Core - 1 (How to Become a Christian)

Core - 1

How To Become a Christian

Introduction

JESUS SAVES! Is a bumper sticker slogan that all Christians would agree on. But WHO he saves, HOW he saves them, and WHAT it means to be saved are all argued in the world today.

Professor from Bellerman College stated: “Historically speaking, our churches are divided and are sending many different kinds of signals today into our world, and we need to be concerned about that.”

How to become a Christian is the most important question we can answer in the church today.

-If you are not a Christian, you need clear instruction, not mixed signals.

-If you are a believer, you need to be confident you have met all the requirements God has set forth in the Bible.

-If you are a maturing Christian, you need to be able to tell someone else clearly how to be saved.

We dare not send mixed signals over this most important question: What does a person do, exactly, to become a Christian?  As we seek to answer that question, I ask that we would all agree to do three things:

(1) Listen objectively.

Don’t just sit there and listen to see if what I say matches up to what you have traditionally been taught.  This is not a test of one’s belief system.  Let’s simply open up the Bible and see what it says.

(2) Study Thoroughly.

Let’s not take one verse of Scripture and build an entire theology on it. The Bible says to “rightly divide the word of Truth.”  Some people get one verse on salvation and then close their minds to the rest of the Bible.  That is why there are many mixed signals.

(3) Begin correctly.

The Bible, in its entirety, is our source of authority.  But the place to study how to become a Christian is after Jesus died and was raised again from the grave.

A Christian is one who follows the resurrected Christ.  So to answer this question, we do not go to encounters Jesus had with people during his life, because Jesus had not completed his mission yet.

Those instances give us insight on Jesus life and what it means to follow him.  But studying encounters with Nicodemus, the woman at the well, and the thief on the cross do not tell us how.

Technically those people still lived under the OT law.  Jesus had not done what he came here to do.  So to correctly discover how to become a Christian, the right place to start is directly after Jesus rose from the grave.  That puts us into the book of Acts.

For the last several months, we have been walking our way through the Gospel of Luke. We have been studying the life and ministry of Jesus. The question I want us to deal with today and next Sunday is this: now that we’ve encountered Jesus, how do we rightly respond to him?

So we are doing a quick two-week series called “Core” looking at the Core of what it means to be a Christian. This week we are going to tackle “How to Become a Christian” while next week we will see what it means to be an ongoing follower of Jesus. And to start us off with how to respond to Jesus, we go to Acts. As we have allowed Luke to guide us through the life of Jesus for months, it is now right that we allow him to tell us how to respond to Jesus. Acts is volume 2 of the 2-volume treatise on Christianity written by Luke.

In , on the Day of Pentecost, the apostles went out into the street and began to tell people about Jesus.  And as the people were gathering around, Peter was the chief spokesman for the day.  As he preaches the very first Gospel sermon in history, here is part of what he said:

- 22 “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. 23 But God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. 24 But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip.

- 36 “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”

Verse 37 states that when the people heard this, his words pierced their hearts and they asked Peter what to do to respond. 

- 38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

TS - From this beginning account of how Christianity began, I want you to see three steps we must take to become a Christian.

1. BELIEVE THE GOSPEL

On that day, they asked Peter, what should we do? Because they believed the facts he was telling them.  His words ‘pierced their hearts’ because they believed the truth of his message.  They were convicted. You cannot be convicted by something you believe to be false.

The word “gospel” means Good News. The good news is this: The Creator of the Universe has reached down to earth to save us.  Even though we deny His existence sometimes as a society, and rebel against Him, He loves us.  He came to earth in the form of Jesus Christ, died for our sins, and then rose from the grave to defeat death.  And now he offers to cleanse you from sin and guilt, to give you the promise of life after death, and to give you an ultimate purpose in living. And he offers this salvation completely free of charge. Jesus paid the full price.

