Acts 9:10-20

Good morning, Saylorville Church, and welcome back and… happy Father’s Day! It’s all your Father’s out there. Hopefully you have some super fun plans. I was gonna ask if you would maybe do some grilling today, but obviously it’s probably not gonna happen with all the rain, but maybe you can do some slack lining later. Right? That’d be pretty cool! My wife, Rachel, bought me something for Father’s Day that is perhaps even more hipster than slack lining. She bought me a vinyl record player! So I’m excited after we worship today to go back and jam out a little bit as a dad, as a hip dad!

Sticking with the theme of Father’s Day though, a famous evangelist… you maybe know him… Billy Graham, he once said this about dads. He said:

“A good Father is one of the most unsung, unpraised, unnoticed, and yet one of the most valuable assets in our society today.” Billy Graham

Would you agree? Now, I know that all of you in the room this morning, you can’t say that. Maybe you either didn’t know your father, or your father wasn’t that way. But I think we can agree that a good, godly father is a blessing. Right? We love our dads. So dads, first of all, just before we jump in, thank you. Thank you for your quiet, but essential investment in the life of your family and even your kids as well.

Speaking of investments, Rachel and I actually just purchased our first home. We’re on the north side of Des Moines right down there in Eden Church territory, and I’ve been able to flex my limited mechanical skills, and boy are they limited! — Okay? I never knew how hard it was to fix a garbage disposal until I owned a home, which turns out it’s really not that hard. But it really has been a great blessing. You want to know what isn’t a blessing about owning a home? — and I’m sure many of you can agree… paying interest. You ever looked at the rate of interest that you pay on a home? Yeah, I mean, we know how interest works. Right? — like a small little rate has applied to your loan over time and ends up getting really, really big! I’m going to pay off my loan when I’m 65 years old. I might be even more grayer than I am now. But you know that by the time that I pay off my home, I will have paid as much interest as my home is worth. Crazy! It turns out that a small interest rate… 4, 5, 6%… can make a huge difference… long term.

But really… and we know this this morning… mortgages are not the only thing that have interest. Do they? It’s Father’s Day. If you’re a dad, if you’re investing your time and your skills and your talents in your kids, that’s producing interest. Right? Every time you do it. And when we invest, when we invest in people for the Gospel, when we become someone’s spiritual father or spiritual mother, that creates interest too. Doesn’t it? Here at Saylorville Church, we like to say that we Saylorville saints, we want to invest in eternity. We want to store up our treasures in heaven using what God has given us here temporarily. So when you invest your money, when you invest your time, when you invest your talents in the Kingdom of God, that produces interest over time.

And if you’re just joining us this morning, we’re in a new series, new summer series. It’s called Unsung. I am super excited about this series because we’re exploring unsung characters like dads, people whose ordinary faithfulness when they invested in God’s kingdom had a huge impact.

If you remember last week, my brother, Curtis, he talked about Barnabas who invested in the kingdom through encouragement. And today we’re going to look at another investor, someone who had probably, honestly, an even smaller role than Barnabas, but whose actions had an exponential impact. In fact, this character, when the elders were divvying out all the characters, I literally called dibs on him. I’m like, ‘That’s my guy!’ — because this character that we’re talking about this morning and his ordinary faithfulness has had a personal impact on my life. I love this character!

Today we’re talking about Ananias. And no, not Ananias as an Ananias and Sapphira back in Acts 5. Okay? Remember the guy who stole from the church? Don’t do that! We don’t condone stealing. Okay? This is the Ananias in Acts 9, the Ananias that most of us honestly completely forget about. In fact, when I was studying for this passage, it was really hard because the commentators don’t care about him, either. He’s barely even mentioned in the commentaries. And yet his actions had a huge impact on you and I’s faith today if you’re a born-again Christian.

If you’ve been around church for any number of weeks, you would know that most of our New Testament and most of the back end of our Bibles was written by a man by the name of apostle Paul. But the apostle Paul... if you’re familiar with the story… he wasn’t always called Paul, was he? Curtis talked about this last week. His name used to be Saul, and Saul, before he was an apostle, he was a persecutor. He literally went from town to town, hunted down, imprisoned, and maybe even murdered Christian disciples for the Jews. He was literally like a Jewish henchman hunting down the Church. And when we get to Acts 9, he’s actually en route to a town called Damascus, and he’s en route there to basically arrest and imprison Christians. He really has an order from the chief magistrates to apprehend them. But then if you’re familiar with the story, Saul… on the way to Damascus… he’s encountered by a bright light. And from that light, he comes face to face with the risen Lord, Jesus Christ. And from that moment on Saul is blinded, and Jesus just tells him one thing. ‘Go into Damascus …and wait.’ And then we see our character… Acts chapter nine, verse 10:

Acts 9:10-20

10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”

11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas (there’s another name we don’t like very much, but he’s good in this story. “At the house of Judas…) look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying,

12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”

13 But Ananias answered, (like maybe you and I would) “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.

14 And here (in Damascus) he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” (So he’s like, are you sure, God? Verse 15)

15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My Name.”

