“Have you ever wondered if faith is meant to be so complicated, or is it really just about following Jesus?”
There some people who just make something that is so easy… look incredibly complicated? You know what I’m talking about?
Do you remember when the Garmin GPS’s first came out in the mid 90’s?
They were great… when they were right! But how many of you had one of those and ended up in a place that you didn’t really want to go.
It happened to me on a few occasions. It’s like you’re driving in a big city, and you feel lost, but you won’t admit that you’re lost… right? Men??? Am I preaching to you right now?
But suppose you are driving in a big city that you kind of know, and your Garmin starts talking to you with this Brittish or Australian accent. (Play the sound efx now) “recalculating, recalculating”
In your mind, you know where you need to go… but this thing is talking to you in this annoying voice, saying (Play the sound efx now) “recalculating route, recalculating route”
Twenty minutes later, you’ve gone in three circles, passed the same gas station twice, and the GPS lady sounds like she’s about to quit her job. She’s saying, “(Play the sound efx now) “recalculating route, recalculating route”
Now… I would never hit a girl… but… there have been times when the old gps has gotten under my skin a little bit.
But here’s the good news. God has not made it difficult to come to Him. When Jesus first started calling people, He just said, “Follow me”. That simple!
He was basically saying… Don’t go all the way around the block when God is saying… this is the route.
And those original disciples were all in. And then before Jesus died, He started telling His disciples things like this in Matthew 28
Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,[b] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Earlier in the book of Matthew, Jesus said to Peter in Chapter 16…
18 Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’),[f] and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell[g] will not conquer it. 19 And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid[h] on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit[i] on earth will be permitted in heaven.”
Now… this does not mean Peter controls who goes to heaven… I don’t believe that Peter is standing at the gate up in heaven… like every single joke about heaven suggests…
but rather that he was the first to proclaim the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles, "opening the door" to the Church for them.
Jesus gave Peter the responsibility to announce the terms for entering the Church… And so what happened after Jesus died, three days later was resurrected, and then ascended into heaven.
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and gave the first gospel message to the group that was gathered in Jerusalem
And this is what He said… beginning in Acts 2 verse 36…
“So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”
37 Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away[h]—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” 40 Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
41 Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.
That sounds pretty simple doesn’t it? But what have we done over the past 2,000 years, we’ve muddied it up. We’ve made it complicated.
We’ve thrown in creeds and other additions. We’ve also subtracted some things through the years… We’ve tried to make our route into the Kingdom, something other than what God intended…
and I can’t help but think God is sitting up there going… (Play the sound efx now) “recalculating route, recalculating route”
It’s really not that hard. One of our core values that we are talking about today in our series, “At the Core” is “Confess Jesus, Repent of Sins, Be Baptized.”
Peter told the people gathered there that this Jesus… “You crucified Him. He was the Son of God and you killed Him.”
Peter, what must we do? Here is his answer. The one that Jesus gave the requirements for entry into the kingdom said this…
“Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the complexities of faith, you’re not alone… let’s discover together how Paul addresses it in Romans 10 and how Peter addresses this in Acts 2, reminding us of the simplicity at the core of following Jesus.
First of all Paul tells us this…
1. Confess Jesus – declare that He is Lord.
Paul said in Romans 10:9
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
To confess means to openly declare that you believe that Jesus is the Son of God. It’s to say, “I’m with Him!”
Now… we have no problem confessing all kinds of things… our favorite teams, our favorite brands, our political allegiance. But confessing Jesus… we might not be as outspoken about that.
I mean, most in here have already made that decision to confess Him as your Savior… but to continue to declare that He is your Lord… That takes more courage.
Because when you confess Jesus, you’re saying:
“He’s not just my Sunday morning Savior… He’s my everyday Lord.”
Confession isn’t just lip service; it’s allegiance. It’s waving the banner of Christ over your life and saying, “The world behind me, the cross before me… No turning back.”
You’re saying, “Jesus can call the shots for my life. Jesus can tell me how I should think about myself and about marriage and about the world.
