The Transforming Power Of The Gospel

By the time we're done, you should be able to walk through the book of Acts in your mind and know what's happening in every chapter by the time we're done.

The book of Acts is about earliest Christianity and Luke unfolds the story of how it grew exponentially, explosively, through conversions to Christ.

Now we spent a long time looking at Saul's conversion in Acts, chapter 9, because Saul's conversion is one of the most detailed we see in the Bible and it helps us learn.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Well, what does it mean to be converted?

It mean to be converted, so Luke does a real good job of just kind of spreading that out.

Saul of Tarsus, he was called, who repudiated Christianity and ravaged against the early church, initially with murderous threats, was miraculously converted to become a committed follower of Jesus.

This happened, as you remember, when he was knocked down to the ground and saw for himself the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we're going to look at what happened after that.

We're going to have to look at what happened to Saul and the church right after his conversion.

I'm going to read a portion of it here in Acts, chapter 9, if you want to follow along in your Bible.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

I'm just going to break in at verse 17.

This is where Ananias meets Saul, in Damascus, and after he's seen the Lord and he's been blinded for three days.

So Ananias departed and entered the house and, after laying hands on him, said Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and he regained his sight and he got up and was baptized and he took food and was strengthened.

Now, for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying he is the Son of God, is the Son of God.

And all those hearing him continued to be amazed and were saying is this not he who, in Jerusalem, destroyed those who called on this name and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?

But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.

When many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him.

But their plot became known to Saul and they were also watching the gates day by night so that they might put him to death.

But his disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.

When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.

But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, that he had talked to him and how, at Damascus, he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus and he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord, and he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews.

But they were attempting to put him to death.

But when the brethren learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.

So the church throughout Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

It continued to increase.

So when we look at Saul after his conversion, we're seeing the life-transforming power and impact of the gospel of Jesus, the gospel that says Jesus really existed and lived a perfect life.

The gospel that says Jesus was sent from God to die in our place to take the divine punishment for our sins and then resurrected from the dead.

The gospel that says when we believe in him, in Jesus the Messiah, we receive God's forgiveness, eternal life and the Holy Spirit.

And if you really understand the gospel and believe in Jesus to save you, you will experience an RLT.

You know what that is?

Right, radical life transformation.

Now, while many of us come to faith in Jesus as adults, when life transformation can be immediately apparent, like it was with Saul, and life transformation can be immediately apparent like it was with Saul Children, however, may come to know Jesus just the same and learn God's truth in a deeper way as time goes on.

But I can tell you they also will experience a gradual life transformation over time.

I'm a living example of the first one.

My wife and kids are an example of the second.

Saul's conversion, while dramatic, is where we do see some primary and inevitable things that will be seen sooner or later in every genuine conversion to Christ.

So we'll look at two things today that happened after Saul's conversion.

We're going to look at what happened to Saul and we're going to look at what happened to the church.

Some amazing things, and first let's look at the changes that happened in Paul's life.

The first thing we see changed in Saul was his relationship with Christians.

In Acts, chapter 9, verse 1, he's breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

Acts 9:1

In Acts, chapter 9, verse 19,.

Acts 9:19

Now he's spending time with those disciples.

Before his conversion, ananias was deathly afraid of him in 9.13.

After his conversion, ananias begins toly afraid of him in 913.

After his conversion, ananias begins to call him brother in the Lord.

What changes immediately when we believe in Jesus is that the Christians we once had nothing to do with, considered them extreme and dangerous, are now our spiritual family.

In Jesus we join other people who believed in Jesus, who've been adopted by God as his sons and daughters, and they are now our brothers and sisters.

That's a radical transformation, a change we see in Saul, his relationship to Christians.

The second thing that changed in Saul was his view of Christianity Before his conversion.

In Acts 9-2, he looks at Christians and sees them only as a religious sect.

He used to refer to them as the Way, this strange new group that started out with a bunch of radical Jews.

After his conversion.

He doesn't see Christianity as a religion or a sect, but as a relationship with the person of Jesus.

Christianity in his mind became this sense of it's all about Jesus.

Acts 9, verse 20.

Acts 9:20

Immediately, saul began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying he is the Son of God.

Saul didn't proclaim a new religion, he proclaimed the person of Jesus.

This was a huge transformation.

See, we see the same thing nowadays in conversions, real conversions to Christ.

People who are genuinely converted to Christ don't think of Christianity purely in terms of their religion or denomination, but with no emphasis on Jesus.

