Dennis Tuuri

# ACTS 9:10-18

Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Acts chapter 9, verses 10-18.

“And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him said the Lord in a vision, ‘Ananias.’ And he said, ‘Behold, I am here, Lord.’ And the Lord said unto him, ‘Arise and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth. And I see in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.’

“Then Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to the saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.’ But the Lord said unto him, ‘Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.’

“And Ananias went his way and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him, said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou comest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.’ And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales. And he received sight forthwith, and rose, and was baptized. Let us pray.

Father, we thank you that your book is unlike any other book that we read. It is to be spiritually understood and discerned, and that in the flesh and our understanding we cannot do that. Help us then, Lord God, as we consider this text and its meaning for our lives, its revelation of the person of Jesus and of his purposes for the created order. Help us, Lord God, to have our hearts, minds, and understanding open by your Spirit. Teach us, Father, things from your word that we might rejoice and praise you this day, that we might be built up to walk in obedience and in joyful response to the great salvation you’ve given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name and for the sake of his kingdom, we pray these things. Amen.

Today we’ll focus upon the conclusion of an overview of the text. Ananias is an example of courage, and then speak of courage and its need in the Christian life, and various scriptural texts that are important for us to consider this day and in our private devotional readings this week, as we become more and more courageous as we move from courage to courage in the Lord Jesus Christ—encouraged by his coming to us, which coming, an advent, we celebrate at this time of year.

This text is fairly straightforward. We have in it, first of all, the introduction of Ananias. Remember that last week we were speaking of Saul being blinded on the road to Damascus. He was led captive into the city in which he had planned to take captives. A great reversal in Saul’s life is pictured, and in the affairs of the church.

This reversal is pictured throughout the scripture texts in the Bible as well as being exemplified for us at this time of year—the singing of the Magnificat, Mary’s song of salvation, for what God has accomplished in Jesus Christ. A reversal in rule, a reversal in those who would rule against the Lord Jesus Christ as opposed to for him—reversal in other things as well.

Well, that’s what has happened to Saul here. And the fortunes, so to speak, of the church of Damascus are also reversed. The persecutor of them now has become the one who has been himself enslaved by the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s sitting in a house in Damascus. He sits there three days, not eating, not drinking, pondering his sins, and apparently, based upon this text, praying to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have God’s preparation of Saul for this visit.

And now he prepares Ananias to go to Saul, to lead him into the fullness of salvation in Jesus Christ, to restore his sight to him, and then to have him be baptized as well and entered into the household of faith and a membership in the church. So we have the introduction of Ananias first, in the first half of verse 10: “There was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias.” He is only told to be a disciple, and he lives in Damascus.

Indications are that he was not there because of the persecution, but was native to there, being known, as other texts tell us, by the Jews in the city of Damascus and highly regarded by them. So here was a godly man and a disciple.

Well, the second thing that happens then is Jesus calls Ananias by name. And again the personalness of the Lord Jesus is pictured for us here, as it was with Saul on the road to Damascus: “Saul, Saul, why persecute thou me?” And we read in the last half of verse 10 that “to him said the Lord in a vision, ‘Ananias.’” So Jesus calls Ananias by name.

And then Ananias responds in the context of this commissioning that’s being given to him by the Lord Jesus. “Behold, I am here, Lord.” So Jesus has come to commission Ananias for a particular task. He does that by calling him. Ananias responds to the Lord Jesus Christ as we are taught to respond to God through the responsive reading through the worship service, which is essentially a dialogue back and forth between God and his people. Here we have a dialogue back and forth between Jesus and Ananias. And Ananias’s first words are words of submission. That is very important for us.

Just as Saul’s first words were words of submission, indicating his steadfastness to do the will of the Lord Jesus Christ—”What shall I do?” is essentially what Saul had told the Lord Jesus. And here Ananias responds to Jesus by saying, “I am here, Lord.” This is the same response that Samuel had given as a young boy when he was visited by God for a particular task. It’s this response that indicates submission on the part of Ananias and a willingness to do whatever the Lord Jesus Christ would require of him. There is a promptness to obey indicated in this first response of his.

Jesus then tells Ananias specifically what this task is in verses 11 and following. “The Lord said unto him, ‘Arise and go into the street which is called Straight. Inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth.’” This is, as far as I know, the only place in the New Testament where a street is specifically identified by name: Straight. And this is unusual in these cities of this area—to have long straight streets. Crooked streets were sort of the rule of the day.

