The Power and Meaning of Baptism

Today I resume posting from the series, "The Seven Basic Commands of Jesus." This is the third installment, on baptism.

Original date: January 20, 2008
Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-4

I turned 14 that year. I put my trust in Jesus in May of that year, and was baptized that August. But I think the church there didn’t know just what to do with me. They were used to kids around 10 or so getting baptized as a kind of growing up rite of passage, but when you got to be a teen, that was a little rarer. I guess they were used to more of a Baptist Bar-Mitzvah—church kids that grow up and get baptized just because they were the age to get baptized.

So they put me in a class, me 14 and the rest of them, six or seven, all about 10 or 11 years old. Now when you’re 14, you don’t think of ten-year-olds as being four years younger than you. You think of them as being babies, and you think of yourself as being practically an adult. But there I was with the babies going to a baptism class. You know what’s ironic? The class was taught by my future father-in-law. I think he felt for my unease but didn’t know quite what to do about it. So we both kind of endured it.

The weeks went by and the evening came for baptisms. Yes, they always did baptisms in an evening service. I was a giant among ants, those little kids getting baptized.

But I wasn’t thinking about those kids. I knew I was crossing a divide. Although I’d believed since spring, baptism was a marker. It was a sign that said, “No turning back here.” I remember a combination of joy as well as a little fear as I went up to be baptized. I suppose that’s one of the reasons I always try to talk to people about their fears when they come to get baptized, always try to be light and affirming just before baptism.

Pastor Hayden was his name; he asked me if I believed and I said that I did; he asked me if I pledged to follow Christ my whole life and again I said I would. I can still remember the feeling of permanence and determination I had as I was getting baptized. It was a great feeling. This was the final step in entering into a new life. Down I went, a moment of immersion, and then up again—death, burial, resurrection.

That’s my story. The Bible tells many stories about baptism. It says that John came baptizing, and Jesus picked that right up and made it a part of the life of obeying Him. He explicitly told us to baptize new disciples, and we see commands to be baptized in the New Testament, and we see many examples of people being baptized in the Book of Acts, the story of the beginning of the church.

His command is the second of seven basic commands of Jesus:

1. Repent and believe: Mark 1:15
2. Be baptized (and continue in the new life it initiates): Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1-11
3. Love God and neighbor in a practical way: Matthew 22:37-40
4. Celebrate the Lord’s Supper: Luke 22:17-20
5. Pray: Matthew 6:5-15
6. Give: Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 6:38
7. Disciple others: Matthew 28:18-20

That’s the outline we’re following as we focus on obeying Jesus’ commands. The first one is
Repent and believe—Mark 1:15

The second is
Be baptized—and continue in the new life—Matthew 28:18-20

We’re trying to memorize this list, one at a time each week. So let’s repeat that word for word:

Number One: Repent and believe—Mark 1:15
Number Two: Be Baptized, and Continue in the New Life—Matthew 28:18-20

Baptism is all about newness—God’s fresh start in Jesus. Let’s go back to the story of the Bible and see how baptism fits in, and then work it from there.

Long ago, God judged the world with water. A few passed through, in the great Ark built by Noah and his family, and were saved.

Then the time came when God brought His people Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and again, the passed through the parted waters of the Red Sea to safety.

Once again God parted the water for Israel, this time the Jordan River, so they could cross over into their land of promise.

Now, 1,300 years later a man appears preaching that the people should once again pass through water to get ready for the new thing God was doing. He was John the Baptist—that title could be translated as “John the Baptizer.” And he picked a strategic location for his baptisms. It was a place called Bethany beyond Jordan—not the Bethany near Jerusalem, but near Jericho, on the far side, the eastern side of the river. It was the same place that the people of Israel cross the Jordan on dry ground: it was the door to their promised land.

By picking this place, John is saying, “We’re coming into a whole new era of God’s dealings, just like when our ancestors came into this land. Messiah is coming, and we need to get ready. We need to reboot spiritually, and this is the place to do it.”

John was also building on the fact that passing through water as a symbol of cleansing was very much a part of Jewish culture, and had been for hundreds of years.

They called it passing through the mikvah. Immersion in water for ritual purification was part of being restored to "ritual purity." (For example, you passed through the mikvah before offering a sacrifice.) It was also used for new converts to Judaism. Immersion represented purification and restoration, and qualification for full participation in the life of the community. There’s one big difference between the Jewish mikvah and baptism: you pass through the mikvah repeatedly, unlike baptism, which is a one-time experience.

So John’s out there on the Jordan River doing the Messiah mikvah when his distant relative Jesus of Nazareth comes along. He tells John that He wants to be baptized, to which John replies, “Of all the people on earth, you’re the only one who doesn’t need to get baptized.” But Jesus insisted because He was identifying with this new phase of what God was doing—the age of the Messiah had come, and Jesus is that Messiah.

At the end of the His mission on earth, after the cross and after the resurrection, Jesus tells His disciples to keep on baptizing. We’ve already seen the command in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, but Jesus repeats or implies it in several other passages.

On the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Passover on which Jesus died as God’s lamb, God sent the Holy Spirit, the church was born, and Peter preached the first Christian sermon. When he tells them that the Jesus which they, the people of Jerusalem had a part in the murder of the Messiah, they were very upset. Look at Acts 2:37-38:

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" 38 Peter 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.”

When you encounter Jesus, there’s an inner action to take—repent. And as we saw last week, repenting and believing always walk hand in hand. But there’s some out actions to take as well: “be baptized.”

