Conversion

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Transcript:

Well, turn with me tonight to Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9. You may have seen me up here a few minutes ago during the song service digging through my wallet.

And I was looking because I’ve had, there’s some paper money I’ve had in my wallet for about seven years. And wouldn’t you know now that I wanted it, it wasn’t there. Back around 2006, I went on a mission trip to Mexico.

And there was a lady from Mexico who worked for my dad at the bank. And she had some extra peso coins that she had from her last trip home. And she sent them with my dad to give to me.

And I said, what’s this for? And he said, she said, it’s in case you want a Coke or a bottle of water after you get across the border before you get a chance to change money. Because we were going nine hours south of the border before we really got stopped.

And I thought, well, that’s true. My American dollars will be worthless there. Well, not in all places.

But with my luck, my American dollars would be worthless wherever we stopped until I converted them. And as a matter of fact, when we got to where we were going, the town where Christian spent a lot of her time growing up, about nine hours south of the border, we all, the adults anyway, went and changed money. And I had the same amount after I changed it.

It didn’t matter whether I had $100 in cash, $100 U. S. dollars, or 1,000 Mexican pesos thereabout, depending on the exchange rate.

It was the same amount of money, but it was good for two completely different things. I had a $10 or $100. It must have been a $10, a 10 peso bill.

That would be about a dollar. I can’t imagine I’d leave $10 in my wallet all those years. It would have gotten spent on something.

I had a 10 peso bill in my wallet for several years and apparently cleaned it out just before tonight. It was worthless here. I kept it in my wallet for seven years because there was nothing to do with it but to hang on to it, just like my U.

S. money was worthless down there. It was the same amount of money, whether it was $100 or 1,000 pesos, but you converted it for a completely different use.

Same amount, but did two completely different things. Well, tonight we’re going to talk about conversion, because after conversion, I’m the same person, and you’re the same person, and yet we’re not quite the same people. We’re good for completely different things before and after conversion, much like that money.

And we see one of the most radical examples of this conversion experience in the Apostle Paul, or as he’s called in this passage, Saul. We see somebody whose life was radically transformed by Jesus Christ. And we’ve been talking about all these places somebody can be on the progression of discipleship. And although we can start discipling people before they come to this point, this is the first point when somebody really is a disciple, and it becomes part of their job as well to work at it.

Acts chapter 9 verse 1 said, And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. I’ve never met anybody who’s so angry they were breathing out threatenings and slaughter. But that sounds to me as though with every breath Saul exhaled he was hating the Christians.

Have you ever met anybody who was so consumed with hate that they seemed to breathe it out with every breath? Well, maybe you have. I have not.

But Paul hated the Christians with every breath he took, with every beat of his heart. Just about every thought, it seems, was to kill the people who called on Christ as the Messiah. So much so that he goes to the high priest and he asks for letters so that he could go to Damascus to the synagogue.

These letters would be like warrants, death warrants, that if he found any that were, it says, of the way, of this way, which is what early on they first called the Christians, they were people in the way or of the way, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. Didn’t even have pity on the women. But anybody he found, he was going to tie them up and bring them back to Jerusalem to give an answer for their sin in believing that Jesus Christ was the Messiah.

So when he sets out for Damascus, he is not a good man. As a matter of fact, I have compared him. I got in trouble for this once.

I still think I was right, but I got in trouble with some people in church who didn’t like to hear it, that the Apostle Paul was much like the Osama bin Laden of his day. Just went around seeking who he could kill who didn’t believe the way he did. And what they didn’t like, honestly, was that I said, instead of hating Osama bin Laden, and I’ll be honest, I have some bad feelings toward him too.

I know he’s gone on now, but I have some bad feelings toward the terrorists too, but rather than hunt them down and kill them, I’d rather we pray for them to come to Christ. Can you imagine the cataclysmic shift in the Middle East if the leaders of Al-Qaeda started coming to Christ? Can you imagine? And they didn’t like that I said, I thought we ought to pray for him.

But he was a bad man at this point. Now what he did, he believed he was doing for the right reasons. Now Saul was raised up as a Pharisee.

