1 PAUL S USE OF HIS FAITH STORY Sermon preached by Pastor C. John Steer Autumn Ridge Church, Rochester, MN March 25-26, 2017 No. 4: Case Studies in Evangelism Scripture: Acts 26:1-29 This is a sermon about stories. So we begin with three stories. Story One There was a man who was blind from birth. One day he met a rabbi. The rabbi made some mud with spit and put it in the man s eyes. He then commanded the man to go and wash in a pool. The man followed these instructions. To his delight was able to see for the first time in his life. This would have been great except that the actions were done on a Sabbath when no one was supposed to work. So the religious leaders interrogated the man explaining to him that the rabbi could not have been a good person because he didn t keep the Sabbath. The man responded Whether he is a sinner or not, I don t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see! Story Two Thomas Bilney lived 500 years ago during the turbulent days of the Protestant Reformation. He embraced the truth that salvation comes through faith in Christ and not by our good works. He wanted to make a difference in England but his influence was small. He was called Little Bilney for a reason. However, there was a great man called Hugh Latimer who was a powerful preacher. He hated Luther s new-fangled doctrine but Bilney thought if Latimer became a believer he could influence thousands. So one day when Latimer was preaching at Great St. Mary s Church in Cambridge, Bilney sat in the congregation. After the sermon Latimer was striding out of the church. As he passed Bilney sitting in the pew, Bilney grabbed the great man s robe and asked, Father Latimer, may I confess my heart to you? Latimer was a priest and so he took Little Bilney to the confessional. There Bilney confessed how he had put his faith in Jesus as his Savior and how he was trusting in Christ alone. Latimer was converted and became one of the great leaders of the Reformation.
2 Story Three On the 6 th of January 1850 it was snowing heavily in England. A 15 year old Charles Spurgeon set out to attend a church that had been recommended by his mother. But the snow was so deep he had to stop instead at a primitive Methodist chapel on Artillery Street in Colchester. The congregation was very small. Because of the snow the preacher was unable to get to church so one of the deacons stood up and did his best to fill in. He announced his text from Isaiah: Look unto me and be saved; for I am God, and there is no other." The man had not much else to say so he kept repeating his text. Then the lay preacher looked at his tiny congregation and said, Look unto me, that s all you have to do. A child can look. One who is almost an idiot can look. However weak or however poor a man may be, he can look. And if he looks the promise is he shall live. Then the man spotted young Charlie who was obviously a visitor. He pointed right at him and said, Young man you look very miserable. You will be miserable unless you listen to my text. For there is no chance of you getting rid of your sin except by looking to Jesus. Then he shouted, Look, look, young man! Look now! And Spurgeon did look to Christ that day and he was saved. The connecting thread between those three stories which are 1800 years apart is that they are faith stories. The blind man in John chapter nine couldn t answer the theological questions of the Pharisees but he could tell what had happened to him. Once he was blind but now he could see and Jesus was responsible. Little Bilney told Bishop Latimer in that confessional how he came to trust Christ and he did it so convincingly that Latimer realized that he needed to be saved. That layman told the story of his text so well that Spurgeon looked to Christ. He went on to become one of the greatest preachers of the 19 th century. Spurgeon believed that an ounce of personal testimony is like a pound of gun powder. It s explosive! Upstairs in my study I have all 56 volumes of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit. In each one Spurgeon gives an account of his conversion at least five times. We are in a series called CASE STUDIES IN EVANGELISM. We are trying to find out how the great characters of scripture told others about their hope in Christ. Today we look at PAUL S USE OF HIS FAITH STORY. The Apostle has much to teach us because our faith story may be the best way to explain our faith in the 21 st century.
