DON’T MAKE JESUS YOUR PERSONAL LORD AND SAVIOR!
John 5: 22-24, 26-29 (p 743) May 5, 2013
INTRODUCTION:
When I first read the title of this chapter in Follow Me I thought…what are you talking about David Platt?!!!
And then the truth of what he was trying to convey hit me hard…”I love to hear individuals tell about how Jesus has called them and saved them”…Our testimony, like the Apostle Paul’s, is one of our greatest resources in soul winning for Jesus….
But when we say “I made Jesus my personal Lord and Savior” it minimizes the inherent authority of Jesus”…Surely, none of us can decide to make Him Lord. Jesus is Lord, regardless of what you or I decide!
The Bible is pretty clear in Phil 2 “That every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord.” (Phil 2)
The question isn’t whether you or I will make Him Lord the real question is whether you or I will submit to his Lordship, and this is the essence of salvation!
And maybe what hit me the hardest was this paragraph from Follow Me.
Yet on even deeper level, I’m afraid that we use this phrase all too often to foster a customized Christianity that revolves around a personal Christ that we create for ourselves. Almost unknowingly, we all have a tendency to redefine Christianity according to our own tastes, preferences, church traditions, and cultural norms. Slowly, subtly, we take the Jesus of the Bible and twist him into someone with whom we are a little more comfortable. We dilute what he says about the cost of following him, we disregard what he says about those who choose not to follow him, we practically ignore what he says about materialism, and we functionally miss what he says about mission. We pick and choose what we like and don’t like from Jesus’ teachings. In the end, we create a nice, non-offensive, politically correct, middle-class, American Jesus who looks just like us and thinks just like us.
Jesus isn’t the one who need to or can be customized and changed…in fact, He revolutionizes use. He transforms us…we are made “clean” through His word…Our minds are to be transformed daily, renewed through His truth… (not our assumption. When His word confronts our assumptions, prejudices, convictions and beliefs…it’s not our mold that Jesus is to be conformed to…but our will, our thoughts, our desires are to be conformed to His… We don’t prune Him to make Him more acceptable or American…He prunes us to make us “more fruitful. (John 1:2)
All of this for one reason…to fulfill His mission…we proclaim Jesus to the world, for we realize He is not merely a personal Lord and Savior who is worthy of individual approval ultimately Jesus is the Savior of all mankind…He is Lord of everything and everyone…and is worthy of everyone’s eternal praise!
For this to happen every single person will have to decide…
I DO I BELIEVE IN HIS RESURRECTION AUTHORITY?
The Barna research h group says, “Many Christians no longer believe that God is the supreme Creator and ruler of the universe. Over half of those who call themselves Christians don’t believe that the Holy Spirit or Satan is real, and tens of millions of them don’t believe that Jesus is the divine Son of God. Half do not believe that the Bible is completely true.
And you and I would both agree that such Christians are not Christians…It is impossible to follow Jesus yet disregard, discredit and disbelieve His word…To follow Jesus you have to believe Jesus…
According to Jesus our hearts, minds, and lives revolve entirely around His word…He said
“The Spirit of truth will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14: 17, 26)
Jesus said, “If you abide in my word you are truly my disciple and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”. (John 8: 3-32)
But there are people who will say…that was over 2,000 years ago…it archaic…out dated, haven’t we progressed beyond the teachings of the Bible? How do we still know that what He taught is true today?
And the answer to that question is tied to the actuality of Jesus resurrection…think about it, if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead we don’t have to worry about one word He said. If Jesus wasn’t resurrected than all of Christianity is a hoax and Christians are the stupidest people alive…scripture even teaches that…
1 Cor 15: 17-19 (p801)
But, if Jesus did rise from the dead, if He did what no one else in all history was able to do…conquer death—then we can’t just accept what Jesus said. We must orient everything in our lives around what Jesus said.
So, did Jesus rise from the dead? Is He Lord regardless of what you and I decide?
Well like John McDowell wrote in Evidence that Demands a Verdict….”He is either a Liar, A lunatic or He’s Lord!!!”
We’ve all been around liars…does Jesus come across as a Liar…He would also have to have been completely evil, because He was asking Men and Women to leave it all to follow Him for a Lie…I’ve been around crazy people…there words don’t match up or make sense…not many people follow crazy people. And if he didn’t rise from the dead why didn’t they just produce a body? Oh, because the disciples stole it, really….How many of you would die a brutal death for a lie?
In the words of Pascal “I believe witnesses who get themselves killed” you see Jesus isn’t another religious teacher whose thoughts and opinions we can table or leave according to our preferences. Regardless of what we might think or say JESUS IS LORD.
