How Can You Know If You’re Really Saved? (Acts 9:20-31)

Welcome to part three in our Salvation 101 mini-series! Today we'll be asking and answering the question: How can you know if you’re really saved?

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Q. How Can You Know If You’re Really Saved?

• Part 19 in our Acts series!!
• Part 3 in our mini-series on “How Salvation Works”
• Two weeks ago: Is Anyone Too Far Gone for God? (Acts 8:26-40)
• Answer: No! God can reach you on the desert road to nowhere
• Last week: How Does Spiritual Conversion Actually Work?
• We’ll looked at the dramatic conversion story of Saul (Paul)
• – and what we can generalize from his experience.
• Today: How can you know if you’re really saved? (Acts 9:20-31)
• Paul went about preaching the gospel immediately
• The disciples in Jerusalem didn’t believe he was really saved!? After 3 years! 
• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) Even believers who have seen the power of God at work in their own lives can doubt God's ability to change others.
• The fancy term for this: “assurance of salvation”
• Can you have it for yourself?
• Some people “know that they know” they’re saved, no problems with this
• So many other people doubt their salvation and live in fear of judgment
• Here’s the thing: you can think you’re saved and NOT be saved
• False conversions are a thing. Jesus said:
• Matthew 7:21-23 (NLT) 21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
• Ouch! One of the most frightening verses in the Bible!
• So, how can you know? We’ll get to that answer, but let’s start with our text…

Acts 9:19-20 (NLT) Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. 20 And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”

• Wow! What a transformation in Saul’s life
• One moment he’s persecuting these messengers of Christianity
• Next moment he IS a messenger!
• Have you met anyone like this? Total transformation

Acts 9:21 (NLT) 21 All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”

Acts 9:22 (NLT) 22 Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. 

• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) When Luke says that Saul grew more and more powerful, the term he uses (enedynamouto) suggests the empowerment of the Spirit.
• Proving from OT, on which he was an expert (scales fell)

Acts 9:23 After a while some of the Jews plotted together to kill him. 24 They were watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him, but Saul was told about their plot. 25 So during the night, some of the other believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall.

• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) This signifies the completion of a significant period in the narrative (cf. Lk. 9:51) and is consistent with the mention of a three-year gap between his conversion and his first journey to Jerusalem as a Christian:
• Galatians 1:15-18 (NLT) 15 But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him 16 to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. 
• When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being. 17 Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus. 18 Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter, and I stayed with him for fifteen days.

Acts 9:26 (NLT) 26 When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a believer!

• Now you know why this was our question of the day.
• Saul had been a Christian for 3 years, yet the Jerusalem believers doubted it
• They (all of them?) thought he was a false convert! (still afraid of him)
• Would YOU have? 
• Have YOU ever struggled to truly believe in the life-changing power of Jesus? 
• In someone else’s life
• In your own life

So, back to our question:

Q. How Can You Know If You’re Really Saved?

• Paul himself later raises this question to some “believers” in Corinth:
• 2 Corinthians 13:5 (NLT) 5 Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.
• This is Saul, now called Paul, writing to the Christian church in Corinth. It’s jacked up. There’s stuff going on there that’s not Christian at all. And there are two questions that must be answered to see if their faith would pass the test: 
• First, will they believe Paul’s message?
• They didn’t like what he was saying. They were even challenging his authority as an apostle. That was the test.
• It was Saul’s test, too, last week: When Jesus called out Saul and challenged his understanding, he shockingly submitted to him. 
• Now it was the Corinthians’ turn. Would they submit to the truth?
• Second, will they repent and turn from their own way?
• Remember last week: Christianity is a way, not just a set of beliefs.
• True conversion happens when you leave the way of death to follow the way of Jesus.
• These so-called believers were not following the way of Jesus
• Paul was calling them out on it, and their response would tell him if their faith was genuine. 
• 1 John 3:9-10 (ESV) 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Let’s finish the question for Saul:

Acts 9:27 (NLT) 27 Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus.

• We met this guy earlier. The encourager. Living up to his name.
• Ananias vouched for Saul in Damascus because he saw Jesus in a vision.
• Barnabus vouched for Saul in Jerusalem because he saw a changed life.

Acts 9:28 (NLT) 28 So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

• They realized he was a true believer, and he
• Stayed with them
• Preaching with them
• Saul’s story had a clear answer: he was saved, no doubt about it. 

What about you?

Three simple questions to know if you’re truly saved (full circle):

• Have you trusted Jesus for salvation? (nothing else can save, but it’s more than mere confession)
• Do you live your life to honor God? (practice righteousness vs practice sinning)
• Do you care enough to share with others? (make disciples)
• This might be the ultimate litmus test. 
• In the book of Acts, all of the believers did more than receive the message; they shared it.

Acts 9:31 (NLT) 31 The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers.