Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Okay, good morning church. So this morning we're gonna actually start a series, um, called a discipleship series, living a Discipleship Life. And throughout the whole series really the, the kind of reason behind it is that as a church, we're gonna cover some topics that we believe are fundamental and essential foundations for being the best disciple of Jesus Christ that we can be. And over the course of 12 weeks or so, we're gonna, um, look at what it means to be a child of God. What, what it means to have an identity in Christ Jesus, a kingdom lifestyle, um, how we overcome the enemy, um, the picture of a healthy church. All of these things are essential elements, if you like, of building, um, a great life that is centered around Jesus Christ and being the best disciple that we can be. Because our purpose and journey as a church is, is that new believers are discipled, that we as existing disciples, if you like, we grow, we mature, and that we equip to disciple others.
Speaker 1 00:01:15 And that's how we wanna see, um, the purpose of this church come about. And so today the question we're gonna ask, um, is what must I do to be saved? And it is a really great question because I imagine most of us in this room this morning, we came to that conclusion. So the gospel had been presented to us. Does anybody remember that that day the gospel was presented? It may have been in a meeting like this, it may have been in a coffee shop, it may have been in the school playground, in whatever place and situation, um, that came to you. There was at some point you asked the question, okay, I have heard this gospel message. I have heard the good news of Jesus Christ. Now what must I do? What is the response? And our prayer for Newton Abbott is really that, that we, we present the gospel well across Newton Abbott.
Speaker 1 00:02:08 And that we hear many people respond, okay, what must we do to be saved? And I wanna turn this, this morning to Acts chapter two. And this really was the first ever sermon that was preached, I guess in the early church. And it was by Peter and Peter really here is explaining what is going on in Jerusalem. Now, what happened with the early church, it was birthed when the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pente Pentecost. And that is explained in Acts chapter two. And what happens is the Holy Spirit has been poured out and there's so many different people from all over coming to Jerusalem because there is a festival, the Festival of Pentecost. And so people are coming all over and they're hearing a bunch of very ordinary Galilean declaring how great God is in other languages. And so the people who were visiting Jerusalem at the time were kind of amazed at hearing very ordinary, very unschooled people declaring the praises of God in their own native Tok.
Speaker 1 00:03:21 And so some people were amazed, some people were a bit confused about the whole situation. And then some people actually poked fun at the disciples, at the early disciples, they said, you must be drunk because this is bonkers. And so Peter addresses the crowd and he talks to them about the promised Holy Spirit. He talks about how Jesus was nailed to the cross and raised from the dead. And so here we are at Acts two, we pick it up there, acts two, sign from verse 36, therefore let all Israel be assured of this, God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what must we do? Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
Speaker 1 00:04:21 And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call with many other words. He warned them and he pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. And those who accepted his message of baptized and about 3000 were added to their number that day. So back to that verse, 37 Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter presents four key things that we can see in this scripture that he presents to the people to say, okay, this is what you need to do. Let's remind ourselves those four key elements that are essential to building a good foundation in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. Number one, repent. Number two, there is only forgiveness of sins through having faith in Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:05:22 Number third, number three, be baptized. And number four, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And we can see that throughout the New Testament there was repent faith in Jesus Christ being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. And today we've only got time to look at two elements and then we'll, we'll pick upon the other two me elements after Easter. But the two elements here that we're gonna look at this morning are repentance and faith. Now, let's take repentance. Repentance in its simplest form is to make a U-turn. And what are we turning from? We are turning from our old ways. We're turning from going in our own direction with our own thoughts, our own opinions, our own actions. And we're turning towards God. It is that realization that we have been wrong and that God is completely right, that he is completely perfect, that he is good.
Speaker 1 00:06:27 And repentance is always a heart thing first. It's an internal thing. We look at the story of the prodigal's son in Luke 15 in the the loss, the big lost chapter. And the son was going his own way. He'd left the father's house, the protection, the blessing, the presence of the Father. And he was going his own way until he reaches rock bottom. And he says, I have sinned. And so there is this heart change. First he recognizes he has sinned. He recognizes that he has fallen short, he's rock bottom with nowhere else to go. I know in my own life there was times when I have gone my own way. I've done my own thing. I have found myself at that rock bottom place. And God in his kindness and mercy as I've made that U-turn, and maybe there's some people this morning, you know, you need to make a U-turn back to God.
Speaker 1 00:07:39 And let me tell you, he's there with arms wide open. He is there with love and mercy and grace because he's a good father. And so this heart change happens first inwardly, and then there is an outward response. What must I do? And for the prodigal son, it was turning around and literally running back to the Father. It was leaving his life of sin and running back to the house where his father was. You know, in Acts 17, it says that God commands all people everywhere to repent. Why? Because God has a better life for us than we have planned out a mapped out for ourselves. He, he wants us to walk in such freedom and lightness of spirit. He wants us to walk in in great liberty, but we can only do that if we actually lose our lives. If we lose our lives, we will then find our lives in Christ.
