Background of Acts 2

Emotional Roller Coaster

Jesus Died

Disciples lost faith

Resurrection

Believe Again

Meet Jesus in Galilee

Great Commission

Time of Reflection

guilt

confession

prayer

reconciliation

Passover

united prayer

Crescendo

Peter’s Sermon

Acts 2:36 ESV

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Jesus is the Messiah

we rejected Him

we killed Him!

Most Powerful Conviction

Acts 2:37 ESV

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

See Truth

recognize error

Accept Truth

Want next step...

Pause there in the story...

Gaining Decisions

Purpose of this sermon

lead people to decision

The art of Spiritual Persuasion.

How to do this

Not being

Used Car Salesman

First,

Do not force

They make choice

Information

Conviction

Conviction

What is conviction?

Definition:

the state of being convinced of something

convinced (intellectually) that something is true.

have not yet done something about it.

After a trial had been going on for three days, John Smith—the defendant—stood up and approached the judge’s bench. “Your Honor, I would like to change my plea from innocent to guilty of the charges.”

The judge angrily banged his fist on the desk. “If you’re guilty, why didn’t you say so in the first place and save this court a lot of time and inconvenience?” he demanded.

Smith looked up wide-eyed and said, “Well, when the trial started, I thought I was innocent, but that was before I heard all the evidence against me.” (from Cybersalt Digest)

How does someone experience conviction

Information

Truth

Conversation

Bible Studies

Prophecy Seminars

Received informations

Accepted it as truth

Now what?

must take action

Acts 2:37 ESV

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

In this story

they ask for

direction on what to do next.

Great but,

doesn’t always happen.

Programmed non-response

Help them take action!

How?

Comfort and Discomfort

Job of the Evangelist:

Quote:

Afflict the Comforted and Comfort the Afflicted.

A pastor was once conducting a rap session with high school teenagers. He told them that they could ask me any question on any subject, and He would try and answer it. Their questions were typical of ones he had received in similar sessions scores of times before. As the session drew to a close, one girl toward the back, who had not said anything, raised her hand. I nodded, and she said, "The Bible says God loves everybody. Then it says that God sends people to hell. How can a loving God do that?"

The pastor gave her his answer, and she came back to me with arguments. He answered her arguments, and she answered my answers. The conversation quickly degenerated into an argument. He did not convince her, nor did she convince me. After a few more questions He dismissed the session. After the session He approached her and said, "I owe you an apology. I really should not have allowed our discussion to become so argumentative." Then He asked, "May I share something with you?" She said, "Yes." So he took her through a basic presentation of the gospel. When he got to Romans 3:23 and suggested that all of us were sinners she began to cry. It was then that this high school senior admitted she had been having an affair with a married man. The one thing she needed was forgiveness. When I finished the presentation of the gospel, she trusted Christ. The reason she did not believe in hell was because she was going there. In her heart she knew she had sinned. Her conscience condemned her, but rather than face the fact of her guilt, she simply denied any future judgment or future hell.

Must be clear

Testing Truth

Must Obey

Not Optional

Allow Discomfort

Conviction comes with

Guilt

Allow process

Holy Spirit’s Conviction

“cut to the heart”

not comfortable feeling

but needed

and directed by HS

There is a story about a man who sat in front of a fire talking with his minister. He said to him, "Parson, I don't think I'll come to church any more. Religion is a very personal thing, I think I'll just try to work it out by myself."

The parson said nothing, but took a pair of tongs and lifted a live coal out of the fire, and laid it on the hearth. They both watched it slowly go out.

Then the man said, "I see what you mean. I'll be back next Sunday."

Directing Discomfort

Others need help

not tuned to HS

help them hear voice

Can you see what the Bible says on this topic?

How do you feel about that?

What do you think God wants you to do?

How can you make a move in the right direction?

Sabbath Issues

Bring Comfort

Some truth Bring Comfort

Jesus loves you personally.

Jesus is coming back.

Mom is in the grave.

God will deal with sinners, you don’t have to.

When Benjamin Franklin wished to interest the people of Philadelphia in street lighting, he didn't try to persuade them by just talking about it. He hung a beautiful lantern on a long bracket in front of his home. He kept the glass highly polished. Every evening at the approach of dusk, he carefully lit the wick. People saw the light from a distance and when they walked in its light, found that it helped them to avoid sharp stones on the pavement. Others placed light at their homes, and soon Philadelphia recognized the need for street lighting.

