Defending the Gospel Part 2

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Defending the Gospel Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 22 to 26.

Friends, the only way to heaven is for you to acknowledge that you’re a sinner, and to believe in your heart that Christ died for your sins, and to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. And apart from that, friends, it is a relationship with Jesus Christ that you need to have. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders, senior pastor of the Open Door Church in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and thank you for tuning in and being a part of Hopeworth Having Radio program. Today, we’re gonna be back in the book of Acts chapter 22, and we’re continuing our study on defending the gospel.

Was anyone more eloquent and more determined and persevering in defending the gospel than the apostle Paul? I think not, but we certainly can learn from his life. So join me as we begin to study the bible together. And the apostle shares how Jesus interrupted his life. Would you notice that now it happened as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shown around me, and I fell to the ground.

And I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? So I answered, who are you, lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting. And those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of him who spoke to me. So I said, what shall I do, lord?

And the lord said to me, arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all the things which are appointed for you to do. How did I come to that point where I realized I needed Christ? For some of you, it could have been a tragedy in your life that God used to awaken your heart, to turn you towards him. For some people, we are so hard headed. I put myself in there with you.

So if I’m making you mad, I’m making Mike mad too. But we’re so hard headed. How many of you know some hard headed people? Amen? Now quit ladies elbowing your husband.

But we have some hard headed people, and and the Lord knows who they are. And the only way that they will ever look up is to be laying flat on their back. You see what I’m saying? God knows how to get our attention. God knows how to bring us back in alignment with him.

Even as believers, sometimes we get apathetic in our faith and we begin to slide backwards in our faith. And God brings a shocker to our life to wake us up so that we will be passionate for Christ. I want you to understand that God not only uses tragedies, but he uses transitions. Your life is gonna be filled with transitions. How about that one?

You’re gonna transition. We think about so many times our young people transition from high school into maybe the workforce or to college or to military or some tech school or or whatever God is calling them to do, but they’re transitioning from a life where all they did is went to school every day, and now they’re transitioning into something different. And then one day, you might get married, and there’s a new transition from a single life to a married life, and then you have children, and there’s a transition of a couple with no children to now a couple with children. And then there’s a transition that the kids, they wanna play sports, they wanna dance, they wanna do music, and you’re like a taxi service and you are in this transition of life where you take them anywhere and everywhere that you can. And you said you’d never do it, but you buy a minivan.

And now you’re driving this minivan and you’re dropping all the kids off to soccer practice and you’re dropping them off to drama class, whatever it is that they do. And you’re in that transition, and then guess what? The kids grow up, and they leave. And then you look at each other as a husband and wife, and you say, who are you? Oh, that’s my spouse.

I’ve been living so much trying to get everything taken care of for the kids. And now the kids are gone, and I just realized I have a spouse. And so now you’re in that transition. And some of you are in the transition that your spouse is in heaven. And now you’re living without your spouse.

Some of you might be in a transition that your children are getting married, or maybe you’re in the transition of grandchildren, and some of you are in the transition of great grandchildren. And I thought all grandchildren were great. And here we are, we go through life, and we have new chapters in our life, and we have new transitions in our life. And God uses transitions to get your attention. And you may be going through a transition right now, and God’s trying to get your attention.

And what I want you to do when you’re sharing your testimony is maybe share a little bit about how God used a transition, a change in your life that brought you to Him. Another way that God gets our attention is not only through tragedies and not only through transitions, but through triumphs. You get a job promotion. You’re so overwhelmed with being blessed by God. Or maybe God blesses you with children and you’re so overwhelmed being blessed by God.

God uses triumphs in our lives, things that we accomplish. We recognize that we could never do it without Christ, and if it wasn’t his good work in us and through us that God just humbles our heart. We’re so filled with his grace that we just wanna give him glory and honor, and it spurs within us a desire to recognize him and to be more passionate for him and to live a life that is expressing gratefulness to him. God uses these times in our life to get our attention, and that’s what your testimony needs to be a part of. So the first part of my testimony is what my life was like before I knew Christ, how I realized that I needed Christ.

There are significant steps, perhaps, things that God did to get our attention. But then I want you to notice the next part of my testimony is how I committed my life to Christ. Isn’t what the apostle did? He got down on his knee. He was a religious man.

He thought he was doing the right thing. He was persecuting the church. He was going into people’s homes, dragging them out, dragging them to Jerusalem. He was even a part of the death of some Christians, and God knocked him off his high horse, shown the light around him. Now not all of our experiences are as dramatic as what happened for Saul.

It could be, but what I’m trying to say to you is that this powerful light shined on him, knocked him off his high horse. He landed on the ground, and the bible says in verse nine that those that were with him, they saw the light. They were afraid, but they didn’t hear the voice. But Paul did, at that time, Saul, and he said, what shall I do, lord? What shall I do?