Speaker 1 00:08:46 We find a greater lives given our lives to Christ. And you know, the change of heart and mind, we can't force people to make that decision. We have to leave people, we have to give them that opportunity because it is personal between them and God. And two Corinthians seven says this, it says, godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. But worldly sorrow brings death. So when we have this desire to follow God, to put things right before him, it, it brings us to that place of repentance. It leads us to salvation. And it leaves no regret. That's how freeing and how wonderful God is. But worldly sorrow brings death. So repentance brings about a change in our lives and our response is, okay, Lord, I want to live differently.
Speaker 1 00:09:57 Luke three, let's go on to Luke three. Luke three talks about fruits of repentance. So when we repent, when we do that U-turn, what does that look like? How do we live out our lives in response? And Luke three says, produce fruit verse eight, in keeping with repentance. And if we go down to verse 10, here we are again. Here's the question, what must we do then? So the question is posed again and the crowd want to know, right? So when we do this, what then do we need to do? And John answers this. He says, anyone who has two shirts, she shared with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same. Even the tax collectors came to be baptized and teacher, they asked, what should we do? <laugh> don't collect anymore than you are required to. He told them, then some soldiers asked him, and what should we do? And he replied, don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely be content with your pay. So here we have three sets of people saying, okay, what must we do?
Speaker 1 00:11:19 So give our lives away to Christ. And how do we do that practically every day is to share what we have with people. The other one was truth being so important. Another one, whatever position, whether you are in a a place of authority, don't use it to intimidate and Lord it over. Other people don't falsely accuse others. Be content with what we have. And isn't something we do once, it's actually something we will probably do. Many times I know in my life, there are many times I find myself, myself again, come to the feet of Jesus and just saying, Lord, forgive me for that wrong attitude. Lord, forgive me for what I've said about somebody. Lord, forgive me for just, just thinking these wrong thoughts today.
Speaker 1 00:12:23 You know, Psalm 139, it says, search me oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked or offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. That is such a great prayer to pray, isn't it? Maybe this week some of us will go away and we'll say, Lord, search my heart. Maybe before we break bread later, we will say, Lord, search my heart, Lord, if there is anything offensive, if there is any wicked way in my heart, Lord reveal it so kindly as you do because his kindness does lead to repentance. Show me that wicked way, Lord, so I can deal with it. And then finally this morning, our second element, our second pillar if you like, for building a great foundation, for being the best follower of Jesus Christ that we can be is faith in Jesus Christ. And it's paramount that we have faith because firstly, we cannot come to God and we cannot please God without faith. The second thing is we, we won't be saved without faith. The third thing, we won't be justified without faith. Yes, Jesus has died on the cross. He's forgiven of us. He's forgiven us of all our sins. He's done everything. He's paved the way for us to receive him. He's opened up the way, but we have to accept him in faith. Hebrews 11, six, let's just turned quickly to Hebrews 11, six,
Speaker 1 00:14:08 And it says this, and without faith, it is impossible to please God. Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek him. Those who come to him must believe that he is. They must believe that he is.
Speaker 1 00:14:33 And without faith, it's impossible to please God. So we believe in Jesus Christ because the word of God says so, because the word of God says so, not because you've listened to a preach. Do you believe in Jesus that might help you, not because you've listened to a podcast, not because somebody has shared the gospel gospel with you, and that may help you. But we believe in Jesus Christ because the word of God says. So we accept the word by faith. And faith comes from hearing the good news about Jesus Christ. Mark 16 says, whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, whoever believes. And what do we believe? We believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Do we believe that this morning that God sent him into the world? Yes we do. To bring salvation. So faith comes from hearing the good news of Christ. Faith saves us, and faith also justifies us. So let us just talk. Lemme just talk about faith. How faith, having faith in Christ justifies us. So all of us have fallen short of God's standards. Okay? So he's, he's a holy God. We have fallen short. That is the gospel message. We are all sinners in ourselves. We are, we are not good enough. We're guilty.
Speaker 1 00:16:09 Let's, you know, put us in prison. Throw away the key as it were. But, but, and here's the great news, the centrality of the gospel message is that a sinless savior bore our punishment for our sins on the cross. He bore our punishment. And it's our faith in what he has done for us. This incredible credible sacrifice. What he has done for us means that I am now completely justified. In other words, we no longer have a death sentence hanging over our lives. I now live just as if I had never sinned. I mean, it's incredible. That's what justification is. And it doesn't seem right, does it? That the punishment that really we deserve because we, we are all sinners. We've fallen short. We should receive that punishment. But this is how good God is. And this is how beautiful and stunning the gospel is, that Jesus paid the full price for every sin we will ever and have ever committed.