He had a good lineage, nice Jewish boy, And he was obviously zealous for the law, but he had missed the whole part about Christ being the Messiah. And so it wasn’t just that he was murdering them and arresting them and torturing them because he was angry or because he had a score to settle. He really believed he was doing God’s work, and yet how wrong he was.

And he really was not a good man at this point. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus. He got almost there, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.

And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Now, first of all, it’s very hard for me to understand that just by seeing a light from heaven and falling down and hearing a voice, that he would immediately respond by saying, Lord, because that means master. That if somebody startles me, I’m not automatically going to make them my master. Christian startles me all the time.

Well, I do kind of work for her. I scared Wyma in here on Friday. Doesn’t mean she’s at my beck and call now.

It’s not a matter of him crying out, Lord, or crying out, Master, because he was startled and he just forgot himself for a moment. I believe he saw that this light came from heaven and he recognized this is some kind of heavenly encounter I’m having here. And so he says, Jesus says, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

He says, who are you, Lord? I don’t even know who you are. And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But Jesus hadn’t been there for him to persecute.

Jesus was ascended to the right hand of God, the Father. Who had Saul been persecuting? It was the Christians.

It was the disciples. And what Jesus had said about when you’ve done this to the least of these, you’ve done it unto me, cuts both ways, whether you’re giving them something to eat or drink or whether you’re persecuting them and bringing them bound back to Jerusalem. And so Jesus is telling Saul, when you’ve persecuted my people, you’ve persecuted me.

And he says, but it’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Some translations may say goads, I believe. And the way it’s been explained to me is that on some of the wilder horses, they would put these boards behind them that had little spikes so that they wouldn’t kick backwards.

And what that meant was the horse was being taught not to kick but to obey. Now, I don’t have firsthand knowledge of this. I’m just telling you what people who would know have told me.

And so when he tells Saul at this point, you know who I mean if I call him Paul. What he’s telling him at this point when he says it’s hard for you to kick against the pricks is you’re stubborn. And it’s been hard to bring you to a point where you recognize that I am the Messiah.

Yeah, it’s hard kicking, isn’t it, Paul? Aren’t you ready to give it up? That’s my interpretation of it anyway.

He says, it’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And Paul, in verse 6, and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Again, just like this morning, when you come to the point of conviction, it compels you to some kind of response.

And when he realizes it’s Jesus, and he really is sent from God, and he’s the one I’ve been persecuting all along, he’s the one I’ve been angry with, it’s his message I’ve been angry about, I’ve been persecuting him, and when he realizes that, I believe he’s pricked to his heart, just like the men at Jerusalem at Pentecost, and he says, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Now, I’ve been curious over the years because it doesn’t tell us so much in black and white. When exactly in this experience did Paul get saved?

And there are at least two other, maybe three if I may be remembering wrong, but at least two other instances in the book of Acts where Paul gives his testimony of what happened on this road. And looking at some of the others, I noticed that there are details in some of the others that are not in this. Now the other details match up with it where you can kind of figure out where they happened in the story.

But at this point where Jesus tells him, it’s hard for you to kick against the pricks, Jesus tells him, I have called you aside for certain ministry. I’ve called you aside to be an apostle, to preach to the Gentiles. I’ve called you aside for all these things.

And it is hard for me to imagine that Jesus said, okay, here are your marching orders as a disciple of mine, if the man was not yet born again. What he says here is, Lord, what would you have me to do? And folks, just reading between the lines, I may be incorrect about this.

Just reading between the lines and looking at the other accounts of this story, I believe this second time he calls out to him, Lord, what would you have me to do? I believe he was expressing that he believed Jesus Christ was the Messiah of God. And I personally, I believe that’s the moment at which he became saved.

Now, we don’t know exactly at what point he was saved in this passage. But what we do know is that during this exchange with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, the man was born again. And we see the evidence of it.

It doesn’t tell us that he got on his knees and he prayed the sinner’s prayer. That would be nice if he if it gave us that information. We can say, yes, there, exactly.

That’s when Paul was born again. But what we know is that he had an experience with Christ and he was born again by faith. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord.

