And Ananias went and entered into the house; and laying his hands upon him he said, Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with [the] Holy Spirit.
Saul of Tarsus had spent three days without sight, waiting in a house in Damascus. The man God sent to him was not an apostle but a plain disciple — one of the people Saul had come to destroy — and his first word was "Brother."
Ananias claims no authority of his own. He tells Saul who sent him.
Ananias obeys at once. He goes to the house where Saul was staying, lays his hands on him, and tells him the errand he was sent on: not only to restore Saul's sight, but that he should be filled with the Spirit. The force of the message lay here. The Lord Jesus, who appeared to Saul on the road, had now sent Ananias supernaturally to bring His blessing. How clear it is that God was at work, and that the Lord Jesus was the revealer of His mind and the channel of His mercy.
A man with no office at all laid his hands on the church's greatest servant.
The most striking fact in the whole transaction is the gift of the Spirit through Ananias. The ordinary way of giving the Spirit was through the hands of an apostle. In Saul's case the wisdom of God broke clean through that way, if hands were used at all. Here every care was taken to show God laying all human pretensions in the dust. Using a disciple like Ananias lays the axe to the root of official pride. And this was where the Lord was calling out the most honoured servant He ever chose to use.
Even the messenger's name fits, and so does the order: the man who would serve others must first be served.
Ananias is therefore, as a simple disciple, all the more suited to be sent to Saul... So the man who is to serve others in such a large and blessed way must first learn his own need of ministry, and receive it. What a fitting messenger this Ananias must have seemed to the thankful and humbled man! His name means "the Lord has shown grace," and "grace" was indeed his newfound joy.
One word told Saul what he had become.
Ananias came in, put his hands on him, and said, "Brother Saul." What a thrill went through that man's soul as Ananias called him "Brother Saul." I understand it well. The week after my conversion, some simple Christians gave me the right hand of fellowship and let me take my place with them at the Lord's Supper. A deep thrill of joy went through my soul that they should acknowledge I was a child of God.
The title was not Ananias's invention.
Ananias goes, puts his hand on him, and addresses him by the sweet title of relationship which Christ began, set apart, and has given.
Saul's blindness and the gift of the Spirit belong together.
Saul had a fine natural mind, trained to the highest level. No doubt he believed he was able to judge all things. Yet this religious man was completely blind. He did not know his own need. He did not know Christ, or all that God is doing through Christ. He was even trying to rid the earth of everything that bore the name of Christ. But grace brings this highly intellectual bigot — blind to everything of Christ — into the presence of Jesus. At once he is blinded to everything of earth, so that his eyes may be opened in connection with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The healing of Saul's eyes was not only physical.
Here we have the gospel, carried by Ananias from the Lord to Saul. It removed the fear of God that had filled his soul. It spoke peace to his troubled conscience. With a tender hand it drew out the barbed arrow of conviction. And Saul now receives the Spirit of God as a seal of this message of mercy. Until now his eyes had been blinded to everything but the darkness within. Now they can "look up" to the source from which it all came — to the very face of Jesus Christ in glory.
Being filled with the Spirit shows what had already happened in Saul.
He had been three days without sight, but now the time of darkness was over. He was to be filled with the Holy Spirit. That shows beyond dispute that he had now reached deliverance, along with the scales falling from his eyes and his receiving sight. Only a delivered soul could be filled with the Holy Spirit.
- Sender. Ananias brings nothing of his own. His words carry weight because the Lord Jesus sent him.
- Vessel. God passed by the apostles and used a plain disciple. That lays "the axe to the root of official pride."
- Word. Christ began this title and gave it. The man who hunted the church is now called brother.
- Sight. The trained religious mind was blind. Sight returns, and the eyes of the soul look up into the face of Christ in glory.
- Fullness. The Spirit fills a delivered soul. The three days of darkness end, and Saul stands as a delivered man.
And straightway there fell from his eyes as it were scales, and he saw, and rising up was baptised;
Three days of blindness end in a moment. In one short sentence Saul sees, gets up, and is baptized — and each step is worth a closer look.
The scales fell from Saul's physical eyes. Writers note that at the same moment he received another sight altogether. What he had seen on the road had crushed him; what he saw now was the same Person, held out to him in grace.
At the end of the three days, the Lord — Jesus Himself — worked through His servant Ananias. He removed the scales from Saul's eyes and filled him with the Holy Spirit. He also gave him another sight: to see that same Jesus, whose glory had overwhelmed him, in all the fulness of His grace. Jesus was now Himself to him the righteousness of God — a righteousness far higher than the one he had hoped to reach by the law.
Saul's sight did not come back straight from heaven. The Lord sent a man to carry it to him.
The message carried its force from this: the Lord Jesus, who had appeared to Saul on the road, now sent Ananias by God's own power to carry His blessing. How clear it is that God was at work, and that the Lord Jesus was the revealer of His mind and the channel of His mercy... Saul's conscience saw how empty man is at his best, and no man had more reason than he to know this from experience. The grace of God in the Lord Jesus was just as plain to him.
No official baptized Saul. Writers see the choice as deliberate, and point to the same pattern elsewhere.
The proclamation of the truth is far beyond the administration of its sign. Later we will see that Peter preached at Caesarea. He left it to others to baptize Cornelius, his relatives and his close friends. The same thing appears here. Nothing would have been easier than to use an official, at least a "deacon", if God had wanted that — and God takes no pleasure in breaking down His own order. A "disciple" baptizes the great apostle to the Gentiles.
Ananias told Saul to be baptized and wash his sins away. Writers are careful about what that water did and did not do.
He listened like an obedient child to Ananias, when told to arise, and be baptized, and wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16). We hardly need to remind the reader that the rite of baptism does not gain us forgiveness of our sins before God. Nothing but the blood of Christ can do that. Yet by what he did, Saul broke completely with the past and condemned his whole former course. He took his place outwardly as a disciple through baptism, and he called on the name of the Lord, openly confessing Him.
Ananias came with two things in view: Saul's sight and the Holy Spirit filling him. Writers take the second as proof of where Saul now stood.
He had been three days without sight. Now the time of darkness was over. He was to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and this shows beyond question that he had now reached deliverance, together with the falling of what looked like scales from his eyes and his receiving sight. Only a delivered soul could be filled with the Holy Spirit. At once Saul arose and was baptized — baptized into the death of Christ (Romans 6:3). Free from self and from being taken up with himself, he could now feed on heavenly food in the power of the Spirit he had received. So he was made strong for the new path he was entering.
The same drive that had made Saul dangerous did not disappear. It changed direction.
At once the scales fell from his eyes. He saw, he arose, he was baptized. He now bore the name of the One he had persecuted. What can God not do? The man who had struck terror into the hearts of God's people was at once turned into the eager servant of Christ. That unbreakable will that marked him in his persecuting days was now turned to the service of the Lord.
- Blinded — three days of darkness ended the old Saul. When the scales fell he saw the Jesus of glory as grace, and as righteousness for himself.
- Visited — the sight came through Ananias, a man the Lord sent. The Lord Jesus was the channel of His own mercy.
- Baptized — a plain disciple, not an official, baptized the future apostle. Preaching the truth ranks above handling its sign.
- Washed — baptism broke Saul openly with his past and condemned his old course. Forgiveness before God rests on the blood of Christ alone.
- Strengthened — a soul set free can be fed and made strong for the new path. The will once bent on destroying now served Christ.