Christ Demands Complete Devotion

Introduction

In the history books we learn a lot about the heroes of old. We learn of great leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, and others. We learn of military leaders from ages ago like Leonidas, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and others. We learn of great inventors and scientists like Leonardo Di Vinci, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, and others. In the Bible we learn a whole lot about great leaders like David, Joshua, Moses, Daniel, and others… But who do we often neglect to talk about? It can be easy to look over the individuals God used to help those great leaders. Moses had Aaron, David had Jonathan, Joshua had Caleb whenever they were sent as spies into the Promised Land. Daniel had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Yet, we rarely talk about those “other” people because they don’t get as much ink in Scripture. Does this mean that they were not devoted followers of God? No. Does this mean that they were not faithful to obey what God called them to do? No. In fact, these people were faithful to their calling. So why don’t we talk about them often?

Whenever most people read their Bible, it’s easy to want to paint ourselves as the hero of the narrative. That’s why you have sermons about David and Goliath and the application of the text is this: You are David. Be just like David. Besides presenting significant hermeneutical problems (you and I aren’t and never will be David), this reading of Scripture is dangerous. If I’m always the hero, why do I need Jesus? If I’m being told from this person that I have the heart of David, faith like Daniel, obedience like Abraham, leadership like Moses, and strength like Joshua, why do I need Jesus? The fact of the matter is that you and I are never and will never be the hero of Scripture. The hero is Jesus! He’s the main character of the narrative from cover to cover!

You and I won’t have the opportunity to lead thousands of people out of exile like Moses. We won’t be thrown into a lions den like Daniel. We won’t play music before a king and slay a giant like David. We won’t evangelize much of the known world like Paul did. We aren’t the hero… But who do we more closely line up to? People like Ananias. People like Jonathan. People like Caleb. While the history books might not devote a page to us, much less a chapter, will we be obedient and follow through with what God commands of us? Will we do the “little” things that He is calling us to do?

In our text, we see someone that we can more closely relate with than Paul. His name is Ananias. Not the Ananias from Acts 5:1-11 who lied to the Holy Spirit and was zapped dead. This Ananias was a faithful follower of Jesus. He was tasked with something difficult, but as we will see, he trusted in the Lord and obeyed. Are we willing to trust and obey today? I pray that we would leave here ready to give God our complete devotion. Let’s read

Acts 9:10–19 CSB

10 There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” “Here I am, Lord,” he replied. 11 “Get up and go to the street called Straight,” the Lord said to him, “to the house of Judas, and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, since he is praying there. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and placing his hands on him so that he may regain his sight.” 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. 14 And he has authority here from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” 17 Ananias went and entered the house. He placed his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized. 19 And after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul was with the disciples in Damascus for some time.

Christ Demands Our Obedience (10-15)

Last week we studied how Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. This man was public enemy number one to followers of Jesus Christ. You would want to avoid this man at all costs! Yet, we read in our opening verses that the Lord says to Ananias in a vision that he is supposed to go and meet this same killer of the Church! What would your immediate response be in such a situation? You’d probably object like Ananias does in verses 13-14. That’s what I would do. We see Moses do this exact thing whenever he is called by God in Exodus 3. Moses is called and God gives him instructions, yet he says

Exodus 3:11 CSB

11 But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 4:1 CSB

1 Moses answered, “What if they won’t believe me and will not obey me but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

Exodus 4:10 CSB

10 But Moses replied to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent—either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant—because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish.”

Exodus 4:13 CSB

13 Moses said, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

Moses objected to God’s plan left and right and eventually gets to the main conflict in the matter: Moses wants someone else to do what God is calling him to do. He’s willing to come up with however many excuses necessary along the way! Ananias has some objections as well. He notes how Saul is a known persecutor of the church in Jerusalem and that he has come to Damascus to continue his persecution. Whenever God calls you to do something, you’re left with 2 options: Obedience or Disobedience. Now we can get really technical about Ananias complaining and say that he initially disobeyed. You can go that route if you want to, I think Ananias is just being a human. He is being called to do something extremely difficult and has some understandable concerns.

Put yourself in his shoes. You’re in your bedroom and the Lord calls you out. Would you be read? Ananias simply says, “Here I am, Lord.” Is there another person in Scripture who is called by God and answers this way? Isaiah does in Isaiah 6 as we find this

Isaiah 6:8 CSB

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking: Who will I send? Who will go for us? I said: Here I am. Send me.

Isaiah was ready to be sent. Ananias was ready for what God had to say. How were they ready? They were prepared. Faithful followers of God are ready to obey whenever they are called upon. What is God calling you to do this morning?

