Click here to download the May 28 Sunday school lesson.
Spring Quarter: Jesus Calls Us
Unit 3: The Birth of the Church
Lesson 13: Week of May 28, 2023
Dr. Hal Brady
Lesson Scriptures: Acts 9:9-17
Key Verse: Acts 9:17
Lesson Aims
- Summarize Ananias’s objection and the Lord’s response.
- Explain the significance of blindness as a possible spiritual metaphor.
- Cultivate an attitude that seeks clearer spiritual sight.
John Newton was an eighteenth-century Englishman who served as captain for ships that transported captured Africans to North America as slaves. The horrendous nature of that occupation included not only the acceptance of slavery but also the imposition of the inhumane conditions on the ships. To do this, one needed a callous soul.
In 1748, Newton was in a terrifying storm in a ship off the coast of Ireland. Fearing for his life, he began praying in a way that led to his conversion to Christ, eventually becoming a minister in 1764.
A few years later, he began writing about his faith, and in 1772 he published the words to “Amazing Grace,” a semi-autobiographical account of how God had “saved a wretch like me.”
Without doubt, one of the most memorable lines in that hymn is “[I] was blind but now I see.” While this phrase is drawn from the story of Jesus’ healing of the blind man in John 9:25, it also fits the story of Saul in Damascus.
Lesson Context: Damascus
Even in Paul’s day, Damascus was an ancient city, having been inhabited for at least 3,000 years (see Genesis 14:15). It figures prominently in Old Testament narrative, mentioned there 44 times in Hebrew. It lies about 150 miles north of Jerusalem.
As for the New Testament era, the book of Acts mentions the city of Damascus 13 times. It was a city of many ethnicities. It had become part of the Greek world after the conquest by the forces of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). Under later Roman influence, Damascus was designated as one of the cities of the Decapolis, meaning “10 cities” (see Matthew 4:25; Mark 5:20; 7:31). Jesus performed miracles near those cities although not in Damascus itself. Greco-Roman ruins are still existent in Damascus today. These include a section of an impressive boulevard that is likely “Straight Street” of Acts 9:11.
Damascus had many Jewish residents and synagogues in the first century AD. The historian Josephus (AD 37-100) records that thousands of Jews were killed by the Romans in Damascus during the first Jewish Revolt (about AD 61). This testifies to a large presence with many houses of worship in that city. It is no wonder that Saul would travel there expecting to find synagogues where Jews had embraced Christianity.
We are not told how or where or when the gospel message reached Damascus. A reasonable speculation is that it occurred as a result of the Day of Pentecost, as people returned home (see Acts 2:5-11). By the time of today’s lesson, at least a couple of years had passed since that event of the stoning of Stephen and the beginning of Paul’s persecution.
Lesson Context: Saul
We first meet Saul—later known as Paul, beginning in Acts 13:9 when he acted as a witness to the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7:58; 8:1 (see also 22:20). He is presented elsewhere as an ambitious young man who was building a career in the rabbinic tradition of Jerusalem and as a trusted servant of the temple officials and religious leaders (Galatian 1:14; Philippians 3:4-6). He could never have been a priest, because he was from the tribe of Benjamin rather than the priest tribe of Levi (see Deuteronomy 18:1; Hebrews 7:5, etc.). But he could have become one of the greatest of the Pharisees, like his teacher Gamaliel (Acts 5:34; 22:3).
The climb up this career ladder accelerated when Saul oversaw a direct assault on believers in Jerusalem, where he searched for them house to house and threw into prison those he found (Acts 8:3). He apparently did effective work at that, for the high priest agreed to authorize him to go to Damascus to find Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial and punishment (Acts 7:1-2; 22:19; 26:9-11). So, it was his ambitious trip to Damascus that was the occasion of the resurrected Jesus appearing to Saul and asking, “Why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4).
Now, this Damascus Road story is told three times in Acts: once as narrated by author Luke (Acts 9:1-19) and twice as told by Saul/Paul himself (22:3-16; 26:9-18). As today’s text opens, Saul had been struck blind by the Lord on that road. Subsequently, Saul was led by the hand into the city (9:1-8).