And here we see in this presentation is Saul is accepting Christ as the lord. For Christ has already told him back in verse seven and eight, here’s what you’re doing. You’re persecuting me. When you persecute the church, Jesus takes it personal. When you attack the people of God, Jesus takes it personal.

Be careful, brothers and sisters in Christ. When you condemn your brothers and sisters in Christ, be careful to judge your brothers and sisters in Christ. Be careful to come after your brothers and sisters in Christ because when you attack the church, the people of God, you are attacking Jesus Christ himself. For the Bible says that the church is the bride of Christ. The church is the body of Christ.

So let’s be a little bit more cautious in what we say, and remember that Jesus takes it personal. And so the apostle wants to know what is he supposed to do. He is given instructions, and the apostle now is recognizing him as lord, and calling him lord, his savior, his king, his God, his lord. And he says, what shall I do, lord? And the lord said to me in verse 10, arise and go to Damascus.

And so that’s what the apostle did. He committed his life to Christ. You see, friends, part of your testimony is telling people how you committed your life to Christ. Not only the circumstances that brought about you realizing that you needed Christ, but how did you commit yourself to Christ? Many, many years ago when I first came to the Open Door Church, one of our members had passed away.

And I just it’s so vivid in my mind, and I’ve told you this before, but I just keep thinking about it sometimes about how we sat down with the family to plan the funeral service, and the children said to me, we don’t want you telling people how to be saved. And that caught me off guard because I’d never in my life ever had anybody tell me. They tell me just the opposite. Just the opposite. Make sure you tell them how to be saved, pastor.

Make sure you tell them to be ready because we never know when our number is called. We never know when it’s time to go. Right? So we gotta make sure that we’re ready for Christ, but this particular child, adult child, did not want me to share the fact that people are sinners and needed to be saved, and Jesus Christ was the savior of the world, and that he could save them from their sins. So the spirit of God just gave me the wisdom is all I can say because I don’t know.

It just popped in my head. And I said to her, can I share your dad’s faith? Well, that’s about dad. Sure. Go ahead.

Tell him how dad lived his life. Well, here, let me tell you something. I shared how he came to Christ, and I told him the way he got saved is the way you get saved. Amen? Yes.

Now it’s too late once the pastor’s up there. Okay? What are they gonna do now? What are they gonna do now? But here’s what I wanna tell you is how you committed your life to Christ.

You may have expressed it with different words. You may have expressed it at different times or seasons of your life, but how you committed your life to Christ is how they are to commit their life to Jesus. Some of you are worried about sharing your testimony because you think, man, I don’t know enough bible verse. I don’t know enough theology, and I can’t answer all the questions that might be shared. But listen to me friends, don’t underestimate the power of a testimony because God can use your testimony to help somebody relate to you and to understand how God is trying to get their attention, and they need to give their life to Christ, and you’re being that example.

And you’re showing them how you came to Christ, how you humbled your heart before God. It could’ve been in a service. It could have been in a tent revival. It could have been at your home. It could have been at a a coffee shop.

It could have been anywhere, any place because God has no limitations where he’ll save somebody. Amen? Some of you today may not even know Jesus Christ as your savior, and you hear the gospel shared, and you wanna be saved, but you don’t respond. Well, friends, you can respond in your home. You can respond while you’re driving down a road.

Just keep your eyes open. You can respond, but we need to remember what god does. Go down to verse 16. Go down to verse 16 of chapter 22. Again, we’re just highlighting things here, and notice what he says.

Let’s just do verse 15 too to help with context. For you will be his witness to all men and what you have seen and heard, and now why are you waiting? The apostle has already pointed them to Christ. He’s already pointed them to the righteous one, Jesus, and he says, why are you waiting? Why are you waiting?

What does he tell them? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the lord. Now I know I have many theologians here sitting out here, and I praise god for you. And I wanna help you because you’re struggling right now in verse 16 because it seems all backwards. Right?

Don’t you first look at verse 16. Don’t you first call on the name of the Lord and then he washes away your sins and then you’re baptized? Well, be assured that that’s the way it is in the Greek. That’s the way it is in the Greek language. I don’t know why the translators did it like that, but I’m just telling you that it is grammatically phrased, first, call on the name of the lord.

We know according to Romans 10 verse nine, ten, and 13 that we’re to call on the name of the lord and that whoever calls on the name of the lord shall be what, church? Saved. So here it is. The apostle lays it out for them. Call on the name of the lord.

After sharing his testimony, call on the name of the lord. And then he says, god will wash away your sins and arise and be baptized. Why are you waiting? Why are you waiting? Why aren’t you responding to god today?

Why aren’t you giving your life fully to him now? Every time you present your testimony, I want to encourage you to invite people to receive Christ. Offer the opportunity for them to receive Christ. Offer them the privilege to pray with you to receive Christ. Now some people aren’t ready.