This past week was the Missouri Baptist Convention meeting in Branson and we had the opportunity to hear some amazing reports about what God is doing around the world right now. Paul Chitwood, president of the IMB, shared some tremendous words of encouragement, but he also issued a strong challenge for Southern Baptists. We are living in an unparalleled time in history. You can travel just about anywhere in the world in just a few days thanks to air travel, technology, and transportation advances. There are more lost people alive today than at any point in human history. It’s always been important to go, but now it’s easier to go than ever before in many respects, yet we are tempted to pass the buck off and say that someone else will pick up the slack. Someone else will go. Someone else will obey. Make no mistake about it, this is a natural human thought. We’re all about self-preservation. We will obey when it’s convenient but when there’s a cost, we have to reconsider. As Southern Baptists, we’ve given over $5 billion to the Lottie Moon Christmas offering in our history and every penny of that has gone to share the Gospel overseas. Praise the Lord for this - but, hear me, if the Lord is calling you to go and you just give, you’re disobeying. You’re doing something good - but you’re not obeying God’s call for your life.

How many of you have heard of the great missionary Adoniram Judson before? He was a young, gifted preacher who graduated from seminary in the early 1800s. He was called to serve as assistant pastor of a large, wellknown church in Boston. This was near his hometown in Massachusetts - his family believed that it was a God-thing! Yet, Judson couldn’t accept the call. God had been working on his heart and had called him to go and share the Gospel overseas. He said this, “My work is not here. God is calling me beyond the seas. To stay here, even to serve God in His ministry, I feel would be only partial obedience, and I could not be happy in that.” Do you think Judson struggled with this decision? You bet he did. He could’ve been next to his family for years and years and become a wellknown pastor of a prominent church in one of the most important cities in the United States. There was security in staying home… Yet, God’s call required Judson to leave his comforts behind. Do you see the same thing in our text? Ananias knew the risk of going before Saul. That would require him to not only leave his comfort zone but to risk his life! It would’ve been easy to stay at home and continue to do good things - to teach others about Jesus in Damascus, but that wasn’t what God called him to do. For Judson, in the end, the Lord blessed his obedience. The church in Boston is still there, but the churches Judson started in Burma (half a world away) have produced other churches and literally hundreds of thousands of people have come to faith in Christ because this man followed God’s plan to take the Gospel to the nations. He obeyed God’s call.

Ananias obeyed God’s call as well. You and I aren’t Paul. We aren’t going to share the Gospel to millions and plant dozens of churches. But we can all be faithful to obey God like Ananias. We can all choose to serve the Lord, even when it is difficult. Ask yourself, who will you serve today? Yourself or your King? Christ demands that we obey Him. He doesn’t just desire it or leave it up to debate, He demands our full allegiance, loyalty, and devotion.

Christ Demands Our Trust (16)

As we obey Christ’s call on our life, we aren’t always given the “answer” or the “why” to our situation. Whenever God called Adoniram Judson and his young wife, Ann, to leave their families behind and move half a world away in their early 20s, they knew that they were called but they weren’t given all of the answers. They weren’t told how difficult things would be. They weren’t told how long it would be until they would see their family and friends again. They weren’t told that they would suffer immense loss in Burma. Yet, they not only obeyed God’s call but they trusted in His plan. What do you trust in? Many people trust in things that we can tangibly see, feel, smell, and know. We trust in money, friends, jobs, cars, houses, roads, and millions of other things each and every day. We trust in lots of things - but we have this strange illusion that God is not worthy of our full and complete trust. Why is this the case? Why do you trust in your car to get you from point A to point B? Because it’s done it before. Because you are confident in the brand of car you have. Because it’s been consistent and reliable. People in our world trust in reliable things, but its hard to find something or someone truly reliable. Every car, as reliable as it might be, eventually needs to be taken into the shop. Every person, as reliable as they might be, will eventually let you down or have an off day. The only one with a perfect track record is our God, yet we often fail to trust in Him as we should! Why do we fail to trust in God? Because we often put ourselves on the throne rather than bowing down to the One already seated there.

Why does Christ call Ananias to go and share with Saul? Because God has plans for Saul. We read that Ananias objected in verses 13-14 like we would have, but we read in verse 15 that God overrules Ananias’ objection. Aren’t you thankful that God gets the last word and not our doubts and fear? Aren’t you thankful that God reassures us in those moments of difficulty to follow through with His plan and to trust that He knows best? We read that God calls Ananias to do this and He gives him a glimpse of Saul’s future. We read that Saul is God’s chosen instrument to take the Gospel to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. Ananias believes that this man is an adversary and a bully but God reassures him that this man is actually an apostle and a brother in Christ. God shares Saul’s future briefly with Ananias - even though Ananias knew his past, he now knew that God had plans for this man. Therefore, what was left for Ananias to do? He had a decision to make and a question to ask: Can I trust God with my life? If Saul has not been changed, I will likely die if I go and meet him. If he has been changed, as God said he has, then he will be receptive of my visit. Who should I trust in? See, Ananias hadn’t met Saul yet. He said in verse 13 that he had heard about this man… He didn’t say that he’s seen this man. He could either base his decision off of the stories of other people or he could base his decision based off of the message from the Lord.

