One thing that my preaching professor told us in class years ago was to try to be able to sum up the sermon in one sentence. To boil it down to one phrase you want the audience to walk away with. I haven't always done that, other times I've put it as my title. Sometimes it's hard because there is a lot, but I've found that even then it all boils down to a few key words. Even in my own life, God has been summing up entire years with one word recently.
Last fall I was in a leadership class and the topic of Scripture memorization came up. It's something that comes and goes for me, recently it's been a lot more going. It's something I really need to discipline myself with. I remember in my preaching class I would memorize the text I was using so I could quote it. When I was a youth pastor and wasn't preaching every week I was still able to do that. Now it's a little harder because I'm using large sections of text each week.
But in class I was really convicted that I needed to get back into the Scripture memorizing habit. As part of this I decided to challenge the congregation to do it with me each week. I would pick the verse from the text that had the main idea I would be focusing on each week. We're up to twenty-one verses from John 3 to John 10.
This week the verse was John 10.37, "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;". Jesus was asked by some Jews to tell them plainly if He is the Son of God. He tells them that He already has and they didn't believe Him, and that His works done in the Father's name testify about Him. He goes on to tell them that He and the Father are one, and they prepare to stone Him for blasphemy. He asks the crowd for which good work they are stoning Him, and they tell Him it is not for any work, but for His claims to be God. After some dialogue we come to the key verse this week, "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;".
Jesus opens His life up for them to examine, and He says that if His actions don't line up with what He has said then they shouldn't believe Him. If His life and message aren't in sync then they shouldn't follow Him because He is a liar. But He then says that if they do line up, then even if they don't believe in Him they should believe in what He's doing so they can see the Father in Him. His life points to God not simply in what He said, but more powerfully, in what He did.
The main idea is that our lives need to be reflections of the faith we claim based on how we live. I used James 2 for some supporting text. Verses 14-20 and 26, "What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, 'You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.' You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?... For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."
We are not saved by works as Ephesians 2.8-9 reminds us, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." The only way to salvation is through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But when we come to faith in Jesus we enter into a relationship with Him, and that relationship involves a change in life style. That relationship involves that we become like Christ, and allow Him to transform us into who God created us to be.
In Philippians 2 it says, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men." A relationship with Jesus demands that we serve others. We are called to become like Jesus, and He said in Mark 10.45, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."
Jesus came to show us what God is like, and how God would live life as a human. He shows us God's plan and purpose for our lives, and then He died and rose to make it possible for us to do it. After He went back to Heaven He sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to live as He did. Jesus didn't save us to sit on the side lines and wait for Heaven. He didn't go to the cross just to save us from sin and get us our of Hell. "We are pardoned to participate." Jesus saved us so that we can get on the front lines of the battle and help with advancing the Kingdom forward.
Faith without works is dead. Faith that isn't lived out isn't faith. Faith that doesn't result in a changed life that causes you to live as Jesus lived isn't real or alive. It is impossible to live for God without serving Him. We cannot become like Christ if we do not do the things that Christ did. Faith without works is useless and dead.
Again, works don't save us, only faith does. But works are a sign of faith. And I think works strengthen faith. In our works for God we see God come through. In works of service others see God in us. My mentor has said "Separation of Church and state is never an issue when the Church gets down on its hands and knees and says, 'How can we serve you?'" When faith is real it leads to action. When faith is real it is lived out and the world sees it as genuine. Faith without works is dead.
God has called us out of sin into eternal life. Eternal life is God's quality of life. God has set us free through the blood of Jesus, and filled us with the power of His Holy Spirit so that our lives can be transformed into what He created us to be. It's easy to say we believe in Jesus and that we worship God. But as Jesus said in John 10.37, "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me;" if we do not do the works of our Father, the world should not believe us.
To God alone be the glory!
Peace be with you
No comments:
Post a Comment