Introduction

I don’t know about you but I have heard a lot of people brag about being an American. I’ve always found that interesting because most of us didn’t have to do anything to become an American. It doesn’t really cost you anything. Oh, yeah, it costs you taxes, but you do everything you can to get out of that. And the taxes you do pay you pay so that you don’t have to do anything else. When America has problems you don’t have to do anything to solve them, you just pay your taxes and let someone else figure it out. When the national debt continues to grow larger and larger you don’t help to find a solution you just pay your taxes because that’s someone else’s job. When America goes to war you don’t go to war you just pay your taxes and let someone else go instead. Being an American is the easiest job in the world. You don’t have to make America’s mission your mission, you can keep pursuing your own mission, yet you still receive all of the benefits of being an American.

I’ve also heard people brag about owning stock in a particular company. And that’s just as interesting. Because you don’t really have to do anything to be a Starbucks stockholder. Well, of course, you have to pay a fee up front but after that you don’t have to do anything.  You don’t have to go in to open the store at 4:45 in the morning. You don’t have to learn how to make dozens and dozens of different drinks. You don’t even have to know the difference between a vente and a grande. But when they make money, you make money, as if you really did work there. Being a stockholder is the easiest job in the world. You don’t have to make Starbucks’ mission your mission, you don’t have to do anything to convince the world that Starbucks is the “premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world,” you can keep pursuing your own mission, yet you still receive all the benefits of being part of the company.

Unfortunately, in our culture, people have come to think of Christianity in the same way. We think that we can belong to Christ and enjoy all of the benefits without ever having to do anything to further his cause. We act like we can say we’re committed to Jesus but then continue to pursue our own mission. But that’s a lie. The two are inseparable. As a Christian your conversion and your call are one and the same. Jesus converts you to himself and he calls you to his mission, which is to reconcile the world to himself.

Saul and His Mission

We see this clearly in the story of Saul found in Acts 9:1-31. The story begins in verses 1 and 2, “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.” Luke, the author of Acts, once again directs our attention to a man named Saul. We’ve already seen Saul twice in this book. When Stephen was stoned as the first Christian martyr Saul held the coats of those who killed him and offered his approval. By the time Stephen’s body was put in the ground Saul was already on a mission to destroy the Church. He went from house to house dragging men and women out of their homes and throwing them into prison simply because they worshiped Jesus as Messiah, as Savior and Lord. Now, after some time has passed, we find in verse 1 that Saul is still breathing out murderous threats against the Christian Church. And these are not empty threats. They are promises that Saul has proven he will keep. He has kept them in Jerusalem and now he’s set on keeping them wherever the church may spread. Even if that means he has to travel six-days to do so. And that’s exactly what he does. He gathers a crew, he hops on his donkey, and he begins the six-day journey to Damascus where he plans to stomp out the Christian church. This is his mission. Saul is driven by it. And he has wholly given himself to it.

But, as I’m sure most of you know, Saul’s mission would be interrupted. It was around noon as he neared Damascus when suddenly the brightest of lights flashed around him. This light must have been magnificent! The sun was already out – it was noon — yet this light was so bright that it knocked Saul to the ground. Just as quickly as Saul had gotten on his ass, Saul fell off his ass, and Saul fell on his…bottom. And from that position he heard a voice speak, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me” Saul did not know who was speaking to him but he knew that he should listen to whoever it was. So he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply must have terrified Saul. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Saul’s crew – the men he had brought with him – stood speechless. They heard the sound and they saw a light but they could not make out anything. As they continued to marvel Saul stood himself up, only to open his eyes and discover that he had been blinded by the light. He could not see a thing. So his men grabbed him and led him by the hand into the city of Damascus, where he would remain blind for three days, eating and drinking nothing. Saul set off for Damascus on his own mission. But Jesus interrupted his mission and would soon give him a new one.

Ananias and Jesus’ Mission

Jesus would also give a very specific mission to Ananias, one of his disciples who lived in Damascus. The Lord called to Ananias in a vision. Verses 11 and 12 explain, “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.” Well, as you can probably imagine, that caught Ananias off guard. He hadn’t been living under a rock. He knew Saul’s reputation. He knew Saul’s mission. He knew what Saul had come to Damascus to do to him and to the people he loved. So he responded in verses 13 and 14, “‘Lord,’ Ananias answered, ‘I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.’” Ananias speaks as if he’s giving Jesus information he doesn’t already know. It’s almost as if Ananias is trying to help Jesus see how crazy his request of Ananias is. And it is crazy, isn’t it? Jesus wants Ananias to voluntarily walk into a room with the very man who has come there to arrest him and perhaps do far worse to him. But Jesus knows what he’s doing. He makes it plain again in verses 15 and 16, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

