A Life of Confession

(Transcript of a message preached at Faith-Grace Vietnamese Baptist Church, Stone Mountain, GA, on April 15, 2018.)

Text: Acts 9:1-22

INTRODUCTION

You’ve just read about one of the most important events in history. Say what? Yeah, God just turned his biggest enemy into his greatest friend. Wow!

·         This guy hated the church so much that he went looking for them everywhere, even outside where most of them lived, to wipe them out altogether. Bad dude, folks…really bad dude.

·         But thank God he didn’t stay that way! Deep down, Saul was doing what he thought God wanted him to do. Years later, he told King Agrippa while on trial, “I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to [or against] the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 26:9). But that same Jesus, exalted to heaven, knocks him on his back and asks him, “Why are you doing this to me?” (vv. 4-5)

·         And when Saul realizes who Jesus really is and that he’s been fighting him, Saul receives him on the spot (v. 6). Praise the Lord for his grace and power! God is not only willing to forgive his greatest enemy but able to turn him into his greatest friend, the apostle to the whole world and the pattern for all believers in this age.

·         This passage also talks about what happened right after Saul got saved, including his baptism, discipleship, and early preaching. What strikes me about all of it, and what I want to point out to you today, is that Paul led a life of confession: a life of declaring to others who the Lord was, what he had done for him personally, and what he could do for others.

OUTLINE

·         Definition of confession (how the text of the Bible itself defines it)

·         Paul’s life of confession (examples, fruit, inspiration)

·         Ways you can confess the Lord today (some very simple)

DEFINITION

·         Psalm 32:5. To confess it to acknowledge something: that you know something or someone. Here David is saying that he knows what he had done was sin and declaring it to be so.

o   Acts 19:18-19. People who had heard Paul’s preaching and believed came forward to acknowledge that their witchcraft was wrong and burned the expensive books they’d used (“curious arts”; that’s how many people get snared by Satan, all the way back to Eve—they’re curious and end up getting far more than they bargained for).

o   Rom. 10:9-10. So when the Bible refers to confessing the Lord Jesus, it’s saying you’re acknowledging that the Lord Jesus is the Saviour and has become your Saviour when you trusted him as that. Verse 10 makes it clear what happens when you get saved: in your heart you trust in Jesus as the one who “died for [y]our sins according to the scriptures…was buried, and…rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

o   Most people only associate confession with sin, but that’s a mistake, since the confession that Paul emphasizes and exemplifies is acknowledging and declaring the truth about Christ our Saviour. We need to be careful about our fellowship with the Lord, but we also need to be careful to acknowledge and proclaim our Saviour every way we can, and we’ll talk more about how later.

PAUL’S LIFE OF CONFESSION

·         Examples

o   Baptism. By submitting to this, he was acknowledging his faith in Christ. He was no longer Christ’s enemy, but his follower.

o   Early ministry (Acts 9). After spending time with the believers in Damascus, he begins to acknowledge Christ publicly to others as “the Son of God” (Acts 9:20). By this point, I believe, God had revealed to him the gospel that he would take to the whole world, the message of grace and salvation through Christ that would bring Jews and Gentiles together in the body of Christ, the church of the living God.

o   Core ministry (Acts 13-28). Paul testifies before two rulers in Judea: (1) Felix, the Roman governor (Acts 24:14-16, 24-25); and (2) King Agrippa, a Jewish ruler under the Romans (Acts 26). He confesses his faith in Christ to both of them, but sadly moves neither. Paul’s confessions didn’t always have positive results, but God still used them. Felix doesn’t believe Paul, but he keeps him safe from the Jews for two years; Agrippa refuses to become a Christian, but he doesn’t condemn Paul either.

o   Later ministry (2 Tim. 4:16-17). From the footnote at the end of 2 Timothy, we learn that Paul faced the Emperor Nero twice: once in Acts 28, and once here (4:16). Now he was awaiting judgment, with the sense that he’d be killed. From 4:17 we see that he confessed his faith to Nero again and gave him the gospel, perhaps for the second time. Facing the king of the world he boldly proclaims his faith. What an example to us all!

·         Fruit

o   Since Paul practiced confessing Christ, he could encourage others to do it too.

o   His first jail term in Rome moved other preachers to speak out for Christ (Phil. 1:14).

o   He reminded Timothy how Timothy’s Christian life began with acknowledging his faith before others (1 Tim. 6:12), just like Paul’s did, and should continue to do so (2 Tim. 1:8).

·         Inspiration

o   If you keep reading past 1 Tim. 6:12, you see what Paul’s ultimate inspiration for confessing his faith was, and what Timothy’s and ours should be: Christ Jesus.

o   Even when he’s taken captive by his people and brought before government officials, Christ declares the truth of God’s word, in which he, as a man, trusted. Pilate, a skeptic, asked him who he was, and Christ told him. Pilate thought truth was relative (“what is truth?”; John 18:38), not knowing that “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) was standing right in front of him.

o   Sadly he wasn’t looking for the truth, so even with it right in front of him, he missed it, and so can you, if your heart isn’t seeking it sincerely.

WAYS TO CONFESS THE LORD TODAY

·         If you’re sitting there thinking: All of this about Paul is great, but how do I apply this in my own life? That’s exactly what you should be thinking!

·         Bible truth isn’t just meant to be learned: it’s meant to be applied

·         That’s what Bro. Binh does for me every day at work: takes the knowledge that our team gains from research and makes sure that it’s put to use by Georgia DOT.

·         How do we put to use this truth about acknowledging our faith in Christ?

o   First, examples from the Bible. How did Paul do it?

§  He started with his friends, like Ananias, through his baptism.

§  Confessed his faith to other believers (and non-believers) in Damascus.

§  Spread the message of grace wherever he went.

§  Even when brought before rulers, he didn’t hide what he believed but was open and even persuasive about it.

o   Examples in our own time (here’s a few to consider)

§  Clothing (t-shirts, lapel pins, ties)

§  Vehicle (magnets, stickers, tag frames, plates)

§  Home (yard sign; artwork; Bible)

§  Literature (tracts, booklets, books)

§  Social media/email/letters

§  Personal conversations (coffee; meals @ home or out)

§  Parade floats

§  Street preaching

o   Do it every way you can, for whoever you can, as long as you can

§  Someone said, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” including confessing Christ.

§  During WWII in Germany, most of the church leaders backed Hitler, but not all. Some joined together and called themselves “The Confessing Church,” the church that spoke the truth and didn’t compromise with Hitler. Obviously they were persecuted, and one of their leaders, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, became well known. Sadly he was killed by the Nazis not long before Hitler died.

§  We need to be confessing believers and churches too. Paul’s a great example for us, as is the Lord Jesus himself, of declaring his faith to everyone; now it’s our turn to do the same; will you join us?