And apparently, even in Damascus to this day, there is a long straight street about a mile long running east to west that is probably, most people think, the particular street that is here referenced. Damascus is an ancient city, and the same street that was straight then is apparently still straight today. But in any event, it was peculiar in the fact that it was a long straight street in this city and was so named because of that.

Well, Ananias is told to go to that street, which would be easy to find, of course, being the major east-west thoroughfare in Damascus, and to there find one called Saul in the house of Judas. “For behold, Saul prays. So Ananias is commissioned by the Lord Jesus Christ for a particular task. Jesus goes on to tell him that in his prayer, Paul—or Saul—has seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.

So Jesus here very supernaturally superintends the events. Again, in these first opening chapters, we have the presentation of the gospel to the Gentiles. We have the free reign of the Spirit. Jesus Christ is sovereignly moving in very supernatural and explicit ways to demonstrate the providence that we find in all of our lives. In this case, we have Saul being visited. We have Ananias being visited. We’ll talk about this more when we get to Peter and Cornelius.

It’s really, in a way, just as the Ethiopian eunuch is a little snapshot of what happens with Saul on the road to Damascus and his salvation, so Saul and Ananias here are kind of a snapshot of a further revelation of God for his purposes of taking the gospel to the Gentiles, through Peter and Cornelius. There’s a continuity. There’s an expansion here of the story, and hopefully an expansion of response of thankfulness on our part to the revelation of God and his purposes.

The one who had shaken Saul would now restore Saul. In Hosea 6:1-2, we read: “Come and turn to the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal thee. He hath smitten, and he will bind thee up. And now, after two days, he will revive thee. In the third day, he shall raise thee up, and thou shalt live in his sight.”

This is a prophecy that very much has an application to Saul, but also has an application to us. God frequently in our lives takes us through dark days—days of suffering, days of awareness of our own sin, days of trial that God brings into our hearts. And it’s very important that in the context of those sorts of days, when we’re down and we don’t understand the purposes of God perhaps for us, when we have a renewed sense and apprehension of our sin and our guilt for that sin, and so are led into fasting or prayer to God—it’s important to recognize that the same God who brings conviction, the same God who brings suffering, the same God who breaks us down, then reconstitutes us, that we might be better vessels for his purposes in our lives.

And so if you’re in a particular period of time right now—as many people are in the holiday season—where things don’t just seem like they should, and maybe God is breaking you down this week, recognize that it is for a purpose. And at the end of that, as with Saul here as indicated by the text and by the prophecy in Hosea 6, the end of that is our wholeness. The end of that is that we might go into a stronger position with God, more mature, more obedient.

The same one who breaks us down indeed promises to heal us as well, for the purposes of his kingdom.

Well, so Jesus has commissioned Ananias. But Ananias has some concerns. And he voices those concerns quite freely in the next couple of verses. “Then Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to the saints of Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.’”

Ananias is concerned. He doesn’t know that Saul has been converted. He doesn’t know that the persecution threat to the church at Damascus has ceased, at least for a little while here. Instead, he is concerned. He is raising appropriate fears or apprehensions about going to one who was actually the one who was to persecute the church. A commentator in his commentary says that he was filled with consternation and fear as indicated by this response. Matthew Henry says that Ananias was concerned that he would go like a lamb into the mouth of the lion: “Lord Jesus, is this what you really want me to do—to go to the person who is persecuting me and to minister grace to him?”

I don’t think it’s much a case as it was with Jonah, where he didn’t want to see Saul converted. I think he just simply didn’t know of Saul’s conversion and so was fearful. And as a result, he is, for us, I think a picture of courage. And that’s what we’ll focus on in the second half of our outline.

Ananias has courage, but he first has an apprehension, and he freely expresses that apprehension to the Lord Jesus. Now, this is interesting. It’s not unique in scripture, is it? We can think of lots of instances where men dialogue with the appearance of God—through the angel of the Lord, through the Lord himself here appearing, or whatever other manifestation of God. There’s frequently this dialogue that people enter into with God.

We can think of it in terms of Moses when he would dialogue with God about the nation of Israel, for instance, or even at first when he objected to his own particular calling. We can think about it with Zechariah and the angel of the Lord that appeared to him, foretelling the birth of John the Baptist. We can think of it in lots of different instances. But it is important for us to consider that this is the sort of relationship that a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ should have with his master.

We should be able to go to God freely in prayer, expressing who we are reverently, of course, addressing God correctly, but not pretending that we’re something that we’re not. Expressing our concerns, our apprehensions, our fears. This is the kind of dialogue that enters into between God and his people frequently in scripture. And it’s modeled for us again in our worship service.

