Becoming a Christian
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Does anyone remember telephone party lines. You would pick up the phone and your neighbors would be on the line. Everyone in a certain geographical location all used the same line for their phone calls.
Nosy neighbors would listen in on everyones calls and then go gossip about what they heard. But worst of all is when you were waiting for an important call and your nosy neighbor is on the phone gossiping about all the other neighbors.
Your call can’t get through if they remain on the phone and it’s supposed to be coming at any minute. Some people would get impatient, pick up the phone and yell get off the phone.
Today we’re going to talk about a different call we don’t want to miss. We’re going to talk about becoming a Christian.
Becoming a Christian means you don’t miss the call. It also means there’s someone else who has to be reliable enough to make that call.
The Gospel Call
The Gospel Call
To understand that we must first understand what kind of call we’re talking about. We’re talking about the gospel call.
It’s the exact opposite of a creditor call. You know, like the hospital billing office calling about your bill. This call isn’t someone calling you about you paying your debts.
Instead this call is about someone calling you to tell you they’re paying all your debts for you. You no longer owe anything for the rest of your life.
Sounds too good to be true, right?
Well that’s exactly what the Gospel call is all about.
Gospel just means good news. The gospel call is someone telling you good news. The good news that your debt is paid.
Look at 2 Thess 2:13-14.
13 because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The gospel call is the preaching and sharing of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ. That through Jesus we have hope of an eternal redemption.
What I preach every week involves some aspect of the gospel call.
Christians are supposed to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with other people. God uses people to share the good news of His Son.
God calls broken, hurting people to faith through the voice of other broken, hurting people. If you’re a broken, hurting person you’re hearing the good news about Jesus from me, a broken, hurting person, here today.
If you’re a Christian you heard about Jesus because some other Christian or Christians told you about Jesus. The good news goes out through the voice of Christians.
That’s why it’s important that we tell people about Jesus. There’s no other way for people to hear about Jesus.
However, I want you to notice the first part of verse 14, “He called you to this.” “This” is referring to salvation our hope for eternal redemption.
While Christians present the gospel call to people, God works in their hearts so they respond to the good news.
God works in people’s hearts to make the good news effective. When we give the good news, God makes that call effective by opening their hearts so they hear and accept the good news.
Look at Acts 16:14
14 A God-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying.
Lydia listened to what Paul said about Jesus. And as Paul gave the good news, God opened her heart and she received the gospel call and responded in faith.
Paul faithfully preached the good news, God used Paul’s voice and opened Lydia’s heart to receive the gospel call. Lydia in return responded with faith.
Yes, it’s important for believers to share the good news. But we must be careful how we share it with others. We can’t engage in petty arguments and we can’t just expect that everyone is ready or willing to hear or listen to us.
In order for our message to resonate and be able to reach people, we must first live as though we believe the message ourselves. We must exhibit the character and nature of Christ.
We must be humble in our own brokenness and show how our trust and dependence upon Christ is how we can still have joy. Even in the most difficult and painful times in our lives.
Christians literally have the best good news ever. If we truly believe that, then our lives should loudly proclaim the good news without ever saying a single word. And I don’t mean how we live a life with less sin.
People don’t look at our lives and say, “wow, I wonder how they are able to be less sinful.” That’s not a thing. In fact anyone outside of the church community can’t even define sin because they don’t even know what it is.
And they don’t care about sin. What proclaims the good news so loudly is how we can have such joy and so little anxiety in the toughest times of our lives.
That’s what people see and wonder about. They say things like, “I don’t know how you do it. I couldn’t handle it like you are.” They even ask, “how can you be so sure that this will work out?” or “how are you not worried about your diagnosis?”
God uses broken, hurting Christians to make the gospel call. People wouldn’t hear the good news if we didn’t tell them in both deed and word. It’s important that we build our own faith and loudly proclaim the good news.
I don’t mean by telling people how sinful they are and they’re going to hell if they don’t change their ways. You will most likely get a response like, “heaven doesn’t want me and hell’s afraid I’ll take over.”
15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
I’m not supposed to grab every person I think needs to hear the gospel and beat them over the head with the Bible hoping some of the words might fall out into their brains.
Who are we supposed to share the good news with?
We have been trained to see the word Everyone and stop right there like every word following it are nothing more than exclamation marks.
It says, “everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have!” We are supposed to live out our faith in a way that makes people ask us why we aren’t angry, anxious or worried. Why we have the hope and joy.
And how are we supposed to respond?
No, this isn’t the part where you shame them, guilt them or scare them out of hell by pointing out all their sins. Instead we are supposed to respond gently with respect and kindness.