Speaker 1 00:17:33 And here's the thing, and here's the thing that I think we need to really grasp today. That if we don't accept this message, if we walk out of here this morning going, well, thank God for what he did, but I don't feel I'm clean. I don't feel like I'm really sinless. I i don't feel like I'm a saint this morning. I don't feel like I'm a daughter. I'm a son. Now, here, let me help you because if you don't accept this message, what happens is we, we can we reduce the power of the gospel message if we don't accept it, what happens is, and we don't live in the light of it as disciples of Jesus Christ, we are actually living out another gospel. And it's a gospel. Well, it isn't really good news, but of shame and guilt and heaviness. You know, a couple of summers ago I read the book, um, the Pilgrim's Progress to my Children.
Speaker 1 00:18:37 One summer we eat every evening. I just sat with them. I read the children's version. And um, there is this character called Christian. And he, he, he goes on this journey to the celestial city and he's carrying, he starts off carrying this huge ruck sack and he's on, he's carrying on his journey. And the ruck sack is feeling so heavy. And really what the ruck sack represents is heaviness. A heavy burden that comes from carrying as sins. And there is a point in the book where Christian comes the character, la the boy Christian comes to the cross and he's told to lay his ruck sack down. In other words, to lay his burdens down. Because there is a man called Jesus who has taken all the guilt, all the shame, all the heaviness that sin brings. And at the cross he died and he shed his blood so that you and I can receive full forgiveness and we receive it by faith.
Speaker 1 00:19:58 There is that lovely passage in Matthew 16. And it's, it always, yeah, always, um, is an interesting one because Jesus is telling his disciples, this is just before he goes to the cross and he's almost warning them. He's saying to them, you know, I, I am I am going to suffer and I I must be killed. And you can imagine the disciples looking at Jesus going, no, we, we are just not gonna let that happen. And in fact, Peter actually turns to Jesus and he says, never Lord, this shall never happen to you. And Jesus rebukes Peter and he says, get behind me Satan. He said, you do not have the mind of God in you. You have human, a human mind. You're trying to work it out from a human perspective. And I believe there's some people in this room this morning, you're trying to work things out from a human perspective rather than having faith in the word of God and what God says about you. You are loved, you are forgiven. If you have come to the foot of the cross with a repentant and humble heart, you are totally fully clean and forgiven. Not because of what you've done, but because of your faith in what Jesus Christ has done for you.
Speaker 1 00:21:24 Let's not weaken the power of the gospel message. Yes, it's not fair. Yes, in our human minds and perspective, it doesn't seem right. But this is what God's word says. Let's not let the liars of the enemy rob us from what Jesus is saying to us. And then finally, we must also continue to walk by faith. And this is the big one. Cuz if you've been a disciple for a long time, a lot of things can happen in life. There's a lot of life experience happened. But we've gotta continue to walk by faith. So we know that faith pleases God. We know that we are saved by grace through faith. We know that we are justified by faith.
Speaker 1 00:22:17 Haven't got time this morning been Hebrews 11. I've just been going through it in my life. And um, in the last couple of weeks, sorry. And incredible characters who all messed up. By the way, <laugh> all messed up, very imperfect people. But they were honored for their faith, for their hope in God. And they walked without receiving what was promised. So they believed in what God had said. They lived with hope in their hearts. They rejoiced at scene a day when the word of God would come to pass. Although it didn't happen in their time and day, they saw it from a distance. It says about Moses that he persevered because he saw him. Who is invisible Church.
Speaker 1 00:23:15 We have Jesus Christ. We are this side of the cross. We know we have the New Testament, but Moses, Abraham, David, Enoch, Noah, what incredible faith because they saw it from afar. And we could go into a whole load of this this morning. But so repentance and faith, let's build our lives on these solid foundations. Cause we know the enemy is looking to knock us off. He's looking to create shaky foundations in our lives. And a remind us today to come back. Maybe we need to leave this place. Maybe some of us need to do that big U-turn today. Maybe some of us just need to renew our love for God again and our trust in His word. Maybe some of us need to go from this place and pray. Psalm hundred 39, search me Lord. Search my heart. I give you permission, holy Spirit, to search my heart to see if there's any offensive way in me. Let's continue to walk by faith, not on our feelings or our circumstances. Lord, help us to base our lives around your word because it will never fail us. And God bless his word to us this morning. Thank you church.
