Marks of a Healthy Church 4: The Conversion 2/06/ 2022

We're going to be looking at a sermon that Peter preached at pentecost last week we talked about the Gospel the Gospel message Gospel doctrine versus Gospel culture talked about how the message of Christ is God reconciling us to himself and you know when we when we ask when I come up here and preach and we talk about the Gospel or we talk about conversion you know one things that we ought to ask is what am I going to do with this now how does this impact my walk with Jesus Christ or how I ought it you know we also talked about Biblical theology and we talked about expository preaching but today we're talking about conversion that's what we're talking about it's Mark of the healthy churches having a Biblical understanding of what conversion actually means and so today I want to talk about three Biblical truths about conversion that we get from this passage and of course this is all underdone those three core characteristics of a church which is to be holy God calls us to holiness to be united united in our glory of the Lord and of course to be loving and so if you would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read acts chapter 2 we're going to be in verses 14 through 39. God's word says this but Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and addressed them men of judea and all who dwell in

Jerusalem let this be known to you and give ear to my words for these people are not drunk as you suppose since since it is the only the third hour of the day but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel and in the last days it shall be God declares I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below blood and fire and vapor of smoke the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood and before the day of the Lord comes the great and magnificent day and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved men of israel hear these words Jesus of nazareth a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men God raised him up losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it for David says concerning him I saw the Lord always before me for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced my flesh also will dwell in hope for you will not abandon my soul to hades or let your holy one see corruption you have made known to me the paths of life you will make me full of gladness with your presence brothers I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us

To this day being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that he was not abandoned to hades nor did his flesh see corruption this Jesus God raised up and of that we are witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing for David did not ascend into the heavens but he says himself or he himself says the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool let all the house of israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified and now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter with the rest of the apostles brothers what shall we do and Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself and so God we do ask that you would speak clearly to us today help us to learn these hard truths about conversion and God grant us understanding by the power of your Holy Spirit give us wisdom and how to apply it to our lives that we might go out from here knowing that we know you and knowing how to share the Gospel with a world that desperately needs hope and we love you in Jesus name amen

Hey is this cutting out a little bit a little bit okay we'll see if it starts cutting out I'll take the handheld mic so all right well Peter he is a man who had been with Christ for three and a half years he spent under the discipleship I guess being discipled by Jesus Christ and the evidence of him being with the Lord isn't simply his testimony but it is also the power that dwelt within him by the presence of the Holy Spirit this is what preachers back in the day called unction it means to be anointed with the spirit of God to have power to have holiness it's something that we as church capital c churches need to obtain again this idea of unction you see Peter he was the first to defend Christ but he was also the first to deny him he ran away from Christ in the garden yet he also ran to Christ from the boat the apostle Peter he had an encounter with Jesus and he trusted him and yet Peter had no power in and of himself you know what he needed as all of us do he needed the Holy Spirit of God so at pentecost the church received the spirit in tongues of fire they spoke in tongues before these men of jerusalem when we look at tongues in the Bible it's not just some heavenly language it is people speaking tongues that they didn't know that were actual languages in that time it was so much people thought they were drunk there was this commotion who are these people talking it was 9 00 a.m they were boozers apparently right so Peter he starts pointing out guys these these folks aren't drunk and he points to what is actually happening you see the Christ

With Jesus he preached the kingdom repent be reconciled to God turn away from the sin that you that you love and that you cling to that ultimately leaves you empty and unfulfilled and apart from God turn away from that and turn to the Lord by trusting in Jesus Christ this is the message that Jesus proclaimed that was the first thing that he said starting his public ministry was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and he tells people to be reconciled to God this of course is all about Jesus's death burial and resurrection and it ushered in the last days of which we are in we are in the last days right right now we've been in the last days since the first century and so we must never give ourselves over to desperation but give ourselves over to hope that Christ will return and establish his kingdom his visible kingdom where he will rule him reign in an earthly way because he's the only one that has the ability to give us lasting peace and so this was obviously marked by supernatural activity here at the day of pentecost and what kind of supernatural activity was happening well we talked about tongues a little bit but more importantly it's that men and women can be saved that they can have a relationship with God with God himself we can stand face to face with God not by any power of our own but because of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and if you don't know Jesus you can't stand before God you don't have it in your power and you see here that there were signs like prophecy and speaking in tongues and visions and all those kind of things

