WWUTT 2608 Saul Becomes a Disciple of Jesus (Acts 9:10-19)

Jesus sent a man named Ananias to Saul, who laid hands on him and prayed for him, and something like scales fell from Saul's eyes. Physically, he could see again, but most especially he saw with spiritual eyes.

When we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study in Acts chapter 9 where we are reading of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus into a disciple of Jesus Christ. He has gone from a persecutor of the church and Jesus is going to make him an apostle of the gospel to the nations.

So let me read verses 10 through 19. Hear the word of the Lord. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord. And the Lord said to him, Rise up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas, for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight.

But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

But the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear my name before Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. So Ananias departed and entered the house, and he laid his hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord sent me, that is, Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he rose up and was baptized, and he took food and was strengthened. Now this narrative that we read today really is divided into just two parts.

First of all, you have the interaction between Jesus and Ananias, and then you have Ananias going to Saul, laying hands on him, he regains his sight, and he is baptized. So first of all, verses 10 through 16 are Jesus speaking with Ananias, and then 17 to 19, Ananias speaking with Saul.

So verse 10, once again, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. Now I mentioned yesterday how there were a lot of Jews that were there in Damascus, many synagogues, or at least a synagogue, many teachers, and there were Christians then who had gone from Jerusalem back up to Damascus as they were fleeing the persecution that had started against them there.

Persecution had not yet spread to other places. That's where it started. Saul is even gaining letters from the high priest that he can go to Damascus and round up Christians there. So the persecution is going to spread, but for now, Christians are fleeing to places of safety, and they've believed that Damascus is one of those places where they are safe.

The word of God is there, as it's taught in the synagogue. They are able to access the Old Testament scriptures and continue to proclaim that Jesus is the Christ who fulfills everything that was said in the law and the prophets.

Saul wants to put them to death because he believes that he is upholding the word of God when he does so. But the Lord appears to him on the road and says to him, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. Saul is blinded so that he has to be led by the hand into Damascus, and there he is waiting for three days, as we read yesterday in verse 9, three days without sight, and he neither ate nor drank.

So he is fasting and praying. And the Lord says to Ananias that Saul has received a vision. So again, verse 10, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. Now we don't know what Ananias' story is.

There was another Ananias we read about in Acts, right? There was Ananias and Sapphira, and they disobeyed God. They lied to the Holy Spirit and were struck dead because of it. This is not that Ananias, very obviously, but it is the same name.

We see a lot of the same names will pop up, and we just have to pay attention to the context to know who we're talking about. He goes to the house of a man named Judas. We know Judas was a very common name.

Jesus actually had two disciples among the 12 who were called Judas. And Jesus' name is actually synonymous with Joshua. So where you see the name Joshua, that's also the same as the name Jesus. Anyway, so you have this man named Ananias.

We don't know if he had been there in Damascus and had learned the gospel or if he was a Christian that had come down to Jerusalem and heard the gospel and then went back up to Damascus. Whatever Ananias' backstory, we aren't told.

But this is the man the Lord chooses to go to Saul and lay hands on him and baptize him. In verse 11, the Lord said to him, rise up and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying.

And he is seen in a vision, a man named Ananias come in and lay hands on him so that he might regain his sight. So God has given this vision to Ananias and or sorry, not to Ananias, to Saul. Saul has received a vision of the man named Ananias who would come to him.

And he would know for certain that this vision was from the Lord when the man named Ananias would come. Sometimes we have this idea about like visions and voices from God that as soon as you hear it or as soon as you see it, you just know it's from God.

But you won't know for certain that it was the Lord until it comes to pass. Right? How do you know it's not the voice of your own mind that is speaking to you and rather than the voice of God? So Saul in his state is going to know this vision truly came from the Lord because Ananias is going to come to him.

And then he will know God has sent you because I had this vision that Ananias would come to me and and would baptize me. So Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem.

Now, Ananias' response to God in verse 10 is to say, here I am, Lord. That's a contrast between Ananias and Saul, right? Jesus speaks to him and says, Ananias, and Ananias replies, here I am, Lord. Jesus speaks to Saul and says, Saul, okay, same thing.

It is it is the their address. The Lord is addressing them by their names. Okay, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He comes to Ananias and says, Ananias. So he addresses them by name. Saul's response is, who are you, Lord?

Because he doesn't know the Lord. And Ananias' response is, here I am, Lord. He does know the Lord. And he knows that this voice that has come to him, he knows the one who is addressing him is, is God, is the son of God, the very one whom he worships, whom he had heard about in the gospel and has come to faith in.

