"Danger, Deliverer, Detour: What Need I Know to be Saved?"
Acts 3:11-26 May 25/03
Today as we gather for outdoor worship before our church picnic, the Maitland River rolling before us and a natural aquifer beside us assure us our physical thirst can be quenched. We get thirsty in life for many reasons - hot summer days...hard sweaty work or exercise...three weeks on a "boil-water" advisory, as Blythians have endured...
Yet however much liquid we consume, we always end up thirsty again. God has designed our soul in such a way that we're only complete in fellowship with Him; there's a hidden spiritual thirst within us that can only be slaked by turning to Jesus Christ. He said in John 7(37f), "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." To the woman who was tired of lugging her heavy water jug to the well outside Samaria every day, He said He had "living water" to offer then added, "...Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:14)
Water has been part of the Christian story ever since John the Baptist started baptizing in the Jordan River, and Jesus' disciples carried on the practice. Water baptism adds the symbolism of having our sins washed away and our wicked old self drowned, besides our spiritual thirst quenched. Next time LWCF is scheduled to worship outdoors will be for our inaugural baptism service in a month's time. Between now and then I have a favour to ask the spiritual "head" of each household (in many cases that's the dad if he's a believer, though it may be the mom in a single-parent situation or where the husband's not a believer). I'd ask you to have a heart-to-heart talk with your offspring (whom you consider old enough to understand) about whether they sense the Lord leading them to be baptized. Now, that brings up a question: how do you tell whether they understand "enough" to be genuinely saved? Are we talking about a six- or ten-week course here? Some churches go whole hog and have confirmation classes spread out over a year!
Getting ready for baptism ought to be different from getting ready for church membership. Jesus commended child-like faith: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven...And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." (Matthew 18:3,5) So a basic explanation of the Christian faith should be simple enough that a child can grasp it. Church membership, on the other hand, implies more of an adult level of responsibility - voting on organizational matters, sitting on committees, taking part in the running of an organization. Christian baptism is about receiving the Lord Jesus as our Saviour; church membership is about sharing the load as a trained and able worker. When Philip shared the good news with the Ethiopian official in Acts 8, he was with him for probably an hour or two at most, then the treasurer was baptized. Peter preached one sermon to the crowds before they were baptized in Acts 2 and 3. Not a year-long course!
So how can we make it simplest to explain to another person? What are the essentials a person ought to be able to affirm to classify as a Christian, to be saved and baptized? There are many good pamphlets or "tracts" out there which summarize the Christian message, such as Campus Crusades "Four Spiritual Laws" or the Navigators' "Bridge to Life", and it's good to be familiar with them and keep one in your glove compartment or purse. But today I'd use three words based on our mobility in society: Danger, Deliverer, and Detour. (Now there are no fancy slides today so to help our memory I'm going to ask this group to make this gesture - hand up for "stop" - and say "Danger!" when I point; this next group, cross your arms and say, "Deliverer"; and this group, point to your right and say, "Detour".Let's try it...)
Danger
Suppose you're driving along and come to a sign that says, ___(Danger) Bridge out ahead! A mighty flood has swept away the normal means to get across the water. You don't go driving straight into the river!
In the movie, Bridge over the River Kwai, the British in a Japanese prisoner of war camp build a railroad bridge over a river canyon. At the climax of the movie, a secret Allied party blows up the bridge just as a trainload of Japanese officials is making its ceremonial first run over the tracks. Locomotive and cars go tumbling headlong into the river. It happened just at the last minute, so the victims were totally unaware of the ___(danger!).
There was an urgent note in the apostles' preaching because they wanted people to be aware of the judgment of God that was imminent in their lives, just around the bend ahead. You've maybe heard the line, "Houston, we have a problem"; in our case, it's, "Heaven, we have a problem" - and in three letters, it's SIN. In some people's cases, sin has already started its consequences of pain and hurt directly; for others, the meaninglessness of a comfortable materialistic lifestyle can be shoved to the back of our mind. We may resist the Holy Spirit's attempts to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment (Jn.16:8), but there is a day of reckoning coming when we die. The databanks of heaven will be downloaded and our wickedest actions of the unsaved will be evident for all to see - especially the Judge who is absolute holy and righteous.
So when Peter was explaining how the man crippled from birth had been healed, he explained that his audience had rejected the Judge and were under God's wrath. He said in 3:13(-15), "You handed [God's servant] over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this...[and in 3:21,23] He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything...Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people."
