Are you saved?

Readings: Psalm 121, Genesis 12:1-4, Romans 4:1-17, John 3:1-17.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on March 16th 2014

A printable PDF file can be found here

 I am not a great fan of the sort of Christianity that turns religion into an isolated decision to follow Jesus Christ. I'm not the sort of preacher who punctuates every sermon with invitations for "Y'all to come down to the front and get saved".  I consciously try not to manipulate peoples guilt or emotions so as they make a misguided decision to be a disciple of  Jesus.

I well remember the lady who told me that she had been saved by Billy Graham five times and she couldn't wait for him to come and preach again so she could go down and be saved once more. I believe that discipleship isn’t that easy or that shallow.

My personal reservations aside  (and being a white, middle class British male I probably have more personal reservations than many of you) certain texts of Scripture call us to ask the most direct, searching and personal questions about our faith and our salvation. John Chapter Three is one of those  passages. 

In this passage Jesus tells us that unless we are born again we shall not see the Kingdom of God.  That unless we are born of water and Spirit we shall not enter the Kingdom of God. Spiritual birth is related to both seeing and entering into the things of God. We are given some of the most well known verses of Scripture in John 3, verses16 and 17;  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”

These passages compel us to ask the question,  "Are we saved? Do we know the experience of being born again, or as it can also be translated being born "from above"? Have we considered the alternatives that Jesus offers?  We are asked to make a choice between eternity or perishing, salvation or judgment, light or darkness, earthly things or heavenly things, to believe or not to believe in the saving work, the name and the person  and the witness of Jesus Christ.

Elsewhere we are told that it is by faith that we are saved, and by implication, that where there is no faith in Jesus Christ there is no salvation. Our Old Testament passage gave us the account of Abraham's calling and setting out on his journey of faith.

Abraham’s experience was one of new birth.  At birth we are born into a family, a nation and a certain heritage.  Abraham is called, by the Spirit of God, to leave behind his family ties, his ties of nationality and his heritage. Those things that were naturally his by birth. He is called by faith to abandon and spiritually lay claim to a new family, a new country, a new life, a new hope, a new vision of who he was, how he related to God and all that was in the world around him.

Through the waters of birth he was born into an earthly heritage.  Through the Spirit of God he is born again, born from above, to a different way of being. Just as Jesus called Nicodemus to embrace a new way of life, a way not envisioned by the natural inclinations of man but by the vision of God, so Abraham was called. We also are called to be born again, to embark on a new journey, to leave the old behind and be part of something new.

For Nicodemus it was not going to be easy. He had intellectual difficulties to work through.  He had pictures in his mind of what birth was about and what religion was about and how a person should serve God and who Jesus was and what life was all about. He had thought deeply about these things.  He was a man with an education,  a teacher of Israel, a judge, a ruler amongst his people.  He had his social position and political position to consider. He had economic and religious commitments to take into account.

Then again it wasn't easy for Abraham. He also was a man tied to his tradition and his position.  He had commitments to things that made it hard to say "Yes" to God.  How could God bless him as being the Father of a new nation when he had no child and his wife was barren?  How could he leave behind his established way and venture into the unknown for places he knew not where? You’re born, you make a life for your self,  you have responsibilities, you’re settled, things are good... who wants to be born again and have to face all that over again?

Abraham’s journey turned out to be, not one isolated decision, but a continuous coming to terms with all that God was calling him to be.  Wrestling with tough decisions, being prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, conflicts with family and neighbors, mistakes and misunderstandings, all this and so much more. 

About Nicodemus we know less, but at the end of John's gospel he is one of those who, along with Joseph of Arimathea,  comes to prepare the broken body of Jesus for burial; bringing spices and myrrh and laying his body in the tomb. Nicodemus, in time, came to believe enough in Jesus to sacrifice all that he was in order that his life may bring honor to that of Christ's. 

So what of ourselves?  Are we on that journey?  The born from above, re-birthed journey? The salvation journey? Every journey has to have a point of departure.  Earthly life begins as we depart from the waters of the womb and start to breathe the air and relate to the world around us. Until that point we are an embryo, a human in the making, an unborn child.

