I've always had a degree of sympathy
for this man, Ananias. When all the other believers
in Damascus were hiding from Saul, were concerned about Saul's
arrival, were probably in secret places sympathising with one
another because of the trouble that they faced, Ananias, was
sent into Saul's presence and sent to pray for him. The Lord
Jesus Christ used Ananias for this important work of introducing
Saul of Tarsus to his commission and his great responsibility
for the future. And that shows us that the Lord
uses means. And I thought it might be useful
for some of the younger ones that are listening just to pause
there for a moment and think about that word means. When I say from time to time
that the Lord uses means, what is it that I mean when I say
means? So I'm going to tell you what
means means. When we say that the Lord uses
means, what we mean is that the Lord uses people and the Lord
uses circumstances. He uses people and circumstances
like you and like me in order to do and accomplish his will. The Lord God is strong and powerful. The Lord can do anything that
he wants to do. And certainly the Lord does not
need people like you and like me. He doesn't need mere flesh
and blood. Indeed, he doesn't even need
angels to do his work. He could do his work with a mere
word of his mouth, with a mere thought of his mind. Whatever
he thought to do, whatever he desired to do, would simply occur
and happen. Such is the power of our God. He could do everything by himself,
but he doesn't choose to do that. God chooses to use means. He uses people. people like us,
in order to do his will. You'll remember when we were
thinking last week about Saul of Tarsus heading towards Damascus,
we saw that the Lord Jesus Christ himself met Saul of Tarsus on
the road. He didn't use means on that occasion. He went to Saul of Tarsus personally. He had a personal meeting with
Saul of Tarsus. And we know from Scripture why
that was. It was because Saul was to be
the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. And just
as the other apostles had met with the Lord Jesus Christ personally,
so Saul met with the Lord Jesus Christ personally. But having
had that meeting, Saul of Tarsus now was ministered to and he
was helped by this man Ananias. And Ananias was the means that
the Lord used in order to speak to his servant. And Ananias,
of course, was just a man, just a man like you and I are people. And Ananias was as frightened
as anyone else about the coming of Saul of Tarsus to Damascus
and all the things that he might do. And Ananias was very unsure
about this idea about going to see Saul of Tarsus and praying
for him. And so it's interesting to see
how Ananias reacts. He speaks to the Lord almost
as if he's not sure that the Lord has altogether caught up
with the activities of the day, not sure that the Lord fully
knew everything that was going on. And he says to the Lord in
verse 14, he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all
that call on thy name. As if the Lord didn't know why
Saul was coming to Damascus. But Ananias just wanted to make
sure because Ananias was frightened in this situation. And that reminds
us that there's always lots of reasons for us not to do what
God would have us do. There's always lots of reasons
for us to hold back, to withdraw, and just to not do what the Lord's
will is. But Ananias had to learn a lesson
which we all have to learn. When the Lord instructs us, we
should obey his word. When the Lord speaks, we should
follow his direction and do his will. because the Lord has chosen
people like us to be his means of communicating his gospel to
this world and bringing about his purposes in this world. So the Lord tells Ananias, Saul
is a chosen vessel. He's a chosen vessel of mine. He's been chosen by God, first
of all, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an elect
vessel. and he has been chosen of God
to preach the gospel to others. Ananias, I want you to be the
means of speaking to Saul of Tarsus, because Saul of Tarsus
is going to be the means by which the gospel is preached to others. You see, God doesn't save people
in this world and immediately take them to heaven. He keeps
us in this world until our work is done, until His work that
He would have us do is completed. The Lord saves His people in
this world for service. And Saul, or Paul, as he would
become, he would be taken into the service of the Lord Jesus
Christ as a means of Christ accomplishing his purpose. And Saul, or Paul,
would preach and he would suffer for the cause and for the sake
and for the people and for the Lord himself. And so Ananias
is obedient to the Lord's command and he goes as he was told and
he speaks to Saul of Tarsus. And notice what he says to Saul.
I think this is lovely. He calls him brother. He says,
brother Saul. And he wasn't calling him a brother
because they both came from the same country or they were both
of the same nation or they were both Jews. He calls him a brother
because he is now a brother in Christ. And that's a really precious
thing. Here the servant of God, Ananias,
he looks upon Saul of Tarsus, this man who had been so wanting
to hurt Ananias, so wanting to hurt Ananias' friends and family
and his fellow believers and those that he fellowshiped with.
Ananias looked upon him and he saw that here was a man who was
now a brother of his in Christ. And that reminds us that when
we get saved, we're a family. We are brothers and sisters in
the Lord. We might not be brothers and
sisters in our families by our parents or by our birth or by
our nation, but we are a family in Christ. And he says, brother
Saul. And he goes on to say, the Lord,
even Jesus, And again, we can remember that Saul of Tarsus
was on his way to Damascus to hurt, to harm, to bind and imprison
and perhaps even kill those that believed in Jesus. And here Ananias
tells him that it was Jesus, that very one that he was persecuting. that had now received Saul of
Tarsus to be his follower and to be his servant. And the Lord
Jesus saves sinners like Saul of Tarsus. I think that's a lovely
testimony that we have, a lovely witness that we have of the conversion
of Saul of Tarsus. The Lord has given us this, the
Holy Spirit has given us this to show us that you're never
too bad to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. You've never done
too many things wrong to be beyond the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're never too deep in sin,
too deep in rebellion, or too deep in iniquity, even too deep
in persecution of the Lord's church and the Lord himself,
to be saved by the all-powerful grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Adonais also said to Saul,
receive the Holy Ghost or receive the Holy Spirit. You see, the
Lord prepares and equips his people for the tasks that he
will give them. He has tasks for his people who
are his means of accomplishing his will, but he provides help
and he provides the strength that we need to fulfil those
tasks. So the Holy Spirit came upon
Saul and equipped him for those tasks that the Lord would give
to him. Even when Saul had to suffer,
He knew that the Holy Spirit was with him and going with him. And Saul was baptized. He was baptized as a witness.
to his union with the Lord Jesus Christ, baptised as a witness
into Saul's dying with the Lord Jesus Christ and being raised
again to newness of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And within
these few verses, we see the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. It was an amazing turnaround. Saul, who hated Christ, who hated
his people, is saved by Christ and converted to be one of his
people. Saul, who was zealous to persecute,
is now zealous to help and to support, to minister the gospel
to the Gentiles and the Jews, whoever will listen to his message
of gospel truth. And Saul once was blind, but
now he could see the true saviour of sinners. Those scales that
were upon his eyes because of the brightness of the light that
had shone on the road to Damascus were removed. A picture, no doubt,
of the fact that the blindness that was in his heart had also
been taken away. A great work of transformation
had taken place, a conversion and a new life. And so Saul of
Tarsus, who would soon become Paul the Apostle, was that one
whose conversion we see as a testimony to us all of the power of grace,
the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the glory of God in accomplishing
his purpose, using means in this world to the salvation of sinners
and the gathering in of his church. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us this morning.