Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Acts chapter 9 as we look at the topic of What Would Jesus Do?  This is actually part two of our study on this subject here in Acts chapter 9, the first part was called Zeal Without Knowledge and we looked at how people can have a zeal for God, but be fighting against Him, not representing Him correctly.  We looked at five areas, Jesus the environmentalist, the social Jesus, the political Jesus, Jesus the investment banker and lastly, Jesus the CEO.

            Now this morning we are going to look at the truth so in our zeal it will be according to knowledge, which of course is very important.  As you are turning there, listen to this true story that will drive home the importance of having a zeal for God according to knowledge.  The story goes like this:

            Alila stood on the beach holding her tiny infant son close to her heart.  Tears welled in her eyes as she began slowly walking toward the river’s edge. She stepped into the water, silently making her way out until she was waist deep, the water gently lapping at the sleeping baby’s feet.  She stood there for a long time holding the child tightly as she stared out across the river. Then all of a sudden in one quick movement she threw the six month old baby to his watery death.

            Native missionary M. V. Varghese often witnesses among those who gather at the Ganges.  It was he who came upon Alila that day kneeling in the sand crying uncontrollably and beating her breast.  With compassion he knelt down next to her and asked her what was wrong.

            Through her sobs she told him, “The problems in my home are too many and my sins are heavy on my heart, so I offered the best I have to the goddess Ganges, my first born son.”  Brother Varghese’s heart ached for the desperate woman.  As she wept he gently began to tell her about the love of Jesus and that through Him her sins could be forgiven.  She looked at him strangely.  “I have never heard that before,” she replied through her tears.  “Why couldn’t you have come thirty minutes earlier?  If you did, my child would not have had to die.”

            Each year millions of people come to the holy Indian city of Hardwar to bathe in the River Ganges.  These multitudes come believing this Hindu ritual will wash their sins away.  For many people like Alila, missionaries are arriving too late, simply because there aren’t enough of these faithful brothers and sisters on the mission field.

                                                                                                            -Christianity Today, 1993

Do you think this woman and millions of other people need Jesus the

Environmentalist?  Not at all!  What about the social Jesus?  I don’t think so!  How about a political Jesus, won’t that help?  No it won’t!  Then what about Jesus the investment banker?  No, that is not going to help either!  Or, lastly, Jesus the CEO?  None of these are the Jesus these people who are dying in their sins need.  Then what kind of Jesus do they need?  Let’s begin reading in our text this morning in Acts chapter 9 beginning in verse 20 and we will see the Jesus they need, the Jesus we need and then what we are to do with that information, that knowledge.

            Here is a man, Saul who was on a crusade to stamp out Christians and Christianity, and now is moving in the opposite direction, supporting Christianity!  What in the world happened to him?  Saul had an encounter with the risen Lord, he saw Jesus and now, as his spiritual eyes were opened, he no longer is going to fight and kick against Jesus, but surrender his life to Him and serve Him.

            What is the first thing you want to do as a kid when you get a new toy, like a car, a big-screen TV or whatever?  You can’t wait to tell everyone, you want to show everyone what you have.  That is what we are seeing here with Saul, he has this new faith, this new relationship with Jesus, and he wants to show everyone, he wants to tell everyone about Jesus because He is that important to Saul and Saul sees how important Jesus is to others!

            So what does Saul do?  He goes into the Synagogues in Damascus and he speaks about Jesus, that He is the Son of God, that He is the Messiah. You see, Saul was a Pharisee, he knew the Scriptures, but before his eyes were opened, he refused to see that Jesus was the one the Old Testament prophets spoke of.  The healing of the sick, the opening of the eyes of those that were blind, the opening of the ears of those that were deaf, the raising of the dead, these are the things that the prophets spoke of regarding the Messiah and now they are manifested in the life of Jesus!

            Now as Saul’s eyes are opened, he sees Jesus in the Scriptures, that they testify of Him and he is sharing this with his fellow Jews.  The concern they have is they know the reputation of Saul and they think this might be a trick to expose those who are Christians so Saul could arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem and put them on trial before the Sanhedrin and possibly have them put to death!