I. Saul’s Waiting
(Acts 9:9-12)
In Damascus the blinded Saul follows the most intense type of fast, spending three days without eating or drinking (v.9). People engaged in such fasts only if they were repenting or seeking God’s face. Both are involved here (v.11), where Ananias is told Paul is praying.
Luke, the author of the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, uses the word “disciple” dozens of times in his two works. In Luke’s Gospel, a disciple is a dedicated student of Jesus the teacher. In Acts, a disciple is a committed follower of the risen Lord. In that regard, “Ananias” may be much like many Christians today who serve the Lord faithfully in relative anonymity.
We learn a bit more about this “disciple” in Acts 22:12. There Paul (formerly the Saul of today’s lesson) describes Ananias as a “devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.” And we take care not to confuse this Ananias with two others by the same name in Acts 5:1 and 24:1.
How surprised “Ananias” must have been to experience a “vision” in which the “Lord” communicated with him personally! The word “vision” implies a supernatural origin. It involves seeing things not normally seen, but it may also consist of hearing things not normally heard, as in the calling of Samuel (1 Samuel 3:1-14). The same may be the case here. But unlike the calling of young Samuel, Ananias recognized what was happening immediately. So he answered, “Yes, Lord,” implying that Ananias was listening.
“The Lord” may refer to God in the general sense that does not distinguish among members of the Trinity. In this case, however, it refers to the risen Jesus in particular, as Acts 9:17b makes clear.
In verse 11, the instructions are detailed—there can be no doubt regarding where and to whom Ananias is to go. As I previously mentioned, Straight Street is the grand boulevard of Damascus. And this may indicate that this particular Judas, the homeowner, is a well-connected person of some wealth.
Saul’s hometown of “Tarsus” was a well-known city about 250 miles north-northwest of Damascus and 355 miles due north of Jerusalem. Tarsus became the capital city for the Roman province of Cilician in AD 72 (about 40 years after the event under consideration). Saul (as Paul) would later mention his civic pride in his hometown (Acts 21:39).
The Lord introduced each of the two men to the other in the same ways—a vision. Saul had preceded Ananias in that regard, even though Saul had been blinded (Acts 9:8-9). Ananias learned something else as well: he was to be God’s chosen instrument for Saul to restore his sight.
Now the outcome of this could have been determined by the Lord himself in some other way. But he chose instead to work through a human as he often did—and still does.
Christian author John Purdy says that, “If we had to select one and only one way of picturing the life of a Christian, it would be the image of one who has heard and keeps hearing a persistent summons to believe and action.”
II. Ananias’s Objection
(Acts 9:13-16)
Obviously, Ananias had never met Saul, but he certainly knew of Saul’s reputation as a persecutor of Christians. Admitting you were a Christian to Saul was like signing your own death warrant. A parallel today might be admitting you are an American to a terrorist in Afghanistan. And Ananias was exactly the type of person Saul had come to arrest and haul back to Jerusalem.
We note in passing that Ananias referred to Jesus’ disciples as “holy people and all who call on your name” rather than “Christians” at this point in time; the latter designation was not to become reality until Acts 11:26. Ironically, the designation “holy people” eventually became a favorite of Saul’s (when better known as Paul) when referring to Christians in his letters (example Romans 1;7; 1 Corinthians 1:2).
Acts 22:19 and 26:9-11 shed additional light on what “to arrest all who call on your name” entailed. Saul entered synagogues to find believers in Jesus in order to have them beaten, imprisoned, and/or put to death. So zealous was Saul that he went out of his way to punish this new and (to his prior way of thinking) heretical sect.
Ananias’s protest is understandable, considering what Saul had done to the “saints” in Jerusalem and had been planning to do in Damascus (vv.13-14). But his willingness to obey immediately after the Lord’s explanation (vv. 15-16), is commendable. Henceforth, Saul was to be a “chosen instrument” to the Lord rather than a vessel of the religious authority in Jerusalem. That reassignment would involve being the apostle to “the Gentiles,” including “their” kings (Acts 25:13-26:23). The book of Acts ends with Paul’s awaiting his hearing before the Roman Emperor himself.