It’s hard to trust people and messages in moments of uncertainty. It would be hard to trust Saul given his history. But ultimately, Ananias wasn’t called to trust in Saul. He simply had to trust in the word of the Lord. All he knew was that God had a plan for Saul and he was responsible to go and play a part in God’s grand narrative. Ananias is told that God’s plans for Saul are huge - to take the Gospel to many people and to suffer for the cross of Christ. After knowing this, his fears are relieved.

As God calms Ananias’ fear, he begins to understand that life is about to change for Saul. Saul is going to be changed completely by the Gospel. He will go from a persecutor to one who is persecuted. He will go from an imprisoner of Christians to one who is tossed into prison for the Gospel. He will go from one who led Christians to their death to one who will die for his faith in Christ. He will suffer greatly for the cross of Christ and, as we read later in Paul’s letters, he will boast in his suffering because when he is weak, Christ is strong!

The Christian faith has never been an easy one. It’s always been marked with suffering and struggling. There are times where it feels like we’re walking on our own and we have to ask ourselves this: Am I willing to trust in the Lord’s plan even when it involves suffering and even when I’m not given the answer why?

Saul’s answer to this question would be found in 2 Corinthians 12 as he vowed to trust in and rely on God’s power all the more in moments of suffering. Spurgeon once said this, “I’ve learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages.” What does this mean? It means that we can trust in our God in times of difficulty and we can trust in Him in times of suffering because we know that suffering and difficulty aren’t purposeless - what do they do? They reveal our foundation. They throw us upon the solid rock that will never waver or be shaken as Hebrews 12:28 shares with us.

We Understand our Purpose Through Obedience (17-19)

As Ananias comes to understand and trust in God’s plan, he follows through and goes to visit Saul. This is a difficult thing to do. It’s one thing to know the right answer in our head, it’s another to actually live out and physically do the right thing in practice. Lots of people claim to have the right answer but their life fails to reflect what the Bible says is right. Whenever we claim to know what’s right but fail to practice it, we’re no different than the Pharisees in Jesus’ day. Ananias offers us the correct way to respond as Christians. We know the truth. We know what we’re supposed to do. And we actually follow through and do it.

As Ananias obeys and goes to see Saul, he greets him in an astonishing way! He could’ve went into the house with skepticism, fear, concern, or anger. He could’ve greeted Saul with hatred, bitterness, or called him a jerk. Instead he addresses him with a familial word: brother. This man was coming to kill Christians in Damascus like himself, yet 3 days later here he is, blinded by Christ and identified as a brother by Ananias. What changed in Saul’s life? The Gospel changed him from top to bottom.

As Ananias meets him, we read that scales fall from his eyes and he regains his sight and strength. Did Saul have to wait for this to happen? No. They immediately fell. Whenever you become a Christian, your conversion story will probably look a little different than Sauls, but this same thing happens. The scales fall from your eyes and you are able to finally see the world as it truly is for the first time. This is due to the Gospel - not due to our power. Look at what Paul will eventually say about this moment in Galatians 1 as he writes

Galatians 1:15–16 CSB

15 But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.

He wasn’t seeking God - he was on his way to kill God’s true followers! Yet, we read that God seeks and saves sinners. He leaves the 99 to find the 1. You and I, like Saul in Acts 9, were not living a perfect life. We weren’t seeking the Lord, the Biblical reality is that He found us. Whenever we are found, we surrender our all to King Jesus. We obey His word and we follow His leading in our lives. You will not find satisfaction and purpose in your life until you lay your life down at the foot of the cross. We find our ultimate purpose in life as we obey our Lord.

Conclusion

What is God’s plan for your life? Again, likely not to be a famous missionary like Paul or a powerful preacher like Peter or a wonderful evangelist like Adoniram Judson. Maybe that’s your call, but maybe it’s not. What we can all see in our text is that God’s plan for our life as Christians is to obey His calling. We can’t all be Paul’s, but we can all be Ananias’! We can all listen to the Lord and rise to our feet and follow through with what He says to do.

Have you surrendered your life to Christ today? If so, know that you are apart of a family that includes people like Saul. Give such people grace and be willing to follow God’s calling on your life to disciple such people rather than shunning them.

If you have not, I invite you to see the grace of Christ on full display. God can save even the worst of sinners. God can even save you regardless of your past. He wants you to come home and for your scales to fall off so that you can pick up your new purpose that He has in store for you. Come home and join your forever family. Come and see the true hero of history. Not you or I but the Lamb who for our sake was slain in accordance with God’s plan before the foundation of the earth as 1 Peter 1:20 shares with us. Come home to Christ and trust in His forgiveness, love, and grace. There is room for you!