            But that didn’t stop Saul, he continued proclaiming the Good News, Jesus, and as he did, those who were opposed to Jesus and now to Saul, were confused, they couldn’t defend themselves against what Saul was saying about Jesus and how these things the Scriptures spoke of were manifested in His life!  Saul was a master of defending his faith because he knew the Scriptures and now the Holy Spirit was teaching him how all these things speak of Jesus!  It is as Jesus said in John 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.  But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”  The religious leaders looked for life in the Scriptures and they missed out on the Scriptures speaking of the giver and sustainer of life, Jesus Christ!

            As we have seen in our last study and in our short review this morning of that study, people have all kinds of views, all kinds of ideas about Jesus and they proclaim them as the Gospel Truth and yet, they are not the Gospel, they are not the Good News, they are not even found many times in the Scriptures and if they are they are twisted by these people and distorted to fit their doctrine!  So what is so bad about that?  Here it is, the biggest problem with that is those things don’t save you!

            For many, they do not even know what the Gospel is, but Paul makes that very clear when he says in I Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you -- unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” 

            You see, he is sharing those things which he received from the Lord, the Good News, the Gospel message which is simply that Christ was born, God became flesh and dwelt among us, our Emmanuel or “God with us,” that He died for our sins paying in full the penalty for our sins and thus, His cry from the cross “It is finished!” speaks of the finished work of redemption, and all we must do is receive that gift by faith, He was then buried in the tomb and on the third day He rose from the dead, conquering death and giving us that assurance that when we die, we go to be with Him!  And this is all according to what the prophets said would take place.  Now is that too difficult to share, to speak of?  Yes and no!

            Yes, because it is offensive to people.  People today don’t want to know they are sinners, they want to think of themselves as good people and yet, the Bible tells us that there are none, there are no good people, all have sinned and fall far short of the glory of God, they have missed the mark!  So the church, not wanting to offend anyone, has taken sin out of the picture, some churches won’t even say the word “sin” because it is too offensive and it will hurt people’s fragile self-esteem! 

            Listen to this story titled, Label It “Sin,” it goes like this:

            The late Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman used to tell of a Methodist preacher who often spoke on the subject of sin.  He minced no words, but defined sin as “that abominable thing that God hates.”  A leader in his congregation came to him on one occasion and urged him to cease using the ugly word.  Said he: “Dr. Blank, we wish you would not speak so plainly about sin.  Our young people, hearing you, will be more likely to indulge in sin.  Call it something else, as ‘inhibition,’ or ‘error’ or a ‘mistake,’ or even ‘a twist in our nature.’”

            “I understand what you mean,” the preacher remarked and going to his desk brought out a little bottle.  “This bottle,” he said, “contains strychnine.  You will see that the red label here reads ‘Poison.’  Would you suggest that I change the label, and paste one on that says, ‘Wintergreen?’  The more harmless the name the more dangerous the dose will be.”  

                                                                                                            - The Bible Friend

            We would never do that with a bottle of poison, it would be too dangerous.  Then why in the world do we do it with sin?  Why do we make sin something that it is not?  It is not good, it is not a mistake, it is an abomination before God and God will not accept us in that condition.  Do you really think that God became flesh, dwelt among us, was beaten so badly that His face no longer resembled the face of a man, he was crucified, all because we are good people?  Of course not!  He did so because we were sinners separated from God and He came to restore that fellowship by paying in full the penalty for our sins.  What is Joseph told in Matthew, “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”  Matthew 1:21.  Notice what Jesus is saving us from, not our ‘inhibition,’ or ‘error’ or a ‘mistake,’ or even ‘our twist in our nature’ He is saving us from our sins!  That is what Peter is saying in I Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”

            Yes, it is difficult because people have their own ideas of salvation and I am going to give you just three examples and please, I am not picking on Catholics or the Catholic Church, all I am doing is sharing with you what leaders in the church have said in regards to salvation and then what the Scriptures say.  Protestants are also deviating from the truth of God’s Word in this area, so we too must be careful.

            This is “The Holy Father’s Prayer for the Marian Year” and it was given by Pope John Paul II. He said:

            “Sustain us, O Virgin Mary, on our journey of faith and obtain for us the grace of eternal salvation.”