Sometimes in our witness for God, we’re a seed planner. Some of us are waterers. We water the seed that has already been planted, and some of us get to harvest whatever has been God working in the heart, has been bringing forth fruit. Don’t be upset at where you’re at. Just be grateful that God is using you to plant the seed or to water the seed or to harvest the fruit, whatever it is.

There for a while, I remember when I was pastoring Indiana that I led five different people to Christ, and all five of them died within a few months of coming to Christ. And I thought, Lord, what are you doing? Because people aren’t gonna wanna talk to pastor Mike. They’re they’re gonna say, stay away from me. They’re gonna think I’m the death reaper or something.

But I want you to know it was just the harvest time. People had been witnessing, families had been witnessing, and they had been dealing with physical problems and health issues in their life, and it just happened that I was able to come in, and I was just able to bring in the harvest, but there had been people already who had been praying, and there had been people who had already been talking and planting seeds and watering that seeds. And then just before God called them out, he sent in the pastor to bring in the harvest. Does it make the harvester any better than the seed planner, the prayer warrior? It just means we’re all working together in the field of souls.

Are you with me? We’re all in it together, church. But always give people an invitation, an opportunity to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and help them with that. Now I’m not a guy who likes to have people repeat after me because I wanna make sure it’s from their heart. You say, well, they might not say the wrong thing.

And if they pray the wrong thing, they won’t be saved. Hello. Think about the thief on the cross. What did he say? Lord, remember me.

Now, he messes up everybody’s theology. He’s messing all of you up that you are particular, you’re perfectionist, and you want every t crossed, every I dotted, and here, the thief on the cross, he got saved and he didn’t do it just like you want it to be done. But see, I tell you that God knows the heart. And you and I may fumble in what we say in our prayers outwardly, but inwardly, he knows our hearts, doesn’t he? Right?

You could say the right things outwardly. How many people have said the right things outwardly, but their heart was not in it? They didn’t mean a word of it. They just said the prayer to get the pastor off their back, to get mom and dad off their back. I’ll pray the prayer so you’ll leave me alone.

But they didn’t mean it. So that’s why that’s just pastor Mike. I don’t sit there and say repeat after me. Some of you may. I just tell them.

I give them a template to ask God to forgive them of their sins and to express their faith and love to God and that God will save their souls when he calls upon them. Now, the last part of your testimony is the difference that Christ has made in your life. Let’s pick up in verse 17. Hang in there with me. Okay?

Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him. So he took him and he brought him to the commander and he said, Paul, the prisoners called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you. Verse 19. Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside and asked privately, what is it that you have to tell me?

And he said, the Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire more fully about him. But do not yield to them, for more than 40 of them lie in wait for him, and men who have bound themselves by an oath that they shall neither eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready waiting for the promise from you. Verse 22. I want you to see this.

So the commander let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that you have revealed these things to me. Now here’s what’s happening is that the apostle, having shared already what Christ has done for him and having already shared the change that God has made in his life, all of a sudden, he realizes that he is in trouble and that they’re going to try to persecute him. And so we see the apostle is taking the advantage of who he is, and he’s using the law to try to make sure that he’s able to defend and to be able to continue to share Christ and to be able to share what God has done for him. So I want you to see that God is working effectively in Paul’s life, and that God is saying to him that he is to be a witness for him in the synagogues. He is to be a witness to the Jewish people.

He is to be someone who is to continue to tell people how to come and to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you and I have to continue to help people see those great results. Now the first point that I gave to you was to tell God’s story. Tell God’s story of what he has done in your life. The second point that I wanna share with you in these final few minutes that we have together is that we are to trust the results to God.

We are to trust the results to God. Many years ago, a man said to me, he said, pastor, nobody’s getting saved. Why should I share my testimony? Why should I tell others about Christ? And I said, because our success is not determined by results, but by obedience.

By obedience. Many of you, you have quit sharing Christ. You’ve quit telling people about Christ. You quit handing out tracts. You quit visiting people because you’re not seeing the results you want.

I want you to understand that our results are not our motivator. It is our faithfulness and obedience to god. Noah was a righteous man, and the bible says for a hundred and twenty years, he preached righteousness. And for a hundred and twenty years, he built that ark. And people laughed.

They mocked at him. And when they said, why are you doing this, Noah? He explained to them that god told them, and he kept at it, and they said, that’s a crazy man over there. And then the judgment of God came. Was Noah a failure?

No. No. Your success before God is not based upon results before God. Your success is based upon your faithfulness and your obedience to the lord Jesus Christ. Now in verse 22 through 29 of chapter 22, excuse me, is that what we see takes place is they eventually are going to bring Paul before they don’t respond.

Look at verse 22. They listened to him and tell this word, and then they raise their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth for he is not fit to live. How about that? If you witness to somebody and they said, take this guy away, he’s not even fit to live. Don’t even let him live.

