The obedience of one man changes everything. And he is almost an insignificant man.
• In the middle of a very dramatic, miraculous story of change, a quite unknown man appears.
• It’s easy to miss him, and even if you’ve heard the story of Paul on the road to Damascus many times before, it’s quite possible we’ve never really taken in this other fellow. I am talking about Ananias.
Who cares about Ananias? Yet God uses him, and in a significant way.
• He is the bridge that helps connect Saul into his new life in Christ, into God’s church.
• His action was really momentous – he prayed and Saul received his sight, and was filled with the Holy Spirit, and baptised, and he started to eat.
• God saved Saul, but God needs people like Ananias to help connect him to the church.
Who is this man Ananias? We don’t know much, except what Paul says in Acts 22.
• Paul mentioned him while sharing his testimony. Acts 22:12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.”
• The Lord has this simple job for him – go to a particular place and pray for this man.
• We really do not know how Ananias felt about it. We will never know. Ananias is never heard from again. He evidently went back home and went on about his business, having played his small but significant part in this great drama of Paul’s conversion.
Yet without his willing assistance, this would not be possible.
• There is a show many years back called “Extraordinary People”. It is not about the rich and famous, the high and mighty, but very ordinary people, but doing extraordinary things to others.
• They leave behind no statues or monuments, but they did things that inspire us. No one makes a wax figure of them and puts it in the museum, but we see the fruits of the labour today.
It’s true also in the history of faith. Again and again, God uses us ordinary, little people, to accomplish great things.
• I can imagine Ananias saying: “Lord, I don’t mind a simple evangelism; I love to see new people joining our church, but not this. He is not ordinary; he is a murderer. Has he really changed? Could this be a trap? Why take such a risk?”
• But Ananias went. On the basis of nothing, except what God just said. He trusted God. Or rather, he was WILLING to trust God.
Can we learn to trust God, simply on the basis of what He says?
• Are we WILLING to? Sometimes, it is not a lack of evidences but a lack of willingness. People just do not want to trust God.
• The Israelites have seen many miracles in their exodus from Egypt, but that did not change them. They ended up wandering in the wilderness because of their unbelief.
Ananias chose to obey God. There is some risk involved, but he has faith in what God said.
• It is one thing to hear God’s voice; it is another thing to obey Him.
• Notice this, all Ananias needs to do was to go to a particular place and pray.
• Frankly, it requires no skills or talents. God requires none of Ananias ability but his willingness to go. “Go!” the Lord says in verse 15.
• That willingness is all that is required! The hymn says it right, “Trust and Obey” for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
God set this appointment up.
• It is a “divine appointment”, not one that you can arrange. Only God can.
• Just like Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch we saw in Acts 8.
God does that today. That’s why we can expect “divine appointments” in life.
• The Lord sets them up. The neighbour that we bump into today, or the person that sits next to us, may not be coincidences.
• God leads us to see needs around us. They are interruptions to our normal routines, but they are divinely arranged.
• We are caused to see people’s needs, their loneliness, and their hurts because Jesus wants us to connect with them.
Ananias was listening to God’s voice, most likely because he was in prayer.
• How can you be listening if you are not tuning to Him? If we are busy doing 101 other things?
• And he recognized His voice, unlike Saul. When the Lord calls Saul, he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” (v.5) But when He calls Ananias, his reply was “Yes, Lord.” (v.10)
He must have spent much time with the Lord, to be able to recognise His voice. Paul says he is a devout man.
• Make time to hear God. We want to set aside time to meet Him and hear Him.
• I need that. More than talking and doing things, I need to listen more, to what God has to say.
• So we want to spend time in prayer. Once a month, on a Sat I hope we can meet and pray. Beside our own personal prayers, we want to unite our heart for common concerns. So this month Aug 22 (Sat) 3.00-4.00pm we’ll stand in the gap and pray.
• Only then can we expect answers. Only then can we see the hand of God moving in response to our prayer.
