Oh To Be Converted

An Unlikely Conversion in Durham

In 1971 in Durham, North Carolina, the city was a powder keg of racial tension over school integration. The state appointed two people to co-chair a community meeting to solve the crisis, and they could not have been more different.

C.P. Ellis was an exalted cyclops of the local Ku Klux Klan, fueled by generational poverty and a deep-seated hatred for anyone who did not look like him. Next to him sat Ann Atwater, a bold black civil rights activist known for her fierce tongue and tireless work for the poor.

Initially, the hatred was visceral. Ellis showed up to meetings with a submachine gun in his trunk. Ann Atwater once clutched a knife in her purse, tempted to use it. They were two people living in entirely different worlds, convinced that the other was the enemy.

But during a 10-day workshop, something shifted. They realized they shared the same struggle. Both were poor. Both were looked down upon by the elite. And both deeply loved their children.

The conversion wasn't just a change of mind — it was a total collapse of worldview. On the final night, in front of a thousand people, C.P. Ellis stood up. He didn't just give a speech; he took up his KKK membership card and tore it to pieces.

"I finally found out that I was doing the same thing she was doing. I was fighting for my kids and she was fighting for hers."

Ellis didn't just leave the Klan — he became a labor union organizer and spent the rest of his life working alongside Ann Atwater. They remained best friends until his death.

Today I speak to you under the caption: "Oh to be converted."

Prayer

Loving God and Father of mankind, I ask you, Lord, because of your son, Jesus Christ, that you will allow your Holy Spirit to take full control now. Even for this moment, Lord, I pray you will allow me to become invisible, as it were, so that Christ may be seen and lifted up. Speak to us now, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Setting: Cornelius and Peter

We want to look at a familiar passage — an encounter between two unlikely individuals, Cornelius and Peter, in Acts chapter 10.

The setting was Caesarea, a coastal town in Judea, a bustling trading post with a well-used harbor. Cornelius was a centurion — a Roman soldier with about 100 soldiers under his command. He was a high-ranking officer whose words carried great authority.

But he wasn't just an ordinary Roman soldier. He had adopted the Jewish religion and believed in the God who lives in the heavens. All his contemporaries worshipped idols and practiced every kind of debauchery imaginable. Yet here was a man living up to the light he had received.

"A devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people and prayed always." (Acts 10:2)

Your Life is Your Witness

What Cornelius was doing flowed from what he had seen. Sometimes it is not so much what you are saying that impacts others, but what you are doing. The way we live conveys a message.

Cornelius was living according to what he had seen, and his life was transformed. Not only his life, but his family's life was transformed because of what he had witnessed.

So the question is: what witness are we giving? How are we influencing the lives of those who behold us? Because like it or not, you are casting some kind of influence. You are an influencer. Even if you don't have a thousand followers on Instagram, you are still an influencer.

A God Who Waits for Our Prayers

Cornelius was persevering in prayer and giving generously to the poor. The angel said, "Your prayers." He didn't use a singular term. Cornelius was a man given to prayer — constantly praying. He was still called a heathen, but he was constantly praying.

Could it be that God is waiting on us to make some type of prayer known to Him like Cornelius did? Because as Cornelius was praying, the angel appeared.

Could it be that God is patiently waiting to hear us pray:

• "More of You, Lord, and less of me."
• "Lord, I need You now — not tomorrow, not next year. I need You now."
• "Lord, I want to be just an ordinary servant for You."
• "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the Lord I love. But here is my heart, Lord — take and seal it."
• "Not my will, but Thine be done."
• "I yield. I yield."

Looking the Part Is Not Enough

"And when he observed the angel, he was afraid. And he said, 'What is it, Lord?' So he said to him, 'Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.'" (Acts 10:4)

Have you ever had one of those bright yellow bananas from Tesco? You purchase it, hold it up, try to open it — but there's resistance. You have to pierce it to open it. On the outside it looks ripe, but it isn't yet ready.

It's not enough to just look the part. Cornelius looked the part. He was doing everything he should be doing. But that was not enough.

You may be doing good. You may be a tremendous help to the less fortunate. But you still need to be converted. The beginning of that is accepting Jesus Christ as Savior. All the good you do for the poor, all you do for your family, all the praying you do — without accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you're still not there yet. Furthermore, Cornelius needed the baptism of the Spirit.

Cornelius felt a void within: "Lord, there must be something else. I feel within me a void that's not yet filled by all that I'm doing. I know there is more for me." So he prayed.

As one writer says: "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

Point 1: Your Faith Is Not a Private Affair

When the angel departed, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, explained everything to them, and sent them to Joppa to call Peter (Acts 10:7-8).

Fast-forward to verse 27: "And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together."

