OPEN: A Sunday School teacher had spent the time teaching her young class that you couldn’t work your way into heaven. Then she asked the kids in her Sunday School class, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would I get into Heaven?" "NO"! the children all answered. "If I cleaned the church building every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would I get into Heaven"? Again, the answer was "NO"! "Well then, how can I get to Heaven?" In the back of the room, a young boy timidly raised his hand and said: “You gotta be dead!” (Tina Miller)
This morning’s sermon asks the question “How do I get to heaven?”
Now, "being dead" is a reasonable answer - but it is not entirely true. For example, not everybody who’s going to heaven will be dead. I Thessalonians 4:16-17 tells us “The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
If we live long enough to see Jesus come again we will NOT die. We’ll rise up from this earth and meet Him in the air.
ILLUS: I used to tell people I believed Jesus would come by the time I was 50 (long pause)… I missed it by that much.
So 1st, you don’t have to die to go to heaven. If you and I live until Jesus comes again we will meet Him in air. BUT not everybody who dies is going to heaven. Jesus said: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
So, how do I get into heaven? Well (according to Jesus) I need to do the His will. We’ll get to that in just a couple minutes… but first we need to make something clear. The 1st thing we’ve got to understand is that we can’t earn our way into heaven. Titus 3:5 “(God) saved us, NOT because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.”
And Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, NOT a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
There is NOTHING you or I can do to earn Heaven. Romans 5:16 “… the FREE GIFT is not like the result of that one man’s sin (Adam). For the judgment following one trespass (Adam’s) brought condemnation, but the FREE GIFT following many trespasses brought justification.”
IT’S A FREE GIFT!
One man put it this way: When we work a 40 hour week and receive fair pay for our time, that is a wage.
When we compete in athletics and receive a trophy, that is a prize. When we receive recognition at work for long service or achievement that’s an award. But, when we are incapable of earning a wage, and we can win no prize, and we deserve no award—and yet we receive a gift anyway—that’s grace.” It’s a free gift! (https://www.housetohouse.com/salvation-is-free-but-it-is-not-cheap-2/)
God is very clear about this truth: you can NEVER EARN Heaven. You will never deserve salvation. It’s a free gift. You can’t be good enough to be good enough to earn heaven.
Now does that mean we can’t DO anything at all to receive salvation? I mean there are people who believe that if you even think you could do anything that’d help you obtain salvation you have offended God. It’s offensive to some folks to say you could DO anything to be saved. I’ve even heard one person teach that you don’t have to REPENT to be saved because that would be “DOING” something (repenting)… and you can’t DO that!
And yet, when a Philippian jailer asked Paul and Barnaba: “Sirs, what must I DO to be saved?” Paul wasn’t offended. He didn’t rebuke the jailer. It seems like a logical question. And we’re told that in response to that question they replied “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they went to the man’s house and taught him and his family what to believe and that same hour of the night (about midnight) the jailer and his family were baptized into Christ. Acts 16:30-33
“So, what must I do?” is asked by the Jailer, and Paul tells him the answer to that question. It seems like a logical question. God has offered me a free gift, and I’m inclined to ask: “What must I DO to obtain that free gift?”
What MUST I DO?
That’s the same question Peter was asked when he was preaching to a large crowd on the Day of Pentecost. He had just told the audience: “Let all the house of Israel… know for certain that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.” Acts 2:36
They’d just crucified the Messiah. They’d killed the ONE that God had promised ages before would save them… and they knew they were in trouble. And so we’re told: “… they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we DO?’” Acts 2:37
Now Peter wasn’t offended by that question. And he didn’t rebuke them. Instead he replied… “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.” Acts 2:38
Peter tells them to do something. What did he tell them to do? (Repent and be baptized)
So we have a problem here! On the one hand we’re told salvation/heaven is a FREE gift and that you can’t DO anything to EARN Heaven. And yet (on the other hand) we’re also told we CAN DO something to accept gift. So, what’s going on here???
ILLUS: Well… here’s the deal. If a wealthy man writes me a check for million dollars BUT I have to go down to the bank and endorse it … is that free? Well, some folks (using the same logic might argue that going to the bank and signing check takes effort…and therefore it’s not free.
OR, if a radio station was to offer me a free trip to the Bahamas but I’m told I have to come down to the radio station to sign some papers… is that free? Some folks might argue that the effort you made to get to the station and the writing you did at the bottom of the contract made it NOT free.
But we all know that’s absurd. Being required to go the bank and endorsing the check does not make million dollar GIFT less free; and that going to radio station and signing a contract doesn’t make the trip to the Caribbean less free. It’s just that THAT is was what the giver of the gift required us to DO to receive that FREE gift.
We didn’t EARN the million dollars or the trip to the Bahamas. We didn’t DESERVE those gifts. We didn’t have a RIGHT to those gifts. We received the gifts simply because somebody GAVE them to us. Those gifts were FREE, but the one who offered them had the right to ask me to DO something to accept them.
Now, that’s exactly what we find in Scripture. The Bible tells us about 4 things that God asks us to DO to receive His free gift. None of them are difficult… but they’re all important.
1st and most important is that we must BELIEVE Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. That is simply saying that we believe Jesus is who the Bible says He was, and that we intend to follow Jesus - and no one else – for the rest of our lives. That’s what Peter basically was telling the Sanhedrin when he declared: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12
If you and I don’t believe in Jesus there’s nothing else you could possibly DO to get into Heaven.
2nd you need to repent, change, turn away from your sinful behaviors. I know there are people out there who try to tell you that’s not true – there are folks out there that say you don’t have repent to go to be saved but they’re more driven by their theology than by Scripture.
