Conversion
Marks of a Healthy Church • Sermon • Submitted
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· 10 viewsConversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Barna group study
Despite this, many Millennials are unsure about the actual practice of evangelism. Almost half of Millennials (47%) agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith
What’s the point of the story? Conversion is dirty word. It’s scandalous in today’s pluralistic and relativistic world to contend for one religious truth over and against another. It smacks of pride, arrogance, disrespect, perhaps hatred, maybe even violence.
Some go further, of course. They say such attempts at diversion (i.e. conversion) actually breed violence. In a publicized letter to the Pope John Paul II, Hindu scholar Swami Dayananda Saraswati argued that “religious conversion destroys centuries-old communities and incites communal violence. It is violence and it breeds violence.”[3]
Transition: So than, what is it, what does the Bible say, and probably the question that is on many of your minds: what does this have to do with me?
What is it?
What is it?
BI: Conversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.
How does it Happen?
How does it Happen?
Conversion does not mean that “God helps those who help themselves.” The change we need is so radical that only God can do it. In conversion, God gives life to the dead and sight to the blind. In conversion, God gives the gifts of repentance and faith.
God Prepares People for Conversion
God Prepares People for Conversion
1. Gives life to the dead
We weren’t sick, sleeping, or dying. We were dead, and God made us alive. In , Jesus describes this as being born again by the Holy Spirit. In conversion, God gave us new birth, enabling us to repent and believe the gospel.
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
The Bible says that even when we were “dead in our trespasses” God “made us alive together with Christ.”
Ephesians 2:5 ESVeven when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
2. Gives sight to the blind
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 corinthians 4:3-6
ESVAnd even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says that, just as God spoke light into darkness at creation, so now he has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
How did you come to understand and believe the gospel? God caused light to shine in your heart, creating spiritual understanding where there was none.
3. Gives the gifts of faith and repentance
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
Acts 11:18 ESVWhen they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Acts 11:18 ESVWhen they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
4. God brings human means It’s not outside of the proclamation of the gospel that someone is saved. It’s only through the proclamation of the gospel that God uses to call people to himself.
God makes us alive. We weren’t sick, sleeping, or dying. We were dead, and God made us alive. In , Jesus describes this as being born again by the Holy Spirit. In conversion, God gave us new birth, enabling us to repent and believe the gospel.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says that, just as God spoke light into darkness at creation, so now he has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
But how do I know if that person is ready to hear the gospel?
How did you come to understand and believe the gospel? God caused light to shine in your heart, creating spiritual understanding where there was none.
Are they standing there? Is God not sovereign? Has he not called us to go and make disciples?
Oh, but I don’t know if they are ready.
Are you any more likely of being converted? Conversion is not only for those we think are most likely to be converted. Look at my life. Grew up going to church. If it was open, i was there. Parents, grandparents, missionaries and pastors. Yet my heart was still stone. I was still dead. I need to be saved. If you have a heart of stone, do you think that makes you a likely person for conversion? If you are spiritually dead, do you think that makes you a likely person for conversion? How many people have you and I sinful not witnessed to because we thought they weren’t likely. But what makes them anymore likely than you and I. We were all dead. We all had hearts of stone. It’s only through God by his Spirit that one is converted. Tell them the goodness, call them to make a decision, give them space. It’s only through the gospel, that Christ died for our sins and rose again that we can be saved. It is the good news. Proclaim it. Let God be the one to worry about what happens to the seed.
God makes us alive. We weren’t sick, sleeping, or dying. We were dead, and God made us alive. In , Jesus describes this as being born again by the Holy Spirit. In conversion, God gave us new birth, enabling us to repent and believe the gospel.
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
The Bible says that even when we were “dead in our trespasses” God “made us alive together with Christ.”
God
5. God delivers us. Conversion is like a military rescue in which God breaks us out of our imprisonment to sin and delivers us into his glorious kingdom.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
The Bible says that he delivers us from the domain of darkness and transfers us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.
BI: Conversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
BI: Conversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.
We respond to God’s preparation
We respond to God’s preparation
1. Gives life to the dead
God grants repentance and faith. From a human perspective, conversion consists in repenting of our sins and believing in Christ. Yet Scripture teaches that both repentance and faith come to us as gifts of God
(
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
)
2. Gives sight to the blind
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
)
)
3. Gives the gifts of faith and repentance
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
; ).
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
).
).
4. God brings human means
It’s not outside of the proclamation of the gospel that someone is saved. It’s only through the proclamation of the gospel that God uses to call people to himself.
When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
We respond to God’s preparation
We respond to God’s preparation
1. Repent of sin
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Salvation is only for those who repent, but it’s for all who repent.