That’s a big clue as to what baptism is all about: it’s the outer mark, the outer sign that you have identified with Jesus. Our faith is always located on public property. So many people say, “Well my faith is a very private thing to me.” Well, that’s not the New Testament way. When you follow Jesus, you go public.

That’s one of the reasons Jesus commands us to be baptized. Whether you get baptized at one of the busiest spots in Jerusalem (like the pool of Siloam, where the crowds on the day of Pentecost were probably baptized) in the middle of the day, or like the Ethiopian eunuch, out in the middle of nowhere, or like the Philippian jailor, in the middle of the night, the thing that moved you from an enquirer to a convert was how you answered this question: “Have you been baptized?”

Baptism points forward as well. Again, think of Noah’s Ark, crossing the Red Sea, and crossing the Jordan. All those passed through water with the intent of bringing you to a place of New Life. You are getting out of Nowhere and going to Somewhere. You are getting out of destruction and bondage and danger to a new beginning, to freedom and to a new life. That’s the way it is with baptism too. It marks leaving the realm of darkness and entering into the realm of God’s light.

That’s why it was so closely tied to when a person believed. We really don’t want there to be a long time between when a person puts their trust in Jesus and when they are baptized.

If you think back to where we started, with the list of the seven basic commands of Jesus, I think George Patterson, the missionary who came up with this list was right on when he phrased it this way:

Be baptized (and continue in the new life it initiates)

Baptism is supposed to be the beginning of something, not the end. If baptism is about the coming of the Messiah, a new life, passing from danger to safety, cleansing, from Satan’s kingdom to the Kingdom of God, then it means that I’m going from one way of living to another.

God intends for us to live Jesus-filled, Spirit infused, lives. Paul says as much in Romans 6:3-4:

3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

So there’s a straight line from the meaning of baptism to the lives we live and the deeds we do for the name of Jesus. We get baptized because we heard the message of Jesus, and after baptism, we follow the mission of Jesus.

Galatians 2:20 is one of my favorite passages…there’s hardly day when I don’t recite this verse:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Christ has come to live within me. My life is no longer all about me. In a sense, it’s not my life at all anymore. “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

You see, in baptism, I drowned. I died. I was buried. Then I came up with a new life, a resurrection life. Just as Jesus came out of that tomb on that first Easter, baptism symbolizes that new life I’ve come into.

That new life is filled with a transformed character and transformed deeds. A baptized Jesus-follower says by his baptism, “I’ve turned my back on the past, I’ve turned my back on ways that don’t please God, and now I’m following Jesus. I won’t be perfect (like Jesus) but my intention is to rely on God’s Spirit to allow Jesus to live His life through me and to touch all of my life and to bring His loving presence to the world I live in.”

Do remember last week when we said that the single biggest marker of life outside of Jesus is a lack of love? It’s no surprise then that when the apostle Paul described the character of a mature follower of Jesus that love goes first. This is also from Galatians, 5:22-23:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

This is continuing in the new life that baptism celebrates. When a husband treats his wife and kids with care and compassion, that’s continuing in the new life. When a student won’t join in the clique that teases and makes life miserable for another kid, that’s continuing in the new life. When you say no to gossip and yes to prayer, when you volunteer with youth or to teach English or to take an older adult to the doctor, that’s continuing in the new life. That’s saying that you meant that business about believing in and following Him the day you were baptized.

A word to the unbaptized

I want to finish this message by offering a word of encouragement to the unbaptized among us. For one reason or another, you’re here today and you haven’t been baptized.

First, let’s be clear about what I didn’t say. I didn’t say that you can’t know God or go to heaven unless you’ve been baptized. Baptism doesn’t save anybody. Only Jesus can do that.

Second, let me encourage you to follow Jesus’ example and be baptized. Jesus did it, He commanded it, and obedience to His commands always leads to God’s blessings.

Take action today. Either speak to me, a parent, a friend here, or one of the other pastors. Or you can mark it down on your communication card and we’ll be in touch with you this week. Do it soon. And continue living in the new life it celebrates—as a genuine follower of Jesus.

Come Alive: The Difference Easter Makes Every Day

I'm interrupting my posting of messages from The Seven Basic Commands of Jesus to share yesterday's Resurrection Day message.

Romans 4:25, 6:8; Philippians 3:20-21
March 23, 2008

When I was a kid growing up in Ohio, Easter meant that we’d eat eggs on Sunday morning—all the eggs we wanted! My brother and I got Easter baskets with candy and little toys like toy trucks, and that was about it. Maybe we’d have a backyard Easter egg hunt. That’s what Easter meant to me.

Then I became a believer in Jesus Christ during the last month of Junior High. The following year, my Easter changed completely. I attended a sunrise Easter service (which was held at the football field at the local High School), then back to church for breakfast and then Sunday school and then the packed Easter morning worship time. The choir wore their full regalia and the pastor preached his best, home run style sermon. Baskets and bunnies went off my Easter radar. A story of an empty cross and an empty tomb replaced the eggs and the toy cars.

That was many years ago. Now I scarcely think of this day each year as “Easter.” To me it’s become Resurrection Day. The most stunning event in human history occurred on this day in 30 AD. This event has had the most stunning impact of any event in history. And it has the most stunning effect on people’s lives. That’s what I want to explore with you this morning—the “Come Alive!” message of Easter than doesn’t just create a spring holiday, but that changes every single day of our lives.

