Sunday, June 18, 2023 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. We thank you, our

Heavenly Father, for being so good and so faithful, so long -suffering, knowing our frame that we are dust, knowing better than we know ourselves how deeply sin has stained within.

You have given us your Son, and with Him freely all things that we need to live as your children

You've given us your Son as our advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous, the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for men and women and children from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

We thank you for your promises this day, that we do not come with our promises of what we will do for you.

We come because of your promises, what you do for us.

So Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give us the grace on this day to rejoice in your truth, to say it like you say it, to find joy in it as you would have us to do.

We ask that you would do your work in us by your Holy Spirit, that you would cleanse us and that you would continue to conform us to your

Son, Jesus Christ, who is your image. It's in His name that we pray.

Amen. I invite you to open your

Bibles and turn with me to Acts, Acts chapter 9. We're going to be reading verses 10 through 19 as we continue the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.

The title of the sermon is, Grace, Grace, God's Grace. We certainly see that in the life of Saul, given who he was, what he thought, how he felt, what he was doing,

God's grace on display. Now that the fact that a man like Saul of Tarsus had the kind of power he did and accomplished the level of destruction that he did against the church was not a surprise to the disciples of Jesus, as he had instructed them and assured them that in this world they would have tribulation, that there would come a time in which those who tried to destroy them would think they were giving service to God.

They had been told that this was going to happen. He said that in this world you will have tribulation, but he also said something else, be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world. Not only does he overcome the world, but he overcomes the likes of Saul of Tarsus.

I invite you to stand with me as we read Acts chapter 9, beginning in verse 10.

This is the word of the Lord. Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named

Ananias, and to him the Lord said in a vision, Ananias, and he said, here

I am, Lord. So the Lord said to him, arise and go to the street called

Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called

Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named

Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered,

Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in 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 vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, for I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake.

And Ananias went his way, entered the house, and laying his hands on him, he said, brother

Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you in the road as you came, has sent me this that you may receive your sight and be filled with the

Holy Spirit. Immediately, there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized.

So when he had received food, he was strengthened, then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. All the sparrows fed, all the lilies clothed, all of our hours and our hairs cataloged, all of our deeds recorded, all of our tears collected, all of our days numbered, our names have been written, history has been scripted, the throne is occupied.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the

Lord forever. When you consider what the grace of God is and you consider who

God is, well, these are apples of gold and settings of silver.

This is the fitting word for our everyday and all of our anxieties and all of our fears and all of our situations is remembering the grace of God and the power of God together.

This is not grace that is wasted. This is not grace that is hapless.

This is not grace that says maybe. This is grace from God, bearing with it all of the weight and the power of who he is.

That's what we see going on in the life of Ananias, the life of Saul. Why does the 23rd

Psalm give us such comfort? It's because David reflects on the life of a sheep, and he recognizes the power and the sovereignty of the shepherd.

Look how the shepherd takes care of everything. Look how God organizes everything, provides for everything.

You know, it's interesting. Dads, pick up your little kid, hold him by the leg or the arm or a little bit around the waist, and you start swinging them around as hard, as fast as you can go, centripetal force just threatening to send them flying into a wall somewhere.

But they're laughing and giddy and joyful, aren't they? You know why?

Because you haven't let go of them. There's not some past event that's coloring the situation.

Children are fearless when their father is flawless. They're not scared when he is strong.

And as we reflect upon the grace of God, we see that his grace is that which arranges a sinner's conversion here in the life of Saul of Tarsus.

What is grace? Grace is God's deciding and doing for his glory, deciding and doing for his glory and our good, regardless of our merits.

It's him deciding, it's him doing, motivated by his own glory, bringing about our good, regardless of our merits.

Now, at the beginning of this chapter, we are reminded of Saul of Tarsus.

He was breathing threats and murder, inhaling vehemence, exhaling violence against the church.

And yet, God's grace upon Saul of Tarsus abounded far more than Saul's own commitments to his worldview, to his beliefs, to his course in life.

And so, God's grace accounts for the saving confrontation as Jesus graciously interrupts

Saul, interdicts him, indicts him, throws him down and blinds him and doesn't allow

Saul of Tarsus to be Saul of Tarsus. Oh, the grace of God, oh, the love of God, that He does not look upon us and say, you do you.

Romans 1 says, that's the wrath of God, that's hatred. God would not leave

Jacob alone, but He told Esau, you do you. Jacob, I have loved,

Esau, I have hated. And so, we see that God's grace is what arranges a sinner's conversion.