Dear reader, it is possible that you are saying, "I shall never enter into the heaven of God, for I have neither clean hands nor a pure heart." Look then to Christ, who has already climbed the holy hill.
; )
- Spurgeon on
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
)
)
2. Believe in Jesus
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
; ).
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
).
).
Conversion only happens in connection with the message of Jesus Christ.
Transition: When we look at the Bible, conversion recognizes that only God can save, and that he saves individuals by enabling them to respond to the gospel message through repenting of sin and trusting in Christ.
It’s not forcing someone to be a Christian, but God giving them a new heart to recognize their need for a Saviour.
BI: Conversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.
What it is not
What it is not:
What it is not:
A one-time event with no implications for how we live. Conversion does happen at one moment, and it is a moment of radical change. Life should look different thereafter. A new battle begins.
Jesus called people to repent and believe in him (). He said that unless someone is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven ().
Throughout the book of Acts, the apostles call people to turn from their sin and trust in Christ (, , , , , ).
Many of the epistles describe both our need to repent and believe in Christ and God’s supernatural work to accomplish this (; ; ; ; ; ).
A journey with no destination. Conversion may be preceded by a long process for some, but it always involves a committed decision to repent of sin and trust in Christ, which is the immediate result of God giving new life to a spiritually dead sinner.
Optional. says that God commands all people everywhere to repent. Conversion can never be forced, but it is absolutely necessary in order to be saved.
A conversation. While Christians should communicate the gospel humbly, our goal is not merely a pleasant exchange of information. We must call everyone to repent of their sin and trust in Christ for salvation.
Conversion does not mean that “God helps those who help themselves.” The change we need is so radical that only God can do it. In conversion, God gives life to the dead and sight to the blind. In conversion, God gives the gifts of repentance and faith.
God shines the light.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says that, just as God spoke light into darkness at creation, so now he has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
How did you come to understand and believe the gospel? God caused light to shine in your heart, creating spiritual understanding where there was none.
God makes us alive. We weren’t sick, sleeping, or dying. We were dead, and God made us alive. In , Jesus describes this as being born again by the Holy Spirit. In conversion, God gave us new birth, enabling us to repent and believe the gospel.
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
The Bible says that even when we were “dead in our trespasses” God “made us alive together with Christ.”
God delivers us. Conversion is like a military rescue in which God breaks us out of our imprisonment to sin and delivers us into his glorious kingdom.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
The Bible says that he delivers us from the domain of darkness and transfers us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.
God grants repentance and faith. From a human perspective, conversion consists in repenting of our sins and believing in Christ. Yet Scripture teaches that both repentance and faith come to us as gifts of God
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
, ).
When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
).
).
BI: Conversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.
Saying a formulaic prayer. Conversion certainly involves praying, but we must be careful not to tempt people toward placing their trust in some special set of words.
What it is not
What it is not
So What
So What
It displays the Beauty of Christ
It displays the Beauty of Christ
The most important thing about doctrine is not whether it’s ugly or beautiful, but whether it’s false or true. That said, the true doctrine of Christian conversion is just plain beautiful.
But think about what God does in conversion. He makes what is was dead, alive.
In school, one of my daughter was learning about cystalied and studying caterpillars turning into butterflies.
Think about a caterpillar, there are some ugly ones out there.
Think about what happens though. After some time, things change.
How is the only one that can make what was so ugly beautiful?
How is the only one that can make what was so ugly beautiful?
Each of these transformations is beautiful in its own way, but they are also all beautiful in the same way. In so many nooks and crannies of creation, God has hardwired the revelation of his glory which is brought to bear in the changing of spiritual death to eternal life.
One of the laws of the natural world is that things left to themselves don’t progress but regress. Everything dies. Yet in this very realm, God has encoded the beauty of change to something better here and there. Are these not all signposts to the wonder of salvation?
In fact, conversion is bigger than this. It is beautiful in its simplicity like we see in Romans 10:9
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
)
and in its complexity, think of Ephesians 2
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
The myriad ways God brings dead people to life are beautiful, some instantaneously recognizing stark new realities, others realizing of their need over time. Some hear the message for the first time and respond in faith. Others hear the message all their lives but do not have the spiritual “ears to hear” until some day far down the road. This is artful. There is God, in the vast array of human experience and daily life, in the mundane and the spectacular, rehearsing resurrection over and over again. And even the most ordinary of conversions is extraordinary. The angels celebrated no less for my daughter’s first expression of saving faith in her room at bedtime a few years ago than they did Paul’s 2,000 years ago. Every conversion is a miracle. And the great beatific vision of Christ makes beatific visions of us ().
