Pastor Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings check out pastors homepage: http://www.geocities.com/mayeredgar
A
Good Turn
Cornelius became a Christian. How did
this happen? What makes a Christian? What makes you a Christian? The short
answer is: God. Everything begins with him and so also in the case of
Cornelius. God was the one that arranged the meeting between Cornelius and
Peter who would preach to him and God was the one that provided the means of
salvation sending the message
of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all (Acts 10:36). Therefore, the short answer is that God
makes you a Christian. He makes salvation happen but if you are not yet a
Christian this needs unpacking in
order to become more practical and personal.
We have another look at Cornelius. Peter
preached to him and the beginning and ending of his sermon give us important
clues as to what makes a Christian
Acts 10:36-43 I read from the Bible (Peter
said):
peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all
We are witnesses
of everything
They killed Jesus by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him
from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by
all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen by us who ate
and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to
the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the
living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who
believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
These are the keys listen again:
Jesus Christ . is Lord of all
everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
Therefore point one let Jesus be your Lord which means: let him
be in charge of your life. The Bible declares in a most radical way 1
Corinthians 6:19-20:
you are not your own; you were bought at a price
Jesus died for you. He gave his life for you as a sacrifice (payment) for your sins and you were not a bargain
for him but cost him everything betrayal, torture, death (on a cross). Love made him pay the price but now you are
his and you want to be his. He is your Lord and with him there is peace with
God.
Then point two put your faith in
your Lord. Do not dishonour him by doubting his promises:
everyone
who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Accept his goodness his mercy his
forgiveness by faith for you. In summary then from the preaching of
Peter we learn that in order to become
a Christian we are to let Jesus be our Lord and have faith in him. We obey and
take him by his word.
Can you do that with the help of God?
Are you willing? When other people heard about Cornelius and how he became a
Christian, they used another word to describe his experience. They said Acts 11:18:
God has granted [him]
repentance
unto life. This one word repentance
is an even more concise summary of what
is involved in becoming a Christian. What makes a Christian? Repentance (which
is granted as a gift from God).
This goes deep and not everyone
understands how deep this goes. There are many who think that they are
Christians when in fact they are not because they do not understand repentance.
What these people take from the preaching of Peter is that Jesus died for our
sins and therefore we can be forgiven
they believe that and they feel comfortable in their knowledge but they forget that Jesus is not only our
Saviour. He is our Lord (as Peter also preached).
Christians are coming under new
management his management which requires repentance the turning
away from everything wrong in our lives toward him. The Bible is tackling people who claim that they put their trust in
Jesus but then no actions back up their claim. They are not in touch with him
at all. They dont know him. The Bible confronts them, saying James 2:18-19:
Show me your faith without deeds
You believe that there is one God.
Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder. The Bible challenges anyone, saying: How can you believe and
not have some sort of reaction to the true God? The demons know him and
therefore they shudder in terror of his holiness and might but you claim to
believe in him and know him and yet, ignore him. The Bible says: This is useless James 2:20:
faith
without deeds is useless [ dead]. No
actions betray that you know nothing about God.
Cornelius was not like this. The Bible introduced
him with these words Acts 10:2: He
and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in
need and prayed to God regularly. Later
the messengers to Peter gave the same assessment, saying Acts 10:22:
Cornelius
is a righteous and God-fearing man
At last Peter himself was preaching this about Cornelius Acts
10:34-35:
God
accepts [those]
who fear him and do what is right.
Cornelius at that stage had
not yet been saved he had not yet heard about Jesus but he knew enough about God to be
God-fearing, that is: to humble himself before him and serve him with
reverence. Do we know what Cornelius knew or does he seem a little strange to
us?
