How Salvation Works

Introduction

Popeye’s stops selling chicken sandwiches. Demand was too great. I understand popularity. People had to see for themselves. What I don’t understand is why you would quit making the sandwich especially if it brings that many people to your store. You already have the chicken - you just need buns. That’s how a chicken sandwich works!

You and I know how a sandwich works, but do we know how salvation works? Do we understand how God saves people? Crucial for us to understand to be able to articulate our own story - what God has done in our lives. Also crucial as we share the Gospel. We need to know how salvation works.

In Paul’s conversion story we learn how salvation works. In the NT, other than Jesus, there is no person as significant than the Apostle Paul. Apart from the story of Peter and Cornelius, the rest of the Book of Acts focuses on Paul’s story of taking the Gospel to the nations. 13 letters in the NT were written by Paul. He helps us to understand theological significance of death and resurrection of Jesus and how we live in response.

This is the powerful story of his conversion. Four ways salvation works.

1. God pursues.

By the end of Acts, Paul leading a Gospel movement to ends of earth, but in , he is the least likely candidate to lead that movement.

vs. 1 - breathing threats and murder against disciples. Later, when Paul gives his testimony in after being arrested in Jerusalem, He says he was a student of Gamaliel - the same Pharisee that told religious council to leave Peter and John alone. () Paul didn’t take the advice of his teacher. He wanted the Way (Christians) wiped off the map.

Paul not content to persecute the Way only in Jerusalem. Granted authority by the high priest to travel to Damascus to arrest believers and bring them back to Jerusalem. Damascus was 135 miles from Jerusalem - 6 day journey by foot. Many Jews lived in Damascus - several synagogues - many Jesus followers fled there. Paul knows he can arrest many there.

Paul in one word - zealous. (If I’m zealous enough… God will…) Like every other Jew, Paul wanted a Messiah, but Jesus wasn’t it. The Jesus movement infuriated him because people looking to Jesus instead of eagerly awaiting God to usher in His Kingdom through another. This is what he lived for! He’s so zealous he’s willing to kill. He heard the words of Stephen - saw him executed - the Way was a threat.

Paul left Jerusalem to pursue the Way not realizing the One who is the Way was pursuing him.

On the road to Damascus, a blinding light (literally) (similar to what Ezekiel saw in Ez. 1:28) - the risen and ascended Lord. (Reminds me of transfiguration.) And, a heart-piercing voice - “Why are you persecuting me?” Saul confused. Knows he is in the presence of the divine, but who exactly? “Jesus, who you are persecuting. Rise up and go...”

His traveling companions heard the voice but didn’t see what Saul saw. (vs. 7) He had seen the resurrected Lord. Saul thought Jesus was dead, but he most certainly was not, and in that moment everything changed.

How does salvation work? God pursues. (Paul was pursuing a religious system but he wasn’t pursuing Jesus.) You did not pursue Jesus either. You were pursuing your own desires. () But, Jesus came after you. He initiates, and He initiates in so many ways.

Sometimes it’s uncomfortable grace.

Sometimes it’s through specific people.

Sometimes it’s a process. (Look back and you can see the ways God pursued you.)

Sometimes it’s instantaneous. (Know people who trusted Jesus at the first Gospel conversation or were reading the Bible themselves and were saved.)

Regardless of how God initiated a relationship with you, He initiated it because you weren’t going to. You were dead! He initiated it because He loves you. ()

Ill. - Fishing - love the pursuit - the thrill of the hunt, etc. God doesn’t pursue you because of the thrill but because of love.

2. God opens your eyes.

vs. 8 - Saul physically blinded by what he saw and like a child he was led to the home of Judas. A fellow Jew? A friend?

A second vision - Ananias - a disciple who the risen Lord chooses to take a message to Paul. Imagine, sitting in your home. The voice of the Lord - “I have a message for Saul of Tarsus I want you to deliver.” Ananias: “Excuse me? Do you know who that guy is? He’ll kill me! Don’t you know what he did to your people in Jerusalem? This is a suicide mission!”

The words of Jesus must have shocked Ananias. “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to stand before Gentiles… He will suffer for my name.”

Ananias goes. His knees are knocking as he knocks on the door. Judas answers, “I’m here to see Saul. God sent me.” Judas leads Ananias to Saul. Saul had been there three days - fasting and praying. The vision was so real - Paul trying to make sense of it. Everything changing.