And as we've been going through the book of Acts, we're looking at the act of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, and there are none of the acts of Christ that are so special, none of them so command our attention, none of them so compel our affection as this, the conversion of sinners.

Think of the Pentecost crowd who heard the gospel preached in their own heart languages so they knew what was being said at a deep level and came to Christ by the thousands.

Think of the man who was born lame, who sat outside the gate beautiful and encountered Peter and John silver and gold.

We do not have, but what we do have, we give to you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk.

And then the crowds in Jerusalem and those who were gathered into Jerusalem from the surrounding villages, whether in the temple or in the streets, as thousands more came to faith in Jesus Christ and rejoicing, rejoicing in His truth.

And of course, the Samaritans who were cut off and despised, and yet they come to Christ and begin to be satisfied by the living water of the

Holy Spirit. And the Ethiopian who was going home, having met the wall, he could not go beyond in Jerusalem.

As an Ethiopian, as a eunuch, he was not allowed in. He had to worship from afar, from a distance, denied access, but on the way home,

Christ had sent Philip to welcome him in. And now, having confronted

Saul of Tarsus and not left him to wallow in his blindness without hope, having given him instructions to go into the city and to wait, we discover that God has sent a vision to Saul of Tarsus.

And He has told him that a man named Ananias is going to come by and He is going to heal you from your blindness.

Now, let's look at Ananias just for a second. The Lord comes to Ananias in a vision, says

His name, gets his attention. He says, here I am,

Lord. Who is this man? Who is Ananias? Well, we know from Acts 22 that he was well thought of by everybody in Damascus.

He had a good reputation amongst not only the believers, but also among the Jews. He was kind of like John the

Apostle who was able to walk right into the high priest's home on the night of the trial of Jesus.

He was that kind of fellow who could go into both worlds, accepted by everybody. Ananias, a name which in the

Hebrew is pronounced Hananiah, you know, Daniel's friend, which means a man of grace.

It means a man of grace. God has graciously given is the meaning of the name.

So here is a man of grace. When the Lord calls to him, he says in the fashion of Samuel and Isaiah, here am

I, Lord. Here am I, Lord. What a contrast to Saul of Tarsus before he knew what was going on, before the

Holy Spirit regenerated his heart, before he could finally see, though he was blind. When Jesus met

Saul, Saul says, who are you? When Jesus meets Ananias, he says, here

I am, Lord. So here is a man of grace put on a mission of grace.

Lord said to him, arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying.

And in a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him so that he might receive his sight.

Go find Saul of Tarsus. Just the name carries so much with it. Of Tarsus, born in Tarsus, that means he was born a

Roman citizen. He's insulated. No wonder the high priests were happy to send

Saul of Tarsus to go abroad in the empire and start imprisoning Jews. He had legal cover.

He was intimidating. Here was a man, as I was visiting with Brother Red the other night, reminded me that the equivalent of Saul's education when he was 19 years old was about three

PhDs. The man knew his stuff, who was

Ananias to go talk to this man. And of course, he's just infamous for his cruelty.

Going into homes and dragging out men and women and imprisoning them so that they could face death, killing

Christians over and over and over again. Hey, Ananias, go find

Saul of Tarsus, who's insulated by the law and intimidating in his credentials and he's infamous in his hatred.

Why? He's praying. What? He's praying. And it's not like, you know, the

Pharisee in Jesus' parable who was in the middle of the temple and was praying thus to himself. Not that kind of praying, no.

At this point, Saul of Tarsus is in the publican camp. God, be merciful.

Be propitious to me, a sinner. He's praying. He's praying to Christ.

He's been confronted by him. And he's had a vision from Jesus that he's going to be healed from his blindness, which, by the way,

Christ put on him. And he's sending Ananias there. And we discover the reason why is because it's time for him to be welcomed as a brother.

Welcome, Saul of Tarsus. Go lay hands on him and heal him.

Do you notice that God has, without permission, he has turned

Saul around from doing what he wanted to do against Saul's will, and then he's already told

Saul before he even checks in with Ananias that a man named Ananias is going to come, lay hands on you, and he's going to heal you.

Did he check with Ananias first? He did not. He speaks to Ananias and says, oh, this is already in the works.

Get up and go. Saul did not invite a blindness upon himself that came by the weight and the burning glory of God.

Ananias did not propose risking his personal safety and his family's safety and expose himself to the infamous

Saul of Tarsus. But what we find in the text is simply this.

God is not waiting on these men. They're waiting on him. They're waiting on him.

God is arranging their good to his glory without checking in with them first about their availability.

That's good news. That's good news. If he's checking in with me about my availability, then it's about my merits.