But he knows about Saul. He knows that Saul is not a man of this faith. And so I've heard, he says, I've heard how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.

Now, to give Ananias some grace here, it does not appear as if he's arguing with God. It does not appear, by the words that we have, it's not like Ananias is going, oh, God, I can't go do that. If I go do that, he's going to kill me.

That does not appear to be his response. But the way that he replies is as if to get some clarity here, so to speak. Like, is he saying, God, I've heard about this guy and he's putting Christians to death.

Is that what I need to be prepared for? Is that what I need to know is coming? Like, if we were to read Ananias' response and we were to assume that Ananias is saying, I can't go convert this man. He hates you and he hates Christians.

Then we would be reading something into the text that isn't there. Because it does not appear as if Ananias has some sort of animus against Paul, or that he's even arguing with God about whether or not he should go and put hands on him and baptize him.

Like, Ananias is more simply going, is this how I'm going to come and meet you face to.

Face?

Like, are you sending me there that I'm going to die? It's almost as if Ananias is just responding to gain clarity about this situation. Lord, I've heard about many about this man. He did harm to your saints at Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name. So what am I walking into exactly? What are you asking me to go do? And then the Lord said to him, go. Now, that would be great assurance to Ananias.

It's not that the Lord is appearing to him and saying, hey, you need to be careful and you need to get out of here. No, he wants him to go lay hands on him that he might regain his sight. So the Lord says to him, go.

You will be safe. You will be fine.

Why?

Because he is a chosen instrument of mine to bear my name before the Gentiles and the kings and the sons of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. Now, of course, we see that come to fulfillment in Acts, that Paul does exactly that.

He appears before Gentiles and kings. I've already mentioned Acts 26, where Paul is before King Agrippa. And he also preaches before the sons of Israel. We see that in Jerusalem before he's arrested and then taken to Rome.

So Paul will fulfill all of that. We'll see all of that happen in the book of Acts. But then Jesus also saying, for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. Paul had made other Christians suffered, and now he was going to suffer.

But what he was going to suffer for would be eternal life. What he was causing other Christians to suffer for at the time that he was persecuting Christians, well, he thought he was sending them on a one-way ticket to hell.

Like if you're going to speak against the word of God, well, we're going to put you to death and you're going to go meet God right now. That's what Paul thought he was doing when he was upholding the pharisaical law and putting Christians to death for blasphemy.

But now he's going to be the guy who is going to go and proclaim the gospel and be persecuted for it as he was one who persecuted. So now he is going to be persecuted. But this is not payback. This is not God getting him back.

Jesus now getting him back because you were persecuting my people. So now I'm going to make it happen to you. Rather, this is the grace of God. And Paul would even share that in later testimonies. I read earlier this week, his testimony in Philippians chapter three.

Of course, he shares his testimony elsewhere. Galatians chapter one, where he says, starting in verse 11, I make known to you brothers that the gospel, which I'm proclaiming as good news is not according to man.

For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure.

And I tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond my contemporaries among my countrymen, being far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God who had set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me so that I might proclaim him as good news among the Gentiles.

I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus. So we'll get to that here a little bit later.

We'll kind of fit that into the chronology of the things that we are reading about in the book of Acts. But then here, just simply saying that Paul had fully acknowledged this in all of his testimonies that he wrote to the churches.

He said, I used to persecute the church. In 1 Corinthians 15 even says that among the apostles, I am one as untimely born. I am the least of the apostles because he was the one who persecuted the church.

He was not privileged to pal around with Jesus during his earthly ministry, but rather was trying to put Christians to death. And yet God was pleased to reveal his son to me. God had set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through his grace.

So this is not Jesus getting even on him, but rather Jesus extending grace to Paul, saving him though what he deserves is to be put to death. He deserves to be put to death, not the Christians that he is rounding up to be put to death.

But Jesus by his grace has delivered him from the wrath of God and has appointed him now to go be a missionary for the gospel to the ends of the earth. And that's exactly what we're going to see him do as we go through the rest of the book of Acts.

And this, again, by the grace of God, this man who was so stubborn in his will, who was kicking against the goads, as I mentioned yesterday, who was a stiff necked Israelite rebelling against God like many of his fathers before him, like we've seen throughout the old Testament.

He actually did not have zeal for the word of God. He did not understand it and was putting Christians to death because of his faulty understanding. But Christ reveals himself to Paul and he becomes a Christian by God's grace, not because he decided, you know, I think I'm going to change teams here.

I'm going to go be a part of the team that's being persecuted. No, it was by God's grace that he was brought into the family of God. You know, there was a video some time ago. It was before COVID. So sometime in the 2010s, there was this video by Stephen Furtick.