This time when he calls him Lord, he knows exactly who he is. Again, not to spend too much time on this and belabor this point too much, but it’s astonishing to me that somebody who hates Jesus Christ this much, once he realizes it’s Jesus Christ, would still call him Lord, unless there had been a radical transformation in his heart. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city. Keep going the way you were going. but not to do what it is you’d plan to do there.

Instead, he says, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no man. Can you imagine being the men who traveled with Paul?

And all you hear is the voice, but you can’t see who Saul is talking to. And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were open, he saw no man, but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. That means he was blind.

When it says he saw no man, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t seeing anybody that day. He was too busy. We can infer from the fact that they say that it says they led him by the hand.

He was blind when he opened his eyes. And he was three days without sight and neither did eat or drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias.

And to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. Now we see Ananias calling him Lord also, but it’s with much less confusion.

Ananias knew his master’s voice. Ananias, we can infer from this, is somebody who knew the Lord. As a believer, of course, he knew the Lord.

It says he was a disciple, but I’m talking about somebody who knew the Lord well. He said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas, for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.

Now in his blindness, he sees a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, he sees the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees a vision of Ananias coming. He’s praying the Lord is dealing with him, and it strikes me that in his blindness, Paul sees more clearly than he’s ever seen before in his entire life. But God tells Ananias, go to the straight street, to the house of Judas, and look for Saul of Tarsus, for he’s there praying, and he’s seen a vision that you’re going to be coming to give him his sight.

If I’m Ananias, I’ve got a lot of questions. Because word travels fast, and we’ve probably heard all about this man, Saul of Tarsus. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem.

And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. Not really asking a question, although he is asking a question. He raises an objection, Lord, I’ve heard about this man.

And behind it is the question, Lord, are you sure? Am I hearing you correctly? But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

And Ananias went on his way. Folks, you’ve got to give it to Ananias. I would have had a lot more questions beyond that.

But his one question, the one thing he wanted to know about answered, and he goes on about what the Lord told him to do, even though I’m sure it was a scary thing. Ananias went his way and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, that’s a lot of trust in the Lord right there, that God told you he’s a brother now, and now you call him Brother Saul, even though he was the one who wanted to kill you just a few days ago. Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales.

It was as though scales had fallen from his eyes, like cataracts, as people have explained cataracts to me. It’s as though they just fell off and suddenly he’s able to see again. And he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized.

Folks, in that day, baptism was not the flippant thing that so many in our society treat it as today. Oh yeah, it’s a rite of passage. I got baptized.

And there’s nothing ever different. In those days, baptism was a huge commitment because you were marking yourself for death in some areas. So they didn’t take it lightly.

And if you went out to get baptized, that meant you were entirely committed to Jesus Christ. So the one who hated Christ is now beginning to put his life on the line because of what happened on the road to Damascus. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were Damascus.

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but it says he was three days, in verse 9, he was three days without sight and didn’t eat or drink the whole time. If I go three hours, I’m hungry. This man had not eaten or drank anything for three days.

He gets his sight back and all is right with the world again. And what does he do? Does he go gobble up everything he can?

No, he goes out and gets baptized and then comes back to deal with the food. He says, I’ve got business with the Lord. And when he received meat, he was strengthened.

And he was with the disciples at Damascus. And straightway, verse 20, in straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. He didn’t have to go to Bible college.

He didn’t go through two or three years training. He went out straight away and began to testify of the things that he knew that he had seen and heard. He went directly to the synagogue and he said, I’ve got to tell people about Jesus Christ. And he went to the synagogue straight away and preached Christ there, that he’s the Son of God.

But all that heard him were amazed and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on his name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? But Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. So his first thought was, I have got to go tell people, because that’s what God has called me to do. I’ve got to go to the synagogue, and I’ve got to tell those people that Jesus Christ is the Messiah that God has promised.

And he began to preach to them with such fervency that the people looked on him and said, Is this the same man? This is the same man who tried to destroy the church at Jerusalem, who came here intending to wreak havoc among the Christians here, and now he’s in here preaching the very one he sought to destroy and discredit. That would leave me scratching my head too.

and yet it was true. And Saul increased the more in strength. He got stronger.