Likewise spiritual life has to have a point of departure. For Abraham it was a movement out from all that he held dear to embrace a vision that he couldn’t precisely define. For Nicodemus it was having to choose between all that his life had so far taught him and to embrace the teaching of Jesus Christ.

That process of moving from a position of unbelief to a position of faith is what Jesus describes as being born from above or being born again.  It is seen as a different kind of birthing to human birth, because it is a response to the work of God’s Spirit upon a persons life.  It is a super-natural thing, dependent upon the initiative of God.

In Matthew’s gospel (16:17) when Peter came to make his confession of Jesus as being the Son of God, Jesus praises him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Simon Peter is praised for showing evidence of spiritual rebirth by testifying to those things God was revealing in his heart.

Spiritual rebirth takes place as we draw near to Jesus.  It takes place as we hear His words and act upon them.  It takes place as we pray and open our hearts to God’s influence.  It means asking Jesus to be at our center, not as a one off and once for all decision, (although that may well be our point of departure) but constantly seeking for His love to be at the heart of all things in our lives.

From my standpoint, which admittedly is extremely biased for I am after all a Presbyterian minister, I can only see what you have to gain by committing your life to Jesus Christ.  It is a marvelous thing to have the assurance that your sins are forgiven. It is such freedom to not have to live with the guilt of past mistakes and daily lapses into sinfulness, because Christ died for our sins.

It is a liberating thing to know that my life and my death are in God’s hands.  Whilst I don’t always understand and often become frustrated with God for the injustices, the personal failures, the annoying things, the things I don’t understand, it is like a rock below the surface to know that despite my questions there is a God who knows all, sees all and loves us despite it all.

At times I do become pessimistic when I think of the state of the world and all the stuff that’s wrong with it, but at other times I get excited at the prospect of the world as it shall be and what Scripture calls the hope of Glory.  I don’t have all the answers and a lot of the time don’t even ask the right questions, but God let’s me in on all that I need to know, so even my ignorance is something God is working on.

I’ve heard people say sometimes, “Well, I would be a Christian but I can’t take all that giving up stuff... all those do’s and don’ts are just so repressive”.  Personally I don’t have a problem with giving up death, which is where my life would be heading without Christ.  I don’t have a problem with giving up on doing stuff that is ultimately life cheapening or addictive or sometimes just plain stupid.

May God forgive us for at times portraying God as somehow being the invisible policeman, the great Mr Kill-Joy in the sky. The prohibitions that Scripture presents us aren’t for any kind of sadistic divine pleasure, they are there because we are fallible,  unpredictable and certainly misguided creatures with a tendency to make bad choices and  wrong decisions.  Christ came that we may have life.... so we can really live.

I can guarantee you that as you draw near to God, God won’t force you into giving up or taking up anything that’s against your will.  God's Spirit will work on you and change you.  Things you once thought really mattered will become of minor importance. Relationships will form with the most unlikely of people and situations. Life won’t be the same.. but who wants more and more and more and more of the same?

I said at the start that I am not a "Y'all to come down to the front and get saved" sort of
preacher.  At least not usually.  But a text like John 3:16  invites a response.

Because it could be you are one of those who has never consciously made the decision to be a disciple of Christ. You know others have, but you have never really invited the Spirit of God to be the driving force of your life.  Don’t fool yourself. 

Till you take that step of commitment you are in the womb of the world but have not yet started to enjoy the life of the Kingdom.  You will neither see the point nor feel the need to do things God’s way, but mistakenly believe that you know best.

Maybe you presume your sins are forgiven, but  are not really sure. You hope your headed for somewhere good when you die, but you’re not convinced. Could be you blame God for as many things as you thank God for.  All this might be an indication that you have never really opened your heart, never really asked Jesus to come in, never seriously considered His call to follow.

It doesn’t have to be that way.  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

Maybe you have taken that initial step, but have become bogged down, like the good seed that fell among the weeds.  There was a time when it all seemed so clear, but now... well time has extracted a heavy toll.  Today would be a good time for renewing your commitment.  Why not join me in this commitment prayer.

“Lord Jesus Christ
I ask you to come afresh into my heart this day
Forgive me and renew me
That I may know Your salvation,
To the Glory of God. AMEN!”

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.