Chosen Instrument (Acts 9:15–16)

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
– Acts 9:15–16

If you’re familiar with Acts 9, this is the story of Saul/Paul’s conversion. Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus and confronted him about his persecution of Christians. And not just his persecution of Christians. If you remember Acts 9:4, Jesus says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” It’s a powerful picture of Jesus identifying with his people, saying to Saul, “When you mess with my people, you’re messing with me.”

Acts 9:15–16 Narrates the Conversion of the Apostle Paul

And Jesus meets him and calls him to himself, blinds him. Then if you remember the story, God speaks to Ananias in a vision. He tells Ananias to go and to meet Paul, this one who is persecuting Christians. And Ananias is saying, “I don’t know about that. I’ve heard about this man, how much evil he’s done and all the havoc he’s wreaking across the church”. And God looks at him and says, “He is a chosen instrument to carry my name before the gentiles,” which is so significant.

This has been progressing now since the end of Acts 7, stoning of Stephen; Acts 8, the Gospel begins to spread from the Jews to the Samaritans. Then by the end of Acts 8, you have an Ethiopian eunuch, an African who comes to know Jesus. And now we see God saying, “I am taking this Gospel to the nations. I am saving the most unlikely Jewish man, Saul, the persecutor of Christians, as my chosen instrument to take the Gospel to the nations, to be an apostle to the gentiles.”

And then verse 16, God tells Ananias, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name”. And thus begins a whole new chapter in this story of the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth, led by the Apostle Paul. But not just the Apostle Paul. He will call the church in the days to come to go to the gentiles. To spread the Gospel faithfully among Jewish men and women. And Paul does that, consistently going into synagogues and proclaiming the Gospel.

At the same time, he is intentional not just to reach Jewish men and women. But he is intentional to spread the Gospel to the gentiles, to the nations, to the people who have not known or heard the good news of God’s grace. This is Romans 15 when Paul is recounting his ambition to see Christ preached where he has not been named. This is all over the New Testament, encapsulated in places like 2 Corinthians 11, knowing that spreading the Gospel to the nations is costly. It involves suffering and hardship.

Acts 9:15–16 Encourages Us to Pursue Our Calling as Christians

And as I read this passage and we pray according to it today, I just want us to have a renewed sense that this is the mission that you and I are caught up in right now, that you and I have been called to personally by Jesus. Right now as disciples of Jesus, we have been given this commission to make disciples of all the nations. This is what your life, my life as a follower of Jesus is all about. This is not just for a select few people. Yes, different people have different parts to play, but that’s the point. We all have a part to play.

So what is the part you are playing in disciples being made among all the nations? And as you play that part, be reminded from Acts 9:16, that it won’t be easy. The more you give yourself to the part God calls you to play in making disciples of the nations, the more suffering, hardship, challenges there will be. But as Paul can testify and will testify over and over again throughout the New Testament from here, the cost is worth it because of the reward is great. To live is Christ and to die is gain.

So God, we pray that you would help us with this mission in front of each of us today. Help us play the parts you’ve called us to play in making disciples of the nations. God, I pray for every single person listening to this right now, even as I pray for my own life. Help us to be faithful to what you’ve called us to do. Even as you called Ananias here to do something really hard and he did it. God, we pray that when you call us, we would not hesitate.

That we would do today and tomorrow, in every facet of our lives, everything you call us to do to make disciples of the nations with our lives. Starting right where we live and going wherever you lead us, no matter what it costs. God, we pray for death-defying devotion to your mission, your purpose in the world, the spread of your grace, and your glory to the ends of the earth.

Praying for the Dargin People

God, as we pray today specifically for the Dargin people of the North Caucasus region. 640,000 of them, no known followers of Jesus. God, raise up somebody to go to the Dargin people and give them success as they go, even in the midst of suffering and hardship. Lord, for anyone who is working among the Dargin or near the Dargin right now for the spread of the Gospel. God please give them boldness, strength, help.

We ask for the success of the spread of the Gospel to the Dargin people. Also to thousands of other people groups like them that have yet to be reached with the Gospel. That you would call out just like you did with Saul, just like you did with Ananias. That you would call out each of us into the part you’ve called us to play. And that you would help us to play it faithfully. To follow you faithfully until all the nations of the world, all the gentiles, all the Jews, all the peoples of the world have been reached with the good news of your love in Christ.

God, help us to live and die for this. Starting today, right where we live, help us to live today. To make disciples, to spread the Gospel today among the nations around us today. And God, wherever you lead us in our lives, may this be the brand of Christianity, biblical Acts 9-like Christianity that marks us and your church today. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.