Sermon Tone Analysis

Pray

Introduction.

Most of you know this, but I grew up in Belfast in a Christian home.

My mum was a missionary in Brazil - that’s where she met my dad.

They came here after they got married, because my mum was pregnant with my sister, and healthcare is much better over here than in Brazil, so they came over to have my sister, planning to head back to Brazil to continue the Lord’s work over there.

Now, the Lord had other plans, and they stayed and instead settled here and they worshipped in Great Victoria Street Baptist church.

But given what I’ve just told you, my home was distinctly Christian.

And I was brought up as a Presbyterian in the Baptist church…and by that, I mean that I was brought up by parents who led me in the ways of the Lord, as if I had been baptised as a child.

They were honouring the covenantal vows that we, as Presbyterian parents make at baptism, to lead their children in the way of the Lord, to instruct us in the Word of God and to tell us of the awesome news that God would save me from an eternity of Hell if I put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ, asking him to forgive my sins and submitting to HIS Lordship over my life.

And I did this when I was 4…apparently.

I have no recollection of giving my life to Jesus, but it was when I was around 4.

And in a sense, that’s the Presbyterian’s dream…or any Christian’s dream - that their children will be brought up in the faith so that their ‘conversion’ is almost not a conversion at all - it’s more a realisation… ‘Hey, I believe in Jesus.

I always have.

I’ve always confessed my sins to him and I’ve always lived for him.’

And while I may not have remembered giving my life to Jesus when I was 4, I affirmed that when I was older.

Pause

The point of this is that my conversion wasn’t dramatic.

It’s not like I was homeless, caught up in drugs and prostitution, neck deep in the paramilitaries and then one day I walked into a church to get out of the cold, I heard that Jesus loves me died for me and so I fell on my knees, crying out to be saved, and from that point on my life was transformed.

That wasn’t me.

That’s not my story.

I mean, I know I can’t remember the day or hour when I gave my life to Jesus, but if I was 4, I think I’d know if I was a drugged up homeless four-year-old involved in the paramilitaries.

My conversion wasn’t like Saul’s.

Sauls conversion was dramatic, as you saw last week.

Saul went from being the church’s main antagonist - the leading persecutor of the church, to becoming the church’s main preacher and promoter of the church.

THAT’S dramatic…which is why we call conversions of people who were drugged up, thieves or murderers, a DAMASCUS ROAD conversion…because the person goes from one extreme to the other overnight.

It’s a dramatic transformation of their life.

And while that’s not my story, it is the story of a man named Billy.

Pause

Because I was brought up in the baptist church, and for a while in my teens in a gospel hall, something that happened in the gospel hall, almost on a weekly basis, was that someone would come and give their testimony.

In other words, someone would stand up during the service and talk about how the Lord saved them.

And in order to draw in the crowds (who were the same people week in, week out) the vilest criminal turned Christian was the holy grail.

If the church could find a drugged up terrorist who had come to faith in Jesus, then that’s the jackpot baby.

And every now and then I heard from people who were steeped in the paramilitaries - members of the UDA or another organisation who were involved in murder and all sorts of messed up stuff, but who had stumbled into a church on a Sunday night, heard that Jesus loved them and would save them if they repented of their sin, and that night, tears streaming down their face, they gave their livest to Jesus....

And Billy was one of those people.

Pause

Now, what that resulted in is something that I rarely see today...

What happened is that Billy, who was zealous for God and Ulster - willing to lose his life for the cause - became zealous for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Instead of causing trouble, he walked the streets in the centre of Belfast, stopping everyone he could and telling them that Jesus loves them and can save them from their sin if they repent and put their trust in him.

And he went around as many gospel halls as he could, speaking at missions around the country, telling people that if God can save him, he can save anyone.

And the zeal he had for the gospel was phenomenal.

And I often thought to myself…there’s a difference between that person and me.

I didn’t have this life of debauchery.

