How to Find Jesus
Series: Acts
Chuck Sligh
November 26, 2017
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
TEXT: Please turn to Acts 22
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – A man, dazed from a knock on the head after falling out of a hunting tree stand, stumbled upon a church group baptizing in stream. Disoriented, he proceeded to walk into the water and bumped into the preacher.
The preacher turned around and asked, “Are you ready to find Jesus?”
The guy, still muddled and confused, muttered, “Uh, I, uh, guess” but the preacher thought he heard “yes” instead of “guess.”
So, the preacher grabbed him and dunked him in the water.
Then he pulled him up and asked him, “Friend, have you found Jesus?”
The guy said, “No, I haven’t found Jesus.”
Shocked at the answer, the preacher put him into the water again a little longer.
Then again, he pulled him out and asked, “Have you found Jesus?”
Again, he answered, “No, I haven’t found Jesus.”
Frustrated, the preacher submerged the guy once more and held him down for about 30 seconds until he began kicking his arms and legs, whereupon he pulled him up.
The preacher again asked him, “For goodness sakes, man, have you found Jesus?”
The guy wiped his eyes and caught his breath and finally said to the preacher, “Are you sure this is where he fell in?”
Aside from the wrong theology of the preacher in this story, let me tell you: There’s a better way to find Jesus that I want to tell you about today.
The last time we saw Paul in the book of Acts, he’d been misunderstood and abused by both Jews and Romans. He was trying to mend a divide that was occurring between the Jewish and Gentiles parts of the church, and to ameliorate the Jewish legalists, he agreed to perform a purification ceremony in the Temple to prove his Jewish bone fides. Paul had been seen with some Gentile believers before the ceremony, and then he and some of his Jewish friends went into the Temple to perform the ceremony. When he came out, the Jews mistook Paul’s Jewish worshippers with the Gentiles he had been with earlier and falsely accused him of bringing Gentiles into the inner part of the Temple, something strictly forbidden upon pain of death. In a rage, Jews began to beat him to a pulp until the local Roman garrison, hearing of a disturbance, came and rescued him.
But instead of arresting the TROUBLEMAKERS beating Paul, they arrested PAUL, mistaking him for a notorious criminal the Romans had been searching for! In Acts 21:39, Paul asked the Roman captain for permission to address the crowd. Apparently, the captain thought he might be able to get more information by letting Paul speak, so he allowed him to address the crowd.
Now put yourself in Paul’s situation. If it were me, I think I would have been relieved to be rescued by the Roman soldiers and let the Romans hightail me out of there as quickly as possible.
But Paul saw every circumstance as another opportunity to share about Jesus. He was simply irrepressible about the Gospel of Christ; he just couldn’t keep it in. Knowing the Jews probably would not do anything rash in the presence of heavily armed Roman guards, do you know what he did? He “opened up and let her rip,” as we say down in Tennessee.
In this passage, Paul tells how he found Jesus. This is one of the places in Acts where Paul gives his personal testimony. Let’s look at Paul’s story today, and see how you or anyone you know can find Jesus:
I. FIRST PAUL TELLS THEM THAT HE HAD DISCOVERED THAT HIS DEVOUT SINCERITY AND ZEAL FOR GOD DID NOT SAVE HIM – Acts 22:3-5 – “I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. 4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. 5 As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished.”
As far as religion and good works were concerned, Paul had all his ducks in a row.
-- He was born a Jew—God’s chosen people.
-- He was reared in Jerusalem, the center of God’s dealings with mankind up to that time.
-- He studied under the famous Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of the day and a disciple of the illustrious Hillel, one of the leading rabbis of the age.
-- Paul said he was taught, “according to the perfect manner of God’s Law,” that is, in the best school by the best teachers available. – In other words, Paul went to the Harvard of Judaism and was a trained rabbi, schooled in God’s Law and in the rabbinic interpretation of the Law.
-- Furthermore, Paul said he was zealous toward God. – The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines zeal as “earnestness or fervor in advancing a cause or rendering service.” The best word to use to describe Paul was that he was sincere. Paul was so sincere that he was even willing to persecute others who dared to go against God’s teachings as he understood them. That’s a dangerous and destructive kind of sincerity, but it is sincerity.
But, you see, sincerity and salvation are not the same thing. You may be very sincere—and never find Jesus. You can be intensely religious—but not have a relationship with God Himself.
Most people believe that if you’re sincere and try to do the best you can and treat people well and don’t do anything seriously evil or wicked, like murdering or robbing someone, then God will let you into heaven.
