Salvation Desperation

Salvation drives mission.

Fresh salvation drives passionate mission.

Mission leads to desperation. Desperation cries out for salvation. Jesus saves… and sends us into mission.

Mission to Desperation to Salvation to Mission…

Malibu Salvation

27 years ago at a beach not far from here (Malibu), I almost died. My 6th grade pen pal saved my life.

My literal actual Savior.

I will never forget his name… Bob? Bill? Larry maybe? He had a name.

But I swore that day I would be grateful to him for the rest of my life! And continue to write him forever.

Maybe his name was Carl? Yeah, I never saw that kid again.

It was too long ago. I don’t really remember the details.

Vague Salvation

There was another day, also about 27 years ago. I raised my hand and I prayed a prayer. A few weeks later there was another call for hands… I raised my hand and I prayed a prayer. A few years after that I made a commitment before my church and was baptized in my friend’s hot tub and they gave me a Bible with my name on it.

It was a special day. It was memorable and important, landmarks in my spiritual journey… but man it was all a LONG time ago. It gets vague, and above all, the emotion and passion of it fades.

Tonight is all about “Salvation” and I find myself comparing my salvation story with those of others. Some people with dramatic stories, but especially those with RECENT salvation stories.

The “Just Saved”.

The “Just Saved” and their passion for mission and Jesus. And those of us who have been saved for *cough* longer, sometimes we envy that. “Oh… I wish I had just been saved, then I would be passionate like that.” Or we take it as inspiration and attempt to rouse that passion within us. We learn all the moves… but perhaps the passion isn’t there.

Perhaps our experience of “salvation” is so long ago that it is stale. Boring. It is true and we can acknowledge that its great… but how excited can you get about something that “happened” years ago or decades ago. That was SO last millennium!

How passionate can you be about a “salvation” you experienced long ago?

And if our salvation is vague and distant, how can we be passionate about mission?

Peter’s Desperation Salvation

Our passage today doesn’t help us with that at all!

We are going to read the words of Peter, in the midst of epic, passionate mission, maybe just months after the Resurrection of Jesus. It is all fresh and incredibly full of passion.

There is miracle, there is healing, there is salvation, there is passion. That all sounds great, let’s just read it.

Acts 3:1-6

1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.

6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

But I prefer the musical version:

Silver and gold have I none

But such as I have I give Thee

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

He went walking and leaping and praising God…

Miracle and glory. The excitement after that. And Peter doesn’t waste the moment he launches into PASSIONATE preaching and many believed… and the church grew to be about 5 thousand men.

That is Life on Mission. That is Church Growth: Kingdom of God: all the things. People getting saved all over the place!

And this is incredibly frustrating to the religious leaders. They had just killed Jesus and now the name of Jesus seems to everywhere, the movement is bigger than ever. So they seize Peter and John and throw them in jail overnight.

DUI – they were Delivering Under the Influence

Acts 4:5-9

5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family.

All the big players, the same names who interrogated Jesus and called for his death.

7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

This is a desperate situation… and Peter is in it because he is living life on mission. Because he is preaching the name of God loudly and boldly.

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,

which has become the cornerstone.’

12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

Those are bold words! Passionate words. Salvation is found in no one else?

And they are amazed, it goes on to say, because Peter is a country bumpkin, an ignorant fisherman speaking with this boldness and passion and clarity to the highest religious leaders in the land.

“Salvation is found in no one else! There is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved!”

There is boldness to those words… there is desperation in those words. No one else!

How do you think Peter discovered that truth? Inspiration of the Holy Spirit, sure… but the inspiration of the Holy Spirit working through experience after experience.

Peter is constantly in desperate situations… and again and again he has been saved by Jesus.

Salvation isn’t an old story for him:

Peter’s experience of salvation is fresh and new and so his mission is passionate.

Peter’s pattern is this:

Life on Mission -> Desperate Situation -> Salvation -> Passionate Life on Mission

Now you may say that is only an implicit pattern in the text. Where does Scripture specify this pattern? How about

For Peter, it is fresh… but it isn’t just because Jesus just rose from the dead.

A Year Ago…

And Jesus says crazy things like “eat my flesh, drink my blood!” and people freak out and take off.

John 6:67-69

Jesus says “are you leaving too?”

And Peter says “Where else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Peter was already holding on to Jesus as a lifeline, he already knows Jesus is the only place to go for salvation. He doesn’t understand all the things… but he knows to cling to Jesus.

Desperation Salvation. This is an ongoing experience of Jesus’ salvation that knows there is no other option, no other possibility, no other Savior.

A Couple Months Ago

Peter weeps bitterly having betrayed His Lord. Three days later, Peter walks into an empty tomb and still doesn’t get it. Then Jesus appears and says “Shalom!” AND JESUS SAVES! Sorrow into JOY, terror transformed into mission. Jesus saves. Salvation!

Desperation Salvation.

A week later Jesus saves again. He restores Peter into fellowship, into ministry, into confidence and courage. If you love me… feed my sheep. Jesus saves again.

The Day before

The whole reason Peter is on trial is because he healed a lame beggar. (Apparently that beggar was super lame!)

6 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up…

You ever try to help up someone who can’t stand? It doesn’t go well.

Now maybe Peter was a man of super faith and nothing like me and he didn’t have the internal voice that says “wait… is this a good idea? Is this what God is doing, how God is leading” I really hope you’re doing something Jesus, because this is going to look really bad otherwise…

Jesus save me… Jesus save and heal this man…

and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

How did Peter know this with such passion? “There is no other name by which you can be saved.”

Because he kept finding himself in desperate situations where no one but Jesus could help… and then Jesus saved!

Later in life Peter teases out this pattern.

1 Peter 1:1-9

6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

But it gets better. Some desperate situations just happened to Peter… but know here in Acts he is running into them! He is on a mission fed by the passion of Jesus’ salvation… and that puts him in situations where he desperately needs Jesus to save… and he does… and that sends him right back into passionate mission!

You experience Jesus’ salvation when… he saves you! He saves you in circumstances where you need saving.

Salvation happens when you reach the end of yourself. And now you need God to do the rest. And then he does… and you are saved.

It happens when you takes risks in His name for His glory.

If you are in the midst of passionate mission. Praise the Jesus, you’re in the right place.

If you are in the midst of mission… and desperate for God to show up. Praise God and await his salvation, for he saves forever, and he saves again and again. Reach the end of yourself and watch God do the miraculous, bringing light and life and healing and RESURECTION to you and those to whom you are sent.

If you are comfortable and secure. Maybe even bored. And the memory of “salvation” is a distant and vague thing. You aren’t “feeling” it, you’re attempting to force it, but there is no passion.

Get out and live on mission. You won’t be bored.

Consider that God is calling you into something crazy. Something risky. Something beyond you and beyond your ability.