Remember our test….John 5: 22-24, 26-29
Jesus spoke about one of our cultures most controversial issues…
II JESUS AND HELL
Jesus is speaking about the judgment…His judgment and revelation chapter 20 reveals what He’s saying
Revelation 20: 11-15 (p872)
The sobering reality of God’s word is this…Jesus saves…He is Lord…He is salvation…whoever has Jesus as Lord will be forever in His presence…whoever rejects Jesus as Lord will be forever damned.
In the words of the Scottish Prof…James Denny: “If there is any truth in Scripture at all, this is true—that those who stubbornly refuse to submit to the gospel, and to love and obey Jesus Christ, incur at the Last Advent an infinite and irreparable loss. They will pass into a night on which no morning dawns.”
Modern theologians and some theologist would twist the scriptural doctrine of Hell…making it more palatable to our American souls…what did Jesus say…Hear Him describe this place of fiery agony…
Mark 9: 43-48 (p706)
Jesus said, “If anyone’s name is not found written in the book of life he was thrown in the lake of fire.” Rev. 21:8 paints this fiery picture….”Hell is the lake of burning sulphur.”
Hell according to Jesus is a place of conscious torment and utter darkness (Matt 22: 13)
It’s forever…that’s the most horrifying part…eternal…Revelation 14:11 says “The smoke of their torment rises forever and ever.”
But we are contemporary educated people who “Have a Hell of a time” “He played a Hell of a Game” the way we talk about Hell shows we have no idea what we’re talking about…according to the resurrected Lord there is a never-ending wrath awaiting lost sinners who stand on their own merits before a Holy Judge.
But thankfully Jesus has spoken just as clearly on heaven (as an aside…He spoke about hell twice as much as he spoke about heaven.)
III JESUS AND HEAVEN
Jesus proclaimed, “I am the resurrection and the life-He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever believes in me will never die.” (John 11: 25-26)
Jesus promises His disciples “That He is preparing a place for them, In the Father’s presence.”
John the Revelator describes this place as…A new heaven and a new earth….where God will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more mourning or crying or death or pain for the old order of things has passed away. (Rev 21: 1-2)
This summer the North American Christian Convention will take as its theme “Victorious” from the book of revelation…it takes place in July 9th thru July 12…Matt Proctor will begin with Rev 1 on Tues at 7:00 p.m. “”Encounter Christ Powerfully”. And each main session speaker will challenge us through Revelation…but the last speaker on Friday morning is “Joni Eareckson Tada who will look at Revelation 21-22 with the theme “Desire Heaven Deeply”…for 45 years this amazing Christian woman has lived her life as a quadriplegic in the wheelchair, after a diving accident left her paralyzed…how much do you think she longs for home?
I have a friend named Jeff Noah who buried his wife, the mother of his children last year…it can hardly read his face book posh because they ravaged my heart…How he longs for heaven…
My mother longs for heaven…I know she thinks about my brother Sam…how he’ll do when she’s gone where he’ll live…she needn’t worry, but she does…but she longs for home…more and more She truly brings the words of Paul to mind…”To Live is Christ…To die is gain” ( Phil 1:21)
You see true belief in Heaven, and Hell will radically change the way we live here on earth…viewing eternity and truly hoping for one and believing the horror of the other changes our priorities…our lives…every person on this planet, including our loved ones will spend eternity in ever increasing delight or never ending damnation.
So, Jesus words make sense do they not? “Follow Me and I will make you Fishers of Men.” How could anyone who truly believes Jesus, the scriptures, and His resurrection stay silent and sit idly by while family, friends, neighbors, and co-worker and acquaintances walked off a cliff into everlasting darkness?
So, do you believe what Jesus said? Do you trust his words on Hell as much as you trust His words on Heaven? Has your life been radically transformed by this truth?
[From the Day Jesus rescued me I knew without a doubt I needed to tell others…I needed to testify about my conviction and my submission…His great love…His great plan…And that plan wasn’t just for me…He called me to die so I could live…and follow Him…I felt the fear of Hell in my conviction…but I trust Jesus to forgive my sins…I was buried in baptism on Jan 17, 1978…I’ve been born again for 35 years…for 3 ½ decades I’ve trusted Him…and although I’ve stumbled and faltered many times…He’s never let me go…He’s never broken His promise…and the hope that filled my testimony as a teenager…now has become a tested house built on a rock solid foundation… I love my life…I love my family…but the longer I live in this temporary shell…the more I long for an eternal home…I ache for those who do not have this hope…I cannot imagine how some go through this life on their own strengths..I’ve become more bold, not less bold with my years…because I know my time is short…even if it’s a couple decades…Jesus, He is Lord, not my personal Savior…But the Savior of All…will you surrender now?]