They do see it as a relationship with Jesus.

And where can I serve and worship him?

They do see it as a relationship with Jesus and where can I serve and worship him.

The third thing we see in Saul's life, that change we see from those who knew him before he was converted.

We read it this morning.

They can't believe he's the same man In Acts 9.21,.

He went from persecutor to proclaimer.

He went from adversary to advocate.

That's a dramatic change.

His whole view of Jesus, view of Christianity, is seen, has been changed and now people are picking it up, while genuine conversion to Christ involves really an internal change when the Holy Spirit comes into us, it will somehow manifest itself outwardly because we're going to see Jesus and ourselves and others very differently.

Paul gets at that in 2 Corinthians 5, where he says we no longer consider people according to a human point of view.

The love of Christ controls us.

We don't look at people the same way.

For Saul to do what he was doing meant that something, something very dramatic, changed at his very core.

The fourth thing we see change in Saul's life is his relationship to the Word of God.

He had to totally well, acts 9.22,.

He kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

What's happening there is?

He comes to know the Lord and basically he begins to look at the Scriptures now from a Christocentric point of view, realizing it's all pointing to Jesus, and begins to grow in that knowledge.

He increases his knowledge by being in the word of God, exactly how we grow in knowledge after we're converted Learning more about Jesus from the Scripture, correcting our and his wrong ideas about him.

That's what's happening.

He was, you realize, saul was trained as a certified, devoted Pharisee, a Jewish Pharisee.

By his own admission, he excelled in that above all others in his knowledge of Scripture and Judaism, the practice, that religion.

But now that changed as he began to re-examine the Scripture.

He could now see Jesus in the Scripture and that change was so profound.

And that change was so profound that it literally he says he could confound the Jews, fellow Pharisees in Damascus, proving that Jesus was the Christ from the Scriptures they all accepted.

Just like happened to him.

The fifth thing we see changed in Saul's life is when he realized.

Fifth thing we see changed in Saul's life is when he realized and this is true, I believe, of all who have been converted to Christ he realized that it was God who led him to Jesus and made these changes happen.

In the book of Acts, Luke gives us details of Saul's conversion, which we've gone through.

But Paul, you see, himself adds some more details to his conversion, about how Jesus changed his life, and we read about those in his letter to the Galatians and Corinthians.

Let me give you an example.

So in Galatians 1, verses 13 and 14, he says to the Galatians You've heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

Galatians 1:13

Now, if you notice, in that little paragraph all the verbs are in the active voice, meaning Paul is the subject and the one doing the acting.

I did this, I did that, I did this, I did that, me, I was advancing, but then suddenly, in the next verse, the subject changes.

I was doing this, I was doing that.

Galatians 1, 15, 16.

But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

Now God is the subject and Paul is the object.

When he started to realize that, you see, that's what pushed his transformation even further.

God is the one who set him apart.

God is the one who set him apart.

God is the one who calls us, who reveals his Son to us.

God is the agent of conversion to Christ.

We're not.

Christianity is not something you take up as a religion.

It's someone who takes you up, a person.

Christianity is something that happens to you, not something you decide.

Because you're going to practice this religion In a genuine conversion, you'll notice, like Paul did, how God had been the one working in his life all along Bringing it to this point.

That, my friends, is a huge realization that leads to transformation.

Who has been doing this?

Where did that come from?

You'll notice, like Paul did, how God has been working all along to bring you to faith in Jesus and for some of us, it literally takes our breath away.

I know I can.

I'm like thinking back whoa, there's a, through circumstances that happen, through the people you encounter, through the things that happen, that you start to notice.

Whoa, why did that with my life?

I could go through a whole laundry list.

Why did that person send me that letter and say they were praying for me?

At the end I'm seeing this after my conversion I'm thinking, holy cow, you know what?

The subject changed?

I thought I was the one.

No, can you do that?

Paul says God set him apart from the womb.

Now, to set apart, you see, is an active verb, meaning that God was at work.

Listen to me, because this is a truth that we all need to grasp.

When he says God set me apart from the worm, he's saying that God was at work in his life even when he didn't know it, for he had capacity to know it.

He was at work In a genuine conversion.

You can begin to look back on your life, as Joseph did, for instance, and see it.

You see, oh, this is what God was doing.

Genesis 50, 20,.

One of my favorite verses is Joseph, who was betrayed brothers and sold into slavery, at the end of the whole thing speaks to his brothers and says you, you meant this for evil against me, but God meant it for good.