Jesus does not rebuke Ananias for this concern. Rather, Jesus then moves to reassure Ananias.

By the way, before we pass over this, it is important to note that in verse 13, where Ananias refers to the saints at Jerusalem, this is the first occurrence in the New Testament where Christians are called saints. Saints—from the Hebrew, like the Holy Spirit—these holy ones. And it has a double significance. One is being set apart or consecrated to God for a particular purpose. We’re saints by means of our calling and election. We’re set apart to God, and so we’re saints.

The second meaning though that comes out of that meaning is that we’re also supposed to be holy in the sense of being pure, sinless—ultimately sinless, but trying to root out sin in our lives. Holiness is an attribute where God tells us to be holy because he is holy. He conforms to his ethical standard. And so we’re to have that same conformity of life. That’s what Christians are portrayed as—those who are set apart and called, certainly, but also who exhibit a personal holiness in their lives.

Well, that’s who the people were that Ananias was concerned about. It wasn’t his own skin ultimately. It was the well-being of the church. And so Jesus hears this concern of Ananias and moves to reassure Ananias.

In verse 15, the Lord says unto him: “Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me. I’ve got special things intended for this man,” God tells Ananias. And he tells him what those special things are: “To bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. And I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake—for my name’s sake.”

Well, this is an interesting response on two accounts. First, it’s interesting because it is a model for us of how we should respond to functional inferiors. Now, it’s an old-fashioned word. I probably ought to use a different word, but there are relationships. Our relationship to our employer, for instance, is one of an inferior to a superior. Our relationship to those who work for us, on the other hand, is one where we’re a superior to an inferior in terms of position relationship to them.

Husbands and wives, of course, are a picture of this as well in marriage. There is an order. There’s a hierarchy. The scriptures say this is good and proper. Another hierarchy that we might consider is that of parents to their children. In all these relationships that we enter into—and there are many more than this, such as to the civil magistrate, to people that know more than us in particular things, to an auto mechanic when we take a car to him, for instance—in all these things, these relationships, there is a model for us of how to engage in relationships correctly.

It is important, and I’ve talked several years about doing this, and hopefully one year I will eventually—I want to talk about specifically what would make a good, what would be good for us to understand, the scriptures teaches how to make a proper appeal to authority. That’s what Ananias has done here. He has respectfully approached the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s made an appeal to him on the basis of his knowledge of who Saul is. The appeal is: I’m concerned. I’m apprehensive. This guy hurts people, hurts Christians, and I don’t want the church to be hurt. I don’t want to be hurt.

He makes a proper appeal. And Jesus does not rebuke him for making that appeal. Rather, Jesus moves to reassure him.

Now, there are other places in scripture where people make appeal to God and he actually changes his actions. Okay? Well, if that’s the case, let’s do this: God does that in scripture. It’s not that he doesn’t know these things, but it’s to train us the importance that we have in executing God’s will and in actually our importance of our prayers and causing God to move in particular ways.

Well, in any event, in this case, Jesus doesn’t change things. He fills Ananias in with some knowledge he didn’t have. And so, when functional inferiors come to you as a superior—whether it’s children to parents, your wife to a husband, an employee to you—don’t berate them because they don’t know what you know. Be long-suffering, patient, kind, and tender-hearted to them, as the Lord Jesus is with Ananias here. It’s a model for us both of how to make a proper appeal, but then also how to treat those who are under our authority—that authority ultimately derived from God, of course.

And it tells us that we should reassure us—how particularly, I think this is important with our children. We frequently forget how limited their knowledge is compared to ours, how limited even their ethical obedience is, because they’re young and being trained in maturity. And we should use this model of the Lord Jesus and being patient, explaining things to his child in the faith, so to speak, as a model for us as well.

So it’s important for that reason. It’s also important because this is a summary. When Jesus tells Ananias what he has planned for Saul, it’s a summary, really, of the rest of the book of Acts—basically the rest of the book of Acts tells us these three things in pretty much this order. First, that Paul is a chosen instrument. And we’ll see that repeated over the next few chapters—that Paul, or Saul, is chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, that he’s chosen for a particular task.

That task is to take the gospel to the Jews and to the Gentiles and also to bear the name of the Lord Jesus Christ before kings. He’ll go to Agrippa. He’ll go to Caesar, and furthering out an understanding of what these verses in summary tell us about the life of Saul. And third, that in so doing these things, he will suffer persecution for the faith and for the name of Jesus Christ. He who will be very important in the work of God must suffer much for God for those purposes.

