Wednesday, 31 March 2021

THE PRACTICAL TRANSFORMATION OF TRUE CONVERTS IN CHRIST

 

        2 April 2021

THE PRACTICAL TRANSFORMATION OF TRUE CONVERTS IN CHRIST

Acts 2.36-42, 1 Thess. 1. 5 – 10

True and genuine converts are usually the products of well planned, prepared and power-packed evangelistic outreach. The sinners heard and received the seed of God’s words into their hearts, and this grow and germinate into a new life with new character, conduct and consciousness of Christ for others to see. To these new Christians, old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new.

The process of soul transformation is not just a casual occurrence, or an ad-hoc and mechanical call for unprepared soul winning by unprepared soul winners. It is indeed a systematically planned exercise, backed up by passionate prayers of deliverance for these souls from the captivity of sin and Satan. The soul winner must prepare by seeking God’s face in prayer and supplication for himself, to be endowed with vision and burden for souls of men, and for souls to be delivered from the captivity of Satan. The strength of his vision determines his burden for souls which equally drives him to his knees for their deliverance and liberation to the Lord (Acts 16.9). Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ emphasize this need by giving his disciples the illustration on the necessary planning required before any fruitful and successful outreach. This was what made the ministry of Ezra, the scribe to succeed in the Old Testament. Lack of preparation, whether in prayer or in the study of the word, or in sparing quality time with the new convert, makes our evangelism malnourishing which only produce half-baked converts who though, may hurriedly, give their lives to Christ, yet does not endure to the end. Failure to prepare or to plan is to experience failure on the battlefield. However, effective preparation begets successful soul winning which brings deliverance from sin and from the powers of Satan. Furthermore, adequate follow-up and prayerful mentorship of new converts makes the new believer strong, confident and courageous to stand for Christ, defend the faith and also become a powerful instrument of soul winning for the Lord.  

 

THE PATTERN OF PURPOSEFUL SOUL WINNING.  Matt.28.18-20, Mark 16.15-20, Luke 24. 46-47, Acts 3.19, Acts 26.18, 

As every business has its basics requirements, so also is soul winning. Every exercise of the gospel preaching must contain its basic components which must include the following:

i. The Man (Matt. 4.18-20). Only born again Christians are qualified to preach the gospel. The sinners cannot lead another sinner to the Lord. Therefore The messengers of Christ must firstly have known the Lord at salvation and must be known of the Lord. He must firstly be a disciple of Christ himself before he can lead others to the Savior (John 1. 37-41). He must have repented of his sins and departed from all iniquities (1 Tim 2.19). He must be separated from worldliness and worldly lusts, and must live a holy life (John 15.19).

ii. The Message (John 3.16). The message of the soul winner is “the gospel”. This is the good news of salvation for the sinful world. The soul winners message must include the following

a.      Everyone in the world have been separated from God through their sins (Rom 3.23)

b.      The dilemma and helplessness of sinners (Jere 13.23, Rom. 7.24)

c.       Eternal judgement upon all sinners except they repent (Heb. 9.27, Luke 13.3)

d.      The Love and the will of God to save them (2 Peter 3.9)

e.      Confession of sins and faith in the Lord is very crucial to his redemption (Rom 10.9)

f.        The only way to salvation is Jesus and His atoning blood (Acts 4. 12, Matt. 26.28)

g.      That only faith in the Lord Jesus can guarantee eternal rest with God in heaven (Rom. 10.13)

That instead of being punished for the sins committed in the past, a sinner can now be forgiven and pardoned to reunite with his offended creator. In the message, though God is willing to forgive and has practically sacrificed His only begotten son for his redemption, the sinner on his part must be willing to repent and practically forsake all his evil deeds so as to enjoy the forgiveness from God. Moreover, he needs to exercise faith in Christ and accept Jesus as Lord and personal savior so as to be saved and to receive the power to go and sin no more.

 

iii. The mission and ministry (Matt. 28. 19-20). The mission of soul winning is to make disciples of all nations for the Lord Jesus Christ. Once the sinner repents of his sins, the soul winner follows him up and ensures he is baptised in water. Thereafter, he begins to teach him everything the Lord had commanded until he also becomes fishers of men. It is a life-long ministry (an unfinished task) of every believer till Christ return as idleness is not allowed in the kingdom of God. This must be carried out passionately, persistently, perseveringly and purposefully.