3 In the past, evangelists like Billy Graham used huge crusades with great effect. Nowadays you can t use the word crusade and these large events seem to have lost their impact. Once upon a time open air preaching was a powerful tool. People like George Whitefield used it so effectively that thousands came to know Christ. But now, perhaps because everyone is so busy, people don t stop and listen. If they see a street preacher they just rush by. When I began in ministry, churches did door-to-door visitation. People would invite us in and sometimes we had the opportunity to explain the gospel. That doesn t work anymore. People are suspicious of strangers. If someone knocks at their door they think we are Mormons or Jehovah s Witnesses. However, a faith story works really well in the 21 st century. For today people tell of their experiences in ways that never happened in the past. Folk now talk frankly about being abused. Transsexuals gladly tell about their lives. Those suffering from addictions will honestly reveal their struggles. And because these are personal stories people listen respectfully. A faith story told well can make an impact even with people who don t believe. For they recognize the story is meaningful and important to the person telling it. So let s see what we can learn from Paul s use of his faith story. First, we notice that PAUL LOOKED FOR EVERY OPPORTUNITY. At least three times in Acts the Apostle gives his faith story. Paul always has his antenna out for an opportunity to tell what Christ has done for him. So when the Apostle is arrested in Jerusalem he addressed the crowd and tells them in Acts 22 how he met Jesus. Paul does a similar thing when he appears before Felix in Acts 24. He does it again in Acts 26 when he is on trial before King Agrippa. We have just heard what he said in our scripture reading. It is an amazing performance. Paul should be giving a defense for his life but instead he gives an explanation of his life. Paul is standing before a representative of the corrupt family of the Herods who for generations had set themselves in opposition to truth. Their founder, Herod the Great, had tried to destroy the infant Jesus. His son Antipas beheaded John the Baptist. His grandson Agrippa the First slaughtered James the son of Zebedee with a sword. And now here is Paul brought before Agrippa s son. Some might see this as a moment of terror. But Paul seizes it as a moment of testimony. So Paul s challenge to us is to look for every opportunity. They come in many shapes and sizes. An easy one is our Facebook page. There people reveal all sorts of details of their life, even showing a photo of the meal they are eating or their cat s latest antics.
4 We may not have a cat but we have Christ which is far better. I say that as a cat owner. Some of our staff team use their Facebook page well. This was a posting my colleague TJ Schultz made on Facebook. Erika Kelly runs Christos and her Facebook posts often describe how Jesus impacts her life. Wisely she shares great quotes from Spurgeon. The second thing we notice is that PAUL PREPARED HIS STORY. Paul had received a classical education at Tarsus University which included the study of rhetoric. Experts have found nine elements of Greek rhetoric in his faith story. So Paul is not winging it. Rather he has given great thought to what he wants to say. We find a certain similarity in all the descriptions of his conversion. I believe every Christian needs an elevator speech that describes their conversion. An elevator takes less than two minutes to go from the basement of a building to the top floor. In that time we should be able to tell someone about Jesus. Two minutes is about the length of Paul s speech to King Agrippa. There was more Paul could have said but he stuck to the main points. So what are the main points we want to highlight in our faith story? We want to explain how we became a Christian in such a way that our hearers can apply the truth to themselves. So I might say, There came a point in my life when I realized I was a sinner because I had broken God s law. I understood that I needed a Savior and that Jesus Christ is that Savior. So I confessed my sin and asked him to become my Lord. The Holy Spirit can use that and apply it to the hearer s situation because I have been expressing universal spiritual truths. Third, we see how PAUL RELATED TO HIS AUDIENCE. While his story is essentially the same Paul either emphasizes certain aspects or leaves out certain things depending on his listeners. So when he is speaking at his trial he begins, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today...especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies." (v.2-3) Agrippa knows about Jewish culture so Paul can refer to it. He won t do that before a Gentile audience. The Apostle goes on to emphasize his own Jewish heritage saying, I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee." (v.5) He knows Agrippa will understand what that means.
