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4. When is This Salvation?
What’s it all about?
1. Who needs Salvation
Foundations
Archaeological evidence
Old Testament and New Testament
Historical evidence
The Bible's Documentary Evidence
So how does all that information affect us?
So what is Sin?
How could such an outdated concept have an effect on us?
All have fallen short
So it is for us
But what relevance has for me?
A hunger for personal fulfilment
A need for personal healing
The effects of sin on us and others
To summarise we are all looking for wholeness and yet the real solution to this is Christianity
The results in our society or our personal lives of sin
Also our eternal destiny, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
Freedom from labels – Liesl story
Freedom from the past – Liesl story
Freedom from ourselves – Liesl story + another story
No guarantees
But Christ with us in life’s struggles
And so it is important to see the difference in the fruit of worldly sorrow and godly sorrow, one brings death the other life and personal change for good, and hope
Jesus also said in John 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Not in things but in our selves for that is what we were created for, a fulfilled godly life.
So, how do we get this, well it is through forgiveness as the passage we started with says
2. What is Salvation
And we will be coming back to this passage in later weeks, but next week we will be looking at the uniqueness and work of God through Jesus, as the central character in Christianity, and how and why that should impact on our lives.
His Birth and life was foretold for thousands of years in the Old Testament
He was born of a virgin
He was fully human, emotions, body, experiences, pain and death.
But was He more than just a man?
His teaching
His direct claims
The (I am)
My Kingdom
Come to Me
Follow Me
Welcome me and you welcome God
He was the image of the invisible God
To forgive sins
To Judge the World
To be the Messiah
To be the Son of God
To be God the son
My Lord and my God
Claim to be God
But what evidence is there to back this up?
His life matched His teaching – e.g. Sermon on the Mount
People still refer to being Christ like.
His works – John 10:37-38
37Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."
His actions “He went about doing good”
His Character – Loving, forgiving, sacrificing, humble etc, even when completely innocent and accused standing before His accusers he said nothing”
His fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy,
His death – what was so special about it? Jesus lived and died to bring about restoration between man and God to restore that which was lost when man first sinned and restore our relationship with God, so that as individuals we can know the forgiveness and acceptance and peace and power of Christ in our lives and eternal security.
Mans greatest need
So if we accept that there is a need then what can we do about it, and more importantly what has God done about it
What God has done
The self substation of God – J. W. R. Stott.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might be able to receive forgiveness for our sins and die to them and live for righteousness, which is right standing with God.
The agony of the cross
What the cross has achieved
What about His death – only Jesus has risen from the dead
Jesus did not die
Disciples stole the body
Authorities stole the body
People – over 550 people
Time – over a period of six weeks
Numbers – 11 different occasions
He ate fish with the disciples and cooked and ate fish on the beach with them. A ghost does not eat fish
Immediate effect – the transformation of the disciples from a cowering huddled bunch to a bold fearless group.
The birth and growth of the Christian Church.
The testimony and death of the early disciples and early Christians
Effect down the ages
2 billion Christians
2000 years
The testimony and death of Christians down the ages today!
But what if he was just a good man, nobody could have achieved and done the things Jesus did in His life, in actions and character, even in his death and resurrection if that is al he was.
People will always have differing opinions of who Jesus is and that’s reflected in this passage but the real question each one of us has to answer is 15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
3. Walking in Salvation
Eternal life
Our old nature
New nature
2 Corinthians 5:16-18
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
A gift
We have to want it and ask for it and receive it
Repentance and Faith
Repentance
Faith
The strength to follow
Grace
Perseverance
Trusting in God for our Salvation
So what about doing good?
Peace, with God and with ourselves.
4. When is this Salvation
Corinthians 6:2
In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation”
Isaiah 55 - Invitation to the Thirsty
1 "Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor."
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way
and the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD's renown,
for an everlasting sign,
which will not be destroyed."
There will always be things that may seem more important but are they?
What is our real need?
Unanswered questions?
Some may not be answered?
Some may arise?
How do we deal with them?
Are we looking objectively at Christianity?
Or for a reason not to believe?
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Ernie Butler, 09/03/2008 |
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