Serving in Supportive Roles

MEMORY VERSE: “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” —Romans 12:4,5

ACTS 9:10-17, 23-30

OUR memory verse reminds us effectively that, while all members in the body of Christ are called to be servants of the Lord, they do not all have the same service to perform. All are brethren in Christ and, in so far as their service to the Lord is concerned, he sets each one in the body according to his wisdom and will.

In the Scripture assignment for today’s lesson we have a good illustration of this. The great Apostle Paul stands out as a prominent one in this narrative, but the Lord called upon Ananias and others to assist Paul, so they shared in the blessings which the Lord poured out upon this new apostle.

Formerly the Apostle Paul was Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor of the church of Christ. He was on his way to Damascus for the very purpose of destroying the church there. But the Lord interfered with this plan. Paul was struck down on the Damascus road, and he heard the resurrected Jesus speaking to him, asking, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”

In this experience on the Damascus road Paul temporarily lost his eyesight. He was taken into the city and to the home of one of the disciples called Judas, who lived on the street called Straight. This was by the Lord’s direction and in response to Paul’s question, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”

Then the Lord appeared to Ananias in a vision and instructed him to go to the house of Judas and talk to Paul. The Lord said that Paul would be looking for someone to visit him, explaining to Ananias that he had seen in a vision “a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.”

There was a slight protest on the part of Ananias, who said to the Lord, “I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.” But the Lord replied to Ananias, saying, “Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.” It is commonly understood that Paul was appointed to be a special apostle to the Gentiles, and indeed he was. But from this scripture we learn that his ministry was not to be limited to the Gentiles, but would include kings, and the children of Israel. Later, on his missionary journeys, we find how faithful he was in this general ministry.

Ananias was satisfied with the Lord’s explanation, and went to the home where Paul was staying. He entered into the house, and put his hands on Paul and called him brother. What a noble attitude this was on the part of Ananias! Surely the Lord selected a well-matured Christian character to carry out this mission! He explained to Paul that the Lord had sent him, that he might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Saul’s conversion was genuine. He not only ceased from persecuting the church, but from this point onward he gladly laid down his life for the brethren in proclaiming the glorious Gospel of the kingdom. Nor did Paul delay his entry into the ministry. He at once set out to proclaim the truth of the Gospel. He did not even take time to move to another location, a 1 he continued to proclaim the Gospel in Damascus until “the Jews took counsel to kill him.”

The plot of Paul’s enemies to kill him became known to the apostle. To be sure that they accomplished their designs on his life, these enemies watched the gates day and night. They were determined not to let him escape alive. And here again we find the thought suggested in the topic of our lesson brought into focus.

The disciples of Damascus also learned of the plot to kill Paul, so they let him down over the wall of the city in a basket. Thus he escaped and went to Jerusalem. But when he arrived in Jerusalem and attempted to “join himself to the disciples” he discovered that they were all afraid of him, and “believed not that he was a disciple.” This, of course, is not surprising, because on his last visit to Jerusalem he was a persecutor of the church. But Barnabas took Paul in hand, assured the brethren of his genuineness, and enabled him to escape from his Jewish enemies in Jerusalem.

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