Others believe that if you go to church, obey the Bible as best as you understand it, live by the Golden Rule and the Ten Commandments, surely THAT will get you into right standing with God.
Yet here is an example of a man who, according the best of his knowledge, was as RELIGIOUS as he could be, as SINCERE as he could be and as DEVOUT as he knew how to be—and yet he was lost and without God in his life. It’s another reminder in God’s Word that our salvation is not earned by OUR goodness or OUR sincerity or OUR zeal, but is received as a free gift by GOD’S grace.
If there’s anything you need to get out of this sermon, it’s that RELIGION will not help you find Jesus; SINCERITY will not save you; ZEAL will not do it; GOOD WORKS are not enough; BAPTISM is insufficient; TREATING OTHERS WELL will not reserve a place for you in heaven; the TEN COMMANDMENTS cannot make you right with God; the GOLDEN RULE won’t placate God’s judgment against your sin; and neither the CATHOLIC Church, nor the METHODIST Church, nor the BAPTIST Church—nor ANY church can reserve a place in heaven for you.
Only JESUS can save you. Jesus Himself said without ambiguity: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
You see, it’s all about what Jesus did for us to provide our undeserved salvation, not what we do to earn it. As Paul said it in Titus 3:5 – “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us….”
II. BUT I WANT YOU TO SEE SOMETHING ELSE: NOTICE THAT PAUL HAD A DECISIVE CONVERSION EXPERIENCE. – Acts 22:6-13 – “And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. 7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. 9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. 10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. 11 And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus. 12 And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, 13 Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him.”
One of the most diabolical tricks of Satan has been to dilute the salvation experience into a general, non-specific, ill-defined, inconclusive kind of thing.
Ask many people, “Tell me about how you were saved,” and they look at you with a blank stare, as if to say, “What do you mean by that?”
-- “Well, how did you become born-again?”—Again, they’re clueless.
-- “You know—when you were converted?”—Still a puzzled look.
-- Well, you start to get suspicious, so you ask, “Was there a time when you realized you were guilty before a holy God and you came to the end of your self-effort and relying on your own goodness, and you trusted Christ to save you?” “Oh, no,” comes the reply, “I’ve just ALWAYS BELIEVED in God.” Or sometimes it’s expressed this way: “I have always FELT GOD’S PRESENCE in my life. I’ve seen God deliver me in so many circumstances and I’ve just always known HE WAS THERE.” Oh yes, dear friend, God WAS always there, but that’s not the same as Him being IN your life—IN your heart.
Now look what happened to Paul—
-- One day he was going about establishing his own righteousness, obeying his religious upbringing, being zealous of God, but ignorant of true salvation, and the next day—he was a humbled, repentant, obedient, changed believer.
-- One day he was LOST, though he didn’t know it—the next, he was FORGIVEN FROM ALL HIS SINS.
-- One day he was on the road to hell—the next, he had eternal life with God.
-- One day he was THE PERSECUTOR—the next, he had JOINED THE RANKS OF THE PERSECUTED.
You see, being saved—which means having your sins forgiven and being put into a right relation with God—is not a process—it is an experience, an event, a phenomenon, a turning point.
In fact, it involves a birth date.
Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
Now when I was born on earth—and oh, what a joyous event for the world that was!— when I was born, I had a birth date. I have a birth certificate that says that on November 21, 1952, Charles Clifton Sligh was born in San Antonio, Texas, USA. ONE DAY this person you see up here was not born yet and my parents lived a quiet, peaceable, placid life—the NEXT DAY I was screaming for milk and a diaper change. It was an EVENT and I have a birthday to celebrate that event every year. In fact, I just celebrated it this past Tuesday.
And if you’re truly in God’s family, there was a time and a date in which you were birthed into God’s kingdom.
-- One day you were LOST; the next day, you were a SAVED…
-- One day you were in SIN; the next, you were IN CHRIST…
-- One day you LIVED FOR SELF; the next, you LIVED FOR JESUS…
As John Newton expressed in his well-known hymn, Amazing Grace—“I once was lost, but now I’m found; ’twas blind, but now I see.” I heard an old-time Southern preacher say one time: “If you ain’t got a birthday, YOU AIN’T BEEN BORN!” That’s not good English, but it’s GOOD THEOLOGY!
