Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - An Unlikely Convert | Historical Books | Joshua 6:22-27

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. When I hear of a celebrity becoming a Christian, my first thought isn't to be thankful, but instead to feel a bit suspicious. I know that's bad, and it says a lot more about me than it does about them, but it's true. I'm just being honest with you. It seems like there are some people that I think are unlikely to become Christians.

Starting point is 00:00:32 Let's just take an extreme example from fairly recent history. Do you think Osama bin Laden could become a Christian? He, of course, was the mastermind of 9-11 and someone who didn't like Christians or the West. Or go back into biblical history. Could someone like Judas have repented of their sins and gotten right with Jesus after he had betrayed him? Or let's make it more personal. Who is someone you know that you'd be shocked to find out came to faith, in Jesus and started following him. Maybe it's a co-worker with a sense of humor that's not safe for

Starting point is 00:01:08 work. Or maybe it's the old high school friend that's on their third marriage. Or maybe it's the uber wealthy person who is really into themselves and their own pleasure. Or maybe it's a friend who's very committed to their own religion, whether it's Islam or Judaism or Wicca or atheism. Who is the person in your life that, in your opinion, is the least likely to become a follower of Jesus. Do you know the Bible is full of what you might think of as unlikely converts? People that really no one would have possibly expected would have become a Christian. Like, for example, in Acts chapter 8, we learned about this magician from Samaria. His name is Simon, although I promise he's no relation to me that I know of. He was a deceiver. He claimed to be someone great. And he tried to

Starting point is 00:01:57 by magical power from the disciples. Now, he ended up coming to faith in the gospel. And so we shouldn't think that somebody's arrogance like Simons will forever disqualify him. I mean, the gospel can penetrate through the hardest and most prideful heart. The gospel humbles us. But even Simon the magician became a believer. Or there is the Ethiopian man. He's called the Ethiopian eunuch. And you can also read about his story in Acts chapter 8. He was isolated from other Christians. He was just going back and forth from his home to Jerusalem when God intervened in his life and brought him to faith. I'm sure a lot of people would have said that this Ethiopian eunuch would never come to be a Christian. And yet he did because even your distance from other Christians can't deter God from working in your heart.

Starting point is 00:02:52 Or there's the Roman centurion found in Acts chapter 10. He was a good man, but he was a Gentile. He didn't have any knowledge of the Old Testament story. And yet even those without biblical backgrounds could become Christians. Or how about the Philippian jailer that you read about in Acts 16? He put Paul and Silas in prison. He may very well have mistreated them. And yet even those who persecute Christians could become Christians. God can intervene in anyone's life. Or in Acts 8. we read about a leader of a synagogue. This was a man committed to the Jewish faith who was not at all interested in Jesus, and yet again, God intervenes in his life. So even someone who is of a different religious tradition could come to faith in Jesus. Or how about the people in Caesar's household? We read in Philippians 4 that some of them had come to faith in Christ.

Starting point is 00:03:52 Now, here are people who had wealth and power and who hated. Christians. In fact, they were serving under Nero who severely persecuted Christians. And yet, even they came to faith in Christ. Even those who are uninterested in the gospel or opposed to the gospel can become Christians. Maybe the person who is most unlikely to become a Christian was Saul of Tarsus. After he becomes a believer, he goes by the name Paul. And he says about himself that he was the epitome of an unlikely convert. He calls himself the chief of sinners. He was trying to kill Christians. And yet he became a believer. See, we have to be careful not to prejudge who will or won't become a follower of Jesus because God is always doing the impossible. He is giving sight to the spiritually

Starting point is 00:04:42 blind. He is softening hard hearts. He's convicting people of their sin. Now all that brings us to our passage in Joshua chapter six. We read starting in verse 22 that Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the land, go into the prostitute's house and bring her out and all who belonged to her in accordance with your oath to her. So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and her mother, her brothers and sisters, and all who belonged to her, they brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. Then they burned the whole city and everything in it. They put the silver and gold, the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord's house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute with her family and all who

Starting point is 00:05:28 belonged to her because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho. And she lives among the Israelites to this day. So you can add Rahab the prostitute to the list of unlikely converts. She was, of course, a prostitute. She was a Canaanite. Prostitutes lived an immoral life. And Canaanites were the enemies of God's people. Most of us would have written Rehab off. We would have prejudged her and determined that she would never follow Yahweh. We would have never invited her to church. We might not have even prayed for her. She was just too far away from God. But here's the problem with that kind of thinking. During Jesus's life, he spends time with people like Rehab, prostitutes and other sinners. Sure, Jesus spends time with all kinds of people, men and women, old and young, rich and

Starting point is 00:06:18 poor, religious and irreligious, moral, and the immoral. The religious leaders, they get mad at him because they don't like it that he spends time with the people they look down on. He spends time with people whose sin offends them. Here's Luke 15. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him, but the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. They don't get Jesus, do they? They don't get what Jesus is about. They don't get grace. They don't understand that Jesus came to seek and save the lost. So what they do is they accuse him. Matthew 11, the son of man came eating and drinking and they say, here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, and they look down on him.

Starting point is 00:07:09 But Jesus called a tax collector named Matthew to be one of his 12 disciples. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him as disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? On hearing this, Jesus said, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but sick. But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have not come. come to call the righteous, but sinners. Now, is Jesus saying that some people are righteous and some people are sinners and he only came for the sinners and not the righteous? Not at all. He's saying that

Starting point is 00:07:51 some people think they're righteous and some people know they are sinners. Some people are fooled into thinking they are good people and don't need the forgiveness offered in the gospel. And some people feel the weight of their sin and they cry out to God for mercy. See, everybody needs forgiveness. Everybody needs a Savior. Everybody needs Jesus, but only the sick call a doctor and only the sinners call on a Savior. Jesus says in Matthew 21, I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. Now, why is that true? After thinking about that statement, C.S. Lewis concluded this. He said, prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God. The proud, the aphoricious, which just means greedy,

Starting point is 00:08:43 the self-righteous, they're in that danger. So what C.S. Lewis said is that prostitutes and other sinners, they are quicker to turn to Jesus because they know the presence of their sin. They feel the weight of their sin. Do you feel the weight of your sin or are you in danger of finding your present life in this world so satisfactory that you're in danger of missing out on Jesus. The truth is that every person is unlikely to become a Christian and a Jesus follower, because every person is born in sin. Every person is born blind to spiritual truth. Every person has a hard heart toward God. Every person is born God's enemy and deserves God's wrath. That's what makes the gospel so incredible. while we were yet sinners, while we were God's enemies, Christ died for us. See, no one's sin is so great that it can't be forgiven. It's no more of a miracle that Osama bin Laden becomes a Christian than I become a Christian or that you've become a Christian. I'm not saying that Osama bin Laden became a Christian. I truly have no idea would be in no position to make any judgment about anyone's soul. I'm only saying that the only way anyone can become a Christian,

Starting point is 00:09:59 as if God changes their heart, and all things are possible with God.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - An Unlikely Convert | Historical Books | Joshua 6:22-27

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