By the way he did not get everything
right in his God-fearing attitude. When the angel visited him, the Bible
records that he stared at him in
fear (Acts 10:4). He became scared
which is not the same as fearing God and when he entered Peters house, he fell
at Peters feet in reverence (Acts
A man spoke to his pastor on the phone
and confided in him, saying: Never
in my life have I ever been so utterly terrified. For Gods reasons alone God
began to deal with sin in my life. God has brought up things that I have not
thought about for years and years. He has brought up things from my youth that
I have never dealt with in my life things that have affected my marriage and
my assignment. God was relentless for three weeks bringing to mind what he sees
as sin and how serious it is with him. I came to the place a few days ago where
I cried out to God and asked why God was doing this to me. God said to me,
Because you have lost the fear of me I am doing this. The question is: Does God have to do the
same to us because we have likewise lost the fear of him.
The pastor listened to the man and then wrote
down his conclusions: When you do
not fear God, you will not fear sin. There is a direct relationship between a
high view of God and a high view of sin. A low view of God brings a low view of
sin. When there is no fear of God, there is no fear of sin. It is amazing to me
the number of people who can sin grieveously against the Word of God
It
amazes me how so many people somehow believe that as long as they do not feel
that something is bad, that it is not bad as long as they can feel okay about
it, they can continue to do it
(Henry Blackaby: Holiness, Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers 2003, p9-10).
No. Peter concluded his sermon by
telling Cornelius Acts 10:42:
Jesus
Christ is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. Judgement is coming and the standard will
be the holiness of God perfect righteousness. Nothing will be compromised and the only reason that we will escape
condemnation is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for us. As Peter also said
Acts 10:43:
everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins
through his name. None of our sins
will be excused. They will be forgiven because someone else suffered the
punishment for our sins on our behalf Jesus on the cross: wounded and
tortured for us.
God forgives us but he doesnt change
his nature which is holy. Therefore
we can never separate faith from
repentance ongoing repentance making room for his holiness. Jesus himself declared that this is at the
heart of the Christian experience. After he rose from the dead, he summed up
the message of salvation with these words Luke 24:46-47:
repentance
and forgiveness of sins [flowing from repentance] will be preached in his name
Therefore later when the disciples preached their first
sermon and the people asked them Acts 2:37:
what shall we do,
there could only be one answer. The
disciples said Acts 2:38: Repent
All of us here understand who you are dealing with and how much you
need to be saved. Turn away from sin and turn toward Jesus in holy fear.
I want to make another point clear.
People said about Cornelius that (I
remind us of this verse) Acts 11:18:
God . granted [him]
repentance
unto life. God grants repentance.
It is always God that makes you a Christian. Without him setting up an
appointment with you and without him tugging at your heart, nothing would ever
happen. In the same way understand that God keeps granting repentance to you
as you keep turning towards him and what he wants. The Bible says
Philippians 2:12-13: . my dear friends, as you have always obeyed [as you
have always kept yourself turned toward God]
continue to work out your
salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and
to act according to his good purpose. For
the duration of our entire life on earth we continue to work on repentance
with fear and trembling because our God is a holy God but we are not doing
this in our own strength. It is he who works in us to will and to act according
to his good purpose.
May I also add that the deep motivation
for being so committed to God-fearing holiness is not just that we want to be
saved and be secure in eternity. We are fascinated by God. He loves us with the
kind of crazy love that even dies on the cross in shame for us flawed people like us. God is so pure in his love and this pure love the total lack of
selfishness is precisely his holiness
his nature which knows no shadow or sin (cf. Hebrews 12:29; 1 John 1:5). The Bible says 1 John 4:16:
God
is love
Therefore if we want
to know him better if we want to be consumed by him then we respect his holiness (the
nature of his love) with reverent fear
and draw near to him with obedience. The Bible further says 1 John 4:16:
God is love. Whoever lives in love [in his kind of holiness] lives in
God and God in him.
