Ananias of Damascus (Acts 9:10-17, 22:6-16):

9 Meditations on the man we named our first born son after

7. Ananias Disappears

Verses 17-19 record Ananias praying for Paul, the scales falling from his eyes, and Paul’s baptism. Then something very interesting happens. The text follows Paul’s ministry from here on out. The only other mention of Ananias of Damascus in the rest of the Bible is in Acts 22 when Paul shares his testimony.  We never hear of him again. So we meet Ananias in verse 10 of chapter 9 and he disappears after verse 18. 8 verses of interactions with Ananias is all we have. He shows up as an ordinary disciple, gets called by God to meet a need in the apostle Paul’s life, responds honestly, obeys Him and then disappears. What is the result of his obedience? People like you and me worship Jesus because Paul ministered to the gentiles. Every tribe, tongue and nation will worship King Jesus because God called Paul to Himself. Paul had a need to be met before he could do that. And this ordinary obedient disciple of Jesus met that need.  He probably baptized Paul.  Praise God for Ananias of Damascus.  This reminds me of my most recent favorite song, ‘Background’ off of Lecrae’s new album ‘Rehab.’  My favorite line in the song Lecrae says, “I end up confessing I’m not that impressive matter of fact I’m who I are, a trail of star dust leading to The Super Star.”  I love that Ananias of Damascus is a ‘background’ type of leader, who so leads to the Super Star through the Apostle Paul, that most of us don’t even know who he is.  Job well done Ananias, you were a trail of stardust!

Nias,

I pray that you bring glory to God by accomplishing that which He has called you to do, nothing more, nothing less (John 17:4). Who knows, he may call you to meet the needs of the next ‘Paul’ in His kingdom.  I pray that you would view each person you influence as the next possible key kingdom leader and that you would play the background so to make them fall more and more in love with Jesus, the Super Star.