Well, if you follow Major League Baseball at all, you know about the Cubs. The Cubs have not won a World Series in 103 years.
So, several years ago, the Cubs tried hiring a motivation coach for spring training. His name was Mac Newton. And after morning workouts, according to USA Today, Newton would gather the whole team around him. He would have the whole team sit down on the ground and he would preach to them winning visualization and transformational thinking, whatever that is. Newton said, and I quote: by the end of camp, we're going to be changed people.
And we're going to leave here believing that we can win the World Series. End of quote.
Well, guess what? Not only did the Cubs not win the World Series that year, they haven't won the World Series any year since. Hey, friends, you know, this idea of changing people has actually become big business here in America. Just watch TV, just watch the infomercials, all trying to sell us stuff that will transform our life. There's Rogan, and there's home gymnasiums, and there's Christy Brinkley's makeup, and there's one weight loss program after another.
But come on, we're not stupid. We understand that most of this stuff is hopelessly superficial, but it does bring up. The million-dollar question for this morning. And that is: is there anything in our world? That can genuinely change people.
I mean, is it possible to take a bad person? and turn them into a good person. Can profane, nasty, selfish people be transformed into different people, into better people, into honorable people?
Well, I'm here today and I'm happy to report to you that the answer is yes. The Bible says, 2 Corinthians 5:17, if any person is in Christ, they become a new creature. Old things pass away, behold, all things become new. And this is what we want to talk about today. Remember, we're in a series entitled People Jesus Met.
And today we're going to look at a third meeting, a third message in the meeting that happened between the Apostle Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. Today we want to look at how this meeting radically transformed Rabbi Saul's life.
So we're going to go back 2,000 years and we're going to see what happened to Rabbi Saul. And then we're going to bring all of that forward and we're going to talk about, well, what difference does that make for you and me today?
So are you ready? All right, here we go. A little bit of background first. Remember what we've already learned. That Rabbi Saul was raised in a strict Jewish home, that he was trained in Jerusalem under the most eminent rabbi of his day, a rabbi named Gamaliel, and that he was advancing within Judaism faster than all of his contemporary young rabbis.
We've also learned that Rabbi Saul was a one-man wrecking machine when it came to the early church in Jerusalem. He arrested the early Christians, he tortured the early Christians, he even killed. Hundreds of early Christians, and then Acts chapter 9, verse 1, the Bible says, Saul, still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, went to the high priest and asked for letters to the synagogues in Damascus.
So that, If he found any disciples there, he might bring them as prisoners back to Jerusalem. Ah, but something happened, didn't it? On the road to Damascus. On the road to Damascus, the living Christ Himself appeared to the Apostle Paul and He knocked Paul down onto the ground and he spoke to Paul personally. And suddenly, Paul realized that Jesus really was the Messiah, just like he had claimed to be, and he gave his life to Christ.
And this is where we pick up the story in Acts chapter 9. And what follows here in Acts 9 is a description of what may very well be the most transformed life in all of human history.
Now, there are five ways in which the Apostle Paul became a radically new creature in Christ after he embraced Jesus as his Savior. They're all here in Acts 9, and I want to show them to you.
So, are you ready? All right, here we go. Number one, change number one is that Paul got a new relationship with God's people. Verse 19, Acts chapter 9 says: Now for several days, Paul was with the disciples who were at Damascus. And when many days had elapsed, the Jews in Damascus plotted to do away with Paul.
They were watching the city gates day and night so that they might kill him. Then the disciples took Paul by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall. And verse 26: when Paul arrived at Jerusalem, he immediately tried to join up with the disciples there.
Now friends, think about it for a moment. The disciples in Jerusalem. These were the very people that Paul had come to arrest and to drag back to Jerusalem and to throw into jail. The disciples in Jerusalem, these were the very people that Paul had hated and tortured and even killed. But suddenly, all of that changed.
Suddenly, Paul goes from murderous threats towards these people to brotherly affection towards them. How do we explain such a radical change in Paul's relationship to God's people?
Well, the answer is very simple. The Holy Spirit had transformed this man into a new creature in Christ. And telltale sign number one of being a new creature in Christ is that we get a newfound love for God's people. Change number two is that Paul got a new boss. In Acts chapter 22, verse 13, Paul's telling about his meeting with Ananias, whom the Lord sent to him, and he said, He, Ananias, came to me and said, Brother Saul, receive back your sight.