Jesus is the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth. Not me. I am not an autonomous creature. I live to serve this Master.” That’s what you’re saying.
And when you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, you’re not just saying, “Well, sure, resurrection. Meh. It doesn’t bother me.
Sure, if a dead person wants to come back to life, okay by me.”
To believe in the resurrection is to believe it with boldness. You’re saying, “He lives and I’ll live. If he’s raised, then I can trust my whole life to him.
If he really is the only person in the history of the world who died, did not stay dead, never died again, and rose to heaven, then this is the man I ought to spend my whole life following and give my whole life to worship.” That’s what you’re saying.
But no matter what we say, let’s be clear about one thing: Jesus is Christ and Lord whether we think he is or not. He’s not asking for your vote.
He’s not just sitting up there saying, “Will somebody down there please sing a song to me. I’m so lonely.”
He does not depend on me or my affirmation of him. He is in heaven. He is at God’s right hand. He governs the church by his word and Spirit and no matter what any of us think or believe or decide, Jesus is now and forever will be Lord and Christ.
Do you remember a time in your life when you may have had to take a stand for something. It might have been a special cause. It might have been something at work or in school.
Some of you remember the day your took your public stand for Christ in front of the church. Maybe your knees were knocking, your heart was pounding, your palms were sweaty.
Whatever the situation was, you went forward with taking that stand because you were saying to yourself… “this is right, this is good, this is real.”
This is the type of confession that Jesus is looking for. And every day boldness that says to the world… this is where my allegiance lies.
I hear a lot of people say, “I believe in God” or “I believe in Jesus” but often times, there’s not a lot of fruit to back up the belief that they say they have.”
Belief in something or someone requires action.
Confessing Jesus is more than just a belief. The Bible says that “even the demons believe and they back it up with action.”
It’s not faith… they tremble… the Bible says… but that’s more than some do with their “belief”. Belief requires action. Confessing Jesus requires us to do something.
And the next thing that Peter said that we need to do after confessing Christ… is this.
2. Repent of your sins – turn away from what you’re doing wrong.
I heard about a little boy who got caught red-handed sneaking a brownie… after he had already been told “no more brownies.”
His mom walked into the kitchen, saw chocolate brownie crumbs all over his face, and said, “Son, what do you have to say for yourself?”
He sighed, lowered his head, and said, “Well… I regret what I did.”
She raised an eyebrow. “That’s good. But are you sorry enough to stop doing it?”
He thought for a moment, then said, “How about I’m sorry enough to switch to cookies?”
And that right there is how a lot of us try to repent: we don’t want to change, we just want to change snacks.
Biblical repentance isn’t trading one bad habit for a slightly different one… it’s turning around and walking away from the brownies and the cookie jar altogether.
The word “repent” doesn’t mean to just say, “I’m sorry.” It means to turn. It’s a change of direction, a U-turn of the soul.
When Peter preached, the people were “cut to the heart.” They realized they were going the wrong way — and that’s the first step to repentance: realizing I’m not right without Him.
Repentance isn’t about perfection. It’s about direction.
It’s saying, “I don’t want to live my way anymore. I want to live His way.”
It’s like… We’re headed in a particular direction but the Holy Spirit says… (Play the sound efx now) “recalculating route, recalculating route”
And you listen to that, and you turn away from the sin in your life and you start living for Jesus instead of yourself.
I was reading about a guy who was really into martial arts. He went forward at a Billy Graham crusade and accepted Christ as his Savior when he was 12 years old.
But he never really committed his life to serving Christ. He went on to become the karate middleweight champion of the world for eight straight years.
He appeared in karate movies, and in one movie, he fights against Bruce Lee in a death match!
Years later, he starred in the hit TV series Walker, Texas Ranger.
He was successful in almost every area of his life. But he never had a relationship with God.
One day, he came home from work, and he saw his wife Gina reading the Bible. He says “You’re not getting religious on me, are you?”