It's about my options. It's about my strength. But he's not checking in about that.

There is great cause for rejoicing as we reflect upon what God is up to here, how

God is acting and planning and speaking and doing all of these things and not doing things according to what

Saul of Tarsus would have intended or what Ananias would have intended.

But God is just acting. We love him because he first loved us, as the

Apostle John put it. For my own sake, for my own sake,

I will do it. For how shall my name be profaned and my glory I will not give to another.

Acts 48, 11. This is why God acts. This is why God works for his own glory. Paul put it this way in Ephesians 2, 5, even when we were dead in trespasses,

God made us alive together with Christ. By grace, we have been saved.

Romans 5, 6 through 11. For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, of whom

Saul of Tarsus was chief. The worst, the farthest gone, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Do you know how often we need to go back to square one? You know how often we need to go back and reflect upon what does it mean to be saved by the blood of Jesus?

Every single morning, noon and night, restore unto us the joy of our salvation,

God's salvation brought to us. Now, Ananias has a problem with this plan.

Verse 13, then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.

And here he has authority from the chief priest to bind all who call on your name.

The man of grace has received a vision, of course, Saul of Tarsus has also received a vision. This is grace from God.

But now, what about Ananias' perspective? Is he wrong? Is he stating untruths?

Has he got the facts wrong? Not at all. This is all very accurate.

Paul put it this way in Acts 22, verses 4 through 5. He says, I persecuted this Way, capital

W, Way, we're talking about Christians early on when they were the Way, because Jesus was the

Way, the truth, and the life. I persecuted this Way to the death. He wasn't just, you know, making things uncomfortable.

He wasn't going for public shaming. He wasn't even going for turning off their social media accounts.

He wasn't going for them losing their jobs. You know, all these people today, they're hacks, they're weak, it's weak sauce.

This is real persecution. This is genuine article. Saul of Tarsus was trying to kill as many

Christians as he could and as little time as possible. He hated them binding and delivering into prisons, both men and women.

Again, prisons are just the holding cell till you get executed in Paul's day. As also the high priest bears me witness and all the counsel of the elders from whom

I received letters to the brethren and went to Damascus to bring in chains, even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.

He says in Acts 26, verse 10, that when when the Christians were when the saints were put to death, I cast my vote against them and I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly enraged against them.

I persecuted them even to foreign cities. This is Saul of Tarsus and Ananias, why are we healing this guy?

Seriously, why are we healing this guy? If he's blind and praying, he's not out there killing the saints.

Why are we doing this? I don't want to go talk to Pharaoh.

I don't want to go talk to none of them. I don't want to go talk to Saul of Tarsus. He's just going to keep doing wrong.

You know, in fact, he deserves to be blind. I mean, he's done way worse. I mean,

OK, fine, maybe he's saved and maybe he's going to go to heaven. But, you know, he deserves to be blind for the rest of his life for what he did.

How can we justify alleviating the suffering of such a man? You know, our sense of justice.

Is sometimes very, very foreign from God's sovereign grace. Well, God informs

Ananias that even though Saul of Tarsus has a terrible reputation, in fact, he is God's chosen, chosen representative.

Verse 15, but the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel.

For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. Saul of Tarsus is

God's instrument of choice. Saul is God's expert witness.

He's going to come with all the facts, how all of the Scriptures testify to Jesus of Nazareth as the

Christ, and how the life and death and resurrection of Jesus was all according to the

Scriptures. And he's going to reason with the Jews daily, and he's going to even reason with the

Gentiles, and he is going to proclaim to them Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the son of the living

God. Saul is going to be God's character witness.

This is the way I was. Here was the horrid things that I used to do. I was completely opposed to Christianity.

But now and now I am the bond slave of Jesus Christ. Paul is the witness, the chosen instrument of Jesus.

As Paul points out, he was selected not because of his merits, not because of his credentials, not because of anything other than God's mercy.

That the chief of all sinners would be redeemed, that he would be saved.

And then there's just this total reversal in his life. God says, look, he's mine.

I've chosen him, and here's what he's going to do. He's going to bear my name. He's going to bear the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

He's going to bear the name of the way, and he's going to do so before Gentiles, kings, and all the children of Israel.

So what is this saying? It says that Paul is going to bear the name of Christ.

Paul is going to suffer for the name of Christ. Saul of Tarsus will be

Paul, the bond servant of Jesus, bearing Jesus's name, not his own name, even to the point where he doesn't even use his own name anymore.

We're going to move away from Saul, and we're going to call ourselves Paul, which just means little to nothing.

Little, and I'm going to bear Christ's name. I want you to pay attention here.

