CORE MESSAGE: Christianity is not something that can be chosen from a buffet of religious options… It is a realization that we are guilty and full of shame before a holy, righteous God… It is a relationship that is forged out of our abject humility as we lay prostrate before God in repentance... It is a life of loving dedication as we pour out our lives in service and obedience to the One whose mercy and grace set us free when we rightfully deserved His condemnation and wrath.
BODY:
I had a discussion with a young man at our youth summer camp last summer in Southeast Asia. He believes that Jesus is the Son of God. He believes that Jesus died for our sins. He believes that Jesus rose again from the dead and is alive today. So I asked him if he was ready to follow Jesus and become a Christian. Then he said something that still breaks my heart even today… He said, “When I get home, I’m going to the temple to ask Matsu (local deity) if I should become a Christian.” I asked him, “What if Matsu says no?” He said, “Then I will be very sad, but I will do what Matsu says because she is like a mother to me.”
That discussion really troubled me. Yes, I’m disappointed that he did not choose to follow Jesus. Yes, I’m disappointed that he felt the need to ask for Matsu’s permission to become a Christian. But those things are small compared to a much deeper problem… A deeper problem that God has burdened me with… A deeper problem that I’m going to share with you this morning.
Do you know what a buffet is? You have all those choices laid out in front of you. You choose what food to put on your plate… and you ignore the food you do not want. You can have as much or as little as you want. The buffet is the best example I can think of to describe this deep problem that has been troubling me. Imagine a buffet with many different religions to choose from. Many people think that Christianity is a religion that can be chosen from the buffet. People think they can choose to be a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Daoist, or a Buddhist… or they can choose a little from each one… take the parts they like and leave behind the parts they don’t like… or choose nothing at all.
This young man at the summer camp was missing the entire point of Christianity… He was thinking that Christianity was simply a “religion” that he could choose to follow. Christianity is so much more than a religion. You don’t simply “choose” to be a Christian by saying some magical prayer.
You become a Christian when you experience something the Bible calls “REPENTANCE”.
Let’s turn in our Bibles to Matthew 4:17…
“17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
This verse captures the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. The very FIRST thing that Jesus does in His ministry is to PREACH REPENTANCE… even before He chooses the 12 disciples. This must be a very important thing! With all the topics that Jesus could choose to preach from, He chose to start with repentance.
And now go forward to Luke 24:46-47…
“46 Then He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’”
These verses capture the LAST message that Jesus gave His disciples. Jesus had already been crucified. He had already risen from the dead on the third day. He had been seen by many people and taught for 40 days before this… and right before He is seen rising up into heaven, He tells his disciples to PREACH REPENTANCE TO ALL NATIONS.
In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus’ final words are captured as “Go and make disciples of all nations”… also known as the Great Commission. Making disciples of all nations requires that we preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins that Jesus offers. Don’t miss this very important point!!! True repentance is needed before you can be a true Christian!
In Luke 13:3(b), Jesus says, “unless you repent, you will all perish”.
Do not choose to become a Christian because you think the people are nice… or because you like the teachings you hear from the Bible… or because you feel good when you are in church or are around Christians… or because you like the music we play… or the free food… or because of some pretty girl or handsome guy.
Jesus told His followers… “The world will hate you”… “You will be persecuted and mistreated because you follow Me”… Jesus warned His followers that even our own family members will be against us… Jesus even said things like in Matthew 10:37-39…
“37 Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
Several times in the Gospels, Jesus convinced people to NOT follow Him. He knew their hearts… He knew they were not ready to forsake everything to follow Him. He knew that at some point, they would fall away. These were the people who were trying to choose to be Christians without having first experienced REPENTANCE and Jesus’ FORGIVENESS.
This was the young man at our summer camp… If Matsu can keep you from Jesus, then you are not ready to follow Christ… If your family can keep you from Jesus, then you are not ready to follow Christ.
I want to give you a picture of what I’m trying to describe here… Let’s look at 2 examples from the Bible… the first example is found in Mark 10:17-22…
“17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
So did Jesus tell the young man, “OK… Nevermind… Just repeat this prayer after Me, and we’ll call you one of my followers anyway…”? NO!
Let’s look at the 2nd example… turn to Luke 7:36-50…
“36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.
38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.
47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.””
You don’t just make a choice that you want to claim Christianity as your religion… Instead, you experience REPENTANCE and FORGIVENESS… God draws you into a relationship with Himself. When you have that close, personal relationship with God… THAT is what makes you a Christian!
True repentance starts with the REALIZATION that we are guilty of something. The woman realized she was a sinner (she was probably a prostitute)… The rich young man thought he was already righteous, but he knew he was missing something.
The first step of repentance is having our eyes opened… to realize and really understand how evil our sin really is… that none of us are righteous based on our own good works… When we realize that we are sinners, and that our sin deeply hurts and offends a holy, righteous God.
