“WHAT’S THE MESSAGE?” COOL0115.doc
Acts 2:36-41 Mark 1:14-20 January 11, 2015
This morning I would like to follow up on Rod’s sermon from last Sunday. One of the questions that Rod asked at the 10:30 service was: “How many people made New Year’s resolutions?” The response was not very high and I am one of those people who do not make New Year’s resolutions. The reason why I do not make resolutions is because I don’t want to add any more guilt to my life, when I break the resolution. Instead, what I want to do each January is adopt a scripture that the Lord lays on my heart for the upcoming year. This year the Lord has very clearly laid on my heart, a passage from Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” There are five words in that scripture that the Lord wants me to adopt in my life. Those words are: “Come, give, take, learn and find.” In other words: “Ron, I want you to come to me; I will give you rest; I want you to take My yoke upon you; learn from me, and there you will find rest. The Lord has made it very clear to me that this is my verse for 2015. I have printed these words out and placed them on my bathroom mirror. Every morning they stare me in the face, and I recite them aloud, in order to get the words into the deep recesses of my heart. I would like to you invite you, instead of making a New Year’s resolution, to adopt a passage of Scripture and let God use that Scripture which is “alive and active” to 1
penetrate into your soul and draw you closer to the Lord in the year ahead. (At the 10:30 service I will ask how many did their homework and adopted a verse for this year, and ask what their verse is?) One of the joys, and also one of the sorrows that I am facing in my life at this time, and it is causing me a great deal of grief, is that I’m running out of time to share with this congregation the Good News of Jesus Christ. I have six Sundays left and one of the things I want to make sure of before I leave is that you have, in fact: “heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” So, forgive me today, and in the weeks ahead if I seem to be ‘blunt.’ But there is this urgency in my soul to ensure that you do in fact: ‘know the Lord.’ Recently I read this line in a book and I wrote it down because it is so true: “People can know what they are told about the Lord, but that is different from knowing Him. None of us hear His voice until we listen.” You may think that preachers should not be blunt, but from last Sunday, listen again to Paul’s blunt message to the Church in Corinth: “And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf, Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2Cor 5:19a - 21) Listen again to Peter’s blunt message on the day of Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit...With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” (Acts 2:36 & 40)
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And, listen to Jesus’ blunt message from the Gospel of Mark: “The time has come,” Jesus said: “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1:15) Please don’t think for a moment that I have visions of grandeur by quoting Paul, Peter or Jesus, but as preachers we do walk in their footsteps and we carry the same Message that they have faithfully proclaimed:
“Be
reconciled; save yourselves; repent.” Those five words, generally, sum up the Gospel. What we’re trying to do here in Church of Our Lord in 2015 is make sure all of us understand what it means to be an Ambassador for Christ. It is just not a word casually tossed about, but many in the Church have no concrete idea of what it means to be an Agent of Reconciliation or to be Christ’s Representative in the world. The Anglican Network in Canada has adopted a Catechism that is entitled: “To Be a Christian.” This Catechism was put together by some of the most brilliant Theologians of our generation, both Lay and Ordained. It is from this work that you are going to hear your new instructions for 2015 and if you take these instructions seriously, and adopt them in your life, you will have no difficulty in being an Ambassador for Jesus Christ. The Catechism is designed to make clear to everyone what it means to be a Christian. It clearly explains what is essential for Christian faith and life. It will open for you the door to knowing Jesus Christ and experiencing the fullness of God’s love through him. It will lead you to maximum involvement in the life and mission of the Church, as you become a citizen of the Kingdom of God. And it will anchor you in the complete full reality of
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unquenchable joy, beginning in this life and continually increasing in the life to come. However, one can know about these things and yet remain apart from them. In order not to miss what God is offering you, it is imperative that you receive Jesus Christ as your own Savior and Lord – if you have not already done so – and commit yourself to him to be his lifelong disciple. That’s what I am going to focus on today. To be a Christian is a lifelong commitment, but it begins with becoming a Christian in a conscious way. Being married begins with taking on a commitment in the community of faith, by being true to your marriage vows. Most of us, in this room can recite with no difficulty the important dates in their lives. For example: When you were born; what is your wedding anniversary; what is the birthday of your spouse, or best friend; what are your children or grandchildren’s birthdays; for some of you when did you become a Canadian citizen? However, many people in the Church cannot identify ‘a date’ when they began their walk with Jesus Christ. Some make the assumption, as I did, that they are Christians, but yet they have never made that definite commitment. Prior to May 29, 1979 if you asked me if I was a Christian, my answer would be a resounding ‘yes’ and I would take offence if you suggested, for a moment, that I wasn’t. After all, I had been baptized; I had been confirmed, and I attended Church on a regular basis until I was almost 20 years old. But if I had died in those first 26 years of my life I would have been left outside the Kingdom, because I had no personal knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, I did not have a
relationship with Him, and I assumed that because I was baptized,
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confirmed and could recite some prayers, I was a Christian. Nothing could be further from the truth. We need to be clear from the beginning that God creates human beings for intimacy with Himself; and even though there may be a person or two in our lives who love us ‘unconditionally’ no one can fulfil the purpose that God has for us. “Every one of us is out of step with God.” In biblical terms we are lost sinners, guilty before God and separated from Him. A relationship in Christ is first and foremost and we have to accept the fact that God is the only One who provides the remedy to our dilemma of not being reconciled with Him. God, was the first One who was sinned against; God also is the first One who takes the steps to initiate divine reconciliation, and He does it all through His Son, Jesus Christ. Furthermore, this reconciling God has declared, to the world, and to every Church denomination and every religion in our world this basic truth: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to humanity by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Jesus and Jesus alone is the Only reconciling Agent that God will recognize between God and humanity and humanity and God. Trust me; God is very, very firm on this commitment to His Son. Reconciliation comes about only through repentance.
