Acts 9: Lord, What Do You Want Me to Do?

Introduction

“Lord, what do you want me to do?” That is the question Saul of Tarsus asks, trembling and astonished, on the road to Damascus. It is also the title of a message by Samuel Mabboux, pastor of the Assemblée de Dieu de Nice Ariane, who walks step by step through chapter 9 of the book of Acts.

Saul gets up one morning with a single goal: to obtain letters so he can arrest the disciples of Jesus and bring them bound to Jerusalem. “You can stop men, but you will never stop Jesus Christ.” On the road, Jesus comes to meet him.

The pastor builds on two key sentences: “Who are you, Lord?” and “Lord, what do you want me to do?” He follows Saul from the light that throws him to the ground all the way to the new birth, by way of three days of darkness in Damascus. And he asks you the question: where are you on this road?

Message Outline

1. An Encounter on the Road to Damascus

• As Saul draws near to Damascus, a light from heaven shines around him. He falls to the ground and hears: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:3-4).
• When the light of Christ enters our darkness, it shakes the way we think and see things. Everything becomes different.
• “There is no spiritual neutrality.” For the preacher, there are only two teams, light and darkness: if you are not with Jesus, you are against him.
• Saul answers: “Who are you, Lord?” Samuel Mabboux issues you a challenge: ask him that question right where you are. “But expect things to move.” Strongholds may fall inside you.

2. I Am Jesus, Whom You Are Persecuting

• The answer seems unremarkable, yet it is a powerful revelation. Saul, trained under Gamaliel, thought he was standing in the truth. In a few words, his whole life and all his reasoning collapse.
• If Jesus is speaking to him, then the crucified one was no impostor. He truly was the Son of God, he has risen, he is alive: “a dead man doesn't talk.”
• Jesus does not simply say “I am Jesus”; he adds that Saul is the one persecuting him. Saul was going after the disciples, after the Church. When someone touches one of his children, it is him they are touching.
• When Jesus reveals himself, everything you have invested years in, energy, sometimes money, is called into question: you discover that something matters more.

3. Lord, What Do You Want Me to Do?

• At that moment, the pastor points out, Saul is not yet converted: he receives the revelation of Christ. But as he recognizes God's almighty power, something shifts inside him.
• The Lord tells him to get up and go into the city, where he will be told what he must do (Acts 9:6). Before God, you discover your weakness, and then he is the one who raises you up and gives you a new mission.
• Saul will become Paul, “the little one.” In his letters he calls himself the least of the apostles (1 Corinthians 15:9): he knew that grace alone had lifted him up.
• His companions hear the voice but see no one. Following Christ looks like foolishness to the world: shutting yourself in a hall on Sunday morning, Wednesday evening or Friday evening to sing and listen to the Word, “there's not even a drink afterward.” We go anyway, because God's presence is there.
• “God's unknown is always better than the world's known.” God's plans are plans for peace and not for disaster (Jeremiah 29:11), just as with Abraham, whom he told to leave for the land he would show him.

4. Three Days in the Dark

• Saul gets up, his eyes open, but he sees nothing. He is led to Damascus, where he stays three days without sight, without eating and without drinking (Acts 9:8-9).
• Those who traveled with him are gone. No one brings him a glass of water or a piece of bread: “The world has already abandoned him.”
• It is a time of brokenness, in between, between the light and a darkness that does not let go so easily. “My brother, my sister, if you are in that moment, hold on.”
• When you rise up for Jesus Christ, some people from the world will walk away from you, and there are some you must not hold on to, because they would keep you from moving forward with the Lord.