Cornelius got the vision. He got the message. He sent for Peter. But he didn't know Peter. He wasn't sure Peter would even come, because Peter was a Jew and should not come to a Gentile's house. He had no idea what would happen — but he sent for Peter and gathered an audience. He called his friends and family to come and sit down.

There was no speaker confirmed. He didn't know if the speaker was coming. He didn't know what the speaker would say. But he said, "Come see."

Run With the Vision

I'm reminded of Danny Shelton, the founder of 3ABN. When he got the vision to start the television channel, he began recruiting presenters before he had a single piece of equipment. He traveled the country finding presenters for a TV channel that was still a vision in his mind.

What has God shown you or told you? What if you stopped talking yourself out of God's plan? What might you accomplish if you just ran with the vision God has given you?

What He has given you, He is not necessarily going to give to me. But what He has given you is for you to do. There is something God has placed you in the universe to do — and He has shown it to you. But have you talked yourself out of it?

Mission Requires Deliberate Steps

Cornelius gathered his closest friends to hear a word. He was not going to keep this a private issue.

We cannot just hope that through assimilation Christianity will be communicated to someone else. We can't see Christianity as some communicable disease — that if they associate with you, they'll automatically become Christians. You can't passively sit and be Christian and hope that somehow, somewhere, miraculously, others will imbibe it and become Christian too.

Cornelius was actively and purposefully engaging his family and community. Like the woman at the well, he was saying, "Come and see a Man."

Mission requires deliberate steps to give the word of truth to people in darkness.

• There can be no conversion without conviction.
• There can be no conviction without the truth.

So we must share the truth, so they can be convicted, and then comes the conversion. Share your faith in season and out of season. Speak the truth, and let the rest be up to God.

God's Providence Goes Before You

Paulo Coelho wrote in The Alchemist: "When you want something, it would seem as if all the universe conspires in your favor."

While Cornelius sent men to Joppa, God was visiting Peter. As the men were on their journey, God was already coming down to Peter to get him ready to meet them.

God's providence will surpass your wildest expectations.

• When Jonah was thrown overboard, God had already spoken to the fish: "Get on your journey now." He gave the fish a geotag and said, "Go find him."
• When the Hebrew boys were about to enter the furnace, God had a coolant ready so that when they entered, they were protected.
• When Daniel was released into the lions' den, God didn't wait for him to reach the bottom to close the mouths of the lions — that was closed before.

When God has given you an assignment, He will supply all the resources, and they will appear on time — never late, never early. Sometimes you get the vision and think, "It's too much. I don't have what it takes." God was never worried about whether you have what it takes; He knows He is sufficient. You just need to know that you are deficient, so you must rely on His sufficiency.

When God sends you out on the mission, the way is already paved. There may be stumbling blocks, but the victory is guaranteed. When you are with Jesus, you have no failure to worry about — because God never fails.

Point 2: We All Have Biases

While Cornelius sent for Peter, Peter went up to pray. While praying, he received a vision:

He was hungry and wanted to eat, but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened. An object like a great sheet bound at the four corners descended to him... In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, birds of the air. And the voice came to him, "Rise Peter. Kill and eat." (Acts 10:10-13)

Verse 16 — this was done how many times? Three times. Because we all have biases.

Remember Who Peter Was

We could do a whole series on the life of Peter. This is the same Peter to whom Jesus said, "When you are converted, strengthen the brethren." He was with Jesus at that time — and he wasn't converted.

But it gets even more astounding:

• Peter was in the room at Pentecost (Acts 1) when the Holy Spirit was poured out.
• Peter preached one of the greatest sermons ever preached (Acts 2:14-40), resulting in thousands being baptized.
• Yet in Galatians 2:11, Paul says, "I withstood him to the face."

It was only in Acts 10:34 that Peter says something phenomenal — one translation reads, "And now I realize." He had been with Jesus. He had been at Pentecost. He had preached powerful sermons. But he was still carrying a bias.

The Belief Peter Was Wedded To

Peter was one of the leaders of the early church. He was a Jew of Jews. He had witnessed the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He had preached at Pentecost. But he was still not converted.

Peter was wedded to the belief that the Jews alone were pure. They had been circumcised and practiced all the religious rituals. Consequently, in his mind, they were the only pure ones — no other nation could achieve this state.

So while preaching, while serving all this time, Peter held onto the idea that some people could not be saved. He looked down on Gentiles. He would avoid them, not sit with them, not even want to be seen in their presence — and he was preaching the word of God as a respectable leader.

A Word of Caution

We ought to be careful how we put our confidence in men. At the core, we are all broken, for all have sinned and continue to fall short.

• Your passionate pastor — prone to mistakes.
• Your fatherly first elder — prone to mistakes.
• Your astute board members — plagued by the same problem.
• Every floor member and every visitor — plagued by the same problem: sin.