All along, it was him leading to this point in order to bring this present result, to preserve many people alive, and in our case, god is trying to preserve us alive forever in salvation in Jesus, all the things that's going on leading to Jesus.

When Paul could see as I just read the subject change he could see God has been the one acting in his life all along.

It changed him.

It changed him Because now he started to view his life totally differently.

God is the one Wow.

It changed his whole focus, paul's life.

When he starts to get that and realize God is a subject, moving things and events and people.

Paul's life went from it's all about me, what I'm going to be doing, to it's really all about him, jesus.

Galatians 2, I love this passage 19 and 20.

I've treasured it for years.

Paul's testimony he said look, through the law, I died to the law, meaning God convicted me of sin.

I'm not perfect, I can't live up to God's plan, but he convicted me so I could live to God.

I've been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

And now the life I do live in the flesh.

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Now let me ask you can you look back?

Because part of conversion is to be able to see God as the subject all along.

Even if you came to Christ as a child, well, he put you in a Christian family, you went to Sunday school.

All the context, he's the subject, you see.

Can you see it?

Can you see it?

All the ways God's been working to bring you to faith in Jesus, all the little things, all the people.

All the little things, all the people, all the circumstances that many times people say, oh, that's just a coincidence.

No, it's not.

His hand has been moving and working since you, before you were born.

Do you see it?

When you see it, it's life changing because it affects everything.

Now he hasn't stopped working.

Like Paul, when your life begins to move from you to him, that is life-changing.

And the sixth thing we see in Saul's life when he came to faith in Jesus is he right away began to identify himself as a disciple of Jesus.

He began to see himself in terms of the people he used to want to kill.

It's just funny to me.

He's now considering he was baptized baptize me, okay.

And Acts 9, 18.

Then he began to proclaim Jesus as the Son of God and witness to his reality historical reality, resurrection reality and death for sin reality Acts 9, 20,.

Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue, saying he is the Son of God.

When I came to faith in Jesus, it was kind of funny because I knew right away what had happened to me.

God just gave me a gift of wow whoa.

And you know, god just gave me a gift of wow whoa.

This is something good.

And the guy who led me to Christ came by three days later and he said hey, come on, I want you to go with me.

We're going to the mall.

I said, okay, guess, we want to do some shopping or something.

No, we're going to go to the mall and I want you to start sharing your testimony about how you came to Jesus to people we meet in the mall.

I said, whoa, okay, never done that before.

Identify with Jesus, share it with others.

Three days after my conversion, immediately boom.

And I'm so glad he did, because I don't know if I'd have been left a Christian orphan like many people are, by the way, and not someone to disciple you, interested in your establishment in the faith and growth in the faith.

One important element is will you identify with Jesus publicly?

Will you share with others?

I'm so glad he did that.

Of course, it was scary, but he was with me.

We went out together and, honestly, I shared my faith.

We'd go up to people sitting in the mall, said, hey, do you have a minute I'd like to share about what happened to me recently, about Jesus, and many of them said, yeah, okay, shared the testimony, explained the gospel, what happened to me, and I left them thinking, wow, that is really cool, I want to do that all the time.

I started sharing with people on campus.

It took hold.

But that's what's happening with Paul.

He just immediately.

He wanted people to know I'm no longer that person killing Christians.

I am a Christian and I want you to know that Jesus is real.

And what's interesting to me is, as you read the passage, he goes from just starting out.

It takes a while, but he began to actually prove to the other Jews that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah.

This word prove means I won't give you the Greek word, it's immaterial but it does mean to put together a logical argument from the Scripture.

That's what he's doing for these Jews, for people who already believe the Bible.

He had put together from the Scripture a logical argument Proving.

Basically it's establishing from the Scripture that Jesus is the promised Messiah.

That's amazing to me.

Saul grows from witness to Jesus to apologist for Jesus, and it didn't happen real fast.

He immediately starts testifying, but after a while, as the Scriptures began to be absorbed, he began to see it.

Oh, it's right there.

As we grow in Christ, the same thing should be happening to us.

The Scripture points us to Jesus.

We can not only proclaim the gospel, we can defend it.

That's growth.

And the seventh thing we see change in Saul's life when he came to faith is he took the time.

This is what.

If people don't do this, they should do this.

They need to be established in the faith.

He needed to be established.

This is just something right out of the chute.

It's got a whole lot of thinking to do.

