This morning, as our Associate Pastor Nikki Passante
preached about Saul’s conversion experience on the road to Damascus (Act 9), I
found myself focusing even more on the experience of Ananias, a man Nikki
called “a forgotten hero of the Christian church.”
Just a quick refresher in case you have forgotten: The New Testament Saul is the man we meet in
the Book of Acts, standing around satisfied at the stoning of Stephen, who was the
first martyr of the Christian church (Acts 8:1).
Saul is the man who began destroying the
church by dragging Christian believers from their homes to put them in prison
(Acts 8:3), and who was described as “breathing out murderous threats against
the Lord’s disciples” (Acts 9:1).
 |
| Source |
And Saul wasn’t content to persecute Christians in
his own city; he went so far as to travel to other towns in order to round up believers and bring them back to
Jerusalem to be stoned like Stephen (Acts 9:2).
Ananias is a believer in the city of Damascus (Acts 9:10,
13), who is familiar with Saul's threatening reputation. Yet he has a vision from the Lord that tells
him that when Saul shows up in town, Ananias should go to the house where he is
staying, ask for him, and then place hands on him to restore his sight (Acts
9:11-12).
 |
| Source |
Now, Ananias has probably not yet heard about what happened
to Saul on the way to Damascus. He may
not yet know that the risen Christ has appeared to Saul, asking him, “Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). He may not yet know that Saul has
spent the last three days blind, and not eating or drinking anything (Acts 9:9). He definitely does not yet know that Saul is
going to be converted to Paul, and will become one of the great founding
fathers of the faith, who carries the Good News of the Gospel around the
then-known world.
Because of his limited information, we can rightly understand
Ananias’ reaction as a more-eloquently rendered version of “Say what?!”
Ananias, no less than Saul, faces a moment of crisis. If he obeys the Lord’s call on his life, and
shows up at the house of Judas on Straight Street (Acts 9:11), and faces this
man with a horrifying reputation, what will happen to him? After all, without
God’s intervention, Ananias certainly would have been one of the very
Christ-followers that Saul was intending to round up!
Ananias has absolutely no
reason to believe that he will be safe when he comes face-to-face with
Saul, the Christian-persecutor. He has
absolutely no reason to believe that
he won’t be dragged off to Jerusalem to be stoned.
No reason, that
is, except a powerful faith in the Lord who appeared to him in his vision, and
called him by name (Acts 9:10).
 |
| Source |
Just as Saul ultimately chooses to surrender to Christ in
response to his vision of the Risen Lord, so Ananias chooses to surrender to
Him, to facilitate Saul’s conversion, and to play a role in the emerging faith
of this man who will one day be a mighty leader for the Christian church.
Pastor Nikki challenged us at the beginning of her sermon to
determine where we can find ourselves and our lives in the pages of the Book of
Acts. I am thinking about what Ananias
and his example has to teach us as followers of Christ.
Ananias seems almost like a footnote to the account of one
of the great founding fathers of our faith. While Paul is responsible for
writing as many as 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament, we have only ten
verses about Ananias. Yet, as Nikki
preached this morning, “Thank God for Ananias.”
We may not be prominent pillars of the church, the kind that
will go down in history, the kind whose words will be studied for greater
understanding of God and His Will. Yet,
the story of Ananias makes me ask myself: Since we have been given this amazing
and unfathomable gift of faith, who then can we share it with? Whose lives can
we touch with it? Who stands there waiting to be called “Brother” or “Sister”?
Who waits to be on the receiving end of our outstretched hand?
I’ve heard it said that when God calls His people, He equips
them for His call, and I see this exemplified in the story of Ananias. Ananias demonstrated radical faith, radical
trust, and radical obedience to his Lord, and God was able to use Ananias for
His good purposes.
Ananias faced what was probably his very greatest fear as a
new and vulnerable follower of Christ, and his courage was rewarded, not only
with God’s protection, but with a key role in the unfolding of God’s great plan
of salvation for the world. May we be equally open to God’s call on our lives!
God can use us when we don’t choose to ignore His call. May we also hear, accept, and obey God’s call on our lives: a call to show
up, a call to reach out, and a
call to build the body of Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment