Last
Sunday, as we were gathered together here, we looked at a text that we said was
the beginning of the more fuller fulfillment of Jesus’ command to the apostles
before his ascension; the command to be his witness in Jerusalem and Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We
looked at the Church finally beginning to be planted outside of the city of
Jerusalem. We looked specifically at the
Deacon Philip’s evangelistic ministry in the region known as Samaria. We took away from our time together that in
order for us to do the most that we can for God’s kingdom, in order for us to
bring about the greatest glory for God; we have to venture outside of our
comfort zones. That’s what Philip did in
going to the different areas within Samaria, and that’s what we have to do in
our own efforts today. After all, the
same command given by Jesus to his apostles still applies to us today. We too are to take the message of the gospel throughout
all the earth, even when that leads us to places, people, or situations that
are outside of our comfort zone.
Now
there’s no doubt Philip was outside of that area where he felt personal
comfort, but the stories of his discomfort pale in comparison to what we find
in our text today. Paul, at this time
still known as Saul, was ravaging the Church.
He was going throughout the entire region “threatening and murdering”
as they’re called, “the people of the Way.”
These were the followers of Christ, the ones who believed that Jesus indeed
was the Messiah and the Son of God. Saul
even got permission to go into the synagogues in Damascus in search of these
folks. I mean, Saul was absolutely on
the warpath for those who professed Jesus Christ as Lord. He was going to single-handedly stop this
entire Jesus problem that had plagued God’s people for so long. At least that was his way of seeing things.
However,
somewhere along the road to Damascus, there was a sudden and bright flash of
intense light from heaven. Now, this is
probably one of the better known scenes of the New Testament, and this is the
point at which Jesus speaks out from heaven to Saul. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” Now, we could go off in a whole different
direction with this response, but let’s hold off on that for now. Jesus answered him, “I am Jesus, whom you are
persecuting. But rise and enter the
city, and you will be told what you are to do.” So Paul, with the help of the men who
accompanied him, who also heard Jesus, went into Damascus and stayed there for
three days. He was blind, and he was so
afraid and stunned that he didn’t eat or drink anything.
Meanwhile,
God called out to this man named Ananias to go to Paul. He didn’t call an apostle. He didn’t call one of the newly ordained
Deacons that we’ve seen over the past few chapters. God called this man referred to as a
disciple, which literally means that he was a student of the way. He was by all accounts an ordinary follower
of Christ; similar to how many Christians would classify themselves today. God told him to go to Damascus and to find a
man from Tarsus named Saul and to lay his hand upon him. However, Ananias wasn’t a fool. You see, he had heard of Paul. In fact, everyone had heard of Paul. Everyone knew what kind of havoc this man
named Saul was wreaking upon the Church.
During the midst of his protest, God told Ananias, “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.”
Now, we could take this even farther.
Not only was Paul to be the messenger of God before these people groups,
but he was also to be the writer of a large portion of the New Testament and
within his writings we find the basic principles for how we are to live in the
light of Christ’s redeeming love and sacrifice.
However, I want to take one brief moment here and point out something
that I think we can relate to today. You
see, God told this man named Ananias to go and then proceeded to tell him why
he needed to go and why he shouldn’t be afraid.
But in reality, all God should have needed to say was “Go”. It’s the same way with us. When we feel God’s push, God’s call, all we
should need is being told to “Go”, but we want so much more in terms of an
explanation. Don’t get me wrong, many
times God gives us those explanations, but my point is that he should have to
for us to be willing to go.
As
I said, Ananias went to Paul. He found
him, spoke to him, laid his hands upon him, and Paul was filled with the Holy
Spirit. Paul’s blindness left him, the
scales fell off of his eyes. Paul rose
up, got baptized, grabbed some food, and headed out the door. Don’t you think that it had to be well
outside of Ananias’ comfort zone to go to Paul?
As we saw earlier, Ananias, along with everyone else, knew both what
Paul had been doing and what he was fully capable of. Ananias was given the task of purposefully
putting himself directly in contact with Paul in a manner than was completely
waving Jesus Christ in Paul’s face.
Ananias wasn’t there on the Damascus road. Sure, God may have told him what happened,
but he didn’t witness these events for himself.
There had to be a little bit of fear within Ananias as he went in search
of the one who was seeking the destruction of the Church. However, he didn’t let his fear, his
discomfort, stop him. He went on and
fulfilled the task that the Master had set before him.