And so this seventh thing is what you see in Saul is he took the time to really establish and ground himself in the scripture and his new relationship with Jesus.

He took the time.

You're not going to grow immediately.

You've got to learn a lot.

It's helpful if you have somebody helping you.

We call that discipleship.

Spiritual growth takes time.

Now are you looking at Acts 9?

You see verse 22?

Back in 22, there in Acts, chapter 9?

Acts 9 · chapter mention

You see verse 22?

Back in 22, there, saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that Jesus was Christ.

You see verse 23,.

The verse right after it when many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with them.

Now, what you need to understand is between verse 22 and 23 is about three years.

Three years.

He kept increasing in strength, confidence, knowledge of the word, doing Bible study, praying, on and on and on.

He's establishing himself in his Christian life through the help of others who are there, these other disciples.

About three years, see, that's when the Jews wanted to get rid of him.

Paul actually talks about this in See.

What's that?

Luke is condensing his story.

Here's the bullet.

We're just going to move quickly.

But Paul's own testimony tells us that he left Damascus soon after his conversion, went to Arabia for three years before coming back to Damascus and escaping over the city wall to flee to Jerusalem to be with the apostles.

Galatians 1, 15 to 18, a verse we started with earlier.

But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb, called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and then returned once more to Damascus.

Then, three years later, I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days Time.

That's what happened to Saul after his conversion Time to grow, time to learn.

He went away by himself to meet the Lord and study the Scripture, and then Jesus helped him see and clarify the message, I believe, during that time.

I think it's part of what he said in Galatians 1, where he says to the Galatians I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but I received it through the revelation, meaning personal knowledge of Jesus Christ.

What did Saul learn while he was away?

Well, one thing he learned is he wasn't saved by any good deeds or works that he did or his righteousness, but through faith in Jesus, by God's grace.

And God's grace becomes a major major theme in the rest of Paul's writings, major he really I think that's what he came back with this conviction about salvation being by faith, through grace, not anybody's works or merit.

Jesus showed him that, and this is what I don't think a lot of Christians understand even now.

Jesus showed him that he not only needed to repent of his sins, he needed to repent of his righteousness.

We don't often think in those terms, but listen to what he says in Philippians 3, 7-10.

He says whatever things were gained to me, things I was proud of, whatever things I accomplished, even spiritually, those things I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him.

Listen, not having a righteousness of my own, derived from the law or my efforts or whatever, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, his righteousness, not mine.

So that righteousness that I think I've gotten accomplished, I have to repent of it.

It's just as worthless as all the other good things I did.

When it comes to being saved or in relationship to God.

The thing is Jeremiah that says our righteousness are just like filthy rags.

So if you're counting on it, if you're relying on it, paul says I don't even count on that.

I count on the righteousness that comes by faith from God in Jesus Christ.

That's huge.

In the same way, those who are converted need to take the time to learn what happened to them, by God's grace, through the gospel.

We did not deserve it, we did not earn it.

The only reason we have it is because it's a gift when we believed in Jesus.

So could I urge you to take the time to study, pray, learn, be established in the faith and, by the way, that's one reason God gave us the church Philippians 4.

He gave some of his apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the building up of the body, to equip them for the work of the ministry, so that we all might mature, not be children anymore tossed through, grow up in Christ.

So those are the kind of things that happened to Saul when he was converted.

That brings us to the changes the church actually experienced, huge changes after Saul's conversion that he was a part of.

In Acts 9.31, luke explains the impact on the church as a result of his conversion.

He says so the church, through all Judea, galilee, samaria enjoyed peace, being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord, comfort of the Holy Spirit, and it continued to increase.

Of the Lord, comfort of the Holy Spirit, and it continued to increase.

So Luke starts verse 31 with so then, so then.

Therefore, see, based on what just happened in the life of this one man, he lists five observations of the impact in the church.

First, the church was united around their faith in Jesus Christ.

Luke refers to it as the church, not churches in Judea, galilee, all these separate, no, the church.

This is happening in the church, a united church, not three.

The one church was at peace not just with the civil authorities, but with one another.

At this time in history, you need to understand the Jews who were first to come to faith living in Judea and Galilee and Samaria were very different in these regions racially, spiritually, economically which many times brought them in conflict with each other.

Jews and Samaritans didn't talk to each other and the people in Galilee were backwoods.

You know, hillbillies, they don't have class, or you know, like we do, unsophisticated, and what do you?

And look at this the church.