And Saul certainly will suffer much. And God tells Ananias—and we’re sure here he also tells Saul—that indeed Saul will suffer much for the faith. This doesn’t get in the way of Saul’s obedience. He recognizes that, and he joyfully moves into the suffering of those who would speak forth the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, particularly those who are called to the particular task, the high task and priority that Saul is given here by God.

So these verses tell us really about the rest of the book of Acts and certainly the ministry of Saul as a chosen vessel—present the gospel to Jews, Gentiles, and kings, and to suffer great things for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, he was a very deliberately chosen vessel—prepared by God would be a better way to put it. God had prepared Saul by having been trained with a thorough knowledge of the Old Testament. He had that knowledge of the Old Testament that will greatly be used by God in his work in terms of preaching the gospel of Christ and showing the continuity of the one word from God. Saul was also trained in Tarsus, and as a result, he had a Greek education. He had his mind disciplined and structured well, so it was under his command and could come under the command of the Holy Spirit.

His education was preparation for his ministry. His understanding of Greek, of course, was preparation for that as well, as was his training in the Hellenistic culture that existed at Tarsus—particularly suited him, of course, for being the apostle to the Gentiles. He also was a Roman citizen, as we can see later on in the book of Acts. This will be quite important in his ministry as well.

Many things that God had woven into Saul’s life for a particular purpose. And in your lives, God has woven various aspects into your life for the particular calling that God gives you in the context of preaching the gospel of Christ and working within the body of Christ to expand the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. That providence that’s pointed out for us so clearly again in Saul’s life is an indication of the providence that he reads into our lives as well, making us chosen vessels for our particular callings and purposes.

Every bit of our lives—even the preconversion life of Saul here—is used by God for his purposes under the control of the Spirit. And our preconversion experiences as well usually manifest themselves in some marked way to us as equipping us somehow for the task that God calls us to do.

Saul was a chosen vessel. But the one thing he needed—and what he now had received—was a humility from God. All these things are useless without bowing the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Saul had been brought to that position of bowing the knee and humbling himself to God. And this wasn’t the first time. It’ll come later as well, with his thorn in the flesh, with the sufferings and persecutions. Humility is the constant lesson that Christians learn from God.

He takes us through seasons of breaking us down that he might then, as we are humble to him and his purposes, be brought up and chosen vessels to him again. Indeed, he will preach forth the gospel to King Agrippa and to the household of Caesar and to the Jews and to the Gentiles.

This text is filled with an optimistic eschatology. We have this in the presentation of the gospel to kings. This is not for naught. The nations will be discipled, and Saul will preach the gospel both to the common citizens but also to the rulers of countries. Many will be converted.

We have in the literary structure that Luke uses—the way he presents these facts to us—he tells us various things that are a picture, again, of this reversal. The second Adam coming and the manifestation of the victory of the second Adam in the life of men. What do I mean by that? Remember, we talked about the eunuch. And the story was given starting and ending points, referring to two of the five primary cities of the Philistines being converted now, places where the gospel is going to be ministered to.

Ethiopia is a picture of the conversion of the whole world to God, as it was with the queen of Ethiopia who had come to visit Solomon. Well, now there’s a greater Solomon, and the eunuch is a picture of that. The conversion of Saul as he’s on the way to Damascus—that old, ancient city of Damascus that had persecuted the people of God notoriously in the Old Testament—now also is a picture of this reversal of the flow of history with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in this story, what do we have? We’ve got three names here, don’t we? We’ve got Saul. We’ve got Judas. We’ve got Ananias. Saul resides in Judas’s house. These are all seconds. Ananias is the second Ananias for us in the book of Acts. Commentators say, “Well, these are common names, Ananias and Judas.” Well, okay. Are they that common that these are some of the few names given to us in this book? And even if our comment—why did he have to tell us it was the house of Judas?

I think there’s a reason for this. Rebirth, darkness to light—this is the whole picture of what’s going on in Saul’s life. And Ananias, the first Ananias, failed. And I think failed largely because of his cowardice to man, as a result wanting to portray himself as giving things to God’s church that he hadn’t really given. He lied to the Holy Spirit. He was brave to God, as the fool is, and cowardly to men. And as a result, suffered for it.

Well, here we have Ananias who, with God’s empowerment, is brave to men, and he is fearful of God and as a result obeys God. So he’s a picture of rebirth. Saul is a picture of rebirth as well.