Preaching to Cornelius and Gentiles in Acts 10(42) Peter said, "He is the One whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead." At Pentecost in Acts 2(40) Peter's tone was one of warning, pleading with people - "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." The people in Holly Jones' working-class West Toronto neighbourhood were shocked to discover that within a 3-km radius there lived no less than 200 convicted sex offenders! That's not to single out that particular type of offender - we're all offenders of some sort. Mankind is corrupt, twisted, off-track from God's intention. Paul writes in Romans, "All have sinned and fall short of God's glory...The wages of sin is death...But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed." (Romans 3:23; 6:23; 2:5)
This week, having just nicely started to relax about SARS, it was chilling to watch the effect of one single beef animal from Alberta diagnosed with mad cow disease (BSE). Share prices of major corporations dropped. Herds were slaughtered. Trading borders slammed shut to overseas markets. Just one animal! The images of burning mountains of farm animals in Britain are still fresh in people's minds.
Yet the one sin of our ancestors eating the forbidden fruit brought death and corruption to our whole planet. God's much more concerned about sin than about BSE - yet we dally in it and court it riskily. Sin means, look out! there's ___(danger!) ahead!
The Good News of the gospel starts with the bad news about our sorry state, our lostness when we try to live life without God. Ray Comfort likens the gospel to a parachute that a stewardess offers to passengers on a plane. Who'd want to wear a parachute? They're bulky, uncomfortable, and you'd feel embarrassed wearing one when no one else was. But suppose she whispered to you that the rear door wasn't latched properly like that Kinshasa flight a couple of weeks ago - then you might quite happily wear the bulky parachute, knowing you had some protection should everything suddenly get sucked out.
Deliverer
Our problem is sin; but God has provided a Saviour. Because of the __(danger!) He offers a ___(Deliverer). The name "Jesus" is from the Hebrew "Yeshua" for "Yahweh [the Lord] is salvation". The angel told Joseph to give the baby that name because He would save His people from their sins (Mt.1:21). While the bridge may be out at the Danger sign, God has constructed an alternate crossing 10 miles upstream. Hence the Navigators depict Christ as the Bridge to Life across the chasm of sin that separates people from God.
Peter describes the accomplishments of the ___(Deliverer) in Acts 3:13-19: "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus...God raised Him from the dead...By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong...given...complete healing...God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer...so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord." Wow! What a change of prospects! To Cornelius and gang Peter said, "All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." (Acts 10:43)
Jesus and what He accomplished at the Cross is at the very heart of the Good News, it's indispensable to what we need to know to be saved and considered a Christian. Moreso than moral teaching: that's helpful, but secondary. The key proclamation of the apostles focuses on Jesus' death for our sins and rising so we might have eternal life in the Holy Spirit. Think of John 3:16 - "God so loved the world that He" - what? put Gideon Bibles in every household? set up surveillance cameras in every video store? no, "gave His ONLY SON so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." Paul wrote to the Romans that although all have sinned, people "are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (and) "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 3:24; 5:8). We have a ___(Deliverer).
So when you're talking with someone about how to be saved, or with your children about the rock-bottom essentials of becoming a Christian, keep what Jesus did at centre-stage. There may be hundreds of intellectual questions a seeker might throw up as a smokescreen, but the root issue has to do with accepting God's solution in Christ to my sin-problem. Back in 1935 CH Dodd gave some lectures on The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments which were made into a small book. In it he tries to avoid the historical-critical sidetracks and summarize the basic elements of what the early apostles actually preached that launched this global revolution known as Christianity. He boiled it down to this: "The prophecies are fulfilled, and the new Age is inaugurated by the coming of Christ. He was born of the seed of David. He died according to the Scriptures, to deliver us out of the present evil age. He was buried. He rose on the third day according to the Scriptures. He is exalted at the right hand of God, as Son of God and Lord of quick and dead. He will come again as Judge and Saviour of men." Now does that ring any bells? Who can guess what that sounds like? (The Apostles' Creed) That's why The Apostle's Creed developed, as a short concise summary of the Christian worldview. Consider it as something you might run over with one of your children who's interested in baptism, so they understand the core terminology of our beliefs. But notice how the bulk of it centres on Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and return - our ____(Deliverer) is the emphasis.
Detour
Say you're travelling along and there's a bridge out. Yet somehow they've opened an alternate route. How do you find your way along it? With signs marked ___(Detour). Usually there are several TURNS involved in following a detour. So the apostles talked a lot about repentance, making changes in our lives to follow Jesus each day. ___(Deliverer) has to do with receiving Jesus as our Saviour; ___(Detour) is more about our willingness to obey Him as Lord over our personal affairs.