The Most Stunning Event

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starts with these famous words, “Marley was dead; to begin with. There was no doubt about that.” The Easter story as well has to start with “Jesus was dead; to begin with. There was no doubt about that.”

Crucifixion is a horrible way to die, and the Romans made that even worse by flogging victims half to death beforehand. A lot of you have seen the movie “The Passion of the Christ.” People have asked me if Jesus’ sufferings in the movie were accurate. As terrible as they are depicted in the movie, the way He was tortured before His death could have been even worse, according to the ancient records.

So Jesus was dead. The disciples were in hiding. The whole Jesus movement was crushed. Who can follow a dead Messiah? How can you trust the words of a man who said He’d come to seek and save the lost when He couldn’t even save Himself?

So now on a Sunday morning the word comes trickling back to the disciples that the tomb had been disturbed; the body was gone. They ran to check it out; it wasn’t that far; maybe as far as from here to Temple City Boulevard.

The gospel reports on “Jesus sightings” that day have the chaotic feel of real events, not a carefully crafted tale. One woman sees Him; more than one women see angels; two men on a road west of Jerusalem; His brother James sees Him. Finally, ten disciples all together on that Sunday night see Him, and He spends time with them. Jesus, who had been dead, was now alive.

Barrels of ink have been wasted by people churning up theories to explain away the resurrection. But the fact remains that a real resurrection is the best explanation of the historical evidence, the best explanation of the behavior of the early disciples and the best explanation of the explosive growth of the early church. It was the most stunning, amazing event in history.

The Most Stunning Effect on People’s Lives

Nothing has changed people’s lives more than the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. I read some time ago that Larry King of CNN was asked if he could interview anybody from anytime in history, who would he chose? He answered in a second: “Jesus Christ.” Then he was asked, if you could only ask one question, what would it be? “I’d ask, were you really born of a virgin? If the answer’s yes, that answers a lot of questions.”

Another question Larry could ask Jesus would be, “Did you really rise from the dead?” That answers a lot of questions too. If Jesus did rise from the dead, it’s the best evidence that all He said was true—that He is God in the flesh and that His death on the cross really does set people free.

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead has done more to change people’s lives than anything else. When He came alive on that first Easter, He paved the road for people in the centuries that have followed to come alive as well.

Less than thirty years after His resurrection, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter that we now call the Book of Romans. It’s probably the most detailed book of the Bible about the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection. There are a couple of very short statements Paul makes about the meaning of the cross and the empty tomb that tell us about the stunning effect Jesus has can have on your life every day.

In Romans 4:25, he writes,

He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. (New Living Translation)

This means that as a result of Jesus’ death, those who put their faith in Him have all their sins and misdeeds wiped away. But the job wasn’t done until He rose up from the dead. “He was raised to life to make us right with God.” By the cross, we were forgiven; by the resurrection, we were made right with God—reunited with the God who loves us so much. In Jesus’ resurrection, we come alive—to life, to love, and to God as our Father.

The Easter message doesn’t make sense unless you see the part where we (all human beings) are broken and need to be fixed. We were cut off from the life God meant us to have. We choose our way instead of God’s way. When we did that, we unleashed a world of hurt on ourselves, our relationships and our future.

Jesus Christ came into the world to take all that brokenness and hurt on Himself. That’s way He suffered the way He did. He broke the power of sin by being broken. He broke the power of suffering by His agony. He broke the power of sin by laying down His perfect life. He broke the power of death by dying in our place.

It would not have been right for God to let the body of the Son to rot in a tomb after this sacrifice. The world had to know that He’d won. The world had to know what that death was all about. The world had to know about the hope that is stronger than death. And the world had to know that in Jesus there is life.

We owed a debt we could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe. That was the cross. But by His resurrection, He secured something more than “debt paid” for us. He rose up from the dead, marched into the throne room of the Eternal Father, and said, “Look, Father, here are the ones I died for. They shall be the people of God for all eternity. And they shall know joy.”

We naturally associate Easter and joy. It’s the joy of “all things new.” In our lives, this joy often takes years to unfold. Let me tell you a story—a real person’s story about how Jesus changes lives. It’s written by a young woman named Aimee Colbert, and it was posted on a website called testimonyshare.com last December.

My life was never expected or wanted. I grew up in the worst part of the ghetto, raised by grandma with more siblings that hope. I had always been a very depressed child being abused sexually by multiple family members and very poor.

As a teen I was suicidal. I was very rebellious, smoking, drinking, being promiscuous and

running away. Until, I had decided to give my life to Christ at seventeen years old. I had always been raised in church but never really understood or cared. But when I was at my lowest and knew that I was in trouble. I realized that there was only one name to call on, [the name of] Jesus.

I found out that I was pregnant with my first child the next day and my life began a downward spiral in the natural. But in the spirit I was getting stronger and wiser. I had two children by the age of nineteen, with no education and an abusive husband. Everything was going wrong but on the inside of me God was doing a good work.

To make a long story short I am now re-married to a wonderful man of God. I got my education and I am a youth minister studying Biblical counseling. My husband and I are dedicated evangelists. I just want to say that it took me so long to see the results of my faith and I had to sow many seeds of tears.

But when you give your life to God and make him the Lord of your life, do not be deceived, your life will be turned upside down. Things did not get better in my life when I did. It seemed to get worst! But be encouraged, after a long suffering, if you truly love God and endure, you will reap a mighty harvest. Praise the Lord! God is faithful. Amen. When I felt most alone and weary God lifted me up out of the gutter of homelessness, addiction and abuse.