And at that very moment, I was able to see him, Paul says. Then he said to me, The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will. And to see the righteous one, and to hear the voice of his mouth, and you are to be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.
So why are you delaying, Paul? Ananias says, get up. And be baptized and wash away your sins by calling on the name of the Lord. And immediately, I love this, Paul arose and was baptized. Then afterwards, he ate some food and began to regain his strength.
Now, let's remember: Paul hadn't eaten for three days when this happened, okay? He had to be starving. I mean, when I go from noon to 8 p.m., I'm starving. This guy hadn't had food in three days, but nonetheless, the very first thing Paul does after he can see again is not go eat. The very first thing he does is go get baptized.
Why? Because that's what his new boss had told him to do. How do we explain such a radical shift in Paul's boss from himself to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Well, the answer again is very simple. The Holy Spirit had transformed this man. Into a new creature in Christ, and telltale sign number two of being a new creature in Christ is that we get a new boss, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Number three. Paul, change number three, got a new message to proclaim.
Acts chapter 9, verse 20 says, And immediately, there's that word again, Paul began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues in Damascus, saying he is the Son of God, verse 26. And when Paul arrived in Jerusalem, he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. Hey. Rabbi Saul for Jesus. I mean ha This is the crazy thing.
Rabbi Saul Preaching Jesus, I mean, this is like PETA for fur coats. This is like Greenpeace for global warming. This is like vegetarians from Mortens. You understand what I'm saying? I mean, people are like Rabbi Saul preaching Jesus.
What do we do? What's going on here? Hey, how do you explain such a radical shift in Paul's message?
Well, friends, you know the answer. The Holy Spirit had transformed this man into a new creature in Christ. And telltale sign number three of being a new creature in Christ is that we get a burning passion to tell people about the Lord Jesus Christ. Number four. Change number four is that Paul got a new loyalty in life.
Acts chapter 9, verse 23. And when many days had elapsed, the Jews in Damascus plotted to do away with Paul. They were watching the city gates day and night so that they might kill him. Then the disciples took Paul by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the city wall. And in Jerusalem, Paul talked and debated with the Greek Jews, and they also tried to kill him.
Hey, up to this point in life, Paul had been loyal to one person and one person only, and that was himself. It was all about what benefited Paul. It was all about what advanced Paul and what positioned Paul to go up, move up the rabbi ladder. But now, all of a sudden, there was a new loyalty in Paul's life. Paul was willing to throw away his career as a super rabbi, even allow people to try to kill him in order to be loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do we explain this kind of radical shift in Paul's loyalty?
Well, friends, what have we been saying all along? That the whole Holy Spirit. Has transformed this man into a new creature in Christ. And telltale sign number four of being a new creature in Christ is that we become loyal to Jesus Christ even above ourselves. Number five and finally, Paul the fifth change, Paul got, number five, a new purpose for living.
As we've said up to this point in his life, Paul's purpose for living was to become top dog rabbi in Israel. And the Bible says he was pursuing this purpose ferociously. Listen to Galatians chapter 1, verse 14. Here's what Paul says. He says, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many rabbis of my own age, being extremely more zealous for my ancestral traditions.
In fact, my friends, Paul's persecution of the early church was all part. It was a calculated part of his plan to move up the rabbi ladder and get to the top. Ah, but all of that changed when he met Jesus Christ. Suddenly, Paul had a new purpose for living. He had a higher purpose for living.
He had a different purpose for living. And here's what it was. 2 Corinthians 2. Chapter 5. Verse 14, Paul says, For the love of Christ compels me That I should no longer live for, what's the next word, say it.
I should no longer live for myself. Here we go. But for him, the Lord Jesus, who died for me and rose again on my behalf. How do we explain this kind of radical change in Paul's purpose for living? Hey, you know the answer, my friends.
Paul had become a new creature in Christ. And telltale sign number five of being a new creature in Christ is that we decide that we're going to live for the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're not going to live for ourselves anymore. John MacArthur pastor out at Grace Community Church in California, and many of you have heard him on the radio. John said, and I quote, I once heard a man say that Christianity is like putting a new suit of clothes on a man. I said to him, That's wrong.
It's like putting a new man in a suit of clothes. End of quote.
And John is so right. The Apostle Paul was a new man, with number one, a new relationship with God's people, with number two, a new boss, with number three, a new message to proclaim, with number four, a new loyalty in life, and with number five, a new purpose for living. But what changed Paul, my friends, was not medication or education or rehabilitation or transcendental meditation. What changed Paul was a personal relationship with the living Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now, if you're here. And you don't have that kind of living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're trying to change your life in all the wrong places, my friends. I'm here to tell you that God wants you to cut to the end of the chase. Forget all this other nonsense that's promising you it'll change your life, because it won't.
And cut to the one thing in the universe that will change your life, and that is coming into a personal connectedness with the living, risen Christ. Boy, I'm sure I hope you'll think about that. Don't waste your time around the periphery, my friends. Go right for the core of the issue, and that is a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, that's as far as we're going to go in our passage because we're going to stop now. We're going to ask our most important questions. All of you out at Loudoun, and all of you at Prince William, and at Bethesda, and on the internet, and everybody here, are we ready? And I need to tell you a secret. This is the very last message.
in this series.
So this is the last time you're going to get to yell so what? as part of people Jesus met.
So we want to make this memorable. Yeah? We want to make this unforgettable. Right?
Okay. All right, you're not inspiring me with great confidence, but we're going to do this. All right, everybody, nice and loud when I say three. One, two, three. Oh wow, that was awesome.
That was, that was really good.
Okay, listen, you say, Lon, look, I'm really impressed by this new creature that Paul became. I mean, who wouldn't be impressed? But, Lon, for goodness sake, the living Christ appeared to this guy, the living Christ knocked this man down on the road, the living Christ spoke to him personally. I mean, it's understandable that this guy's life would change as radically as it did. But, Lon, these kind of drastic and intense and cataclysmic transformations, I mean, they don't really happen to people anymore, do they?
And I mean, in our modern world, do they? Oh, my friends, you bet you're a bippy they do. Listen, 2 Corinthians 5:17, if any person is in Christ, they become a new creature. Old things pass away, behold, all things become new. This verse was not just true 2,000 years ago.
This verse is as true today as it was two millennia ago. And if you don't believe that God is still changing lives like this today, then I want to tell you the story of a young man and his mother, and you may recognize one of these people. On the screen, here you go. Welcome back to Sports Center. Dwayne Wade could have thrown in with Derrick Rose and the Bulls this offseason.
Instead, he stayed in Miami and helped recruit a couple buddies. D-Wade has found his way back to his hometown, gave him one of the Eastern Conference finals in Chicago tomorrow. He returns as a world famous multimillionaire at the top of his chosen profession. A far cry from his existence growing up on the city's south side. Lisa Salters has his story in this E60 report.
It's a Sunday morning on the south side of Chicago. Hundreds have gathered to worship. But this is no ordinary testimony. Did nobody know that a little kid named Dwayne Wade Jr. was who he was?
Oh, fuck my way! Run right down the gut. Nice hand off to Wade! Unbelievable. Noying Wade is a seven-time NBA All-Star Guard and the 2006 Finals MVP.
Now joined by LeBron James and Chris Bosch in Miami, Wade is heading into the playoffs, hoping to restore the franchise's former glory. But he and his mother, Jolinda, already share a story of redemption. that's difficult to hear and even harder to tell. To see people want to become a part of what she's doing, it's amazing to us still, you know, because she had to fight a lot of demons. The youngest of Jolinda and Duane Sr.'s two children, Duane, now 29, grew up on the rough streets of Southside Chicago.
His parents split up when Duane was just an infant. After the painful breakup, Jolinda Wade says she became addicted to heroin and cocaine. Every day I had to have me some hair on. I was an alcoholic as well. I had to have me a drink.
I've seen the needles laying around the house, but I've seen my mother even seen her shoot up before. I've seen a lot of things that my mother didn't even know I seen as a kid. My apartment. I was telling drugs out of there, and I was allowing other people to deal drugs out of there. Duane recalls police, with guns drawn, raiding his family's home when he was six years old.
They were looking for drugs, and I was the first person they seen, so they picked me up. and put the gun to the back of my head and and told me to take me where your mother's at. By the time Duane was eight, his older sister Tregill had seen enough and decided he should go live across town with their father. One day my sister tricked me and said we was going to the movies. We take the bus and at the time my father was standing on 79th from Marshall Field.
It stops right there and I see my stepbrother out. uh outside and she's like, you know, there they're go Donnie, like, don't you wanna go play?
So I'm like Yeah, yeah, I want to go play. And then she said, I'll be back. I'll come back to get you tomorrow.
So I'm like, okay, cool. she'd get back on the bus, then um she never came back. Once the money left, I felt like I had nothing.