 

2.       PRACTICE OF  SUCCESSFUL SOUL TRANSFORMATION Mark 16. 20,

Every believer must be committed to soul winning. Our commitment must be to obey the Master’s command. The early apostles rose up immediately and went everywhere preaching the word. They were ready to sacrifice everything for the gospel to be preached as the Lord had commanded. Even during imprisonment and severe persecution, they kept on spreading the gospel of Salvation. They were men (and women) with clear vision of the danger and the doom of the lost. They were also very conscious of the damnation of their disobedience to their Master and the reward of obeying His commandmentsThese fundamental factors propel them to carry on the commission.

II.      PURPOSEFUL FOLLOW UP AND DISCIPLESHIP OF CONVERTS

i.                    Be an example in doctrine, lifestyle, in prayer, in faith and in Service to the Lord. (1 Tim. 4.12)

ii.                 Be sacrificial in your outlook – spend and be spent (2 Cor. 12.15)

iii.               Be consistent in looking after their welfare (Phil. 2. 4-7)

iv.                Be concerned about the new converts (1 Thess 2. 7-8)

v.                  Be compassionate to them, don’t over estimate their understanding of God’s word and don’t underrate their faith

vi.                Be faithful in your demonstration of your faith before them

vii.             Identify with them in their challenges, but lead them to the Lord as the true solution to their problems. Teach them to pray and lead them to sound trust and confidence in God.

viii.           Teach and train them how to evangelize and win soul for Christ.

ix.                Encourage them to endure afflictions and overcome temptation

x.                  Demonstrate to them to wait for the Lords appearing.

iii. PASSIONATE AND SYSTEMATIC MENTORSHIP OF THE NEW CONVERTS

Christ-like mentorship entails that we feed the new converts with adequate and appropriate word of God that matches their age in Christ. This will make them to grow and teach them to become strong in the Lord. We therefore need to do the following in mentorship

i.                   Encouragement to continue in faith (Col. 1. 21-23)

ii.                 Endurance to the end in spite of worldly deceptions (Matt. 24.11-13)

iii.              Enlistment into God’s Service. Give them work to do in the House fellowship

iv.              Enrolment in the work of Evangelism

v.                 Empowerment in the Holy Ghost (like Ananias did to Paul in Acts 9.17)

vi.              Engagement tin spiritual warfare. Let them know they have power over Satan to conquer his manipulations

vii.            Intercede on their behalf day by day.

viii.         Decision making

P3.  THE  PRODUCTS OF TRUE  TRANSFORMATION.  Acts 2. 42-47, Acts 8. 6-8, John 4. 36, 39-, Matt. 25.34,  Dan. 12. 3

 

When sinners are practically and truly transformed to the Lordship of Christ, they are not only beneficial to themselves, they are also a blessing to the kingdom of God and to the service of Christ. In the experience of the early apostles, the genuineness of the converts’ transformation brought profound unity into the early church and made the church of Christ greatly vibrant.

 

There is great joy in heaven whenever a sinner repents and come to the Lord. The untold joy in the heart of the soul winner himself is sufficient to motivate us for evangelism. More power is given to the obedient and resourceful believer to do exploit for the Master. His name is written in God’s book of life and he shall wear a crown at the end of his journey with the assurance that he had not labored in vain. However, the church of God will become stronger and stronger. As more converts and believers are added to the church, there will be numerical growth and the believers shall be encouraging one another in the ways of the Lord till He comes. But disobedience shall be penalized by the great Judge at His coming. We need to rise up to this task of evangelism. Preaching the gospel must be our daily habit,  and bringing souls to the Lord must be our principal focus as we see the days of Christ approaching.

 

They are transformed from sinners to saints (Eph. 2.5)

They are transformed from fear to faith

They are transformed from followers of impotent gods to serving the Living God

They are transformed from failure to success

They are transformed from the foolishness of the world to wisdom through the Word

They are transformed from worldliness to Godliness

They are transformed from being eartly to become heavenly citizens

They are transformed from laying their treasures on earth to having treasures in heaven

They are transformed from looking downwards to death to looking upwards for the rapture