His heart is pounding in his chest. He feels a lump in his throat, but in obedience to his Lord, he lays hands on Saul. “Saul, the Jesus who appeared to you has sent me to you to regain your sight and be filled with His Spirit.” Something like scales fell from his eyes. He regained his sight - physically and spiritually - was baptized.

It may not have happened in your life in the way it happened in Saul’s, but it happened. God opened your eyes. You were blind. The scales that covered your eyes were not physical scales but the scales of sin. - you lived your life following the prince of the power of the air - not the God of all creation. You either suffered from:

Irreligious blindness. You treated God like the enemy - you wanted nothing to do with Jesus or the church. The church was full of hypocrites. God was out to take away your fun. He was your enemy, when in fact, what you had done was you made yourself an enemy of God. ()

Religious blindness. You saw God as a cruel taskmaster - You’ve been religious trying to give God what He wants. (This was Paul. Paul thought God wanted his zeal, but how did he know if he was zealous enough?) How many of us still make the Christian faith about what I must do to earn God’s favor rather than resting in His grace and walking in intimacy with Him?

BUT for many of us in this room - God not only pursued us. He opened our eyes. The scales fell off. We saw ourselves for who we are, and we saw God for who He is. We were blind, but now we see.

Ill - Driving on a suspended license. Completely unaware - but if I get pulled over - excuse not going to hold up. My blindness doesn’t excuse me from my guilt. Your spiritual blindness doesn’t excuse you from God’s judgment. (Romans 1)

How do you know if your eyes have been opened?

You have a sense of wonder. Paul never lost his sense of wonder. ( - to know the love that surpasses knowledge.)

You’re honest. Paul spent the rest of his life realizing that he wasn’t good enough, but God was. (, )

You’re gracious. Because you’ve experienced it. ()

3. God showers you with grace.

Look at vs. 15 again. Imagine Ananias’ response. “Paul is a chosen what? Don’t you know what Paul did?”

And that’s the thing - God pursues you, God opens your eyes, and God showers you with grace in spite of you.

Paul’s salvation experience and your salvation experience is a result of God’s amazing grace.

Grace = God’s riches at Christ’s expense. God is just. There had to be a penalty paid for our sin against Him. A just God could not let sin go unpunished. Jesus paid the price for our sins so we could receive what we do not deserve. Grace is God giving us a gift that we do not deserve - the gift of life with Him.

Grace is for anyone who wants it. If you are not a follower of Jesus, and today you asked Jesus to extend you grace and save you, He will not tell you “No!” He will always extend saving grace to anyone who asks.

Grace is amazing because God saves a wretch like you. You will begin to understand how salvation works when you understand:

You are so bad that Jesus had to die. We don’t want to view ourselves as bad, but Scripture paints bleak view of humanity. () Grace = God’s riches at Christ’s expense. God is just. There had to be a penalty paid for our sin against Him. A just God could not let sin go unpunished. Jesus paid the price for our sins so we could receive what we do not deserve. Grace is God giving us a gift that we do not deserve - the gift of life with Him.

You are so loved that Jesus joyfully died. In Jesus’ humanity He struggled the reality of the cross. (Garden of Gethsemane) But, “Not my will, but your will be done.” - For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross.

4. God gives you an assignment.

God saves you from something (the bondage of sin, the eternal punishment of hell, etc.) But, God doesn’t only save you from something, He saves you for something. ()

Your past does not disqualify you from present ministry. Instead, your past may be what gives you a greater passion for ministry when you recognize how gracious God has been to save you out of what He saved you out of.

If God could take the great enemy of the church and use him to be the church’s greatest missionary and to write the bulk of our New Testament, how might God use you?

Don’t ever believe the lie of the enemy that you are not good enough to be used by God because of what you used to do or what you used to be.

While you might be ashamed of your past, your past may uniquely qualify you to minister to people more effectively than others might be able to minister to them.

This morning: if a believer -

Regain your wonder. Paul never lost his. Read his letters. He spent the rest of his life amazed by grace. What about you? Every time you hear the Gospel, you should be reminded of who you were and what God has done.

Live out your assignment. God saved you for something. How are you living out your assigment?

Unbeliever: This morning, God is pursuing. Perhaps He has been pursuing for some time, but you’ve been rejecting. Today, God is meeting you, not on the Damascus Rd., but in this place and in this moment. Today, as you hear the reality that Christ died for your sins and rose again, you realize that Jesus is the Savior you need. Today is your day to give your life to Him. Turn from your sins and turn to Jesus.