So let us handle each other with grace.

And hear this: your past doesn't affect your potential. Jesus already saw what Peter would become, and He wasn't going to allow this stumbling stone to fail to become a rock. God has spoken something over you, and no power anywhere can stop it. But you must become converted to experience the power.

To get the conversion, you need the truth. God Himself had to give Peter the truth — and He had to do it three times.

Conversion is not easy. It is not overnight. We can be in church for years, serving in every post possible, and still not be converted. We can look the part and sound the part — but still be tinkling cymbals.

Peter's "Come Up" Moment

F.F. Bruce, in his commentary on Acts, describes this as Peter's "come up" moment — this is his conversion. George Knight suggests that Peter's biggest struggle was not Cornelius's sin, but Peter's own traditionalism and theology of exclusion.

There were laws governing relationships between Jews and non-Jews:

• Jews should not associate socially with Gentiles.
• They should not eat with Gentiles.
• They should not enter the house of a Gentile.
• If a Gentile offered a Jew food, the only thing acceptable was an orange — and you couldn't even give him a knife to peel it, because the knife would be contaminated. He had to use his own knife.

But these laws were traditional, not scriptural.

There is a deadly danger when we make cultural identity appear as doctrinal matter. Then we enforce laws to safeguard what really are cultural norms.

This is how dogmas become an unwritten code of conduct — "This is how things must be done in Brixton, and you dare not do it any other way," even though we have no scripture to back it up.

Our Many Biases

We all have biases:

• Economic bias — you only deal with the rich, or you scorn the rich and only deal with the poor.
• Educational prejudice — you favor those with doctorates or master's degrees, and the children studying medicine, law, or theology get special attention, while those doing a plumbing certificate get overlooked.
• Racial prejudice — preferring a certain complexion or hair texture.
• Religious prejudice — only associating with those who worship a particular way.

Politically, we see this in the UK and the US, where people are being told to "go back home." But what about the church? I see a subtle but pernicious form of segregation:

• Some folks we neglect.
• Some we ignore.
• Others we've decided we can do without.
• Some we love to sit with and hang around — the ones invited to the birthday parties, the special lunches, the sleepovers, the excursions.

Sometimes people won't say it, but I know what's going on.

The Gospel is Universal

Some believe that if you're not Seventh-day Adventist... but brothers and sisters, look at what God was doing through Peter and Cornelius. This matter of conversion was essential for a universal gospel. The message of Jesus is for the whole world. Paul was already doing this work among the Gentiles, and Peter, as one of the leaders of the church, had to be converted to strengthen this movement.

As disciples, we must see the potential of everyone to be saved. It may seem improbable or impossible, but with God all things are possible. Whosoever believes.

Peter finally acknowledges that God does not show favoritism. God loves unconditionally — and that is the goal for us.

Radical Love

This love is radical. Peter had to throw out all he was taught from a child, go against what all his peers practiced, and face possible excommunication in order to practice it. To step into the house of a Gentile was socially dangerous.

But God was saying, "Peter, this is the religion I want you to practice. Tear down all barriers, remove all separation between us and them. There is no us, and there is no them. There is just we — sinners, all in need of divine grace."

When we come to the house of God, it's the same:

• Doesn't matter where you're from.
• Doesn't matter what you look like.
• Doesn't matter what you've done.

We are all level at the foot of the cross.

We must have a love that passes any precondition — not "I'll only love you if," or "I'll love you as long as," or "I'll continue to love you until." To love unconditionally, you must be converted.

If you are struggling to love your husband, your wife, your brother, your mother, your father, your elders, your supervisor, or the person who works under you — it's a heart matter. It's a matter of conversion.

When you are converted:

• You see people — not black, not white, not rich, not poor.
• Classist systems disappear.
• Barriers are broken.
• Segregation is dissolved.
• Classism, racism, sexism, extremism — every -ism falls.

Because all you see are people in need of grace.

It's not natural to love, because truthfully, some of us make it hard. Husbands, wives, parents, children, church members — you know what it's like. It's not easy. But you must become converted. I must become converted. All the good preaching in the world is useless without it. Pulpit ministry is useless without pew ministry. If you're preaching and not living, it goes nowhere.

So when you look at the individual, with eyes of grace, see a soul for the kingdom. Yes, they did you bad last week, last year, the last 30 years — but with grace, look at them and say, "God, have mercy."

Peter went into the house — the thing he never imagined he could do. And there were people ready to hear the word.

Point 3: When You Are Converted, You Have One Job

When Peter entered the house, he said, "Really, I shouldn't come in here, because the law says I shouldn't. But God has told me." End of story. No further explanation.

Peter wasted no time lecturing the audience on anthropology or sociology or Jewish history. He didn't expound Jewish laws or traditions. He had one job: share the gospel of salvation through Jesus.

