you first get
saved, you will ask that same question, not just in the
moment, you will always ask it, Who are you, Lord?
Can I ask you? Are you asking that?
Is there anything in your heart today, this weekend we say there
is a yearning in my life to know the person of Jesus Christ.
I know he saved me, but I I want to savor him now.
I want to know who he is, how he thinks, how he feels, what's his
will. Is there anything in you that
says I'm on that journey? Or was it something of the past?
Was it something momentary? But it's dissipated and it's
evaporated because you're now more concerned about
strengthening your bank account more than anything else and
strengthening your relationships that are not necessarily even
godly relationships to begin with.
Strengthening your security and your provision to come.
Strengthening the future of this or the future of that.
Here's a man who tells us that when you really meet Christ and
taste of His glory, you will want to know more of Him.
You can't exhaust him. Who are you, Lord?
But that's not the only question.
Verse nine. Now those who were with me saw
the light, but did not understand the voice of the one
who was speaking to me. And this is the second question
in verse 10. And I said, What shall I do,
Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise
and go into Damascus, and there you'll be told all that is
appointed for you to do. That's the second thing.
Pause. And that's the second thing a
true believer will ask. After he meets Christ, not just
who are you? But what do you want me to do
now? What's my purpose?
What's my gift? What church do you want me to be
a part of? Where do you want me to go?
Where do you want me to say stay?
Lord? I've been doing this for this
long. Do you want me to change?
Lord? I've been serving in this way.
Do you want me to shift? What do you want me to do, Lord?
And let me say this boldly. I know it's the morning session,
but I can't help it. I'm sorry if you have never
asked. Who are you, Lord, and what
shall I do, Lord, You've probably never met Christ.
You haven't. You've heard about him, You've
probably been moved by others who've spoken of Him.
You probably like the songs that sing about Him.
But you haven't met him. If you've never asked, who are
you? And you've never asked, What do
you want me to do? Now let me qualify by saying
it's possible for somebody to meet the Lord and be in a season
in which they're not interested in those things.
And that's where you need a fresh touch from the Lord to
come back to those things being priority in your life.
But if you've never. Inquired.
And you have the audacity to call yourself a born again
Christian? Reconsider.
It's impossible.
It's impossible to meet him and not ask these things.
Who are you, Lord? What do you want me to do?
And that's what Paul shows later on, that this thing lived in him
beyond Acts chapter 9/22/26. Can I show it to you?
Look at Philippians with me, please.
And look at chapter 3 and look at verse 8.
Unlike many who as the years go by lose interest in those
questions, for Paul that only intensified.
Indeed, I count everything as lost because of their surpassing
worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for His sake, I've
suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish.
You know what that word rubbish is in the original dung.
If you don't know what dung is, look it up later and count them
as rubbish. In order that I may gain Christ
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that
comes from the law, by that which comes through faith in
Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith that I
may know Him. Verse 10.
Well. Paul.
You knew him, You met him. You saw him with your own eyes,
you heard him with your own ears.
But you don't understand. There's more.
There's so much more to know, verse 10, that I may know him.
So listen, if Paul met Christ in such a significant supernatural
way and still after years says I'm still on this quest to know
him, what right do we have to be content where we're at with
Christ? No, right, The lovely believers
here. And I've already talked to a
handful of people with amazing testimonies here, but I've yet
to hear anybody who has a testimony like Paul's.
It would actually concern me if somebody had a testimony like
Paul's with all the wonderful testimonies here.
Please understand that Paul Trump's it all.
And he needed that testimony in order to be a true apostle.
But listen to this. He saw Christ, he heard Christ,
experienced a touch from Christ, and years down the door he goes,
I still need to know Christ. So why is it that we're content
with our boredom with Christ? Something's wrong.
That I may know in verse 10 and
the power of His resurrection, and may share his sufferings,
becoming like Him in his death, That by any means possum, I may
attain to the resurrection from the dead.
And here's the humbling part. Look at verse 12.
Not that I've already obtained this, huh?
Not that I've already obtained this or I am already perfect,
but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me
His own. So this is a very
straightforward, simple, simple sermon and the sermons to come.
There's going to be a lot of cross referencing, but I just
want to ask you if you've been asking those questions recently,
who are you, Lord, what shall I do?
Because you as a Christian have been appointed to know who He
is, to know His will. You know what's so amazing?
After Acts 9 by way of narrative, you never hear of
Ananias again. He disappears, but he is forever
connected to the world evangelizing ministry of the
Apostle Paul. And also, is He attached to the
fact that He played a role in a man who would write most of the
New Testament? So knowing his will may not
necessarily mean having this grand, spectacular,
internationally recognized ministry.
You might be a disciple who will be hidden in plain sight for
most of your life, but have momentary times of obedience.
If you yield to Him that can make an impact beyond what you
can imagine. Do not disqualify or
underestimate how you remaining devout and ready to do the will
of the Lord can cause something that can change the world.
Ananias is evidence of that. Ananias, Paul is praying.
You can go to him, and later we're going to discover the
amazing prayer life of Paul that will surely add fuel to your
fire. In that same practice, let's
seek the Lord together, shall we?
But we thank you for allowing us to get a glimpse of a man who
did not deserve to be saved, but was wonderfully snatched from
the domain of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of
your beloved Son. But we also thank you that in
his story is another story of a man who is simply a disciple
reminds us that if we simply focus on our devotion and are
constantly ready to do what you will, that you can recruit us at
any moment to do wonderful things below whatever, whether
it's wonderful or not. Help us simply be consumed with
the personal intimate passion to know who you are and to do
whatever it is that you want us to do, whether it's praised or
overlooked, whether it's public or private.
Help us, Lord, find delight again in that pursuit.
And so, Lord, we just ask that even this conference would be
used as recalibration to asking who are you, Lord, and to
seeking you about what we shall do.
And we trust that as we do that, you're going to be faithful to
answer. We love you and we look to you
and we honor you in Jesus name, Amen.
The priest thing can come.