You know can God can God still use tongues I suppose he can I've never seen it done especially here in america you know you see guys like todd white going out and grab healing people's hips you know obviously he's just pulling their leg because he literally is [Laughter] thanks I'll be here all week you know can he yeah but we are commanded to pray and anoint people with oil we are commanded to do that can God still use signs you bet but we can never depend on these things to declare the Gospel Peter points out that these men and these women they weren't junk drunk they filled with the Holy Spirit of God and then he preached and he preached about the crucifixion the crucifixion was God's plan that God orchestrated he caused it you know foreknowledge doesn't simply mean to know beforehand because God was also sovereign in this situation he had a definite plan to crucify his only begotten son a definite plan he was delivered up to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God that he would kill his only son Jesus he was crucified he did actually die he was actually buried and he actually rose again but then Peter he starts talking about David here and you know I noticed when I kind of glanced up when I started talking about David some of you kind of went why is he talking about David now what does David have to do with any of that well remember that the jews they wanted a king to lead them they wanted a king to lead them out from being oppressed by rome they desired for Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom they actually tried to while Jesus was on earth but he refused

And you know why that is because it wasn't according to God's plan that was not why God sent his son to earth he came to earth not to deliver the earth from tyranny or from political enemies or from sickness that's ultimately not why Jesus came Jesus came to make a way for us to go to heaven and have a relationship with God that's why Jesus Christ came Jesus himself he said my kingdom it's not of this world and David he was of course the greatest king in the history of israel the jews they long for a return of that when they would be a city on a hill and a beacon of hope and they wanted that but what did they do with it when they had it they just they didn't go about preaching the kingdom they didn't go about sharing the good news of the Gospel in the old testament that Christ would indeed come they isolated and they made war David he was a king he was also a prophet too and he worshipped the Lord as a priest dancing in the streets of jerusalem but Jesus is the greater prophet priest and king of israel and that's what Peter is getting at he points out you can go to David's tomb right now and where is David he's still there and then he points to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and says you can go to the tomb but Jesus is not there look at what Peter says in verse 32 this Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit he poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing you see the evidence of God in your life is the presence of the Holy Spirit

You can't be saved and not have the Holy Spirit Peter quotes psalm chapter 110 verse 1 the Lord said my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool so if David called Jesus Lord and he was the greatest king in israel's history was shouldn't they also submit to the Lord of their Lord but they killed the Lord and now he's alive again you got to imagine that these people might think is he going to like get me I killed the king of last week we talked about how Peter was preaching and he killed the author of life if he kills if we kill the author of life that's very bad they ask what should we do and this is where Peter preaches the Gospel he says repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself in other words you must be converted you must be converted remember hearing a story that an evangelist told a drunk man came up to him and he said sir I'm one of your converts and he said yeah you probably are but you've never been converted to Christ to be converted it means to be changed completely to your core this is why Paul wrote Ephesians chapter two we were once dead in our trespasses and sins but now we are alive to Christ we were once children of darkness but now we are children of light we were once disobedient and now we follow the Lord and if you don't see things like life

And light and growing obedience to the commands of God then you've never been converted to Christ at least that's what the Bible says so conversion it means to be changed to your core and the evidence is of what we worship you see before Christ we weren't worshipers of God we were worshipers of self we were worshippers of pleasure we were worshipers of anything other than the Lord God even religion even the religious before God are religious for their own sake as sherry shared she said that she was part of seven different churches and all these Bible studies and you know all these different things they were serving and all it doesn't matter like you know that right like those things don't matter in the grand scheme of things God never called us to be religious he called us to repent the first Biblical truth about conversion is that we're called to be new not nice what I mean by that and this is a huge temptation as like a Christian parent I've got five kids so you know like I want them to be nice like Christians ought to be nice right like they ought to be but that's not what God calls us to if you look at first century jewish culture the best of the best people were probably the pharisees right they were the religious people they knew God's law maybe the sadducees they knew God's law they knew the commands they lived it out to the t you know they tithed of everything and they gave to the poor and they told prayers in the public square and they advised people and they did all these different things they were nice they were generous to the church they knew all the songs and all the prayers if you know the preacher was out on a sunday they could call one of the pharisees they could quote the torah many of them memorized the entire old testament and yet God wasn't pleased with them and Jesus actually called them whitewashed tombs they looked fine on the outside but their hearts were dead we're filled with bones you see God he sees your heart he sees your thoughts he knows what happens behind closed doors he sees the hidden things that you that you think he knows all of those things but yet only God can make the valley of dry bones filled with living people it takes a massive change that God has rotten our lives and we are called to respond not simply by praying a prayer or dedicating ourselves to do better or making a decision and things like that we must be born again how do you know if you're converted you can't just look at your past right like you need to look at your past yes but you can't just look at that you have to look at your present as well do you know God just take a moment as I ask that question because that's a big question do you know God do you have a relationship with them you see the calling of Christ is not to be nice but to be new are you new the Bible says in Christ we are new creations are you a new creation

