The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 22, verses 12 through 21.

Tony Clark: Lord, that you would strengthen and encourage and cause people to reflect upon their lives and see where they are in the faith. So God, use this word by the power of your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right, Acts chapter 22 as we continue to go verse by verse through the word of God on Sunday mornings. We're in chapter 22 looking at verses 12 to 21. And the title of this message is Tell Your Story part 2. Tell Your Story part 2.

Now, in part one of this study, we saw how Paul was telling his story, or he was giving what we call his testimony, to an angry mob that was trying to kill him. Paul gave his defense in the Hebrew dialect, which was actually Aramaic. When he did this in verse 2, they kept all the more silent.

He told them about his past and how he was brought up at the feet of the greatest rabbi in Jewish history, Rabbi Gamaliel. He mentioned how he was a Pharisee and was zealous towards God, as they were, in verse 3. He told them how he used to persecute the way, which was an early name for Christianity, and how he killed and imprisoned Christians.

Then he told them how God got a hold of him in verse 6 by blinding him with a bright light from heaven, and Jesus spoke to him in verse 7 and said, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Then the Lord told him to go to the city of Damascus, which happens to be the oldest city in the world, and he would be given further instruction.

What happened next? Now we pick it up in verses 12 and 13. Look what it says there. It says, "Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, and having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, came to me, and he stood and said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And at that same hour, I looked up at him."

Now, to give further credence to Paul's testimony, he told this Jewish crowd that once he got to Damascus, he met a man named Ananias, who was described as being a devout man according to the law of Moses and having a good testimony with all of the Jews who lived there.

I wanted to pause right here and ask you whether you have a good testimony to those who are around you. I was thinking about this in the midst of everything that we're going through, and you're at home right now. Do you have a good testimony towards those at home?

We're locked in with folks now and just locked in with our families. Do we still maintain a good testimony towards those who are at home? This is something we have to ask ourselves here because this is something that we must maintain.

Paul, what he did was he spoke well of this guy named Ananias and said that he had a good testimony. Can those in our home speak well of us? Can they speak well of our testimony that we're maintaining or trying to maintain at home? Can a Paul point to us and say, "Now, that is a person with a good testimony for Jesus Christ"?

Can the little Pauls at home point to us as parents and say that they are a good testimony of Jesus Christ? Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:7 that we needed to have a good testimony among those who are outside, referring to outside of the faith. Why? This verse goes on to say, lest we fall into a reproach and a snare.

It reminds me of 2 Samuel chapter 12 and verse 14, when David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, the prophet Nathan came to him. And he said, "Because of your sin, you've given the enemies of God a chance to blaspheme." And that's what happens when we are not maintaining a good testimony. We give the enemies of God a chance to blaspheme, or we give the enemies of God ammunition to blaspheme Christianity and the things of God.

No, we're not going to be perfect. We're not going to be sinless. But at the same time, we want to always try to maintain a good testimony, knowing that whenever we don't maintain a good testimony, we give the enemies of God a chance to blaspheme.

Even John, in 3rd John chapter 1 and verse 12—it only has one chapter—it talks about a man named Demetrius, who had a good testimony from all. And watch this phrase: "and from the truth itself," meaning that the truth of God's word speaks well of the life that Demetrius was trying to live for the Lord.

John tells us in this verse, it goes on to say, "and we also bear witness." John said, "Look, we also bear witness of Demetrius's life that he was living, and you know that our testimony is true." So we want to have a good testimony among the people we're around. Why? Because so often our actions speak louder than our words.

Our godly lives will speak volumes to the unbelievers around us, and they will eventually believe the gospel that we're trying to preach to them when our lives can back it up. Paul went on to explain how Ananias came to him in verse 13 and said, "Brother Saul, receive your sight."

We're told in Acts 9 in verses 10 through 19 the details on how God had to speak and reassure Ananias because he was very reluctant from going to or having anything to do with Paul because of the rumors circulating around about him. I was just thinking about this, and I just wonder: are there people out there we want nothing to do with because of the rumors circulating around about these particular people?

I bring that up because you never know. They, like Paul, could have had a Damascus experience. They could have had an experience with the Lord, and you have nothing to do with them because of some rumors circulating around them, and all the time, they've given their lives to the Lord. And you're still judging them by the rumors that were circulating about them.

This is what we see here in these particular verses. And so Ananias was saying, "Lord, maybe you don't know about this particular guy. Maybe you haven't been told about this dude. Let me tell you a little bit about them because you're asking me to go and talk to a guy who's a known murderer of your people. So maybe you need some more background information, just in case you don't have it, I'm going to give it to you."

He was very reluctant, and all the time Paul had had a Damascus experience. I just don't want us to be standoffish towards people because of some rumors circulating around them, and we don't even know whether the Lord appeared to them, whether the Lord has saved them, whether they've had a Damascus experience. We have to be very, very careful of these types of things.

