Dock Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 1 February 2026
Summary
This week Gareth spoke to us about God’s invitation to “get up and go,” using the conversion of Saul and the obedience of Ananias in Acts 9 to show how God calls us to move toward Him, toward one another, and toward those who do not yet know Him. Gareth reminded us that no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace, that transformation begins when we respond to Jesus’ call, and that ordinary, faithful obedience — like Ananias’ — plays a crucial role in God’s saving work. The sermon challenged us to reflect on where God might be inviting us to get up and go this week, trusting Him even when the call feels costly or uncomfortable.
Key Points & Takeways
God invites us to get up and go to Jesus - Saul’s encounter on the road to Damascus shows that no one is beyond God’s reach, even someone who actively opposed Jesus and persecuted the church. Transformation begins when we ask the right questions: “Who are you, Lord?” and “What should I do?” Going to Jesus is not a one-off moment, but a daily call to surrender and follow Him.
God invites us to get up and go to our brothers and sisters - Ananias is afraid and uncertain, but he listens to God, obeys, and goes to Saul. He stands alongside him, calls him “brother,” prays for him, and walks with him into new life. Faith is not meant to be lived alone — new believers and struggling believers alike need encouragement, prayer, and fellowship.
God invites us to get up and go to the lost - Saul’s response to Jesus is immediate. Once transformed, he begins proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God, even in places where he once caused harm. His life shows us that encountering Jesus naturally leads to witness. Sharing faith may bring rejection or misunderstanding, but the call to go remains.
Dock Discussion Questions
Which part of the invitation to “get up and go” do you find most challenging right now — going to Jesus, going to fellow believers, or going to those who don’t yet know Him? Why?
Saul’s life shows that no one is beyond God’s grace. How does this shape the way we view people who seem far from faith or even hostile to it?
Ananias obeyed God despite fear and uncertainty. Can you think of a time when obedience felt risky for you? What helped (or would help) you respond in faith?
Where might God be inviting you to “get up and go” this week in a practical, tangible way?
Long-form, edited transcript
Church Planting Sunday.
Acts 9:1-20
9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 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. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 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.
The book of Acts is a fast paced moving story, isn't it? In chapter one we see the church, obey God's command as 120 believers, gather daily in prayer, waiting for the Holy Spirit. Then in Acts chapter two, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came, and one sermon later from Peter, and 3,000 people became believers. Over the next eight chapters, the church just continued to grow rapidly. And we catch glimpses of how the early church tried to manage this growth. At the center is what should be at the center of all churches, devotion to prayer, to teaching, to fellowship, and to generosity. But as the church grew, so did persecution, just as Jesus promised.
First, the persecution targeted the leaders, Peter and John, and when that didn't work, they turned to the apostles, and when that failed, it became an open season on all believers. Even those whose role it was to serve food to the poor. And in chapter seven of Acts, Stephen was martyred.
Suddenly chaos erupted. The church was scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Yet God's plan continued to unfold, because wherever the believers went, they shared the good news, and the church continued to grow. It was around this point in the story that Saul entered the story. He was the one heading up so much of that persecution and his conversion is one of the most remarkable stories in the Bible. God took the church's greatest enemy of that time and completely transformed this man's life. His testimony is told three times in the book of Acts, first in chapter 9, and then again in chapters 22 and 26.
But we don't just want to focus on Saul, there's another person in this story, Ananias. Ananias slips in and out of the story very quickly, we don't hear from him after this chapter but what he did matters deeply. His life shows us how we, as followers of Jesus, are called to live as well.
We have two very different people at very different stages of life, both received the same invitation from God to get up and go. So, as we look at this story again I just want you to take a moment and think, what might God be inviting you to do? How is he inviting you to get up and go?
So Saul, as we know, was a Pharisee, and Pharisees were Jewish religious leaders who studied the Scriptures closely. They taught people how to follow God's law, and they tried to make sure everyone kept all the rules. They believed that by keeping the rules they would get to heaven. They added extra rules on top of these, and in doing so, they placed these heavy burdens on the people that they were meant to be caring for and shepherding.
Jesus was often very critical of the Pharisees. In Matthew 23 he said, ‘Woe to you Pharisees, outwardly beautiful yes, but inside you're full of dead bones.’ Saul was one of these, but as far as Pharisees go, Saul was one of the very best. In his letter to the Galatians he wrote that he was advancing in Judaism beyond many of his own age. When Saul saw this movement of Jesus followers called ‘The Way’, he was determined to do everything he could to stop it. It went against everything Saul believed was right. Saul did not believe that Jesus had been resurrected and he could not accept that these believers were now living under the authority of Jesus.
In Acts 5, we're told that the apostles were ordered to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, but they ignored that command, and they said that we must obey God. And we're told that day after day, they went into the temple courts, proclaiming the word of God, proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah. And of course, as they did this, their numbers continued to grow. This consumed Saul with so much anger and so much hatred towards Jesus and this group of people. And he was convinced that it was his duty to destroy this movement. He went out, hunting them down with this relentless determination. He dragged men and women into prison. He didn't care who you were. He didn't care if you had a family. He seized you. He bound you in chains and he hauled you back to Jerusalem and he pressured the believers to disown their faith. Those who refused, he imprisoned or put them to death.
