11/9/2025 The Vessel the Lord Loves to Use
/Acts Sermon 65
Sermon Date: 11/9/2025
Title: The Vessel the Lord Loves to Use
Text: [Acts 13:13-16, NIV]
The Journey Begins
We are now looking at Paul's first missionary journey. The church in Syrian Antioch, the first church established in a Roman city, sent out Barnabas and Paul as its first missionaries.
They took with them a young man named Mark, the son of the owner of the house known as the Upper Room, the very first church in history in Jerusalem. He was to be their assistant on the mission.
A Great Success and a Setback
If you look at the map, they traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch, and then from Antioch to Cyprus. In Paphos, on Cyprus, the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, met the mission team, heard the Gospel, and became a Christian.
Imagine if we went on a mission to a country, and that country's president heard the Gospel from us and was saved. That would be an amazing event. This was a great achievement for the first mission team.
The team now left Paphos and headed towards Pamphylia, which is also in the region of modern-day Turkey. However, for some reason, John Mark left them there.
As we saw last week, the journey from Perga back to his home in Jerusalem was very dangerous for the young John Mark. However, Paul later said that Mark had abandoned the team, which shows Mark acted irresponsibly and certainly harmed the entire team.
This incident must have been a deep hurt for the mission team, who had been full of high hopes after their recent great success. The young man had left, and the team had to continue the mission without knowing if he was safe until they returned. This must have been a heavy burden on their hearts.
Saul Becomes Paul
It was during this time of failure—Mark's departure—that Saul, who was also called Paul, completely shed the name 'Saul' and was only called 'Paul' from then on. Mark's failure became a significant milestone in Paul's spiritual growth journey.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if life only had success? But would that really be good? When everything seems to be going well for a while, with no problems, are your souls truly well?
In my own spiritual life and while praying for others, I notice a sad pattern that repeats. When people have a sincere prayer request, they may be facing great need and difficulty, but their thirst for God is also very serious. Their prayers and worship are full of genuine sincerity, like a thirsty deer seeking a stream.
But what happens after the prayer is answered, after the problem is solved, after the need is met, and life becomes comfortable? Does the hunger for the Lord still remain?
That time might actually be when our souls are in real danger. The time when our prayers and worship become merely formal is truly dangerous.
When there are no major problems in our own lives, a genuine community's key role is to help us pray with the same sincere and desperate heart. This is because there are always brothers and sisters within our community who need concern, love, and prayer. When a brother's problem becomes my prayer, or the church's difficulty becomes my earnest prayer, it becomes a blessing to everyone.
How earnestly Paul and Barnabas must have prayed when Mark left! They must have prayed constantly for Mark's safe return home. They would have also continuously poured out their hearts for the remaining team to stay united and unshaken.
It was no accident that Paul, who was also called Saul, fully gave up the name Saul and was only called Paul at this very moment. It was in this situation that they moved from Pamphylia to Pisidian Antioch.
A Chosen Vessel
It is known that Seleucus, who conquered much land under Alexander the Great, built sixteen cities named Antioch, after his father, Antiochus. Two Antiochs appear in the Bible. The place where the first Roman city church was founded was Syrian Antioch. The place where Paul preached in the synagogue in today's passage was Pisidian Antioch. Both are in the region of modern-day Turkey.
The journey from Perga to Pisidian Antioch took another week of walking and included high altitudes—a very difficult path. The reason the mission team immediately headed there, instead of staying in the port city where they arrived, is shown in today's passage: there was a famous Jewish synagogue there.
In the modern-day Turkish city of Yalvaç, you can find a ruin site, which can be searched on Google Maps as Pisidian Antioch. Amazingly, part of the synagogue Paul visited is believed to still be there.
Just looking at the remaining structure, it must have been a very magnificent building. So this synagogue was probably well-known among the Jewish Diaspora at the time. Paul deliberately sought out this synagogue first. Why?
He felt deep pity for his fellow Jewish Diaspora brothers, like his former self, who lived as blind men; they lived as devout Pharisees, praying prayers that were perhaps just self-talk, and practicing their faith diligently by trying to obey the Law, only guessing that God would be pleased. They studied and memorized the Scriptures so earnestly yet failed to recognize the Messiah. He sought out the synagogue first because they were there.
In fact, immediately after Saul first met Jesus on the road to Damascus, the first place he went, after recovering, was the synagogue in Damascus.
[Acts 9:18-20, NIV] 18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. 20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
Saul, blinded upon meeting Jesus, neither ate nor drank for three days due to the shock. He could have eaten food even if he couldn't see. Why did he fast?
He had spent his whole life strictly obeying the Law, waiting for the Messiah. Yet, not only had he failed to recognize Jesus, but he had helped to have the Messiah crucified and was now capturing His followers. Didn't the martyrs, like Stephen, whom he had actively participated in killing, come to his mind?
At that time, he believed that people like Stephen were apostates who deserved death, and that killing such unrighteous people was justice. But he found out the truth was the exact opposite!
Stephen and the Christians were the ones who knew the truth and followed the Messiah. He, the chief priests, and the Pharisees were the truly blind ones—tools of Satan and cruel persecutors of the Messiah. The fact that they had killed the Messiah was an immense shock.
When he met Jesus and faced that truth, didn't the faces of the people he had cruelly persecuted and arrested come back to him? The three days Paul spent blind were, in fact, a time of repentance.
"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" "Who are you, Lord?" "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting." The Lord identified all who were being persecuted for following Him with Himself, Jesus.
This is what it means for the Church to be the Body of Christ. It is the meaning of being in Jesus. When we are in Jesus, any harm done to us is done to Jesus, and anyone who opposes us is opposing Jesus.
