TITLE: RESULTS NOT TYPICAL
SCRIPTURE: ACTS 9:20-31
We live in a media saturated culture. Not only saturated with media, but saturated with advertising. Everywhere we look people are trying to sell us something. Seems like more and more websites that are free, now have some kind of advertisement on it – BANNER – ADS, SPAM – TV COMMERCIALS. It's amazing how many times we hear somebody trying to sell us something. And one of the main ways that people try to convince us, one of the most effective ways is a personal testimony. You know what I am talking about, where somebody uses the product and they are the real person on TV and they are saying, "Yes Bob, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I took it and three weeks later I was a different person." It's particularly true for diet ads.
You know you have the before and after picture - there's the guy or woman in the picture, 65 lbs different and you have to admit that 65 lbs in any case makes a real difference. You look at that before and you look at that after and you go "Wow, what a powerful product" but then you notice in tiny letters underneath that famous phrase that we always have to remember – Results Not Typical. Sure, two people took the same product and can have very different end results – yes, Results Not Typical
• Every been on Jenny Craig – Results Not Typical
• Weight Watchers – Results Not Typical
• Grapefruit Diet – Results Not Typical
• Let’s not even talk about the Daniel Fast - Results Not Typical
We struggle with this same issue in the Christian community. Do we hold up one or two saints and say, "Look at the change that Jesus can make in your life, but results not typical." If we are presenting a message like that as we share our faith –
• How are we different than a diet company?
• Or Bowflex
• Or any of the others?
• Character is important
• A changed life is part of what we present to the world as Christians
We are in a world where people are jaded. People are fed up with empty claims and so we as the church, we have to present a different kind of life; an effective different kind of life so that people aren't thinking in the backs of their minds, sure, there really isn’t anything to this saved thing. In our text this morning we see a major change happening in someone's life. Let’s take a few minutes and examine what changed in the Apostle Paul’s life and if there are any lessons we can learn.
We are going to take a look at a number of things that happened in this passage; to understand this whole process of how change affects our witness to the world. Take a look first at VS. 20. It says, the first two words in the NIV are "AT ONCE" – King James says “STRAIGHTWAY.”
• At once he began to preach in the synagogue that Jesus is the Son of God"
• The first thing we see happen in Paul's life after he meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, after he has this encounter with Jesus, there is a massive change in Paul's life
• So, that's the first thing we see; immediate major changes in life
• Jesus becomes the Center of your Focus and you have to tell somebody
• Straightway or At Once you have a Testimony
• I am not saying you are called Preach but you are called to Witness
Now, in Paul's case it's not a moral change. Paul was already a moral man. I did not say he was Right, but he was Moral.
• Paul was a leader in the community
• He understood what morality was
• He understood what it meant to be upright in his relationships with other people
• He had the Ten Commandments fully memorized and understood, and he was trying to practice them
• He had a set of Morals that he allowed to Shape and Guide his life
• You see if you don’t believe in Something, you will Fall for Anything
So the immediate change isn't that Paul turned from someone we would expect to be panhandling in the train station to a leading member of the community. It wasn't that sort of change. It was a change where he was fighting against Christianity at one point and then astonishingly in just a very short period of time he comes out with power proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ.
• A deep change has happened in his life and that deep sort of change is what we should expect to happen as people encounter Jesus Christ
• Jesus Christ changes lives
• When we filter through everything else that Christianity is supposed to look like
• When we move beyond the glitz and glitter of 21st Century Christianity
• Bottom line is Jesus Christ changes lives!
Now we talk about witnessing being - ONE BEGGAR TELLING ANOTHER BEGGAR WHERE TO FIND BREAD. That is absolutely true. But in the long run that Christian beggar, spiritual beggar, should change, should strengthen in their faith, because we don't just proclaim forgiveness in Jesus Christ, we proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he deserves our obedience, and so obedience, a change of life is part of what happens in our lives and sometimes it happens very quickly as in Paul’s case. Can I tell you that Paul is not the litmus test, for others it takes a little longer – Results Not Typical.
Now I mention in Paul's case that it was not moral, it wasn't obvious on that level, but for many of us it is moral. That's the change that people first notice. I can think about when people see Pastors, they think that they have always been a Christian. People see Church Officers; oh you assume that from the cradle they followed Christ. In fact, whenever somebody sees a mature Christian they think the same thing, but the fact is for many of us we became Christians later in life. For many of us there is a day that we can point to when we turned our life over to Jesus Christ and immediately following that a number of changes happened, just like in Paul's life, at once.