Isaiah 59:2… “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
How many sins did Adam and Eve commit before God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden? Just one. That one sin caused separation between them and God. Because of their sin, they could not be in God’s presence anymore. The same is true for all of us.
And sin has a penalty… Isaiah 13:9,11…
“9 Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it.
11 “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.”
What we deserve for our sin is God’s terrible wrath and punishment.
Now you may be thinking… I’m a good person… I’ve done more good things than bad in my life… I have not done anything really bad like murdering someone. That kind of thinking is similar to the rich young man who approached Jesus… who thinks that he’s really OK…
But the Bible says in Romans 2:5-6…
“5 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.
6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”
God HATES sin! All sin! God will pour out the fullness of His wrath on sinners who refuse to repent! This is serious people!
So how do we know what God considers to be sin? How do we know what we must do to please God? In His grace and His mercy and His love… God has given us His “law”… The Bible tells us what pleases God… and the Bible tells us what God considers as “sin”… Romans 3:20 says that “through the law we become conscious of our sin”.
So let’s see if any of us are sinners… Let’s turn to Exodus 20:1-17… These verses are known as the Ten Commandments… verses 3-4 say that worshipping any other god than the One True Living God is a sin… Have you ever burned incense or worshipped at a temple? If so, then you’re a sinner in God’s eyes… and the penalty is death… What about verse 7… about not using God’s name with reverence… Have you ever used the phrase “Oh My G--” or OMG? Then you have broken this commandment, and you are a sinner in God’s eyes… the penalty is death.
Maybe you’re thinking, OK preacher… those are “small” sins… I’m still a good person… See look at verse 13… you shall not murder… I haven’t done anything as bad as that. The Bible says that just by having anger or hatred toward a brother or sister is the same as murder in God’s eyes… You’re a sinner… the penalty is death.
Verse 14… You shall not commit adultery… Jesus says that just lusting after someone means you have already committed adultery in your heart… You’re a sinner… the penalty is death.
Have you ever told a lie? You’re a sinner… the penalty is death. Have you ever stolen anything? You’re a sinner… the penalty is death. Have ever been jealous or gossiped about someone? You’re a sinner… the penalty is death.
God has given us His law so that we can see that we are ALL sinners… And God is a holy and righteous judge… He will have no choice but to find us “guilty” and sentence us to receive His wrath and punishment. I don’t care how big or how small the sin was… it doesn’t matter if it was just 1 sin or thousands of sins… the penalty is the same… death… separation from God and torment for all eternity.
There is a story in the Old Testament… in Nehemiah chapter 8… the priests read the books of God’s law to the people… and as the people heard what was read… when they heard about the sin that God hates… they fell with their faces to the ground and they wept… They were broken and grieving over what they heard… They realized that they had sinned against the One True Living God… and they fell to the ground weeping and fearful of God’s judgment on them.
People, this is repentance… When we compare ourselves to God’s perfect holiness… and then we realize that we are sinners, separated from God, and fully deserving of God’s judgment and His anger and His wrath… and in that moment of realization, we fall to our face in humility and shame… and we cry out to God for mercy that we don’t deserve… Luke 18:13…
“And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’”
This is where Jesus comes in… God shows His love for us… that while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. (Rom 5:8) God sent His Son, Jesus, to live a perfect sinless life, and to bear the penalty of OUR sins… the penalty that WE DESERVE, He took upon Himself… As Jesus was dying on the cross, God poured out all of his righteous judgment and the full fury of His wrath upon the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus paid the price that we are unable to pay ourselves.
And He offers mercy and forgiveness as His free gift to us… All we need to do is realize that we are sinners, and humble ourselves before God, and ask Him for His mercy and His forgiveness that He offers us through Jesus Christ… Like the woman who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair… Jesus gave her forgiveness because of her repentance and her faith in Him… Jesus did not give forgiveness to the religious leaders… their hearts were still hardened… they were not ready to repent, so they did not have forgiveness of their sins.
God WANTS you to repent! God is WAITING for you to repent and turn to Him. God wants to pour out His love and His mercy on you! He is holding back His wrath and judgment… but not forever. Once you die, then your opportunity for repentance is over. And there is quickly coming a day when all the earth will be judged.
My heart breaks for the young man I spoke to at summer camp… He is going to ask Matsu about becoming a Christian… but what he doesn’t understand is that even Matsu will be judged and found guilty before a holy, righteous God. Matsu, Satan, and all other gods and demons will be cast into the lake of fire to be punished with the full wrath of God for the rest of eternity. The same fate is for everyone who refuses to repent of their sins and place their faith in Jesus Christ.
I know this is a hard saying… But I’m telling you this truth is from God Himself… I’ve shown you what He has told us in His Holy Word. I’m here to warn you of what is coming if you don’t repent of sin.
Ezekiel 18:30-32… “30 Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall.
31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel?
32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!”
Holy Spirit… Open the eyes of the blind… Help us to see sin as YOU see sin… Help us realize how vile and disgusting and horrible our sin is in Your sight. Oh God, have mercy on us!