Thanks to the love, wisdom, and faithfulness of God, I am not just a statistic of society. My life is a shining testimony of strength and not death. I am achieving my dreams with God intended favor. The Lord has blessed me to never face a day alone.[1]

Aimee knows what it means to be broken, and she knows what it means to receive a new life from Jesus Christ. She knows what the cross and the empty tomb means. Coming to Christ isn’t easy and it doesn’t make life easy, but He sets you on a path where life opens up to us. When you’re right with God, you’re in a place where you can begin to make the other relationships of life right as well.

In Romans 6:8, Paul writes,

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.

In the context of Romans 6, Paul makes clear that he’s not talking about the future resurrection of the body. He’s talking about a resurrection, a renewal of life that happens right here, right now, when we trust the risen Jesus with our lives. On the cross, we died with Him. That means that everything broken and wrong and disgusting about us went to the cross to die there as well. On Easter morning, we came alive with Him. We’re new people, free people, liberated people. We’re God’s people now; we’re all temples that God lives in now—if we’ve placed our faith in the risen Jesus.

What is to Come

Now, one last thought this resurrection day. God’s word speaks of the present impact of Jesus’ resurrection a lot. The fact that He’s risen validates all His claims. His resurrection is the most important event in history. His resurrection means that our lives can change right now. His resurrection power has been unleashed in the world, and day by day He is transforming people like Aimee Colbert. But His resurrection also means that we can face the biggest challenge in life with hope. We can face death with hope.

In Philippians 3:20-21, Paul writes,

20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.

When Jesus left that tomb, He had a glorious resurrection body. He wasn’t just a resuscitated corpse, some kind of “Jesus zombie.” He was, in Paul’s words, “glorious.”

And God promises us that that’s our eventual fate as well: to have our “lowly” bodies raised from the dead and to be made “glorious” as well! C.S. Lewis said that if we could see what we are to become, we’d be tempted to fall down and worship that!

This isn’t just some theological idea. I can’t count the number of people I’ve spent time with in the weeks and days and even hours before their death. I also can’t count the time I’ve spent with those who’ve lost someone to death. The resurrection of Jesus becomes to them both power and promise. The resurrection is the spring of confidence and hope and even joy. According to the Bible, the Resurrection of Jesus is the like the bow of an icebreaker. His resurrection breaks the cold of sin and death and opens up a new world. And even death can’t prevail against Him or against His people.

Jesus said, in John 5:28-29,

28 Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

Another Easter is coming—another day of Resurrection! Jesus will return and call out, “Live!” and all who have died will live.

But—and this is important—some will rise to live, but others will rise to be condemned. All will rise, but it won’t be good news for all. The difference lies in what you do with message right now.

On this Easter Sunday, Jesus is offering you real life. He’s calling for you to come in from the cold and to know the reason you were created. You were created to know God and to enjoy God forever. You were created for the adventure of knowing and serving Him.

How do I come to know Him? First, I need to agree with God that I’m spiritually broken. My sin separates me from God. I have to be clear on that.

Second, I need to recognize that Jesus is the only way I can be made right with God. He’s the only Savior. His Good Friday death was for me, to pay the price of my sins and to set me free.
Third, I need to choose to follow Him. This isn’t a matter of praying a prayer and then doing what I want with my life. It’s a life sentence of joyfully following Jesus Christ as the Lord, Master and Leader of my life.

Come alive! This resurrection day can be a new day for you as well. Trust this risen Jesus with your life. That’s the best thing you can do this Easter: come alive with Him!

[1] http://www.testimonyshare.com/not-just-another-statistic/

WHAT IT MEANS TO TRULY BELIEVE

This is the second message in the series, "Living by the Commands of Jesus." Original date: January 13, 2008

Mark 1:15

Last week we began a series of messages asking the question, “What does Jesus call us as His people to do?” Remember that whatever He commands is for our joy, not a new rule or law to live by, something to make life harder. No—what He commands is always for our joy, and it makes life better and richer and fuller. Well, we saw that He gave us a very clear blueprint for life in the Great Commission passage, Matthew 28:18-20:

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Especially these words:

…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…

I love doctrine, good sound teaching. We call sound teaching “orthodoxy” which means “straight teaching.” “Ortho” is the Greek word for “straight”, so an orthodontist works to give us straight teeth.

But there’s another “ortho” word: orthopraxis. It means “straight practice” or “straight living. Jesus wants us to have “straight teaching”, but even more so He wants us to enter into “straight living.” He wants us to obey everything He commanded us.

I told you last week the story of missionary George Patterson working in Honduras in the 1960s and 70s, and how they taught church leaders to focus on the seven basic commands of Jesus. They asked converts to memorize a list of seven of Christ’s basic commands:

1. Repent and believe: Mark 1:15
2. Be baptized (and continue in the new life it initiates): Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1-11
3. Love God and neighbor in a practical way: Matthew 22:37-40
4. Celebrate the Lord’s Supper: Luke 22:17-20
5. Pray: Matthew 6:5-15
6. Give: Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 6:38
7. Disciple others: Matthew 28:18-20

That’s the outline we’re going to follow as we focus on obeying Jesus’ commands. The first one is
Repent and believe—Mark 1:15

Now let’s also try to memorize this list, one at a time each week. So let’s repeat that word for word:

Number One: Repent and believe—Mark 1:15

Very good! Let’s look at that passage, in context, starting in Mark 1:14-20:

14After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
16As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18At once they left their nets and followed him.
19When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

The first basic command of Jesus is “repent and believe.” This is the same as His command to Nicodemus in John 3:7: “You must be born again.” Conversion, salvation, new birth, “repent and believe”—they all refer to the same thing. It refers to when we realize that we are spiritually broken and we put our trust in Jesus and only Jesus as the one who can fix us.