How safe is a soul when Jesus calls that person His own, calls them "Jesus"? Even if the world harms them, that soul will never sink.
But the reason Jesus came to Saul was not to punish or discipline him. Jesus came to forgive him, an enemy, to offer him a chance, and to call him to be His disciple.
Isn't that shocking? Among all mankind at that time, Jesus came to the one person who had most actively harassed Him—the person who should absolutely not be shown grace or forgiveness.
Therefore, if Jesus can forgive a person like this, then there is no one Jesus cannot forgive. If Jesus can love someone who arrested and killed His own brothers, there is no one Jesus cannot love.
Knowing this is what completely overturns a person—it is what is felt at the moment of conversion. "Ah, Jesus loves me? He forgives me?!" "Ah... there is no one without hope before Jesus!" "This is the love of God!"
Being utterly transformed by that amazing love is conversion. Saul groaned under the weight of the terrible crimes he had committed as a tool of Satan against God's people and his victims. At the same time, he was so overwhelmed by the love that forgave him that he could neither eat nor drink.
The Earthen Vessels
At that time, Jesus appeared to another person in Damascus—one of His disciples named Ananias. Ananias had remained to protect the church, even after hearing that Saul and his group were coming to Damascus to persecute the church and arrest Christians. He was ready for martyrdom.
Yet, Jesus came to him and told him to go to the persecutor Saul, lay hands on him, and pray.
[Acts 9:13-14, NIV] 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
This was a truly incomprehensible command. How much did he dislike walking right into the den of the church's persecutors to lay hands on his enemy and pray? Ananias even questioned Jesus, saying, "Isn't this wrong?" Yet, he finally obeyed.
If you think about it, Jesus had already appeared directly to Saul. Jesus was the one who had blinded him. Couldn't Jesus have visited him again and restored his sight directly? But the Lord chose to accomplish this work more difficultly through His disciple, Ananias.
This is a question we will inevitably continue to ask throughout our Christian lives. Consider: Why do Barnabas and Paul have to travel such a long and difficult way by boat, walking, and then by boat again?
Jesus answered Ananias's doubt: [Acts 9:15, NIV] But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.” It is because we are vessels of Jesus.
A vessel is made to be used. The unemployment rate for Gen Z in Korea and the United States is very high and shows no signs of improving. Ask those who can live without working because they have their parents' support, who have money, if they are happy.
People desire to be useful. They are happy when they feel they are pulling their weight. No one can fully explain why; they can only say it is an innate nature. But the Bible clearly reveals the reason.
[Genesis 1:27-29, NIV] 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”
'Fill,' 'subdue,' 'rule over'—these are all tasks and duties given to humanity. God gave them food, but He did not set the table for them; He intended for them to work for their food.
[Genesis 2:15, NIV] The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. We were created as vessels with a physical body, made in the image of God.
The first sacred calling was to cultivate the ground and rule over the animals—shepherding and farming. Therefore, for us Christians, we consider all kinds of work entrusted to us by God to be a sacred calling.
This is why we must do whatever work we do for God and for His glory, as ministers. God provides for us then. Christians do not work to simply earn money or make a living.
If a job or work is led by God, we can certainly discover God's purpose within it. We can find out why we must be there and who the souls are that we need to care for. There is no greater purpose than becoming an Ananias to someone.
Paul's Growth
After being baptized in Damascus and recovering, Saul immediately went to the Jewish synagogue there. He excitedly shouted out of the blue, "Jesus is the Son of God! Jesus is the Christ—the Messiah!"
However, in today's passage, Paul, having traveled this long way to Pisidian Antioch, sits down upon reaching the synagogue and waits for his turn. There is a clear contrast between 'Saul' in the Damascus synagogue and 'Paul' in the Pisidian Antioch synagogue.
Then, he stands up, gestures with his hand, and begins to speak. This was the first sermon of Paul recorded in the Bible. We will look at the content of that sermon next week.
Jesus called Paul His chosen instrument (vessel). And that vessel was created in the image of God. We are vessels made with God's mold, perfectly resembling Him.
However, if a vessel is full of other things, it cannot be used. For God to use the vessel named Paul, there needed to be a process of emptying out 'Saul'. That was the time Paul spent in seclusion and his experiences of failure.
The Lord wants that vessel to be filled—filled with the Spirit of Jesus, with the Holy Spirit. But if the vessel, filled with living water, also gets some impurities in it, it must be emptied again.
Then, it is refilled. That is the journey of faith. The perfect vessel, created in the image of God and filled with the Holy Spirit, was Jesus Christ.
Jesus' vessel was always full, and His cup overflowed. By showing us the perfect, physical vessel, Jesus, God desired for us to become vessels like Him.
[Ephesians 1:23, NIV] which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. The church is a vessel. You are God's vessels.
But some vessels are cracked or broken and cannot be used, and some are already full of something and cannot be used. The Lord will empty that vessel to use it. He will make us discard things we need to get rid of.
Some vessels will need to be mended and patched up where they are cracked. Still others will need to be completely broken, mixed with water, turned back into a lump of clay, and recreated completely new.
We are being reborn as vessels that God will fill and use. I have many cups in my house, but there are some that I reach for more often. I hope that you and I can be a church like those cups. A vessel that is always familiar to the Lord's hand, a vessel that the Lord loves to use.
Then, we will be not only vessels into which living water is poured from above but also the Lord's vessels from which that living water springs up eternally.
In his last letter, 2 Timothy, Paul wrote:
[2 Timothy 2:20-21, NIV] 20 In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. 21 Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
What kind of vessel do you want to be? A precious vessel only brought out once or twice a year when guests visit? Or a vessel that the Lord happily uses every day until it is worn out? I want to be that kind of vessel.
Let us pray. [2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV] But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
