Christianity Explained is designed for the person who knows nothing about Jesus or his Gospel.
Papatoetoe has an estimated 2.8% of its population in Church on a Sunday. Could you or I explain to the nearly 98% non-Christians in Papatoetoe (that’s 49 out of 50 people you see in the street) the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a way that helped them to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and gave them reason to change what they do on a Sunday morning? This course will equip you for the task.
So far we have established the 3 essential foundations to being a true Christian.
The belief that Jesus is the Son of God with all authority including final judgment over us, that his death on the Cross was the only way to forgive our sins and that after 3 days he rose back life, proving he really is the Son of God with even authority even over death itself. These are the 3 foundations to the well known scripture
Romans 10:9
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Christianity answers the most important question that we can ever ask. What must I do to be saved?
For the 4th study on Grace over Works, we had RC Sproul explain what was the key change in doctrine that came out of the Reformation of the 1500’s.
Last week we looked at the timeline of the Reformation and saw how God moves in history, often in spite of man’s bungling intervention that potentially ruins the work of God.
On 31st October 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg counteracting false doctrine that had crept into the Catholic Church primarily;
Before: Faith + Works = Justification
⁃ this means you can only be declared justified if you have done good works, no good for the thief on the cross if it were true but Jesus had already turned that thinking upside down.
After: Faith = Justification + Works
⁃ In other words, the emphasis is on faith for salvation and the works follow after having been justified or saved.
This change in doctrine was so explosive that as we learned last week, it led to an 18 year discussion at the Council of Trent and split the church between Catholic and Protestant.
Eventually leading to Guy Fawkes and his Catholic plotters attempting to assassinate the King and blow up the Houses of Parliament and take back England for the Pope.
This week we are going to follow on from our last study on salvation is by faith alone.
Luke 13:1-5
There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”
Repentance is so important that Jesus said it twice within a few seconds.
Following on immediately, Jesus said;
Luke 13:6-9
He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’ ”
He also spoke the parable to tie repentance to fruit. We don’t know what happened to the tree, we only know what would have happened if it did not bear fruit.
Repentance was a theme of Jesus’s preaching along with the necessity to believe. The fruit of repentance shows that we have truly believed.
Mark 1:14-15
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
What is repentance?
A biblical definition of repentance involves 4 things. To make a change of mind, heart, and action, by turning away from sin and self and returning to God.
What is the Gospel?
It is good to remember that the first four books are started with;
« The Gospel According to ». Each author has a unique perspective of the Gospel as we all do.
1. Matthew presents Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, the fulfillment of Old Testament hopes. Matthew’s central theme is promise and fulfillment: God’s promises in the Hebrew Scriptures to bring salvation to his people Israel and to the whole world are being fulfilled with the coming of Jesus the Messiah. The Church’s response to this joyful news should be to go into all the world and make disciples (followers) of Jesus the Messiah.
The Gospel according to Matthew would have us change our mind, our belief about who Jesus is.
2. Mark portrays him as the suffering Servant who offers himself as a sacrifice for sins. Mark’s gospel is that Jesus is the mighty Messiah and Son of God, who took on the role of a suffering servant whose death and resurrection paid the penalty for our sins and achieved victory over Satan, sin, and death. With this joyful announcement comes the call to all believers for faith and cross-bearing discipleship.
The gospel according to Mark would primarily change our actions and follow Jesus example of servanthood towards others, taking up our Cross and following him.
3. Luke’s gospel is that Jesus is the Son of Man, the Saviour of the World, who brings salvation to all nations and people groups. The gospel is for Lost People Everywhere (think Prodigal Son). God’s end-time salvation has arrived. It is available to all who respond in faith, whatever their past life, social status, or ethnicity.
The gospel according to Luke would primarily have us turn away from our selfishness and sin and return to God as in the Parable of the Lost Son.
4. John portrays Jesus as the Son of God the Father, the Word made flesh, who brings eternal life to all who believe in him. John’s gospel is of the Eternal Son Who Reveals the Father. We can know the Father through the Son, in fact we can become the children of God. John’s portrait of Jesus focuses less on his messiahship and more on his true humanity and true deity.
The gospel according to John says the change that’s needed is a change of heart. We need to be born again. That is a work of the Holy Spirit who brings us into the family of God, where God is our Father.
All four Gospels emphasise the importance of repentance, they just emphasise different aspects of it.
And I’d suggest that’s because at different times in our life we need to apply repentance in a different way.
Sometimes we’ve become too wise in our own eyes, we need to change our belief about who Jesus is and put our trust in Him not in man’s foolish thinking.
Sometimes our lives don’t measure up to our words. We need to square up our actions. We need to put aside our own desires and do what is right by God.
Sometimes we’ve been living our own way and we’ve hit rock bottom. We need to come to our senses, remember our home and return to God.
Sometimes all we need is a change of heart. That is the miraculous work of God alone.
Today the message is from Mark, where Jesus is the suffering servant and repentance is proven by our actions not our words.
You become a Christian when you make Jesus Christ the King or Master of your life.
Mark 8:34-38
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
What does it mean, in practical terms, to repent? It means I put Jesus first in these things;
Before my will
Jesus says a person must forget (or deny) self, carry his cross and lose his life. Now the cross was an instrument of death. Jesus tells me that if I am to follow him, I must go through a kind of death experience. I must die to the right to run my own life (which is sin). I am to surrender to the God-given right of Jesus to be my King.
Before my ambitions
People everywhere are trying to “gain the whole world.” To a greater or lesser degree, their aim is to accumulate power, money, popularity, pleasure, prestige, business success, or just keep ahead of the neighbors. Now these things may not be wrong in themselves, but they are sin if they are things we live for above everything else. When Jesus is Number One, these things fall into their right perspective.
Before my popularity
It is not popular to follow Jesus sincerely today. Friends or family members may regard me as strange – some may not want to associate with me any more. But if I’m ashamed of Jesus in this life, then he will reject me on Judgment Day! I must follow Jesus openly. He is not interested in secret disciples. The most obvious way to start doing this is to belong to a church. People who avoid church may claim that it is boring, but often they are just ashamed to be associated openly with Christ and his people. Emphasise that members of the group may have a spouse, relative or friend who disapproves of their faith. But you must put Jesus first (politely) even if it means ridicule.
Mark 9:43-48
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched— where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire— where ‘Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.’
Here, Jesus repeats the phrase about Hell 3 times.
Their worm does not die And the fire is not quenched.
Jesus does not literally mean that I am to cut off body parts. He means that if anything or anyone is stopping me from entering God’s kingdom, then radical surgery may be necessary. Pride is often the cause of this.
⁃ Am I too proud to accept salvation as a gift?
⁃ Am I too proud to submit to Jesus as King?
Mark 10:29-31
So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
It may sound hard to follow Jesus, but he makes two promises when we do:
1. In this life, he will repay us “a hundred times”
for any cost we suffer.
2. In the next life, he will give us eternal life.
Is it worth it?
Jim Elliot, the American missionary killed by tribesmen in South America said of his mission;
"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose".
This message of repentance may not speak to everyone here today in the same way. As we said earlier, the Gospels speak differently to people in different places in their lives. But if God is speaking to you today asking you to be honest with yourself about what or who is first in your life, and asking you to respond to Jesus message of repentance and putting your faith in him today, then today is the day of your salvation and you need to respond. Not everyone gets a second chance.
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