A human example would be that if as a man you
love a certain woman, you are in some cases willing to commit to the study of Meg Ryan movies, the pleasure of
shopping for clothes, learning to talk about your feelings and lots more
you respect all of these because you
want to draw near to this person and become one with this person. It is the
same with God. Only he is holy. 1 John 2:3-6 from the Bible: We know
that we have come to know him if we obey his commands
if anyone obeys his
word, the love of God is truly made complete in him. This is how we know that
we are in him
Hebrews 12:14:
without holiness no one will see
the Lord but so Jesus said
Matthew 5:8:
the pure in heart
will see God. We want to see him (nothing is more blessed) and therefore we pursue a pure and holy heart. We are driven by love
which in the end fears God without being afraid of him (1 John 4:18). We fear him and we love him.
A perfect example of what I am talking
about is Moses. He had seen the holy God in action setting his people free from slavery in Egypt but
also punishing those that opposed him with plagues (sending boils on people,
even slaying the firstborn son of every family horrific stuff). Yet, Moses fell in love with God and
couldnt get enough of him. When he and the people of Israel came to Mount
Sinai, God was there.
I read from the Bible Exodus 24:15-18: When Moses went up on the
mountain the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount
Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the
Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. To the Israelites the glory of the
Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. Then Moses entered
the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty
days and forty nights. The Lord God
called Moses from within the cloud which contained his glory and Moses was allowed to enter in for forty
days and forty nights. From below the mountain the glory cloud looked like a
consuming fire. Wow. I recall a testimony where a congregation was worshipping
in a building in Latvia and the neighbours saw flames of fire coming out of the
church building so that they in fact called the fire brigade. Yet, it was the glory of God. Moses was in it
for forty days and forty nights. He heard God speaking with him and received
tablets of stone which were inscribed by the finger of God.
Yet, he couldnt get enough. Even at
that very time he wanted more
Exodus 33:18: . Moses said, Now show me your glory. And God was pleased with his desire for
him. I read from the Bible Exodus 33:19-34:7: And the Lord said, I
will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my
name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But, he said, you
cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. Then the Lord said, There
is place near where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will
put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed
by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not
be seen.
And the Lord passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, The Lord, the
Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion
and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children
and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth
generation.
Moses loved God with a passion but even
in his relationship with him God never lost his fearsome holiness. He was and
is a God that is compassionate
and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining
love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet, at the same time he does not leave the
guilty unpunished and even someone like Moses was not allowed not able to see his face and live. This side of
eternity none of us impure humans can survive the exposure of too much from
God. We would die. [For instance, some people get so filled with the joy of
God or the love of God that they feel like dying. It is too much. Their human
frame cannot contain so much of God in his purity.]
When Moses came out of this encounter
with God, his own face ended up shining
glowing with the glory of God. It was
so bright that he needed to cover himself with a veil before others (Exodus
34:33) because others were able to
tolerate far less of God than he was. We want to fall in love with God
draw near to him more and more but
at all times we will respect the fearsome quality of his holiness. [Isaiah
6:3: Holy, holy, holy is the Lost of hosts; the whole earth is full of his
glory!]
Lets become more practical again. What
do you think is the current state of your repentance? Up to now how serious
have you been about turning away from sin and toward God? Do you agree with
what the Bible says 1 Corinthians
6:9-11:
Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters
nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor
the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom
of God. 1 Corinthians 6:18: Flee from sexual immorality
How pure are you when it comes to the sins
of the flesh? Are you committing adultery or thinking about it? Are you in the
grip of lust? Do you consume pornography? The Bible warns us: Do not be
deceived. You must repent.
Hear more from the Bible and make it
practical for yourself. What do you need to let go? Galatians 5:19-21: The acts of the sinful nature
are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and
witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you,
as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of
God. You and I ask yourself: Do I
get jealous of others? Do I have selfish ambition? Do I get drunk? Repent
even this morning. Love God and fear
God.