- 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

So the first step to becoming a Christian is to believe the facts of the Gospel.  That it really is true. To believe is not just simply mental assent.  It is not saying, Well I guess it is true. To believe is to be personally committed to Jesus and the truth of the Gospel. The Bible says Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. 

ILL - Across the street from my house in St. Elmo was the fire siren.  When it went off, we were the first to know there is a fire. Now when that siren goes off or the firemen get the news on their pagers, they have the choice of doing one of two things.  They can say, “that siren is not enough evidence for me to believe there is an emergency” and just stay in bed. Or they can believe it, take action, and rush their way to the firehouse quickly.

We have the same choice today.  We can either believe and take the action or deny and stay in bed.

2. REPENT OF SINS

John MacArthur wrote book entitled “The Gospel According to Jesus.”  In it he states that repentance is the most overlooked teaching in the Church today.  He says we have been teaching easy believism, cheap grace.  Just accept Jesus and live however you want to, he’ll save you anyway.  But we need to start teaching biblical repentance of sins.

On the day of Pentecost, they asked Peter, what should we do.  He said, REPENT.” To repent simply means to change directions or turn.

-We were going away from God’s will and we turn towards God’s will.

        -We were living for selfish ambition, now we turn and live for Jesus.

The word in Greek for repent, metanoii, means to change the mind or attitude.

-Attitude was once cynical, now its teachable.

        -Once proud and arrogant, now its submissive to God’s direction.

Repentance is not a declaration of future perfection.  Sign of change in general direction.

ILL - A woman bought a shirt for her husband that had a tag on it that said, “shrink-resistant.”  She asked the clerk what that meant.  He said, oh it will shrink, but it doesn’t want to.

When we become Christians, we will still sin, but we don’t want to.  Your mind has been changed. That’s repentance. 

Genuine repentance involves three responses.

(a) CONVICTION.  I was wrong.  A repentant person admits, I have sinned.  When David was confronted with his sin of adultery, he was convicted and admitted in , “I have sinned and have done what is evil in your sight.”  There is no denial or blaming someone else.  I have sinned.

(b) CONTRITION.  Remorse. 

Richard Ramirez, the famous night stalker who killed a dozen girls in LA, was given the death sentence and his response: “Big deal.  Death comes with the territory.  See ya at DisneyLand.”

A repentant person is not defiant.  There is a sense of brokenness. 

—18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;

    he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

(c) CHANGE. 

It is not enough just to cry over sin.  There needs to be transformation. Judas Iscariot was sorry and upset about what he did to Jesus.  The Bible says he was seized with remorse.  Then he took the 30 pieces of silver, bought a field, and committed suicide.  He was too proud to change his behavior.

That very night, Peter denied Jesus 3 times.  He went out and wept bitterly.  But just over a month later, here he is, changed and speaking to all these people.

To repent is to change.  To go the other direction.

-I once was deceptive in business, now I’m honest.

-Once cheated in school, now tell the truth.

-Once was harsh with my wife, now I’m tender.

-Once did drugs and alcohol, now I’m clean.

Peter Marshall prayed: “Thank you God that we can come to you just as we are.  But remind us, Lord, that we dare not leave as we came.”

3. RESPOND TO JESUS CHRIST

If I were to win the state Lotto, I would still have to cash the check and put the funds where they need to go.  I didn’t earn it but I have to respond to it to receive it. Now, salvation is a free gift, but we have to respond to it individually.  Two responses given in the New Testament:

(a) Publicly CONFESS your faith.

- 9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

When Jesus died, he did it publicly.  He was crucified during day, on high hill, during Jewish feast day with 100’s of thousands of visitors.  When accept him, he asks that you publicly confess him to others that He is your Lord and Savior.

I don’t know a single dad who would not enjoy hearing his child say, “That’s my dad.”  Many have a bumper sticker on their car, “My child is an honor student @ >>>>”  It’s the same way with Jesus.  When he comes into our life, we should proudly say to others, “That’s my Lord.”