17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him (Saul) he said, “Brother Saul, (brother Saul) the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

18 And immediately something like scales fell from (Saul’s) his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; (He was probably baptized by Ananias)

19 and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

20 And immediately (right after the fact) he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

Saul’s conversion to Paul is one of the most powerful stories in Scripture. And the rest from this moment on is history. Right? — to us Christians today. Romans, Galatians, Corinthians,

3 missionary journeys, church plants… it’s all exploding out of this initial faithfulness of one ordinary man… Ananias. I love this story! I love this character, because, listen, Ananias… what we just read, 11 verses… and then he’s just gone. He shows up again in Acts 22, but those are the two times. Other than that, we never hear about this guy. 11 verses. But then Paul himself would go on, watch this, to write 2000 and 33 verses, most of which make up our New Testament. That’s an impact! — a small initial investment with exponential Kingdom growth over time. And so I’ve titled this message Ananias: 11 Verses with Interest.

And our question today is pretty simple. How can we, how can you and I, if we’re followers of Jesus Christ, like Ananias, intentionally invest in the kingdom of God with interest? How do we do this? And you see it right in the text. First of all, our first point, we, you and I brothers and sisters, we need to focus on availability before ability. Look at verse 10.

[Acts 9:10, “Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”]

Notice how our brother, Ananias, is introduced. All that it says is he was a disciple. This guy wasn’t an apostle. He wasn’t a church leader. He wasn’t a deacon. He wasn’t extroverted. He wasn’t introverted. We don’t know if he was eloquent or he was slow to speak. We don’t know if he’s educated or uneducated. The text literally doesn’t say anything specific. We know nothing about this man’s abilities. Nothing. All we know is that he was a disciple, a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ. That’s all. And then look at verse 10, when God speaks to him. He says, “Ananias,” and notice what he says, “Here I am, Lord.” Now, Ananias isn’t saying like, ‘God, I’m over here! I’m over here!’ No, I mean, God knows where Ananias is. Okay? God created everything. It’s not a statement of proximity. It’s a statement of availability. Ananias is saying, ‘Here I am. I’m willing to do whatever You want me to do.’

And Ananias is not the first one to save us. He actually joins a long list of God’s servants; Abraham, Moses, Isaiah the prophet. They were all like Ananias, once ordinary, everyday people. The only difference is they said to God the same thing that Ananias said, “Here I am.” Here I am.

Just last year… a day that will live in infamy in the Willey family archives! My wife and I, and we brought along our one-year-old, now two-year-old, but our one-year-old Winery, and we went to the Omaha Zoo with Rachel’s family. Now Rachel‘s family is pretty big, so it was going to be a hoot! It was going to be a great time! We drove to Omaha and we’re about 40 minutes out, and all of a sudden my 2014 Ford Escape starts to rrr- rrr- rrr… it starts to kind of struggle to accelerate a little bit. By the way, the check engine light is just blinking which, I mean, I don’t know about you, but that’s always a bad sign. Right? It’s like your car is going to explode! Okay? But… so I pulled over, and I just kind of looked at it for a little bit. Turned it off. Turned it back on. It was fine! So I’m like, let’s keep going. All right? Drove like two more minutes. Check engine light… and I’m just. ‘Okay, we gotta pull off!’ So we pulled off to just an exit. And we pulled in this exit, we parked, and of course, Rachel’s crying! I’m freaking out! We’ve got our one-year-old daughter in the back. Right? We’re still 40 minutes away from Omaha! And so I go into the gas station. I say, “Can I get a number for like a tow truck?” So we call the tow truck company. They say, “Yeah… a little too far out to come getcha.” So that’s a dead end. So then the gas station tells… “You know what you should do? You should go talk to Paco. Paco… that’s his name. So we went in this mechanic spot. There’s a bunch of tires everywhere. We go out there, there’s Paco at the desk. “Hey brother, something’s wrong with my car. Can you look at it?” “Hey, listen, too busy today. I can’t do it, but I know a guy…” Never a good sign! (audience laughs) But Paco says, “You should go talk to Tom.” “Okay. Sounds good.” So he gave us the directions. Tom’s an interesting cat. Okay? I drove up to Tom. His billboard for his mechanic shop is just tattered. There’s nothing there. It’s just falling apart. He walks out. He’s just surrounded by all these destroyed cars. Right? He has like… a yellow beard. He’s wearing overalls. His eyes… going crazy! I was not super confident that this was where we were supposed to be. Okay? So, we went up there. We told him the situation. He kind of grabbed his gnarly yellow beard… because he was actually off. He was done for the day. He thought about it. We’re both praying! He says, “You know what? — pull ‘er in.” Listen… in that moment, I wasn’t really concerned with Tom’s ability. I was concerned with his availability… like Obi-Wan to Luke, Tom was my last hope! We were desperate for him to help us!