King Saul from the past was the first king. The second king, David, is the one who would be righteous. Both were shepherds. Both took care of their father’s flocks. Did a good job there. Both were called by God in a special way. Both are said to have new hearts. But Saul ultimately fails—a picture of the failure of Adam. And David ultimately succeeds, although with sin—a picture of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, to raise men up.

And so we have these conversions of these seconds here—a second Judas in the account of Acts. Acts chapter 1 recorded the acts of Judas, the one who disobeyed God. And here we have a Judas who shows hospitality to the saints of God and whose very house Saul is apparently baptized. And so we have the reversal here, picturing for us, as all of the book of Acts has done so far, an optimistic future for God’s people that Jesus has come to bring to pass.

A second humanity born not of the flesh, as Richard read this morning, not of the will of man, not of blood, not of the will of man or of his abilities, but rather of the grace of God and of the Spirit. The second humanity comes forth to replace the first, old, dead, rotting humanity. And so it is that we celebrate at this time of the year this victory of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was talking to somebody who called yesterday—a gal that I do political action with—and I told her, I just, she asked about my Christmas season. I said, “I love Christmas. Because, you know, it’s the one time of the year when most of the church joins us in songs of optimism, eschatological optimism.” Almost all Christmas songs have an element of victory to them, and many of them a very strong element of victory, as you’ll notice in the songs we sing this week and next.

Well, they’re based upon the scriptural fact that Jesus Christ has come to effect a new humanity, and that we should not look at his effect back to the preaching of his gospel in some sort of negative or failed way, but rather we should see that he comes to bring victory. A second Ananias, a second Judas, a second Saul—Saul becoming Paul—and as a result of that, seeing the rebirth of men coming out of darkness into light.

And that gospel goes forth to convert the nations. And so Saul is part of that by taking the gospel message not simply to the Jews. Remember, God said in the prophecy in Isaiah that it’s too light a thing for me to give my Son just for the nation of Israel. He’s going to be a light to the Gentiles, to bring light to brighten their eyes who are in darkness. The Galilee of the nations will see conversion. And that’s what we’ve seen for two thousand years.

And it’s just beginning. It’s just beginning. The gospel message continues to mature in the life of its people. God takes us through suffering so that the church might be broken down and then built back up stronger with a stronger understanding and apprehension of the gospel message. And I’m telling you that generations to come, the centuries to come, bring great blessing from God, bring the manifestation of this new humanity who will remake this earth in obedience to God and under the dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, Ananias obeys, then, after this reassurance from Jesus is given to him. And in verse 17, we read that he went on his way and he entered into the house and put his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul”—boy, those must have been good words to Saul. Convicted of his sin, he killed Christians. How would he be received? And here a Christian comes to him and calls him brother. “Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost.”

Him who had laid hands on the people of God for evil was now laid hold of by first the Lord Jesus Christ and then Ananias for his health, for the restoration of his sight, and to the restoration of his true spiritual sight, his mind being darkened up until this point of conversion. And so we have here the wonderful picture of prisoners being brought out of that darkness that I just referred to.

The blind receiving sight—here in the picture of Saul, whose physical condition now mirrors his spiritual condition. He had been darkened in his understanding and blind because of his rejection of God. And God had sovereignly—of course, what a picture of the sovereignty of God in salvation—sovereignly came to just Saul on that road to Damascus, brought him to repentance, that he might then receive spiritual sight and health. And so his physical condition moved from blindness to sight the same way his spiritual condition had moved from blindness to sight.

And so it’s a beautiful picture of the salvation of men and our salvation as well.

And then finally, Saul is then resurrected, so to speak, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 18: “Immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales, and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.” And I should probably add verse 19 as well: “And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. And then was Saul certain days with the disciples who were at Damascus.”

Saul is given this resurrection at the end of his three days of repentance for his sins. He is given resurrection. He receives food again. He’s baptized. He’s strengthened. And he’s joined to the church of Jesus Christ.

I won’t dwell on it now, but again, here we have a picture of baptism, don’t we? We do not have an ordained minister. Nearly every commentator I read acknowledges this—that Ananias was in no way an ordained minister. Remember, we said that when he was introduced at the beginning of this text, in the first verse of the text we read, he’s introduced simply as a disciple. This is, apparently on the face of the text, a lay baptism, and I doubt very much if Saul was then later rebaptized by an ordained minister.