I don’t think that just means physically, but I think he grew in his faith while he was at Damascus. So much so that God used him to confound the Jews which dwell at Damascus and prove. He gave them confirmation and he made the best possible case he could that Jesus Christ is the Messiah that they had looked for all along.

Now that’s a pretty radical conversion story that speaks pretty well for itself. But tonight in the next few minutes that we have remaining, I want to share a few things with you about conversion. First of all, conversion, genuine conversion comes as a result of faith in Christ. Genuine conversion comes as a result of faith in Christ. Anybody can reform themselves.

Anybody can try to do better and perhaps succeed in some measure for a little while. Somebody could even say, I’m going to quit drinking altogether and I’m going to be a better person. And you know what, there are people out there with just enough willpower to be able to do that.

There are people who can say, well, I’m going to stop cursing, or I’m going to stop this, or I’m going to stop that, or I’m going to be more generous, I’m going to be more giving. But folks, a genuine conversion in which every aspect of our lives is turned upside down comes only as a result of faith in Jesus Christ. When it comes to our morality, when it comes to our standing before God, everything short of total genuine conversion, total transformation. It’s just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

We can lose a habit here. We can move a habit. We can move time and focus.

But folks, we still are not in any better standing before God than we were previously. But a genuine conversion where somebody’s entire life seems to be changed in a dramatic way. That Adonis said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

Folks, at that point, it sounds like Saul, who never, it doesn’t seem like before his conversion or after his conversion was ever on the fence about things. It seems like Paul was always a very all or nothing character. And so when somebody like that says, Lord, what would you have me to do?

It’s like he’s giving his life and writing a blank check to the Lord and saying, here, take it and do what you want with it. And we see the results were that he lived differently. It was a result of asking, Lord, what would you have me to do?

And we talk all the time about so-and-so is a good person. He’s a nice guy. My mom, I can say this because she’s not here tonight.

My mom at one point wanted to vote for Donald Trump for president. She said, he’s a nice family man because he doesn’t drink. Yeah, but there are so many other problems, mom.

She and I had, this wasn’t just what I was thinking. We’ve had this conversation, so it’s probably okay that I tell you that. You know, somebody can be okay in one aspect of their life, and that doesn’t mean that they are genuinely born again.

I know lots of people who don’t drink, and they’re going to go dry on into hell because they’ve rejected Jesus Christ. There are a lot of good people, but folks, we’re not talking about good, we’re talking about completely transformed, a genuine conversion from one place to another, from lost, not caring about the things of God, and bound for hell, to being found, caring very much for the things of God and bound for heaven, wanting to serve Jesus Christ, that kind of transformation, that kind of conversion that affects every aspect of our entire lives. Folks, we can only find that in Jesus Christ. We can only find that through faith in Jesus Christ. And so much of what we want to do as far as our activism as a church or our activity as a church, not just this church but Christians in general, is to get people to clean up their act. And I want people to live right.

But folks, we could get everybody to stop drinking. We could get everybody to stop going to the clubs. We could get everybody to stop whatever it is they do.

But it doesn’t change who they are. A conversion that reaches down to the depths of who a person is comes only through faith in Jesus Christ, just like with Saul. Second of all tonight, genuine conversion produces noticeable change.

It produces noticeable change. As I’ve already said before tonight, He went from being someone who hated Jesus Christ and everyone who called upon his name to being one of the most passionate preachers we have ever seen of Jesus Christ and encouraging everyone to call on his name. You can’t get much more far removed from each other than that.

It was a radical transformation. And folks, genuine conversion produces noticeable change. In his case, it certainly was noticeable.

He went directly and preached Christ in the synagogues. That was not something the old Saul of Tarsus would have done, is it? And I’ve heard many people who’ve told me stories about how they lived before they came to Christ and the dramatic conversion, the dramatic conversion, where somebody has gone from a drunk one minute to sober the next, and not because of his willpower or reformation or some 12-step program, but because Jesus Christ got a hold of him.

