A Reluctant Witness

September 15, 2013

A Reluctant Witness

Acts 9:10-25                                  NOTES NOT EDITED

SIS—We can and must overcome our reluctance to sharing the gospel with a lost and dying world.

1.  God has a mission with your name on it. (10-11)

¹⁰ There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Here I am, Lord!” he said.

Let me clear up a misconception many people have about Christianity. I’ve heard people discourage the open sharing of one’s faith by saying, “salvation is a personal matter.”  That statement is absolutely true, depending upon how one defines “personal.”  The problem is that many use the word, ‘personal’, in an equivocal, or ambiguous way.  Yes, Christianity is “personal,” but it is NOT “private.”

My love for my wife is a very ‘personal’ matter, but it is far from private.  Anybody who knows anything about me knows that my love for my wife is the second-most important matter in my life—second only to my love and devotion to God.  Now, I may not always demonstrate my love for my wife in ways that I should, but I have never made it a “private” matter.

Our relationship with Jesus Christ works the same way:  it is intensely personal and individual, but it is NOT private.  Just like Ananias (and everyone else every called by God in the Bible to have a relationship with Him, God has a mission and purpose in life with our name on it.

God called Ananias by name.  Ananias responded positively and with great faith, “Here I am, Lord.”  There was zero hesitation or reluctance at first.  Notice Ananias addresses God as, “Lord.”  The word, “lord,” referred to a person who exercised absolute control over another person.  It was used of Caesar, or any other powerful ruler who expected absolute obedience.  When used of God, it refers to Yahweh Who has eternal and absolute authority over all of creation.  In fact, Jews would substitute the word, adonai, which is the Hebrew equivalent for Lord, anytime the Holy Name of God, Yahweh, appeared in the sacred text.  As our Lord, God deserves and demands absolute obedience to His commands.

Now, Ananias will become a bit more reluctant as the details unfold for the mission that God has planned for Ananias, but Ananias will end up on the right side of things because Ananias understands Who it is that is giving him the mission.

God had a mission with Ananias’ name on it.  He has a mission with your name on it also, if you have accepted the gift of salvation and have been filled with the Holy Spirit. 

Do you remember the old WWI poster with Uncle Sam pointing his finger out and saying, “Uncle Sam Wants You?”  Uncle Sam of course is derived from the abbreviation of United States, or U.S.  Uncle Sam (initials U.S.) is a common national personification of the American government that, according to legend, came into use during the War of 1812 and was supposedly named for Samuel Wilson.^[2] The first use of Uncle Sam in literature was in the 1816 allegorical book "The Adventures of Uncle Sam in Search After His Lost Honor" by Frederick Augustus Fidfaddy, Esq. An Uncle Sam is mentioned as early as 1775, in the original "Yankee Doodle" lyrics of the Revolutionary War, though there is debate as to if it is the same Uncle Sam.  (Wikipedia).

This poster inspired millions of young men over the years to accept the personal responsibility of defending our nation. The idea of doing it for “Uncle Sam” made the call to arms a very personal matter.

God has a mission with your name on it.

2.  Fear is Normal—Even Expected (13-14)

¹³ “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.  ¹⁴ And he has authority here from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name.”

Now, after Ananias had a moment to think about it, his unwavering faith began to waver a bit.  Verse 1 describes the man, Saul, to whom the Jew, Ananias, was being sent to authorize as a spokesman for Christianity:

9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples  of the Lord. He went to the high priest  ² and requested letters  from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way,  he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

What God was asking Ananias to do is a bit like God asking you or I to go to Saudi Arabia and preach on the street corner.  They would snatch you up, put you in jail, beat you mercilessly, and then cut off your head!  Muslim nations don’t take kindly to Christian street preachers. Sharia law declares that making converts to Christianity is a capital offense.

I’m not suggesting in any way that if God calls you to go preach on the street corner in Saudi Arabia, that you refuse to go.  I’m just suggesting that it would be normal for you to experience a little fear.

Now, our situation of sharing with our neighbors is nothing like that of what Ananias was being asked to do—to go to someone “breathing out threats and murder,” but for most of us the call to the mission of sharing the gospel with our family and friends does conjure up feelings of fear and anxiety.  That is only normal.  Jesus said, “I send you as sheep out among wolves.”  Of course a sheep is going to feel fear among wolves. 