Notice how Acts 3:19 begins: "Repent, then, and turn to God..." (and v.26) "When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways." The next chapter (4:4) notes that a couple of thousand more men believed the message they heard from Peter. Just previously in ch.2(37), his audience had been "cut to the heart" and asked, "Brothers, what shall we do?" Peter did not tell them to go to church every Sunday, to double their tithes, or to stop hanging out with unsaved friends. No, what he said in 2:38 was: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The word "repent" means a change of mind, an about-turn in your thought-life. Baptism is right there as a visible act showing this new obedience. Luke notes that about 3000 were baptized that day. Many had probably seen Jesus be crucified a couple of months before at the Passover festival, and knew who Peter was referring to. They responded with a deliberate action (baptism) to acknowledge Jesus' Lordship and authority in their lives.
Sin has gotten us off track; the Suffering Servant atoned for our trespasses. All that remains is for us to choose to follow this Miracle Man God appointed to touch and heal our lives forever. We need to relinquish the steering wheel of our lives to His higher wisdom, allow Him to head us in a new direction. In the book of Isaiah (45:22) God says: "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other." In Acts 26(18) Jesus told Paul He was sending Him to the Gentiles "to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me." Christians are freed by faith to not obey evil desires any longer, but offer themselves to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom.6:12f). It's a turn away from the taskmaster of Self, finding life by losing it, denying ourselves so we may follow Christ and be found in Him (Mt.16:24).
Where is your life headed? What idols may be luring you off track? Are you ready to give God a "go" at starting something new in your relationships, your attitudes? Which treadmill are you stuck on that you can't seem to get off? God may have a ___(Detour) waiting for you just around the bend - a chance to grow in Christ rather than be further trapped by what this world considers "success". "Come to Me," the Lord says, "all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30) It's in coming to Him that we find life, that we discover streams of living water, a flowing well of eternal life.
Boat with a Difference
We need to be watchful lest Satan try to divert us back onto the broad way that leads to destruction. Our soulish self can be deceptively good at rationalizing poor choices. Chuck Swindoll writes: "I had preached a morning sermon that had a real appeal in it for us to get serious about this matter of committing ourselves to the ministry of this church. And I said to the congregation that making a vow to God is a serious thing, that we do not play games when it comes to giving God a promise. Now unknown to most of the people in the congregation, there's a fellow in our church who had boat fever. He'd been down to the ocean and he'd picked out the boat that he felt God wanted him to have. His wife didn't have the same leading, but he felt that he had God's mind in it. And all through the morning message he was really wrestling with what he should do with this matter of making a vow and letting go of things that could really hold onto him. And he squirmed a little. Then after I finished the message and had talked about giving our possessions over to God, he came to me after the service. He said, 'You know, I really believe that I know what God is saying now.' And I was all ready for him to say that God had made it clear to him that in this case he shouldn't get the boat. You know what he said? 'It's clear to me now that I should get the boat and maybe start a Sunday School class on it.'"
A "Christian" Gangster?
I've tried to simplify what it means to be saved, but that doesn't mean it's easy or cheap. There is a cost in following the Lord - all you've got. Baptism means we're prepared to relinquish all our associations or patterns that don't honour Christ. Edwin Orr, revivalist and historian, was with Billy Graham when the evangelist addressed a meeting in Beverly Hills attended by the notorious gangster Mickey Cohen. Orr later wrote, "He expressed some interest in the message, so several of us talked with him, including Dr.Graham, but he made no commitment until some time later when another friend urged him - with Rev.3:20 as a warrant - to invite Jesus Christ into his life. This he professed to do, but his life subsequently gave no evidence of repentance, 'the mighty change of mind, heart, and life'. He rebuked our friend, telling him, 'You did not tell me that I would have to give up my work!' He meant his rackets. 'You did not tell me that I would have to give up my friends!' He meant his gangster associates. He had heard that so-and-so was a Christian cowboy, so-and-so was a Christian actress, so-and-so was a Christian senator, and he really thought he could be a Christian gangster..." Guess he missed the Detour sign!
There is a message that will slake our thirst, a Gospel that brings Jesus into our life. This message warns us of the __(danger!) of sin; tells that history has been entered and changed by a ___(Deliverer); and that boats and rackets and all manner of destructive ways can be left behind when we respond to the Lord's ___(Detour), turning our lives over to Him. Let's pray.