PowerPoint

Jack Graham: When we're weak and can't go on, the Spirit of God comforts us. When we need strength to overcome temptation, the Holy Spirit within, Christ within, lives in us. When we don't know how to pray, he intercedes with us.

Guest (Female): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can experience real life change through Jesus. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, Transformed.

Jack Graham: Today I'm going to speak on the subject Transformed because in Acts chapter 9, we find one of the most important chapters in all the Bible. We would not understand much of the New Testament as well as the theology of the Bible apart from the man who was converted and then used of God as a chosen vessel to proclaim the name of Jesus throughout the world. His name is Paul the Apostle.

If you're a Christian for any length of time, you certainly know something of Paul's life and the fact that he wrote more than half of the New Testament under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He inherently and infallibly wrote God's Word and gave us the Scriptures. And yet it was at the outset of his life that we find in the Apostle Paul a totally different man. In fact, he had a name that was different. It was a Hebrew name, Saul. And something happened. Something so powerful that it transformed his life forever.

That same thing can happen to you. It's called transformation, spiritual transformation. Are you transformed? Now for years, some psychologists and sociologists have concluded after studying the personalities of human beings that it is impossible to change a person. I mean, really change a person. You can modify people's behavior, it is suggested, you can motivate and educate, but as far as really changing a person, they say impossible.

It is patently false to suggest that a person cannot be transformed by the grace of God by the power of Jesus Christ. Millions of us would testify to the truth that he transforms. Men, women, boys, and girls that we have because of this great gospel of God, because of Jesus Christ, his death, his burial, and resurrection for us, that we have been transformed in that all of our sins, past, present, and future, have been forgiven.

Christ himself lives in us by his Spirit and we have a brand-new destiny ahead of us called heaven. And that's the hope that we live. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away and everything is brand-new." No one was more qualified to pen that verse than the Apostle Paul.

His life story is a classic example of genuine conversion, of the life-transforming power of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, I believe that the Apostle Paul was the greatest Christian who ever lived, the most influential believer who ever walked upon planet Earth. Paul was not always a man in Christ. As a matter of fact, he was the opposite of that. He was a man without Christ. He was even an antichrist.

And yet Acts chapter 9 tells us of his conversion which changed him and changed everything around him and how conversion transforms us. Obviously, we all don't have the same Damascus Road experience that the Apostle Paul had. But we all can know the same Jesus. We can all be transformed. What happened to Paul can happen to all who trust in Jesus. I want to give you some characteristics that describe conversion.

What happens when a person truly is converted? The first thing that happens is that person finds a new direction for life. The direction of this man's life was dramatically changed. The Bible tells us, the book of Acts tells us that Saul of Tarsus was aggressively attempting to crush Christianity, to wipe the church from the face of the Earth, to destroy, to abort the message of Jesus Christ in the womb.

We're introduced to Paul, who was known as Saul of Tarsus, in Acts 8:1, at the martyrdom of Stephen. Listen to Acts chapter 7, verse 58. "Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him, and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul." This was the moment I believe God began turning the heart of Saul/Paul. He was applauding and actually consenting to the death of the godly deacon, Stephen, who was stoned because he preached Christ. He dared to stand for Christ.

Saul, who was committed to destroying the Christian faith and tearing down everything that it stood for, stood by and watched and consented to the murder of this man, Stephen. Well, in Acts chapter 8, in verse 3, Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Before we run by that, think of the devastation that he was wrecking upon families.

Knock came at the door like the Gestapo, and families were shredded. Children torn from the arms of their mothers. Their mothers and fathers taken away, all by the hand of this man who would later describe himself, no wonder, before he met Christ as the chief of sinners and a murderer. He presided over the murder and the persecution of Christian after Christian. Saul is now a terrorist. He is a fanatical, religious, self-righteous zealot who thought that he was doing God a favor by killing Christians. He was disturbed, he was dangerous, and I believe he was disillusioned.

No doubt there was an emptiness in his heart because he knew that what he had wasn't working. He had seen in the countenance of Stephen dying there the love of God when he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they're doing," even as the Lord prayed on the cross. He saw that angel-face follower of Jesus looking up into heaven and seeing Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. He didn't know exactly what happened, but he had never seen a man die with such courage and conviction and love and compassion. Paul knew that was something he didn't have.