She said “This is good stuff! You should read this.” So he sits down on the couch and reads the Bible with her. And the Spirit of God starts working him over.
He says “You need to come back to Christ. You need to finish what you started when you were 12 years old! You need to make Him the Lord of your life.”
And so Chuck Norris surrendered his life to Christ. Except this time, his life was transformed. Repentance is God’s way of saying, “You can still turn around.”
Like I said last week, it doesn’t matter how far you’ve walked away, it only takes you turning around and taking that step back to Jesus…
So the first thing we do is we confess Jesus.
The second thing we do it repent of our sins.
And the third thing we do is this… We are baptized. Bury the old and rise to new life.
3. Be baptized – bury the old, rise to new life.
Some people will argue that baptism is a work. It’s something that you do. My response is sure…
I hear ya. But isn’t confessing Jesus something you do to? Isn’t repentance something we do as well? Goodness, faith itself is something we do… “faith without works is dead”.
Why do we draw the line at baptism and say, it’s not necessary… because it’s a work? I don’t understand that.
Peter said, “Be baptized, every one of you.” Every one. No exceptions. Baptism isn’t just a ritual — it’s a rebirth.
Romans 6:4 says,
For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
When you go down into that water, you’re burying the old you.
When you rise up, you’re declaring: “I am brand new in Jesus Christ!”
It’s more than just symbolic… it’s spiritual.
It’s obedience. It’s identification. It’s transformation.
Down through the years, many have declared that the baptistry is both a tomb and womb. It’s a tomb where we die to ourselves and it’s a womb where we are re-born into Jesus Christ.
I heard about Little Betsy who had faithfully attended baptism classes. Her mother, wanting to be sure her daughter understood its significance, asked, "Honey, what does baptism mean?"
"Well, it isn't the water that makes you clean ..." she began.
Smiling, her mother thought, Yes, she understands.
Then her daughter added, "...You gotta have soap too."
Listen… there’s nothing magical in the water. But Jesus said this to Nicodemus in John 3.
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. John 3:5
What do you think He meant by that. I think it means that both the Holy Spirit working in you and your obedience to enter the waters of baptism are necessary to enter the kingdom.
If you just get in the baptistry, but there’s no heart change, there’s no repentance, there’s not living for Jesus… then you’re just getting wet.
Again back to Acts 2:38 when Peter said, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
I believe the Spirit and the water work hand in hand to bring you into contact with the blood of Jesus. It’s the blood of Jesus that covers our sins.
That’s why Peter said, “be baptized… why? For the forgiveness of sins.” Now some of you might be thinking… “what about those who haven’t been baptized?”
I’m thankful that’s not my decision. I leave that up to the One that I’m confessing as Lord. He makes that call.
What I can say is this. After the church started on the day of Pentecost, there is not one single example of someone becoming a follower of Jesus without being baptized.
Philip and Ethiopian in Acts 8 was baptized
Cornelius in Acts 10 was baptized.
The Philippian Jailer in Acts 16 was baptized.
3,000 people on the day of Pentecost were baptized.
Now… I’m not sure where you might stand on this issue of baptism, but I do know this. Baptism was never meant to be something to divide us…
And there is very clear evidence that it should be done. So… if you are here today in person or if you ware watching online… I’m going to ask you the same question that Ananias asked Paul in Acts 22:16…
What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’
Listen… here is what I believe… Delaying this important decision can lead to persistent feelings of uncertainty and guilt; however, when you finally embrace baptism, you experience clarity and peace, knowing you're living out your faith in a tangible way.
Bob Russell said… “this is when you can be 100% confident in your salvation.”
What if stepping into the waters of baptism today could replace your doubts with confidence, leading you to a fresh start in your relationship with Christ?
If you came today not expecting to be baptized… We have clothes in the back that you can change into to be baptized in…
We are going to sing a song of decision right now and if you would like to publicly confess Jesus, repent of your sins, and be baptized, won’t you come.
If you’re watching online and you want to make this decision, would you please reach out to us? We would love to talk to you about this decision.
Let’s pray!