No church, no minister. So, I guess Saul wouldn’t have been a good member in some groups. But in any event, he is baptized here and joined to the church of Jesus Christ—very importantly as well—that he’s joined into, apparently in the words of this text, an organized body, a church that is structured at Damascus. And that’s a picture, too, of the reality that God doesn’t know Christians apart from the body of Christ ultimately. He puts them into the body of Christ, and here we see Saul being received into the very church that had once feared him and had once been persecuted by him. And now he is ushered into fellowship with them.

What a beautiful picture of the restoration and reconciliation of men. Once we’re reconciled to God, we’re reconciled and brought into the body of Christ in men.

Well, this is a tremendous story, and I want to focus just a little bit—as we did last week—on trying to look at a character trait that’s pictured for us here. Last week we talked about Paul’s steadfastness and resolve to do the will of the Lord Jesus Christ. He asked him what he should do. And here we see the courage of the second Ananias.

Courage is an attribute pictured here for us in going to the one who had himself persecuted the church. We saw that Ananias was certainly concerned and apprehensive. We saw the Lord Jesus reassured him, and as a result, Ananias is, I believe, a picture for us of courage.

Indeed, the church themselves, as we’ve talked about here briefly, also are a picture of courage—receiving Saul into the church. They could have thought he was an agent. They could have thought this was something conspiratorial. But no, they courageously offered the right hand of fellowship to Saul.

Saul himself is filled with courage here. We can see that he is filled with courage because he knows that he’s going to suffer much for the Lord Jesus Christ, but he doesn’t shrink back from that. He goes right on ahead into that task of ministry that involves with it much, much suffering. And so Saul is courageous in the face of persecution that will come to him.

Now, so courage is pictured for us in this text. Courage is an important attribute of the Christian. And you remember that what we’re going to do here—and we’ve done this for the last week, and we’ll do it for the next few weeks—is focus upon 1 Corinthians 16, verses 13 and 14, in terms of courage.

Now I want to preface this just by saying a little bit about the fact that these are character attributes and the providence of God. I was going to do a two-minute kind of call-in ad on the Lou Davies show that I had arranged with some advertising we had purchased for the parents’ educational association. And I thought, well, let’s judge the effectiveness of this Lou Davies ad by offering something. So I offered a book, and I have a number of copies of a book by Peter Waldron—actually written by Waldron and George Grant—called “Rebuilding the Walls.”

So I thought I’d offer that, and so I picked up this book and just glanced through it briefly to make sure it was a good book for the particular reason I wanted to use it. And I was surprised—very surprised—to find in the context of that book essentially the same exposition of 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 that I referred to last week, that I heard George Grant give at a conference in July this last year in Chicago. The same exposition of this verse was given in the middle of this book by Waldron and Grant.

So this is old material for Grant apparently, but it is excellent. Now, the material is interesting, too, because in the context of the book by Waldron, these statements on the four or the five character attributes that are pictured for us in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 are prefaced in this section of the book by Waldron and Grant by a section on magic, which is interesting because in the context of our preaching through Acts here, we’ve come through the magic of Simon the magician, and then we have, as opposed to that, we have the personal encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch and being preached Jesus by Philip, and now we have Saul being approached by Jesus and Ananias being approached by the Lord, who is Jesus.

In opposition to magic is the person of Jesus Christ. And I wanted just to read a couple of quotes from this section on magic and its relationship to Christian character. As we move to the second part of our outline, Waldron and Grant wrote this:

“The basic difference between Christianity and humanism is that biblical faith is a response to truth, while the man-centered faith is an attempt to manipulate God. The biblical faith aims at God’s satisfaction, while the man-centered faith aims at self-satisfaction, self-realization. Sound familiar? It’s what our world is into today, including much of the Christian world. Unfortunately, the biblical faith is thus concerned with character, content, and substance. While the man-centered faith is concerned only with physical, material, and external appearances.

“Throughout all the ages,” Waldron and Grant write, “men like Cain and others have used structural religion to get what they want. They have believed that even God would be forced to conform to the desires and demands of men who act in terms of law.”

Now, this is endemic to most of the Christian world. Why do the Japanese have a good economy? Because they obey God’s laws. And God’s laws are God’s laws for economy. And so God will bless them regardless of their faith or lack of faith. A mechanistic view of providence in the world around us. And this is, as the writers here point out, and as we talked about several weeks ago, magic—a manipulation of God and the forces of the universe through the manipulation supposedly of material substances.

If men would only say certain things, do certain things, believe certain things, or enact certain things, then God would have to respond. In a very real sense, they believe that men control their own destiny, using rituals and formulas like magic to save mankind, to shape history, to govern society, and to control God.

Going on in the book, he then goes on to talk about how what Christianity is not—it’s not a set of external manipulations, but rather Christianity is a response to truth. And that truth is found in the personal, in the person of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when God moves to change a nation or a people, he moves not to change our external reality so much as he moves to change our character.

The personalness of God’s work in the Christian church is emphasized by the authors in this book. And so they say that in order for America to change, America’s character must change—not just her laws. America’s character must change, not just her judges. America’s character must change, not just her schools, her media, her legislation, or her priorities.

And in order for America’s character to change, the character of American Christians must change. Only then will those Christians be able to rebuild the walls of our culture.

And so it is that Waldron and Grant, I think, correctly point out—very importantly for our day and age and for this particular place where we’re at in the book of Acts, and for this particular Sunday and the next Sunday—that they focus upon the need for Christian character as we rebuild the walls of our culture, so to speak, or as we prepare for the rebuilding of those walls by the Christian church.

You see, Christmas is about the coming not of a set of doctrines or ideas. Now, you know how important doctrine is. This is a church that has stressed doctrine very importantly. But it’s also—but I’ve tried now to give the balance—that really it’s not doctrine, an idea that has a consequence that comes to us at Christmas. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth and was incarnate as a man.

And so in our lives, essentially with Saul, he will give great doctrinal and theological formulations. But he had already done that mistakenly and in rebellion to God. He’ll do it now correctly. But it’s because his character, who he is as a man, has been changed by the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he preaches the gospel, doctrine and theology is important. But what he is essentially preaching is the good news of the ascension of the man, the Lord Jesus Christ, to the right hand of the Father—the God-man, fully God, fully man.

So character is extremely important in the context of living our lives for what God intends to do with us as Christians.

It’s interesting that—let’s see, I had this somewhere here. Yes. Again, to quote from this book, he recites various accounts. This is one of them. He says that when Philip Romanov characterized his visit to the Republic of Geneva in 1563, he emphasized the contribution that Christian character had made in the development of that nation’s greatness. The small Swiss canton at the height of its reform—Calvin was still preaching and teaching. Commerce was brisk and prosperous. Culture was lively and provocative, and piety was universal and infectious.

According to the Russian monk Filaret, the Reformation had served to transform the quaint community nestled in the valley into an international symbol of greatness. It had served to invoke alertness, steadfastness, bravery, strength, and tender-heartedness.

So, those are the five attributes given for us in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14. And the writers here say that Geneva had served to invoke alertness, steadfastness, bravery, strength, and tender-heartedness from the harsh realities of pioneer settlements. It had served to provoke true spirituality.

It is apparently a fact that Richard Baxter, the great Reformed pastor, said that it was Christian character that was his greatest witness to the world. He said that of all the things that he did, the most effectual thing that he did in ministering the gospel of Jesus Christ—effectual for converting men, for causing men to mature—was the character that God had portrayed through him to those who watched him in his everyday life.

Now, Baxter knew how to preach. He knew how to write. I’ve got lots of big volumes by Richard Baxter—very important writings. He, of course, is known for his pastoral visitation and the catechizing of the children of the church. And he said catechizing was much more used by God than his preaching was in the context of his ministerial work. But even more than catechizing, he said, was the demonstration of who he was, the Christian character that God had in his grace built into his life.

I’m saying that at this time of the year, we should focus upon the person, the character of the Lord Jesus. And as a result of that, the character that he desires to build into his people.

And 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 tells us those essential character attributes that are required of Christians. “Watch ye”—watchfulness. We’ll talk about that in a couple of weeks. “Stand fast in the faith”—steadfastness. We talked about that last week—resolve and determination. “Quit you like men”—be courageous. In other words, we’re going to talk about that now for a couple of minutes. “Be strong.” We’ll talk about strength next week as Saul in Jerusalem is strengthened, beginning in Damascus, then goes to Jerusalem—goes from strength to strength, to be strengthened.

And then finally, in verse 14 of 1 Corinthians 16: “Let all things be done with charity, love, and tender-heartedness”—surrounds all the other manifestation of this Christian character.

So let’s talk then a little bit now about courage.

So important in our day and age when so many distinctives—for instance, of the Reformed faith—are dropped out of the lives of the church. The distinctiveness of looking at the scriptures for a model of worship that may be performed incorrectly but is jettisoned now because the new trends of the world around us cause us to be embarrassed perhaps by some of the distinctives of God’s word as they address worship or as they address other aspects of our faith.

And so Reformed distinctives get downplayed. Reformational truth gets downplayed. We don’t talk a lot about the sovereignty of God in the context of those who believe in it, because of really essentially a lack of courage to speak forth the truth of God’s word.