Mary Southerland (Director of women’s ministry at Westside Family Church in Lenexa, Kansas):
God is up-close and personal. He met Nicodemus at night. He met the woman at the well of Samaria. He met the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. And he touched the blind man, giving him sight. As he walked through Jericho, Jesus saw a little man perched in a tree and called to him, “Zacchaeus, come down. We have a lunch appointment.” He met Matthew at the customs’ table and told him, “Rise, and follow me.”
[added: He spoke to Saul alone on the road. He spoke to him while again while he was praying in the house on Straight Street. He spoke to Ananias in prayer.]
We come to Jesus alone. It’s always one-on-one and very personal. What you believe about Him in the silence and stillness of your heart is what makes the difference in your life journey. The heart is where all spiritual transactions are made and the transformation process begins.
Can you see the amazing way God speaks?
• God calls Ananias in a vision, and ask him to go find Saul and pray for him.
• And then God prepares Saul’s heart. While Saul was blind and praying in the house of Judas (someone took him in! God prepares someone in Straight Street!).
• God showed him that “a man named Ananias will come and place his hands on him to restore his sight!” (v.12)
We see the Spirit of God doing this many times.
• In the earlier chapter (chap.8), He speaks to Philip, ask him to go to the desert road and get near the chariot. And then the Spirit speaks to the Ethiopian eunuch through the words of Isaiah, preparing him, enlightening him and then saves him.
• Again in the next chapter (chap.10). God speaks to Cornelius (Caesarea), asking him to send men to Joppa and find Peter, who will explain the Gospel to him. And then the Spirit prepares Peter’s heart. He saw a vision, and the Spirit says (10:19-20) there are men looking for you, go with them to Cornelius’ house.
God speaks and prepares the heart of the one called to do the job or speak the word, and God speaks and prepares the one who is going to receive His word.
• The Spirit of God works in the hearts of the one who is called and the one who is receiving.
• That’s evangelism. That’s what happens in evangelism.
Both of them Cornelius and Peter were praying when God connects with them.
• Both of them Ananias and Saul were praying when God connects with them.
• God connects with us when we pray! God speaks when we seek Him!
Ananias heard God’s voice, but he has his concerns.
• They are real concerns, not just excuses. Ananias did not know at this point what really happened to Saul.
• He tells the Lord his concerns and the Lord assures him.
• That’s the principle we adopt when we are unsure if it is God’s will. Ask Him again. God will speak again and assures you.
And Ananias obeys what God tells him to do. It’s our greatest privilege.
• We can never tell what God will do with our willingness.
• I don’t think Ananias knows the significance of what he is about to do! He changed Paul life and the climax of the entire region. He changed history in a sense.
• Because one man is willing to obey God and do a simple job.
Ananias never knew in his lifetime the full extent of what his obedience meant.
• But the Lord knows, and we know now.
• What the Lord said came true: “This man is my chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.” (v.15)
Isn’t it great to be an Ananias?
• Isn’t it wonderful to be able to help bridge someone into God’s kingdom? Isn’t it great to help someone get connected to Christ and His church?
• Could it be we have already encountered a few “divine appointments” and not realise them? Or has God been calling, and we did not recognize His voice? And missed a few life-changing opportunities?
SAVED AND SAVING - D. L. Moody shared this:
One day I saw a steel engraving that I liked very much. I thought it was the finest thing I ever had seen, at the time, and I bought it. It was a picture of a woman coming out of the water, and clinging with both arms to the cross. There she came out of the drowning waves with both arms around the cross perfectly safe.
Afterward, I saw another picture that spoiled this one for me entirely. It was so much lovelier. It was a picture of a person coming out of the dark waters, with one arm clinging to the cross and with the other she was lifting some one else out of the waves. That is what I like. Keep a firm hold upon the cross, but always try to rescue another from the drowning.
Can we be an Ananias in someone’s life? Why not? Let’s do that!
• We are the Ananias God can use in someone’s life!
Let us pray:
Lord, you have come to us, called us to be your disciples. We want to be faithful to that vocation, but it isn’t easy. Help us to be faithful: to go where we may not want to go, to speak with those we might just as well prefer to avoid, to reach out to those we would rather ignore. Make us better than we are on our own for your kingdom’s sake. Amen.