The very
simple explanation of repentance means to ‘change one’s mind,’ or to ‘change one’s direction or lifestyle.’ In Luke’s Gospel, John tells us practical ways to know that you have repented. Those who repent share their many blessings with others; they stand for justice and mercy; they don’t take advantage of people; they don’t accuse people falsely and they are satisfied with their lot in life. They change their attitudes in how they live their lives and in how they treat others. They are conscious of loving God 5
first and their neighbor second. They try and keep their hearts clean and walk in holiness and not in sin. Some think that repentance simply means being ‘sorry’ for your sins, but it doesn’t.
Repentance is being sorry
enough to stop committing those sins. Repentance is meant to be a moral and spiritual revolution and people should be able to see a difference in our lives as a result of our repentance. Genuine repentance is one of the hardest things for many of us to achieve, as most of us do not consider ourselves grievous sinners. However, when you read from Genesis to Revelation, there is a recurring message of repentance. In Genesis, chapter four, God confronts Cain with the bitterness in his soul and He says to Cain: “Sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you. But you must rule over it.” (Gen 4:7b) Cain did not turn away from the bitterness in his soul and committed the first murder in killing his brother Abel. All the way through the Old Testament, God used Judges and then Prophets to call His people to repentance. When John the Baptist began preaching, his message was one of repentance. Prior to Jesus beginning preaching He Himself underwent a baptism of Repentance, but He took that action on our behalf. After His Baptism, He began to preach His message which was also one of Repentance and Baptism. When Peter & Paul followed Jesus, their messages were on Repentance and Baptism. In the book of Revelation – the last book of the Bible, when Jesus writes to the seven Churches, eight times He calls the Church to repent.
Repentance is
serious business in God’s Kingdom. It is not a one-time event, but something that we do on a regular basis. We all have sinned and we are all in need of repentance. Again, Repentance is not ‘feeling sorry’ for our sins. Judas felt remorse for betraying Christ, but he did not repent. To repent means to go in the opposite direction. If I have developed a sinful 6
habit in my life, repentance means to give up that habit. If I am living in ways that are clearly in contradiction to what the Scriptures teach then I need to repent and make myself right with God. Remember that God doesn’t compare one sin with another sin. Instead, He calls us to forsake sin. I forsake sin by a change in my mind, a change in my will and a change in my actions.
When those three things line up, then I have
repented. Repentance calls for a complete breakdown of our pride, our selfishness and our self-will. You may think this is hard teaching, but the great Preacher A.W. Tozer said: “"Anyone who joins the Church should know that it is a place of transformation; a place of discipline; a place of learning; it is not merely a place for one to be comforted or indulged." Whenever I preach in this Church always remember that before I get here, on a Sunday morning I have preached and applied the sermon to myself. In preparation for today I have also repented and applied the prayers we are going to pray this morning in my own life. I am not asking anyone to do what I have not done myself. In your bulletin you will find a set of prayers, and there are five of them. You will also notice that there is a date at the bottom of the page and a place for you to put your signature. For some of you today it will be a first time commitment; for others, it will be a renewal of your previous commitment to Christ. One of the reasons I am doing this exercise, is that God is not calling ‘some of us’ in this Church to become Ambassadors and Agents of Reconciliation; He is calling ‘all of us.’ In my personal life I did commit myself to Deirdre ‘once and for all.’ But, as her husband I remind her almost on a daily basis that I love her; cherish her; and continue to adore her as the ‘apple of my eye.’ She never throws her hands up in frustration and says, “Stop saying that.” No, she 7
never gets tired of hearing me tell her those things. In the same way, God never gets tired of us coming to Him, regardless of how often we do it to confess our faults and recommit ourselves to Him. You are the only one that knows the depth or may I be blunt and say, the lack of depth in your relationship with Christ. This morning I would like us to pray these prayers as a community of faith. It may be a first time commitment for some or a renewal of a commitment already made. Let us say these prayers together as a community of faith. (For those receiving this Sermon by e-mail, please see enclosed attachment.)
References: New International Version of the Holy Scriptures To Be A Christian – An Anglican Catechism, pages 17-22 Bridge to Haven – Francine Rivers
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