Genuine Conversion

Introduction

If the church’s greatest human enemy was suddenly converted into faith in Christ Jesus would we believe him? Or maybe a better way to put it, would we trust that that person’s conversion to Christ was actually genuine? Would we trust that person enough to open our church to him? Our home? Our family? Or, would we believe that person was faking it, trying to gain an advantage of some sort over the church by infiltrating it?

This is the exact challenge the first century believers faced. The greatest persecutor the world had even know up to this point, shows up, claiming he is now on the side of Christ. How were they to determine that his conversion to Christ was genuine?

Let’s face it, sometimes we wonder if someone genuinely has trusted Jesus and Savior and Lord. Or, we might have gotten excited when some celebrity starts proclaiming they found Jesus while in rehab, only to be disappointed a few years later when he’s back to his old behaviors and Jesus name is only used as profanity. Or maybe that wasn’t a celebrity. Maybe it was someone in your family or a friend. Maybe you sometimes struggle with the your own conversion to Christ. As one man said to Jesus, “I believe; help me with my unbelief!”

There are few things more important to the church than genuine conversion to Christ Jesus. In fact, a church is not a Christian church unless the majority of the people involved are genuinely converted Christians. But how are we to tell?

Continuing in Acts, we come to the next section of chapter 9 and find Saul becoming part of a couple of Christian communities and starting his ministry. In looking at this, we will see five ways we can see the genuineness of a person’s conversion and one final challenge for the church as a whole. But, I want to make something clear, these tests of the genuineness of a person’s conversion aren’t exhaustive, but all five MUST be present. (Or, these aren’t all the ways, but all five of these must be present! It’s not a potluck...)

Body Acts 9:19-31

A genuinely converted person is in good fellowship with a local church.

We have no idea how many days Saul staying in Damascus or Jerusalem. We know that he was likely in Tarsus for three years, but the other places he went, we’re not sure.

But no matter when he went, he found a group of believers (what we call church) and fellowshipped with them.

Why?

It gave him a place to develop his spiritual strengths...

It gave him a group of people to help him grow in his knowledge of Christ Jesus...

It gave him a group of people to protect him...

For those who sign-up for the Pathway class (our membership class) the first session is all about why church membership matters.

And I make it very clear that it’s not simply the so-called universal church that matters. We are part of the universal church as believers, but it is equally as important that we are part of a local body of believers for the same reasons it was important to Saul.

We develop our spiritual strengths; we grow in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, and we are protected by other believers.

A genuinely converted person is unashamed about proclaiming their faith in Jesus.

There’s a fun little word that is used in verse 20. In Greek the word is εὐθέως and it is used eighty times in the NT; nine times in Acts. It means: “without delay or hesitation; with no time intervening.” The English word we use to translate it is “immediately.”

Any of us who grew up in homes with no-nonsense moms know exactly what immediately means...

Notice here that Saul immediately started proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues. He didn’t wait until he’d been a believer for a few years. He jump right into it.

Saul’s faith was fresh and he wanted others to know, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Jesus is the Son of God.

This was a serious claim. So serious, in fact, that both the more conservative synagogue attending Jews wanted to kill him, and the more liberal Jews who embraced Greek culture wanted to kill him because of it.

The genuinely converted believer understands that proclaiming Christ Jesus is the single most compassionate thing you can do for another person.

Imagine, for a moment, you knew about a medication that could cure a horrible disease, like cancer or dementia or something. Would you be wrong for telling people about it? Quiet the opposite! You’d feel like it was the most important thing in the world and everyone needs to know about it so they won’t die and/or have their life ruined and the lives of their loved ones.

Beloved, our message is even more important than that! It’s literally the difference between eternity separated from God and eternal life in Heaven!

Genuinely converted people understand this and hate the idea of other people dying without Christ!

Saul, then known as Paul, shows the depth of his hatred for the idea of the Jewish people dying without Christ when he says in Romans:

Romans 9:2–3 “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”

A genuinely converted person will face various forms of resistance.

In the case of Saul, every where he went people wanted to kill him. Because they couldn’t debate with him and because they couldn’t stand for him claiming that Jesus is the Son of God.

Sounds pretty resistancy, huh?

Saul will experience a lot of this throughout his ministry.

In fact, later Paul would state:

2 Corinthians 11:23–28 “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

And 2 Corinthians isn’t even his last letter! He suffered even more than this before he was beheaded.

Here’s the good news for us: God isn’t calling you or me to be Saul.

However, this doesn’t mean that we won’t face resistance. See, the world, the flesh and the devil are constantly waring against God’s people.

Countless passages in the NT warn us of this reality, but one that comes to mind is also written by Paul:

Ephesians 6:11–13 “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.”

Ironically enough, the resistance we face is a confirmation of the genuineness of our conversion!

A genuinely converted person needs mature believers to mentor them.

If I had another son I would have been tempted to name him Barnabas. I love Barnabas because throughout Acts he is seen as an encourager. The church will always need encouragers.

Part of Barnabas’ ministry in this passage was to vouch for Saul. It’s unknown why Barnabas believed Saul conversion was genuine, but here he’s willing to go to bat for Saul, telling the disciples about Saul’s conversion experience on the road to Damascus.

Little did either know that they’d eventually become missionary partners for the First Missionary Journey.

At the time, Saul needed a friend to speak to the disciples on his behalf, but also someone who’d followed Christ longer to help him in his spiritual growth.

Now, of course, we don’t know how much Barnabas contributed to Saul’s growth, but since God kept these two together until Paul was later ready to go off on his own is an indication that Barnabas was somewhat of a mentor to Paul for a time.

Every Christian needs another Christian in their life who has walked with Jesus longer than they have. Someone who can pray with and for them. Someone who can teach them. Someone who can and will challenge them. Someone who will encourage them. And someone they can model some aspect of their Christian walk after.

Kyle Restoule...Jerry Wainscott...Neil Mayberry...Omer Irby...Don Reeves...Mike Kuykendall...Jeff Iorg...Randy Adams...Mike Lerma...Mike Freeman...

Who are your Christian mentors? Do you need to develop that kind of relationship?

A genuinely converted person serves the Lord through their ministry strengths.

While Barnabas was the encourager, Saul/Paul was the bold preacher and teacher. The evangelist, unashamed and brave enough to preach the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even in the face of great resistance. He was serving the Lord from his ministry strengths.

I talk often about our ministry strengths. What I mean by that is our:

Spiritual gifts...

Skills...

Passions...

Willingness...

We all need to know our ministry strengths and then we need to serve from our ministry strengths...

Challenge

When a church is filled with genuinely converted people, it strives, even in the face of trials and tribulation.

Verse 31 is another of Luke’s summary verses in Acts. Though persecution as begun, the church outside of Jerusalem is experiencing a time of flourishing.

The church’s greatest earthly enemy has become its greatest preacher. People are being genuinely converted to faith in Jesus. And the awe of God is spreading throughout the region.

Behind all this is a church of genuinely converted people.

While Saul and Barnabas have been the focal points of this passage, the church in Judea, Galilee and even Samaria is multiplying because genuinely converted people are doing what genuinely converted people do:

Fellowshipping together; proclaiming Jesus; experiencing various forms of resistance together; mentoring one another; and serving the Lord together.

I want to see our church and the evangelical churches in our community experiencing the same thing.

But it won’t happen apart from genuinely converted believers doing what genuinely converted believers do.

Now that we know, what hinders us from doing the same?