Courage to Act
Notes
Transcript
Sometimes you are struck by the courage of an ordinary person.
Now I am not talking about running into a burning building to rescue someone.
Or jumping into the water to rescure someone from a shark attack.
No I am talking about a person who, knowing and having considered the danger makes an intentional decision to go anyway.
This is the sort of person who stands against a tyrant.
The sort of person who knows that others have paid with their life yet still choses to stand for justice.
This is the sort of person who hid Jews from the Gestopo in the Holocaust.
Or hid soldiers making their way back to allied lines.
Or goes undercover to break open a criminal drug syndicate.
It takes conviction to do what is right in the face of enormous risk and certain death if it all goes wrong.
In Acts 9:10 we read of a man who demonstrated great courage.
We read, “Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord!” he replied.”
The Lord spoke to him in a vision and told him to do something that gave him very good grounds to make an intentional decision to want to say no.
In fact Ananias did object .....… strongly.
But the Lord told him to go so he went.
Let’s consider the circumstances, ..… circumstances that were well known to Ananias at the time when the Lord spoke to him.
Ananias lived in Damascus, the same city that is today the capital of Syria and was at the time the capital of the Nabatean Arabs.
It would have been a cosmopolitan sort of place with people from many regions living there.
It had a significant Jewish population and evidently many people had become believers in Jesus as Messiah at some point.
We are told by Paul himself in Acts 22:12 that Ananias was a godly man, deeply devoted to the law, and well regarded by all the Jews of Damascus.”
So here we have a beleiver in Jesus as Messiah, living in a city on the major trade route, quite some distance from Jerusalem.
A believer who was well regarded as a devout man.
Yet he had heard the reports about the terrible threat being faced by believers from a man who was by all accounts a zelot out to destroy the early church.
Listen to Ananias’ words to the Lord.
“I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! 14 And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”
Notice that there are two objections that Ananias raises.
Now these aren’t just opinion, they are facts based on eyewitness reports that Ananias has received.
This man has done terrible things.
What terrible things.
Firstly we know from Acts 7:58 and Acts 8:1 that he watches over the coats of the men who stoned Stephen.
He agreed with and supported the murder of one of the leaders in the early church.
Secondly we know from Acts 8:3 that this man Saul went from house to house dragging believers into the street and throwing them in prison.
This was religious cleansing pure and simple.
It was mob violence and sanctioned actions by the religious elite.
Saul was a Pharisee, by his own admission a leading star in the group.
You don’t just bust into someones house and drag them off to prison unless you have some standing to act.
No one tried to stop Saul.
Not the Jewish authorities, not the Romans.
Saul is a man of some significant influence.
Ananias’ second objection is found in Acts 9:14 “14 And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.””
Saul had specifically asked for letters from the Chief Priests.
He was specifically coming for the believers in Damascaus
1 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
Now this was a bold move.
Damascus wasn’t under the rule of Jerusalem.
The Jewish Chief priests didn’t have any real authority there.
Damascus was part of the Decapolis a region of 10 cities north of the sea of Galilee.
Damascus was under the rule of Aretas the king of the Nabataen Arabs and had its own governor.
Yet Saul and the Chief Priests somehow had the audacity to exert their control over the affairs of the Jews in this city who had become followers of Jesus and take them in chains back to Jerusalem.
While the Sanhedrian, the Jewish ruling council, theoreticaly was the highest authority in all matters relating to the religion of Jews throughout the Roman empire.
In reality its authority was limited and certainly didn’t extend to going into the territory of another area, under the rule of a local King, appointed by Rome and arrest people and take them out of his territory back to Jerusalem.
A local magistrate had to agree that a Jewish person had broken Jewish law and was deserving of punishment.
The Chief Priests couldn’t arbitarily reach in and arrest people outside the immediate surrounds of Jerusalem.
This was clear over reach.
But this is what Saul requested and this is what he was granted and was on his way to Damascaus to do.
Ananias was on Saul’s hit list.
No wonder he objected to the command in the vision to go and see the very man who was coming to get him.
William Barclay a significant theologian calls Ananias ‘one of the forgotten heroes of the Christian church’.
The Message of Acts 3. Saul and Ananias: His Welcome into the Church in Damascus (9:10–25)
William Barclay calls Ananias ‘one of the forgotten heroes of the Christian church’.
So why is the courage of Ananias so important?
This is the man whose obedience brought Saul into full acceptance of Christ and lead to his transformation into Paul the great Apostle, the preacher of the Gospel to the Gentiles.
The Apostle who wrote most of the New Testament.
Without Ananias Saul was just sitting in Damascus.
In the company of people who had come with him to support the cause of arresting followers of Jesus.
Saul was waiting, praying and fasting, but all he knew was that Jesus had appeared to him and told him to go into the city and wait.
Was he thinking through the Scriptures, which he would have known by heart, and trying to understand why Jesus has appeared to him.
I would think so.
But.
Saul still needed to direction.
He needed guidance, direction.
And he needed the acceptance of a highly regarded local if anyone was going to open their door to this new believer who had been an enorous threat.
Paul himself testified about this man in
12 A man named Ananias lived there. He was a godly man, deeply devoted to the law, and well regarded by all the Jews of Damascus. 13 He came and stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And that very moment I could see him! 14 “Then he told me, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak. 15 For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard. 16 What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’
Now we might think that Ananias was some super Christian.
But he wasn’t, he was a devout believer.
Well regarded in the local community.
Just like all of us.
Apart from these few references we know nothing more about him.
He isn’t described as some great teacher.
There is no legend about him.
Your average devout believer.
Living his life in relative obscurity.
Until Jesus showed up and told him to do something.
And he did it.
And I can certainly understandd why he had objections.
I would to.
So would you.
But he heard God speak.
Just as many of us have at times.
And he acted.
Courage to Act.
Because he trusted Jesus and simply wanted to live in obedience.
Even though on a human level he had every reason to fear.
Next time God speaks, remember that Jesus has a purpose in everything he askes of you.
Ananias had just a hint of what the outcome would be because Jesus told him what Saul was to do.
But he didn’t know all that would happen.
He simply had trust in his Lord and this gave him the courage to act
