Text: Acts 2:37-41, Title: Genuine Conversion, Date/Place: NRBC, 7/24/07, AM
A. Opening illustration: Paris Hilton’s conversion, Jason Cantor’s Conversion, the NY man who confessed…
B. Background to passage: Peter has just preached the first Christian sermon of the church age, following the cloven tongues of fire and the coming of the Holy Spirit. And now he gives another attribute of apostolic preaching—a public invitation. We see the results of a Spirit-filled man preaching the Spirit-inspired word to a people upon whom the Spirit is moving. And we see several key aspects of a genuine conversion experience that will be helpful to us.
C. Main thought: in the text we will see what it really means to be saved
A. The Need of Genuine Conversion (v. 38)
1. When the people heard this sermon their first response was to say, “What do we do?” They were indicating that something was lacking in their spiritual life. They had needs that they felt, that just previously they didn’t know about. And in Peter’s answer, he told them what their needs were. And the needs of the human heart then and now are the same. 1) First, they needed to be forgiven. Peter uses the word aphesis that means to be set free from something. They needed to be set free from the penalty of their sin. As part of His Being and Character, a holy God cannot simply overlook sin. They heard the promise of judgment in Peter’s words. 2) The second need that Peter said that genuine conversion would meet was the need for God’s presence—the gift of the Spirit. When we believe not only are we forgiven of killing God’s Son (for which we are rightfully guilty), but God then sends Himself in the form of the Spirit to take up residence within us.
2. Eph 1:7, Rom 3:23, 6:23, Ps 32:1, 86:5,
3. Illustration: the weight of sin that we feel as a child, talking to the children the other night about sin, they told me that they were lying, thieving murderers, the fact that every human culture ever documented has had some kind for religion, reaching out for God, Piper speaks of the most unbelievable truth of good news in this text, “It shows us that even if you are a murderer of the Son of God, God himself stands ready to forgive you. And not only to forgive you, but to give you His Spirit. In other words, He is willing to cancel all your debts and then come and live with you, and guide you, and change you and empower you.” Can you imagine what would happen if you were going financially bankrupt, and you went to one of your creditors and said, “Here’s what I want you to do: I want you to clear my debt, give me a brand new start, and then I want you to adopt me as one of your own children.”
4. 1) We must realize our need for forgiveness of our sin. The culture and the world tells us about a loving god that doesn’t punish sin, but just loves everybody, and takes everybody to heaven when they die. But that God doesn’t exist in the Bible, but only in their minds. Unfortunately this steals away the glory of forgiveness. We carry around guilt. Things that we have done, or not done, said to others, sins that our conscience will not stop reminding us of…maybe somewhere deep. We have all trampled on the name of Christ by ignoring Him, and treating him as nothing. Even when we have been forgiven by others, we have a sense that we need something to be right between us and the Creator. That’s the felt need for forgiveness. And God promises to do that for all those that believe. To wipe away every sin, freeing us from it, nailing them to a cross, then burying them in the sea of forgetfulness as far as the east is from the west, so that you can live now in “no condemnation.” 2) We all have a deep need for God to be in our lives satisfying our deepest longings. We may not articulate it like that, but it is the case. Humanity needs God. You need God today. At the core of your being, you need a connection with God. Not religion or ritual, but a relationship.
B. The Marks of Genuine Conversion (v. 37-38)
1. Luke records three marks of genuine conversion in these. 1) The first of these is conviction. The text says that they were “cut to the heart.” The word means pierced, and this is the only time it is used in the NT. Their hearts were laid bare by the Spirit and the Word. God opened their eyes through the Spirit and the Word to the fact that they were guilty. 2) Secondly, Peter told them to repent. This word meant to have an inward turning from sin to God. It is a spiritual about-face. It is more than just regret or feeling sorry. It is following through with the sorrow and turning your life in the other direction. It is acknowledging Christ as your new Lord and Master, and surrendering the reigns of your life from sin to Him. Later Peter says to them to turn from this perverse generation, and they gladly received his word. 3) Thirdly, Peter says to be baptized, or immersed in water. This was a common practice of John and the Jews. It was public declaration of faith. The NT pattern is that people get saved, and then they get wet.
