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TRANSFORMED BY GOD’S GRACE ACTS 9:19-31
This morning, we return to the exciting book of Acts, which shows us the church afire for God.
God has done wonders in the lives of his disciples in bringing about the birth of the early church.
It was a church that experienced the grace and power of God.
Something that I believe is still available for the church today.
Many people have come to Christ as a result of the preaching of the gospel and the greatest of those conversions was seen last Sunday night in the life of the Apostle Paul.
Paul, who at that time was named Saul, was on his way to Damascus to stamp out Christianity once and for all.
But God had different plans.
God was going to change this persecutor of the gospel into a preacher of the gospel.
God was going to change this murderer into a missionary.
Folks, we need to remember that God is in the business of changing lives.
For those of us who have been saved know this to be true.
We have been saved from sin to salvation, rags to righteousness, hopelessness to hope, and darkness to light.
God is in the business of changing lives.
Yet, there are times when we feel that things are never going to change and they will remain that way forever.
This is called fatalism.
And every one of us in this sanctuary has experienced it from time to time.
Maybe we have felt that way about someone we love who is not saved or the current economic situation or one of our children who has gone astray.
John Piper, in a sermon on this text, said, “But one of the messages of the book of Acts is that this is emphatically not true.
Jesus Christ is not dead and he is not distant and he is not silent and he is not weak and he is not uninterested in the world and the progress of his mission and in your life.
He is alive and what he began to do in his earthly life he is continuing to do.
He is full of surprises for churches and for nations and for families, and for individual people.”
So you see there is hope.
Just look at the life of the Apostle Paul.
God changed his life one afternoon out of the blue and he can do the same today.
So this morning, we are going to look at the transformation that took place in the life of Saul, a man set on destroying Christianity.
Before we look at our passage, I need to make known to you that there are true and false Christians.
Not every one who claims to be a Christian is real.
God plainly states that in Scripture.
So we need to examine ourselves to make sure we are of the faith.
A hundred years ago, Bishop J.C. Ryle spoke of this same subject in describing true Christianity.
“A true Christian is not a mere baptized man or woman.
He is something more.
He is not a person who only goes, as a matter of form, to a church or chapel on Sundays, and lives all the rest of the week as if there was no God.
Formality is not Christianity.
Ignorant lip worship is not true religion....All are not true Christians who are members of the visible church of Christ.
The true Christian is one whose religion is in his heart and life.
It is felt by himself in his heart.
It is seen by others in his conduct and life.
He feels his sinfulness, guilt and badness, and repents.
He sees Jesus Christ to be that divine Savior whom his souls needs, and commits himself to Him.
He puts off the old man with his corrupt and carnal habits, and puts on the new man.
He lives a new and holy life, fighting habitually against the world, the flesh and the devil.
Christ Himself is the corner-stone of his Christianity” [/Holiness/, 234-235].
So you can see that there is vast difference between those who are real and those who are not.
We are warned by Jesus to enter by the narrow road which leads to life because broad is the road that leads to destruction and many are on it.
He warns us that not every one who says Lord, Lord, we did all these things in your name are saved because on judgment day he will say depart from me for I never knew you.
We know from James that the devil has an intellectual believe in God, but that does not save him.
So there is a difference between those who are real and those who are not real.
Our passage, this morning, draws our attention to that very fact.
So I ask you to take your Bibles and open to the 9th chapter and the 19th verse.
Here is a man that was truly transformed by the grace of God.
Here was a man who gave evidence that God’s grace got a hold of his life.
I want to show you the difference that God made in the heart of the Saul.
There are three evidences that I see highlighted in Luke’s narrative: the evangelism of Saul, the escape of Saul, and the endorsement of Saul.
First,
THE EVANGELISM OF SAUL – 20-22
Luke says, at the end of verse 19, that Saul spent a few days with the disciples at Damascus.
Salvation that is real gives evidence of a transformation right away.
And Saul was doing this in Damascus.
But notice carefully the next verse, Saul immediately proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues.
Now I am sure that this was a great shock to the many that heard him that day.
Imagine a moment the scene in synagogue that day.
The people of the city knew he was coming, which probably caused a stir.
He had a letter from the chief priest of the Sanhedrin to bring back men and women of the Way, Christians.
So he arrives at the synagogue and the ruler of the synagogue gives him the floor.
There were mixed emotions among those that gathered that day.
Some gazed with approval, while others were apprehensive.
He gets up to speak and those who were there thought that he was going to denounce Christianity, herald disparaging remarks about Jesus and his followers who were leading this apostasy.
But instead he proclaims Jesus as the Son of God.
Luke says in verse 21, that the people were amazed.
The Greek verb /existanto /is literally, “they were beside themselves; they were struck out of their senses.”
In other words, they were so astonished that they could not believe what they had heard.
They knew that Saul had wreaked havoc in Jerusalem among the saints and that he had come to Damascus with the same purpose because the chief priest gave him the authority to do so.
Yet, they didn’t expect to hear what they heard coming out of Saul’s mouth.
Folks, the moment you are saved, you can begin serving God by sharing with others what God has done for you.
In fact, we should all be doing this on a regular basis.
Saul did not sit around to proclaim Christ, he did it immediately.
He could have thought, “Well, I’m kind of new at this.
I had better wait until I get it all together before I open my mouth.”
He could have thought, “I’m going to look like a fool.
After all, I came here to arrest followers of Christ.
People will think that I’m unstable if I let them know that I now follow Him.”
Or, he could have thought, “Damascus isn’t my home.
I’m just visiting here temporarily.
I’ll wait until I get back home to begin my ministry.”
But he didn’t make up excuses.
Can I say that we learn by doing!
Well, I might make a mistake or say the wrong thing or not be able to answer their question.
That at least should get us in the word to find the answer.
D. L. Moody said, “If you don’t go to work for the Lord because you’re afraid of making mistakes, you will probably make the greatest mistake of your life—that of doing nothing.”
I know what you are probably thinking right now, where do I start?
Well, start where Saul started with Jesus.
Tell people who he is, why he came, and what he did for you.
Anytime, you don’t know what to say just say something about Jesus.
In verse 22, Luke said Saul increased all the more in strength.
In other words, he did not cave under pressure.
He was strengthened to continue on speaking and this confounded the crowd.
They were bewildered at this persecutor turn preacher.
Yet, Saul continued to prove to them that Jesus was the Christ.
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