• Some of us used to enjoy cussing – there has been a Change
• Some of used to enjoy partying and drinking – there has been a Change
• Some of us liked the fast dating scene – there has been a Change
• Some of us liked Drama – there has been a Change
• Some of us liked Recreational Drugs - there has been a Change
• Some of us were Abusive or Bullies – there has been a Change
Once we become Saved - we do see some major area of shifting in our lives. We should expect this. This is what we preach. This is what we share. We share forgiveness and new life and so one of the critical witnesses is this power of a changed life. So there is that immediate major change that normally happens in some area of the life for an adult who becomes a Christian.
Let’s continue to Walk through the Text. Take a look at VS. 21 “ALL THOSE WHO HEARD WERE ASTONISHED AND ASKED, ISN’T HE THE MAN WHO RAISED HAVOC IN JERUSALEM AMONG THOSE WHO CALL ON HIS NAME?” All those who heard him were astonished. Others were afraid. So the second thing we see happening here is that the friends of Paul are baffled by the change.
• There is at once a change in Paul's life
• Then the people that surrounded him
• The people who were his allies
• The people who understood Paul before, now find that they don't understand him at all
• So they start asking all kinds of questions, is this the same guy?
• Didn't he actually come up here to take these people prisoners that he is now preaching with?
• This is another result of the change of life
• The change that happens around people when you come to Christ
Research has shown that the number one opportunity for connecting in a powerful way with our friends, statistically, now this isn't true for every life, but overall statistically, the number one time to connect with friends about Jesus Christ is in the first two years after you become a Christian, because that's the period of time when people have the before and after picture in their minds. That's when you still have a live relationship with all of these friends that you used to party with. And so that's a critical time and these baffled people have a wonderful opportunity of grappling with the power of Jesus Christ to turn somebody around.
• That’s when they realize if God did it for you, He can do it for me
• That’s when they have a clear Before and After picture
• Can I tell you as family and friends come to Christ during this time
• Results May Vary
• Don’t expect an identical change for everyone now to act like you
• When we look at Paul - Results Not Typical
It's a great opportunity and we need to be encouraging our younger Christians, not only younger in age, but I mean newer Christians to be aware of this incredible opportunity they have as people around them start to grapple with the changes that Jesus Christ has worked out in their lives. Now it's important in such a time that they see the right image.
• On one hand it is a good side to present changes in your moral life
• On the other hand it can be a judgmental time
• Must be careful not be judgmental of those that are still lost
• We must view it as a wonderful opportunity to outreach to baffled family and friends
• Lord will move in their life differently than He did in your life
• What got your attention and turned your life around will be different for others
• Remember Results Not Typical
Lets run back to the text. Something else can be seen in VS. 23 – “AFTER MANY DAYS HAD GONE BY THE JEWS CONSPIRED TO KILL HIM." The next thing that happens is that you don't just have baffled friends, but you start to get reactions from the people that surround you and we have seen this perhaps happen in our own lives.
• In Paul's life the very people who were on his side, who went with him place to place seeking out the Christian church
• To persecute them
• These very people then make the decision to kill Paul
• Not all the reactions are going to be good reactions
• Not everyone around us responds well to the gospel and so there are strong reactions that happen in life to people who decide to follow Jesus Christ
• And it happens particularly acutely in those early years
• Those friends won’t seek to kill you physically
• They will seek to kill you on another level
• They become your Haters
• Because your Walk is Different
• Because your Talk is Different
• Because your Morals are Different
• Old friends begin to attack you on many levels
The narrative does not end there - there is a major reaction, but God does not leave us alone in this. VS. 24-25 - "SAUL LEARNED OF THEIR PLAN. THEY WERE WATHCING THE GATES.” In VS. 25, "BUT HIS FOLLOWERS TOOK HIM BY NIGHT AND LOWERED HIM IN A BASKET THROUGH AN OPENING IN THE WALL." God provides a new community for believes and provides protection over believers. God provides a miraculous sort of protection and very often the Christian community is part of that support and protection.
• God also uses the Church and the fellowship of the Saints as a place of protection
• God also uses the Church and the fellowship of the Saints as a place of growth and strength
• God also uses the Church and the fellowship of the Saints as a place we can be sheltered
We cannot go through a Change and say we are now Saved and on the Lord’s side and have no desire to hang out at the Church.
• Alcoholics hang out at the Bar
• Drug Addicts hang out at the Dope House
• Gamblers hang out at the Casino
• Movie Buffs hang out at the Theater
• Dancers hang out at the Club
• Singers hang out in the Studio
• Body Builders hang out in the Gym
• Saints ought to hang out in the Church
And so we as a community of Christians are a part of God's answer to PROTECT THEM EMOTIONALLY – PROTECT THEM PHYSICALLY - to be part of a new community that God builds around them and we need to be aware of this because if God prospers our outreach then this will be a continual part of our lives as a congregation. How do we as a community become part of God's answer for the crisis that is happening in the life of somebody that's changing?
