Conversion – What is conversion – And why should we worry about it
Webster defines conversion as something that’s converted from one use to another
• We take something that’s being used for one thing
• And we change it so that it can be used for a something else
• Something completely different from what it originally was intended to be used for
Now the 1st rule in the conversion process is that there has to be a need for the thing to be converted
• There has to be something wrong with it in the first place
• There has to be a need for the change
• Remember the old saying if it aint broke don’t fix it
• Numbers – Measurements – Currency This is gonna mess us up for a while
• Vans = conversions
• Furnaces= Gas to propane
• School bus = Campers
• Bottom line is that we’re making something new out of something old
This is what we see in today’s text
• Paul who is still Saul at this point is going through a conversion
• There’s a need for Saul to be converted – changed
Read Acts 9:1-9
Saul’s Conversion
9 Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
3 As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?” 5 “Who are you, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!
6 Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! 8 Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. 9 He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
Now the first thing we see
• Is that there is a huge difference between the Saul we see in verse 1
• And the Saul we see in verse 8
• One minute he’s storming up the road, determined to capture and imprison Christians.
• And the next he’s being led like a child by the hand into Damascus.
And what we see through this process is that
• God’s grace is often shown through powerful acts
• And what appears on the surface to be catastrophes.
• Believe it or not in life good things can come out of bad situations
And here we see here that there isn’t just one but two needs for conversion
• First we see Saul’s need for conversion
• He was Persecuting Christians
In verse 2 He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.
• Now The Way” (9:2) was what Christians were called before they were called Christians
• And what it meant was, “the way of salvation”
• (Followers of Jesus who was the Way of Salvation)
So here we see Saul traveling down the road and Jesus calls him out
• Jesus asks Saul the question, Why do you persecute Me?
• And what we need to understand is that Saul wasn’t tormenting Jesus Himself
• He was tormenting the followers of Jesus
• And The reason that this statement is so important
• Is because it shows the union,
• It shows the relationship between Jesus and His church.
By saying “Me” this gave Saul his first glimpse
• Of the relationship that we have in Christ.
• That we aren’t alone and He is always with us
But at the same time we need to understand that this conversion was personal
• That this encounter was all about Jesus and Saul – And Nobody Else
• We know this because in vs 7 it says
• 7 That the men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one!
But Saul had heard the voice of Jesus and
• And He’d seen Him as well
• He saw Him in the form of a light from heaven.
Saul needed to see Jesus because it assured his role as an Apostle
• In Acts 1:21-26, we see the qualification for Matthias,
• Matthias was chosen as an apostle after Judas’s death,
• Because an apostle is someone who is sent out by someone (Jesus)
• And the Qualification is that they be an eyewitness: (See Him after the Resurrection )
• Matthias was with Jesus from the time of John the Baptist
• Through His death and His resurrection.
Saul later tells us in 1 Cor. 9:1
Am I not as free as anyone else? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes? ( 1 Cor. 9:1).
But now after he sees Jesus and after he Hears Jesus
• He suddenly finds himself on the ground! (Acts 9:4)
• This wasn’t a heat stroke (He got overcome by the heat of the day)
• This wasn’t an attack of epilepsy, (He wasn’t sick)
• It was a personal meeting with Jesus Christ that brought him down
• This encounter had humbled him / It changed him /
• This was the moment of his conversion
• Something old had now been turned into something new
And the men who were with him, Got down with him(Acts 26:14)
• They heard the sound,
• They heard Saul talking to someone,
• But they didn’t understand what was being said.
• And they didn’t have a clue as to what was happening.
This brings us to the second need for conversion
• The second need was that it was part of God’s plan
• Ya see God wanted Saul - God needed Saul
• We see this in verse 9:15:
• Where Jesus is talking to Ananias and He tells him
• (Explain Situation not wanting to go because of Saul’s reputation)
Ac 9:15 But the Lord said, “Go and do what I say. For Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel.
And what makes this verse so important
• Is we see that God chose someone that the rest of us probably wouldn’t have
• And God does this a lot in life
• He chooses some of the most unlikely candidates to be part of His plan
This confrontation betwen Jesus and Saul
• Brought about a radical change to Saul’s life.
• So radical that he changed his name
• Your name is your identity and now Saul becomes Paul he was completely new
Saul had discovered that this Jesus from Nazareth
• Really had been the One that they had been waiting for
• He really was The promised One,
Now maybe we wouldn’t think that Saul was a good choice
• And that’s because we tend to look at the outside of people
• What WE can visually see
• Here was a man who went around grabbing God’s people
• Putting them in chains and dragging them back to Jerusalem
• He was a man who uttered threats with in every breath
• And whose main goal was to kill the Lord’s followers.
• This doesn’t sound like the best choice for a PR man
• But it fit God’s plan- It fit His need –
• And because of this there was a need for conversion
• Saul’s conversion shows how God overcomes all the things
• That get in the way of the gospel message.
You see it’s through God’s power,
• That even the worst persecutor of the church
• The churches biggest physical enemy
• Was changed into its most influential evangelist.
Personal application.
• The person least likely to convert often makes the most committed Christian.
• People that you know -Unlikely candidates for God’s work (examples)
We have to understand that each one of us has our own needs for conversion
• We may not be as bad as Saul
• But each and everyone one of us needs to be converted
Why
• Because each one us needs improvement-
• Each one of us needs to continue in our conversion processes
• We all have areas of our lives that need work (examples)
• And we all need to have that personal relationship with God
God has a need for each one of us
• To do His work – To be disciples
• To do what He needs us to do - To spread the message
• Saul’s job was to take the message to the Gentiles
And we need to understand that this is our job as well
• We are to take his message to all (the Gentiles)
• Everyone Who hasn’t heard about Jesus Christ
• So that they too may begin their conversion process
Invitation
