Greetings

Greetings everyone! Welcome to Monday’s edition of EDiBS, God bless you richly in Christ Jesus our Lord, and as always, thanks for being here as we give our attention to the Scriptures over the next few minutes. As we come to a new week, take a moment with me to stop and consider this privilege that we have — the privilege to study God’s Word freely with brothers and sisters in Christ from all across the country and all around the world. So many people don’t have that freedom, and for me at least, it means that our time together is just that much more precious. Let’s remember to pray for persecuted Christians in our world, and let’s also remember to pray for those still living in darkness with no knowledge of Jesus and His love.  One great desire I’ve always had for EDiBS is that it can in some way penetrate into places where Christianity has been quashed, and by God’s grace that’s been the case on and off for many years. I pray our reach will continue to expand so that the truth of God’s Word and its message of hope in Christ will bring life and light to many. 

As we open the Scriptures today, we’re back in Acts 9, so let’s go to our Heavenly Father in prayer as we begin.  

Prayer 

Father, thank you for all things — for life, for salvation in Christ, and for your Word, which brings that message of redemption in Jesus to each one of us. We pray for those who right now are living apart from you. For those who are living with no revelation of a Savior in Jesus. For those who are in danger because of their stand for you. Protect them, sustain them, and yes, embolden them for you, they they will be a city on a hill, shining brightly for you in all that they do. Help us to use our time in a profitable way today so that we can grow in our faith and learn of you with joy and gladness in our hearts. Send your Spirit to open us to your message. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

Getting Started 

As we get started today, Saul’s life has been upended by his experience on the road to Damascus, a city he was going to in order to arrest Christians so that he could take them back to Jerusalem and have them punished. Now Saul is in Damascus, but not as he had originally envisioned. Our focus this session? Through Ananias, mercy and mission. 

Acts 9:10-16

10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered. 11The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13"Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name." 15But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." 

There was an alligator outside of someone’s front door in Daytona Beach on Friday night. Did you read about it? The homeowner heard a noise outside, opened the door, and was attacked, being bitten on the upper thigh by a gator a little under 8 feet long. Talk about being caught off guard! Even though it’s Florida, and even knowing that mating season is starting to ramp up for alligators right now, being accosted like that is still a statistical improbability. I have gators in my neck of the woods too, and you never know when you’re going to find one strolling down the beach or ambling across a bike path — but again, it’s hard to believe that I would ever find one crouching outside my front door and jumping up to bite my leg. it would be about as unexpected as unexpected could be. 

Have you ever been caught off guard? Been subjected to the unexpected? Been confronted with something hard to believe, yet nonetheless true? If so, then keep an eye on your front door…and while you do that, let me introduce you to the life of a man named Ananias. He’s a believer in Jesus — in other words, a disciple, as today’s text says — and in these very early days of the Church where the message of Christ is expanding rapidly, he happens to be a resident of the city of Damascus, 130 miles northeast of Jerusalem where the whole Christian movement began. Damascus, of course, is the very city where Saul the Pharisee is presently staying. Saul, however, is not in Damascus as an authoritative Jewish religious leader with marching orders from the high priest to arrest followers of the Way; he is instead blinded and bewildered, a shell of his former self, a man whose world has just been turned upside down and whose future is shrouded in complete uncertainty. 

When we left Saul in our last session, we did a brief survey on his own retellings of his experience with Jesus on the road to Damascus. From them, we filled in some blanks, got a fuller picture of the extent to which he and his companions were impacted by that divine visitation, and learned a little bit about what Jesus ultimately said to Saul regarding how his life would be going forward. Today we come back to Saul in the midst of this situation, and as we pick up the narrative here’s what we know: Saul, following that encounter, is still blind. He’s also fasting, neither eating nor drinking, Furthermore, he’s staying in a house in Damascus, a house on Straight Street (a street which still exists today, by the way, though by another name), and in that house he’s praying. It’s during his prayer time that he receives a vision from the Lord that someone named Ananias is going to come to him to restore his sight…which now brings us to Ananias himself and his own vision from the Lord. Regarding this vision, I think it’s safe to say that it’s one which has caught him very off-guard, subjected him to the very unexpected, and given him a message which is very hard to believe.  

How would you feel if you were Ananias? Let’s consider him for just a moment. He’s not anyone of great import or standing from what we can tell. He’s just an ordinary individual, a man who’s become a follower of Jesus like so many thousands of other people in the days following Pentecost. He’s certainly a man open to and sensitive to the things of the Lord, because he responds immediately to Christ’s summons. He’s also a man with his ear to the ground in terms of what’s going on in the fellowship of believers, because he’s heard all about the impending arrival of Saul and his sinister mission to arrest Christians. We might also say of Ananias that he’s a discerning person as well. While he doesn’t refute Jesus and reject His words, he does do a hard check on what he’s being told: Look, Lord, I’ve heard terrible things about this man — how could it be that you would send me to him, and in sending me, use me to restore him?  We can understand this man’s hesitancy, can’t we. We resonate with his uncertainty. We can feel his uneasiness. If it were me, I’d probably be questioning everything too…including the authenticity of the vision itself. It’s all very unsettling. 

As we can see by what transpires in our reading, however, God reaffirms that yes, Ananias is indeed His chosen instrument to go to Saul. Ananias is indeed to be God’s messenger in inaugurating Saul’s astounding, and frankly miraculous, turnaround. As a result, one more thing we’ll be able to say about Ananias before we’re through with this incident is perhaps the most important thing about him of all: Ananias will show himself to be obedient to the Lord, and he will go and do what has been required of him. Here is a case of faith in action to be be sure.

Wrapping Up
As we wrap things up for the day, we still have a bit more to work through as we follow all of this to the end, and we’ll see Ananias act on the Lord’s instructions in tomorrow’s session. I’m already thinking, however, about the upshot of all of this. There’s so much for us here both to catalog and to ask ourselves as God’s people when it comes to our own lives in Christ and His Church. What can we learn together? Where will this lead us? Where does it lead Ananias in the aftermath of it all? One thing I think we can safely say is this: Ananias will undoubtedly end up being one who, for the rest of his life, will marvel at how the Lord chose to use him in a very small way to announce a very big change in the mission and ministry of the Church…and that’s yet another powerful thing for us to consider as we say goodbye for the day! 

Thanks for coming along on this Monday, everyone. Have a terrific day, and I’ll look forward to seeing you again next time. God’s peace, and take care!