Series: Marks of a Healthy Church Text: 1 Thessalonians/Ephesians 2 Message #4 Introduction
1.Some of you have gone to the doctor for perhaps a routine check-up and you are told that there are some serious issues and if you want to survive, you must change. As a result of that one encounter, the remainder of your life is potentially altered. Some change. Some change for a while. Some don’t bother, figuring to take their chances.
2.The Bible presents people as existing in a particular manner, that, however they might feel about themselves, or their lives, they are in serious trouble and they need a complete change, a complete makeover that does not even resemble the original. People need a complete change, a total turnaround, a transformation. The Bible word for this change is conversion. (The technical meaning of conversion is “to turn”).
3.Most people are somewhat familiar with the term conversion or converted. Sometimes unbelievers joke about someone needing to be converted. If you are truly a believer, you have been converted. A conversion has taken place in your life. One passage that effectively expresses the concept of conversion is found in Ephesians 2. Listen to the first ten verses.
4.Paul indicates that prior to conversion we were walking dead people. We followed the course of the world. We were under the influence of Satan (“the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience”). We were pretty much controlled by the passions of our flesh, giving in regularly to whatever we desired. We were on the fast track to coming face to face with the wrath of God – and we certainly deserved His judgment, though at the time we had no idea why.
5.Unlike what might have happened at the doctor’s office, we were unaware that we were in trouble and even if we did know something needed to be changed, we lacked the ability to do anything about it.
6.That is where the Biblical doctrine of conversion needs to be understood. We need more than the equivalent of a spiritual New Year’s Resolution. We need a total change. And what we need is beyond our ability to perform. So what is Biblical conversion and how does it work?
I. BIBLICAL CONVERSION IS CHANGE
A.Why change is necessary
1.For the Thessalonians – I mentioned last week that these people were for the most part idol-worshipping pagans who had no use for the God of Scripture. To turn to God as He is revealed in Scripture, and away from those idols, would be a monumental change!
2.For the Ephesians – Paul’s message to these people was that they were dead in sin, following Satan, acting out their fleshly passions and on a collision course with the wrath of God! Making an adjustment in their lifestyles would be sort of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Change was necessary but impossible without divine intervention.
B.What change is needed
1.There is quite a range in understanding what kind of change is needed. For example, when Gandhi spoke of conversion, he meant that we needed the conversion of self-purification or self-realization. Among other things, it was a kind of “pick yourself up by your own bootstraps” mentality mixed in with a get to know yourself and the god within you.
2.If we can trust the Biblical description of the unregenerate person (and we can), then we need resurrection, not rearrangement; we need to be reborn, not mere reform; we need to be transformed from the inside, not just whitewashed on the outside; we need to be heading in the direction of heaven and not sliding on the highway to hell.
C. What such change will look like
1.Clearly for the Thessalonians, when they were converted, everything changed. Their worship changed – from idols to God. Their service changed – from mocking the Gospel and punishing the messengers of the Gospel, to embracing the Gospel and enduring persecution for the sake of the Gospel. Their heart changed – from enemies of God and haters of God’s people to pleasers of God and imitators of the dearest of saints. Their mission changed – from fulfilling their own desires to making the name of Christ known regardless of personal cost.
2.Conversion change is always at least two-directional. It involves a change in the heart toward God (repentance), and a belief and trust in Christ (faith). How often have we heard that we must repent of our sins and believe the Gospel. The result of such repentance and faith is the Biblical concept of conversion. Stating it again, conversion, is more than a mental acceptance or resolve (decision oriented – a kind of spiritual New Year’s resolution, where I resolve to be different). Conversion is more than moral resolve (cleaning up my act in order to be acceptable to God). Conversion is a divine act of turning us around and changing us thoroughly from the inside out. Let’s explore that.
II. BIBLICAL CONVERSION IS THE WORK OF GOD (There is lot of confusion here as to the part we play in our conversion. Several questions are asked).
A. Does that mean that we do everything?
1.Many would reduce conversion to a basic decision. I decide to follow Jesus and do whatever it takes to be accepted by Him and to follow after Him. In large part that has been the message of evangelical Christianity for the past 100-150 years.
2.To be fair, most evangelicals would readily admit they can only “decide” by God’s grace. And if God did not make the provision of salvation possible by sending His own Son to die in our place, there could be no conversion. In other words, that which had to be done by God was done, making salvation possible. However, typically evangelicals teach that, I, by my decision, make conversion effective for me. So maybe my salvation is not totally up to me, but I play a huge factor in it. Is that Biblical conversion? At least, many would teach, that I hold the key to conversion.
B.Does that mean we do nothing?
1.There is a sense in which we cannot do anything because we are dead in sin and thus cannot respond without outside intervention. However, to suggest that we do nothing may be misleading.
2.Clearly there is a call to turn to God (that is faith) from idols (that is repentance from all that I have put before God). What we are turning from is sin and what we are turning toward is the Gospel, which we considered last week.