So,
following our narrative, Paul is now a Christian. He stayed in Damascus and actually was in
communion with many followers of the Way for several days. Once, again, I’m sure that all of them were
well outside of their comfort zones being in such close proximity to someone
whom they had heard to be so ruthless against Christians. However, they all stepped outside of their
comfort zone and ministered alongside Paul.
They taught him what they could and they pointed him along the right
path to spiritual maturity (as best they could). The result was that Paul was growing in his
assurance and growing in his faith. He
was even confronted by some who had previously been his contemporaries and he
tried to convert them. Some of his
former contemporaries even tried to have him killed, but he escaped. All of this I’m sure was outside of Paul’s
comfort zone, seeing as how he was used to being the one who was doing the
chasing instead of the one being chased.
Ultimately, and we will later see this in a little more detail, through
much of Paul’s efforts, the Church is flourishing. Verse 31:
“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace
and was being built up. And walking in
the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”
So
to recap some of the major points from the past few weeks: Philip stepped outside of his comfort zone
and the church was grown in Samaria; Ananias (a regular believer) stepped
outside his comfort zone and Paul was converted; these people who Paul had
previously been chasing stepped outside their comfort zone and Paul increased
greatly in faith and spiritual understanding; and Paul stepped outside his
comfort zone and what he had known his entire life and took what he now knew to
be true and went about endlessly proclaiming it. So why do I keep talking about comfort zones
and people stepping outside of them?
The
first thing is that yes, I am aware that I have used the term comfort zone
almost incessantly over the past two weeks.
The reason why I keep saying this is because comfort is the primary
barrier that prevents us from presenting the gospel to other people. Think about it for a second, we talk to
people every day. We talk to people we
know, we talk to people we don’t know, people at the grocery store, people at work;
we talk to people all day long. How many
times do we talk about our faiths with them?
Well Tommy, you know that you never talk about politics or religion with
someone, why? Oh, that’s right, because
it’s uncomfortable. I closed last Sunday
by asking the question, “Don’t you think that the greatest things that we could
hope to accomplish for God’s kingdom lie outside of our comfort zone?” I then said, “Maybe it’s time we find
out.” Well, how many of you actually found
out this past week? How many of us took
that step outside of our comfort zone?
How many of us entered into that uncomfortable conversation about
faith? How many of us spoke to that
person who we typically try and avoid?
How many of us reached out to someone or something when we really didn’t
want to, but felt like we ought to? How
many of us actually had a conversation about the gospel? Or did the message that we took from last
week simply fall on deaf ear and fizzle by the time we had finished lunch?
More
opportunities are wasted for God’s kingdom each year because we “don’t want to”
than for any other reason. It’s not lack
of opportunities, it’s lack of desire. I
know I’m not winning any friends with these words, but they have to be
said. Think of the table that sits in
front of us this day. Think of what it
represents; think of what the elements represent. They represent the body and blood of Jesus
Christ broken and shed for us. Do you
think it was within Jesus’ comfort zone to be crucified? Do you think that’s what he really wanted to
do? Of course not, Luke, the writer of
Acts, earlier in his gospel records Jesus as saying just prior to his betrayal
as he prayed to God, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from
me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours
be done?” (22:42). Jesus didn’t want to die upon the cross. He was willing, but there’s a far cry between
willing and wanting. I’m willing to do a
lot of things that I don’t want to do.
However, it was the Father’s will that His Son die upon the cross. It was the mission that the Father set before
the Son to accomplish, and he did.
And
then there’s our mission, to take the gospel out into the world, to all the
ends of the earth, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. That’s what God’s calling
us to do. We may not want to talk about
our faiths with others. We may not want
to seek out that lost soul. We may not
want to get a little beat up trying to proclaim the saving grace of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, but we must be willing.
Think of where you would be if it those who came before you only did
what they wanted and not what they were willing to do; if that friend never
witnessed to you, if that parent or Sunday School teacher never talked about
the delicate matters of with you, if that moment where you were hitting bottom
didn’t contain the lifeline of the gospel tossed ought by someone else. Think about what could be accomplished if we
finally started doing that which we are willing to do, and not just limiting
ourselves to what we wanted to do. Like
I said last Sunday to close, maybe it’s time we find out. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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