When I was in college, I met my friend Jeff Taylor. Within a day or two of the beginning of school we’d met and discovered how much we had in common. We were both believers. We’d been raised less than thirty miles from other. We had the same taste in music, movies and books. We joked about having one brain between the two of us, the kind of connection where one of us could start a sentence and the other would finish it. We went through student teaching together, went to Europe together and he ended up being our best man at our wedding. In college, wherever Glenn was, Jeff was bound to show up as well.

Well, we have a pair that always seem to keep company in the Bible as well. It’s interesting how these terms “repent” and “believe” appear together. Where one is, the other is bound to show up. And even when the word isn’t there, the idea is.

That’s how “repent” and believe” is in the Bible: two inseparable friends. Let’s look at what “repent” and “believe” mean.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for repent is nacham, which means to feel deeply sorry for wrong deeds. In the New Testament, the word is metanoia. We get that word by putting together two words—the one for change (meta) and the one for thinking (noeo). So “repent” means to “change your thinking” about your life and the direction your life is going. In the Bible, the call to repent is the calling to change the way you look at life as well as to change what you’re doing with your life. It’s a call to change from NOT having God and His ways at the center to turn to Him and to make Him your chief joy and the center of your life.

That leads us right to “believe.” If I turn from something (that is, me living my life as I please) to something, what is it that I turn to? I turn to God, I put my trust in Him, and I live in such a way that He takes up the central, controlling place in my life.

Let’s look at it this way. You can compare the whole business of “repent and believe” to a heart transplant. I looked up some facts on heart transplants. The very first heart transplant was done by Dr. Christian Barnard in 1967 in South Africa. Today over 2,000 heart transplants are done in the US every heart, and about 3,000 elsewhere around the world. Over 80% of transplant recipients live longer than a year, and there are thousands of people who have lived for many years with a transplanted heart.

Every transplant starts with the realization that the old heart isn’t working the way it should. Irregular heartbeat, poor valve performance, shortness of breath, weakness and chronic fatigue are evidence that the heart isn’t working right.

There’s also evidence that there’s problems with our spiritual heart. The number one evidence that there’s something wrong with our spiritual problem is lack of love. How do we know that? Well, Jesus commanded us (it’s number three on our list) to love God with our whole selves and to love people as we love ourselves. If it’s His #1 command as far as living goes, it must be our #1 problem when we don’t know Him.

The old heart doesn’t love God and has an awfully hard time loving people. Dr. Jesus puts His holy stethoscope on our chest and says, “It’s too sick—it has to go! Living on this heart isn’t living at all. We need to replace it.”

The problem with our spiritual heart is huge, and it’s won’t change through minor treatments. Sometimes when we’re sick, we can try this medication or that treatment, but our spiritual heart is not just a little sick—it’s “desperately sick.”

Jeremiah 17:9 says

The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? (NASB)

So this is Jesus’ strong medicine: “You must be born again… you must repent and believe…you need a new heart.”

Jesus never said, “You must join my church. You must adopt my customs. You must learn my traditions. You need a new religion.” He knows that that’s like giving an aspirin to someone with a dying heart. It’s just not enough. And it’s dangerous to think that that’s enough.

He says instead, “Repent and believe.” When a new heart has been transplanted, it takes over doing what the old heart should have been doing. Oxygen goes out through the blood vessels to bring strength to the whole body. Carbon dioxide is scrubbed from the blood. The power of that new heart changes everything.

That’s the promise found in Ezekiel 36:26, where God says:

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

The “repent” part is when the heart of stone is taken out; the “believe” part is when God puts in a new living heart.

Let’s think more about the second half of this command: believe. It should be really clear by now that Jesus isn’t just calling on people to just believe that certain things are true. Remember that He first said these words to a Jewish audience who believed in God, who believed that God has spoken through the Scriptures, and who believed that God had a plan for Israel: the coming of the Messiah.

When Jesus uses the word “believe” here, it’s clear that He has in mind, “Trust with all of your being.” The Greek word for believe is pisteuo which means to be convinced, to put confidence in, to trust. It means both that we believe that certain things are true, and that we are convinced that we can trust the One who made the promises.

Go back to Mark 1:15. There He says,

"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

What’s the good news? That the Kingdom of God is near! That the time has come!
So—what’s the Kingdom of God—and what time has come?

In the New Testament, the Kingdom of God is God’s present and future rule through His Son, Jesus the Messiah. Jesus says, “The time has come” because Jesus was bringing God’s rule into the world in a new way in His life and mission.

The kingdom of God isn’t an earthly kingdom. Remember when Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king? It’s in John 18:36 Jesus says that He is a king, but He also says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” His kingdom is wherever He is loved and obeyed. So His kingdom is right here, right now.

And at the same time, His kingdom isn’t all here yet. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done…” (Matthew 6:10). So in another sense, the Kingdom isn’t here yet, and won’t all be here until Jesus returns to this world.

This is the Good News that Jesus commands us to believe: God’s presence and kingly reign was breaking into our world through the presence of Jesus. He is our King. He’s so wonderful, so powerful and so compelling that we drop everything and follow Him, just like those first disciples there on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. We believe what He says and more important, we believe Him. And when we do, He gives us a new heart—the kind that loves God and loves people. Our sins are forgiven. He paid the price for our sins when He died on the cross.
Maybe you remember the story from last fall about a woman who went missing and the relentless faith her husband had that she hadn’t just run off.