So in verse 1 and 2 of chapter 9, look at what happened to this man, this terrorist, this religious terrorist. But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord—and the word picture there is of a wild animal, snorting and snarling and breathing these threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord—went to the high priest, asked—and the word there is begged him—he couldn't wait for letters to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way—note that—any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound into Jerusalem.

So like a wild, wounded animal, he's attacking more Christians. And what enraged him the most was that these people believed and followed the Way. They belonged to the Way. Now if you went the way of a teacher or rabbi or an apostle, you were following in their way. You were following in their steps. You were walking with them. But concerning Jesus, it meant much more than this.

The followers of the Way were picking up on the words of Jesus in John chapter 14, and verse 6, when he said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father except by me." It was this exclusivity, this so-called blasphemous statement that Jesus made that ultimately nailed him to the cross, that he claimed to be co-equal and co-eternal to God. The only way to God. Jesus was a problem for the religious establishment of his time.

And so these who followed the Way, who believed Jesus was the way to heaven, not just that he was a man who had come to show the way to God, but that he was God who had come to show man the way to God, and the Way to God, and that he was the only way to God. This still infuriates people today. And so these early believers, long before they were called Christians, were called followers of the Way. They were belonging to the Way.

These Christians, as we should, believe the Way, and live the Way, and pray the Way, and love the Way, and the truth and the life. On his way to carry out his murderous mission, Saul was at the breaking point. His life was falling apart. And then came this amazing vision from the Lord. At high noon on the Damascus Road, on his way into Damascus, he sees a blinding light according to the Scripture. And he hears a thunderous voice and a presence there.

Verse 4 of Acts chapter 9, "And falling to the ground he heard a voice say to him, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'" He asks in verse 5, Saul that is, asks, "Who are you, Lord?" And Jesus replied, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." Immediately, Saul acknowledges the presence of God, and to his amazement, this Lord is Jesus himself. The one that he was persecuting. The one who had been nailed to a cross and the followers of the Way were claiming had risen from the dead.

Now he comes face to face with the risen Savior. And his salvation, his conversion, was sovereign. He wasn't looking for God. Quite the opposite. He was looking to kill Christians and to destroy the faith of Christians. And he wasn't looking for Jesus, but Jesus found him. His conversion was sudden. It wasn't gradual. It was immediate and powerful. It was definite and dramatic. Now here's where we need to stop and just clarify something.

Maybe you think, "I've never had one of these kind of experiences." It's not how dramatic your conversion is, but how decisive your conversion is. The fact is, you need to know definitively, decisively, that this transformation has happened to you. That you have turned from your past and your sins and trusted in Christ. So how decisive has your response been to Christ? How definite has your conversion been?

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Transformed. Be sure to sign up to receive Dr. Graham's daily video devotional on the seven words from the cross. This powerful study will remind you of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. Dr. Graham will share a short devotional about the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross and what they mean to us today. To sign up, text Cross to 59789. It's absolutely free to join, so text Cross to 59789.

Right now, you have an incredible opportunity to help someone experience the hope and truth of Jesus Christ. And thanks to an exciting $150,000 matching grant, your gifts this month will be doubled to help proclaim God's Word even farther through PowerPoint Ministries. And as our way of saying thanks, we'd love to send you Dr. Graham's book, Help, a powerful resource showing you how Jesus meets you in your struggles with strength, comfort, and hope. Text Mar to 59789 to give today. Again, that's Mar, M-A-R, to 59789. Now let's get back to today's message, Transformed.

Jack Graham: Decide then what is the second thing I'm going to mention, and that is do you have a new devotion for Christ? He immediately confessed Jesus as Lord. And then in verse 6, according to the translation given to us in the New King James, another question. It's the change from the ESV that I preach from and the King James is still says the same thing, just says it differently. But the question is more definitive here in the New King James. Paul says, "Lord, what do you want me to do?"

Now those are two questions that every one of us must ask and answer. Lord, who are you? Are you who you claim to be? Are you Savior and God and the risen Lord? Do I believe that? And then if you believe that, "Lord, what will you have me to do?" Paul would spend the rest of his life following Jesus. It's not just a decision or a dramatic experience that we have.

