Sermon Tone Analysis

Transformed

(Acts 9:19-25)

February 27, 2022

Read Acts 9:19-25 – Two messengers were sent to alert a captured princess to be ready for rescue.

Claude Caterpillar was sour after climbing the tower wall in blazing sun: “You’re the damsel in distress?

What a waste, but your knight’s coming at 5:00.

Be ready!” Shortly, Barney Butterfly fluttered in.

He said, “Fair maiden.

Good news.

The white knight is on his way.

He asks only that you be ready by 5:00.”

The princess said, “Mr.

Caterpillar already told me, but he was quite disagreeable.”

The butterfly replied, “Oh, Claude?

That’s just the way he is.

I used to be that way too until I was transformed.”

So, have you been transformed?

Genuine believers are!

II Cor 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

Christ makes us new.

But the old flesh hates the new us.

So from the moment we receive Christ, the battle rages.

Paul says in Rom 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be [continually] transformed [μεταμορφοω] by the renewal of your mind.”

So, 2 questions today.

First, have I been transformed, and second am I living like it?

Paul’s experience can help us evaluate if we’re really new or not!

I. New Life Means New Conduct

God turned Saul’s life upside down.

Before he knew it, he was in the synagogue -- as preacher, not persecutor.

21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, ‘Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name?

And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?’”

Talk about a turnaround!

But that’s just what genuine repentance produces.

CHANGE!

For Saul that meant going from murderer to messenger, from making “havoc” to bringing peace, from inflicting persecution to bearing persecution, from desire for kill to desire to save.

What a change!

He arrives at the synagogue in Damascus not to clear it of Xns, but to win others.

He is a changed man.

Genuine believers have a new outlook, new purpose, new interests, new speech patterns and new pursuits.

Zacchaeus was a money-grubbing tax collector whose life was about getting more.

But when he met Jesus, Lu 19: 8 Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”

That penny-pinching shyster was ready to give away half his fortune!

He was a changed man.

That’s what happens when people really meet Christ.

Have you met Christ?

What does your conduct say?

Has there been a change?

Christ can’t be in your life and there not be a change.

That doesn’t mean it’s all rosy.

The flesh battles lifelong to regain lost ground.

So, Paul urges in Eph 4:22: “put off your old self . . .

24 and to put on the new self.”

We decide each moment to give control to Spirit or flesh.

But the new self wants what the Spirit offers.

Paul defines the revised conduct that will characterize a true believer – putting off lies in favor of truth (25), putting away anger in favor of peace (26), putting off stealing and cheating in favor of honest work (28), putting off profanity and corrupt speech in favor of edifying speech (29), putting away bitterness in favor of forgiveness (31-32).

So how are you doing?

Genuine faith results in the desire for new conduct.

British evangelist, Bryan Green, was in America during the 1960’s.

One night, he asked for testimonies.

One girl stood up, hardly able to speak, but she blurted out: “Thru this campaign I have found Christ – and He has made me able to forgive the man who murdered my father.”

That’s the grace of God and the power of the HS in a life.

So, who are you holding a grudge against this morning?

I’m guessing they didn’t kill your father.

Can you give it up?

That’s what Christ in you would do, Beloved.

New life means new conduct.

II.

New Life Means New Communication

Every life communicates something to the rest of the world.

It may be a work ethic, laziness, ease, education, sports, family, religion, poverty, good works, integrity – something.

Everyone has an ultimate message.

For Paul, it was religion – good works.

He was zealous -- willing to kill for his code.

He was self-deceived but infinitely serious about what he stood for.

But now look.

After meeting Jesus: 20 “immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” Instead of anti-Jesus, he’s got a new message.

His new message is, “Jesus is the Son of God.

You must call on His name to be saved from your sin.”

He’s got a new message.

His new message is, “This Jesus, this itinerant, miracle-working preacher – “that Jesus was the Christ [the Messiah]” (22d).

Paul’s got a new message.

He summarizes it further in Phil 3 where he says, “All the things I used to take pride in – circumcised the 8th day, of the chosen people, tribe of Benjamin, highly educated Pharisee, zealous to the point of murder, as to the law, blameless – all of that – my pedigree – my ticket to heaven – the communication of my life?

You’ll never believe it; I trashed it all the moment I met Christ.

Discarded it as useless – worse than useless – it had kept me from Christ.”

Phil 3:7-8: “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”

Paul’s got a new message, summarized in one word – Christ.

His message used to be Paul – now it’s Christ.

I Cor 9:16b: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.”

I Cor 2:2: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

New life brings a new message.

So, what is your life message?

If we asked your friends and neighbors and family members, what is this person’s life about, what would they say?

What do they think rules your life?

Education?

Broncos?

Family?