A Chosen Instrument

Introduction

We experienced something as a country this week we haven’t in a long time. A political assassination. There have been many attempted assassinations, but it has been fairly rare in the modern era that we’ve seen actual assassinations in the United States.

What was particularly jarring for those of us who are Christian was the reality that Charlie Kirk was not only a young man, but he was a young, outspoken evangelical Christian man. Charlie Kirk was an unashamed believer who didn’t hesitate to tell others of his faith in Christ Jesus and their need to receive forgiveness of their sins through faith in Jesus.

Make no mistake about it, Charlie Kirk was not murdered because of his view on tax policy, tariffs, government assistance programs, or international trade relations. He was killed because he was willing to take a public stand for a biblical worldview; i.e. that we should live a life according to God’s rules and standards, not a modern natuarlistic, egocentric, sexual obsessed worldview that is so prevalent in our time.

I’m sure this hit home with many of us this week. But, we probably haven’t seen the end of such wickedness. My prayer is that Charlie Kirk’s assassination would spark a revival of people to return to church and a great many people would come to know Jesus. As Charlie’s wife, Erika, said on Friday, that heaven would become crowded! And yet, I tend towards the belief that, regardless of how many come to Christ, there is an ever increasing number of people in our society who will even more vehemently reject the message of Christ. I point to the multitude of people who celebrated Charlie’s murder, online or otherwise. To the insistence of some in America to continue calling their political opponents racists, bigots, fascists, Hitler, etc. When we connect people with the the worst elements of human history, it becomes much easier to treat them as something less-than human. Of the radicalization of so many young people today to ideologies which convince them that Christians want to eliminate them, so they must eliminate us first. We truly might be entering a dark time.

And yet, as believers, we recognize that the church has faced many dark times (times much darker than today!) And that our God always has a plan far greater than we could have imagined. We are going to see God bringing about one such greater plan in our text this morning.

Body: Acts 9:1-19a

Verses 1-2 - Saul: The Persecutor

Saul breathing threats and murder against the disciples. This doesn’t mean he was murdering the people himself. It means he was a strong voice of opposition against the Jesus movement.

These letters gave him the right to bring Christ-followers back to Jerusalem to face discipline.

Damascus was about six days journey on foot from Jerusalem, it was an important commercial city. It is likely that many Christians fled there after Stephen’s martyrdom.

To Saul’s thinking, if the Way took a foothold in Damascus, it might spread.

The Way was one of the many names the early Christian movement was given.

In fact, they are only called ‘Christians’ in Acts 11:26, 26:28 & 1 Peter 4:16. In other places they are called “disciples,” “saints,” “all who call on your name,” and “brothers.”

‘The Way’ probably stems from Jesus’ claim of being the way, the truth and the life.

In every generation, there will be those who hate the church because they hate Christ Jesus.

Now, today you’ll hear people saying things like: “I don’t mind Jesus as a historical figure. We just don’t believe that He is God, that He did miracles, that He’s the Savior, or that I need to be saved through Him. And, I really don’t like His followers.”

Thus, they would take issue with the idea that they hate Jesus. However, the Jesus they are talking about is the Jesus of popular fables, not the biblical Jesus. It’s the Jesus who only said, “love your neighbor” and “turn the other cheek” and “judge not lest you be judged.” It’s not the Jesus who said:

John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Matthew 16:24–25 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

Luke 14:26 ““If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

See Jesus told us Himself this hatred would come:

John 15:18–24 ““If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.”

Okay, then what are we to do? More on that in a few minutes.

Verses 3-9: Saul: The Commissioned

“...why are you persecuting me?”

Jesus doesn’t say “Why are you persecuting my people?” He says, “Why are you persecuting me.”

See, Jesus is present with His people. And because of that, when people persecute His people, they really are persecuting Him.

Up to this point, Saul probably only knew who Jesus was by reputation. Now, suddenly, he is coming face-to-face with the one he hates and it will change his life forever!

“...you will be told what you are to do.”

Essentially, Jesus begins the process of commissioning Saul to the work that we turn him into Paul, the church’s greatest evangelist!

Notice that Jesus doesn’t ask Saul if he would like to become a follower. He just says get up and do this.

Some believe that God never interferes with free will. Not true. In fact, God has the ultimate prerogative to interfere in the lives of humans. Free will is not stronger than God’s Will.

God can change the most vicious enemies of the church into instruments for the Gospel.

Talk about life changing! Not only did Saul have to wrestle with the possibility of being blind, but his religious presuppositions were now completely turned upside-down.

How many were like Saul, that God had to turn your religious presuppositions upside-down?

I love hearing stories of people of faith who have held to the Gospel since they were young. My story isn’t like that. I have a turn me upside-down story. It’s powerful, but not more so than the person devoted to Jesus from a young age.

Some of us are hard-headed! But not too hard-headed for God!

Know anyone like this, who is currently running in the opposite direction from the Lord? Can God still reach them? How?

I think about some of those in our world today who are the loudest opponents of the Gospel, of Christians, and of the church. What would happen if God brought them to faith, turning them into an instrument for the Gospel? He could do it! Do we pray for it?

Additionally, what if, God-forbid, an assassination of one of them happened this week, instead of Charlie Kirk? I pray we wouldn’t celebrate. I pray we would weep just as much as we have for Charlie Kirk and his family. Maybe even more so, because Charlie Kirk is at this very minute experiencing eternal life! But, the enemies of the church would experience eternal death; something we ought to never celebrate. God doesn’t:

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

Think about one person in the public eye who might make a huge impact if they were converted to Christ Jesus. Begin praying for them multiple times each week!

Verses 10-19a: Saul: The Christian

Ananias, a believer in Damascus isn’t asked if he would like to be used by God. Jesus comes to him and lets him know, that he has been called.

Called to heal...

Saul needs to see and he needs to see that it is a follower of Christ (the very people he has been persecuting) who has healed him.

Called to be brave...

Ananias is understandably afraid. Saul has been ravaging the church.

Here’s something important: the Christian calling isn’t a calling without fear. It’s a call to be brave. What’s the difference?

Bravery is being afraid, but doing what needs to be done anyway.

It’s not natural to never experience fear. The calling on our lives as Christians is to be afraid, but to be brave at the same time.

Called to minister...

Not only would he lay healing hands on the very man who was trying to violently lay hands on him, but he would also baptize and feed Saul. He’s ministering to Saul’s needs, showing Saul that the people he was attacking were far more godly than he was.

Saul:

The scales fall off of his eyes...

Who knows what these looked like, but now he can once again see.

He was baptized...

His newfound faith in Jesus leads to him being baptized.

While it’s true we see nothing about his profession of faith here, we see the evidence of it throughout the rest of Acts, and most of the NT!

He was promised a mission to be a chosen instrument for God who will suffer...

Saul would soon become Paul and would be God’s chosen instrument to bring the Gospel to many, especially to the Gentiles (something he doesn’t know at this point).

But notice verse 16...

Paul will suffer greatly fulfilling his call. Suffering doesn’t mean he is out of God’s will. Exactly the opposite, as a matter of fact. Suffering was necessary because it was the only way to fulfill God’s mission for him.

God calls His people to bravely fulfill His calling on our lives.

We have here two examples of men bravely fulfilling God’s calling on their lives. Charlie Kirk was another.

I believe firmly that we are entering a time in Christian history where, once again, Christians are going to have to choose: to retreat into our own comfort, leisure, safety, and/or pleasure, or to bravely fulfill God’s call on our lives.

Which will you choose?