Changed by God

This week we wrap up our sermon series “Sharing God.” We have spent these weeks looking at reasons why we don’t share God with those around us. While also focusing on the impact that “Sharing God” can have on us, those around us, and the church.

This week we are looking at how God changes lives. Our scripture comes from Acts 2:14,32-39.

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

       “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “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. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Let us pray…

This is the culmination of our sermon series and a look at how the aspects that we have focused on so far are lived out when they are brought together into one story. We need to begin by going back before our scripture.

Jesus has left the earth. The disciples listened to him and went into Jerusalem to wait. They were waiting while also hiding out because they were afraid of what was going to happen to them if the Jewish authorities found them.

Their wait ends on the day of Pentecost when as the scripture tells us,

“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

They have been transformed. God has changed them into new beings. God is now able to reside within them. They are more connected to God than most of their ancestors. Their new power was reflected through them being able to speak in other languages based off of what the Spirit allowed.

Did you notice that their abilities were not based off of what they wanted to do. They didn’t get to pick and choose the language they were able to speak. The Holy Spirit gave them the languages they needed to speak at that moment.

(Transition)

This riles up the people who have come to celebrate Pentecost in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Pentecost commemorates the receiving of the Torah or the first five books of what we call the Old Testament to Moses.

This was one of the three major feasts that the Jewish people were to celebrate in Jerusalem. The other two are Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles. What would often happen since Pentecost was only 50 days after Passover if you had traveled from a great distance many would remain around the area during those 50 days.

What this means is that the Holy Spirit enters into these early followers at such a time that Jerusalem would have been filled with people and many of those people would have lived outside of Jerusalem.

The crowd is looking for answers and Jesus has chosen Peter to be the one to offer an explanation. Peter tells the crowed the story of Jesus rising from the dead and the disciples witnessing his return.

He continues by adding that Jesus was and is the Messiah and he has now poured upon his followers the Holy Spirit in order to help them continue with his mission. Peter is basically saying that God has changed us and now desires to have us help you decide to be changed.

(Transition)

This leads the crowd to respond and desire to also become followers of Jesus. They want what the disciples have received. They want to experience the love of God and be filled with the Holy Spirit. They only ask “how?”

The word given to them by Peter is the same word that we heard from John the Baptist as he prepared the people for the coming of Jesus, “repent.” The word “repent” means to “turn back.” It would be referring to “turn back to God.” Allow Jesus to be your Lord and Savior. Make the decision to follow the ways of Jesus

We don’t have it as a part of our scripture, but we are told that over three thousand people became followers of Jesus on that day. Now remember these are people from all over the world. These would become early missionaries when they would return to their hometowns.

Just as John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, these new followers from Gentile, or non-Jewish areas, would be preparing the way for Paul and his companions to allow them to spread the message of Jesus. These people had been changed by God, and they would be followers of  Jesus who were worshiping in their local synagogues.

(Transition)

Repent also has a meaning of “submission.” This is not one of our favorite words within the English language. We like to be in charge but in order to become closer to God we have to submit to God.

We have to humble ourselves before God. We have to be willing to say that we no longer want to have life be about us. We want life to be about God and those around us. We want to be the person that God desires for us to be.

This message should make the church unique. We that are here that are followers of Jesus should be here to praise God while also preparing ourselves to share God with those around us. That is what makes the church different from most other organizations.

(Transition)

The church should not be about us. The church should be about what God wants to do through us both individually and corporately. Many organizations are really peer groups. They are similar people from similar backgrounds coming together to be together and to serve those around them.

Ideally the church is not that way. The church should be people from different socioeconomic, educational backgrounds who are also ethnically if not culturally diverse. The church should be a hodgepodge of people called by God to worship him and reach out to those around them in Christian community.

This should be our goal at The Church of the Good Shepherd. It is why we state that we want to be a church that is seen as “loving all people.” We don’t want anyone to believe that we are a place in which they would not be welcomed.

(Transition)

No one is at this church by accident. God has prepared the way to allow each of us to be here so that each of us can use the gifts he has given to us to have us serve those around us. Our first reading from Romans points this out to us.

We are the living sacrifice. We are to give our whole selves to God. What came to my mind was the end of the singing of the song “The Hokey Pokey.” Bet you didn’t see me going there, did you? What we tend to do is put an arm or a foot in but never putting our whole selves in.

We are called to submit our whole selves to God, 100 percent. Ideally, we are to have the faith to believe that God is worthy enough for us to give him all of us. We need to trust God enough to believe that he has prepared us to do what he desires for us to do.

(Transition)

The scripture continues by pointing out that we have different gifts given to us by the grace of God to serve the God that created us and saved us. He created us in a unique way for us to have gifts that can serve him. He saved us to help us believe that his love for us and those around us should lead us to be willing to use these gifts he has given to us.

