Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
Ananias was answering the Lord in vision when commanded to go to Saul of Tarsus at the house of Judas in Damascus, telling Him of the widespread reports he had heard of the great harm Saul had done to Christ's followers, the believers of the church at Jerusalem. He answered back fearfully and hesitantly because he knew Saul's reputation for severe and cruel persecution, seizing believers for imprisonment, beating and death under authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Christ's name. Saul did that evil in sincere but mistaken zeal, believing opposition to faith in Jesus was service to God while his zeal was not according to knowledge. Christ arrested him on the road to Damascus and convicted him of sin, showing him that in persecuting the saints he was persecuting Christ Himself, and then connected him with His organized church so that Ananias, representing Christ, met him and told him what to do. That complete transformation from persecutor to penitent believer and devoted apostle shows that grace can rescue even the gospel's most determined enemy and make him a most effective worker for the Crucified One.
Setting and Wording
The verse is Ananias answering the Lord in vision when commanded to go to Saul of Tarsus at the house of Judas in Damascus. His answer is an answering back and expostulation, a hesitation born of finding the command almost impossible to credit. He replies in this way because Saul's bitter persecution of the saints at Jerusalem has spread far and near. His reply presumes to argue against going to help the persecutor who now holds authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on the name of Jesus in Damascus.
The phrase heard by many means that reports of Saul had become widespread, so that Ananias and others knew of him through what many people had told. The reports told of violent persecution of Jesus' followers in Jerusalem and of how much harm and evil Saul had done to them. In telling the Lord of this, Ananias reports the great harm Saul inflicted on the saints in Jerusalem. These widely spread reports explain his hesitation when told to seek Saul. His activity in bringing believers before tribunals, where some were imprisoned and some put to death, is the evil thus reported.
The saints at Jerusalem are Christ's followers and believers, the church and the Lord's people. They are called saints in Ananias' report of Saul's severe persecution of them in Jerusalem. They are also called the Lord's saints, the believers to whom Saul did great harm and whom Ananias feared to approach.
Saul's journey to Damascus was intended to find believers and seize them for trial and punishment. He held authority from the chief priests to arrest and bind all who call on Jesus' or Christ's name. That commission to seize believers and take them as prisoners to Jerusalem is why Ananias knew him as a persecutor. Ananias knew Saul had come with that authority to arrest those who worship Jesus, which made the danger seem immediate. His violent past and present authority stand against the Lord's command to go to him.
Saul's Persecution Record
The evil at Jerusalem was widely known, for Ananias had heard from many how much harm Saul had done to the saints there. He had zealously persecuted believers and helped deliver them to those who imprisoned and killed them, a work he understood only after his conversion. His activity was to bring believers before tribunals because of their faith, where some were imprisoned and some were put to death. That course brought fear and sorrow to the church and drove many to flee.
He hunted believers, seized them in their homes, arrested them and handed them over for imprisonment, beating and death. He took part in Stephen's death and consented to it, and though consenting to that death he was later chosen to preach and strengthen the disciples. He continued to hunt down Christians even after Stephen's death, yet was converted and chosen to serve Christ. Paul himself later acknowledged that he had imprisoned and beaten believers.
He acted with exceeding bitterness against them, haling them before judges and seeking to wipe them from the earth. He blasphemed Christ's name himself and used every means in his power to make others blaspheme it. The name that once filled him with contempt afterward became the center of his devotion.
The persecution that followed Stephen's martyrdom drove believers from Jerusalem, in the context of Saul's violent persecution of Christ's followers there. His conversion then led to his commission to carry the gospel to the Gentiles.
The memory of that record later made the disciples at Jerusalem refuse to receive him when he attempted to join himself to them as one of their number. Remembering his former persecutions, they suspected him of acting a part to deceive and destroy them, to his great grief and disappointment. They had heard of his wonderful conversion, but because he had immediately retired into Arabia and they had heard nothing definite of him afterward, they had not credited the rumor of his great change.