5. Because He Is Praying

• God sends a disciple from Damascus, Ananias (not the husband of Sapphira). He is told to go to the street called Straight, to the house of Judas, and look for a man from Tarsus named Saul, because he is praying (Acts 9:11).
• For the pastor, this is the key verse: “Revelation does not mean salvation.” Many neighbors, children and loved ones know who Christ is without following him. What produces conversion is seeking God.
• Ananias hesitates; he knows the harm this man has done to the saints. The Lord replies that Saul is his chosen instrument to carry his name before the nations, before kings and before the people of Israel (Acts 9:15). Verse 16 also announces what he will have to suffer for his name.
• Where people see an abandoned blind man groping around for something to eat, God already sees a powerful instrument. Man looks at what strikes the eye; God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
• Jesus had to break and shape Saul, like clay in the potter's hand, to bring him into his plans. Ananias, for his part, is no star of the book of Acts: he makes only a brief appearance in this passage, yet he receives a miraculous mission.
• The preacher thanks God for his spiritual “big brothers” and “big sisters” whom he calls when things are not going well, and for a prayer group that carries him. God can put an Ananias on your road.

6. The New Birth

• Ananias lays his hands on Saul and calls him “brother.” He is sent so that Saul may regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17).
• Something like scales falls from his eyes, he regains his sight, he gets up and is baptized (Acts 9:18). Conversion, the Holy Spirit and baptism, all on the same day, because he prayed.
• Three days in darkness: it recalls Jesus's three days in the tomb. On the third day, God sends someone to bring Saul out of “his own tomb.”
• He regains his strength and immediately preaches in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. Everyone is amazed, and Saul grows stronger and stronger (Acts 9:19-22).
• Conversion is a 180-degree turn: you stop walking toward darkness and head toward Christ. When you delight yourself in the Lord, he gives you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4), because your heart now desires what comes from him.
• Saul was sincere, but “sincerity without truth is error.” Truth does not belong to a pastor or to a religious leader: it is the Word of God, perfect, over which God watches.

7. Coming to Jesus Costs Something

• Saul fell to the ground before bearing fruit. If a grain of wheat does not die, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24). To bear fruit, you have to die to yourself.
• “If you have given up nothing to come to Jesus, you are not a disciple of Christ.” This is not moralizing, the pastor insists; it is the word of Jesus: deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him (Luke 9:23). There is at least sin to let go of.
• “God will not leave you alone.” Later, in Jerusalem too, disciples will take Saul in, feed him and help him escape.
• The message ends with an appeal: for the one who asks “Who are you, Lord?”, for the one who loves the Lord but no longer understands where he is leading, for the one who is still in his three days. The pastor prays that the Spirit of God would make the scales fall from their eyes.

Key Takeaways

• There is no spiritual neutrality: when the light of Christ reveals itself, it calls your whole life into question.
• To touch the Church is to touch Jesus himself: he takes care of his children.
• Revelation is not enough to be saved. It is by seeking God and praying that Saul entered the new birth.
• Times of brokenness are not the end: God shapes an instrument and sends an Ananias at the right moment.
• Sincerity without truth is error. Following Jesus costs something, but God's unknown is always worth more than the world's known.

Personal Application

1. Have you ever sincerely asked Jesus: “Who are you, Lord?” Are you ready for his answer to shake up the way you think?
2. If you already belong to the Lord, when did you last ask him: “What do you want me to do?”
3. Are you going through a time of night, in between, unable to see where you are going? What difference would it make to live it in prayer, like Saul?
4. Who could be an Ananias for you, and for whom could you be one this week?
5. What do you still have to let go of in order to follow Jesus fully?

Verses Cited

• Acts 9:1-22
• 1 Corinthians 15:9
• Jeremiah 29:11
• Genesis 12:1
• 1 Samuel 16:7
• Psalm 37:4
• John 12:24
• Luke 9:23

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus?

A light from heaven shines around him, he falls to the ground and hears: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” For Samuel Mabboux, the answer “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” makes all of Saul's reasoning collapse: the crucified one was no impostor, he has risen and is alive.

Why does Samuel Mabboux say that revelation does not mean salvation?

Many people know who Christ is without following him or serving the Lord. What leads to conversion and the new birth is seeking God. Saul received the revelation on the road, but it is because he was praying that the Lord sent Ananias to him (Acts 9:11).

What do Saul's three days in Damascus represent?

Blind, without food or drink and abandoned by his companions, Saul goes through a time of brokenness, between darkness and light. The preacher sees in it an echo of Jesus's three days in the tomb: on the third day, God sends Ananias, the scales fall and Saul is baptized.