Because, the good news is about a loving God who loves us so much that He would sacrifice His own Son on our behalf. It’s about that message having a transformational effect on our lives.
If we don’t love and care about people even remotely like we claim God does, then it doesn’t matter what we might say. Our message will fall on dead ears. God won’t open their hearts to hear.
We must build a loving relationship with them that represents the greatest loving relationship they will ever know. A relationship with Jesus Christ.
When they experience a love from us that can only come from the Holy Spirit it builds a trusting relationship. And that’s when God opens hearts and they can hear the truth.
When the trust is built and we are able to share the truth we are inviting them to respond like Jesus did in Matt 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
When we live faithful lives, transformed by our relationship with God, people around us see our humble faith. Then God opens their hearts, enabling them to see and respond to the good news.
Response to Gospel Call
Response to Gospel Call
When people respond to the gospel message God follows through on His promises and works in their lives. The response is so simple that it defies logic.
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
All a person has to do is believe in Jesus Christ. Their belief is a response not a choice. When we actually hear the truth in the gospel message for the first time ,we naturally, without thought, respond with belief. A belief of understanding exactly who Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and what that means to us.
For the first time, we understand Jesus isn’t just a first century rabbi. He’s not a myth created by a bunch of lunatics. Rather, He’s our Lord and Savior who wants a close loving relationship with us for eternity Jn 6:37
37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.
Our love for Him and His perfect love for us guarantees that eternal relationship. We learn that we can trust Him and that He will deliver all of His promises.
God forgives us for the very disobedience that cost His Son’s sacrifice. Only a perfect love could be that self-sacrificing. If He loves us that much, then surely we can trust Him with every fiber of our being.
We can trust God will make us a new creation in our salvation.
Salvation is only through the work of God. We are not responsible for anyone’s salvation and we cannot take any credit for anyone else’s nor our own salvation.
In salvation God gives us a new life. We become a new creation.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
Think of an old dilapidated building. Windows broke out, giant holes in the walls and sheet rock ripped off, flooring is covered in dirt and completely unrecognizable, everything is just trashed.
Someone goes in and tears out all the old worthless junk, rebuilds and restores the building into a magnificent home. The outside, although recognizably better, still looks the same, but the inside is completely transformed into a glorious, radiant home.
When God gives us a new life the Holy Spirit moves in and restores us from the inside out.
26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
God tears out the old junky selfish heart and replaces it with a gloriously magnificent new heart that radiates outward.
It is God and only God who saves us, makes us a new creation, and transforms us from the inside out.
That transformation begins to show on the outside to people all around us. The new heart loves God and loves others begins to outwardly show.
37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
The love we have for God and for the people around us shines so brightly that the people around us can’t help but notice the transformation.
A transformation where our love for God naturally causes us to sin less and less.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.
And the fruit of the Spirit shows in our lives.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
I truly believe the fruit of the Spirit is love. The joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all flow out of our love for God and our love for others.
When the fruit of the Spirit begins to show outwardly we can truly say we are becoming a Christian.
Becoming a Christian
Becoming a Christian
Becoming a Christian means more than just knowing the facts.
Who Jesus is and what He has done:
Born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, rose again, and ascended to heaven.
Who we are:
Sinners, lost in our sin, facing the penalty of sin, hell and eternal separation from God.
Those are the facts. Our believing them or not believing them is not a saving faith. Our salvation is more than just accepting the facts and agreeing they’re true!!
Even Satan accepts those facts and knows they’re true.
Our salvation is when we actually see Jesus through these facts and respond with full submission to Him as our Lord and Savior.
I don’t just believe the facts, I trust Jesus not just to save me, but with my entire life. I don’t just trust what Jesus said, I respond by giving Him my entire life and fully depending on Him for everything.
Trusting Jesus and being totally dependent upon Him means I naturally have repentance and I move forward in faith.
Faith means trusting Christ for our salvation. But faith also includes trusting Christ with every aspect of our lives. It’s a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ.
Repentance means turning away from our sins. As we spend time in our relationship with God we will naturally have a desire to turn away from our disobedience to God and turn toward obedience to God. That’s called repentance.
Luke demonstrates repentance and faith by discussing what Paul says in
21 I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.
Becoming a Christian isn’t a once and done response. A true saving faith response is a life long journey that continually transforms us. We continue to live in faith and repent for the rest of ur lives.
Paul says in Col 2:6-7
6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, 7 being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.
Our response to the gospel call, in a saving faith, is to continually seek Christ in a relationship that builds up our faith even more. A faith and loving relationship so deep that we are overflowing with gratitude.
Today you have received the gospel call. How are you going to respond?