I wonder who in your circle of influence in your life is desperate for you to help them, ’cause they might not say that. They might not come up to you… ‘Will you please tell me about Jesus?’ Probably not gonna happen, but they tell you that by the way they live, by the things they pour themselves into that are killing them, that don’t satisfy them. Listen, they’re not asking you to fix their car. (It was spark plugs, by the way) They want you to invite them into salvation, and into true life that comes from knowing and growing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Who in your life right now needs encouragement? Who in your life right now needs to be discipled? They need for someone to come alongside them in their walk with Jesus. Who in your life right now just needs the Gospel? They need to hear the Good News that God sent Jesus to die for them and to rise again for them. Who’s that for you? — ’cause maybe… like Ananias… maybe you don’t feel qualified. Maybe you’re thinking, ‘You know, I’m just gonna leave that to the professionals.’ But listen, listen…. Ananias’ impact, which we are all beneficiaries today… Ananias’ impact did not come from his ability. It came from his availability.

So the question is for you this morning, are you available? Is there margin in your life, in your schedule, so that you can be used by God in a powerful way in someone’s life that needs it? — ’cause listen… if we read the Gospels, Jesus, Jesus is always getting interrupted. All the time, people come up to Him and they want all kinds of things… but He’s also always available.

Friends, one of my greatest fears for the Church is that we are so busy preparing to evangelize, preparing to disciple, preparing to serve, we’re so busy increasing our ability that we never have an availability when the opportunity comes! Now listen, there’s nothing wrong with being prepared. I’m for being prepared. There’s nothing wrong with studying. Okay, zeal without knowledge is bad, but listen, you can never make interest on an investment that you never make. Ananias, when it all comes down to it, was just a disciple, just a follower of Jesus. And that’s the only requirement that God had for him. That was the only prerequisite. That was enough. And if Ananias was a disciple and he did what he did… you and I can too. We can do this.

Secondly, we gain interest on our kingdom investment by just being honest about our fears, but not being ruled by them. Check out verse 13. It’s like one of my favorite parts of this story!

[Acts 9:13, “But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.”]

Ananias is available, but it doesn’t mean that he wasn’t afraid. That’s why he’s so encouraging! That’s why I love him so much. God says, ‘Go lay hands on this guy that literally came to arrest you and possibly murder you…’ And Ananias does what probably you and I would do. ‘Ummmm… Are you sure, God? You sure that’s the right call? You don’t have a plan B?‘ — ’cause that’s me. Maybe that’s you too. I can often be a very fearful man.

Just … probably a year ago, I got invited to go up to Iowa State University. And on that campus, they have a group of people that they’ll stand out in the commons and the college students will just walk by and they’ll engage with them for the Gospel. They’ll ask them Gospel questions. They’ll ask them, “What do they think about Jesus?” It’s just cold call evangelism, not something that’s super comfortable. And I got invited to go do this once, and it’s the first time I ever did something like that. And I was all chipper! Listening to my worship music, driving up, I was deep in prayer. I was deep in scripture. But brothers and sisters, when I got there, I was full of fear and trembling! And your Connections Pastor… That’s my job, ’cause that’s my job! Okay? I literally went in the bathroom and hid! Yeah… I did! I was so afraid to do what I was called to do. And in that moment I felt this palpable shame and guilt and I just kept saying, “I shouldn’t be like this! I shouldn’t be like this!” Do you relate?

I found an article about Ananias and the title’s hilarious! The title of the article is, Ananias, the Fearless Follower of Christ. Really? Was that guy reading the same chapter that we just read? And then I actually found another article at a site that I love. I use it all the time. But listen to this quote. The author of these articles says:

“Faith and fear cannot coexist together.”

Now listen. That sounds good… but is that true? Is that true? See I think often in modern day, evangelical America we often think that faith means the absence of fear, that we can only be faithful when we’re not afraid. And if we are afraid, we’re not being faithful. And so what we do is we often celebrate confident people, bold people. We look up to them. And yet Ananias, the “fearless follower…” he sure seems to be afraid to me! That’s why we relate to him. And again, he’s not the first one.

