This morning I want to begin by making an observation and then asking a question.  It has been my experience over the years that not all baptisms take.  Do you know what I mean?  It seems that there are people who want to be saved, so they come and confess Jesus as the Son of God.  They appear, as far as I can tell, to want to be a Christian.  So, I baptize them and we all celebrate but after a few weeks, months or even years, the baptism just doesn’t take.  They don’t continue with their commitment to Jesus.  They drift back into their former lives.  They give up that precious connection to our Lord.  It breaks my heart.  I always wonder what I did wrong.  Was there something more I could have done?  I am haunted by a verse of Scripture from Peter.

2 Peter 2:20-22 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.  It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.  Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."

Isn’t that a scary passage?  To have escaped the word by knowing the sweet name of Jesus and then go back to the world is like a dog eating its vomit.  Or you clean up a nice pig and get it all decorated with a pink bow and then it jumps right back in the pig sty.  Here is the observation.

People can experience conversion, but not discipleship. 

There are others who become Christians, they too confess their belief in the Lord and say the right words and get dunked in the name of the Lord and never do anything else, except attend church.  They are there most every Sunday morning, but they never grow.  I don’t want to be cruel, or judgmental, but it seems the porch light is on and nobody’s home; spiritually.  They rarely express any interest in learning more about the Lord.  They don’t seem to want to connect to the body. They have little interest in being servants of God.  It appears that learning more about the Jesus they confessed at their baptism, is not important to them.  They appear to be babies which don’t want to grow.  Once again there is a scary verse comes to mind. 

1 Corinthians 3:1-3  Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-- mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.

Babies are cute.  Look at a baby near you. They are all just as cute as can be.  But it would scare a mother to death if those babies never grew.  If they stayed an eight month old for the rest of their lives, that would be tragic!   Yet, there are Christians who are content to be spiritual babies all their lives!  They break the heart of their Father. That is sad. 

People can experience conversion, but not discipleship. 

Then there are those Christians who professed belief in Jesus who were dipped in the precious waters of baptism who come up to walk in the new life, but they don’t.   The sins that were washed away seem to come back.  Their morals are no better than the rest of the people around them.  We are shocked when we discover they have been cheating; on their spouses, on their taxes, on their employers, on their commitment to the Lord.  They don’t seem to be interested in the purity of life that we are called to. And yet another scary verse comes to mind.

Ephesians 4:25-30   Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.  "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

We can grieve the Holy Spirit! Wow, what could be worse than breaking the heart of the one who has sealed us for the day of redemption?  I don’t want to grieve the Spirit.  So, that is my observation:

People can experience conversion, but not discipleship. 
-They can give up knowing the name of Jesus.
-They break the heart of the Father by staying a baby.
-They grieve the Spirit with their falsehood.

That was the observation. Now here is my question: How do we become disciples?  How do we learn the name of Jesus?  How do we grow in God?  How do we please the Spirit? What is it that can help us move from conversion to discipleship?  What can we do to encourage people to stick with it, to want to grow, to give up their falseness?  

I want to invite you back Acts chapter 9 for an answer.  Last week in Acts 9 we rejoiced in amazement with Saul in his conversion.  Let’s recap his experience. Saul was on his way to Damascus to round up the renegades and throw them in a jail cell.  As he got near the city, a light knocked him to the ground.  We pretended last week that he was meditating on Ezekiel and right at the part when he was looking into the throne-chariot to see the Lord… he did.  He saw the Lord and it was Jesus.  Talk about shock and awe.  He was shocked that he was on the wrong side of glory and in awe that his Lord had indeed appeared to him.  He was then led into the city and spent three days fasting and praying and evaluating who he was.  Saul then had a vision of a man named Ananias come to him to heal his blindness. Which did happen and he was baptized into his former enemy, now savior.  To quote N. T. Wright again, “We call this event a 'conversion', but it was more like a volcanic eruption, thunderstorm and tidal wave all coming together!” Saul is converted to Christianity! 

