The Simplicity of the Gospel
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 (NIV)
On the day of Pentecost, Peter got up in front of a large crowd and said:
“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’ Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
What do you think Peter answered when he heard that question? I can tell you what he didn’t say. He did not say what many people in modern Christianity would say. He did not say, “If you want to acknowledge Jesus, just go to church, make a whole lot of noise, clap your hands, sing in a choir, serve in a ministry, plant a seed and witness to the salvation of Jesus.” He didn’t say any of that.
Don’t get me wrong, all of those are good things. If you love Jesus, you ought to praise, sing, go to church, witness, and serve. But what Peter said is simply this: “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.”
You don’t get the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Ghost just because you come to church. You get them because you repent of your sins.
It’s as simple as that.
Prayer Keeps You Going
Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.
Psalm 55:22 (NIV)
Prayer has many purposes and many benefits. But one reason we should pray that is often overlooked is the fact that prayer gives us the strength to keep going.
When you want to quit and you don’t know how much strength you have left, the fatigue can be frustrating, but prayer puts things in their proper perspective and helps you to say, “I can’t give up because I know God has a higher, divine, providential intent for my life.”
I want you to trust prayer’s efficacy. I want you to steward prayer faithfully. I want you to recommend prayer frequently. I want you to make prayer a priority. I want you to exercise prayer anywhere and everywhere because prayer is going to help you to keep going.
You are going to get frustrated. You are going to get fatigued. Tension is going to envelop your life. The people you have to deal with will stress you out. The pressures you live under are real. There will be days when the anger of managing this world’s craziness will sometimes make you want to sit on the sideline.
But since you can’t quit, you’d better pray so that through your prayers, God can remind you there’s a purpose that’s bigger than you. And because God is working a purpose that is bigger than you, you can stand fast in the assurance that He who has begun a good work in you shall perform it until the day of Christ’s return.
Prayer is not just for saying thank you. Prayer is not just for declaring loyalty. Prayer is not just for proclaiming the might and the majesty of our Lord.
Prayer helps you to keep going.
Repentance Is a Gift
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.
Acts 3:19 (NIV)
I want you to love God more deeply not just because of His ability to extend provision.
I want you to love Him not just because He protects you.
I want you to love Him not just because He showers blessings upon your life.
I want you to love Him not just because He answers your prayers.
I want you to love Him not because He makes your enemies retreat.
I want you to love Him not because He responds to your expressions of gratitude and thanksgiving.
I want you to love Him because He has given you a mechanism to take the guilt off your shoulders and to turn you from a twisted mindset.
I want you to love Him because He gives you the grace to change your direction in life and to have the shame of your sin removed.
I want you to love Him because He has made it possible to feel the refreshing of His grace.
These things are a description of what it means to experience repentance.
Many Christians see repentance as a burden. They see it as a duty. They see it as a necessity. But I want you to see repentance as a gift.
A Misconception About Prayer
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.
Luke 6:12-13 (NIV)
We mistakenly believe sometimes that prayer is a failsafe that prevents all threats from our lives. We believe falsely that prayer will make all our paths smooth and nothing will hit our lives but success and prosperity and progression. Prayer should be able to manipulate events and prevent the painful and the disappointing from taking place, shouldn’t it?
In Luke 6, we read that Jesus went up on a mountainside to pray, and He spent the entire night in prayer. I have no doubt that among the many things He prayed about, He asked the Lord to guide His selection of the men He would call as His apostles.
And yet, the very next morning, when Jesus chose the Twelve from among the disciples, we see that Judas the traitor made the team.
According to our conventional wisdom, it seems like the prayer of Jesus should have led Him to spot, reveal, and remove Judas from His selection in order to prevent betrayal and hurt and pain. But you and I know that life doesn’t unfold that way.
If Jesus prayed all night, and Judas still made the team, what does that tell us about the potential answers to our prayers?
Now, of course, Jesus knew that Judas would eventually betray Him, but Jesus was surrendered to the will of His father. The pain, the suffering, the feeling of abandonment, the insults, the beatings, the bloodshed—and yes, even the betrayal of His close friend Judas— were part of the complete submission Jesus demonstrated to God, as summarized in His simple prayer at Gethsemane: “Nevertheless, not My will but Your will be done.”
Here’s what I want you to come away with today. You can’t give up on your prayers because things don’t turn out the way you expect them. Don’t weaken your confidence in prayer because along with it comes some issues and battles that you thought your prayers would have eliminated. Don’t walk away from prayer because after praying you still get attacked or struggle.
Sometimes you can pray, and Judas still ends up on your team, so to speak.
Prayer is not for guiding outcomes. Prayer is for grounding our lives in the will of God.
The Right Comparison
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NIV)
Spiritual growth is not me comparing myself to other people and thinking that as long as I’m one step better than them, then that makes me holy. No, spiritual growth is the acceptance that I need to live better because I’m comparing my life to the sinlessness of Jesus.
He invites us to draw close to Him so the guilt can be removed from our lives and we can then reach for the mark of His perfection.
When I become more aware of Jesus’s perfection, the more it gives me a mark to press towards. I should not be trying to live my life better than other people. That’s the wrong comparison. We should be trying to live our lives closer to the perfection of Jesus, who every day bids us to come closer in faith.
Jesus is perfect in all His ways. He is sinless and He is sovereign. There is no fault in Him, nothing ever to excuse, nothing ever to overlook. He is the metric we should use to assess our spiritual health.
The right comparison is not against the lives of others, but against the sovereign life of Jesus.
Here’s why. When I stand next to the sinlessness of Jesus, it makes me want to talk to Him about my shortcomings. He makes me want to deal with my issues. He makes me want to get the guilt up off of my life. He makes me want to chase the power of a repentant life.
This is why, incidentally, I love playing golf with guys who are better than me. It’s why I like talking to people who are smarter than me. It’s why I like hanging around with people who are more successful than me. Because it makes me want to get better and never settle for my current skill level.
And every day I walk with Jesus, He makes me want to be better. I love spending time with Jesus because His sinlessness makes me want to reach for perfection.
Can you relate?
