Introduction
I just love hearing the testimonies of people
who have come to know the Lord. Don’t you? I always find listening to
testimonies both interesting and encouraging.
Some speak of the change from a notoriously
sinful lifestyle. Others come from people who have always been law-abiding
citizens.
Some are about sudden conversions. Others are about
a more gradual process.
Some speak of a great personal cost involved, like
complete rejection from parents. Others result in obvious blessing.
Some are absolutely sensational. Others are much
more ordinary.
Have you got a testimony? I mean by that a
brief summary of how you came to be a follower of Jesus. Ideally it should be
short - about a minute or two is perfect - it should contain no religious
jargon and it should describe three things;
·
what your life was like before you
were a Christian
·
the circumstances in which you
came to believe in Jesus
·
the difference it has made since
I wonder if you could you say something along
those lines if someone came up to you today and asked you to do so?
Well, we’ve all heard testimonies and some are
so amazing you have to pinch yourself and wonder if it’s real. Saul’s Damascus
Road conversion was like that.
But how can you tell if a testimony is
genuine? The passage we just read has five tests that tell you if a testimony
is real or not and we’re going to go through them one by one.
1. The Test of Endurance
Firstly, the test of endurance. In other
words, does it last? The thing I’m most interested in is not the lifestyle before conversion, however sensational it
might be, nor is it the experience of conversion
itself, however stunning it might be. I’m most interested in hearing about the
resulting life change after
conversion.
I’ve heard many testimonies over the years from
people who can talk enthusiastically about what happened to them 5, 10 or 20
years ago but who stop short of explaining what has happened in their lives since.
But the real test of a genuine conversion in
the Bible is what happens afterwards.
How do we know that Saul’s conversion was real?
Is it because he fell down on the Damascus Road? Is it because he was blinded
by a bright light and heard the audible voice of God? Not really.
We know it was genuine because 40 years later,
in the last chapter of the last letter he wrote, as he awaited death by
beheading, he was able to say this: “I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
And the New Testament is crystal clear on
this; it is those who persevere to the end who will be saved.
2. The Test of Witness
Secondly, the test of witness. Is there a
readiness to tell others? When we left Saul last Sunday morning, it was three
days after his conversion, in a room in central Damascus, his blinded eyes reopened,
newly baptized and fed after going without food or drink for 36 hours.
Verse 20 says that he started to talk to
others about his new faith straight away. It’s probably easiest to do this when
it’s all new. Becoming a Christian is a bit like when there’s a new baby in the
family – you can’t really help yourself wanting to tell others. But although
new Christians are often the most uninhibited at sharing their faith, they’re not
always the most tactful.
I lost a lot of friends in the year I became a
Christian. I couldn’t see why virtually everyone I spoke to just didn’t get it.
It all seemed so clear, so obvious to me that Jesus is alive, and I didn’t
understand why so few wanted to know more and why people were starting avoiding
me.
Nicky Gumbel had a similar experience. Here’s
how it went for him. “After I’d been a Christian for about ten days I went to a
party and I was determined to tell the first person I saw about Jesus. I had discovered
that there were three things that you had to do. The first thing was to establish
their need for Jesus. So I didn’t want any small talk, I went straight up to this
woman called Pippa and said, “Hello, Pippa, you look awful! You really need
Jesus!”
I find that Christians sometimes think to
themselves; it would be easier to witness if only I was somewhere else. I
wonder if you ever think that.
That’s one of the reasons we are doing the
Journeys course. It’s a no pressure, no intensity, zero cringe factor
environment in which people can see examples of incredibly changed lives and
say what they think if they want to.
One of my predecessors here David Osman used
to say to people, “When you get to heaven, Jesus is going to ask you who you’ve
brought with you.”
So is there anyone you know who is even
vaguely interested in what being a Christian is like? Invite them to Journeys
and come with them.
Anyway, people were astonished at Saul’s
changed life. “Isn’t this the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem…?” they asked
in v21. But by v23 they’d had enough and were determined to be done with him.
Tom Wright noticed a pattern here. “Wherever
Saint Paul went, there was a riot,” he said; “Wherever I go, they serve tea!”
There’s always going to be some whose hearts
are moved by the Holy Spirit and some who react with indifference or even irritation.