And people who’ve told me about some of the worst stories I could imagine, and yet they’ve become completely new people in Jesus Christ. The Bible says if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things have passed away, and everything’s become new. I’m paraphrasing, but a genuine conversion produces noticeable change.

And anybody can, for a little while, try to do better, try to act better, but if it’s not genuine, it will fizzle out. It’s like John writes, I believe it was John, that they went out from us because they never were part of us. Because if they’d been really part of us, if they’d really been disciples, they would have stayed with us.

Folks, we can pretend for a while, but a genuine conversion produces noticeable change that lasts. And third of all tonight, folks, genuine conversion cannot be explained by earthly causes. A genuine conversion where somebody’s life is changed from night to day cannot be explained by earthly causes.

People can try. People can look at supernatural works of God and try to explain them by earthly causes, but they always fall short. Just like this morning where I told you they tried at Pentecost to say Peter and the boys who were with him were drunk, when drinking doesn’t produce anything near the result that we saw in Acts chapter 2.

You could accuse Paul of all kinds of things, or accuse Saul of all sorts of things, and you can say, well, you know, people have a religious conversion because it benefits them. Because they become wealthy or they become powerful or they become popular or prestigious or any of these things. And that may be true today.

I mean, you want to get elected to anything, just start talking about how much you love God. I mean, in this part of the country anyway. But that wasn’t the case in Paul’s day.

There was no monetary benefit to him. He spent the rest of his life, it sounds like, making tents and living in other people’s houses. He didn’t become powerful.

He couldn’t save himself from execution even though he’s a Roman citizen. He didn’t become popular because everybody wanted to kill him in every town he went to, it seemed like. There was absolutely no motive.

Folks, he lived a hard life. He had few possessions. He was usually on the run.

And he eventually gave his life for his faith. The only explanation for the changes in Saul’s life, the only explanation is the power of God. It says it was so noticeable that when they heard him speak, they were amazed.

Now, folks, I know we live in a different world where there may be motives that people can ascribe to us if we come to Christ and say, well, he did it for the social benefits or he did it to get ahead in business. Folks, a genuine conversion will dispel that myth because, as I said earlier, if it’s fake, the change won’t last. But it’s hard to argue with fruit. What I mean by fruit is what we produce out of our lives.

All of this that I’ve talked about tonight, all of these things, notice these come as a result of the conversion. These things do not lead to conversion. Paul wasn’t walking along the road to Damascus and going, you know, I really think if I could just be a better man, maybe Jesus and I could work something out.

No, Jesus invaded his life. Paul just responded in faith, fell to his knees, called him Lord, acknowledged him for who he was, and then God began to work in Saul’s heart and life. our emphasis as we try to make disciples as I said this morning cannot be on getting decisions because people can make decisions and then walk away from them six months later I read a story I wish I could remember where I read it this week oh I do remember where I read it it was in a in a tract written about 115 years ago called why I’m an agnostic and the man one of his criticisms of christianity was in the town he lived in while he was growing up every winter the the farm work would and such, and there wasn’t much going on in town, and an evangelist would come through, and every year the same people would get born again.

And they’d go to the revival meetings, and they’d cry, and they’d weep, and they’d do all these things, and they’d get born again. And they’d stay born again all winter. But when the weather got better, and you’d go outside your house, and there was more to do, suddenly they forgot about the things of the Lord, and not even just forgot about it, they would go the complete opposite direction.

The change didn’t last. And we could be, and I’m not to doubt the sincerity of the evangelist he was talking about. I don’t know anything about him. But we can push people for decisions all day long, and sometimes people will pray some kind of prayer just to get us off their porch.

I’ve seen that happen. I’m going to pray a prayer just to get you off my porch. That’s how I deal with the Mormons.

Not really. Just teasing. But folks, we can press people for decisions, and you can make people make a decision about just about anything.

But a decision, if that’s all it is, doesn’t do anything. What we’re looking for, what our hope should be, what our aspiration should be for everybody that we deal with would be a genuine conversion experience where the Holy Spirit gets a hold of them, where they trust Christ and they are changed, they’re transformed from the inside out. Because with that kind of transformation, one can’t go back to what he was before.

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