            This is from the New York Times and this is what New York’s John Cardinal O’Connor had to say regarding salvation:

            “Church teaching is that I don’t know, at any given moment, what my eternal future will be.  I can hope, pray, do my very best – but I still don’t know.  Pope John   Paul II doesn’t know absolutely that he will go to heaven, nor does Mother Teresa of Calcutta. . . .”

            And lastly, this is from Mother Teresa of Calcutta and what she said at the Washington D.C.’s National Prayer Breakfast back on February 3, 1994:

            “I have said to Jesus that if I don’t go to heaven for anything else, I will be going to heaven for all the traveling with all the publicity, because it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me really ready to go to heaven.”

            Now I am sorry, but nowhere in the Scriptures will you find anything to support what they are saying.  Salvation is not something we receive from Mary, it is not something we earn by doing good works, but it is something we receive by faith.  Paul, in Ephesians 2:8-10 said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  And in Galatians 2:16, 21 Paul tells us, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. . . . I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

            You see, it is not a salvation by works, but a salvation that works.  The things we do for Christ don’t save us; they are just the fruit that show we are saved!  There is a big difference between the two! And if you really think otherwise, if you think you can work your way into heaven, that you can be good enough to get in, that your righteousness or good works will do it, listen to what Isaiah 64:6-7 has to say, “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf,

And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.  And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.” 

            The other thing I must say is we can know, we can have assurance of our salvation!  “You mean to tell me that Pope John Paul II was wrong?  You mean to tell me that John Cardinal O’Connor was wrong?  You mean to tell me that Mother Teresa was wrong? Who do you think you are to say those things?  Who gave you the right to say those things?”

            Folks, I am nobody, and it is not what I have to say, it is what God has to say, not man, any man! Yes they are all wrong on how we are saved and our assurance of salvation and the only reason I can say that with such authority is because God’s Word tells me so!  That is the only authority we have to stand upon!  Jesus said in John 20:23, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”  Now that does not mean I have the power to forgive sins, nor does the Pope or any other religious leader or person.  All I can do is tell a person who makes Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior of their life that their sins are forgiven in Jesus.  Now for those that reject Jesus I can also tell them that their sins are retained, or they remain upon them because they have rejected the only one who can forgive sins, Jesus and thus, they will die in their sins!  

            Now, on this issue of our assurance of salvation, can you imagine if we could never know where we were going, we would go crazy, there is no peace, no rest, always wondering, always anxious about this and do you think that is what God wants us to be like, just guessing?  Of course not!  Jesus said in John 5:24, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.  Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”  Then, John tells us in I John 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”  The Amplified Bible puts this verse this way, “I write this to you who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) the name of the Son of God [in the peculiar services and blessings conferred by Him on men], so that you may know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that you [already] have life, yes, eternal life.” 

            You see, if Jesus is your Lord and Savior, then you can have assurance of your salvation because your salvation is not based upon your work but His finished work and all you have to do is receive that gift of life by faith!  If He is not your Lord and Savior you too can have assurance, the assurance that you are not saved no matter how many good works you do because works don’t save you, Jesus does!

            Again, this is important for Peter tells us in Acts 4:11-12, “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’  Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  And then Paul tells us in Romans 10:9-13, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.  For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’”  I think that is very clear, what more can be added to that, our salvation is based upon the finished work of Jesus on the cross of Calvary and we can obtain it by receiving it by faith, by confessing Jesus as Lord and that God raised Him from the dead! It is the Gospel message!

            So, yes, it can be very difficult because of the many misguided views we have regarding the Scriptures and the things we add to the Scriptues.  And no, it is not difficult if you just trust the Lord, read His Word and apply the Word of God to your life.  So we have seen that Jesus is God, that He became flesh, dwelt among us, paid in full the penalty for our sins on the cross of Calvary, and rose the third day from the dead – that is the Gospel message and that is what is to be preached, that is what is to be spoken, that is what is to be shared!  It is what Paul said in Ephesians 1:13-14, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” 

            Now with the remainder of our time this morning I first want to show you who proclaimed this message and then who we are to proclaim to.  Notice first of all that it was the Old Testament Scriptures that spoke of this as Paul said in Galatians 3:8-9, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, ‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’  So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”  Paul in Romans 1:1-2 speaks of the Old Testament prophets speaking it forth, “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.” 

