2021.01.10 Acceptable to God
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Acceptable to God
Acceptable to God
Acceptable to God – Can we at least agree that’s the goal? I want to be found acceptable to God. Amen?
Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday. Today, we celebrate the day that Jesus came to John in the wilderness to be baptized. You may remember: John tried to refuse…Jesus insisted and when he came up out of the river, what happened? [Holy Spirit…like a dove… “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”]
And that is usually the focus of this celebration. Typically, we focus heavily on God’s claim on Jesus that becomes public at his baptism. I don’t ever want to mention baptism without making sure we remember that God makes that same claim on US at our baptism…
“This is my beloved son/daughter, and I am pleased with him/her.”
However, I want to look at a different aspect of this event today. I want to look at what it means for God to be ‘pleased’ with us…with me. The passage we heard from Acts 10 doesn’t seem to have a connection to Jesus’s baptism, except in this issue of God finding pleasure in us … or us being found as Luke worded it in Acts: “acceptable to him”.
If that’s THE central goal of the Christian faith, let’s look at that.
First statement - God is no cheat - he doesn’t play favorites
34 Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality,
Can’t buy his preference
Can’t earn his esteem
Can’t be born into his favor
We are all viewed identically by God!
He who fears God and does what is right is acceptable:
35 but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.
Fear – [φοβέω] – phobeo
to have a profound measure of respect for, (have) reverence, respect
What is there to fear God about?
Is this perhaps … let me make that a statement rather than a question ... the real sin of our society and the Church … that we no longer fear God.
“Surely a loving God wouldn’t let anyone go to Hell.”
“Surely a compassionate God would overlook our flaws.”
Surely…a righteous God is someone for an unrighteous people to fear!
Does what is right – righteous – [δικαιοσύνη] – dikaiosunh
the quality, state, or practice of judicial responsibility w. focus on fairness, justice, equitableness, fairness
Term related to a judicial act
When Jesus tells John that he needs to be baptized, he says it’s “to fulfill all righteousness” to fulfill all δικαιοσύνη dikaiosunh
We often confuse the concept of righteousness with what we think of as fairness.
Fairness
subjective
based on each person’s opinion
Justice
Righteousness
dikaiosunh is based on God’s teaching of what is RIGHT!
It is indeed fair … more fair than any of us could ever claim …
But it is not based on fairness … it’s based on God’s holiness and his demand of our holiness.
“…anyone who fears [God] and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
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Acceptable to God
Acceptable to God
We agreed earlier that being found “acceptable to God” is the goal! How ya doin’? Do you fear God and are you doing what’s holy? Yeah … me neither.
So Peter launches into the basics of the gospel story:
Jesus came to earth
he benefited his community
healed the oppressed
The Jews killed him on a tree
but God raised him from the dead
and he told us to preach and tell what we saw.
Peter concludes his teaching with this statement: “All the prophets testify about Jesus, that through his name everyone who believe in him will receive liberation from sins.”
Here’s what we secretly want to be the main point of Christianity. We want liberation from sins. Because we know that free from our sins we ARE acceptable to God. The problem is that we miss the requirements to be liberated.
Being acceptable to God has nothing to do with your family, your gender, or your status, or the color of your skin, or your philosophy of life. Being acceptable to God has to do with fearing him and doing what is right. More than just being about Jesus’ story, God’s acceptance has to do with your response to Jesus’s story.
In John 14, Jesus said that he is “the way, the truth and the life”, and that “no one comes to the Father except through me.” Luke records Peter saying that “through Jesus’s name everyone who believes in him will receive liberation from sins.”
Have you received that liberation? Heaven forbid, if a madman ran in this room (or into your home) right now and started shooting, are you sure where you would end up on the other side?
St. Augustine taught about an inner assurance of salvation. It seems God doesn’t want us to question our status with Him.
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
Romans 8 (15-16), Paul writes: “…you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God…”
It is this inner “witness of the Spirit” that assures us that we are God’s and He is ours. It is this “blessed assurance” about which we sing. But if you don’t have that assurance, know that God wants you to have it. He wants you to know that you are his. If you don’t have that assurance, I would invite you to receive it … now!
I would love to pray with you and maybe talk further about what it means to be assured of this gift of salvation. If you’re watching online, feel free to contact me at pastor@stmarksumchurch.org.
You can be acceptable to God, and you can know it inside as He plants his Holy Spirit inside you.
Let’s pray together...