HOW DO I BECOME A CHRISTIAN
As most of you know, today is my first day as a minister here at Pine Hill Church of Christ. And it is this beginning that has brought several questions to mind. First of all I would like to thank everyone for this opportunity for me to preach God’s word. The faith that you have placed in me truly is inspiring for me to do the best job that I can. And with that I started to wonder. What do I talk about? What topic is worthy of starting a preaching career? Then it hit me. What is required to be a Christian?
If you watch some of the televangelists they will tell you that all that is required is to have faith in Jesus Christ and to state the sinners prayer. The sinner’s prayer is prayed to God when a person understands they are a sinner and in need of a Savior. Not wrong, just not complete.
The first aspect of a sinner’s prayer is understanding that we are all sinners.
Romans 3:10
As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one."
The Bible makes it clear that we have all sinned. We are all sinners in need of mercy and forgiveness from God
Titus 3:5-7
Not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly though Jesus Christ our Savior; that, being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal live.
The second aspect of a sinner’s prayer is knowing what God has done to remedy our lost and sinful condition. God took on flesh and became a human being in the Person of Jesus Christ
John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Though him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that thought him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was the world, and through the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Jesus taught us the truth about God and lived a perfectly righteous and sinless life
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus then died on the cross in our place, taking the punishment that we deserve
Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinner, Christ died for us.
Jesus rose from the dead to prove His victory over sin, death, and hell
1 Corinthians 15:3,4
For what I received I passed on to you as of the first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
Because of all of this, we can have our sins forgiven and be promised an eternal home in Heaven, if we will just place our faith in Jesus Christ. All we have to do is believe that He died in our place and rose from the dead
Romans 10:9,10
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
We can be saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.
Ephesians 2:8
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."
Saying the sinner’s prayer is simply a way of declaring to God that you are relying on Jesus Christ as your Savior. There are no "magical" words that result in salvation. It is only faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection that can save us. If you understand that you are a sinner and in need of salvation through Jesus Christ, here is a sinner’s prayer you can pray to God:
"God, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. However, I am trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that His death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness. I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen!"
This sounds all well and good but the New Testament is written to be taken into full context and not dissected one sentence at a time. With this in mind I want everyone to turn to Mark 16:16
Mark 16:16
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he who believeth not shall be damned.
There are two parts to being saved. God’s part and man’s part.
Who would have ever thought that God had a part is this. You might have believed that man alone was responsible for the salvation that was offered. Not so! Yes we are responsible for our personal salvation but it is through God’s grace that we have the opportunity for salvation.
God’s part of our salvation was found in the following illustrations:
Love
Plan Of Salvation
Guidance
Empowerment
Atonement
God’s love is found in John 3:16
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
By this statement alone we are getting back to the ‘believe only’ concept and you are saved. This is only one statement in the New Testament that we need to put into practice but we need to understand the concept. There is not a parent here today that would not take the pain inflicted upon there children if they could. Let’s put it into perspective. I have David and Amy in my life. Would I love the world so much that I would be willing to allow them to be whipped with a cat-o-nine-tails. To the point of drawing blood. To weaken them to being barely conscious. Could I love people that much that I stood by while they nailed my child to a cross. Folks we are talking about driving spikes through the wrists of our children. Not worrying about how the process was performed because the people we were performing it to were going to die and this was the point!
The second point:
Luke 19:10
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Jesus did not come for the sanctified or the blessed. Jesus came for the sinner. You and me. While he was here on earth he did not frequent the monasteries of the time, he caroused with sinners like you and me. Tax collectors, fishermen, harlots. Not people who new they were living a sanctified life but those who could never dream that the glory of heaven’s allure could be had by us.
Next, God’s part was the guidance.
John 16:13
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
At this point we are introduced to the full tri-head worship: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God will send the Holy Spirit to assist you in your day to day affairs.
How many here today have ever experienced a sixth sense? You know, that thing that just stops you from acting in a certain way because you know both that it is wrong and that something awful will result from you actions if you partake. Some people call it instinct. Some call it intuition. What it really is, is the Holy Spirit trying to guide you down life’s path. The better you listen the better the end result.
Next we have to remember that God had a plan of salvation for us and gave us the Gospels as ‘the power’ to fulfill that plan. In the scriptures in Romans 1:16 God has empowered us.
Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first the Jew, then for the Gentile.
Probably the hardest part to remember is that God intended the Jewish nation to be saved first. When they rejected the message of Jesus Christ, the gospel was opened to the Gentiles of the world. When Christ finally came to the world we realized the words of 1 Corinthians 7:19
1 Corinthians 7:19
Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping god’s commands is what counts.
Yes, the Jewish nation was the chosen people. But, with the new covenant and the fact that most of the Jewish nation has rejected Christ as their Lord and Savior, gentiles are just as prominent in the world with respect to Jesus.