At this point Ananias is forced to make a decision. He has to make a decision about where his allegiance is. He has to make a decision about whose mission he’s on. Is he on his own mission? Is his mission to protect his own interests and his own life? If so, then he should ignore Jesus and get out of Damascus as soon as he can. Or is he on Jesus’ mission? Is his mission to follow Jesus on his mission to reconcile the world to himself? If so, then he’ll obey Jesus and willfully walk into a room with the man who came to arrest him, and perhaps do far worse. And that’s precisely what Ananias does because Ananias has made Jesus’ mission his mission. Verses 18-19 tell us, “Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road 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.” I love how Jesus works. One of the men who Saul had come to destroy is now used by Jesus to heal the one who came to destroy him. Because Ananias made Jesus’ mission his mission Jesus used him to play a role in one of the most important conversions in all of history.

Saul and Jesus’ Mission

Saul was converted from despising Jesus and persecuting Jesus to worshiping Jesus. But Saul’s encounter with the resurrected Christ did not simply produce a conversion. It also produced a call. As he encountered the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus Saul was in pursuit of his own mission. But when Jesus converted Saul, Jesus also called Saul from his old mission to a new mission, from his own mission to the mission of Jesus. Jesus filled and empowered Saul with the Holy Spirit and Saul stopped pursuing his mission and started pursuing Jesus’ mission. The text tells us that Saul remained in Damascus and spent time with the very disciples he had initially come to arrest. And immediately, Saul began preaching Jesus. One by one he entered into the Jewish synagogues and proclaimed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Messiah. Can you imagine the shock that fell upon his hearers? This is the equivalent of Osama Bin Laden going into Muslim mosques and trying to convince them that Muhammad is a false prophet and the Jews are God’s chosen people. People wouldn’t know whether to laugh at him as a joker or kill him as a wacko! Verse 21 explains how the Jews in Damascus reacted to Saul’s teaching, “All those who heard him were astonished and asked, ‘Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?’” They were understandably baffled as Saul continued to grow more and more powerful by proving from the Scriptures that Jesus, in fact, is Messiah.

As the former persecutor of the Church, Saul had to know that there would be consequences for preaching Jesus. He had to know that many of the Jewish people would respond to him just as he responded to Stephen and those like him. And they did. They conspired together to kill him. By making Jesus’ mission his mission the persecutor had become the persecuted. By God’s grace, though, Saul escaped through an opening in the city wall and fled to Arabia, where he stayed for three years. After three years Saul finally returned to Jerusalem. He tried to join with the disciples in Jerusalem but they were afraid of him. They didn’t believe he had truly been converted. They thought he was there to spy on them, to destroy them. But one man, Barnabas, saw the truth. He took Saul to the Apostles and from then on Saul stayed with them and went through the city preaching Jesus boldly. This continued until, once again, some Jews in the city plotted to kill him. By God’s grace he escaped to Caesarea. But the threat of persecution and the reality of persecution would follow Saul – who we now know as the Apostle Paul – for the rest of his life on earth. By making Jesus’ mission his mission the persecutor had become the persecuted. But not once did he regret it.

You and Your Mission

Through Saul’s experience we are reminded that we are always on mission.  So the question is not, “Are you on mission?” the question is, “Whose mission are you on?” Are you on your own mission, as Saul was as he traveled to Damascus? Or are you on Jesus’ mission, as Saul was after he encountered Jesus? This is a difficult question to hear, because it exposes the true loves of our hearts. But it is not a difficult question to answer. If you want to know whose mission you’re on just answer three simple questions. What do you do with your time? Does most of it go to serve you and your mission or Jesus and his? What do you do with your money? Does most of it go to serve you and your mission or Jesus and his? What do you do with your words? Do you want people to know about you and your mission or about Jesus and his? If you can answer those questions honestly you can easily answer the other question. Whose mission are you on? Are you living your life in pursuit of your own mission or in pursuit of Jesus’ mission?

One thing is made clear in the story of Saul and Ananias that is also made clear throughout all of Scripture. That is this: conversion and call are inseparable. If you are converted to worship Jesus you are called to Jesus’ mission to reconcile the world to himself. It’s not like being an American citizen where you can call yourself an American but let a bunch of other people fight America’s war. It’s not like being a stockholder at Starbucks where you can say you’re a part of the company but let a bunch of other people do all of the work. To be a Christian is to be one who is committed to Jesus’ mission. You cannot say, “I’m committed to Jesus” and not be committed to what Jesus values just as I cannot say, “I’m committed to my wife” and then show absolutely no concern for what my wife values. To love Jesus is to love his mission. To give yourself to Jesus is to give yourself to his mission. Let us stop with all this nonsense of thinking grace somehow gives us a pass from doing what Jesus calls us to do. It is grace that compels us to do what Jesus calls us to do. Just as it did with Saul, so it does with us.