When the crowd asked Peter what they had to do be saved, Peter replied: “REPENT and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” Acts 2:38
If you don’t repent, you’re not going to be forgiven of your sins – and if you’re not forgiven… you’re not going to make it into heaven.
Peter said pretty much the same thing to another audience a few days later: “Repent… and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” Acts 3:19
Repentance leads to our sins being wiped out!!!
And in 2 Peter 3:9 we’re told “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to REPENTANCE.”
If we hadn’t repented, we would have perished. No repentance = no heaven.
So, 1st God asks that we BELIEVE in Jesus. Then He asks that we TURN from our sins (repent).
3rd – God asks us to CONFESS that Jesus is our Lord. Romans 10:9-10 tells us “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”
What are we to confess?
Our sins???? No! That’s not what this passage is saying. Now, granted, sooner or later we need to get around to talking with God about our sins, but that’s not what Romans 10 is telling is needed to be confessed. What Romans 10 is saying is that we need to confess that we now want Jesus to be our LORD and Master.
In the days of Jesus, if you called someone your “Lord” you were declaring they owned you. They were the master, you were the slave. When folks come to me and say they want to become Christians, one of the things I’ll do is pull my wallet out and show them what little money I have inside. I explain that when I confessed Jesus as my Lord, I was declaring that He owned me. He owned the money in my wallet. He owned my house, my car, my kids, my job… He owned the shirt on my back. It all belonged to Him now. That means that, while I still may “possess” these items, they don’t belong to me anymore. When I spend the money in my wallet, I’ll be spending God’s money. When I raise my kids, I’m raising children that have been given to God. When I use my house or car I should ask how I might use them for God… since they’re His anyway.
Part of becoming a Christian is confessing (or declaring) that Jesus will now be my Lord and Master.
(PAUSE)
And then … there’s baptism. This is perhaps the major issue that many folks object to us “DOING” to accept Christ’s gift of salvation. Baptism is the most physical action in the list. In baptism we allow someone to push us down into a watery grave and then pull us back up again to walk in newness of life.
Peter wrote: “Baptism, which corresponds to (the water of Noah’s flood), now SAVES YOU, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an APPEAL TO GOD for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” I Peter 3:21
Baptism is an appeal to God, based on the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It is the place where God promises to save us.
In Acts 2:38 Peter said “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.”
Repentance and baptism are the place God tells us He forgives our sins.
In fact, in Acts 22 Paul retells his salvation experience. He tells about meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, being blind, and being sent by Jesus to a home in the city to wait to hear what he MUST DO. While waiting, Paul prayed for 3 days for forgiveness, but it wasn’t until Ananias came to him that Paul is told “Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on His name.” (Acts 22:16)
Baptism was the place where Paul’s sins were washed away and he called on the name of the Lord.
(PAUSE) Now let’s be very clear about this - WITHOUT faith, WITHOUT repentance, and WITHOUT a willingness to accept Jesus as my Lord… baptism is just getting wet. Baptism is like the “signing of the contract” that you’ve already decided you wanted to embrace when you believed, repented, and were willing to confess Jesus as you’re Lord. None of these decisions (faith/repentance/confession/baptism) actually saves you. What is it that saves you? The blood of Jesus! That’s what saves us. But these decisions are our way of accepting the free gift God has offered.
And being buried in the waters of baptism IS part of the deal. God says (not me, not our church, not a denomination… GOD says) that baptism is part of what He wants us to DO in order to accept His free gift.
But now, why would God ask us to get wet in order to have our sins forgiven and washed away? Well… “washed away” and water… seems pretty obvious. And it’s that obvious imagery that God wanted to us to plant in our minds the idea of our sins being washed away.
CLOSE: But there’s another reason. And that reason is that God wanted us to DO something that would remove doubts about our salvation we might have.
ILLUS: I heard the true story of a farmer who’d prayed to accept Jesus into his heart. Now, that’s not Biblical… but that’s what he’d been taught. (Nowhere in Scripture can you find a “sinner’s prayer” or the term “asking Jesus into your heart… it’s just not there).
Over a period of time, this farmer began to be haunted by the guilt of his past and – as is the case with many who do the “sinner’s prayer” - he prayed again and again to be saved because he didn’t FEEL saved.
One day, he’d had enough of the uncertainty of his salvation. He took a hammer and stake and went out back of the barn and he prayed “the prayer” again. Then he took a knife and carved the date into the stake and he drove that stake into the ground. From that day on… every time he felt the shame and guilt of his past sweep over him he’d go out back of the barn he’d point to the stake in the ground and he’d say “Satan… on this date I surrendered my life to God!” Then he’d turn around and leave his doubt behind him.
Did that work? YES it did! It worked… it wasn’t Biblical… but it worked. His doubt was removed. But why did it work? Because he did (in a human way) what God (in His Godly way) told us to DO with baptism.
Baptism was intended to be the act that would remove our doubt. Baptism was God’ genius at work, acting as the stake in the ground that we could always return to to remind us of our decision to accept His free gift.
In Romans 6:1-5 God declared “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Baptism’s promise was that our sins would be buried in a watery grave and that we rise from the dead in a resurrection like His and receive the promise of an eternity in heaven.
God has offered us a FREE GIFT. All He has asked is that we DO a few things to receive it - faith/repent/confession/baptism. These actions didn’t buy us heaven (only the blood of Jesus could do that). But we honor the GIVER of the gift when we respond by doing what He has asked us to DO.
INVITATION