5 When Paul is speaking to the crowd in Jerusalem in Acts 22 he mentions great Jewish teachers like Gamaliel with whom they are familiar. In the same way we have to be aware of our audience and think what they are interested in. In my own case if I was talking to teenagers I would mention that I became a Christian at 16. If I was speaking to military personnel I could explain that the person who challenged me to believe in Christ was a Squadron Leader in the Royal Air Force. If I am talking to Christian leaders I might go on and tell them about my call to ministry and how that was an important step in my faith journey. Next we see that PAUL WAS HONEST ABOUT HIS LIFE. Dishonesty makes our faith story inauthentic. It is important we don t make ourselves look better than we are. I heard about a fellow who gave his faith story explaining that before he came to Christ there was no depravity to which he had not sunk. He had broken all of the Ten Commandments. He said My life was a cesspool of sin until I was wonderfully converted at the age of five. It is important that we are honest. Paul admits what his past was like when he tells King Agrippa, "I put many of the Lord s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities." (v.10-11) One of the lovely characteristics about the New Testament Christians is that they are never afraid to confess what they had been. Here Paul freely admits he tried to crush the name of Christ and to blast the Christians out of existence. There was a famous evangelist called Brownlow North. As a young man he lived an immoral life. One Sunday morning as he was about to preach in a church in Aberdeen, Scotland he was handed an envelope. The letter inside informed him that the writer had evidence of a disgraceful act which Brownlow North had done in his past. It went on to say that if Brownlow North preached that day the writer proposed to interrupt the service and tell the whole congregation about that event. Brownlow North took the letter into the pulpit. He read it to the congregation. He admitted that the accusation was true. He went on to say that Christ had changed him and that Christ could do the same for them. Brownlow North used the very evidence of his shame to illustrate the transforming power of Christ and to show that the great purpose of Christianity is to make bad people good.
6 Next we see that PAUL POINTED TO JESUS. The purpose of a faith story is to explain that our faith is in Jesus. So Paul s main focus is on the time he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. So he tells the king, As I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. (v.13-14) Now Paul doesn t believe in Jesus. He thinks Jesus is dead and so he asks, Who are you Lord? The response comes back, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. (v.15) We see that the center of Paul s message is the resurrection. His story is not about someone who lived and died but about someone who was present that day outside Damascus and is now alive forever. Paul next tells the king, So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven." (v.19) Paul realized who Jesus is. From that day he followed him. Then we see that PAUL URGED HIS LISTENERS TO BELIEVE. Paul wasn t telling a story for entertainment but for transformation. He explained to Agrippa that Christ can Open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." (v.18) These verses are a perfect summary of what Jesus does for us. First he opens our eyes when we confess him as our Savior. For when Christ comes into our life he enables us to see things we have never seen before. Our eyes which were fixed on ourselves now look with love on others. Then Jesus turns us from darkness to the light. Before we meet Christ we are facing the wrong way and because we have our back to the light, we walk in the shadows. But now we are walking towards the light and the way is clear before us. Then Jesus transfers us from the power of Satan to the power of God. He forgives us and establishes us in God s family. Paul wants Agrippa, who is a Jew, to understand that the promises of the Messiah are fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. So Christianity is no blasphemous denial of the faith of Israel. Rather it is Israel s true inheritance, its long-promised fulfillment and its greatest day.
7 So for a Jew to become a follower of The Way means affirming the Old Testament not denying it. King Agrippa gets the point and asks Paul, Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian? (v.28) Paul s response is inspired. Raising his manacled hands above his head and shaking his chains he replied, Short time or long I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains. (v.29) There is no evidence that Agrippa became a believer. Often evangelism is unsuccessful in the short term. But success lies also in the faithfulness of the witness we give. We also need to remember that often people need to hear the gospel many times before they accept it. One study suggests that the average person has to hear it seven times. So who is responsible for that person s salvation? The person who told them the gospel the first time or the seventh time? They all sowed the seed. It was the Holy Spirit who watered it and caused it to come to harvest. Every Tuesday morning our Pastors pray through the cards you drop in the offering buckets. Quite often someone will ask us to pray for a friend or family member to come to Christ. They write something like this: I pray that God will send someone to them to tell them the gospel. Perhaps you are that person. You are the answer to a parent s prayer, or a friend s longing. God is going to bring them across our path this week. Let s seize the moment for him.