CONVERSION OF THE APOSTLE PAUL
(I Tim. 1:12-16)
INTRODUCTION:
QUESTION: What is the essence of Christian Faith in 9 words? Or What would a purpose statement of Christ look like?
1. CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THE WORLD TO SAVE SINNERS
FIVE FAITHFUL SAYINGS:
These well-known sayings apparently had roots in Jesus himself.
In only 8 Greek words is found a marvelous summation of the Gospel message.
Remember “Sinners” was a term used by Jews to describe Gentiles (Gal. 2:15).
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” epitomizes the cardinal fact of Christian truth” (Donald Guthrie, pg. 75).
Read the story of Thomas Bilney from John Stott’s Commentary on I Timothy, page. 53-54.
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst (I Tim. 1:15).
Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task (I Tim. 3:1).
This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come (I Tim. 4:8-9).
Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself (II Tim. 2:11-13).
This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone (Titus 3:8).
a. The Source of this “faithful / trustworthy” saying.
(QUESTION: What verse in the Gospels do you think is the source of I Tim. 1:15?)
“Trustworthy Saying” may have been statements that were accepted as basic teaching of the Gospel and native Christianity.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—(John 1:12).
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28).
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Lk. 19:10).
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
“As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it (John 12:47).
b. Implicit and Implied Doctrines in the “Trustworthy Saying.” (QUESTION: What are some of the implicit doctrines in this saying? Some of the implied?)
i. Implicit
1. Jesus is God
2. Incarnation of the Son of God
3. Jesus is Redeemer
4. Sinfulness of the human race
ii. Implied
1. Pre-existence of Christ
2. Mankind is doomed
3. Christ is the only Savior
2. PAUL, PUBLIC SINNER NUMBER ONE
QUESTION: Why did Paul consider himself “Public Sinner Number One” or the “Chief of Sinners?”
a. Up to this time no one person had carried on such a widespread persecution of the Christian church. Paul hauled Christians off to jail, readily assented to their deaths, carried on an inquisition from city to city against Christians. He made every effort to cause Christians to blaspheme (deny that Jesus was the Messiah, Christ, the Son of God). In all of this he was persecuting Christ and thus he considered himself the chief of sinners. When he touched a Christian he was touching the body of Christ.
3. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION
Question: What is the difference between Repentance and Conversion?
a. “In sum, conversion is a turning to embrace God. So on a few key occasions the concepts of repentance and turning appear together in Acts (3:19; 26:20). Repentance reflects the attitude one brings into conversion, while turning pictures the change of orientation and direction that comes as a part of it. . .” (Baker Bible Dictionary).
b. Repentance” is a turning away from and a sorrow for sin; “Conversion” is embracing a new way of life.
c. A person who repents turns away from sin but still has his eyes on himself – when he is converted he lifts his eyes to embrace the cross and its saving work – while also embracing Christ as his Lord and his Shepherd.
They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead–Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (I Thes. 1:9-10).
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19).
… I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds (Acts 26:20).
4. PAUL’S REPENTANCE AND CONVERSION
a. QUESTION: When did Paul Repent and when was he converted?
i. (Read the three salvation testimonies given in Acts.)
ii. He repented when he called Jesus Lord and obeyed by going into the city and waiting for Ananias. He was converted when he received his sight and the filling of the Spirit.
b. QUESTION: What did Paul think about during those 72 hours of blindness?
`Stephen’s face? (Like the face of an angel); Stephen’s Words (Son of Man standing on the right hand of God; Lord, do not hold this sin against them); the words of Jesus, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”; Old Testament texts about the Messiah?
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (II Cor. 4:4).
To 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 (Acts 26:18).
c. QUESTION: What attributes of God listed in I Tim. 1:12-16 made the “Trustworthy Saying” in I Tim. 1:15 operable to Paul? (See verses 13-14 – mercy, grace, faith, love).
“Paul never had the feeling that he had chosen Christ, but always that Christ had chosen him.” (Barclay, pg. 42)
Paul loved inventing new words, adding a prefix to strengthen what he wanted to say (as in our word ‘hyper-active’). Here he call the grace of God ‘superabundantly-bestowed on him … pour our recklessly.
“‘Overflowed’, that is, grace ‘overflowed’ (NRSV) like a river in spate, which cannot be contained, but bursts its banks and carries everything before it sweeping irresistibly on. What the river of grace brought with it, however, was not devastation but blessing … The Nile overflows; the crops abound. Grace overflowed, and faith and love sprang up. Grace flooded with faith a heart previously filled with unbelief, and flooded with love a heart previously polluted with hatred. It was, in the words of John Bunyan’s autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners; he borrowed both parts of his title from verses 14 and 15.” (John Stott, pg. 52).
Mercy differs from grace in that grace removes guilt, while mercy takes away the misery caused by sin (John MacArthur, pg. 30).
5. QUESTION: AM I TRULLY CONVERTED?
a. It is very easy to sit in a Christian church all our lives and not be truly converted. We can know all the verses, all the songs, how to pray, tithe as we should, be a good moral person, and yet not be a Christian.
b. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you–unless, of course, you fail the test? (II Cor. 13:5).
c. You can repent (have a sorrow for and turn away from sin) without being converted. A converted person repents of sin but also embraces the Cross as the only way of salvation (Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners) and Christ as a way of life.