Believe It or Not
1 John 5:10-13
Everyday we are faced with a series of relatively mindless choices...
-paper or plastic
-credit or debit
-smoking or non
-pay inside or pay at the pump
-regular or de-caf
-hot or mild
-Cardinals or Royals
Most of those aren’t exactly life-altering, so they’re kinda’ automatic
-there are other types of choices that do have a serious, long-term
impact on our lives, as well as on others...for example, those
involving
--education and career
--marriage and children
--health and wellness
--integrity and character
--lifestyle
--priorities
There is one choice, however, that is even more significant than all of
those combined
-it’s a choice that does or should influence our entire second level
of decisions
-it’s a choice that, ultimately, affects all of eternity
-and it’s a choice we all have already made—seriously, think about
it: whether we are consciously aware of it or not, all of us have
already made some decision about Jesus
--the Bible couldn’t be more clear about the choice and the
consequences
Read 1 John 5:10-13
The choice?
-believe in the Son of God
-or...don’t believe
The consequences?
-believe and have eternal life
-don’t believe and don’t have life
It couldn’t be more simple or more profound than tha
What does it mean to believe in the Son of God?
-at the foundation, it means you believe Jesus is God’s Son
--it means you acknowledge His identity as Savior and Lord
-but there’s more to it than just recognizing Jesus
--James 2:19 à You
believe that there is one God.
Good! Even
the demons believe that—and shudder.
---this nullifies the idea that saying “I believe in God” or
“I believe in Jesus” qualifies as genuine belief
---James points out that even demons believe in the mere
existence of God (to the point they shudder in fear!),
but this hardly means they are true believers
That’s because genuine belief entails more than mere agreement
-genuine belief also requires trust and surrender
Let’s say you are walking through a terminal at KCI
-you see a man in his late forties carrying a worn leather briefcase,
wearing a hat, and a uniform with little gold wings on his jacket
--what could you say about him?
-you could probably say: I believe that man is an airline pilot
Now let’s say that you have checked your bags, gone through
security, and are about to board an American Airlines DC-9 to DFW,
when you see that
same man standing near the cockpit door of your
plane...and it hits you—this person claims to be qualified to fly this
121,000 lb. jet at some 560 m.p.h. 31,000 feet above the ground
-if you were to turn around and run back up the jetway screaming
in fear, what would that say about your trust in that man’s identity
and in his ability to pilot your plane?
--if you were to do that, would your so-called belief in him then
have any credibility?
What if you see the uniformed man at the cockpit door and he says,
“Welcome to American Airlines. Thank you for flying with us.”
-you reply by smiling, nodding your head, and going on to wrestle
your carry-on bag into the overhead compartment, buckling your
safety belt, and drifting to sleep before you even taxi away from
the terminal...and
not waking up until you touch down in
--what would these actions say about your belief in his identity
and ability as a pilot?
See, it’s one thing to say, “I believe he is a pilot.”
-but it’s another thing entirely to say, “I believe he is a pilot and I
trust him so much that I’m willing to put my life in his hands.”
It’s kinda’ the same thing when we approach Jesus
-it’s one thing to say, “I believe He is the Son of God.”
-but it’s another thing entirely to say, “I believe He is the Son of God
and I trust Him so much that I’m willing to put my life for all eternity
in His hands.”
This is when things get much more complicated than they should
-our initial reaction is, “Belief? Trust? Surrender? That’s surely not
it! There must be more to it!”
--so we set out to establish some additional requirements so that
we can do our fair share...so we tack on things like
---baptism
---church membership
---tithing
---being nice, doing good things, working overtime for God
--but here’s the thing: the overwhelming teaching of Scripture is
this à we are saved by God’s grace alone through our faith
alone in Christ alone (read the second chapter of Ephesians)
---it’s not Jesus plus (whatever)
---it’s simply Jesus...He is enough
When we read through 1 John 5:10-13, did you pick up on any other
requirements?
-if there were any others, don’t you think it would be pretty
important...in fact, so important they’d be mentioned every time?
--instead, what we find in Scripture is just the opposite...allow
me to read just a few examples
---your job is to listen for the requirements for salvation or
for eternal life...write them down—this is rather critical
John 20:30-31 à Jesus
did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not
recorded in this book. But these are
written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
by believing you may have life in His name.
Read Acts 10:39-43
Then, later on in Acts 16, a man asks point-blank, “What must I do to
be saved?”
-how would you expect Paul to answer him?
--right—“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved...”
Ok...so you got it, right?
But get this: it is belief in, trust in, and surrender to Jesus Christ and
Him alone
-Peter declared in
Acts 4:12 à Salvation
is found in no one else,
for there is no
other name under given to men by which we must
be saved.
--and it’s that so-called “exclusivity” that really causes some
people to turn their backs to Christianity
---after all, aren’t all religions basically the same?
---aren’t we all trying to get to the same place, but just
taking different paths?
---so how can you—or any other religion, for that matter—
claim to be the only way to truth, the only way to life?
Last October, the
Woods with the definite slant that the exclusive claims of Christ and
His followers are all quite ridiculous
-it seems that Tiger was put on the spot by a guest of Nike during
a by-invitation-only golf outing
--that day, 30 people gathered at the
Trump golf course in Los
Angeles for the 2006 ''Tee It up
with Tiger Woods'' event,
which
included a private golf session and lunch
---the lunch included a question-and-answer
session
---most people asked about golf
--but one guest of Nike stood up and
asked two questions:
"Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord
and Savior? And if
not, prayerfully, would
you?"
---someone present at the lunch
later said: ''You could have
heard
a pin drop. People were mortified. But Tiger was
as unflappable as he is on
the golf course."
-Tiger said: "My father was
a Christian—of course Christianity was
part of my life. But my mother is Asian, and Buddhism was also
part of my
childhood. So I practice both faiths
respectfully.''
That’s a nice answer...and Tiger’s
professionalism probably kept that
particular guest from being quietly escorted
from the room
-but nice as it may be, Jesus doesn’t give us that option
John 14:6 à I am the Way and the Truth and the
Life. No one
comes to the Father except through me.
You don’t have to agree with Jesus
on this point, but rejecting Him
here means rejecting Him completely and eternally
-just as we cannot choose Jesus plus something else...neither are
we left with the option of Jesus and...
--it’s not that we as Christians or that we as Baptists are
claiming to have exclusive rights on truth and salvation...but
we do follow the One who does make that claim
Like I said earlier, this choice—like all choices—has consequences
-to determine exactly what those are, we only have to turn back to
the most familiar verse in the Bible
--listen for the certain results of belief and disbelief
Read John 3:16-18
It doesn’t get much clearer than that
-belief in Christ means life...eternal life given to you as an
undeserved gift by a holy, righteous God
-failure to believe in Christ means condemnation...judged guilty for
your sin by a holy, righteous God
Choose Christ...choose to believe in Him...choose to trust in Him and Him alone...choose to surrender your life, your eternity to Him
--some people hear about Jesus week after week, and week after
week they walk out of here like it doesn’t matter
---that’s the most foolish choice of all