I heard a story of a little girl that was out exploring the woods she comes to this tree's just covered in fat slimy caterpillars and she starts climbing and she accidentally touches one and it squishes in her hand and her hands covered in this brown icky goop and she screams and runs away a couple of weeks later she comes back and she decides to climb that same tree but instead you know what she finds is she finds a whole bunch of butterflies and she asks the butterfly butterflies where where'd all those fat sticky icky caterpillars go I said well we're still here we just changed have you been made new have you been changed my daughter lily she had to learn that lesson this week one things that she likes to do is she likes to make messes and you know she'll like just take glitter and just dump it you know and it's very frustrating especially for amber because she has to deal with those kind of things and you know I got that call I think it was monday monday or tuesday I can't remember it was before the snow and you know it's just been an ongoing battle and it came to the point where it wasn't it wasn't so much that she was just making messes because we get that kids make messes but it was the willful disobedience and I asked her like you know that what you're doing is wrong right because your mom's asked you like don't make a mess unless she gives you permission she said yeah we do give permission to do those kind of things you know

Yeah well you know what she just said she knew that what she had done was not just wrong but she willfully disobeyed her mom which of course affects her relationship with the Lord and I said honey what do you think that we should do she said dad I just I don't know and it's just so tempting we can we laugh at that because we think of glitter but ask yourself that question what's your glitter like what's the sparkly thing that makes you want to just make the mess and say well God will forgive me you know what my daughter decided to do was she decided she said I don't like the fact that I'm willfully disobeying my mom and my dad which ultimately affects my relationship with God those are my words not hers obviously but you know what happened was that she was broken up because of her sin and she said I just I just want it to go away and so she threw it away she threw away that stuff I mean just as my daughter had to forsake something in order to follow Christ better like I've had to surrender things to the Lord as well and I'm sure that you have too amen yeah it may be that relationship it might be your lifestyle choice maybe how you spend your time or attitude about a person or a situation second corinthians chapter 6 verse 14 it tells us though our outer self is wasting way our inner self is being renewed day by day Peter he calls the congregation that he's preaching to repent to turn away from that sin and to turn to God and it's it's more

Like just in doctrine it's more than just a confession it's a call to believe in the son of God when a pharisee came to visit Jesus at night his name was Nicodemus Jesus didn't say wow you were just totally impressive right now you know you can you can quote the torah you give and you're you're just so nice to people you know he wasn't impressed with his religiosity just in the same way that God is not impressed with my religiosity nor your religiosity you know what he says be born again you must be born again to inherit the kingdom of God you must be made new and when we're made new it rearranges everything it changes our priorities it changes our attitudes and different things like that let's take sin just as an example okay when we view sin oftentimes we view sin in terms of how it impacts our lives right like sin just messes things up for example my marriage is bad because of sin and so we present Jesus not as the solution for sin but as the solution to fix a marriage and so what happens is that okay well there's there's this subjective my marriage is not good it's very subjective to someone's emotions and thoughts and feelings and so the subjective solution is Jesus Jesus will fix it well who's to say that someone comes along and says okay well I have a bad marriage and I went to go get counseling and that really helped me help me to be nicer help me to be kinder my whole point in saying that is that yes Jesus will impact your marriage yes Jesus will impact your family yes Jesus will impact your work but that's not why Jesus came Jesus came to reconcile us to the father