How we do that at Broadway. Great Confession

(b) Be BAPTIZED into Jesus Christ.

What should we do?  Peter said, Repent AND be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.

When you get married, you go through a marriage ceremony.  There better be a lot that precedes that ceremony—get to know each other, fall in love, make the commitment.There’s a lot that goes on after that ceremony.  But you point to the ceremony as the benchmark of the beginning of your relationship.  It may have been in front of two people or five hundred. But when you exchange rings and vows and walk back down the aisle, you might say, “I don’t feel any different.”  But THINGS ARE DIFFERENT!

God gave the practice of baptism as a ceremony of the uniting of our lives with Him.  A lot goes on before—make the commitment, fall in love—lot change that takes place afterward.  But it is the benchmark he gave to mark the transition in our lives.

- Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

Jesus’ final words to his disciples were to go into the world to make disciples by baptizing them.  Now if he would have said to have them march around the church 7 times or give 1000 dollars to the church, we would have told them that.  But it would not have made any sense.

Baptism makes all the sense in the world. It is a beautiful picture of what happens at this time.  It symbolizes our death to sin, burial with Christ, cleansing.

- 21 And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. It is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Baptism just makes sense. That’s why on the day of Pentecost the people were baptized that day.  3000 responded immediately. We can’t see faith, or repentance, but we can see baptism.  It is a tangible act.  Because of this, some would see it as an end in itself. 

Some have become baptismal regenerationists.  What do I have to do to be saved?  Just get into the water and get dunked.  Some would even make it a magic formula that we perform on infants to make them Christian.  But baptism is meaningful only if it is done by one who has believed the gospel and repented of sin.

Some have emphasized it the other end of the spectrum.  They would say, Repent and sign a card.  Or repent and say the sinners prayer to show that salvation is not by works. Baptism is not a work we do to earn salvation. Baptism is not even something we can do by ourselves, or to ourselves.

Some of you have questions about baptism.  I was baptized as a baby, do I have to do it again?  Or is that good enough?  I was sprinkled when I was 12 and I knew what I was doing, do I have to be immersed, or is that enough?  Or I was immersed but I only did it because the other kids were doing it, do I have to do it again?

As you have seen around here, we only baptize by immersion.  The reason for that: word for baptism literally means "to dip, immerse, sink ship, kill by drowning."

So, some of you have come from a faith background that did not immerse, or did not baptize at all.  You need to get in the water.  We want to be as closely tied to the bible as possible, so that means immersion.  Next evolution in the faith journey. 

Some will use their questions to stall what they know the bible is telling them to do.  And instead of surrendering to God's plan, they still push and fight.  I think that reflects the wrong attitude.  The attitude is, what is the least I can do and still get by?  After all Jesus has done for me, and if Jesus is really Lord, shouldn’t we do all we can?

If you would see a tornado coming towards your house and the news announcer said, Take cover, seek shelter, go to the west wall, What would you do?

-You could say, “You know, a tornado hit my parents house a couple of years ago and they didn’t even know it was coming and they survived.   I am not gonna seek shelter.

-Or you could say, “You know, the neighbors down the street don’t even have a basement, so if they aren’t going to the basement, neither am I.

-I would seek shelter, go to the basement, get against the west wall, get under a heavy object, and if there was enough room, I’d bring Jodie and kids in too.

 Shouldn’t we do it as fully as we can.

Conclusion

The next documented conversion in the Bible is of the Ethiopian Eunuch in .  He had been to Jerusalem to worship but had evidently heard about the Messiah coming.  So on the way home he got out Isaiah and was reading.  Philip asked, do you understand what you are reading?  No, need someone to guide me.  Philip told him about Jesus and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water, why shouldn’t I be baptized.” 

Why SHOULD I v. Why SHOULDN’T.

He was presented with clear truth and responded.

Today, you have been presented with clear truth.  The question is this - will you respond?

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