That’s exactly what we should expect.
That’s why Jesus said “You are the salt of the
earth.” Salt does agreeable things like seasoning and purifying. But salt also makes
you itch. Real Christianity rubs this world up the wrong way.
What was rubbing the synagogue members in
Damascus the wrong way was that, as v22 says, Paul was proving from Old
Testament that Jesus is the Messiah.
Mathematician Peter Stoner has
calculated that the probability of just eight Old Testament predictions being
fulfilled in one person is about one chance in one hundred million billion
(which is more than the total number of people who’ve ever lived). That’s
just eight prophecies.
There are of course many more
prophecies about the Messiah that Jesus fits perfectly. If only eight
predictions are sufficient to establish beyond reasonable doubt that a
particular individual fits the description we can be extremely confident that Jesus
is the real deal.
I think Saul’s case would have included things like this:
Genesis 12.3 says that, of
all human families, the whole earth will be blessed by a descendant of Abraham.
Genesis 17.19 adds that this
promised bearer of blessing will be a descendant of Isaac (not Ishmael).
Genesis 49.10 affirms that he
will be from the tribe of Judah (not from any of the other 11 tribes of Jacob).
Jeremiah 23.5-6 states that
he will be a descendant of David (not of any of Jesse's other seven sons nor
indeed from any other descendant of Judah).
These four specific branches of
the Messiah’s family tree are all confirmed in Jesus’ two genealogies in
Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels. Matthew traces Jesus’ legal descent
through his adoptive father Joseph, and Luke traces his blood descent
through his natural mother Mary.
Then Micah 5.2 stresses that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, not in Beirut or Blackburn or Boston – or anywhere else for that matter. And of course he was.
Isaiah 61 says that he will
have a message of good news for the poor and will bind up the broken-hearted.
This is indisputably a feature in all four Gospels.
But the really heavyweight
prophetic fulfilments concern not Jesus’ origins, nor his birth, nor his public
ministry, but his death and resurrection.
Psalm 22 for example, written
about 1000 BC, is an awesome prophetic vision of the Messiah’s sufferings. It
tells of a man in extreme agony, thirsty, rejected and shown contempt, his
clothes gambled for and his hands and feet pierced.
This is particularly remarkable
because the Jewish form of capital punishment at the time this Psalm was
written was stoning. But this speaks of crucifixion. It says “they have pierced
my hands and my feet.” Well, crucifixion was a form of execution devised by the
Romans at least four centuries after Psalm
22 was written.
Then Isaiah 53, written about 750 BC, presents of a figure who will be cast aside by his own people, unjustly condemned without protest, horribly disfigured by his beatings, pierced by his killers (for whom he will pray), die from his injuries, be executed with wrongdoers, be buried with the rich and, after death, see the light of life again and be satisfied.
The sharpness of focus in this
picture of Jesus - his trial, his flogging, his crucifixion, his burial
arrangements and his resurrection - is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
And it doesn’t just tell you what
will happen. It even tells you what it means.
Ten times in that one chapter
Isaiah says that this figure, this suffering servant, will somehow take
upon himself all the sorrows, sickness and sinfulness of fallen humanity - and
pay for them, bringing healing and salvation through his sufferings.
That’s just a small selection.
There are more prophecies I could add. According to Peter Stoner’s calculations
of probability, this easily meets the standard of proof beyond all reasonable
doubt and that’s the sort of evidence Saul must have put before his fellow Jews
in Damascus.
Can I just encourage you, if you’re
more of the thinking type than the emotional type – that’s the way I’m wired as
well – sometimes our greatest battles to stay on track in our relationship with
Christ are to do with the coherent credibility of our faith. That’s under
attack more than ever before.
But the astonishing accuracy of
Old Testament prophecy and the witness it bears to Jesus is a sharp,
double-edged sword against doubt and unbelief.
3. The Test of Devotion
Thirdly, the test of devotion. Does the
person giving the testimony have a heart for God? We need to do a bit of
detective work now on v23 which says, “After many days had gone by, there was a
conspiracy amongst the Jews to kill him.” How many days?
If you look up Galatians 1.17-18 you find that
he actually spent three years in solitude in Arabia.