But that’s what happened. That was the response. But you gotta trust God for the results. You gotta believe that your priority is to be a witness. Jump back to verse 15.

For you will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. That’s your testimony. You will be a witness for Christ of what you’ve seen, what you have heard, what God has done for you. I’ve kinda gave you a template on how to do that, and I wanna encourage you to continue to share that with others. And even though people may not respond the way that you want them to, in verse twenty two and twenty three, you’re still trusting god almighty.

I want you to take your bible to second Corinthians chapter five. I want you to go there. Second Corinthians chapter five. Second Corinthians chapter five verse nineteen and twenty. Second Corinthians chapter five verse 19 through 20.

That is that god was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. Underscore that. God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

So you see, what he’s saying is that God is pleading through us to our family, to our friends, to our world to be reconciled to God. They say, well, I’m religious. I’m religious. I go to this church. I grew up.

I cut my teeth on the pew. My name, my family name. We bought a pew in the church. That doesn’t get you to heaven. Can God’s people say amen?

Friends, the only way to heaven is for you to acknowledge that you’re a sinner and to believe in your heart that Christ died for your sins and to call upon the name of the lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. And apart from that, friends, there’s no class, there’s no religious experience, there is no particular outward ceremony or ritual that you can do that will save your soul. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ that you need to have. Now how is that gonna happen? How are people gonna know that?

How are people gonna know that? Hear me. He says there that God is pleading through us. God is pleading through us. Many of you know you’ve heard of Tom Landry.

He was a great football coach for the Dallas Cowboys, but many of you have great respect for him. And before he passed away, he shared his testimony with his team. And he said as a youngster, he had said, if I can just be part of a championship team, that’s all he wanted to do. He said, I I would have everything. As a high school player, he said, if I could just play college football as a college player, he said, if I could just go and be a professional football player, he said, if I could just win as a professional player a championship.

He reached every goal that he had that was material in this life. But everything and every accomplishment left him the same way, empty. The enthusiasm wore off. It wasn’t until he met Christ that he said, I found out for the first time what Jesus meant when he said, I’ve come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. There’s a lot of people out there who are pursuing life, and they’re actually achieving a lot of goals.

Tom Brady, after winning all his championships, in an interview said, I wonder if there’s more to life. My friends, you and I are called to be a testimony. So just some practical things that’ll help you. I’d like for you this morning to consider in making this commitment as a disciple and follower of Christ, that this year, you would invite someone who is unchurched, unsaved, that you would invite them to breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and you would share your testimony with them. It could be somebody in your family.

It could be somebody that you know, that you work with. It could be somebody that’s a friend. Just share what God is doing. Use that template I gave you, and develop. Write out your thoughts, and just share that testimony.

A second thing I’d like you to consider is to invite a family member, a friend, a neighbor to your home to choose someone in your family to share how they came to Christ. Not just Christians, and I think it’s good to fellowship with Christians, but when’s the last time you invited an unbeliever to your house? And you shared and you told what God is doing in your life. As always, church, we encourage you to invite unchurched people to attend church. We’ll tell them how to be safe.

If you’re here this morning and you need Christ, we say to you, behold the lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who takes away the sins of the world. Jesus said in Matthew seven verse thirteen and fourteen, enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many who go by in it Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, there are few who find it. He’s not saying that you have to work hard to get to heaven, but he’s just saying that you have to be willing. It’s hard in this sense.

It’s hard to put your pride aside, and it’s hard to humble yourself before god almighty and say, I’m a sinner. When I witness to people, that’s the number one pushback I get. When I explain to them they’re a sinner in need of a savior, they’re like, I’m not a sinner. And they start telling me all their achievements. But friends, the only way to heaven is to humble your heart before God.

Jesus said you have to trust like a child. That’s what Jesus meant. If you’re already a Christian today, I wanna encourage you to think about those three things at the end I told you about. And that is going to breakfast with someone or lunch with someone who’s unchurched and telling what God has done in your life. That is to invite someone to your home and tell them what God has done in your life.

That is to invite someone to church that doesn’t know Jesus. What a big impact that would make, not only upon our communities and our families, but our church family. For us to invite others to say, come and see Jesus. Well, God’s plans are never thwarted by the violence of any person, any politician, or any action of human beings. And even though the apostle faced a lot of pushback, and some of it was people who just were antagonistic towards Jesus Christ and the gospel, the apostle knew that God’s power would overcome, and he would be able to see its mighty work affect many lives as they receive Christ.

Now, I wanna encourage you to reach out to us through our website, and there you can contact us and let us know what your prayer requests are. We’re not only just proclaiming the word, but we wanna pray for you. We wanna help you with bringing your needs to God, and I hope that you’ll take advantage of that. This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.