The Courage of Ananias Acts 9:10-22
Our lesson this morning comes from our text that was read about Ananias and the courage that he had. Courage has always been an essential characteristic of God's people.
Courage: “Mental or moral strength to
venture, persevere, and withstand danger,
fear or difficulty” (Webster).
We
can see early in the OT that Gods children were to be children of courage. Lets
look a few examples. Before his death, Moses challenged the children of
Deuteronomy 31:6 "Be strong and of good courage, do not
fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who
goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.
Here Moses tells the source of our courage is our
faith in God and the fact that he will never leave us nor forsake us. When you
have someone like God in you corner there is no need to fear other people.
Jesus tells us this in:
Matthew
I think most of us have
experienced the fear of others from time to time and instead of speaking out
for God we held our words inside. But as we can see the word of God calls us to
become more bold and courageous when it comes to defending God’s truth and
righteousness. I like what the writer of Proverbs says in:
Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no one
pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.
Now being courageous is not just a mere suggestion
it something that all Christians are to work toward.
1 Corinthians
Here we see Paul commanding these Christians at
Colossians 4:6
Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may
know how you ought to answer each one.
When you read in the OT and the NT you find all
kinds of examples of Godly men and women who had this type of courage and were
bold but they did so out of love. But for our time this morning I want to focus
in on Ananias and the courage that he had as a Christian.
I.
His courage caused him to be ready (v. 10).
Acts 9:10 Now there was a certain disciple at
Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision,
"Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord."
Now I like this because when the Lord speaks
Ananias listens and responds quickly hear I am Lord. His response reminds me of
many other faithful men in the past who were ready to hear the call of the
Lord. For example:
1 Samuel
Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
"Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am
I! Send me."
You see Gods people should always ways be ready to
listen to God’s word and to be doer of his word. Now I am saying that God will
speak to us directly today but that he speaks to us loud and clear from our
Bibles. We should all have this same attitude when we see an opportunity to
take heed to God’s word.
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers
only,
So clearly we can see that as Christians we must
always be ready. There are several things that we need to be ready to do.
1. We need to be ready to tell people why we
believe what we believe.
1 Peter 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who
asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
This means we need to be a prepared people and
that it imperative that we study our Bibles faithfully and that our lives
reflect what is found in God’s word.
2. Sometimes we need to be ready to preach the
gospel to others.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word! Be ready in season
and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and
teaching.
Again one cannot preach what they do not know which goes back the necessity of studying your Bible and Paul commands Timothy:
2 Timothy
3. We need to be ready to do good unto all men:
Galatians 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity,
let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
So let us always strive to be ready to hear God
Word and act upon it.
II.
Sometimes courage requires deep thought.
Acts 9:11 So the Lord said to him,
"Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of
Judas for one called Saul of
Here we see that Jesus wants Ananias to go to Saul and to heal him of his blindness. Now this command causes Ananias to really think about situation because he heard about Saul and what kind of man he was. He realized that going to Saul could indeed end up costing him life. It is human nature for a person to fear for their own life and so Ananias is not necessarily trying to get out doing what God is asking him to do. To me I just see him making absolutely sure that Jesus wants him to go to this man who has been trying to destroy Christianity.
I think we can several lesson from this. First of all I think that it is important that we put some thought into how we are going to be courageous.
Proverbs
This goes right back to
the point of the importance of studying our Bible and anticipating situation we
might find ourselves in and how to deal with those situations. I can promise
that if you have already thought of situation you might find yourself in and
you have prepared yourself on what you would do in that situation you will be
more confident and able to handle that situation. If you have not prepared then
you will most like fail to handle that situation very well at all.
Another thing we learn
here is that it is natural for humans to have fear. For instance,
1. How many times have we wanted to talk to a loved one about God but we were afraid what they might think?
2. How many times have we thought about talking to our fellow employee, but we were
afraid that they might get mad at us?
3. How many times have talked to our next door neighbor, but we could not seem to find enough courage to talk to them about the gospel?
All of us have faced the fears because we are human. However, God wants us to grow in our Christianity to the point that we can learn to overcome these fears. Paul teaches this concept in:
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of
fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
So
let us always try to be courageous and to realize Romans
Now one more thing I want to point out is that being courageous doesn’t mean that can’t run from a situation in order to save your life so that you can have another opportunity to proclaim God’s Word. For example:
1. Elijah fled for his life in 1Kings 19 after he had killed those prophets of Baal.
2. Even Jesus himself fled on occasions:
John 8:59 Then they took up stones to throw
at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the
midst of them, and so passed by.
3. Paul fled for his life many times as the Jews
kept following him from city to city trying to kill him.
So this tells us we need to be realistic with our courage today by studying the situation and making a righteous judgment. It important that we base our righteous judgment according to God’s Word.
III.
Anania’s courage caused him to be receptive to God's
word (vss.15-17).
Acts 9:15 But the Lord said to him, "Go,
for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and
the children of
Here we see that once Ananias clearly understood what Jesus wanted him do he was ready and willing to do it as he set his fear to the side. Ananias may not have fully understood God’s purpose here but he was willing to do it anyway. We need to understand that there will be sometimes we come to a command in the Bible and in our human thinking we might think why, why should it be done that way. When we start thinking this way we need to remember that the Lord often has a higher purpose than our limited minds can grasp. Rightly did Isaiah say in:
Isaiah 55:8 "
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My
ways," says the LORD. 9
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways
higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain comes
down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, 11 So shall My word be that goes
forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish
what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Its important that we take these words to heart
and learn to trust in God infinite wisdom and to allow him to direct our steps
and not allow our own emotions or our own human reasoning to reject God’s Word.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your
heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your
paths.
Now I want you to think about the courage it took for Ananias to go to Saul like God commanded. This is same the courage that every Christian should learn to have so that God’s will will be done
IV.
Ananias courage helped bring about great results (vss.18-22).
Acts 9:18 Immediately there fell from his
eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he
arose and was baptized. 19 So
when he had received food, he was strengthened. Then Saul spent some days with
the disciples at
There is one thing that we can never know for sure and that is what kind of fruits may be produced by the person we convert through God’s Word. Ananias had no idea just how influential Saul would up being. As we read our Bible we can see that Saul ends up making a very big impact for the growth of God’s church as he went on 3 missionary journeys setting up churches and converting most likely converting thousands of people who in turn converted more and more people and of course Paul is responsible for at least 13 books of our NT.
This teaches us another great lesson to never
give up on trying to covert people to God’s truth because that one convert that
maybe you think wont amount to much may go on to be one the of the most
successful soul winners we have ever seen.
I hope this lesson this morning has shown you
that Christians need to be full of courage and bold when it comes to standing
fast in the faith and defending God’s Word.
Conclusion:
1. By studying the life of this great man, we can see the kind of courage that pleases
God.
2. We need patience and tact, but we also need courage in this day and age.
3. Elders need the courage to take stands and contend for the truth..4. Preachers need courage to open their mouths and preach the Gospel.
5. Members need courage to support elders and preachers in the proclamation of the
truth.
6. It takes courage to break away from whatever it is that is keeping us from Christ.