Ananias's Fear and Obedience
Ananias knew Saul by reputation as one who had done great and severe harm to Christ's followers in Jerusalem, the Lord's saints and believers, and he feared both what Saul had done to them and what harm he might yet cause in approaching him. That reputation was for violent and cruel persecution, for seeking to destroy Christ's people, and it made approach to Saul seem perilous. Reports of Saul's bitter persecution had spread far and near by many witnesses, so Ananias and others knew of it.
That knowledge made Ananias fearful, hesitant, reluctant, wary, troubled and concerned when the Lord commanded him in vision to go to Saul of Tarsus at the house of Judas in Damascus. He answered back and expostulated, as if he could hardly credit the messenger, telling the Lord how much evil he had heard Saul had done to the saints at Jerusalem. His reluctance rested on those widespread reports of violent persecution and on Saul's present commission, for he knew Saul had come with authority from the chief priests to seize, bind and arrest all who call on the name of Jesus and worship Him.
The danger therefore seemed immediate, since the very persecutor with authority to arrest believers was now before him, yet Ananias obeyed the Lord's command to go to him.
Conviction Conversion and Truth
Saul persecuted with sincere but mistaken conviction and conscientious zeal, believing that opposition to faith in Jesus was duty to God and service to God, with zeal not according to knowledge, while strictly religious but not a Christian. He was very strict in carrying out his religion, yet he despised and hated the sect of Christ and cooperated in cruel treatment against it. He believed faith in Jesus virtually repudiated the law of God and the service of sacrificial offerings, that Jesus himself had disregarded the law and taught his disciples that the law was now of no effect, and that the doctrine that Jesus was the Prince of life must be exterminated by persevering persecution carried out as duty. His wonderful conversion from such opposition demonstrates in startling manner the miraculous power of Christ in convicting the mind and heart.
On the road to Damascus Christ suddenly arrested and stopped him while using his power against the truth, convicting him of sin by the Holy Spirit. He was made physically blind by the glory of Christ that he might gain spiritual sight, and in the days and nights of blindness he reflected and no longer saw himself righteous but sinful, his thoughts, words and actions condemned by the law. He was filled with abhorrence of himself and his work and with bitter remorse and humiliation for his zeal in persecution, learning how humiliating it was that all the time he thought he was doing God service he was persecuting Christ. Christ showed him that in persecuting the saints he was persecuting Christ himself in the person of his saints and his Master himself. Hopeless and helpless he cast himself on Jesus as the only one who could pardon him and clothe him with righteousness, yielding to the Spirit, giving up his supposed righteousness as a proud Pharisee who thought himself justified by good works, and becoming a humble suppliant for mercy whose tongue praised Christ.
Convicted, he asked what Christ would have him do and learned that Jesus, whom in blindness he considered an impostor making the law of none effect, is indeed the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day and the Finisher of the faith, the vindicator of the truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. He learned that Christ, whom he regarded as making of none effect the law of God, is the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, that in the death of Christ type met antitype, and that Christ came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating his Father's law and upholding it while fulfilling the prophecies and sacrificial types of the Old Testament. In the light of the law he saw himself a sinner and found he had transgressed the very law he thought he had been keeping so zealously, and he died to sin and became obedient to the claims of God's law, repented of his sins and had faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour, was baptized, and preached Jesus as earnestly and zealously as he once condemned him. He distinguished living faith from dead formalism and knew that the ceremonial rites had pointed forward to Christ and would cease now that their meaning had been fulfilled.
He had to confess to those whose destruction he had intended and become a learner among the disciples he had persecuted. God used the very people he had authorized as agents in his salvation, with Ananias representing Christ and Christ's appointed ministers, meeting him, laying hands on him and acting in Christ's name as Saul was brought into connection with the church. Christ connected him with the church so he could learn God's will from disciples appointed to teach the truth, laying down that the Redeemer does not sanction religious light and experience independent of his organized and acknowledged church. Even though brought directly into the presence of Christ to be fitted as a chosen vessel for a most important work, Christ arrested his course and convicted him but did not himself teach him the lessons of truth he must learn, placing him under direction to the church where he would be told what he must do.