So I became The worse. drug addict that I ever could. My role went crazy. And it seemed like I couldn't get out of that place. It seemed like I couldn't get out of that place.
I didn't care no more. I didn't even care if my mother knew I shot Doe Dead. I just Oh my god, I became disgusting even to myself. Over the next seven years, Jolinda Wade was arrested three times for selling crack cocaine. and spent a total of 28 months behind bars.
But while serving her second sentence in 1997, Jolinda failed to report back to prison while on work release. she returned to the streets instead. A fugitive from the law. What's that like living every day knowing But that could be the day that you get busted and you have to go back to prison. It was tiresome.
I worked hard to be nothing. But on October 14, 2001, Jolinda found something that changed her life. while attending a church service. And the preacher at that time. called my name and he said children to read Second Timothy three five.
It said, having a form of godliness. but denying the power thereof. I heard the Lord telling me through that scripture, the Party over with. I got a dad.
So that the Christ in me can live.
So tired. Jolinda says she kicked drugs and alcohol cold turkey that very week. Dwayne, then a sophomore at Marquette University, came home for Christmas to be with his mother, who was clean for the first time in his life. But Jolinda still had to come clean with her son. about a decision she had made.
I said I have to go back to prison. And he's He started crying. I was hurt. Because I had felt like I was just getting my mom back.
So y'all leave again. On January 2nd, 2002, Jolinda Wade went back to prison to serve her 14-month sentence. There, she started a ministry behind bars, while Duane, then nineteen, returned to Marquette. He wrote her a heartfelt letter, calling her his hero. Me is Hebrew.
The woman who Dropped of all And here's the goal of his life. It made it worth the effort. It made it worth being off drugs. It even made it worth going back to jail. On March 5, 2003, Jolinda Wade was released from prison.
Three days later, she attended the final home game of Duane's college career at Marquette, with the conference USA title On the Line. When I seen him play Oh my gosh. He was playing with so much passion, so much intensity was in him. I couldn't believe my kid. This was my kid.
Duane led the Golden Eagles to their first Conference USA Championship and took Marquette all the way to the Final Four that year. A few months later, the Miami Heat drafted him fifth overall in the two thousand three NBA draft. The Miami Heat, they've done it! While Duane led the Heat to an NBA championship in 2006, Jolinda was studying to be a Baptist pastor. She was officially ordained in January of 2007.
She got up there and turned into another woman. And I'm just sitting there and I'm just smiling, I'm just looking around like this my mom, like I'm proud. Jolinda developed a following and started looking to buy a church in Southside Chicago. Duane paid nearly $2 million to purchase this property for his mother. On May eighteenth, two thousand eight, Jolinda and Duane welcomed Hundreds as the Temple of Praise Church.
opened its doors. Jolinda Wade says she's now been clean for more than nine years, and Duane bears witness to the message of mercy and grace in her testimony. Many of the chosen. Because when I call them, they won't listen. They won't come out.
They won't believe the signs, Jolen.
So now they're. This is like a new beginning. Pastor D. Wade. Yeah.
No, I can see it. What do you think? Listen, friends, making people into new creatures in Christ thoroughly. Authentically, but Permanently from the inside out. Folks, this is what God does for a living.
He does it in every age. He does it in every culture. He does it in every time zone. This is what God does. Praise the Lord, huh?
Praise the Lord. This is what He does. You say, Well, Lon, look, this is great, but I just got one more question. And that's good because I only got time for one more question. You say, Well, here's my question.
My question is: I'm hearing all this talk about being a new creature in Christ, and this is wonderful, but as a believer, you know, when I look at my life, I've got some old creature stuff still going on in my life. I mean, I've got some old habits and some old ungodly behavior patterns. And my question is: as a follower of Christ, how can I speed up? How can I deepen God's transforming process in my life?
Well, that's a great question. And let me finish by answering it. There are three things we can do, three spiritual catalysts, if you will, that will enhance and speed up the process of God turning us into new creatures in Christ. Let me tell you what they are, and we're done. Catalyst number one is the practice of spiritual disciplines.
You say, what are spiritual disciplines?
Well, we're talking here about Bible study and prayer and seeking God's face in solitude and fasting and having quiet time and meditating on the Word of God and memorizing the Word of God. You say, did the Apostle Paul do this?