There are three sources for our fear that cause us to be reluctant to share the gospel.

a.  There’s an Infernal Source.  Simply stated, “The Devil hates God.”  The word, ‘hate,’ falls far short of how the Devil feels about God, but it’s the best word I have. Everytime a follower of Christ shares the gospel and a person gets saved, the Devil loses a soul he once had.  This infuriates him.  He will unleash all the minions of hell to discourage a follower of Christ from seeking to be a soul-winner.  The Devil hates when you go to church.  The Devil hates when you pray and read your Bible.  The Devil hates when you lose yourself in worship to God.  But, more than anything else, the Devil hates when you tell others about the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

b.  There’s an External Source for our fear.  Most people with whom we speak will reject the message of the gospel.  Now, they may reject the gospel with varying degrees of animosity, or perhaps reject it with no animosity at all.  But, the spirit of this world is the spirit of the Infernal Enemy of God, the Devil, and the deck is stacked against any believer who dares to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”  The cultural animosity to the gospel in the United States increasingly marginalizes anyone who believes Jesus is the “only Way, the only Truth, and the Only Life.”  This external pressure to silence the witnesses of God will only increase as we approach the end times.  We never know where a witnessing encounter will lead.  We know that many people can ask many questions for which we are not always confident we have a good answer.  This causes us fear and anxiety.  Part of our reluctance to share the gospel comes from anticipating such external factors.

c.  There’s an Internal Source for our fear.  Pride in our own heart makes us reluctant to share the gospel.  All of us naturally want to be liked. No one—at least no one who is normal—likes rejection.  And, many more people will reject our witness than will accept it.  This hurts our ego.  We want to “fit in” to the world around us and this makes us reluctant to share the sometimes hard-hitting message of God’s Truth.

So, many factors contribute to our reluctance, or fear, in regard to sharing our faith with others.  Fear is normal, and even expected.  We can, however, overcome these fears even as Ananias overcame his fears by simply trusting that God is greater than any force or circumstance we may encounter.

This leads me to another lesson in our text showing us how we can overcome any and every reluctance to sharing the gospel:

3.  God has already worked out all the details (15-19)

¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go! For this man is My chosen instrument  to take My name to Gentiles,  kings, and the Israelites. ¹⁶ I will show him how much he must suffer for My name!” ¹⁷ So Ananias left and entered the house. Then he placed his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you can regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.

Uncertainty naturally breeds fear and or reluctance.  Take the start of school in first grade for example.  Back in the day when I started school, only a few rich people sent their kids to kindergarten.  Few children ever attended “preschool.”  So, it was a really big deal when Mom and Dad dropped you off in front of the “Big Brick” building.  Nearly every child felt some measure of fear.  For some, the fear built up inside until it started “leaking from the eyes.”  Others, had to be chased down the street as they bolted for the safety of – well, any place but the “Big Brick Building.”  None of us knew what they did to children in the “Big Brick Building.”  For most first-timers, it was a “house of horrors” populated by things only a six-year old’s mind could conjure up.

That was the first day of school and so it has been for first-timers down through the ages.  But, the second day of school was a whole different matter for most kids.  The routine of the first day erased any uncertainty, and with it the fears evaporated.

Uncertainty breeds fear.  But, with God, nothing is uncertain. One of my favorite Bible verses, actually it is my life verse, comes from Jer. 29:11.  Israel was facing great uncertainty in their future.  The pagan nations were circling Israel like buzzards circling a dying antelope.  Great fear gripped the nation of Israel.  Jeremiah answered with this:

For I know the plans I have for you” —this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

The same God that spoke to Ananias had already spoken to Saul.  There would be no surprises.  God had a plan and God’s plans always work out—not some of the time, not most of the time, but all of the time.  Job, even as his life was one tangled mess of trouble cried out:

^{Job 42:2} I  know that You can do anything

and no plan of Yours can be thwarted.

There are no “accidental encounters” for God’s children.  Everyone you meet is a “divine appointment.”  The sovereignty of God does not cover “most” things in our lives, but it covers everything in our lives.  Look again at verse 17:

“Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me.”