And this God—this marvellous, inscrutable, and holy God—knows us and loves us and chooses us and calls us and saves us. “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (). For all the beauty of conversion (and there is still more to be explored for all eternity), it is sourced in and overshadowed by the beauty of God himself, whose glory extends without limits for all time, as well as to us, that we would see it and know Jesus and be changed forever.
BI: Conversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.
When we understand what God has done, it pushes us out?
When we understand what God has done, it pushes us out?
Tell the good news. Conversion results from hearing news—good news. Therefore, we evangelize by sharing the good news of the gospel. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news (). “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” ().
Here’s a question: How do you know if a non-christian is ready to hear the Good News? He has brought them near you.
Tell all the news. Conversion involves repenting of sin, which means we must tell the bad news before we tell the good: “We have all sinned and the wages of sin is death. God will judge us for our sin” (; ).
It clarifies how churches should exhort non-Christians—they should call non-Christians to repent of sin and trust in Christ.
Rely upon God to convert and don’t manipulate. Only God can convert people by his Spirit (). In evangelism, therefore, call people to a decision and then give them space to make it. Don’t apply emotional pressure or manipulation. Pray for them.
Are you any more likely of being converted? Conversion is not only for those we think are most likely to be converted. If you have a heart of stone, do you think that makes you a likely person for conversion? If you are spiritually dead, do you think that makes you a likely person for conversion? How many people have you and I sinful not witnessed to because we thought they weren’t likely. But what makes them anymore likely than you and I. We were all dead. We all had hearts of stone. It’s only through God by his Spirit that one is converted. Tell them the goodness, call them to make a decision, give them space.
I once found this book on how to tell someone about Jesus.
It reminds churches that they must rely upon God in all of their evangelistic efforts; only he can give new spiritual life.
It teaches churches to maintain a sharp distinction between themselves and the world.
Explain the necessary human response. Conversion involves human repentance and belief. In evangelism, therefore, explain that people must repent and believe in Christ ().
Churches should evangelize and teach about the Christian life in such a way that the radical nature of conversion is continually emphasized.
Explain that following Jesus is costly. Conversion is a radical U-turn. It requires forsaking self-rule for God’s rule. When we are telling people the gospel, I need to make sure to explain that the choice to deny oneself and follow Jesus should not to be made without counting the cost (; ).
I made that mistake once. Young man, struggling with things.
BUT Doxology by Beautiful Eulogy goes like this:
I will offer a sacrifice of praise, I know it's gonna cost me
The cost is not greater than the cross where you bought me
I was lost and you sought me, I was ignorant, you taught me
I was impotent against my enemies, you fought for me
I exist for your glory, never for mine
I know I never would shine if it wasn't for your Spirit inside
You made me alive when I was dead in trespasses
The passion of Christ left my sin in the past tense
Every good and perfect gift comes from your hand
You set me back on course when I run from your plan
No excuse to refuse to lift my voice
Cause the gospel is true, there's always reason to rejoice
And that don't mean that my sorrow is inconspicuous
But when I grieve, I got a greater joy in the midst of it
The joy of knowing I will see you face to face
And it's all to the praise of your glorious grace
BI: Conversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.
BUT How can I know if I am truly converted? 1 John gives a good outline for that:
BUT How can I know if I am truly converted? 1 John gives a good outline for that:
The belief test:“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (). So ask yourself: do I trust in Jesus Christ for salvation? The obedience test:“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (). So ask yourself: does my life show a pattern of habitual, unrepentant sin, or of repenting of sin and striving to walk in the light? The love test:“Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (). So ask yourself: do I love other Christians in concrete ways that show the reality of my faith? The perseverance test:“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (). Those who do not persevere in the faith prove that their faith was false in the first place. So ask yourself: am I continuing in the faith despite struggles and opposition?
The belief test:“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (). So ask yourself: do I trust in Jesus Christ for salvation?
The belief test:“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (). So ask yourself: do I trust in Jesus Christ for salvation?
The belief test:“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (). So ask yourself: do I trust in Jesus Christ for salvation?
The obedience test:“If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (). So ask yourself: does my life show a pattern of habitual, unrepentant sin, or of repenting of sin and striving to walk in the light?
The love test:“Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (). So ask yourself: do I love other Christians in concrete ways that show the reality of my faith?
The perseverance test:“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (). Those who do not persevere in the faith prove that their faith was false in the first place. So ask yourself: am I continuing in the faith despite struggles and opposition?
Conclusion
Conclusion
If I think about conversion out side of what the Bible says it is, it is a pretty ugly thing. But the Bible displays it as beautiful as it portrays the glory of God as what was dead is now alive.
BI: Conversion is when God brings what was dead to life, bringing repentance and faith.