What does it mean that Paul is going to bear Christ's name? It means that what he is going to do and how much he's going to suffer for the name of Christ, we must be very clear on this, his suffering to come, his tasks ahead of him, what he's been called to do, this is not his penance.

This is not his punishment. The suffering for his transgressions, as many as they were, were completely satisfied by Christ upon the cross.

So, yes, Saul of Tarsus was a very great sinner, indeed, the chief of sinners, but what he had in front of him was not some form of penance where he's trying to make it up to God and everybody else.

Paul is not earning his way in or trying to stay himself in.

This is the grace of God. It's the grace of God.

And then we come upon a gracious sight. Verse 17,

Ananias went his way and entered the house, laying his hands on him, he said,

Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the

Holy Spirit. Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once and he arose and was baptized.

So when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus.

You see the welcome of Christ here? Only Christ could bring in Saul of Tarsus like this.

Only Christ can bring you in and me in. Ananias obeys.

And as Christ had loved Ananias, so Ananias loves

Saul. And he comes to Saul, this very great sinner, he lays his hands upon him in welcome, and he calls him his brother.

Now Saul of Tarsus is a one another, a brother of Ananias, and God heals him.

There's a gracious embrace. He puts his hands on him. It's a gracious address. He calls him a brother and a gracious reminder, the

Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road to Damascus has sent me. And Ananias is a chosen instrument as well to bring about healing and the filling of the spirit and to baptize

Saul. Now, as we saw in chapter eight with the

Samaritans and gave some thought to about what happened on the day of Pentecost, we are reminded that the saving work of the

Holy Spirit to bring about the new birth is present in the old covenant and in the new.

But in the old covenant, God indwelt the temple, the tabernacle.

He dwelt among his people there. The presence of God, the spirit of God filled the holy of holies in the midst of his people.

But in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit, well, he still indwells the temple, but the temple is made up of living stones.

And as the new covenant gets unfolded in front of everybody here in the book of Acts, people that have no business in the old covenant belonging are belonging now.

And this is being emphasized with exclamation point after exclamation point as the

Holy Spirit fills folks like Samaritans and folks like Saul of Tarsus.

And in chapter 10, folks like Cornelius and these Gentiles over and over and over again.

So this is interesting, isn't it, because Saul of Tarsus at this point, blind

Saul of Tarsus could not enter the temple. He goes blind.

You don't get in, but he's brought in by Christ to the new covenant temple.

So Saul is already a brother by Christ, and Ananias is there to say amen to what

Jesus has already done. You see this? He's just saying amen to what Jesus has already done.

That's what church membership is, that's what baptism is, that's what loving one another is all about. We're just amening what

Christ has already done for each other on the cross and by his resurrection.

My love for you, you see, is based on what Christ has done for you and I, not on what you have done for me later.

As I have loved you, so love you, so you should love one another. That is the command of Christ. So Saul of Tarsus is now brother

Saul of Damascus. He's welcomed by the brother and he is strengthened, he begins to eat again, and he spends days with the disciples at Damascus.

It's probably some of the happiest days of his life, I would imagine. It's an amazing joy to be brought in that way, to know the truth, be forgiven, to be loved.

Saul gets in and we get in by grace. We're also stayed there, we're also kept there by grace.

We move forward by grace. It's forever grace because it's

Christ. All I have is Christ. I don't have any other plea.

I don't have any other basis. I'm not going to cite my duties or my graces and I stand before God, but when

I stand before you. I'm going to speak of my savior, Jesus, it's not what I've accomplished or what

I've felt, it's not what I've done or what I experience. It's Christ, it's

Christ, it's all of Christ. Now, we're going to have a hard time giving an amen to others if we really don't apply this to ourselves as well.

If we don't think we're in by grace, if we think we're in because of something else, we're going to have a hard time rejoicing in others being brought in.

As I have been loved, as I have been forgiven, so I am to love, so I am to forgive. Our table is indeed prepared for us in the presence of our enemies and our heads anointed with oil and our cup overflowing.

Are we ready for the enemies who look on to be forgiven and redeemed and sat down in the chair next to us?

That's what happened here in Damascus. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for the day you've given to us. I thank you that you have loved us in the way that you have and given us your son.

I thank you that Christ has done it all and he's arranged it all and that you love us for the sake of your son.

I pray that we would rejoice in those truths, we would be freed from impossible burdens, and that we would come to Christ and find our rest in him.

And I pray that you would help us to rejoice in the prospect of your grace saving and delivering and transforming those who would be our enemies today and our brothers and sisters tomorrow.