            We are told of John the Baptist in Mark 1:4-5, “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.  Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.”  John’s baptism was one of repentance of sins and folks, that is where it starts, acknowledging you are a sinner but that is as far as that can go, you can do nothing about your sins outside of Christ and thus, in Mark 1:14-15 we are told, “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’”   What is the message of Jesus?  Repent, turn back towards God and away from sin and believe in the Gospel, receive Jesus into your life as Lord and Savior!

            Peter tells us “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.  To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven -- things which angels desire to look into.”  I Peter 1:10-12.  Our salvation, this free gift given to us by God has the prophets looking into and the angels blown away, it truly is an amazing grace that has been bestowed upon us!  

            That is the message, the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, but who are we to proclaim it to?  Jesus tells us in Mark 16:15-16, “And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”  So this message is not to be kept to ourselves, but it is to be spoken to the entire world!

            We also should preach the Gospel with assurance, with boldness, we should not be ashamed of the message we have as Paul says in Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’” 

            Now some like to argue that there is no God, but that is foolish, nature itself declares the glory of God, that there is a Creator a Designer, and His name is Jesus.  Interestingly enough, for those that are hung up on evolution and think creation is a joke, listen to what Colin Patterson, the senior Paleontologist at the British Museum of Natural History, a strong evolutionist, confessed:

            “Evolutionists – like the creationists they periodically do battle with – are nothing more than believers themselves.  I had been working on this stuff [evolution] for more than twenty years, and there was not one [factual] thing I knew about it. It’s quite a shock to learn that one can be so misled for so long.”

                                                                                    - Harpers, February 1985, pp. 49-50  

            To put this in perspective, denying there is a God, it is truly foolish as this story tells us.  There was this London street preacher who told his audience that every atheist was a fool because the Bible says so!  In the crowd was a well-known atheist and he was not amused and shouted back to the street preacher that it was a slanderous insult, which he took personally, and he was going to sue the preacher for slander.  The preacher responded back, “It is not slander to tell the truth.”

            The atheist was not going to sit back and take that and he countered by saying, “And it’s not truth unless you can prove it!  You’ll have to prove in court that I’m a fool or I’ll take every pound you’ve got!”

            “I don’t have to go to court to prove it,” said the preacher very calmly.  “You say you’re an atheist?”

            “Yes, and not just a casual one. I’ve spent my life proving God doesn’t exist.  It’s a pernicious myth!” 

            “Spent your life proving God doesn’t exist, have you?” replied the preacher.  “Tell me this: if a man who spends his life fighting against something that doesn’t exist isn’t a fool, who is?”  Case closed!

            Don’t let the wisdom of the world dictate what you preach, what you believe, the things you share, let God guide you and strengthen you to proclaim the Good News because outside of Christ, there is only bad news!  But in Christ all our sins are cast as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more, we are as white as snow.  It is as Paul said in II Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  How awesome is that!

            We opened this morning with the millions of people who made their yearly pilgrimage to dip in the dirty, the filthy Ganges River to be cleansed of their sins and how this woman, like many others whose life was a mess, in turmoil, full of sin, thinking that sacrificing her only son to the god’s of this River would appease them and her sins would be forgiven, was wrong!  God sent us His only begotten Son to do that for us and He did!  Folks, let us not leave people lost in their sins, trying to gain forgiveness by their own efforts, but let them hear of Jesus, the only one who can forgive sins!

            Maybe you lost that fire to share Jesus and you don’t know how to gain that back, the answer is simple, have an encounter with Jesus as Paul did.  How do you do that?  By being in His Word, being in fellowship with Him, and by believing by faith that what He has promised He will do in your life!

            Let me close by saying this, because it truly shows us what we need:

            If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior, He sent us Jesus!

            May we spread forth the Gospel message and see how the Gospel can transform people’s lives, as it did Saul’s and as much as he was fighting against God he now was forging ahead for God in the power of Jesus with the Gospel message!  Look at what God has done in your life, and He can do the same in the lives of others if you would only share the Good News with them!  What Would Jesus Do? He would say “Repent and believe in the Gospel!” and so must we!