Not Ready

Gaining Decisions

starts with Conviction

No conviction

No decision.

Go back to Information

Don’t force process

Allow Holy Spirit to work.

Trying to convert my family

Ready

Conviction is clear

They often ask

what is next step

Pentecost

Acts 2:37 ESV

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Ethiopian Eunuch

Acts 8:35–36 ESV

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

Other times,

they are ready

but need encouragement

Ananias and Paul

Acts 22:16 ESV

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

Persuasion

Conviction

Ready

Need Help

Persuasion

2 Corinthians 5:11 (ESV)

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

We persuade

Why?

Because people hear

see truth

convicted

but take no action

Bill stopped in at Abie's little general store, looking for a bottle of mustard. The shelves were loaded with salt -- bags and bags of salt. Abie said he had some mustard, but that he would have to go down to the cellar to find it. Bill went down with him, and there to his surprise were still more bags of salt. Everywhere he looked he could see salt.

"Say," said Bill, "you must sell a lot of salt in this store!"

"Nah," said Abie sourly. "I can't sell no salt. But that feller who sells me salt -- boy, can he sell salt!"

Parable of the Banquet

Luke 14:16–24 ESV

But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”

Key verse:

Luke 14:23 (ESV)

And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

Compel them to come in!

Compel :

bring about (something) by the use of force or pressure.

Jesus commands us to

compel others

Notice,

They didn’t compel

those with excuses

They persuade those

who are receptive

not rejecters

Coaching vs. Teaching

Teaching is focused on imparting knowledge and learning, where the teacher is in charge of the interaction. It has little to do with the student as an individual.

Coaches don’t dictate change. They inspire and direct the student to see and sense the need for change.

In Coaching

the student is in charge

of their final destiny

Coaching is personal

helping walk person

through process of change

student at steering wheel

Holy Spirit Driving

Student responding

Coach encouraging

The North Wind and the Sun disputed which was the most powerful, and agreed that he should be declared the victor who could first strip a wayfaring man of his clothes.

The North Wind first tried his power, and blew with all his might, but the keener became his blasts, the closer the traveler wrapped his cloak around him, till at last, resigning all hope of victory, he called upon the Sun to see what he could do.

The Sun suddenly shone out with all his warmth; the traveler no sooner felt his genial rays than he took off one garment after another, and at last, fairly overcome with heat, undressed and bathed in a stream that lay in his path.

Persuasion is better than force.

Coaching leads people

to see answer

without pushing it on them.

Conversion

the act or process of changing something into a different state or form.

Converting money

converting ice to water

converting the heart

Acting on the conviction.

so much so

you are not the same.

Acts 2:36–38 ESV

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

They did something

about their conviction

They took a stand

we must call

people to decision.

[In the middle of the twentieth century a] young Russian communist went to a meeting one night where he heard a Christian expounding his faith. The communist was angry. How could anyone still believe such nonsensical superstition in these days? He went home, determined to write a refutation of Christianity that would settle the issue once and for all. In order to get the quarry properly into his sights, he found an old Bible and looked into it.

He didn’t want to waste more time than was necessary, so he decided to read the shortest of the four Gospels, that of St Mark. It was only much later, as he said, that he realized that God has a sense of humour. St Mark’s Gospel is exactly the book written for someone in that frame of mind: pulling no punches, getting directly to the point, portraying Jesus the Messiah bringing through his death and resurrection a kingdom that outshines all the political dreams of the world.

He read Mark again, then the other Gospels; then, sitting up through the night, the rest of the New Testament. By morning he was a believing, praying Christian. That man is Anthony Bloom, who went on to become one of the great Russian Orthodox bishops of our generation, leading his flock through intense suffering but always seeing reflecting the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

Appeal

Be a spiritual Coach.

Lead someone through decision.

Lead someone to conviction.

If you want to

Convict others

you must

live a convicted life.

William Bathurst once said,

“O for a faith that will not shrink,

Tho pressed by every foe,

That will not tremble on the brink

Of any earthly woe!

That will not murmur nor complain

Beneath the chastening rod,

But, in the hour of grief or pain,

Will lean upon its God;

A faith that shines more bright and clear

When tempests rage without

That when in danger knows no fear,

In darkness feels no doubt.