Here Luke, the author, is giving us an abbreviation of these events in these particular verses. And the end of verse 13 says, "And at that same hour, I looked up at him." The Greek verb for "looked up" is *anablepo*, and it means to see again or to receive sight or to recover lost sight.

This same thing has happened to all of us who are born again. We receive our sight. Now that we see things—what this means is we see things from God's perspective. Paul told the church of Corinth in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, it says, "whose minds the god of this world, the god of this age, referring to Satan, has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."

I love Acts 26, verse 18, how it says that, "to open their eyes," implying a type of blindness, "in order to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me."

This is our salvation experience in one verse. Before we were saved or born again, we were blinded in our sins by Satan, trying to keep us from the glorious light of the gospel. There are people right now Satan is trying to keep from you because he knows that you have the light of the gospel, and he doesn't want these people to see the light of the gospel and be turned from darkness to light.

So he's trying to keep them from you. I bring this up because many of you are saying, "Why don't these people want anything to do with me? Why are they avoiding me? Why is it that every time I come around they leave?" Don't take that personally. It's the light that is in you, and Satan doesn't want them, these people, to be exposed to the light and get saved.

Therefore, he will keep these people from you. He will have these people avoid you because he wants to keep them in the darkness, keep them in their sin, and keep them away from Christ. Then Jesus sent us an Ananias and said, "Brother Saul," or "Brother Tony," or whatever your name is, "receive your sight."

For me, you've heard me mention this before, for me, it was a guy named Smitty over in Okinawa, Japan, in 1985 when I was in the Marine Corps and I was over there to check into the island. Old Smitty, I can still see his face now. Quiet guy, humble guy, but knew the word and was ready to share the gospel.

He shared the gospel with me, and after about three days of us talking and going around and stuff, he asked me if I wanted to repent of my sin and accept Christ as my Lord and Savior. I can still see it now. Got on that cement floor in that barracks over in Okinawa, Japan, and I repented of my sin and accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior.

God will always send you an Ananias. He will always send a Smitty. Oh, let me just ask you this. Maybe you're the Ananias God wants to send to someone who is still in darkness right now, who is still in the midst of their sin. Are you going to go? Are you going to be faithful? Can God count on you to be an Ananias just like he counted on Ananias to go to Saul?

You may have questions, you may be reluctant to go because of some rumors you might have heard around them, but that doesn't stop you. You still want to go and do what God has called you to do. Maybe you're that Ananias for somebody that's still in the midst of darkness as we speak.

And so, when that person comes or maybe you're that person to go and say, "Hey," you call them "Brother so and so, receive your sight," and they will look up at you and now you begin, as they've been washed from their sins, as they've been forgiven, now they begin to see things from God's perspective, from a biblical perspective, from God's viewpoint.

As long as we're in the world, we'll see things from the world's perspective. David said, he said, "Look, hey," matter of fact, it's in Psalm 73. David said, "Look, my foot almost slipped when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." He said, "When I look around this world and see everybody who is not even following you, they seem to be prospering, they seem to be blessed, and I'm struggling here."

He said, "My foot almost slipped." He said, "But when I went into the sanctuary, then I saw their end." It's not until you go into the sanctuary, go into the presence of God, is when you begin to see things from God's perspective. And that's what happens to us when our eyes are open. We see things from God's perspective, from His viewpoint.

Look at verses 14 and 15. It says, "Then he said, 'The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will and see the Just One and hear the voice of His mouth. For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.'"

Paul continues to tell this angry mob that Ananias, this devout Jewish man, said that the God of our fathers has chosen you in verse 14 to know His will and see the Just One and to hear His voice, confirming that the vision that Paul saw on the Damascus road was from God. Because how did Ananias know what Paul experienced on the road to Damascus unless God told him?

And this is not only true for Paul, but it's also true for all of us who have committed our lives to Jesus Christ, that God has chosen us as well. I see four beautiful truths in just verse 14 alone. Number one, that God chose us. What a beautiful thought that God chose us.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 says, "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth." So God chose us.

Jesus told the disciples in John 15, verse 16, "You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you, that you should go forth and bear much fruit and that your fruit should remain." So number one, God chose us. God wants us to, number two, know His will, to know His will for our lives.

One question I get more than any as a pastor is, "Pastor Tony, how can I know God's will for my life?" Here's just a verse just to help us with that particular question. Romans 12 and verse 2 says, "And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

How? By not allowing the world to conform or squeeze you into its mold. That verse starts off by saying "be not conformed." That negative side of this verse is saying stop allowing this to take place. Allow what to take place? To be conformed into this world or to allow the world to squeeze us into its mold.

The word "conform" there in "be not conformed" is a great Greek word, *suschematizo*, and it's where we get our English word "schematics," which is a pattern or a mold of something. So Paul is saying, don't allow this world to squeeze you into its schematic, into its mold.