• This community was ready
• They looked out for Paul
• This brand new guy
• This guy they couldn't trust just a short time before
• They are ready to lay themselves on the line to get him safely out of the city
• We need to be willing to lay ourselves on the line
There is another Principle that we find in the text – VS. 31 - “THEN THE CHURCH THROUGHOUT JUDEA, GALILEE AND SAMARIA ENJOYED A TIME OF PEACE. IT WAS STRENGTHENED; AND ENCOURAGED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, IT GREW IN NUMBERS, LIVING IN THE FEAR OF THE LORD.”
• This dynamic thing that we see going on in Paul's life
• This new outreach that happens through Paul
• With all the craziness of what happens in the community around them
• Of people being confused and then people reacting and hostility starting
• And in all of this mess there comes a place where the church is prospering and growing
• Can I say it again?
• When the Church understands the process
• What looks like Mess
• Out of it comes Prospering and Growth
The CHURCH PROSPERS AND GROWS NOT WHEN WE CAN CONTROL EVERYTHING
• So that nothing is messy inside and nothing is messy outside
• It's when we are messy with the right things
• When these changes are happening and things are turning over and dynamics are changing with the community
• It's in this context that the church prospers because it's achieving the mission that God gave us
What are you saying Pastor, what do we need to take from this message this morning? As new Christians you should expect a change in your life. I am not talking about just an Insurance Policy in Christianity, where you can act the same way you did before, but now with no repercussions.
• We are talking about a new way of life
• Following a new master
• Letting God change us in new ways
This is all part of what you should be expecting and seeking in your life and you should be desiring and hoping that your friends actually get to see some of these changes in your life, but let's make sure that it's the right change. The change they should see is:
• That person that wasn't concerned about God at all, now is concerned that God is central in your life
• That we are humble
• That we have taken the place of being a learner of Christian values
• When they look at us they should be able to see love, not in huge and perfect measures, but they should be able to see an increasing measure love
• They should see joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control
We need to be prepared for new believers to begin to make their way into this Fellowship. My question is, are we ready for those new people. We can't get satisfied with just having great fellowship with other mature Christians, because God might need us, our particular gifts, our particular place in life, our age, whatever God wants to use, God might need that in order to support a new Christian, in order to form that new community of protection around them as this new person goes through these massive changes in life and has all of these relationships around them in turmoil.
• They need a place of Stability
• They need a place of Growth
• They need a place of Safety
• They need one place they can go and find some Peace
We are often called to be that new community and we have to ask ourselves, in our small group, in our ministry group are we ready for those new people? Or have we decided that we are sufficient as we are? We've got to be willing to get our hands messy sometimes, because you know if you are dealing with a newer Christian, you are going to be talking about things that you have already got settled in your life.
In closing, we have focused upon the New Believer. What about the older, mature Christians? What is the Word for Us?
• Whenever I look at those diet ads, one of the questions that I always ask myself is what do those people look like 3-5 years later?
• You know, we've got the picture at 11 months
• They have been on the diet program and they have dropped the weight, what about 3 or 5 years later?
• Are they still different?
• Because if they are still not different it hasn't really worked and you know, that's true for Christianity
• If people can't look at our lives after we walked with Christ for a while, and see a change, a profound change in some way, and we are not talking about perfection, but if they can't see a substantial and deep change, then that's a problem
People have a right to look at our lives. We can't go around as if we can say listen to what we say, but don't look at how we live. It doesn't work that way. Part of our witness is the witness of a changed life and so those of us who have been walking with Christ longer have to ask ourselves –
• What do people see when they get close to our families?
• What do people see when they get into our workplace?
• What do people see when we are on the golf course or our leisure?
• A real Christ will make Real difference in Real lives
--So what kind of church are we going to be at PPWC?
--We are talking about reaching out
--We are talking about sharing Christ, well what kind of church are we going to be as we share Christ?
--Are we going to be the kind of church that points to a few things; oh take a look at so and so, now that person really walks with God
--Oh, take a look at this person; they really walk with God, but underneath it all, RESULTS NOT TYPICAL
--Or are we going to be a community that although we are not perfect we are filled with changed lives?
--We are a community that is able to take a closer look, because we have found that Christ really does work in us and change us
--So let's ask God now to make a real difference in our lives
--We need to ask God to make a real difference in our lives, whether we are brand new at walking with Christ or whether we have been walking with Christ our whole lives, we've got to continue to ask God for that because it brings glory to Christ
--What brings glory to him is changing sinful people in to his own image
--So we pray for it because it brings glory to Christ and we pray for it because there is a needy world around it that will never believe what we say unless they see it lived in us
--It will look different for each and every one of us
--What Christ has done for me – Results Not Typical
--What Christ has done for the person next to you – Results Not Typical
--What Christ is doing in and through you - Results Not Typical