Well, of course he did. In Acts chapter 9, verse 11, God told Ananias, go see Paul, because right now he's praying. Paul spent the first three days of his Christian life praying and fasting and seeking. God, but then Paul spent the next three years in a concentrated program of spiritual discipline. Listen to what he said, Galatians 1:15.
He said, But when God was pleased to reveal his Son to me, I did not consult with any man, but I went immediately into Arabia, and it was only after three years that I went up to Jerusalem to meet Peter.
Now, this falls in Acts chapter 9 between verse 22 and verse 23. There's three years between these two verses where Paul was in Arabia. And what was he doing in Arabia for these three years?
Well, he was seeking God and he was praying and he was meditating on the word of God and he was getting to know God better. You want to know why the Apostle Paul's life radically transformed as quickly as it did?
Well, the answer is that he took spiritual disciplines. Seriously, and if we want our lives to transform deeper and faster, we have got to take spiritual disciplines seriously and practice them as well. Number two, catalyst number two is obedience to God. Paul wrote these words for Romans 12:1, I urge you to offer your bodies as living sacrifices to God.
Now, friends, living sacrifices are people who don't argue with God and they don't debate with God and they don't question what God tells them to do. They simply go out and obey God. And we saw how Paul did this. We saw that he went baptized and got baptized before he even ate. We saw that he went right out onto the streets and into the synagogues and started preaching Christ.
Why? Because Paul understood that obedience to God is not an optional part of the Christian life. Rather, it is a powerful. Force that allows God to transform our lives faster and deeper than He could otherwise. This is why 1 Samuel chapter 15 says to obey is better than sacrifice.
This is why God said in Jeremiah 7:22, for when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt, I gave them this one command: obey me. Obey me. And I will be your God, and you will be my people. See, as followers of Christ, so often we play the sometime game with God. You know, sometime I'm going to go do this, Lord, and sometime, yeah, I'll go do that, and sometime, yeah, I'll go do the other thing that you're asking me to do.
Paul didn't play that game. When you look at Paul, the word you see over and over and over in his story is immediately, immediately, immediately. He believed in instant obedience to God, which is why God changed his life as rapidly as he did. Finally, catalyst number three is serving God. Did you notice how Paul went out immediately and began preaching Jesus in the streets and preaching Jesus in the synagogues?
He was only a few days old in the Lord, but he was out there serving the Lord. Why? Because he understood something else. He understood that one of the greatest ways to speed up spiritual transformation in our lives is to serve the Lord. It's why he wrote Romans 12, verse 11, where he said, Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
And this is why here at McLean Bible Church, we are constantly trying to get you to volunteer and serve the Lord here. It's not just because we need your help to make an impact on secular Washington. We do. But even more importantly, it's because we want to help you become a new creature in Christ deeper and faster. And we know that serving the Lord accelerates this process of spiritual transformation.
It always has, and it always will.
So my challenge is find an area of service if you're not already serving the Lord. If you want to cause your spiritual transformation to go quicker, and throw yourself into fervently serving Christ.
Okay. We're done. Do a lot of hay on the horses today, huh? Yeah, all right, let's conclude. Here's what the point is for today: that the only force in this universe that can truly make us new creatures in Christ from the inside out is a personal relationship with Jesus.
And we've also learned that once we've embraced this personal relationship with Jesus, there are three things we can do to help the process go faster and deeper. Number one, we can practice spiritual discipline seriously. Number two, we can obey the Lord unswervingly. And number three, we can serve the Lord fervently from our heart. And that leaves us with one question to close with, and that is, in light of all we've talked about today, if you're a follower of Christ here, What changes are you going to make in your life?
What changes am I going to make in my life to help speed up The transformation process of becoming a new creature in Christ that God wants to do. Huh? What changes are you going to make? It's worth thinking about. And I hope you will.
Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thanks for speaking to us today from the Word of God. Thank you that If any man is in Christ or woman, They become a new creature. Old things pass away, and all things become new. Thank you, Lord Jesus.
That is as true today as it was in Acts chapter 9 with the Apostle Paul. And I pray that you would give us a passion. to want to be these new creatures in Christ. May that be the passion and the focus of our life, not making money or piling up stuff we're going to leave to somebody else or becoming powerful or anything else, Lord. Make our passion.
To become new creatures in Christ as deeply and as quickly as we can, that our lives might bring honor. to you. Lord, speaking. Speak to our hearts from the Word of God today. And may we make changes in our life.
Because we were here. And we sat under the teaching of the Word of God. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? Amen.
Have a great day. God bless you guys.