Tanya Rider, 33 of Maple Valley, Washington, was found September 27, eight days after she went missing. Her car had gone off the road into a ravine, covered by brush. Her husband Tom reported her missing, but was told by police that they thought she’d run away. Tom wouldn’t take that for an answer. He pressed police to start a search.

Tanya's car had tumbled about 20 feet down the ravine and lay buried below heavy brush and blackberry bushes. Rescuers had to slice the roof off to get her out.

Tom Rider said he had been just sitting down to take a polygraph test at the King County sheriff's office so officers could exclude him as a suspect in his wife's disappearance, when officers told him the car had been found. They used her cell phone signal to track her to the ravine.

Tom Rider should get some kind of reward as the man who wouldn’t give up. He explained that he knew that Tanya wouldn’t just run away, and he was convinced that she was in some kind of trouble.

You might say, he had faith in her. He knew what she was like, and running away just wasn’t her. But maybe more important was the faith that she had faith in him. Tanya was certain that Tom wouldn’t give up.

In the same way, Jesus saw us in the ravine, and He wouldn’t give up on us. At great cost and misunderstanding, and at personal risk, He came for us. And now he says to us, “I know you’re broken, banged up and near dead. Just put your trust in Me and I’ll get you out of here.” That’s the simplicity of faith: He is our rescuer. That’s what Savior means: He rescues us.

And now He says to us, “Repent, and believe the Good News. I’ve come for you. It’s going to be all right. Let's get you ought of here.”God is good! That's Jesus alright--the one who goes into the ravine to find us. The one who will not give up.

A Holy Week Miracle: Say Hello to Brother Mikhail

Mikhail Gorbachev admits he is a Christian

By Malcolm Moore in Rome

Last Updated: 3:04am GMT 19/03/2008

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.

Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.

His arrival in Assisi was described as "spiritual perestroika" by La Stampa, the Italian
newspaper.

"St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ," said Mr Gorbachev. "His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life," he added.

Mr Gorbachev's surprise visit confirmed decades of rumours that, although he was forced to publicly pronounce himself an atheist, he was in fact a Christian, and casts a meeting with Pope John Paul II in 1989 in a new light. Mr Gorbachev, 77, was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church and his parents were Christians. In addition, the parents of his wife Raisa were deeply religious and were killed during the Second World War for having religious icons in their home.
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Ronald Reagan, the former United States president, allegedly told his close aides on a number of occasions that he felt his opponent during the Cold War was a "closet believer".

Mr Reagan held deep religious convictions himself. However, until now Mr Gorbachev has allowed himself to express only pantheistic views, saying in one interview "nature is my god".
After his prayers, Mr Gorbachev toured the Basilica of St Francis and asked in particular to be shown an icon of St Francis portraying his "dream at Spoleto".

St Francis, who lived in the 12th century, was a troubadour and a poet before the spiritual vision caused him to return to Assisi and contemplate a religious life.

Even in his early days, St Francis helped the poor, once giving all of his money to a beggar. As well as spending time in the wilderness, he also nursed lepers and eventually became a priest.
"It was through St Francis that I arrived at the Church, so it was important that I came to visit his tomb," said Mr Gorbachev.

"I feel very emotional to be here at such an important place not only for the Catholic faith, but for all humanity."

He also asked the monks for theological books to help him understand St Francis's life.

Father Miroslavo Anuskevic, who accompanied the former Soviet leader, said: "He was not recognised by any of the worshippers in the church, and silently meditated at the tomb for a while. He seemed a man deeply inspired by charity, and told me that he was involved in a project to help children with cancer.

"He talked a lot about Russia and said that even though the transition to democracy had been very important for the world, it was very painful for Russia. He said it was a country which has a great history, and also a great spirituality."

Immanuelization

This is my monthly column for Temple City Life, to be published in early April.

In his book, Missing in America, Tom Clegg tells of a transforming experience he had while a youth pastor in suburban Chicago. Each summer some suburban churches put on an evangelistic outreach to the inner city. They’d blitz the streets with tracts. It was a hot day, over 100. Tom went out with a teen from his church named Ryan. A man on the street said something about the heat and Tom shot back, “It will be hotter unless you repent!” Another guy was panhandling, so Tom gave him a tract and said, “You need this more than money!”

They turned a corner and about five tall, tough-looking black kids were sitting in the shade by a basketball court. Tom and the kid with them suddenly felt very small and very, very white. Tom began to hand out tracts when one guy said, “It’s too (blank) hot to listen to some honky preacher!” Then he pulled a knife, and Tom and the kid ran for their lives.

When they got back to their van, Tom confessed to the teen from his church that not only was he scared, but as he ran away, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the way they were trying to “spread the gospel” seemed shallow, fake and manipulative. Then he did something that will probably make you think he was crazy. He talked Ryan into going back to the playground where the guy with the knife was.

They drove the church van, stocked with cold sodas and ice. The tough-looking guys were still there and so was the guy with the knife.

Tom got out of the van and said to them, “Hey everything is cool, OK? Look, I just want to apologize for being a jerk. How about a soda instead of a sermon?” They dove for the cans and began to playfully throw the ice around. One of them challenged Ryan to some one-on-one b-ball. The guy with the knife talked with Tom. Tom ended up hiring the kid--his name was Franklin--to give him a tour of the neighborhood and to introduce him to people.