And through that because we're made new because of all that type of stuff he's not just a solution for you know our crummy world Jesus is the solution for our sin that's the root cause when we're made new it rearranges everything this is why we're made new because the issue is bigger than oh we misbehave it's that we need a new heart we need a new mind we need life itself we must be reconciled to God the second Biblical truth is that we are saved not sincere best sermon I've ever heard preached was from a guy named ray comfort anyone ever heard of ray comfort okay I want you get out your phones and take out your camera and this qr code this will take you to the best sermon I've ever heard I've probably listened to it 40 50 times in my life it's called hell's best kept secret I'm asking you to take some time and listen to it this week it's an hour long sermon I'll post a link on facebook too I'll text it to you how about that John okay so this is a sermon on true and false conversion and I listened to it about 20 years ago was first time I heard it I've listened to it probably at least three times a year since and in there he talks about the myth of the sinner's prayer the sinner's prayer doesn't save you don't see the language asking Jesus into your heart anywhere in Scripture in it he says that the preacher says if you want to be saved you must sincerely pray this prayer in your heart sincerely and you better be sincerely sincere

As though as though salvation just merely depended upon our sincerity rather than the object of our salvation you see it's not just the sincerity of belief that saves but it is the person of Jesus Christ that the object of our faith that saves us Peter in his sermon he didn't call the jews to be sincere he called them to be saved saved from God's wrath we're saved by God's grace we don't we don't earn it through our efforts through our anxiousness through our service we don't earn salvation in any way shape or form remember that God he is he is under no obligation to love you he is under no obligation to save you and yet he does yet he does love you and yet he does desire to have a relationship with you he did he loved the world so much that he sent his only begotten son so that you whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life God is not under an obligation to love you or to save you and he doesn't love you because you chose him he chose you and he loves you not because of anything that you've done not because of any effort on your behalf but simply because of his love the third Biblical truth that we're going to talk about is conversion is you know really about discipleship not decisions it's about discipleship not decisions growing up I was a ricky henderson fan anyone know ricky henderson yeah all right if you've never seen a picture of him this is this is ricky henderson he was my hero I played played a lot yeah you see him stealing the base reason why is because he still holds the

Record for most bases stolen and most runs scored in baseball I played left field just like ricky I even had a glove that had his autograph in there you know I was it was cool right I was never really an oakland athletics fan but I pulled for them and occasionally for the blue jays while he played there that was tough but yeah I decided right then and there that I would be a lifelong ricky henderson fan and you know if you look at my life right now you can't even tell that I'm a baseball fan to be honest with you like I mean I mean there's there's really I think I've got a rangers hat from when I went with my pastor down in texas and some staff and stuff we went and I got a rangers ball cap which was cool so I got that just to remember brother lin bai and but if you look at my life like back in the day I could tell you all the stats I could tell you his batting average I could I could recite to you every single thing about ricky I could tell you his hometown I could tell you his favorite food I can't tell you that now and you know why it's because I'm not a disciple of his like I made a decision long ago but it doesn't have any impact on my life now very little occasionally I'll still watch baseball occasionally I'll see how the cardinals are doing or the royals are doing I might listen to it on the radio if it's on while I'm driving down the road but you can't tell that there was

Anything other than a distant decision other than yeah I used to be a ricky henderson fan I wonder how many people in here have said oh yeah I'm a fan of Jesus I like Jesus yeah he was born in nazareth he was crucified around easter that's why we celebrate that you might know some of the songs might be able to quote John 3 16. None of that matters none of that saves just simply because she made a decision a few years ago doesn't mean anything are you a disciple of Jesus Christ Jesus he didn't try to get people to make decisions in fact he did it the exact opposite Jesus he said if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me I don't know about that Jesus I don't know if I want to take this object of wrath and judgment and justice take that up daily and follow you and you know what happened is that Jesus his numbers swelled people were following him by the thousands they were following him every single day what is Jesus going to do today I bet she's going to heal someone I bet she's going to going to give us a free meal again and then Jesus started teaching like this and you know what happened to that church growth it plummeted so much to the point that the 5 000 men plus the women and children estimate over 12 000 maybe went down to 120 by pentecost and then Jesus started saying things like whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day for my flesh as true food and my blood is true drink whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him Jesus those are hard things for us to understand why are you teaching