I didn’t have a conversion experience like this - a Damascus Road experience where I turned from misfit to missionary.

And I often compared my lack of zeal for the gospel to his abundance of zeal.

I mean, why don’t I have the same zeal he had?

And I think that part of the reason is because I wasn’t in that pit of despair.

I wasn’t in that place where life was as low as it could get, only to have God reach down and pull me out.

Well, actually I was…as an unrepentant four year old, I was in a pit of despair, but I didn’t realise it…but I wasn’t EXPERIENCING it as a four year old - not in the same way Billy was experincing HIS life before his conversion.

I was brought up as if I was always on my way to heaven.

Billy, the ex-paramilitary, wasn’t.

Before his conversion, he was in a place in his life where his ticket to hell was stamped.

And because he had been saved from that, his sense of gratitude was abundant, and his zeal to help save others from his fate was also astounding.

Pause

But it meant that he had to go back to the people he used to hang around with - his paramilitary friends…and tell them that Jesus loves them.

And he knew what would happen when he went back there.

Because he used to do it to the bible-bashers who came to him telling him about Jesus.

He knew that he’d be rejected, despised, mocked, and maybe even worse…but he had to tell his friends because he now KNEW what would happen to them if they didn’t repent of their sin and put their trust in Jesus Christ.

And he wanted to do whatever he could to help them see the light and trust in Jesus so they could have the eternal life that he has.

So knowing the fate that befell him, he went around the paramilitary cells and he told his friends there that they needed Jesus.

He went, knowing that he must suffer for Jesus…but he did it, because if he could lead one person to Jesus and eternal life then it would be worth it.

Pause

Again…I was nothing like Billy…I AM nothing like Billy.

I never had that zeal for the gospel because I was never in that place where Billy was in his life.

And what I admire about Saul, soon to be called Paul, is that he had the same zeal.

And it’s because he had the same experience as Billy - or should I say, Billy had a similar experience to Saul.

Because Saul had been terrorising the church - he was a terrorist - hell-bent on destroying the church of Jesus Christ.

This Jesus-movement had to be stopped.

He had zeal for that - he was zealous for the cause.

And then Saul meets Jesus face to face, so to speak, and his life turns around.

And the scales on his eyes and his blindness is symbolic of the fact that all his life he was blind.

All his life he was thinking that he knew the truth, but, in reality, he was actually blind.

And now the scales had fallen from his eyes and he knew the truth that Jesus IS the Son of God.

That Jesus IS the Messiah.

That Jesus is the way the truth and the life and that no one could come to the Father except through him.

Pause

And now his zeal for persecuting the church is turned around and it’s being used to promote the church.

And who does he go to first?

Where is his first port if call after his conversion?

He went back to the synagogues - the place where the Jews met....and he preached that Jesus Christ - this man who YOU KILLED actually IS the Son of God.

‘You killed him a while back, but guess what…I just saw him with my own eyes - kinda - but I heard him with my own ears only a handful of days ago.

You killed him ages ago and I saw him last week!

He really IS alive, and he really IS the Son of God.

Guys, we got it all wrong.

I got it all wrong.

You’ve got to believe me.’

Pause

Saul's zeal which he used to persecute the church was now being used to promote the church.

But he knew what he was going into.

Billy had to go back to the paramilitaries that he called friends, and tell them about Jesus…and he KNEW what he was going into.

Same with Saul.

Verse 22...

And when Saul goes to Jerusalem, in verse 29, it says...

Saul did exactly what Stephen did - and we all know what happened to Stephen…He got stoned to death, AND… it was at the behest of Saul.

So Saul KNEW what was facing him.

In fact, Jesus told Ananias what would happen to him.

In verses 15 & 16 of the same chapter, Jesus says to Ananias...

Pause

‘I’ve saved Saul, he’s my chosen instrument for my work here on earth, but boy is he going to suffer for me.’

And suffer he did.

Paul lists some of the stuff that happened to him when he wrote to the Corinthians...