Brothers and sisters, you wanna know what one of the most common phrases that God says to His people in all of scripture?  ‘Do not be afraid.’ I love that! But it begs the question, why does God save us all the time? — ’cause He knows that we need it! He knows that you and I are fearful creatures, that we’re always asking that all too familiar question, ‘What if?’ What if? What if I do it wrong? What if I lose my job? What if I lose my friendship? What if I lose my family or, in Ananias’s case, and in the case of many Christians around this globe, what if I lose my life? What are the what-ifs in your life that are making you fearful in your walk with Christ? — because we all have ’em. Don’t we? But friends, listen, we have to always fight the ‘what ifs’ of life with what is, with truth.

One of my favorite verses in the Psalms is Psalm 62 verse 8. This is David, he says:

Psalm 62:8, “Pour out your hearts before God. “He is a refuge for us.”

You don’t have to act like you’re not afraid to the Lord of glory. He knows and He wants to be a refuge for you. Ananias shares his fears with God. He doesn’t hide them. He’s honest with God, and God in His grace reassures him and sends him.

When I was cowering in that ISU bathroom, the Spirit of God brought to me a Psalm that I read just a week ago, and here it is, Psalm chapter three.

Psalm 3:3-4

3 “But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.

4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill.”

And I went out and I had some great conversations! You think I was still afraid? You bet I was! I was afraid, but I was confident that my shield would protect me. And He’ll protect you.

Contrary to what many say, like Ananias, my fear was still present in my faith, but by God’s grace, my faith won out. Why? — because in desperation, I clung to this word. And listen… The same truth that feeds your faith will be the same truth that starves your fears. Every time.

But I wanna plead with you this morning. Listen, if God is asking you like Ananias, to “RISE UP…” to do something new for the kingdom, to go to your neighbor, to go to your family, to go to your friends, to serve the church in a new way, or maybe to go to some faraway land… if you’re waiting until you’re not afraid to do that, then you’ll never do it. Trust what the King of Kings says in His Word, that He can do extraordinary things through ordinary people like Ananias… and like you.

Finally we gain interest on our Kingdom investment by trusting in God’s promises over the final product. Ananias, after he’s reassured, he departs. He goes to the house of Judas. Now imagine this moment. Imagine Ananias. He’s walking up to this house where he knows the murderer is, where he knows the persecutor is. And I imagine that he probably has a knot in his stomach! He probably has sweat on his brow. He opens up the door to Judas’ house. He walks in and he sees Saul, this man who possibly imprisoned or even murdered some of his friends! And in that moment, I imagine that Ananias was mixed with anger and fear, but then he does something crazy! He trusts what Jesus said. He goes up. He lays his hands on Saul, and… remember what he says? “Brother Saul.” Brother Saul. Imagine how difficult those two words were! — a man who possibly uprooted the lives of many people that Ananias knew.

And by the way, remember… Ananias doesn’t have the information that you and I have. Ananias has no clue about [the book of] Romans. He has no clue about Pauline theology. He has no idea that there’s going to be tons of church plants that come out of this man. He doesn’t know. The only thing that Ananias has is verse 15, what Jesus says to him. He says:

Acts 9:15, “But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.”

That’s all he has. That’s it! — and his faith… that God will do what He says He will do.

Many years ago, when I read this story for the first time, I was like struck by it, because I’m like, like, ‘Wow!’ The principle I got out of it was, ‘Wow! Colton, you need to be more bold in your evangelism, because you could possibly lead the next apostle, Paul, to Christ! How cool would that be? But as I studied it more for this passage for this day, I don’t think that’s the main point, — ’cause listen… I would love to tell you today that if you live like Ananias, you could possibly lead the next ‘Paul’ the Christ. I would love to tell you that. But we don’t know that. We can’t guarantee that. God never asked Ananias to produce Paul. He just asked him to go to Saul. That’s it.