It's not blinding light. It's not as one old country preacher said, "It's not how high you jump, but how straight you walk when you come down." And he came down a man in Christ. He would say later, "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." 2 Corinthians 5:15, Paul wrote these words to all of us, "And he died for all that those who live may no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised."

The question is, have you come to the end of yourself? Your own way, your own righteousness? Paul did. He had a self-righteousness. He was brilliant, but he was blind spiritually. He knew the Scriptures, but he didn't know salvation in Christ. But that all changed, and his devotion and his allegiance was transformed.

Of all the allegiances that we have in life and the devotions that we have in life, whether it be family or friends or career, calling, whatever it is, these must all be underneath the lordship of Christ in our lives. Is Jesus your Lord? Do you understand that to believe in Christ is to bow the knee to King Jesus? That he takes control and command of your life.

Your life is under new management. Now it takes a lifetime to understand all of this, and has for me. Only gradually do we comprehend as we grow what our commitment to Christ means. I'm still learning as I live. I'm still growing and deepening in my Christian life. And God's intention with the gospel is not just that we grow wider, but that we also grow deeper in Christ and as followers of Christ.

Seek first the kingdom of God, his righteousness, and all of these things will be added unto you. We're to give him our loyalty and love, and that includes loving the things that Christ loves, which is his church, his body. We are the body of Christ. Colossians 1:18, "He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent."

The first thing that the Apostle Paul did was to identify with the church. He was baptized as a believer, and then he belonged to the church. He began to spend time with the disciples. And you can read about that as you read the rest of the ninth chapter of Acts. He identified with the church, he got to know the disciples, and the church welcomed him in. He was public enemy number one, remember?

They said, "Look, this is the man who's been killing us. This is the man who's been ripping our families apart. This is the man that we have grown to fear and even to despise." And yet Ananias, the faithful believer that God raised up to disciple Saul, Paul, in his early stages of Christian faith, and later on, Barnabas, the son of encouragement, advised these Christians that this guy's for real.

What's happened to him has changed everything. He's a chosen vessel unto God. Oh, how we ought to welcome everyone and not be suspicious of even the vilest who come to Christ. Persons of every religion and every creed and every kind should be welcomed into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was not the church kind, if you will, and yet the church brought him in. We belong to Christ and one another. We're family. We belong together.

We believe together. We are bound together and we are becoming together more and more like Christ. That brings me to another thing. In Christ, there is a new determination. Look at verse 15 of Acts chapter 9, "But the Lord said to him, 'Go, for he is a chosen vessel instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.'"

Again, the murderer transformed. He's now to be a missionary. Verse 20, "And immediately he proclaimed Jesus, immediately." He didn't wait. He didn't take an evangelism course. He just immediately began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues, right in the heart of the religious system of his day, and said, "He is the Son of God." Only one thing could explain that. He is the Son of God.

Paul met him. And Paul saw increased all the more—this is verse 22—all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. When we are transformed, now we have a reason to live beyond ourselves. We live for Christ and his glory, his fame, and his name. He spent the rest of his life, that is, Paul, telling others about Jesus.

And that's what God has called us to do. It's inconceivable to me to say that I'm converted and never want others to be converted. How can I say I know Christ if I don't want others to know Christ? There's a new purpose and a new mission, and we are given that in Christ. And then there's a new dynamic. Verse 17 of Acts 9, Ananias prayed and Saul, Paul, received the Holy Spirit.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit. At conversion, the Spirit of God inhabited him. And now in Christ, a man in Christ, the Spirit of Christ lives in us. We are inhabited, we are indwelt by the Spirit. His divinity inhabits my humanity. He was a new Christian, but the Spirit of God was in him and filled him. God is in us, enabling us to live in strength and in power the Christian life.

The Holy Spirit, we know him because we are the glove of God. He inhabits us. Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses." You are not witnessing is because you're not filled and allowing the Spirit to flow through you and fuel you. Our personalities are now powered by the Spirit.

Our character is changed to Christlikeness because of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace, patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control. When we're weak and can't go on, the Spirit of God comforts us. When we need strength to overcome temptation, the Holy Spirit within, Christ within, lives in us.