This is why I believe no one is here by accident. We have each been given unique gifts to use in order to allow for The Church of the Good Shepherd to become the place for those around us to discover what it means to experience the love of Jesus.

(Transition)

We discover a Trinity of Relationships in our reading. We have the relationship between God through the Holy Spirit and the followers of Jesus. A relationship between the followers of Jesus and those who do not yet believe. And not officially a part of our reading but a part of the same story, a relationship between the nonbelievers and God through the Holy Spirit.

These are the same relationships that we should have as the church. We should be looking towards God for guidance and at the same time we should be telling those around us about the God who desires to be in a relationship with them.

But we first have to develop and strengthen our relationship between us and God. We find these early followers following and listening to Jesus during his time on earth and eventually reaching this point to where they receive the Holy Spirit, God within them.

What we know from the scriptures is that this journey began with a conversation with Jesus in which he asked them to follow him. It was through spending time with Jesus that those early followers began to act and react more like Jesus.

(Transition)

Our goal should be to be changed by God. We should desire to develop a connection with Jesus that will allow for us to have what we do and what we say match what Jesus would desire for us to do and say. We are able to do this best when we are closely connected to the Holy Spirit.

God wants to change us. We speak of this through how we view our journey with Jesus here at The Church of the Good Shepherd. How at some point after discovering we want to have a relationship with Jesus we then decide if we want to be a disciple of Jesus.

A disciple is defined as being a student. We are saying through wanting to be a disciple of Jesus that we want to get to know him better. This is lived out the same way that it was lived out by Jesus’ disciples. It is us deciding we want to spend time with Jesus.

(Transition)

We live out our desire to be a disciple of Jesus through our willingness to read and study scripture and a willingness to pray and listen to how God desires to work within us and through us. God does not want us to remain the same. He wants us to evolve into someone closer to him and more like him.

We are blessed to have several ways that we can spend time reading and studying the Bible. We can just go through the scriptures and ask for God to speak to us through what we read. We can find a reading plan with questions that give us direction on how God may be speaking to us through a specific scripture.

We can attend our Bible study after church on Sunday. We can allow God to speak to us through the teaching and through those in the congregation as they offer questions and insights into how the scripture is impacting them.

We also have available devotions from a number of different sources but also on weekdays on our Facebook page I offer a devotional. God desires for us to decide that we want to get to know him better through spending time in what we consider to be the word of God.

(Transition)

We also should be willing to talk to God on a regular basis. We should be asking for God to help us in our lives while also leaving ourselves open for what he may ask for us to do individually and as a part of the church.

It is my hope that if you have not already you can accomplish what we spoke of last week. That you can find a way to hear God’s “gentle whisper” so that he can help you through life’s struggles while also pass on to you the ways that you can serve others.

This journey with Jesu never ends. We should constantly be discerning if there are new ways that God wants to strengthen our relationship with him. We should be asking and listening for God to tell us the ways that he wants us to serve those around us both individually and as a church.

(Transition)

We also find an interaction between the disciples and those that do not yet believe. Jesus has trained his disciples for this moment. He has led the way for the most part, but he also warned them that there would be a time when they would need to lead the way.

Peter is the chosen vessel to lead but we know that the other followers are also involved. They are able to speak to those around them in their language. We have a crowd with a few people helping them understand their need to have Jesus be their Lord and Savior.

Peter and the disciples were told by Jesus to not worry about what to say. Jesus told them that the Holy Spirit will give them the words. They are to allow God to speak through them in order to have them help those around them discover their need for Jesus.

(Transition)

We have people around us that either do not know Jesus or have not been a part of a Christian community for a long time. We are also called to seek out ways to connect with those around us. In a couple weeks, we are going to be spending six weeks giving you a path to take to help you on that part of your journey with Jesus.

That does not mean you have to wait. Ask God to place upon your heart people that are in need of him. Ask for him to give you the words to say to help them decide that they need Jesus and community in their lives.

(Transition)

The last aspect that we will look at is the crowd from our scripture and their relationship with God. We find that it is through the words said by Peter that many of them end up asking how they can begin a relationship with God through Jesus.

We believe in the United Methodist Church that God is at work in the hearts of those that don’t yet believe. It is through us joining God and being willing to do what God desires for us to do and also the work God is already doing on the hearts of those outside the church that lead to a decision being made to follow Jesus.

(Transition)

We participate in two ways. The first is asking God what he desires for us to do and say. We are through obedience to God allowing someone to be changed by God. God could do it alone, but he desires for us to be a part of the transformation.

The second is for us to be willing to follow the example offered by Phillip earlier in our series. We should be willing to respond to God even if what we are told to do doesn’t make sense or we don’t want to do what we are asked.

This returns us to the idea of submission in regard to repentance. We should desire to follow the will of God. We should be willing to do what our Lord and Savior asks for us to do. We should want to follow the will of God because of the love that God has for us and those around us.

Let us pray…