So let me ask you—can you point to a time when you were born again? You may not remember all the details, especially if you were saved as a little child. You might not be able to tell me what time of the day it was, or what day of the week it was, or the exact date. ¿But can you point back to a time in your life and say, “THAT day, I turned from sin and turned to Jesus Christ—and I’ve NEVER been the same since?”
CONCLUSION
Now all that’s well and good for the Apostle Paul, but the most important question for you is “How can that happen to me? How can I, like Paul, find Jesus?”
You may be a very religious person like Paul who’s been trusting in your works to be saved. Or you may be the opposite of Paul and be like the thief on the cross who was irreligious most of his life and who did many bad things.
Here’s the paradox: Had not Paul turned from his religion and self righteousness to save him, he would have gone to hell where the thief on the cross was headed before he found Jesus. Conversely, on Calvary’s hill where Jesus was crucified between two thieves, one of them, a course, mean, wicked, incorrigible thief, was miraculously saved, for Jesus said to him, “Today you will be with me in paradise”—while Paul would have missed heaven had he not turned from his reliance on his religion and his self-righteousness.
You ask, “Well, Chuck, if you can’t find Jesus by being religious; if living a good life does not give a person eternal life; if religious works, like baptism or communion do not save us from sin, then how can ANYBODY be saved?” I’m glad you asked.
Jesus answered that question Himself. In the well-known story in the Gospel of John about the Pharisee named Nicodemus, we’re told how he came to Jesus by night, trying to wrap his mind about who this teacher was who could heal the sick, give sight to the blind, calm the seas and claimed to forgive people’s sins. Jesus explained to him some mighty powerful truths, truths almost too difficult to comprehend, things that went against everything he had been taught as a Pharisee. He was trusting in his religion and his good life to be accepted by God and go to heaven, but Jesus blew that out of the water when he said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
This idea of being born again stumped him, so Jesus explained it to him. He said this in John 3:14-15 – “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Now if you didn’t grow up in church, this serpent stuff probably has you stumped. What’s that all about? Well, back in Numbers 21, we’re told that God punished the Israelites because of continual ungratefulness and complaining by sending them poisonous snakes which bit the people, killing many of them. Moses prayed for God to deliver them, and in answer to Moses’ pleading on behalf of the Israelites, God told them to do something really strange. He told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole, and that anyone who looked at the bronze snake would be saved.
Now think about how weird that must have sounded! Someone comes to your tent saying, “If you want to be cured, just go out and look at the bronze snake on the pole Moses is holding.”
You turn to your spouse and say, “You’ve got to be kidding me! That’s crazy!” and so you go about trying to deal with it your own way— through your homemade medicines, or sucking out the poison.
To do something like looking at a bronze snake would require you to do it only because you BELIEVE what the messenger said to do! That is, it would take FAITH that God had provided an answer. Some trusted God’s instructions and were cured; but others trusted in their own resources…and died.
Now fast-forward to Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus, a Pharisee steeped in Old Testament lore, would have instantly known what Jesus was talking about. Now let’s read the verse again, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.”
When was Jesus lifted up?—When he died on the cross! When Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says he paid the penalty for our sin.
Now there’s one more little twist to this story. Why did God tell Moses to put up a SERPENT? Why not a dove or a sheep or a cuddly cat or something like that? You have to understand a little about symbolism in the Old Testament. In the Bible, a snake or a serpent is always a symbol of sin.
Now catch this little theological truth in 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
When Jesus bore your sin and my sin on the cross, He became the embodiment of sin and God poured out all His judgment of our sin upon His son. He, the sinless Savior, became the snake for us that we might have forgiveness. That’s why Jesus went on in the next verse and said, “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Then He followed that with the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God loved you so much, he sent His son to become sin for you; to die on the cross for you; to pay your penalty before God in your place. God did His part; so what part do you have?—Only one thing: BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST and you will have everlasting life. To “believe” in the Bible does not mean to simply believe facts about Jesus. It means to “trust; rely on; rest in.”
Today, if you will just bow your head and acknowledge that you are a sinner, guilty before God, and tell God that you are trusting in Jesus Christ alone and what He did for you on the cross, the Bible promises that you’ll be born again, which means to be born into God’s family and become one of His children and have eternal life heaven.
If you’ll do that, you will find Jesus. The disoriented hunter had it all wrong: Jesus never was lost to begin with. You and I are the ones who are lost. But one day I turned from sin and trusted Christ as my Savior and found Jesus. And if you’ll trust in Jesus too, you can sing with John Newton, “I once was lost, but now I’m found; ’twas blind, but now I see.”