Throughout all Judea, galilee, samaria enjoyed peace.

It didn't matter what those differences.

Why?

Because of what happened to Saul, wow, god converted our greatest enemy at the cross.

What does that mean for us?

When they all saw the power of the gospel, take an enemy of Christ and make him a brother in Christ, they began to see themselves, other Christians, differently.

They didn't see them as Jews and Samaritans and Galatians.

We're a family.

That's huge, huge change.

Luke says so.

Then, right after that, look at what's happening in the church.

Second observation Luke makes is the church is being built up, direct result of what happened to Saul.

Peace is connected to being edified, built up, in other words.

And what does that mean?

It means that the church began to love and serve one another.

That's when read other passages, ephesians 4 and so on that's when the church is built up and not torn down Love and serving one another.

When there's peace in the church, in an absence of strife, the church is full of life and will grow.

That happens when people are truly converted to Jesus and they don't think and act the same way they did in the flesh before they knew Jesus.

They think and act now according to the Holy Spirit, and Saul's conversion showed them how.

And then, third, luke says that and this is interesting Luke says that the church was being built up and going on.

I love that phrase going on in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit.

What's going on in the fear of the Lord and comfort of the Holy Spirit?

What's going on in the church was not disputing arguments, personal agendas, turf wars, like we saw in Acts 6.

What's going on in the church was deep spiritual growth and outreach.

I think Luke is saying that when people are truly converted to Christ, there will be an increasing, cascading spiritual growth in believers by palpable presence of the Holy Spirit creating life in the church.

And so the last observation Luke makes is creating life in the church.

And so the last observation Luke makes is because of what happened to Saul, the church continued to increase, increase means.

At the very least, they grew in numbers.

People started being attracted to the message, to the gospel to them.

They were attracted to the message because they were attracted to what was happening in their lives.

And the church grew.

How did it grow?

Through conversions.

People hear the gospel, they see the changed lives and, like Saul, they believe.

I really see this and I've seen it over years in the ministry.

When unbelievers begin to see the dramatic difference Jesus makes in a person's life, like it did with Saul, it attracts them.

They want that.

Like it did with Saul, it attracts them.

They want that.

How can you be joyful when you're undergoing these tremendous difficulties?

How can you do that?

How can you have hope when everything around you is crashing?

Hmm, jesus, saul of Tarsus demonstrates the power of the gospel can convert anybody, anybody.

Luke shows us some of the radical changes that do happen in those who are truly converted.

So let me ask you, if Luke were writing a chapter on your conversion, what would he add?

What are the changes?

Wow, this person isn't the same because of the impact Jesus made.

Saul, who would become the apostle Paul, would later write about the power of the gospel.

The Apostle Paul would later write about the power of the gospel.

I mean, I don't think he ever grew bored with the message of the gospel because of the life changes that happened in his life.

He just simply comes right out with it at the first part of Romans 1.16 and says you know what?

I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

Look at me, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

Look at me, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also the Greek Notice that the gospel does not have the power of God.

It is the power of God to save others.

We'll go right into the words themselves of the gospel.

Do you see how God has been working your life to bring you the message of good news, receiving the eternal life through faith in Jesus?

I hope you do and I hope you know Jesus died for you, for your sins, and then was raised from the dead, so that when you believe in him, he is the author of life and can give you eternal life.

If you believe in him and you will receive his Holy Spirit, you'll be forgiven of your sins.

You will be what the Scripture describes as born again.

Restart life.

Then the Holy Spirit will continue to show you how the life in Jesus, as you grow and increase, will give you the fruit of the Spirit, the love, the joy, the peace, the countless spiritual blessings.

But we need to keep in mind as well true conversion doesn't start with us.

It starts when God begins to reveal his son to us and in us, leading us to believe in him.

Has God been working in your life?

I don't know.

Do you sense it?

I invite you to believe in Jesus and experience him for yourself.

Let's pray, father.

Thank you for the power of the gospel to change lives.

Many of us here have experienced that power power to give us eternal life, salvation in Jesus, power of the Holy Spirit to live a life that's directed by you in obedience For those of us who have been converted to Jesus.

Help us to live the lives that attract others to Jesus because of the deep work you've begun in us by your Holy Spirit, and help those, father, who are not yet converted to Jesus.

Continue to lead and guide them to see him as he really is, the Son of God, who loves them and died for them and raised to give them new life by your Spirit.

I pray all this today in Jesus' name, amen.