Even so, the regular practice of Saul (as Paul) would also be to try to convince his fellow Jews – “the people of Israel” – that Jesus was their promised Messiah. Indeed, preaching Jesus to fellow Jews would be his first order of business wherever Saul went (13:46-48; 18:5-6).
By contrast, we are told that the task of the Apostle Peter was something of a mirror image of that practice: Peter was the designated apostle to the Jews (Galatians 2:8-9), although he witnessed also to Gentiles (Acts 10:1-11).
As if receiving a vision from the Lord was not enough of a shock to convince Ananias in and of itself, the revealed mission to the Gentiles was probably incomprehensible to him. Even more so was the predicted mission to kings who were all Gentiles.
III. The Lord’s Healing
(Acts 9:17)
This 17
th verse ties things together and clarifies. The “Lord of Visions” has been none other than “Jesus” himself. It was none other than he who had appeared to Saul on the road (compare Acts 9:5, 22:8, 26:15) and who had spoken to Ananias in Damascus.
As Saul was just about to see “again,” Ananias announced something we have not yet read about in the visions from the Lord: Saul was to be “filled with the Holy Spirit.” This phase occurs eight times in the New Testament, all in the writings of Luke (examples John the Baptist, Luke 1:15; his mother and father, Luke 1:41, 67).
Saul’s first action after having his sight restored was to be baptized even before he broke his three day fast from food (see Acts 9:18-19). He was strengthened in his soul and in his body.
What a change! He is still Saul of Tarsus, but now he is Brother Saul. He is not the enemy, but a brother. Any person who loves the Lord Jesus Christ is a brother or sister to everyone else.
The late Dr. Karl Menninger, the well-known psychiatrist, said that the most tragic word in the known human language is the word unloved – there’s nothing worse than that, nothing more devastating, nothing more destructive.
On the other hand, Dr. Menninger said that “Love has the power to cure…both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.” And he’s right.
Brother Saul! I repeat, any person who loves the Lord Jesus Christ is a brother or sister to everyone else.
Conclusion
Conversion, call, or both? The story of Saul’s experience on the way to Damascus is usually portrayed as his “conversion.” And that is a valid description in that the episode shows a life transformed from an unbeliever into a believer, one who was baptized and received the Holy Spirit. However, as the author of the Lesson asked, “But was that Luke’s intent in documenting this story? Is Saul’s conversion experience, with its spectacular visions and drama, intended to be some sort of model or expectation for conversion today?” Certainly, numerous conversions over the centuries have been dramatically sudden and powerful. We have all heard the stories. But the author of the lesson said that he had never heard of an unbeliever being called in a vision to the sort of mission to which Saul was called. Neither have I.
Simply stated, Saul was a young man whom Jesus simply had to have as his servant. Jesus did not have to stir up passion in Saul’s heart; he was already passionate. Jesus did not have to infuse Saul with a great knowledge of Scripture; he already had it. Jesus did not have to put an obedient spirit in Saul; he already had one. Unknown to Saul, he had been preparing his whole life to be redirected and used by Jesus.
Point? Jesus can still redirect a person’s life while using all that person’s life experiences in kingdom service. And we in the church should be on the lookout for such people! Think of the people you know or have heard about whose lives were transformed by the gospel and redirected to do great things for Christ. And how does our life intersect with theirs? How should it?
Action Plan
- How do you express your availability for God’s unexpected ministry?
- When have you been part of God’s answer to someone else’s prayers?
- What fears still hold you back from bold obedience to God?
- What experiences illustrate the Holy Spirit’s bringing you from spiritual blindness to sight?
Resources For This Lesson
- “2022-2023 NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, Uniform Lesson, International Sunday School Lessons,” pages 329-336.
- “The NIV Application Commentary (Acts) by Ajith Fernando, pages 299-300.
- “Standard Bible Commentary (Acts)” edited by Orion Root and John W. Wade, pages 66-68.
Dr. Hal Brady is a retired pastor who continues to present the Good News of Jesus Christ and offer encouragement in a fresh and vital way though Hal Brady Ministries (halbradyministries.com).