In Acts 9, Saul set out on another of his journeys over a hundred miles long to Damascus to continue his assault on the church that just kept growing. When I read these opening verses, I see part of the problem, a problem that I know I have. The focus is entirely on Saul. It's all about his threats, his mission, his desires. My life looked a little bit like that. Not as violent of course, thankfully, but it was all about me. It was about my plans, my ambitions, my desires. It was my journey. Everything revolved around what I wanted. But thankfully that changed when I received that invitation to get up and go and follow Jesus.
My life is still being transformed today by that invitation. And this is what happens to Saul. A man who seemed beyond reach, a man beyond hope, Paul wrote in 1 Timothy chapter 15, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them all." And so this passage, it shows us that we are all invited to get up and go to Jesus, and that no one is beyond his reach. It reveals the depth of God's love that even someone who hated Jesus, whose life was devoted to destroying the church, could be transformed by God.
As Saul was approaching Damascus, this light from heaven, brighter than the noon day sun, shone all around him and he fell to the ground and from that light saw a voice, the voice of Jesus calling his name, “Saul, Saul.” The very person Saul hated. The one that all of his anger was aimed towards, the one whose name he tried to destroy was calling out to him. Jesus was calling his name, inviting him to a new life. And that's what he does for all of us.
Jesus called his name twice, didn't he? Is this to say, hey, Saul, listen up. This is for you. I'm speaking to you. Have I got your attention? And Jesus asked him, why are you persecuting me? What are you doing with your life? You think you've been defending God, but you've been persecuting him. Later in Acts chapter 26, Paul said he heard Jesus say this as well, why are you kicking against the goads? And Jesus was simply saying to him, "Saul, why are you resisting God's plan? "The only person you're hurting is yourself." And in that moment, Saul was suddenly just overwhelmed with confusion. He thought he was doing the right thing, going to the right places. He thought his plan was the right plan. Everything he had built up was right, but it's now all beginning to crash down around him.
I remember a moment like that from my childhood. When I thought I was doing the right thing, it all came crashing down around me very quickly. I was out playing with a friend. We had two plastic swords and we were having a great time. And we came up with a plan, a plan that we thought was a good plan and we thought it was a great idea. We decided to chop off all the heads of our neighbour's roses in his garden. And we laughed as we did it. We thought this was so much fun. What a good idea. What could possibly go wrong? And I said goodbye to my friend, not realizing that was the last time I would see him. I'm not sure what's happened to him.
That evening, we realized it was wrong because there was a knock at the door. At first, I thought nothing of it until I heard my mum say the words, "I'm very sorry. I will deal with him right now." And suddenly, I realized how wrong I had been. And my mom came into the room, her face could kill…and it was going to kill and she was holding a bowl. Inside the bowl was half of one of the rose heads that I had chopped off, the other half had gone to my friend's house. And she looked to me and said, what have you done? I didn't know what to say at that point. For Saul the stakes were so much higher, weren't they? And unlike my moment where there was no hope, there was hope for Saul.
You know, Saul's life was a mess. But he was in the best place he could have been and he asked the best question he could have asked in that moment. He knew the voice was from heaven, but he didn't yet know who was calling to him. And the same is true for us. Our lives can feel like a mess, it can feel confusing. Or even out of control at times. We make mistakes, we go down the wrong paths or we hold onto the wrong things that weigh us down. But what we've got to do is what Saul did. Where he was, there was hope. In that moment, there was hope. And he asked two questions that we all should be asking. He asked, “who are you, Lord?” And “what should I do, Lord?”
Saul was opening his heart to God, wanting to know who he truly was and what he must do to sort his life out. God revealed himself and he showed Saul what to do. For Saul there must have been total disbelief. He heard the voice of Jesus calling to him. He said, I am Jesus of Nazareth. I am the one you have been persecuting. I am the savior of the world. And then with that, he invited Saul to get up and to go. To leave behind the life he had known and start a new life following him. And what did Saul do? He accepted that invitation. He got up and he went. This man who had once been a persecutor of the church had turned his back on his old way of life and is now stepping into this new life that God had for him. As Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 3: ‘Everything else is worthless, compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.’
And that invitation to get up and go to Jesus is for all of us. And if you've never asked that question, who are you Lord? I encourage you to ask it today, and allow Jesus to reveal himself to you to show you who he truly is. But that invitation to get up and go to Jesus is not just the one time call is it. We are invited to respond to it every single day in every season of life. We need God's guidance in our lives every day.
Ananias is a wonderful example of someone who did just that. We know very little about this man, but what we are told is so important and it's something we would want said about all of us, because he was someone who openly acknowledged that Jesus was Lord. He proclaimed Jesus as his Messiah, so he was converted at some point. He was a disciple, someone committed to learning from Jesus. He would have spent time studying the scriptures and in prayer both on his own and later we read, he had a fellowship group that he did it with. He spent time with them studying the scriptures and in prayer. He trusted God. He made space for him in his life and he recognized his voice when he called him. Even in the dangerous and uncertain moments of his life he made time for God, which is what we all need to do. And this was one of those moments for Ananias, wasn't it?