When we understand who Jesus is and what Jesus has done we are driven to his mission. We are driven to see the world reconciled to him. When we understand that Jesus has lived the life that we were supposed to live but have failed to, when we understand that Jesus has died the death that we deserve to die but now don’t have to, when we understand that Jesus has risen from the dead to bring us to God which we can’t do, we are converted to worship him and we are called and converted from our mission to his mission. So when we are converted to Jesus our time is no longer to be used to serve us, it is to be used to serve him and his people and his city. Our money is no longer to be used to serve us, it is to be used to serve him and his people and his city. Our talents and training are no longer to be used to serve us, they are to be used to serve him and his people and his city. Our goal is no longer to help people see our glory, our goal is to help people see his glory! Precisely because Jesus gave everything to us – freely – we are compelled to give everything to him – freely – because we now know it was never ours to begin with! The conversion and the call are inseparable. You are either on Jesus’ mission because you worship him, or you are on your own mission because you worship yourself.

Now, I know that some of you will say, “Well, I believe all that. And I try to do most of that. But I don’t really go out of my way to preach the gospel to people. And there’s a reason why I don’t go out of my way to preach the gospel to people. There’s a reason why I don’t go out of my way to tell people about Jesus. It’s not that I’m on my own mission. It’s just that I know people don’t want to hear it.” No, really? Of course they don’t want to hear it. They’re dead in their sins. That’s precisely why they need to hear it, that’s precisely why you needed to hear it, that’s precisely why I needed to hear it. The fact that your family, and friends, and neighbors are opposed to the gospel message does not mean that they will never receive the gospel message. No matter how hopeless they may seem, as long as they are breathing they are never hopeless! No one in the history of the world has ever responded to the gospel because of their own wisdom or because of their own spiritual hunger. Everyone who has ever responded to the gospel has responded because of God’s grace, because of the gospel’s power and not their own.

And Saul’s story reminds us of this. Saul’s story reminds us that no matter how hopeless someone may seem they are never outside of God’s reach. You say your family, and friends, and neighbors don’t want to hear the gospel? You say they are opposed to Christianity? That may be true. But not as much as Saul was! As much as they may be opposed to Christianity I bet they’re not going from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city arresting and killing Christians! If anyone was hopeless, if anyone was hostile to Jesus and his message, if anyone was outside of Jesus’ reach, it was Saul! And yet Jesus called Saul, Jesus converted Saul, and Jesus empowered Saul to pursue Jesus’ mission! We don’t do those things. Jesus does those things. He did them with Saul and he is still doing the exact same things. Every Christian in this room is proof of that. No matter how hostile someone might be to the gospel they cannot resist its power when God chooses to open their eyes to it.

The power of the gospel is not found in our ability to present it well. The power of the gospel is not found in the willingness of our listeners to hear it. The power of the gospel is found in Jesus, who is the gospel. Jesus calls. Jesus converts. Jesus empowers for mission. And all of this is and — in fact, was – accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus’ work on the cross didn’t just make it possible for people to be saved. Jesus’ work on the cross actually saved everyone who is his. Which means that the pressure is off of you. Jesus does the calling and Jesus does the converting. But this also means that you are out of excuses. Jesus does the calling and Jesus does the converting. So if you are a Christian there is not one reason why you cannot be fully committed to Jesus’ mission. In fact, to be a Christian is to be one who is committed to Jesus’ mission. Does that describe you? If it doesn’t, let me point you once again to the story of Saul. Like many of you, Saul was not committed to Jesus’ mission. Saul was on his own mission, a mission that brought great pain to Jesus and his Church. Yet Jesus forgave even him. And just as Jesus forgave even Saul Jesus can and will forgive you if you turn to him and repent of your sin. And this fact, the fact that Jesus is so loving and so gracious that he would forgive you for forsaking his mission and pursuing your own, this fact should motivate you toward his mission in love and gratitude. So I urge you in the name of Christ: do not let another week pass you by where you do not talk about Jesus’ gospel and mission, do not let another week pass you by where you do not give everything you have and everything you are to Jesus’ gospel and mission. Your mission guarantees disappointment and death. Jesus’ mission guarantees victory and life.