Rev. David Holwick A New Years Day
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
January 1, 2006
John 5:24-25
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I. When is it going to happen?
A. Those promises to change - this year, this decade, never?
1) Everyone has areas they want to improve.
2) It is getting around to it that is so frustrating.
3) So many resolutions putter out before January is over.
B. Is genuine change even possible?
1) If trite changes elude us, what about transformation?
2) Jesus describes salvation as a rebirth experience.
a) It is like starting all over again.
b) The Bible says dramatic conversions are possible.
3) We have our own way of understanding it.
a) My sister-in-law Sara gave me a book over Christmas
vacation.
She wanted my reactions to it since her Bible study
in Texas was covering it.
b) Dallas Willard's "The Divine Conspiracy" has some
provocative ideas [which are highlighted below].
II. How we view salvation.
A. Salvation means going to heaven.
1) I believe in Jesus and he forgives me.
2) In heaven I will be perfect and everything else will
be perfect too.
3) In heaven I will know God intimately.
a) All my questions will be answered.
b) All my needs will be met.
B. Heaven is a long ways off.
1) In the meantime we are just puttering around.
2) Spiritually, we make a decision and hang in there.
3) We don't expect much to change, and it doesn't.
Most Americans believe in God, indeed say they have made a
commitment to Jesus Christ.
More than a third claim a new birth experience.
These figures are shocking when compared to statistics for
the same group for unethical behavior, crime, mental
distress and disorder, family failures, addictions,
financial misdealings, and the like.
Could such a combination of profession and failure really be
the "life and life abundantly" that Jesus said he came to
give? #30354
III. How Jesus views salvation.
A. Salvation is being part of God's Kingdom.
1) The Kingdom is any place God is the King.
a) It is already on this earth.
b) Disciples of Jesus are its citizens.
c) They obey their King and serve him wherever they are.
2) The Kingdom is bigger than our petty religious schemes.
a) It is more than giving up cigarettes for God.
b) It is more than sending money to a charity.
c) It is more than me, period.
B. Salvation is not for the distant future, it is for right now.
1) Transformation begins when we believe.
a) John 5:24 - moment you believe, you HAVE eternal life.
1> We have already crossed over from death to live.
b) We don't have to wait for a future heaven.
(though there will be one)
2) God is the God of Now.
a) We shouldn't have to wait for heaven to have a
relationship with God.
b) We shouldn't have to wait for heaven to become the
kind of people he would have us be.
IV. Salvation is an everyday experience.
A. Forgiveness is only one aspect of it.
1) We often make forgiveness the end-all.
2) Bumper-sticker theology: "Christians aren't perfect,
just forgiven.
JUST forgiven?
And is that really all there is to being a Christian?
The gift of eternal life comes down to that?
Quite a retreat from living an eternal kind of life now!
By now this bit of bumper-sticker theology has leaped out
of traffic and onto Christian trinkets.
There is a little bookmark adorned with flowers, bows,
green sprigs, and fourteen tiny pink hearts, with a
tassel at the top.
In the center is a wide-eyed teddy bear that looks as if
it might have inadvertently just done something naughty.
The message below is -- as you will now expect --
"Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven."
Well, it certainly needs to be said that Christians are
forgiven.
And it needs to be said that forgiveness does not depend
on being perfect.
But is that really what the slogan communicates?
Unfortunately, it is not.
What the slogan really conveys is that forgiveness alone
is what Christianity is all about.
It says that you can have a faith in Christ that brings
forgiveness, while in every other respect your life is
no different from that of others who have no faith in
Christ at all.
#30339
B. Vine and branches. John 15
1) I am forgiven for a purpose - for a relationship with Jesus.
2) To follow him day by day.
3) To communicate with him about every experience of life.
a) Some take this to a dramatic degree.
b) Frank Laubach's experience.
Frank Laubach was a missionary to the Philippines in the
1930s.
He chose a very difficult mission field - the Moros, who
were Moslems and saw Christians as enemies.
We have Green Berets fighting them at this moment.
Laubach, however, had a different mission.
His goal was to teach the Moros to read.
It is estimated that he was able to educate one-half of the
90,000 people in his area.
More than that, he brought thousands of people to a genuine
experience of God.
He did this with a heart that was filled with the presence
of God.
In January of 1930 he began to cultivate the habit of turning
his mind to Christ for one second out of every minute.
After only four weeks he reported, "I feel simply carried
along each hour, doing my part in a plan which is far
beyond myself.
This sense of cooperation with God in little things is what
so astonishes me, for I never have felt it this way before.
I need something, and turn round to find it waiting for me.
I must work, to be sure, but there is God working along
with me."
#30338
C. Christianity is not primarily morality or politics.
1) It is knowing Jesus.
2) Hebrews 12:2 - fix your eyes on him.
V. What we can experience as Christians now.
A. Moral transformation.
Stuart Briscoe once challenged his congregation with these
words:
"The Bible says we're being changed from glory to glory by
the Spirit of the Lord.
Do you know what you ought to be able to do at the end of a
year?
You ought to be able to look back and see some specific ways
in which you have grown spiritually.
There ought to be evidence of new habits, new attitudes, and
new abilities relating directly to the fact that you're
being changed by the Spirit of the Lord.
"Can you think of one overwhelming weakness that had you by
the throat at the beginning of this year?
Do you honestly believe that if Jesus Christ, risen from the
dead, came into your life, he could release you from it,
and you could live in newness of life?
"You say, 'I don't know about that.'
Nothing is impossible with God.
If it is part of the divine will, it rests well within the
divine capability."
#3962
B. Intimacy with God...
C. A sense of fulfillment...
VI. Where have YOU experienced?
A. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "NOW is the time of
salvation."
B. Get to know him now...
C. Live for him now...
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 3962 "When They've Heard It All Before," Craig Brian Larson, online
Leadership Journal (America Online), January 1, 1999.
#30338 "Laubach's One Second Out Of Every Minute," Dallas Willard,
Book: The Divine Conspiracy, 1997, page 24.
#30339 "JUST Forgiven?" Dallas Willard, Book: The Divine Conspiracy,
1997, pages 35-36.
#30354 "Does Salvation Have Anything To Do With Who We Are?" Dallas
Willard, Book: The Divine Conspiracy, 1997.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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