This was a huge turning point for Tom and for that outreach. It’s a long story, but here’s the bottom line—they resolved never to tell the gospel without actually demonstrating the gospel. Before, they’d been content to drive-by the Jesus message; now they began to live it. Tom calls it switching from sermon-based outreach to service-based outreach.

And guess what? It took a year, but Franklin, the kid with the knife, gave his life to Jesus. Today he’s a printer, married with kids and active in an urban church in Chicago.

You have to immanuelize before you can evangelize. Jesus came into this world as our Immanuel, “God with us.” He got in our neighborhood and lived among us. He didn’t do a drive-by. Only after he’d lived among us for 30 years did He even start to preach. He proved the love of God by His way of life, then and only then did He tell the story and then go to the cross. He “immanuelized” before He evangelized!

That’s why we at First Baptist do service evangelism things like wrapping Christmas presents rather than handing out tracts on a street corner. That’s why we’re there at the Camellia Festival. That’s why we host things like the Chamber of Commerce and the Blue Banner dinners. That’s also why we’re going to shut down morning worship on April 27 to do a Day of Service to the community—to immanuelize before we evangelize.

We want to invite anyone interested in the well-being of our community to join with us on April 27. Although at this time all of our projects have not yet been determined, they will include several ministries to the poor, needy and isolated of the area. They will include assembling AIDS caregiver kits to be shipped to Africa. If you want to be involved, if you want more information about a project, or if you have a great idea for a project, give me at call at (626) 286-3125 x 11.

This Rare Early Easter

The dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that the Hebrews used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar. Here's some things you might be interested in.

Easter can actually be one day earlier than this year (March 22) but that is pretty rare. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of ourlives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or willever, see it a day earlier!

Here are the facts: the next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913. The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So no one alive today has, or ever will see Easter any earlier than this year!

For more, see here.

LIVING BY THE COMMANDS OF JESUS

As promised, the first installment of messages just finished on The Seven Basic Commands of Jesus.

Original date: January 6, 2008

Matthew 28:18-20

As we enter into a new year, I want to start a new series of messages that are designed to enable to clearly answer the question, “What does God want from us? How does he want us to live? What are the priorities of Jesus for His people?” The reality is that there’s an amazingly clear answer given to us by Jesus.

But first, let’s realize that there is a gap, a huge gap, between what the average church asks of its people and what Jesus asks—a better word would be requires—of His people.

For many churches, what they ask really is, “Come, give money, help out, and don’t cause trouble.” Others set the bar even lower: “Be baptized and send a check from time to time.”
This can’t be right! This is not the community of transformed that Jesus lived and died for. He saw His church as a mighty force of ordinary people in love with and following Himself as its Lord. Ordinary people following the extraordinary Jesus and doing extraordinary things—that’s always been the plan of Jesus.

Jesus saw His church as a body of believers who would not simple assert faith in certain doctrines, but who would be so gripped by what Jesus did and taught and commanded that even in their ordinariness and even in their weakness they, in their lives, deeds and character would be a dazzling display of the greatness and glory of God.

Sometimes we get kind of confused about this. We begin to think that Jesus is all about us. That He came so we could go to heaven and so we can have somewhere to turn when we have a hard time in the meanwhile. Nothing could be further from the New Testament truth. Jesus came to overturn the whole world, not by some kind of political revolution but by an inner revolution of the human heart, paid for by His blood. He’s come to set the world right, and we’ve been caught up in His work. We’re not bystanders; we’re part of His ongoing mission.

Now what does He want from His people? Is it possible that Jesus wants a people who just get baptized? Is it possible that He died on a cross for a people who live their lives on their own agenda but then have a place in heaven? Could it be possible that He died to create a people who are only called upon to make out a check on payday?

No way. He has a very clear blueprint, and it’s found in Matthew 28:18-20:

18Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Now you probably think I’m going to talk about missions or evangelism. You’ve heard, and I’ve given, many messages about missions and evangelism based on this passage. That’s valid. There’s a lot about missions and evangelism here. But that’s not that part I want to focus on. What I want to focus on is what He tells us to do here. A lot of people read this passage and say, “Well, Jesus tells us to tell everybody about the Good News.” That’s right, but there’s more. “Well, Jesus tells us to tell all nations.” That’s right too, but there’s still more.

So what does He tell us here? Someone might go further and say, “Jesus tells us to make disciples.” Right, great! We’re moving in the right direction. “Jesus tells us to tell them everything that He taught.” Yes, but look again. He’s very specific. On the screen is the command of Jesus isolated so you can see it:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…

We know about “go”; we know about “make disciples”; we know about “baptizing.” But did you catch the last part?

…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…

Jesus didn’t just tell us to teach them what He taught us. He says, “…teach them to obey/live by/observe everything I have taught you.”

In other words, what He is calling for us to do is to teach people to enter into a lifestyle based on the teachings of Jesus—a Jesus-soaked, Jesus-exalting way of living.

I noticed this several years ago and said, “Sometime I need to go through the gospels and see all the commands of Jesus so I know what it is He wants to do.” Well, somebody a lot smarter than me did that. He’s one of my favorite authors, John Piper. He wrote a book called What Jesus Demands of the World and he found 50 commands of Jesus. That’s kind of overwhelming! But let me tell you a story about somebody way back in the 1960s who took what Jesus said here seriously and the impact that had.