We are to be thorough in this because
the standards of God are high and we are his people Colossians 3:8-9: . now you must rid yourselves
of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language
from your lips. Do not lie to each other
Another good practice is to spend time
on meditating on the ten commandments and what they mean. Martin Luther did
this every day and I now read from his small instruction booklet which is
called the Small Catechism [read two
or three examples]:
The First
Commandment: You shall have no other
gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love and trust in God above
all things. The Second Commandment:
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. What does this mean? We
should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie,
or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and
give thanks. The Third Commandment:
Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean?We
should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but
hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. The Fourth Commandment: Honour your father and your mother. What
does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or
anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them,
love and cherish them. The Fifth
Commandment: You shall not murder. What does this mean? We should
fear and love God so that we do not hurt or harm our neighbor in his body, but
help and support him in every physical need. The Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery. What
does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure
and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each
other. The Seventh Commandment: You
shall not steal. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so
that we do not take our neighbor's money or possessions, or get them in any
dishonest way, but help him to improve and protect his possessions and income. The Eighth Commandment: You shall not
give false testimony against your neighbor. What does this mean? We
should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray
him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him, speak well of him,
and explain everything in the kindest possible way. The Ninth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not
scheme to get our neighbor's inheritance or house, or get it in a way which
only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it. The Tenth Commandment: You shall not
covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or maidservant, his ox or
donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. What does this mean? We
should fear and love God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor's
wife, workers, or animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and
do their duty.
Did you notice how Luther also begins
explaining every commandment by saying:
What does this mean? We should fear and love God
Fear and love! Then the holy standard of
Gods commandments like a mirror exposes
our imperfections when we do
misuse Gods name by swearing and tolerating movies that are full of
swearing or when we give false
testimony by harming another ones reputation with our words of gossip.
This is all rather practical and you
cannot be a Christian if you are not willing to let go of your sin, that is:
repent. Let God grant you repentance unto life and then follow up your
repentance with practical fruit as
the Bible says Luke 3:8: Produce fruit in keeping with repentance
which means that you are to make
reparations (cf. Luke 19:8) and
start acting in love. Give back what you have stolen. Say sorry to those that
you have damaged.
Right this may sound like a
lot of pressure right now and therefore in closing I want to warn you about a common mistake.
Salvation is by repentance and then on the basis of your repentance by the forgiveness of your sins not by our own efforts of fixing what we
have messed up in our lives. An evangelist complains: " ... what
is particularly saddening and even agonizing, is that many ministers and
leading Christians give completely false instruction on how to overcome sin [on
how to be a Christian]. The directions that are generally given on the subject,
I am sorry to say, amount to this: 'Take your sins in detail, resolve to
abstain from them, and fight against them, if need be with prayer and fasting,
until you have overcome them. Set your will firmly against a relapse into sin,
pray and struggle, and resolve that you will not fall and persist in this
until you form the habit of obedience and break all your sinful habits.' To be
sure, it is generally added: 'In this conflict, you must not depend upon your
own strength but pray for the help of God.' ... " (Charles Finney:
Power From God, New Kensington 1996, 119-120).
This is wrong. We cannot get rid of sin in our lives by fighting sin just
as we cannot get rid of the darkness in a room by trying to shovel out the
darkness. We have to turn on the light. Repentance is turning on the light of
Jesus in your life which overcomes sin with his power. Repentance is coming
under his management and is not a self-improvement program where you struggle
on your own to make yourself God-pleasing.
When you see it from this angle, repentance is a wonderful gift and is
an exercise of joy because you can simply turn to Jesus walk away from the bondage
let the old die and then receive forgiveness and a new life which flows
out from this forgiveness with the power of God. Do you understand what I am
trying to say? Turn repent with your eyes fixed on Jesus not the
sin that you need to overcome. By faith let him overcome the power of darkness
in your life.
Now are you ready? Do you want to repent? Peter preached to
Cornelius, saying:
Jesus Christ . is Lord of
all
everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his
name. Are you ready to turn and let
Jesus Christ also be your Lord? It is a good turn on offer from God for
you. Repent unto life. Amen.