When we don't know how to pray, have you ever come to a time you don't even know how to pray? The Holy Spirit is our prayer partner. Acts 8:26, "He helps us in our weakness and with groanings unutterable intercedes with us." No wonder the Apostle Paul would say, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." The Spirit of Christ is in us.

You see, this is so much more than just changing your ways or getting a religion or going to church. This is Christ by his Spirit changing you and cleansing you and controlling you by his Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is in you. He is resident, but is he president? Then there's one final thing. Not only a new direction and a new dimension to your life and a new determination to follow Christ, a new dynamic to follow Christ, but there's a new destiny.

We're now on our way to heaven. Paul was on his way to hell, but he's turned around. He's on his way to heaven. God changes our past, God changes our present, and God changes our future. Once we were living aimless lives without meaning and purpose, and now we're living on purpose with meaning in our lives. And we have a hope in heaven with him.

If you trust in Jesus, your story will have a happy ending. And just as surely as Saul, the Apostle Paul, was chosen of God, you also are called and chosen of God and the gospel will provide all you need to meet life's challenges. And in a broken world, we find joy and hope and stability and courage by the power of God and his gospel in that we have been converted.

And now we can deal with any why, we can deal with any what because we have a how, we have a purpose for living and a hope forever in Christ. When it came to the end of the road for the Apostle Paul after the beginning on that Damascus Road, he was to be executed for his faith.

He said, "I have kept the faith, I have finished the course, I've fought the good fight. Therefore there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness and not to be only, not because I was a superstar saint or because I was so great. I wasn't that great, but because of what Jesus has done for me." What happened to Paul can happen to all because the Bible says, "Whosoever will may come, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved."

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, Transformed. I want you to know that right now, your support goes even further to help share the hope of Jesus with people around the world. Thanks to a generous $150,000 matching grant, every gift this month will be doubled to help proclaim God's Word through PowerPoint Ministries. That means you'll help reach even more people who desperately need truth, encouragement, and the gospel.

And as a heartfelt thank-you for your generous gift this month, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Help, to remind you that you are not alone, your pain is not unseen, and God's peace is real. Text Mar to 59789 to have your gift doubled and request your copy today. Again, text Mar, M-A-R, to 59789. Be sure to sign up to receive Dr. Graham's daily video devotional on the seven words from the cross.

This powerful study will remind you of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. Dr. Graham will share a short devotional about the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross and what they mean to us today. To sign up, just text Cross to 59789. It's absolutely free to join, so text Cross to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: In Acts 9, we witness the greatest spiritual transformation of a man's life in all of Scripture, in all of history. Before Saul of Tarsus became the Apostle Paul, he was ravaging the church. He used his position and power to persecute believers and even had them sent to prison and presided over the murder of Christian after Christian. Today we might even call him a terrorist.

He was a fanatical, self-righteous zealot who thought he was doing God a favor by killing Christians. But when Christ appeared to him on that road to Damascus, everything, everything changed. He wasn't looking for Jesus, but Jesus found him. And in that encounter, Paul was supernaturally and forever transformed.

Now without Paul's transformation, we wouldn't understand much of the New Testament or the theology of the Bible. And I say this because under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul wrote more than half of the New Testament. I love 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away and everything is brand-new."

No one was more qualified to pen that verse than the Apostle Paul. And his life story is the preeminent example of genuine conversion and the life-transforming power of Jesus Christ. Now obviously, we all don't have the same Damascus Road experience that the Apostle Paul had. But we all can know the same Jesus. You can be transformed.

And what happened to Paul can happen to all. It can happen to you. For example, when you turned into PowerPoint today, you may not have come expecting to find Jesus. Maybe you tuned in by chance or accident, but I assure you, God is guiding you into his presence. God is calling you to himself today.

So like Paul, your conversion could be sudden, immediate, powerful, definite, and yes, dramatic. I urge you by receiving Jesus Christ into your life, trusting that he died for you on the cross and believing that he rose again on the third day, experience the life-changing, transforming power of Jesus right now. Let Jesus give you a new direction, a new determination, and a new destiny.

Put an end to aimless living and let Jesus fill your life with purpose and grant you the promise of eternal life with him right now.

Guest (Female): And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Help. Just text Mar to 59789. Then join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about what signs will precede the return of Christ and how you should live in light of them. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.