Now, I think Luke includes this next section in Acts 9 to answer our question.  In the next 12 verse Luke shows the movement of Saul from conversion to discipleship. I want us to study these verses in order to get an insight into this process.

Acts 9:20-22  At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.  All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.

Here is the first insight; Saul immediately began to use his gifts.  Isn’t that amazing?  You would think Ananias would have said, “Why don’t you take it easy, Saul.  Let’s make sure you know about Jesus.  Some schooling would be good; a Bible class or two.”  Instead Saul is plugged in right off the bat. I think there is some wisdom here.  Find something new converts can do to plug.  Use them for the glory early in their development as disciples.  There is some expectation here to share what you have learned as soon as you learn it. 

I don’t think this is enough to move a person from conversion to discipleship but it is a start. Let’s keep working.

Acts 9:23-25  After many days had gone by, the Jews conspired to kill him,  but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.

We learn from Galatians chapter 1 that Paul actually spent 3 years with Jesus in the desert studying with the Lord. 

Galatians 1:13-18  For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.  But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem

So this “After many days” may have been this 3 year time.  But that is not the point I want to make.  The observation here is Saul never expected his discipleship to be easy.  Remember the Lord told Ananias, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name!” 

We do a disservice when we led people to believe the Christian life is going to be peachy keen. We need to teach an expectation of challenge and sacrifice and commitment!  Saul had to escape out of town in a basket in the middle of the night.  How upsetting must that have been to Saul?  Discipleship calls for sacrifice! 

But we are not all the way toward an answer to the question how do we move from conversion to discipleship? There is still more.

Acts 9:26-28   When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.  But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.  So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.

He finally gets back to Jerusalem and the disciples still are skeptical of him.  They haven’t forgotten his murderous threats, the prison cells or the stonings, until Barabbas takes him to the apostles.  There Saul connects with the leadership of the church.  I think this is also important.  Saul wasn’t a loner he works with the church.  He connects with the church.  This is getting real close to the main point I want to make this morning. But, there is still one more observation.

Acts 9:29-30 He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

Saul was submissive to God’s timing.  Saul was ready to preach.  Saul was ready to go head to head with anyone over Jesus.  But he was submissive to the Spirit and danced with God leading and went back home to Tarsus and waited 2 chapters until the time was right for him to move in a big way.  With Saul gone the church grew and there was a time of peace.  We need to learn to walk in God’s timing.  Another great lesson we need to learn and teach how to become disciples.

All of these observations were about what Saul did.  And that is good.  A person who wants to move from conversion to discipleship must be willing to step up to the plate and:
-use their gifts from the get go
-to be willing to sacrifice for the Lord
-plug into the church
-be in sync with the Spirit as he moves you

But that is not the complete answer to our question.  We also asked, “What can we do to help?” From the side of the body, how do we aid the person?   Did you notice, all the way through the chapter, the way God helped Saul move from conversion to discipleship?
-It started with Ananias – Ananias went to connect with Saul and heal him.
-“Followers lower him in a basket” – The body of believers helped him escape.
-Barnabas, the Son of … Encouragement took him to the Apostles
-Then the church sent him off to spend some time at home.  Even the future Apostle Paul needed help!  Isn’t that amazing! 

All the way through Saul’s process the church was there for Saul.  This is the answer.  To move a person from conversion to discipleship requires a whole church.  It is all about connections.  It is all about relationships.  It is all about being plugged into each other’s lives. 

The words are fascinating in these 12 verses. Luke has chosen to describe the body as: disciples, followers, brothers, church!  All of these words are words of relation.  It is difficult to be a Christian on you own.  We are not designed to develop by our lonesomes. God created the church to be a group of people who help each other mature in Christ. 

“Well, bottom line it for me Tim.  How do we move from conversion to discipleship?”

Two answers:
From the individual’s perspective – they must step up and plug in.
From the church’s perspective – they must go out of their way to connect

Then we can experience that last verse of this section:

Acts 9:31  Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.