To be thrown in jail so someone can be converted doesn’t sound like an experience too many of us would volunteer for. Paul and Silas didn’t volunteer, either, but when they were beaten and thrown in prison their reaction to their treatment, and then God’s miraculous intervention, brought the jailer and his family to Christ. The jailer’s conversion is a great conversion story because of what led up to it, how it actually happened, and how quickly his heart was changed.

Paul’s missionary plans took an unexpected detour to Athens, but that led directly to the conversion of a respected intellectual there, a man named Dionysius. The intellectual spirit of Athens created a great challenge to the proclamation of the gospel, but Paul had been too stirred up by seeing the city drowning in idols to remain silent. His approach there was unique and suited to the situation, and was rewarded by the conversion of Dionysius, who tradition tells us served as the first bishop of Athens.

Let’s face it, our favorite conversion story will never feature an Ethiopian treasurer, a Roman proconsul, a successful business woman in Greece, or a respected intellectual in Athens. Our favorite story will be about us. It will be our conversion story.

Our story can also be a tool God can use to help someone else have their own conversion story. We will see that today as the apostle Paul relates his conversion story for just that reason. And you’ll learn how you can tell your story in a way that will engage people and help explain the good news to them. It’s your favorite conversion story. Hopefully it become the way others come to have their own favorite conversion story.

In each of the conversion stories we’ve studied we found that someone played an important role in another person’s salvation. This is God’s plan: that each of us get involved in helping other people to be converted. But how? Last week we saw God might use our personal story of conversion to do this. This week we’ll learn another way God can use us to help bring another person to conversion. It is a factor in a couple of the stories we’ve already studied and shows up in other places in the New Testament. We’ll learn of a simple and practical way to put this method into practice.

In this series we will learn that people become Christians by conversion, not by virtue of birth, or gradual process, but in a moment orchestrated by the Holy Spirit where they pass from spiritual death to spiritual life. This message focuses on one of the greatest conversion stories in the New Testament, the conversion of 3,000 Jewish people in one day. We’ll see what led up to this amazing experience, how it occurred, and the evidence here for the necessity of conversion.

So unexpected was the conversion of the Samaritans that the apostles sent Peter and John to Samaria to check out the report. We’ll discover how this great conversion story happened, an unexpected development along the way, and the troubling possibility that accompanied it.

While Philip was still involved in the great conversion story of the Samaritans, God called him on what must have seemed like a strange mission. Philip never questioned God, but obeyed, and soon was instrumental in bringing a seeker from Ethiopia to conversion. God’s seemingly strange command is just one of several divinely orchestrated events that let to this spiritually hungry man’s conversion.

The conversion of a Roman soldier is surprising in a number of ways. First, he is a god-fearing, devout, and good man, just the kind many people feel should not need conversion. Second, he is a soldier whose allegiance belonged to Rome and Caesar, not to someone named Jesus who claimed to be a king. Third, he was a Gentile, someone considered to be outside the range of God’s saving grace, at least by some. How he was converted, and what God did to bring about his conversion is a surprising story in itself.

This conversion story is special. First, it tells of the conversion of a very young man, not someone older like the Roman proconsul or the Roman centurion whose conversions we’ve already encountered. Second, it seems the primary people behind this young man’s conversion are not relative strangers, as Peter, Philip, and Paul were to those whose conversions we’ve already studied, but people in his own home. Third, we discover in this story the important role of the Scriptures in preparing people to come to conversion. Follow along as we learn about the conversion of young Timothy.

Out on the far end of the island of Cyprus was a Roman proconsul with an intelligent and open mind and whose status and accomplishments could not touch the spiritual void in his life. He is the next great conversion story in the Book of Acts and how he got converted and what happened along the way is part of one the great turning points in Christian history.