We live in a day and age in which courage is important. My brother Mike—rightly or wrongly, I would—I would disagree with what he’s doing, some of the things he’s doing—but I’ll just give you a brief story here as an illustration. He is concerned about allegiance to the state as opposed to allegiance to Jesus Christ in terms of his tax monies, and he does not have his children get social security numbers, as many people in this church have not as well. And he’s now having a hard time getting his son employed without a social security number.

And this is no—there’s no requirement in terms of law, apparently, for a person to have a social security number to get a job. But employers want it. And Mike was telling me the story of one particular man he went to, and the guy said, “Well, I know that it’s not required to have a social security number, and I know your son would be a good worker, et cetera. But I’m not going to hire him because I don’t want to hassle with the IRS. I don’t want them calling me and bugging me about this guy’s social security number.”

My brother Mike’s response was that one of the problems in this country is there’s a singular lack of manhood—now, whether or not you agree with that particular thing, and whether or not that’s a good place to draw a line about social security numbers, I don’t know. But it is certainly true that our day and age is not one of great demonstrations of manhood, courage, and strength in the context of America.

Well, the scriptures tell us that strength and courage is a requirement of God’s people. Let me just read again from Waldron and Grant’s book:

“All Christians are called to be fearless in the Lord. Isaiah 12:2. They can face down adversity with great courage because of God’s omnipotence. 2 Chronicles 32:7. Because of his omniscience, Psalm 139:13-19. And because of his omnipresence, Psalm 118:6. They are to be brave in the face of their enemies, Deuteronomy 31:6. And brave in the midst of chastisement, Job 5:17-24. They are to show valor in obedience to the word of God, Joshua 23:6. For the sake of his people, 2 Samuel 10:12. And in all their service, 1 Chronicles 28:20 and following.”

I’ve given you an outline with some applicable scripture texts to this particular character quality that we are to have and exhibit in the context of our lives. And I just want to spend a couple of minutes here going through these briefly. I know there’s a lot of them. We won’t get to all of them, but you’ll have them there in case you want to do your own study later on this afternoon or into the week or into this new year.

This would be a great thing to go over these texts with your children—both with boys and girls. Courage is not simply an attribute of men. It is an attribute of God’s people.

Well, first of all, we read scripture texts such as 2 Samuel 10:12, where I believe it was Joab instructing his brothers to be of good courage and let us play the man for our people. 1 Kings 2:2: “I go the way of all the earth. This is David speaking to Solomon. Be thou strong therefore and show thyself a man.”

And in the context of the Corinthian passage we just read, “Quit you like men, be courageous like a man”—and the first point I want to make here is that we are to act courageously. Now, I don’t want to stress this too much. I don’t want to get too far away from the sense of the text. But there is a truth in which we are, it’s in some ways, to act in a particular way.

We talked earlier through 1 Thessalonians that we are to be imitators of Paul as Paul was an imitator of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took the character of the Lord Jesus and applied them to himself in his life, and he lived his life—and Baxter did for instance—with Christian character. And Baxter would also tell us, as Paul told us, that we’re to imitate men who act in a particular way.

Now that goes right against the grain of the individuality and the “be your own person” of our culture. But that’s what the scriptures seem to say to me. It seems that these texts clearly tell us to “play the man.”

What this means is that even if you’re not courageous or don’t feel courageous, put courage on as an attribute of God. The Lord Jesus came down to earth and took upon himself robes of humanity. And so we are to put on the manifestation of Christian character. And men and women, when you’re in a position of feeling afraid, that’s okay. There—a fear is common to all men. But it’s not proper to let that fear control you. You’re to put on courage as a garment, as a manifestation of Christian character.

Try it the next time you get afraid. You’re afraid to do something. I’m going to act courageously. I’m going to act like the man here. I’m going to act like the good woman here. And I’m going to do the right thing. And it may not feel like it inside. It may not be who I am, but it is who the Lord Jesus Christ is. It is one of his attributes that he applies to my life. And I’m going to put it on, as Paul said, to put on the new man, to put off the old man.

Character—courage, rather—is something that we can act out in a proper sense here, in a biblical sense.

Courage is not feeling no fear. Courage is acting correctly in spite of the fear or apprehension we may have. Ananias had apprehension about Saul. He may have still had that apprehension after the Lord Jesus reassured him, but he did the right thing in spite of his fear. Courage is not having no fear. In fact, if you have no fear, no courage is involved, right?