3.The question at hand is how do we respond to God in repentance and faith? How is it possible for a dead, condemned sinner, who is blind to the Gospel and an enemy of God, to be converted? If I appeal to the justice or fairness of God, I am doomed because I have already been found guilty and the sentence of condemnation has already been determined. I really do deserve to be condemned. (That is a problem today because many simply do not believe that to be true, but it clearly is the teaching of Scripture). If my conversion depends on God (and surely it does since I cannot save myself) then I can only appeal to His mercy to spare me His judgment, and to His grace to provide me with salvation, a salvation, which I clearly in no way deserve.
C. Does that mean that God works and we respond? (Is this a joint effort here)?
1.Almost all evangelicals would agree that some intervention by God is necessary for conversion to occur. Ezekiel used the analogy of a heart transplant, saying that God would remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. Jesus used the picture of a new birth, saying that we must be born again. In that same passage He spoke of salvation as the wind blowing wherever it wills, suggesting something about the nature of salvation as that which is controlled by the will of God. Lazarus was the example of God calling out that which was dead and bringing that one to life. Paul takes that illustration and often speaks of our condition as dead, and thus in need of resurrection. Both the OT and the NT speak about the Holy Spirit’s activity in bringing life from the dead. Both testaments also speak of the power of the Word of God to accomplish the will of God in regard to our salvation. Paul and Luke speak of both repentance and faith as gifts of God.
2.If we put these truths together we can formulate a pretty clear picture of Biblical conversion. God is at work, by His Holy Spirit through His holy Word, calling out a people who are lost and dead in sin. As He calls them, He quickens them so that they can respond to His call. That response is a response of repentance (turning from sin) and faith (turning to God). Both of these responses He has enabled by His grace. The one who has been called by God, and quickened by God, is said to have been converted (that is turned around, changed into a new creation in Christ Jesus).
3.Such a turning to God has absolutely been a willing response by us. We turned to Him because we wanted to. However, that response of faith was enabled by Christ. So salvation (or in this case I am using the term conversion) is the grand work of God. It is not of my own doing. He paid for my sins and He turned me around. (Expressed in the New Hampshire Confession of Faith Article VIII – Dever, pp. 95-96 - We believe that Repentance and Faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet and Priest and King, and relying on Him alone as the only and all sufficient Saviour).
III. BIBLICAL CONVERSION IS ABOUT US IN OUR RELATION TO GOD
A.The illustration and testimony of the conversion of the Apostle Paul (The actual account is recorded in Acts 9. Paul’s testimony of this account occurs in both Acts 22 and 26)
1. A total change in direction – Each of these accounts makes clear that Paul hated “the Way” and desired to destroy the movement. Chapter 9 says that he was “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Paul was persecuting both men and women, which involved imprisonment and in many cases death. He had secured authority from the chief priests to travel to foreign cities to take these people as prisoners and to bring them back to Jerusalem to be tried and likely executed. Paul told Agrippa that, “I punished them often in the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.” Yet almost immediately after Paul’s conversion, he is seen in the synagogues proclaiming Jesus as “the Son of God” and “proving that Jesus was the Christ.” He said to Agrippa, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.” Literally Paul was stopped in his tracks and turned around by the good hand of God.
2. A total change in devotion – What began as intense hatred toward the Lord Jesus and a desire to destroy all who would follow Him, became a passion to make Christ known regardless of the cost. Paul’s enemies became his friends and his friends became his enemies. We went from the hunter to the hunted. This was clearly a work of God who called Paul out of darkness and placed him in the kingdom of light.
B.The skepticism and caution concerning the conversion of the Apostle Paul
1. The reluctance of Ananias - Paul’s reputation had grown to the point that he as seen as the hatchet man for the Jews to destroy this sect that was identified with Jesus Christ. God had met Paul and changed Paul and now Paul was in Damascus, in the house of Judas on Straight Street, blind and uncertain what to do. God told one of His followers, Ananias to go to the house and lay hands on Paul so that he might receive his sight. Ananias’ reluctance is understandable: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints… That was in Damascus. The change was so evident, that the Jews now were plotting Paul’s murder! So he escapes to Jerusalem – but does he go into hiding? No, he attempts to hook up with the disciples of Jesus. But that was a problem for them!
2. The resistance of the disciples – Acts 9:26 tells us that the disciples were afraid of Paul. They did not believe that his conversion was real. It was only after the testimony and encouragement of Barnabas that Paul was accepted. His response was to boldly proclaim Christ.
Conclusion
1.Is it not amazing to read of the Paul before Acts 9 and then to read of this Paul in such places as 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8, 11-12? He was truly converted, totally changed, by the work of God.
2.Did Paul repent and believe? Absolutely! Did his life change 180 degrees? Most certainly! Did Paul choose to follow Jesus and serve Him with his whole heart regardless of the cost? That is true! But in each of these statements it was a result of the work of God to bring about this undeniable change.
3.A healthy church will understand the Biblical doctrine of conversion. Thank God that it is a work of God. And as a work of God it is good and perfect and lasting and effective. |