You know, one thing that we Americans love… I don’t know about you… but one thing that we Americans love, we love having certainty that we’re gonna get a return on our investment. Don’t we? We love that! — and if you don’t think so, just look at the culture. Okay, if I’m gonna go to a movie, I literally read the reviews first to make sure that it’s worth my money. If I’m gonna buy something on Amazon, I look at like 16 things, and then I read all the reviews about ’em first. Why do I do that? — ’cause I wanna get a return from my investment. Guys, we live in Iowa, the insurance capital of the Midwest! Right? You throw a rock, you hit an insurance company! We often prefer certainty over faith. We want to know the end from the beginning. But the thing about investing, it always involves risk. Always. See, I think us Americans, since we live in a results-driven culture, we often see God as a results-driven God. We think that God accepts us based on what we produce for Him, not just because of who He is in the Gospel. It’s why characters like Paul are celebrated and Ananias and his … 11 verses are all but forgotten. But listen, God, the God of glory, does not need Colton Willey. He doesn’t. He doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need Ananias. He doesn’t even need Paul. But he wants us. He wants you. He chooses to bring you into something that He’s already doing. Look at verse 11. Notice what God says to Ananias.

Acts 9:11, “And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying…”

He says, ‘Go to Saul. By the way, he’s already praying to Me.’ Isn’t that cool? Saul’s praying to God while He’s talking to Ananias. He’s the ultimate multitasker! Okay?

Just yesterday, a group of guys and I, we went to Jordan Creek Mall. We do what we’ve been doing a lot lately. We go around, we’re just trying to have Gospel conversations. It is about as awkward as all get out! Okay? — cold calling someone and doing the classic Jesus juke… never comfortable… but we did it! — and my good friends, Adam Fagnant and Josh Albertson, they approached a man and they asked him about Jesus. They shared the Gospel with him, then they asked to pray for him. But, you know what this man said to them? “I have been praying that Jesus would avail Himself to me!” God went before my brothers, and he’ll go before you.

When Ananias calls Saul “brother,” I don’t think he had a clue who Saul would become. I don’t think he knew. He just trusted that God who can see the end from the beginning would do as He promised. And, dear saints, what has He promised us? He’s promised that Jesus says, ‘I will build My Church.’ He says that He’ll give us the words to say when we don’t have them. He says that those same words will never return to us empty. And He says that He will be with us always, even until the end of the Age.

Listen, investing always involves risk. But because of the steadfast promises of God, we know as Christians that we will get a return eventually, in this life or the next. If you think about it, if we realize what we’re doing when we invest in the Kingdom, investing in God’s Kingdom is actually the least riskiest investment you can do. Right? — because it’s based on the full credit of God’s character who never lies, who always does what He says He’s going to do.

So, Saylorville Church, do you want to invest in the Kingdom with interest?

• Be available.
• Be honest with God about your fears.
• And stop focusing on the product of your ministry. Instead focus on the everlasting promises of God.

Ananias, despite the reality of possible death, he trusted God’s promises, and he comes to Saul, and the man who was once an enemy of the cross becomes its greatest champion.

But long before that, another servant of God, trusting in God’s promises came to reconcile God’s enemies to Himself. His name was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God in the flesh, the very Jesus that Ananias served. And unlike Ananias, when Jesus came to people to heal them, they killed Him. The very people He came to serve put Him on a bloody cross. But it was through His death on that very cross that He would save the people that put Him there. Because as Paul says, the very same person Ananias laid hands on, that Paul would later write in Romans 6 verse 23:

Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

See, Ananias was not a faithful servant of God because he was good or because he was bold. He was a faithful servant of God because God first served him. God always serves us before we serve Him by sending Christ Who had the perfect life we couldn’t live, Who died the sacrificial death that we deserved and rose again.

Who will remember Ananias? Probably not many. The commentators sure don’t. But you know what? I think you would be okay with that, because I think Ananias realized something that you and I have to realize, too. We are not the main characters of our own story. Jesus is. And Ananias was willing to give it all, even to the point of death, that he might glorify the One that saved him.

Listen, you can’t gain interest on an investment you don’t make. But first of all, you’ve got to go to Christ. You’ve got to let Him serve you before you serve Him, and He wants to. He wants to. Let’s pray.

Father God in heaven, Lord, we praise You. We thank You for stories in Your Scripture like Ananias, reminders, Father, that You can do extraordinary things through ordinary people. So Father, I pray that You make us Saylorville saints available, that You make us people that funnel our fears to You in faith, and then go out anyways. And Lord, when we can’t see the product of our ministry… that happens… and when we can’t see the product of walking with You, when it just seems dark, Lord, that we would trust Your promises over the product. And, Father, I pray for those in this room now that can’t invest in eternity because they’ve never met You. They’re still stuck on this earth. And Father, they’re just investing in things that don’t satisfy, that weren’t meant to satisfy. Father, would You come into their heart by them believing the Gospel? — by believing that Jesus wants them? — that He died for them? — that He rose again for them? Lord, would You work in their hearts and call them to everlasting life? Thank You for using Ananias and thank You for using us. We ask this all in Jesus holy Name. Amen. Let’s rise.