That meeting produced a complete transformation from persecutor who sought to destroy Christ's followers into a penitent believer and apostle and one of Christ's most devoted and effective workers, wholly devoted henceforth to the Crucified One whose name had once filled him with contempt, with the one great purpose to serve and honor him and win souls to him. A vision of Jesus revealed his error and divine mercy changed him, bringing the man known for doing evil against Christ's followers to see his own unworthiness, receive full and free forgiveness, and rise changed. He linked himself with the very people he had thought worthy only of persecution, exchanging Phariseeism, popularity, positions of honor and ambitious preferment for the gospel of Jesus Christ with all its trials and humiliations, counting it no sacrifice, binding himself to Christ and at last suffering martyrdom for his sake. Joining the despised sect he had hated, he then for his love of Christ received the same cruel treatment he had once helped give.
His change from persecutor to believer in Christ while ridiculing and despising Christ was something he could never forget, and that conversion had a bearing on all his after life and was an encouragement to him as he worked on the side of Christ whom he once ridiculed and despised. Remembering his former bitter hostility toward Christ's followers later filled him with remorse and pity for those who shared his prejudice. He later remembered that he had helped bring persecution on the disciples, yet he rejoiced that he now understood and valued the truths he had once opposed and was grateful that he had come to see the gospel's truth and was now able to preach what he had once opposed.
Mission and Present Application
The stoning of Stephen became the means of the conversion of the one who had done such evil to the saints at Jerusalem, for Stephen's faith and courage and words stayed with those who saw and heard him and testified to the truth he proclaimed, and when wicked men seemed to triumph in putting the true and faithful witness to death, God used that apparent defeat to advance His cause. The circumstances of that conversion prepared the converted persecutor to turn from the rejecting Jews and preach Christ to the Gentiles, for with Christ revealed to him on the Damascus road he came to understand the Saviour's mission and his own work in converting the Gentiles, distinguishing living faith from dead formalism and knowing that the ceremonial rites pointing forward to Christ ceased with their fulfillment. That preparation led to his commission to carry the gospel to the Gentiles after the persecution following Stephen's death had driven believers from Jerusalem.
God then used his later journeys and trials and imprisonment to spread the knowledge of Christ and bring people to faith, an experience he afterward recounted before rulers and governors to testify of Jesus. Through the word of converted Paul thousands were brought to gospel light, proving that God permits His servants to be humbled and to suffer for rightdoing and then brings signal victory out of apparent defeat. His reversal from zealous hostility to witness stands alongside that of Farel, who likewise turned from zealous opposition to faith in Christ and service to the gospel.
His conversion was so thorough that it serves as the example of the conversion ministers need, the history of his life to be traced out together with the history of Jesus Christ and the shame of Christ crucified as a criminal. Before the Saviour revealed Himself he was strictly religious but opposed God's law, and afterward he became a Christian who made Christ supreme, with Christ ever after to him the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely. Though he had been one of the gospel's most determined enemies, grace rescued him and made him a devoted minister, showing that apparent hatred and contempt do not rule out willingness to receive truth and be changed, and that even a persecutor's heart can be open to divine impressions.
Unconverted men used by Satan will work with all their power to persecute and hunt up souls, as satanic agencies did in crucifying Christ, and this history is to be repeated through Lucifer's power to exalt self in men in present and future experience, warning brethren to wake up and receive God's converting power lest they be so used. He did his evil to the saints at Jerusalem conscientiously, sending men and women to prison and to death while thinking he was serving God, and in the same way many Christians in every church worship an idol sabbath in error while conscientiously serving the Lord according to the best light they have, so they are to be saved by wise methods and not by piling condemnation upon them. Even the most bitterly prejudiced are no more prejudiced than Saul was in his bitter prejudice, and God can work mightily for such when His servant is humble and teachable, hides in God, lets the Spirit soften him, labors with melting love and pity and tenderness, does not get in the way, clings to Jesus Christ, and is ready to be counseled by more experienced brethren. Strict conscientiousness in that cruel work does not make one guiltless when the Spirit impresses its knowledge upon him, for in the light of the law he sees himself a sinner who has transgressed the very law he thought he kept so zealously, dies to sin, repents, believes in Jesus, is baptized, and preaches Jesus as earnestly as he once condemned Him.
Ananias was answering the Lord in vision when commanded to go to Saul of Tarsus at the house of Judas in Damascus, telling Him of the widespread reports he had heard of the great harm Saul had done to Christ's followers, the believers of the church at Jerusalem. He answered back fearfully and hesitantly because he knew Saul's reputation for severe and cruel persecution, seizing believers for imprisonment, beating and death under authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Christ's name. Saul did that evil in sincere but mistaken zeal, believing opposition to faith in Jesus was service to God while his zeal was not according to knowledge. Christ arrested him on the road to Damascus and convicted him of sin, showing him that in persecuting the saints he was persecuting Christ Himself, and then connected him with His organized church so that Ananias, representing Christ, met him and told him what to do. That complete transformation from persecutor to penitent believer and devoted apostle shows that grace can rescue even the gospel's most determined enemy and make him a most effective worker for the Crucified One.
Setting and Wording
The verse is Ananias answering the Lord in vision when commanded to go to Saul of Tarsus at the house of Judas in Damascus. His answer is an answering back and expostulation, a hesitation born of finding the command almost impossible to credit. He replies in this way because Saul's bitter persecution of the saints at Jerusalem has spread far and near. His reply presumes to argue against going to help the persecutor who now holds authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on the name of Jesus in Damascus.
The phrase heard by many means that reports of Saul had become widespread, so that Ananias and others knew of him through what many people had told. The reports told of violent persecution of Jesus' followers in Jerusalem and of how much harm and evil Saul had done to them. In telling the Lord of this, Ananias reports the great harm Saul inflicted on the saints in Jerusalem. These widely spread reports explain his hesitation when told to seek Saul. His activity in bringing believers before tribunals, where some were imprisoned and some put to death, is the evil thus reported.
The saints at Jerusalem are Christ's followers and believers, the church and the Lord's people. They are called saints in Ananias' report of Saul's severe persecution of them in Jerusalem. They are also called the Lord's saints, the believers to whom Saul did great harm and whom Ananias feared to approach.
Saul's journey to Damascus was intended to find believers and seize them for trial and punishment. He held authority from the chief priests to arrest and bind all who call on Jesus' or Christ's name. That commission to seize believers and take them as prisoners to Jerusalem is why Ananias knew him as a persecutor. Ananias knew Saul had come with that authority to arrest those who worship Jesus, which made the danger seem immediate. His violent past and present authority stand against the Lord's command to go to him.
Saul's Persecution Record
The evil at Jerusalem was widely known, for Ananias had heard from many how much harm Saul had done to the saints there. He had zealously persecuted believers and helped deliver them to those who imprisoned and killed them, a work he understood only after his conversion. His activity was to bring believers before tribunals because of their faith, where some were imprisoned and some were put to death. That course brought fear and sorrow to the church and drove many to flee.
He hunted believers, seized them in their homes, arrested them and handed them over for imprisonment, beating and death. He took part in Stephen's death and consented to it, and though consenting to that death he was later chosen to preach and strengthen the disciples. He continued to hunt down Christians even after Stephen's death, yet was converted and chosen to serve Christ. Paul himself later acknowledged that he had imprisoned and beaten believers.
He acted with exceeding bitterness against them, haling them before judges and seeking to wipe them from the earth. He blasphemed Christ's name himself and used every means in his power to make others blaspheme it. The name that once filled him with contempt afterward became the center of his devotion.
The persecution that followed Stephen's martyrdom drove believers from Jerusalem, in the context of Saul's violent persecution of Christ's followers there. His conversion then led to his commission to carry the gospel to the Gentiles.
The memory of that record later made the disciples at Jerusalem refuse to receive him when he attempted to join himself to them as one of their number. Remembering his former persecutions, they suspected him of acting a part to deceive and destroy them, to his great grief and disappointment. They had heard of his wonderful conversion, but because he had immediately retired into Arabia and they had heard nothing definite of him afterward, they had not credited the rumor of his great change.
Ananias's Fear and Obedience
Ananias knew Saul by reputation as one who had done great and severe harm to Christ's followers in Jerusalem, the Lord's saints and believers, and he feared both what Saul had done to them and what harm he might yet cause in approaching him. That reputation was for violent and cruel persecution, for seeking to destroy Christ's people, and it made approach to Saul seem perilous. Reports of Saul's bitter persecution had spread far and near by many witnesses, so Ananias and others knew of it.
That knowledge made Ananias fearful, hesitant, reluctant, wary, troubled and concerned when the Lord commanded him in vision to go to Saul of Tarsus at the house of Judas in Damascus. He answered back and expostulated, as if he could hardly credit the messenger, telling the Lord how much evil he had heard Saul had done to the saints at Jerusalem. His reluctance rested on those widespread reports of violent persecution and on Saul's present commission, for he knew Saul had come with authority from the chief priests to seize, bind and arrest all who call on the name of Jesus and worship Him.
The danger therefore seemed immediate, since the very persecutor with authority to arrest believers was now before him, yet Ananias obeyed the Lord's command to go to him.
Conviction Conversion and Truth
Saul persecuted with sincere but mistaken conviction and conscientious zeal, believing that opposition to faith in Jesus was duty to God and service to God, with zeal not according to knowledge, while strictly religious but not a Christian. He was very strict in carrying out his religion, yet he despised and hated the sect of Christ and cooperated in cruel treatment against it. He believed faith in Jesus virtually repudiated the law of God and the service of sacrificial offerings, that Jesus himself had disregarded the law and taught his disciples that the law was now of no effect, and that the doctrine that Jesus was the Prince of life must be exterminated by persevering persecution carried out as duty. His wonderful conversion from such opposition demonstrates in startling manner the miraculous power of Christ in convicting the mind and heart.
On the road to Damascus Christ suddenly arrested and stopped him while using his power against the truth, convicting him of sin by the Holy Spirit. He was made physically blind by the glory of Christ that he might gain spiritual sight, and in the days and nights of blindness he reflected and no longer saw himself righteous but sinful, his thoughts, words and actions condemned by the law. He was filled with abhorrence of himself and his work and with bitter remorse and humiliation for his zeal in persecution, learning how humiliating it was that all the time he thought he was doing God service he was persecuting Christ. Christ showed him that in persecuting the saints he was persecuting Christ himself in the person of his saints and his Master himself. Hopeless and helpless he cast himself on Jesus as the only one who could pardon him and clothe him with righteousness, yielding to the Spirit, giving up his supposed righteousness as a proud Pharisee who thought himself justified by good works, and becoming a humble suppliant for mercy whose tongue praised Christ.
Convicted, he asked what Christ would have him do and learned that Jesus, whom in blindness he considered an impostor making the law of none effect, is indeed the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day and the Finisher of the faith, the vindicator of the truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. He learned that Christ, whom he regarded as making of none effect the law of God, is the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, that in the death of Christ type met antitype, and that Christ came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating his Father's law and upholding it while fulfilling the prophecies and sacrificial types of the Old Testament. In the light of the law he saw himself a sinner and found he had transgressed the very law he thought he had been keeping so zealously, and he died to sin and became obedient to the claims of God's law, repented of his sins and had faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour, was baptized, and preached Jesus as earnestly and zealously as he once condemned him. He distinguished living faith from dead formalism and knew that the ceremonial rites had pointed forward to Christ and would cease now that their meaning had been fulfilled.
He had to confess to those whose destruction he had intended and become a learner among the disciples he had persecuted. God used the very people he had authorized as agents in his salvation, with Ananias representing Christ and Christ's appointed ministers, meeting him, laying hands on him and acting in Christ's name as Saul was brought into connection with the church. Christ connected him with the church so he could learn God's will from disciples appointed to teach the truth, laying down that the Redeemer does not sanction religious light and experience independent of his organized and acknowledged church. Even though brought directly into the presence of Christ to be fitted as a chosen vessel for a most important work, Christ arrested his course and convicted him but did not himself teach him the lessons of truth he must learn, placing him under direction to the church where he would be told what he must do.
That meeting produced a complete transformation from persecutor who sought to destroy Christ's followers into a penitent believer and apostle and one of Christ's most devoted and effective workers, wholly devoted henceforth to the Crucified One whose name had once filled him with contempt, with the one great purpose to serve and honor him and win souls to him. A vision of Jesus revealed his error and divine mercy changed him, bringing the man known for doing evil against Christ's followers to see his own unworthiness, receive full and free forgiveness, and rise changed. He linked himself with the very people he had thought worthy only of persecution, exchanging Phariseeism, popularity, positions of honor and ambitious preferment for the gospel of Jesus Christ with all its trials and humiliations, counting it no sacrifice, binding himself to Christ and at last suffering martyrdom for his sake. Joining the despised sect he had hated, he then for his love of Christ received the same cruel treatment he had once helped give.
His change from persecutor to believer in Christ while ridiculing and despising Christ was something he could never forget, and that conversion had a bearing on all his after life and was an encouragement to him as he worked on the side of Christ whom he once ridiculed and despised. Remembering his former bitter hostility toward Christ's followers later filled him with remorse and pity for those who shared his prejudice. He later remembered that he had helped bring persecution on the disciples, yet he rejoiced that he now understood and valued the truths he had once opposed and was grateful that he had come to see the gospel's truth and was now able to preach what he had once opposed.
Mission and Present Application
The stoning of Stephen became the means of the conversion of the one who had done such evil to the saints at Jerusalem, for Stephen's faith and courage and words stayed with those who saw and heard him and testified to the truth he proclaimed, and when wicked men seemed to triumph in putting the true and faithful witness to death, God used that apparent defeat to advance His cause. The circumstances of that conversion prepared the converted persecutor to turn from the rejecting Jews and preach Christ to the Gentiles, for with Christ revealed to him on the Damascus road he came to understand the Saviour's mission and his own work in converting the Gentiles, distinguishing living faith from dead formalism and knowing that the ceremonial rites pointing forward to Christ ceased with their fulfillment. That preparation led to his commission to carry the gospel to the Gentiles after the persecution following Stephen's death had driven believers from Jerusalem.
God then used his later journeys and trials and imprisonment to spread the knowledge of Christ and bring people to faith, an experience he afterward recounted before rulers and governors to testify of Jesus. Through the word of converted Paul thousands were brought to gospel light, proving that God permits His servants to be humbled and to suffer for rightdoing and then brings signal victory out of apparent defeat. His reversal from zealous hostility to witness stands alongside that of Farel, who likewise turned from zealous opposition to faith in Christ and service to the gospel.
His conversion was so thorough that it serves as the example of the conversion ministers need, the history of his life to be traced out together with the history of Jesus Christ and the shame of Christ crucified as a criminal. Before the Saviour revealed Himself he was strictly religious but opposed God's law, and afterward he became a Christian who made Christ supreme, with Christ ever after to him the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely. Though he had been one of the gospel's most determined enemies, grace rescued him and made him a devoted minister, showing that apparent hatred and contempt do not rule out willingness to receive truth and be changed, and that even a persecutor's heart can be open to divine impressions.
Unconverted men used by Satan will work with all their power to persecute and hunt up souls, as satanic agencies did in crucifying Christ, and this history is to be repeated through Lucifer's power to exalt self in men in present and future experience, warning brethren to wake up and receive God's converting power lest they be so used. He did his evil to the saints at Jerusalem conscientiously, sending men and women to prison and to death while thinking he was serving God, and in the same way many Christians in every church worship an idol sabbath in error while conscientiously serving the Lord according to the best light they have, so they are to be saved by wise methods and not by piling condemnation upon them. Even the most bitterly prejudiced are no more prejudiced than Saul was in his bitter prejudice, and God can work mightily for such when His servant is humble and teachable, hides in God, lets the Spirit soften him, labors with melting love and pity and tenderness, does not get in the way, clings to Jesus Christ, and is ready to be counseled by more experienced brethren. Strict conscientiousness in that cruel work does not make one guiltless when the Spirit impresses its knowledge upon him, for in the light of the law he sees himself a sinner who has transgressed the very law he thought he kept so zealously, dies to sin, repents, believes in Jesus, is baptized, and preaches Jesus as earnestly as he once condemned Him.