He said, "This same Jesus who was crucified, buried, and is now resurrected — He is the Savior." And more:

"All the prophets testify about Him — that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name." (Acts 10:43)

That was the message for every person in that room. It is still the message for us. It is still the message for the world.

Jesus Saves — The Heart of Every Truth

Matthew 28:19 says, "This gospel shall be preached in all the world." Before I sit down, hear this:

• This is the present truth: Jesus saves.
• This is the good old-time religion you're calling for: Jesus saves.
• The heart of the book of Revelation — all the apocalyptic things, the dates, the months, the animals, the beasts — the essence is: Jesus saves.
• The 2,300-day prophecy you may not fully understand — the essence is: Jesus saves.
• The sanctuary message, the killing of the lamb, the slaughtering of the bull — points to: Jesus saves.
• The three angels' messages — however you interpret them — Jesus saves.
• The Sabbath truth — because it is the law of God, still points you to Jesus. Jesus saves.

What we need to share is Jesus. Tell the world about God and His love. The hurting mother, the forsaken child, the worried father, the struggling believer, the doubtful person — let them know God loves them with an everlasting, unconditional love. He loves them so much He died for them.

If He would give His life, what would He not give?

Every other world religion requires humans to make the sacrifice to meet God. In Christianity, God made the sacrifice for us to meet Him. He has done the work for us.

A Word to the Wavering Heart

I don't know how your relationship with God is this morning. Maybe you feel separated. Maybe you feel estranged. Maybe you feel this is no longer a space for you. Maybe you've looked at all you've done and thought, "I've done too much wrong for God to be interested in me."

Here is the message:

God will not push away what He has paid for. He has already paid for you in full. And He is not about to walk away from what He has fully paid for.

• If they don't want to accept you — God accepts you.
• If they don't want to associate with you — God accepts you.
• If they don't see your worth or value — God values you as priceless.

You are equated to the life of Christ. That is your worth. You are accepted. You are loved. You are loved unconditionally, beyond measure. Because He loves you so much, He has made a way for you to be saved — through Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit Falls

Before I close, I have to leave this with you. The last two verses say:

"Can anyone forbid that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" (Acts 10:47)

Did you hear that? "Who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."

In verse 44, while Peter was still preaching, the Holy Spirit came down on all who were in the room. And who was in the room? Gentiles. They were not yet baptized.

While the board was deliberating whether to vote to pass these persons for baptism, while the elders were going through the baptismal vows — the Holy Spirit came down. That wasn't church policy! We'll need to take it up with the GC.

A sincere believer has access to phenomenal power. This is why conversion is so essential:

1. Conviction through truth
2. Conversion through Christ
3. Consecration — set aside for special purpose, endued with power from on high

Come and Be Converted

Family, this is the word to you today. God is saying we must come to Him to be changed, because our problem is a heart problem. And the only Surgeon who can perform this surgery is God Himself.

He is saying, "Come. Just come, and I will do this work. Because you can't do it — I will do it."

When you and I are totally converted, what a beauty it will be. What power will accompany us as we go out with the word of God! The power of heaven will accompany us.

• If you're just starting to walk with God — the power is available to you.
• If you started 50 years ago — it is still available to you.
• If you're going to start tomorrow — it is still available.

God is not holding back. He is simply asking: Are you ready to be converted?

And maybe someone is thinking, "My thing is not a conversion thing. I just need to start my journey. There's so much I need to fix before I..." No, no, no. You're in the room. The Gentiles were in the room. Cornelius, his family, and his friends were in the room. I don't know what they were wearing. I don't know what they ate that morning. I don't know what they were doing the night before. But they were in the room — the word was spoken — and they received the Holy Spirit.

So today it is equally possible for you to tap into this power. As worried as you are that you are not good enough — that is enough. Because God can make something beautiful out of every one of us.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus, we thank You for Your everlasting, unconditional love — that when You look at us, all You can have is compassion. You were so moved that You decided to make the sacrifice for us to be together, not just for time, but for eternity.

Lord, look down on the hearts of Your people. As they sincerely confess to You and claim Your promises, grant full pardon. And not just pardon, Lord, but bring about conversion. And once we are truly converted, consecrate us to Your work. May Your Spirit fill our lives and give us power to function in this world.

We pray for someone today wavering between coming or not coming. Lord, now is the time. There will never be a perfect time. There will never be a better time. Now is the time, and now will never be repeated. So God, may Your Spirit move upon that heart and help them to make that decision today to accept You and go all the way.

Jesus, continue Your work in us. Continue Your work on us. Continue Your work through us — so that the world may be changed and Your coming may be hastened. This is our prayer with thanksgiving, in Jesus' name. Amen.