2. Heb 4:12, John 16:8, Matt 4:17, Luk 3:7, 13:3, 1 Thess 1:9, 1 John 1:8-9, Isa 55:7, 2 Cor 7:9-11, Acts 26:20, Romans 10:9-10,
3. Illustration: Ronnie Owens said that he was afraid to drive across bridges, and tried to sleep with one eye open because his conviction was so strong, but I just knew that I was separated from God because I had never been saved, “But forgiveness needs to be accepted, as well as offered, if it is to be complete…and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness."- Yancy, At the last moment, Lucy picked up the ball and Charlie Brown fell flat on his back. Lucy’s last words were, "Recognizing your faults and actually changing your ways are two different things, Charlie Brown!" Dr. Bernard Nathanson was the leading abortion doctor in the United States in the 1970’s, one writer says that the NT never entertains the thought of an unbaptized believer after Calvary,
4. There must be a time in your life when you knew that you were guilty of sin; that you knew that you were lost. It is an emotional, visceral, and intellectual assent. You realize that your sin as offended a holy God, and that you are worthy of judgment. For some it is intense, for others it may not be. But the proper response to conviction is faith and repentance. Believe in Jesus and what He did, and turn from yourself and your sin to serve Christ alone. Repentance is critical to your eternity. Has their ever been a time in your life where you consciously, willfully, apologized to God under conviction, and asked His forgiveness? And since then have you brought forth fruits worthy of repentance? Are you a new creature with a new direction? Many church goers feel like that if they are in church, they must be right with God, but have never come to a point of godly sorrow that produces repentance and a change of attitude away from sin and self, and toward God. Those will be the ones in Matt 7 that claim to have done all these things for Christ, and He will dismiss them saying, I never knew you. We don’t trust in baptism to save us, but we take the first step of obedience to Jesus by following his command, exhibiting our repentance to a watching world. If you claim to know Christ and have never been baptized, you are living in disobedience to Christ, and will never progress in your walk with Him until you take the first step.
C. The Prerequisite of Genuine Conversion (v. 39)
1. Peter makes a comment about the promise of the gift of the Spirit being for them, for their children, and for those that are far off. Then he says all that the Lord will call. He indicates here that it is the Lord who initiates salvation for those that believe. The Father draws you to Himself. And normally He does this through the preached word. But he does not draw a person indefinitely. There comes a point in the life of a rebellious person that they will never be saved, because God’s Spirit will not always strive with them. He may let them drift along blinded by unbelief.
2. John 6:44, 1 Cor 1:9, 1 Pet 2:9, 2 Thess 2:14, Isa 55:6,
3. Illustration: "God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination." –St. Augustine, Ronnie will ask people, “Is God dealing with your heart”
4. And because those who are saved are called of the Lord, we must realize that we can’t get saved whenever we want to. But when conviction sets in, and God begins to deal with your heart, we must believe. If you are under conviction of your sin respond in faith and repentance today. If you feel a desire to be saved and truly seek God, you can be assured that God is working in you, because from what the bible says about the heart, it is not only wicked, there is none that seeks God on his own, none that does good. So if you desire is to do what’s right and be saved, God is working on you. Surrender to Him. If you leave here today there is no guarantee that God will deal with you like this again.
A. Closing illustration: There was an old Methodist evangelist who was preaching at a church. He was informed that President Andrew Jackson would be in church that day, and to guard his remarks so as not to offend the president. So the first thing that he said in the pulpit that morning was that “Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn’t repent of his sin? a Pastor in California was giving an invitation one Sunday Morning when a 5 year old boy came down. Well, he did not know if he was old enough to understand salvation, so, He took him back to his office to ask him some theological question. The more he questioned the lad the more confused he got. Finally the little fellow stop said, "Bro. Patterson, in your message this morning you said that if I would come and trust Jesus to save me – HE WOULD. Did you really mean that?" Bro. Patterson said, "I did not ask him any more question after that."
B. AND 3000 PEOPLE GOT SAVED!
C. Invitation to commitment
Additional Notes
• Is Christ Exalted, Magnified, Honored, and Glorified?