Lastly, God has provided an atonement for our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:9
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
If you notice this is a development or process the God has gone through to get us to the point we are at today where we have his full grace available to us. Not because we deserve it, but because he loves us. And because he loves us, he gave us Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:4-8
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will; to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
Love, Plan of Salvation, Guidance, Empowerment and Atonement, it would nice if it stopped there but mankind is also responsible for his or her own salvation. To achieve the full grace that God has set forth for us we must:
Hear the Gospel
Believe the Gospel
Repent of our past sins
Confess our faith in Jesus Christ
Be baptized
First, people must here the Gospel. Turn with me to John 5:24-25 and read what it says.
John 5:24-25
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgement, but hath passed out of death into life.”
The King James says condemnation instead of judgement. If we were taking statements out of context we would be able to stop hear. We have heard the word and we would be saved. Hearing the word is important to our salvation but hearing the word produces faith in the word.
Romans 10:17
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Developing our faith in the gospel will increase our belief in the gospel.
John 20:31
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Third, we must repent.
Luke 13:3
“… unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
This statement was made when Jesus was talking to some people about a group of Galilaeans that were killed by Pilate. The exact reason they were killed we are not told but Jesus is telling us that regardless of how we die, because we are all human and we are going to die, if we do not repent we will stay dead and be cast into the lake of fire.
Another illustration is found in the second chapter of Acts. First, I want to set the stage by telling you what was happening.
Acts 2:22-24
Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by god’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But god raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Peter was telling them that the messiah had come and they just killed him. How would you feel knowing that you just had a part in condemning and murdering the messiah? We can get Peter’s direction to them in verse 37 and the beginning of 38 in the same chapter.
Acts 2:37,38
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied,”Repent…”
What does it mean to ‘repent’. Miriam-Webster has repent defined as ‘to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one’s life’. Repentance is an understanding or realization that the life we have lived up to this point or our actions regarding a specific incident have fallen short of how God requires us to live.
As the definition states, it is a turning from sin. Not an acknowledgement then a continuation. Like driving in a foreign country, “Yep, we’re lost, but the scenery is great”. Enjoying the scenery will ensure you stay lost in sin. Do not misunderstand me, as you start through this process of becoming a Christian, the devil will entice you with all kinds of temptations to ensure he has a firm grasp on your soul. If you continue to engage in a sinful life then you will be judged according to your actions. Remember the definition of stupidity where you do today what you did yesterday but expect different results tomorrow. Don’t be stupid!
Repenting is the understanding of what God has done for us by giving us Jesus Christ, and that we are not living in the best manner but desiring to change so that we will live in a manner pleasing to God. Do as Peter has said and Repent.
Next, once you have repented and understand the benefits we have in Jesus Christ, proclaim it.
We have already discussed Romans 10:
Romans 10:9,10
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
More importantly, if you stand up for Jesus in the world he will stand up for you before God.
Matthew 10:32
Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my father in heaven.
How much better does it get. Stand on earth and profess that Jesus is the Christ, the living God, and the true Son of God, and Jesus will stand before the Father on your behalf proclaiming your attributes that you might be offered entrance to eternal paradise on that day of judgment.
This is where a lot of the people who profess to be Christians stop. But at as stated earlier, the New Testament is to be study in context. It is not designed to have verses taken out of context. In short, to gain a full understanding of what is being stated you need to read the verses before a statement and the verses after a statement to understand what is being said. To understand the meaning of the New Testament you must read the entire new testament and include all verses.
Revelation 22:18,19
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
On that note, remember the earlier statement of Mark 16:16?
Mark 16:16
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he who believeth not shall be damned.
I like the King James version for this verse. This is also the very first verse I ever memorized.
He that believes AND is baptized; there is a connector in this statement meaning that both versions have to be true before the results can be obtained.
This is the same message that Peter told the Jews in Acts 2, that we previously talked about, when they condemned and crucified Jesus.
Acts 2:38
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name for Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This says that baptism is a condition of Christianity and the remission of sins. And that our full transition into Christianity is not complete until we have been baptized.
Galatians 3:27
For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Baptism washes away our sins. Not in a physical manner as we are accustom to washing ourselves free from dirt, but in a spiritual manner to arise out of the waters of Baptism to walk in the newness of life with Jesus Christ.
1Peter 3:21
And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Once again, Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess, and Be Baptized; I am sure there are people looking at the Christian to-do list and have check marks beside all of the items on the list. If you have heard, you believe, you have repented, confessed and been baptized, then you have become a Christian in the body of Christ. There is now only one thing left to do. Live in a manner that is pleasing to God. This is not a check list item. This is an everyday mannerism that we incorporate into every move, gesture, or word we speak.
Some time ago the denominational world incorporated a slogan of WWJD. What Would Jesus Do? This was not readily accepted in the mainstream Churches of Christ as a gimmick but I personally like the concept. Before doing anything ask yourself, would Jesus do this? I am in no way professing that any of us could ever understand what Jesus was thinking when here on earth or what or how he thinks regarding issues today, but we all have an inherent idea of how we believe he would act. And if you are not sure, just listen. I am sure the Holy Spirit will be more than happy to help you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
If anyone here today has not fulfilled the requirements to put on Christ, or if anyone is having a difficult time maintaining the requirements of living a Christian life, please come forward as we stand and sing.
