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  Sermon of the Week

Look up the passage

  14/4/02  
  Christianity Explained 4
Becoming a Christian
Mark 1:9-15
     
  Over the last few weeks, we've been thinking about some of the basics of Christianity: the person and work of Jesus Christ; his death and resurrection; the concept of salvation by grace; and today we're thinking about what it means to be a Christian and how a person becomes one. Now I guess most people here today would claim to be Christians. Few people come to church these days who aren't. But its surprising how many people are unclear on what it is that actually makes us a Christian and who, if they were asked by a friend to explain what a Christian was, would struggle to find a good answer. It's even less likely of course if we were to go out into the general community and ask people what they think a Christian is.
  Imagine we were to do a survey at Box Hill Central or Chadstone. What sort of answers do you think we'd get to the question "What is a Christian?" We might get answers like a good person, someone who goes to church, someone who loves their neighbour, someone who comes from a Christian country, etc. So how would we respond to those sorts of suggestion? What would we say it is that defines a Christian? Well, that's what we're going to be thinking about today and the key verse for us was in our second reading. Look at Mark 1:15. [Perhaps someone with a loud voice could stand up and read it out for us.] "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." (Mark 1:15 NRSV)
  The one thing that defines a person as a Christian is this: that they belong to the kingdom of God. When Jesus came this was how he summarised his message: "the kingdom of God is near." Those other things are important. It's important that we do good works, that we love others, that we go to Church, but they're actually subsidiary to the real issue, being subjects of the King. Those other things flow out of our membership of God's kingdom, not the other way around. Let me illustrate what I mean. Imagine a young man, Angus, a classic redheaded Scot, who marries Heather, also a redhead. They have a number of children and surprise, surprise all their children are redheads as well. It only takes one look to see they're all from the same family. Now it would be no good me going down to the shops and buying some red hair dye to change the colour of my hair and then claiming to be part of the family as well, would it? It isn't the colour of the hair that makes them part of the family. It's the other way round.
  Well, that's an imperfect illustration of the fact that it isn't our behaviour that makes us children of God. The behaviour comes as a result of being brought into God's family, God's kingdom. So the question is, how do we join God's kingdom? Well, in fact that verse, again, holds the key to how we can become members of God's kingdom. Jesus says "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."
  There are just two things we need to do to enter God's kingdom. Neither of them is difficult. Neither of them makes us any better than anyone else. Neither of them gives us any merit before God. But both are necessary if we're to receive the benefits of God's grace and forgiveness. What are they? Repent and believe. Let's think about each in turn.
  1 Repentance
  So what is repentance? The Greek word for repentance means a change of mind. It has the idea of changing the orientation of one's life. So what is it that we might need to repent of? What is it that we need to change? I won't ask you to call out all those things in your life you need to repent of. There'll be an opportunity for you to do that silently to God later in the service. And in fact listing all those things won't actually answer the question. You see, when Jesus calls his listeners to repent it's in the context of his announcement of the coming of God's kingdom. What he's calling them to repent of is there attitude to the King. What we need is a total change of mind so that instead of me being on the throne of my life, I need to put Jesus there.
  So what will true repentance look like? Well it will look something like this:
  I will put Jesus first
  Listen to what Jesus said to those who thought they'd like to be his followers: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it." (Mk8:34-35 NRSV) In other words when I repent I put Jesus first …
  … Before my will
  To repent means to deny my own natural inclination to rule the world and instead to put Jesus first, even if it means following him into suffering and even death. To carry my cross means to give up my life, or at least the right to rule over it. It means that I hand over the rule of my life to the rightful King, Jesus. Now that might not sound very good until you realise that to hand over your life to God is to put yourself in the care of the only one who actually knows what's best for you and what's more, is able to achieve it. Similarly, it means that I put Jesus …
  … Before my ambitions
  It's almost expected these days that young people and probably even older people, will have a mission statement for their life, some personal set of ambitions that they're working towards achieving. And generally those ambitions will entail such things as wealth, power, prestige, comfort, security, pleasure, popularity or something along those lines. Now there's nothing wrong with any of those things in themselves, but too often they become the whole focus of our lives, rather than simply another aspect of a broader picture. Too often their aim is to satisfy us as No. 1 rather than to please God. It's only when Jesus is No. 1 that we can get these sorts of ambition into focus.
  … Before my popularity
  It probably depends how old you are as to how important popularity is. But let's face it, following Jesus isn't all that popular today is it? The media love to knock Christians, the rich can't understand why we're not as interested in building wealth as they are, the sophisticated social crowd think we're old fashioned and quaint; (I mean who sings hymns these days?) and there's a general suspicion of anyone with strong beliefs. You may even have relatives or friends who'll be antagonistic towards you if they know you're a Christian. But Jesus warned us that if we're ashamed of him in this life then we can only expect him to be ashamed of us in the next. So repenting means that I give up my desire for popularity and follow Jesus openly.
  …Before anything that might come before Jesus.
  Jesus at one stage warned his followers to get rid of anything in their life that might hinder them from following Jesus. He said if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It's better to enter God's kingdom maimed than to miss out altogether.
  Too Hard?