Stephen Furtick is the pastor of Elevation Church, one of the largest churches in the country. In fact, their output of Christian music is so much, you may have even sung some of the songs that he's written in your church, Bethel, Elevation, and Hillsong, like the big three, that the most number of praise and worship songs that are sung in churches, not just in the United States, but all over the world.

Stephen Furtick is a false teacher, and I've highlighted that many, many times. And I wish that churches would not sing his songs. It's like they'll put out songs that sound pretty good and then draw you into this very errant teaching.

But the video that I'm thinking of in particular was a video where Stephen Furtick said that even the son of God cannot override your belief. Let me play it for you here.

The power of God was in Jesus. The healing power of God, the restoring power of God, the same power that made demons flee was in Nazareth, but Jesus could not release it because it was trapped in their unbelief.

And there's one thing that even Jesus can't do. One thing that even the son of God can't do. Even Jesus cannot override your unbelief. I see y 'all looking at me like, is that true? Thought he could do anything.

He said he could not. He wanted to. He was prepared to. He was able to.

And he couldn't.

The power of God was in Nazareth, but it was trapped in their perspective.

So obviously that teaching there that he's giving, even if you haven't heard the rest of the sermon, the context is that he's teaching from Mark chapter six, where he is, where Jesus is in Nazareth, but he is rejected by the people in his own hometown.

And Mark 6, five says he could do no miracle there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. Well, he did do miracles there. He laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

So what is meant by saying that he could do no miracle there? In other words, no miracle that he performed was going to convince the people because they were so hard in their heart. They would not believe.

It doesn't say that he couldn't override their unbelief, just that no matter what he did, they were not going to believe that the law and the prophets were pointing to him. If it is the case that Jesus cannot override your unbelief, then you can't pray to Jesus and ask him to help your unbelief.

Remember the boy's father who had come to Jesus in Mark 9, 24 and said, Lord, I do believe now help my unbelief to heal his son. If Jesus can't override your unbelief, then that's a fool's prayer. You can't ask Jesus to override your unbelief because apparently according to Stephen Furtick, he can't do it.

But of course, Stephen Furtick is lying. He is a false teacher and always has been. And I still pray that people would not be duped by this guy's messed up theology. Look at the apostle Paul. Jesus overrode his unbelief, didn't he?

This man was on his way to persecute Christians and Jesus would have been in the right to just launch a lightning bolt and fry him on the way to Damascus. But that's not the response that Jesus had to what Paul was doing.

Instead, he came to him and made him his disciple. Now, my friends, we have not had a Damascus road experience.

I don't know all of you,.

But I think I know people well enough that I can say none of us have had a Damascus road experience. You've not been walking along a road and Jesus just appeared to you and revealed himself to you, blinded your eyes, then somebody else came along, laid hands on you.

And then the scales that you had on your eyes that represent your spiritual blindness fell off. And then suddenly you saw the son of God and you became a Christian. None of us have had that experience.

But every single one of us has come to faith in Jesus Christ because he had grace on us. Not because we decided that I'm gonna become a follower of Christ, but because he chose us. And he changed our stony hearts into a heart that desired him and would follow him.

Jesus did that for us. That is the grace of God for us, for every convert, every single one of us, our belief, he overrode our unbelief. Jesus cannot override your unbelief. Yes, he can. He has done it for every believer that we would come to faith in him and so be saved.

It is always by the grace of God. And so as we finish up this narrative, Acts 9, 17, Ananias departed and he entered the house where Paul, Saul was, and he laid his hands on him and said, brother Saul, the Lord sent me.

That is Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming. Again, affirming to Saul, that's who it was that you saw. So that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes, something like scales.

Again, the physical blindness he had that represented his spiritual blindness now has been lifted from him. And he sees the savior. He regained his sight and he rose up and was baptized and he took food and was strengthened.

And my friends, the food that strengthens us spiritually every day is God's word. And it is also that word. It's that word that brought us to faith. It is also that word that strengthens our faith. So let us feast on it daily and give praise to God for the grace that he has shown to us, making us his children through faith in Jesus.

Heavenly father, I thank you that you overrode my unbelief, that you have made me your child. And as your child, may I walk in the ways that are pleasing to you. I desire to please my father. I desire to be like my savior, Jesus, who has called me to himself.

And let us also have boldness to share the gospel with others when you give us those opportunities, because it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that a person is saved, comes to salvation and everlasting life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

It's in his name that we pray.

Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow we'll pick up on an Old Testament study When We Understand The Text.