Like that because he wanted us to know that it's not about decisions it's about being a disciple of his and being being willing to forsake it all in order to gain the kingdom of God when the rich young ruler came can I can I have how can I inherit eternal life Jesus didn't say hey hear this listen to this prayer all right just repeat after me and as long as you really mean it then I'll come into your heart he didn't say that he pointed back to what the man truly loved and what he truly worshiped he said obey my laws obey God's laws well I've done that since birth one thing you still lack sell all that you have and distribute to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me but when the rich young ruler heard these things he became very sad for he was extremely rich Jesus seeing that he had become sad said how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God and those who heard it said then who can be saved but he said what is impossible with man is possible with God when Peter preached this message the people they asked him what should we do Peter didn't simply just say repent he called them to visible action to be publicly baptized not that baptism saves but it visibly identifies us with Christ as an act of obedience but remember for these first century jews it was a call to a little bit more than that wasn't it they had to risk being cast out from society they had to risk being called a blasphemer and being put to death they had to risk losing their families and their businesses but yet God did a

Mighty work on this day on this pentecost day because people were willing to lay it all on the line because they were converted by the power of the Gospel message are you are you converted do you know Jesus is he the object of your worship is he the object of your trust I don't mean do you come to church or give or serve I mean are you a worshiper of God do you love him do you know him where's the evidence are you growing in obedience to him some of you say cody I've been converted I know that I'm converted I know that I'm saved how c maybe maybe some of you were like well maybe I'm a false convert I don't know here are some evidences of being a false convert a false convert gets excited about heaven but church and Christians bore you rather a Christian they love being with the Lord they love being with other believers they love fellowshipping with each other do you love that's my timer by the way a false convert they think that heaven will be great whether or not God is there they're just looking forward to being reunited with family and walking the streets of gold and seeing the you know all the beautiful sights of heaven it'd be fine if God was there or not but believers you know what we desire we desire Christ we desire fellowship and intimacy with God and not just the peace of heaven false converts they like Jesus but they could do without the rest like accountability and obedience and holiness and suffering and surrender but Christians understand that Jesus

Calls us to discipleship a false convert they can't tell the difference between obedience motivated by love and legalism false converts are bothered by cultural sins and other sins other people's sins more than their own but Christians we're eager to confess our own sins and to get right with the Lord and to turn away from sin a false convert thinks that grace is cheap and your comfort is costly but believers know that grace is extremely costly and that giving in to our own desires is cheap false converts think that the Gospel never demands a change but converts to Christ know that the Gospel changes everything are you saved are you new are you a disciple if not what are you going to do with this message are you going to be reconciled to God or will you stay content so I'll tell you what Peter said here at the end repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself are you and everyone are you someone that the Lord is calling right now of course the evidence of salvation is a minimum belief it's not just saying that we believe faith it's it's more than just mental assent and mental agreement in other words you can say and think in all the right things and not have salvation the evidence is how we conduct our lives in light of the belief do you believe

Where's the evidence remember that the whole point in Jesus coming was to become was to be reconciled to the father for us to be the perfect sinless lamb of God came to make a way and so ask yourself what are you going to do with Jesus head hand heart I want you to know that the evidence of conversion is loving and worshiping the Lord it's the evidence I mean just do you have an affection for him but do you live like you love him I love my wife I spend time with my wife I talk with my wife I love being around her she's my favorite person I love being snowed in with her do you love the Lord greater than your best friend more intimately than your closest lover heart I want you to believe that you must turn to God to be converted you can't give enough can't serve enough can't do enough to be reconciled to God you must be born again and converted by faith sorry that was heart hand I want you to take time I want you to examine your life this week and find out are you in Christ because there's no greater greater thing that you can do than examine yourself and make sure that you're in the faith so God we do love you and we thank you for this wonderful day and we thank you for the testimonies and worship and God I just pray that today that there's anyone here that needs to be reconciled to God that they would share that I'm saved I believe I've

Been born again I've been converted Lord let them know that they've got a church here that wants to support them and disciple them and grow them in the grace of Jesus Christ as we all stand together and we worship we just pray that you would continue to do a great work in our midst in Jesus name amen let's stand let's worship together [Music] amazing grace [Music] like me once was lost [Music] was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears did [Music] and so God we do thank you for drawing us to yourself Lord if there's anyone here that maybe they have questions about what it means Lord just prompt them to talk to someone Lord let it be me let it be another believer here but let none of us leave here without knowing that we are in you and God I pray that you would just send us forth now as ambassadors Lord I pray for a blessing for our brothers and sisters up at resonate church God as they are singing loud and worshipping you God bless their Gospel ministry and Lord for the many believers in our community around the world we pray that we would all be salt and light that people would be able to look upon us and see the hope of Jesus Christ it