Saul was on his way to destroy the church, and Ananias' life was at risk, but he chose to get up, and he chose to go to God in that circumstance. And it's so important that we keep coming to God, just as Ananias did, making space to listen to him, to obey him and to follow his lead and to allow him to continue the work that he's doing in our lives. Another amazing thing about Ananias is that he was obedient to the voice of God, when God called, he responded immediately, didn't he? God only has to call his name once and there he was saying yes, Lord, I'm here. What do you want me to do? And he's going to regret that in a moment, isn't he? Because he is called to do something that required a tremendous amount of courage, faith, and trust. God said, "Ananias, I want you to get up, "and I want you to go to this man Saul." And from Ananias's reply, "We can see just how daunting that task was." He was fearful, he was afraid, he was unsure of what was going to happen. You know, God was asking him to go to the very man who the last time he had heard about him was coming to Damascus to arrest him.
Ananias said to God, ‘God, well, let's talk about this for a moment. You want me to go to this man who has caused so much pain and so much suffering to the believers.’ This was Saul, the most feared and hated persecutor of Christians. God listened to Ananias’ concern didn't he? But his response didn't change. He said, "I want you to get up and I want you to go to him."
Just to make it even harder for Ananias to wriggle out of it, he gave very specific instructions of where he had to go, ‘go to straight street, go to the house of justice, and inside you'll find a man praying to me.’ And what we're told is that Ananias, got up, and he went immediately. And when Ananias arrived at the house where Saul was staying, he did something that we, as followers of Jesus, should be looking to do for one another, because life is hard out there, isn't it? In Acts 22, we're told that Ananias stood right next to Saul. He didn't keep his distance from him, just in case. He stood right next to him, and then he laid his hands on him. And he called him brother. Ananias believed that, if Jesus had accepted Saul, then Saul was now his brother as well in Christ. No matter what he had done. He prayed a blessing over this man. The man who had caused so much pain and suffering to the church asking God to bring healing to him to give him sight. He prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill him and that God would use him to take the gospel out into the world. He then baptized him, and he stayed with him in fellowship, and then he invited him to meet his other believers.
This is what we need to be doing for one another. Saul needed this, didn't he? He had just turned his back on his old way of life, and he needed a brother to come alongside him, to strengthen him, to support him, to guide him. In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. He writes this, ‘May the Lord make your love for one another grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.’ And so who is God calling you to go to? There should be no one off limits, no brother or sister off limits. Who does he want you to encourage? Who does he want you to strengthen to walk alongside, to pray for? Who does he want you to invite into your fellowship group? Do what Ananaias did, get up and do it immediately.
Finally, there is an invitation for all of us to get up and go to the lost as well, isn't there? To those who do not know Jesus yet. And Saul is a wonderful example of this, and he shows us how seriously we should take this message. Saul stayed in Damascus with the believers and we are told he immediately got up and he went and he began preaching that Jesus is the Son of God. He didn't wait a moment, he got up and he went. Acts 9, 20 says ‘...and immediately he began preaching in the synagogues about Jesus Christ that he is indeed the Son of God.’ The man who was hunting Christians now broadly proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God. He went to the very places that he originally intended to arrest believers and there he was telling them about Jesus. And the transformation he had brought to his life and invited them into this party as well. And he devoted his life to it, getting up every day to tell people about Jesus, even when it meant severe persecution. And we know from Paul's letters, all that he went through, some incredibly difficult and challenging moments, yet he continued to faithfully do this this because of the life-changing encounter that he had on that road to Damascus.
That same call is for us today. We are all invited to get up and go to share Jesus with our friends, with our family, with those around us. And some will laugh won't they? Or think it's crazy in Acts chapter 26, when Paul was sharing his sermon with the people, they thought he was insane and thought he needed to be locked up. Some will respond like Saul first did, trying to stop the message with all they can, even plotting to kill him, as we read in verse 23 of Acts chapter nine.
We see that happening around us in the world today, don't we? People being killed for their faith. We see others being open, welcoming in this good news that we've received. And just as we see in the next chapter, chapter 10, Peter got up, didn't he? Took that invitation, and he went to the house of Cornelius and shared the good news.
Where is God inviting you to get up and go this week? Maybe it's just to spend some more time with him in prayer. Maybe you've been neglecting that. Maybe it's to encourage a friend who you know is struggling. Maybe it's to speak to someone in your workplace, to speak to a family member or a friend who does not know him yet. Whatever it is, do what Ananias did, get up and go immediately. Don't delay, go for it.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We thank you for the example of Saul and Ananias.
We thank you for their hearts, and their willingness to get up and go.
Thank you for Ananias that he would get up and go to his brother Saul.
Help us to see one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Help us to be willing to get up and go to them.
We thank you for Saul's heart, he got up and he went to tell people about you.
God give us that heart as well.
Show us who we should be going to to speak to God.
Give us that boldness and courage.
In Jesus Name
Amen.