George Patterson was a missionary in Honduras. He went there to teach in a seminary, but traditional seminary education of pastors was failing miserably. What would happen is these young pastors would get a diploma and then didn’t want to go back to their village. They wanted to stay in the city or even get a nice paying job with the Dole Fruit Company.

So the mission George was with had to come up with a completely different way of training pastors. They pioneered what’s known as TEE: Theological Education by Extension. That’s a fancy way of saying that George got on the back of a mule and went from village to village to teach pastors and church elders what the Bible teaches and how to live the Jesus-following life. Instead of them leaving the village to get an education, the education came to them. They had to come up a way of teaching the faith, church life and sound Biblical teaching that would be simple, practical, memorable and impactful.

George had to figure how to do that. A whole new way of teaching had to be found. Do you where he found it? Right here in Matthew 28:18-20. Let me read his words.

Jesus, after affirming His deity and total authority on earth, commissioned His Church to make disciples who obey all His commands. So His commands take priority over all other institutional rules (even the hallowed Church Constitution and Bylaws). This obedience is always in love. If we obey God for any other reason, it becomes sheer legalism; God hates that.

…We asked our converts to memorize the following list of
Christ’s basic commands:

1. Repent and believe: Mark 1:15
2. Be baptized (and continue in the new life it initiates): Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1-11
3. Love God and neighbor in a practical way: Matthew 22:37-40
4. Celebrate the Lord’s Supper: Luke 22:17-20
5. Pray: Matthew 6:5-15
6. Give: Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 6:38
7. Disciple others: Matthew 28:18-20

George had all the pastors then all the elders and then every member in these village churches memorize these seven basic commands. Everything that George and the others involved in this ministry related to those seven basic commands of Jesus. So what happened?

The results were nothing less than amazing. In just four years, the four little churches he started out with grew to 21 churches as they kept the training close, local and practical.

I was so taken by this I found myself saying, “If it’s good enough for Honduras, it’s good enough for the US!”

Now let’s be clear about some things. This is not a new Ten Commandments. This is not some legalistic thing. This is a simple way to sum up what Jesus taught us, especially what Jesus taught us to do. But if we give ourselves over to these things, if we really do, won’t we be living the way Jesus said we should live? Isn’t that the point of what He says in Matthew 28?

…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you…

Let me explain it this way. Over the last few years I have almost ceased using the term “Christian.” I talk constantly about following Jesus. The New Testament uses the term “Christian” only three times;[1] at the same time the idea of the disciple as a follower of Jesus is all over the New Testament. Jesus repeatedly tells people, “You come and follow Me!” There are about eighty places in the New Testament where either Jesus tells people to follow Him, or His people are described as following Him. Three vs. eighty.

Jesus-followers! That’s what we are. Sometimes “Christian” has come to mean “not Jewish, not Catholic, and not secular.” “Christian” sometimes has come to mean “People like us, who like the things we like.” As in “contemporary Christian music.” “Christian experience.” “Christian life.” “Christian Bed and Breakfast.” “Christian counselor.” It’s come to stand for a subculture that is only partly about following Jesus.

I’m going to show you a video that’s a kind of parody of those PC and Mac commercials, but let me warn you: while it may make you laugh, it may also bug you. Here’s the clip:

VIDEO: Christ-Follower 1

I told you it might irritate you. It kind of irritates me. I mean, I’m kind of like that guy on the left (all except for the King James part—I’m an NIV kind of guy). But in the last few years I have to tell you—I’ve been on a journey, and this really sums it up for me. I want to be a Jesus follower. I want to live like Him, obey Him, and let His name be known. In these next nine weeks, we’re going to go on a journey back to the roots of the faith we believe and just as important, that we pledged to live by when we put our trust in Jesus. The process will sometimes make you squirm (it made we squirm when I was planning it). You might have some of your assumptions challenged. You’ll probably find yourself questioning your faith—especially what it means to live your faith. And you’ll come face to face with Jesus Himself and you’ll be asking yourself, “Is what I’m doing what You want, or just I’ve always assumed you wanted?” So strap in tight, get prayed up, bring your Bible and let’s get ready: --to live by the commands of Jesus --and to not just come to church, but to BE the church that Jesus died for.

NPC Wrap-Up

OK, so I didn't jump right in and finish my posts from the National Pastors' Convention. When I got back to my office Friday afternoon, our office manager asked me, "So how was the conference?" And I had to admit some ambivalence.

First, NPC was not well themed. There seemed to be a haphazardness in the scheduling. It's not like there was much of a theme, either daily or for the conference in toto.

Second, it seemed that the main reason that speakers were there was that they'd just published a book. I suppose the fact that IVP and Zondervan sponsored the thing may have something to do with that.

Third, I was disturbed by some of the things I observed there. By that I don't mean politics (Colson balanced Jim Wallis), so much as the rise of the "soft" evangelicals I mentioned in the last post. I would guess that about a third of the presenters would fall into this mushy category. For example, in a session on theological trends there were zero Calvinists--zero!--and one "openness of God" theologian (Greg Boyd). A John Piper on that panel would have been a great addition.

I have to finish with two atta-boys. One was for the insights of J.P. Moreland, who was a delight everytime. I intend to read him more and will happily attend his sessions at other opportunities. The other is that while I am aware that Wright has some problems (see here) on the doctrine of justification, Tom Wright is an engaging exegete. I attended his morning Bible study on Acts and I was amazed to see what he could pull out of familiar texts.

By the way, I'm just finishing a series called The Seven Basic Commands of Jesus. I'll be posting the texts of these messages over the next few weeks as we lead up to Easter.