This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to week three of our look together through the book of
Acts, day one of this week, and we're in chapter nine today. And just let me
remind you as we begin chapter nine of a guy by the name of Saul, the one who
stood by while Stephen was being killed, martyred for his faith, the one who
began to persecute the church we saw this last week together, this last time
together. And now look what's going to happen in the life of Saul, Acts chapter
nine, verses one to six.

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's
disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the
synagogues in Damascus so that if he found any there who belonged to the way,
whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared
Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

He fell to the ground and he heard a voice say, "Saul, Saul, why do you
persecute me? Who are you, Lord? " Saul asked.

"I am Jesus whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the
city and you will be told what you must do. " What a change is going to happen
in the life of Saul.

Jesus Christ wants to change your life. And these next two days together, as we
begin in Acts nine and ten this week, we're going to have a wonderful
opportunity to see exactly how Jesus Christ changes our lives. We'll be looking
at two of the most powerful and personal changes found anywhere.

The change that happens here in Saul and then the change we're going to see that
happens in a man by the name of Peter. Now if you're looking at your life and
thinking everything's going to just be the same tomorrow as it is today, it
could never happen to me. You are where you are.

It's just all your fate. You can't change the way that things are. The Bible
clearly shows us that those ideas are ridiculous.

It is filled with words like transformed and renewed and changed. We're going to
struggle while we're in this world. There's no doubt about it.

We're going to have problems while we're in this world, but we can also be
transformed and renewed and changed while we are in this world. What I'm saying
is what happens here to Paul can happen to you. He goes in this chapter from
breathing threats and murder against the church in verse 1, to being blinded
from heaven in verse 3, to bowing to Jesus in verse 4, to being led into
Damascus humbled and blinded in verse 8.

He goes from one who's in the way of what God is doing to one who's belonging to
the way of what God is doing. He goes from a persecutor of the church to a
preacher of Christ. He even changes his name.

He's going to change his name from Saul to Paul. As you look at what happens in
the life of Paul here, you see that change has a process to it. And you see that
that process proceeds through people.

I want to note with you three people in the life of Saul here that were part of
the change that happened in his life. Yes, he met with Jesus on that road. And
yes, he heard directly from Jesus, but there were people that were involved all
along the way.

A guy by the name of Stephen, a man by the name of Ananias, and a man by the
name of Barnabas. God uses people in our lives to accomplish his change in our
lives. It is God, God alone, who gives the power to change.

But people are almost always the way that that power is found in our lives.
Stephen, Ananias, Barnabas. Stephen represents people who challenge you.

Paul, in the beginning verses of this chapter, is being haunted by the face of
an angel. He looked at Stephen's face and it had shown like an angel and he
didn't understand why, how he could have that kind of conviction and love and
compassion, even in the face of death. These people who challenge you, they
might make you mad.

They might make you sad. They might make you feel like, I don't really belong
here. They often make you feel uncomfortable because you're being challenged to
do, to be something new.

Paul is angry at the beginning of this chapter, but it's an anger that's not
born of pure conviction. a creeping feeling that he just might be wrong and that
these followers of Christ might be right. Now, who is it that might be a
challenge for change in your life?

It might be somebody in your small group and you might even feel angry with them
at times because of the challenge for change that God is bringing to your life
through their life. Jesus calls it here in one translation, kicking against the
goat, you're kicking against God's direction in your life. A goat is God
directing in your life.

You use a goat to direct an animal and God directs us. And if I don't want to go
in that direction, I come up against the sharp point of the goat. If I go in
that direction, I feel at peace.

Do you have someone like that in your life? A person who can really challenge
you. God uses those kinds of people.

He uses a second kind of person in our lives, an Ananias. And that is a
representation to me of people who heal you. Listen to what happened beginning
in verse 10.

Paul is going into Damascus, a blind man. In verse 10, in Damascus, there was a
disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias?

" "Yes, Lord," he answered. The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on
Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In
a vision, he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to
restore his sight.

" "Lord? " Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all
the harm that he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with
authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.

" But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go. This man is my chosen instrument to carry
my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I
will show him how much he must suffer for my name.

" Then Ananias went to the house and he entered it. Placing his hands on Saul,
he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you
were standing there, as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see
again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. " Immediately something like scales
fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again.

He got up and was baptized. And after taking some food, he regained his
strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.

God uses Ananias in the life of Paul, who formerly was Saul. Ananias whose name
means the Lord is gracious. Part of change in our lives is the healing of inner
hurts.

The number one thing that's keeping many of us from changing is some hurt from
the past. Some person lets you down or you feel like God lets you down. You
failed your promise.

You failed someone else. And because of that failure that you had in your life
or that someone had towards your life, you've told yourself, "I'm never going to
let that happen again. " You needed healing.

Paul needed a physical healing. He was blind. Ananias healed the eyes of Paul.

He touched those eyes, but even more, he healed his heart by touching his heart.
Ananias and his presence in that day told Paul two things. Number one, God
forgives you.

God forgives you for what you've done against the church because someone from
the church came to express God's forgiveness. And number two, the church accepts
you. One of the most amazing things in this entire story of Ananias and Paul is
what Ananias says to Paul as soon as he meets him.

He goes in and he says, "Brother, brother Saul. " He starts by accepting him.
Ananias did not want Saul to suffer for his sins.

Ananias wanted to accept him into the church even though he was afraid of what
might happen. He set his fear aside and he calls a man who had been the
persecutor of the church his brother. And the result?

The result was baptizing. The result was complete acceptance. The result was a
changed life.

Ananias went. Even though he was afraid, he went and God used him as a healer in
the life of Saul. You have Stephen, people who challenge you.

You have Ananias, people who heal you. In order for change to happen in my life
and in your life, you need a third kind of person and that's Barnabas. Barnabas,
people who encourage you, verses 26 to 28.

When he, Saul, now Paul, came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples but
they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But
Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his
journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him and how in
Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.

So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in
the name of the Lord. When everyone else was afraid to even talk to Saul, they
thought he's just trying to get into the church to know our name so that he can
have us all arrested, Barnabas took the risk to encourage. Barnabas was the one
who chose not to look at Paul's past but at his potential because of what Jesus
Christ had done in his life.

And in order to do this, he had to take a risk. You have to take risks if you're
going to help people grow. The risk of being rejected, the risk of being
disappointed.

In the life of Paul, you see a Stephen, you see an Ananias, you see a Barnabas,
you see a challenge, you see healing, you see encouragement. My question is, who
has done these things for you? You just need to say to God right now, I'm
grateful for them.

Who is doing these things for you? This chapter ends with a story of how God is
continuing to work miraculous change to the life of Peter. The next chapter,
we're going to see that God works a miraculous change in the life of Peter in
his own heart.

These chapters are all about change and what God wants to do in our lives. How
about your life? What does he want to do in you?

Let's pray together. And you might pray just this simple prayer of faith. Jesus,
send people to challenge me.

Challenge me so that I can change. Jesus, send people to heal me. To be healers
in my life, even of that pain from my past so that I can change.

Jesus, send people to encourage me. To encourage me in what your plan, your
goals, your heart for my life really is. Lord, I want to change and I pray I'd
see the people in my life that you are using to bring about that process of
change.

In your name I pray, Amen.