  Does that sound too hard? Well, we mustn't forget that the gospel is good news for those who are being saved. Jesus doesn't just leave it up to us to fix ourselves up. He doesn't expect us to lift ourselves up by the bootstraps. Rather, he gives us the power to change, and he comes and helps us to do it. Last week, I believe Michael talked about the way God's grace means that God's love is poured out on us freely in the way he removes our sin and makes us right with God again. And God's grace continues to act in us when we repent and turn to Christ in submission.
  You see, when I hand over my life to Jesus he does a wonderful thing. He comes and takes up residence within me. He sends his Holy Spirit to live within me. And when he comes and lives within me he begins to change me. It's a bit like someone moving into an old ramshackle house, the famous renovator's opportunity. And what happens is this: on day 1 the person moves in. Now that's a once-off event. A person only ever becomes a Christian once.
  But having moved in, that isn't the end of the process by any means. The house still needs to be renovated and redecorated. So too, when we turn our life over to Jesus his Holy Spirit begins the process of changing us.
  Now he doesn't do it all at once, just as someone renovating a house rarely does the work all at once. No, he does it gradually, changing something here, something there, perhaps working through the house one room at a time, getting one bit right before moving on to the next.
  But he also doesn't just stop in the entrance hall. God doesn't want us to turn to him and invite him in, then shut the rest of the house up. He wants to get in and change all of us. So the process of repentance is an ongoing process. There'll never be a point in this life when we can say the work is complete. God's aim is to change me into his image, his likeness, and that process will never be completed until I meet him face to face and he renews me completely. So for those of us who have been Christians for years, the process of repentance never actually stops. And in the meantime, I need to continue to trust him to do his work in me. And that's the second part of being a Christian.
  2 Believing
  Jesus said "Repent and believe." So what does it mean to believe? What does it mean to have faith in Jesus?
  Faith is:
  … Taking Jesus at his Word
  In Mark 5 there's an incident when a man named Jairus comes to Jesus to ask him to heal his sick daughter. As they're going back to his house, a woman interrupts them by touching Jesus' robe and receiving healing for an illness she has. Jesus stops to talk to the woman and just as they start off again this is what happens: "While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?" 36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, "Do not fear, only believe." Jesus had promised to heal the girl, but things weren't looking too good. So what did the man have to do if he were to show faith in Jesus? He had to take Jesus at his word. He had to trust that Jesus would keep his promise.
  But the woman I just mentioned also had faith in Jesus. Her faith, though, was independent of any word from Jesus. In her case faith consisted of
  … Reaching out to Jesus
  She trusted in his power to heal, so she reached out to him to receive that power.
  Jesus once said that unless you receive the kingdom of God like a little child you'll never enter it. What I think he meant by that was that we need to have the sort of trust in our heavenly father that a little child has in his or her earthly father. A trust that our heavenly father will provide what we need, will care for us and protect us and will have our best interests in mind. So faith in God involves
  …having childlike trust
  Notice by the way that this isn't childish trust. There's nothing childish about trusting God to look after you or to keep his promises. What's more, part of that childlike trust is knowing not just that God will look after me, but also
  … Knowing that God accepts me
  As Michael said last week, when we receive God's love, we know that he's given it to us freely and fully. And if he loves us fully and freely, that means he also accepts us for who we are, with all our spots and wrinkles. Not that that means there's nothing that needs to be fixed up in our lives. We've already talked about how the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and begins the lifelong task of renovation. But in God's grace he looks at us and sees Jesus. He sees his Holy Spirit living within us and filling us with his righteousness.
  The reason that God accepts me, you see, is because Jesus has taken my place in his death on the cross and has transferred his righteousness to me. So when God looks at me he sees Jesus' righteousness shining out. And so I can be confident that God accepts me as his own, even if I am still a work-in-progress. Finally, faith is
  … Receiving Jesus Christ as our King
  This of course brings us back to where we started. If we believe in Jesus, then we'll believe his claim to be the Lord, the Christ, the anointed one that God has sent to establish his kingdom on earth. And if we believe in Jesus as the King, then we'll make him king in our own life.
  Now I imagine that most if not all of you had heard all of this before, but still, I want to ask you two questions. The first question is, have you come to the point in your life of making Jesus your King? If not, then are you ready now to repent, that is to turn away from yourself as the controller of your life and to hand over that control to Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus is able to remove your sin from you and to make you totally acceptable to God? If you've come to that point then I'm going to pray a prayer in a moment that you might like to make your own.
  The second question is addressed to those who have made that decision to follow Jesus some time in the past. The question for you is, are you continuing to believe in Jesus? Are you continuing to trust him to change you and to make you more like God? Do you believe that when God sees you he loves you and accepts you as his own? And are you allowing him into all the rooms in your life? Into the realms of your marriage or your singleness, your family, your ambition, your leisure, your money, your sexuality, your time? If you're still keeping parts of your life closed to him, then repent today, turn all of your life over to him so he can change you into his own image.
  I'm going to pray now, and if you'd like to, you could join me in the prayer as I say it. I'll read the prayer out first so you'll know what I'm going to pray then I'll do it again one line at a time so you can join in if you wish. The prayer goes like this:
  Dear God, I know that I'm not worthy to be called a child of God. I don't deserve your gift of eternal life. I'm guilty of rebelling against you and ignoring you. I need your forgiveness. I want to turn from living my life according to my own will. I believe that Jesus died for me and rose again to give me new life. I now acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Lord and Master of my life. Make me a member of your family. Come and live within me and change me to be like you. Please enable me to love and serve you always. Amen.
                     
 
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