God works both sides of the aisle.  God prepares those whom He sends and He also prepares those to whom we are sent.  But, wait, “I object,” you might say.  If God prepares every encounter then why do most people reject Him?  This is a very good question and one with a very good answer:  every divine appointment is not an appointment with grace.  Sometimes God sends us to give the Law and the warning of judgment to come.  In several places God declares that He has a different plan for each encounter.  James and Peter both declare:

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble
(Jam. 4:6; 1Pet. 5:5)

Every divine encounter fulfills God’s divine plan, even though the outcomes vary. Ananias was not responsible for what Saul did or did not do.  Ananias was simply responsible to go and do as God directed.  God works out all the details and His plan always succeeds.

Never place our confidence in your ability to speak, or some clever “plan of salvation,” or anything else in this world.  Place all your confidence in God’s Holy Spirit directing and planning the divine encounters of your life. 

When you realize God has already worked out all the details, then your reluctance to share the gospel will melt like a snowball in the desert.

4.  Incredible things happen when we witness (20-25)

Of all the lessons we can glean from the life and witness of Ananias, I think this one is most important in regard to overcoming the reluctance we have when witnessing.  Look what the Bible says happened as a result of Ananias’ faithfulness:

⁰ Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: “He is the Son of God.”²¹ But all who heard him were astounded and said, “Isn’t this the man who, in Jerusalem, was destroying those who called on this name and then came here for the purpose of taking them as prisoners to the chief priests?”²² But Saul grew more capable and kept confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this One is the Messiah. ²³ After many days had passed, the Jews conspired to kill him, ²⁴ but their plot became known to Saul. So they were watching the gates day and night intending to kill him,  ²⁵ but his disciples took him by night and lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the wall.

The transforming power of the gospel is astonishing.  Here we have the testimony of Saul, first “breathing out threats and murders,” against the Christians and now he himself is the target of hatred and murder because of his “astounding and effective” preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  What a glorious transformation!  The gospel can transform lives like nothing else in the world.

There is no power in the “Higher Power” of AA, or the “Positive Thinking” of Oprah Winfrey’s New Age religion.  But, the testimony of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is without question.

The Book of Acts begins with 120 disciples in the Upper Room praying. Pentecost came and the population grew to 3000 in one day.  But, the center of Christianity revolved around the city of Jerusalem primarily among Jews.  Then, in a few short years Paul was converted and would become the Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul, along with Peter, would become the driving forces that would catapult the gospel from its humble beginnings in Jerusalem to a world-wide movement.  In only about 300 years, the gospel would become so pervasive and so powerful that the Roman Emperor, Constantine, would have to cease fighting this movement of God, and in fact embrace it, just so the Roman Empire could continue.

And now, these many centuries later, Christianity is found in every corner of the club embraced by nearly every nationality known to man.  There are now over 2 billion Christians world-wide.  That means roughly 1 out of every three people living has heard and responded to the gospel. Now, that also means that 2 out of every three people have either not heard the gospel or have rejected it.

Incredible things happen when we share the gospel enthusiastically, winsomely, and boldly.  Lives are radically changed in ways that cannot even be calculated this side of heaven.  The light of hope blasts away the darkness of despair.  The gospel breaks the shackles of addiction that hold souls in bondage. The gospel heals bodies and mends broken spirits.  The gospel message literally changes eternity!

We must never underestimate the power of the gospel message.  Most of you know that I spent my military career on a nuclear ballistic submarine.  We would submerge on the edge of the Marianas Trench and we would not break the surface—for any reason—for the next three months.  We would be totally cut off from the outside except for the constant connection through top secret equipment that would allow us to receive the message:  “Fire missiles.”  After about a month and a half, this same secret communication device would receive special notes for the crew called, “Family Grams.”  These “Family Grams” were like precious gold to the crew.  Families would write these messages (about 20 words) and send them to our Command.  On a specified day, our submarine would retrieve these prewritten messages.  Hope from home.  Love notes from young wives.  Well-wishes from children. These messages sustained the crew through arduous and difficult times.

The message of the gospel is God’s “Family Gram.”  It is God’s message of hope to mankind.  Yet, so many of God’s children are reluctant to share this message. 

As we have seen from the life of Ananias, we can overcome any and all reluctance to share the gospel if we are simply obedient and put all our trust in God Almighty.

God has a mission with your name on it.  Fear is normal—even to be expected.  God has already worked out all the details of our encounters.  And, incredible things happen when we overcome our reluctance and share the gospel.

Pray and ask God to give you the courage to boldly and enthusiastically share the gospel every chance you get.

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