We know very little about that time but most
people agree that it was a deliberate season of coming aside to be with the
Lord. He spent weeks and months in the Lord’s presence, coming to terms with
his new identity.
This must have been when he received his call
to be an apostle. This must have been when he had those surpassing revelations.
This must have been when his lawyer’s mind gathered all the evidence together
and came up with the gospel of grace by which the guilty are acquitted.
I wonder if the Lord is speaking to you about
coming aside to be with him, to devote time to freshly hear his voice again?
4. The Test of Disappointment with Church
Fourthly, perhaps the hardest of all; the
test of disappointment with the church. Is there a readiness to forgive
personal hurt? By v26, Saul was back in Jerusalem via a basket down the city
wall. But he found that the Christians there were very wary of him. They were
suspicious.
You can understand why. How would you feel if
the man responsible for putting your husband or your father or your daughter in
jail was trying to find his way into your underground church? You’d wonder if
he was a spy wouldn’t you? You’d struggle to believe it I’m sure. And we’re
told in v26 that the church in Jerusalem were fearful and didn’t believe it.
It’s really sad when the church fails to
readily accept a new Christian because they know about their past. I am quite
sure there would be people who would be very wary if a male prostitute or an
axe murder or a paedophile or a wife beater got converted in prison and joined
this church. I’d be one of them. I would be anxious, let me confess it openly.
How do you know if it’s a real conversion?
Well, this is what Saul faced when he arrived
in Jerusalem. He tried to join a church who didn’t want him because they judged
him on his past.
But he demonstrated the genuineness of his
testimony because he didn’t take offence. He didn’t slag the church off as
hypocrites. He didn’t allow himself to become bitter.
Nobody wanted his sort in their church. Except
for one man who spoke up for Saul who presented evidence for his changed life;
and his name was Barnabas. His name was actually Joseph but they gave him a
nickname because he was such a blessing to everyone. Barnabas means Son of
Encouragement.
What would be your nickname that people in
this church would give you? What’s the thing that sums you up best? Son of
encouragement? Daughter of wisdom? Son of joy? Daughter of servant-heartedness?
Son of enthusiasm? Daughter of generosity?
5. The Test of a Changed Life
The final test is the test of a changed life. Your testimony is genuine if your values have altered forever. Something very
beautiful and exciting happened in v29. Wonder if you’ve seen the significance
of it.
It says “Saul talked and debated with the
Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him.” It’s the kind of detail you
might skip over, but if you cast your memory back to chapter 6, 7 and 8, you’ll
realise that these were the very same people that Stephen had witnessed to;
Greek-speaking Jews based in Jerusalem.
“They couldn’t stand up to Stephen’s wisdom
the Spirit gave him as he spoke” it says so they seized him, charged him, tried
him and dragged him off to stone him.
And Saul held their coats, approving every rock
as it thudded into his broken body.
But now Saul’s in Stephen’s place, continuing
his work, taking up his ministry. It was a risky thing to do and they decided to
kill him too so once again Saul was spirited away for his own safety.
But look, that’s a changed life. When your
testimony is genuine you will hate the sinful things you once loved and love
the godly things you once hated.
No argument is more convincing than the
testimony of a changed life. People might not agree with what you believe, but
they can’t deny a clear transformation in you.
I heard that my predecessor Alan Farish bumped
into Katrina here a few months ago. He hadn’t heard that she’d become a
Christian but their paths crossed in Stockton High Street I think. They had a
brief conversation and he said to someone, “Wow, she’s changed! What’s happened
to her?” I’ll tell you what’s happened to her. She’s met Jesus! And Jesus changes
lives.
Next week, as we look at the raising of Dorcas
from the dead, we’ve got a visiting speaker, Paul McWilliams who will talk
about the amazing way he found Jesus at death’s open door. You won’t want to
miss it.
Ending
Well,
I should stop now. But I want to say one last thing.
Simon Guillebaud was living in Burundi and
Rwanda in the first few years of this century. At that time the area reaching
across those two countries was declared the most dangerous war zone on earth. Several
times his life was threatened at gunpoint. He was a marked man. But even when
it got as bad as it can get his testimony was this:
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 5th October 2014
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