The world has a schematic, a mold by which it seeks to conform people into. And I'm telling you, I believe during this particular time there's a lot of people—I was just in a time of prayer before this service started and the Lord just revealed to me there are a lot of people that are being conformed to this world. A lot of people are allowing the world to squeeze you into its schematic, to squeeze you into its mold.

And the Bible says not to do that. "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed." The word "transform," the Greek word is *metamorphoo*, and it's where we get "metamorphosis" from, that process that a caterpillar goes through to become a butterfly. It means to be changed, to change outwardly, watch this, change outwardly to what is going on inwardly.

And when we do this, we'll be able to prove—*dokimazo* is that Greek word, it's a word that was used to discern or to test the strength of a metal to see its strength or its weaknesses. And we will be able to discern whether what we are doing is God's good, perfect, and acceptable will for our lives. How? By allowing God's word, which is where His will is contained, to transform our minds, to transform our thinking.

See, when we spend time in the word of God, the word of God transforms, *metamorphoo*, it transforms our thinking and our mind from being conformed to this world to being transformed into the image of Christ. This is what happens every time we pick up this word to spend time in it. It is transforming us.

And transforming means, like I said, to allow outwardly what is going on inwardly. We're being transformed into the image of Christ. So when we spend time in God's word, now we are outwardly, by spending time in God's word, doing what is going on inwardly in our lives. We're being transformed into the image of Christ, and this is by God's word.

So God wants us to know His will. God wants us, like Paul, to number three, see the Just One, to see the Just One in the pages of scripture. The end of verse 14 says this. This is so important because sometimes in life we think that God isn't being just, that God isn't being fair.

I bring this up because there are a lot of people at this time who are feeling this way. Maybe you haven't outwardly expressed it yet. And there's something that's going on in your heart right now. You're saying, "God, you're not being fair. I was told to trust you. I was told to put my faith and trust in you, and you're kind of unjust by allowing this to happen in my life. I lost my job, I'm losing this, I'm losing that, and I'm afraid, and you promised that you'd take away my fear. And I'm still afraid. I'm worried, I'm freaked out. You said that you're just, but you're not just. You're kind of unjust."

Maybe you're not saying that outwardly to anyone yet, but in your heart, you feel that way. You better believe before we even allow it out of our mouths, it's first in our hearts, and that's what God is looking at. It says in the book of Acts in chapter 7, verse 39, it says, "In their hearts," speaking of the children of Israel, "they went back to Egypt." In their hearts, they'd already gone back to Egypt, gone back to the world.

And so, in your heart, you're speaking these things in your heart. And just keep in mind: out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will eventually speak. And you feel that God is unjust. You feel that God is unfair. And I'm here to tell you that in the pages of scripture is where you're going to find your encouragement.

Because the believers in Revelation 15 and verse 3, they sang a song. They said, "Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty." Here it is. Watch. "Just and true are your ways." Somebody needs to hear that. I think all of America needs to hear this. Just and true are God's ways.

God never wastes a hurt. God knows exactly what He's doing, even though we don't. We may not see it. We may not understand. "God, why are you allowing this? Why are you allowing—what's going on? What's going on?" America—not only America, the world's god is going down. The god of sports. It is the god of the world, and that has been stripped away from them. We don't know what to do.

God knows what He's doing. Just and true are your ways. These believers now, in the presence of God, they understand. Just and true. "God, you are just, and you are true in the way that you've been doing things." And they called Him "Oh King of the Saints." And so not only does He want us to see the Just One, but number four, He wants us to hear His voice speaking to us as well.

Verse 14 goes on to say Jesus said in John 10 and verse 27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." The primary way that God speaks to us is through His word. So the more you know His word and spend time in it, the more you will know the voice of God.

His voice will always encourage us to follow Jesus. His voice will always encourage us and point us to walk in the ways of God contained in the word of God. The more we spend time in this book, it's rightfully said: seven days without this book will make one week, W-E-A-K.

And so we have to spend time in the word of God. So Ananias said in verse 15 that Paul would be a witness to all men of what he has seen and heard. And we're called to be witnesses for Jesus Christ as well. Acts 1:8 says, "Then you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea, and Samaria and unto the ends of the earth."

And we have to ask: are we being a witness during this time? Are we being a witness at home? That's where we're spending a whole lot of time at home. Are we being a witness at home? I know parents, I know, especially those with small kids, you're ready to kill your kids. But we're called to be a witness. Called to be a witness.

I love that meme that said it was from a teacher. They said, "Now you believe that your kid is as bad as we said they are, don't you? Because you got to spend all that time with them." And so, are we being a witness at home? That's the primary place. That's our Jerusalem, is at home.

Are we being a witness for God in all Judea? That can be our workplace for those who are still working. Are we being a witness? You know, and you're an essential worker. Oh, are we being a witness in our Judea, in our Samaria, around our city, and to the ends of the earth? I'm so amazed at technology, how there are people that are watching us from Africa, I'm hearing—get messages from Pakistan, from Australia, from around the world. And through technology, we can share the gospel and reach to the ends of the earth.

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