“People to meet in heaven: Ananias”
Acts 9:10
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Ever heard of Bob Bartlett, Rick Rescorla or Gunner the dog? Probably not. And you probably never will. No matter how good they were and no matter how important, they’re unsung heroes, lost to history and time.
Let me start with the first one—Bob Bartlett. Who was he? He was an Arctic explorer who lived late in the 19th and early in the 20th centuries. He grew up the eldest of ten children and, by the age of seventeen, he mastered his own ship! That’s when he fell in love with the Arctic.
He explored it for fifty years and even mapped it out. But in 1914, on one of his more than forty expeditions, the absolute worst happened. His ship got stuck in the ice.
What could he do? First, he helped his crew build a camp, then he travelled one hundred and fifty miles, by dog sled, to find land. Then he walked seven hundred miles, across the Siberian ice, to save his crew of fourteen men.
And if that wasn’t enough, three years later, in 1917, he saved another group of men also trapped in the ice.
Will you ever hear of Bob Bartlett? Probably not. He’s an unsung hero, lost to history and time.
Or how about Rick Rescorla? Who was he?
He was born in the UK and served not only in the British Army, but in the United States Army. In Vietnam, he sang to his troops to help calm them down. He even helped to write a book called, We Were Soldiers Once…and Young. It’s how the movie, We Were Soldiers, got its name.
But in September of 2001, while he was working security at the World Trade Center, South Tower, just as soon as the North Tower was hit, he helped nearly all of Morgan Stanley’s 2,687 employees to escape.
Then he went back in. The last anyone saw of him was on the tenth floor, heading back upstairs. When one of his colleagues told him to evacuate, he said, “As soon as I make sure everyone else is out.”
He was never seen nor heard from again.
And one more—how about Gunner the dog? You’ve probably never heard of him either.
He was a six-month old, stray, black and white dog that suffered a broken leg in a Japanese air attack. And after some Royal Australian Air Force men bandaged him and nursed him back to health, they noticed that, whenever a Japanese plane flew overhead, he began to whine and jump. Even more, they discovered that Gunner’s hearing was so acute, he could hear the planes twenty minutes before they arrived—even before they showed up on radar! His actions saved the lives of countless men.
Ever heard of him? Probably not, and you probably never will. He was an unsung hero, lost to history and time.
And in our text today, we meet another unsung hero, a man named Ananias.
Now before we go any further, we have to get something straight. There are, in fact, three men named Ananias in the Bible, so let’s be sure to get it right.
The other two you probably know. One was married to a woman named Sapphira--Ananias and Sapphira—those two who lied to the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 5. The other was a high priest, who slapped the apostle Paul in Acts 23. But it’s this one, the third one, that we want to meet in heaven.
Please turn with me in your Bible to page 1167 as I read the words of our text. To get the bigger picture, let me start at chapter 9, verse 1: “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.’ The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”
We’ll stop there for just a moment.
Look again at verse 1: “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest.”
“Breathing threats and murder,” it says. Let me tell you! Before Saul became the apostle Paul, he was not a nice guy! Later, he confessed to some of the things he had done. He wrote to the Corinthians: “I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” He wrote to the Galatians: “For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.” And he wrote to Timothy: “Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, I received mercy, because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.”
We don’t know all the things he did. We don’t know if he killed Christians, or if he only tortured them and ordered them to blaspheme Jesus’ name.
But what we do know is that, as it says in verse 2, he “asked for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”
He hated Christ and he hated Christians so much, he was willing to walk one hundred and twenty dusty miles north, just to root them out and destroy them. He would do anything to keep the church from growing anywhere.
But God had another plan. Verse 3: “Suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’”
Even more, not only was he knocked to the ground, verse 8, “although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.” “And for three days,” verse 9, “he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”
So there he sat, blind, bewildered, and alone.
So now what? How would he come to know Christ?
That’s when, out of the blue, we meet a man named Ananias.
Verse 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.’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas, (not Iscariot!), look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 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.”
And what did Ananias say? Verse 13: “But Ananias answered, ‘Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to Your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.”
In other words, hold on just one second, Lord! This man blasphemes, persecutes and tortures those who believe in Christ, and You want me to do what? You want me to share the gospel with him?! I don’t think so.
Can we blame him? Not a bit. Imagine if you were a Christian living in present-day Afghanistan. You keep a low profile because you’re one of only a few Christians in a predominantly Muslim country. And you’re part of a secret Bible Study that meets in people’s homes. And you change locations every week so no one can track you down.
Then one day, you hear that a suspected terrorist with links to al Qaeda wants to join your Bible Study. He says, “Trust me! I’ve changed. I’ve become a Christian!”
Wouldn’t you be the least bit suspicious?
But Ananias was more than just suspicious. He was scared stiff. His heart burned and his stomach churned at the mere mention of Paul’s name.
Now look at verse 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. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name.’”
And if you know the story, (and what a beautiful story it is!), just as soon as Ananias met him, he laid his hands on him and prayed for him. And as it says in verse 18: “Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened.”
If you think about it, everything that Ananias did for Paul is what Jesus has done for us. Ananias risked his life to share the gospel with Paul. Jesus gave His life to bring the gospel to us. Ananias restored Paul’s physical sight. Jesus restores our spiritual sight. Ananias refused to hold Paul’s sins against him. And by His death on the cross, Jesus refuses to hold our sins against us.
Now we really don’t know all that much about Ananias. As far as we know, he wasn’t a pastor, an evangelist or a deacon. Even more, after these few words in Acts chapter 9, we neither see nor hear from him again.
But there’s one thing that makes him stand out beyond all the rest—no matter how difficult the circumstances, no matter how great his doubts or fears, he did what God called him to do and he went where he was sent. And because he did, the world will never be the same.
As one author put it, “Without the ministry of Ananias, there would be no St. Paul. And without St. Paul, none of us would be here today.”
How many millions have come to know Christ--the power of God and the wisdom of God--as Paul would later write to the Corinthians? That we’re saved by grace, through faith, not by works, so that no one can boast, as he wrote to the Ephesians? That nothing can separate us from His love, as he wrote to the Romans? Or that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things, as he wrote in I Corinthians 13?
You may not be an apostle Paul, but you can be an Ananias, sharing the love of Christ.
Nearly a hundred and fifty years ago, Joseph Barnby put it like this: “Let none hear you idly saying, ‘There is nothing I can do,’ while the multitudes are dying and the Master calls for you. Take the task He gives you gladly; let His work your pleasure be. Answer quickly when He calls you, ‘Here am I. Send me, send me!’”
We thank You, dear Lord, for the life and the ministry of Ananias and the apostle Paul. Help us, in our time and place, to do what You have called us to do, that others may believe in Your name. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen