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Sunday School Lesson
A Call To Preach Acts 9:10-20
lation. These facts highlight the perceived need to extend perse- cution against Jewish Chris- tians there. Threats to the “purity” of synagogues in Dam- ascus could not be tolerated.
Saul’s mission to this city changed, however, before he arrived there. As the lesson opens, Saul (Paul) is in his third day of blindness as a result of his encounter with Christ.
God, as he sometimes does (Hebrews 1:1), used a vision to call Ananias. There are sev- eral people in the Bible named Ananias (Acts 5:1; 24:1), but this Ananias is identified as a disciple who was living in Dam- ascus.
God told Ananias, Go. When Ananias expressed his hesi- tancy, God once again told him, Go. The vision from God was specific. Ananias got the name of the man’s house, the street, the knowledge that the prospect was also having a vi- sion, and the promise that Ana- nias would be working a miracle on this blind man.
Ananias’s hesitancy to accept this mission is easy to under- stand. Saul of Tarsus was a ter- rorist (Acts 9:1; 1 Timothy 1:13). His reputation had pre-
ceded him.
Ananias not only knew of
Saul’s (Paul’s) character, he also knew reports of Saul’s (Paul’s) mission—to stop Chris- tianity by incarcerating all who call on the name of the Lord.
But the Lord reassured Ana- nias by telling him about Saul’s (Paul’s) election, mission, and suffering. Saul was chosen by God to proclaim the gospel, but evidently Saul (Paul) could have disobeyed that calling (Acts 26:19). Saul (Paul) was to be taken out of his ethnic and political comfort zones as his audience would consist of Gen- tiles and kings (as well as Is- rael).
And Saul (Paul) would not go from Straight Street to Easy Street. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.
The apostle Paul (Saul) was a towering figure of the New Tes- tament, but would he have made his great contribution were it not for Ananias answer- ing the call of God?
Call To Preach Acts 9:17-20
Ananias arrived at Judas’s house and beheld the blind ter- rorist. Perhaps Ananias gulped
hard, placed his hands on Saul, (Paul) and spoke words of in- clusion and hope. The words, Brother Saul, (Brother Paul) must have melted Saul’s (Paul’s) heart. Ananias con- nected the dots that he was the one that Saul (Paul) knew about from his own vision. Ananias promised Saul (Paul) sight and the Spirit (probably is a promise of inspiration for Saul’s future preaching and writing).
It is not always easy to show love to others, especially when we are afraid of them or doubt their motives.
Saul (Paul) saw more in his blind state than with his previ- ous 20/20 vision. When the scales fell from his eyes, he rec- ognized that the miracle was from Jesus. He got up and was baptized. Food helped so he re- gained his strength.
It would take Barnabas to speak on Saul’s (Paul’s) behalf to get Saul (Paul) accepted (Acts 9:27). Saul’s (Paul’s) call to salvation was also a call to preach. He took up that call by preaching in the synagogues that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God. For Saul (Paul), preaching was indispensable.
In our text there were two ur- gent calls. One was given to Ananias, and the other to Saul (Paul) of Tarsus. Both calls had to do with preaching.
Ananias’s Call To The Preacher
Acts 9:10-16
Our text is scene two of the dramatic conversion story of Saul (Paul) of Tarsus (told by Paul in Acts 22 and to King Agrippa in Acts 26). Following Jesus’ confrontation of Saul (Paul) on the Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-9), Saul found him- self blind and in a self-imposed fast at Judas’s house on Straight Street in Damascus.
One could argue that more of our text is about the devout and respected Ananias (Acts 22:12) than Saul himself. There is a sense in which Ana- nias was also a preacher. He preached to Saul (Paul) and en- listed him as a future preacher.
Let’s understand that Saul (Paul) was a Jew who had been trained as a rabbi by the best teachers in Jerusalem (com- pare Acts 22:3). His educa-
tion in the law would have been the ancient equivalent of a doc- toral degree today.
When the Jewish leadership began to persecute Christians, Saul (Paul) was their point man. Saul went on to terrorize the church by conducting house-to-house searches for Christians (Acts 8:3; 22:4). His persecuting zeal reached a fever pitch when he took the initiative to ask the high priest for authority to extend the per- secution to Damascus, about 150 miles to the north of Jerusalem.
His plan was to find Chris- tians in the Jewish population there and bring them back to Jerusalem by force (9:1, 2). His encounter with the risen Christ is the immediate back- drop for the lesson this week (Acts 9:3-9). Saul’s (Paul’s) ambitions and zeal had not gone unnoticed by the Lord of the church.
Damascus was a key com- mercial city with caravan routes. It was a multiethnic city with a substantial Jewish popu-
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