Ann Barnes passed away this morning as I was writing this message. Her friends and family are shocked and grieved--myself included. And many of us are struggling to process it. Our hearts go out to Rusty and their family.
At times of lose like this, our hearts hurt and we have many questions. We wonder about hope as we suffer and see people we love suffer.
And
providentially, our Scripture today gives hope as it asks a very important
question: What is the message Christians proclaim to the world? I hope you will listen with especially attentive ears. Let us begin with the Scripture.
Luke 24:44-49
44 Then he said, “When I was with you before, I told
you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and
in the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened
their minds to understand the Scriptures. 46 And he
said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die
and rise from the dead on the third day. 47 It was
also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name
to all the nations,[a] beginning
in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’ 48 You
are witnesses of all these things.
49 “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father
promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you
with power from heaven.”
Jesus gives us the core message of Christian hope in verse 47. We are to preach to the whole world: “There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.”
Moments like this—when we come face to face with the death of someone we love, who left this world too early and so unexpectedly—remind us that life is fragile. The message of forgiveness is incredibly important.
Ann Barnes was a sweet, sweet soul. I have not known her as long as most of you, but I have known her long enough to know she was a true follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus was her Lord and Savior. She loved Him and served Him. And He welcomed her Home today. He saved by His grace through faith when she repented of her sins followed Him.
And so today I do not need to fear for Ann, because I know she is
in Heaven with Jesus.
Her body is made whole. The health issues
she struggled with over the past few years are gone.
She no longer has to suffer the brokenness and evil of this world (no more pollical
ads…).
Jesus showed His Disciples from Scripture how the Old Testament clearly foretold how Jesus must suffer, be killed and rise from the dead on the third day. This was part of God’s plan. Jesus had to suffer. He suffered for our sakes.
We suffer
too. We suffer because of sin. Sometimes it is because of our own sin, but more often it is just because of sin in general. The world is broken because of sin. And this sin sickness infects everything we experience. Yet our suffering would be worse if it had
not been for our Savior—the Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord.
In the Old
Testament, in Isaiah 53:5-6, it says of Jesus, “But he was pierced for our
rebellion, crushed for our sins. He
was beaten so we could be whole. He was
whipped so we could be healed. All of
us, like sheep, have strayed away. We
have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.”
Jesus
suffered for us to lessen our suffering.
Were it not for Him, the suffering we experience—as unbearable as it
already is—would be completely unbearable.
We would utterly collapse and be crushed under the weight of it. Yet Jesus took the greater part of our
suffering on His own shoulders. He has
given us enough space to hear God’s call for repentance.
From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus preached: “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” Those who follow Jesus make their start when they choose to repent of their sins and follow Him. To repent literally means to turn away.
We repent
by turning away from our sin and turning toward Jesus. We turn aside from a following the path of sin to follow the path of Christ. No longer do we choose to live for ourselves and our own plans. Instead, we follow Christ.
We give Jesus control of our destiny, realizing His plans are better than our own.
So, we are
faced with two real choices. We can continue
to live our lives as we please. Or we can surrender control to God, repent of our sin, and follow Jesus. There is no middle ground. Jesus is either
your Lord or He is not. We all have to
decide.
There are real consequences to the choice we make. If you continue to live as you please, you will eventually be separated from God forever in the fires of hell, tormented for eternity. You may enjoy some pleasures in this life (though I would argue they are an illusion), but you will ultimately pay for all your sin with eternal suffering.
But you don’t have to. God offers you forgiveness and peace through Jesus Christ. If you repent of your sin and follow Jesus, you can be saved. You will suffer some in this life, but you will ultimately spend eternity with God—the source of life—in the Kingdom of Heaven where there is no more sin or suffering or death. And so, you must choose: will you continue in sin or repent and follow Christ.
I pray today you will choose Jesus if you have not done so already!
Those who choose Jesus as Lord have work to do. Jesus has done His part. Now, it is time for us to do ours. And what is that?
Our part is to preach Jesus’ message of repentance for the forgiveness of sin to the whole world. This is our most important task. It is our mission. It is why we are a church.
You can take away everything else we do as a church and we will still be a
church if we are faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ who preach repentance
for the forgiveness of sins. But if we do everything else—River of Life, preaching, teaching, music,
Sunday school, Acorn Circle, etc.—but do not preach repentance for the
forgiveness of sins, then we cease to be a legitimate Christian church.
And it is
not just for the pastor to preach repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It is for every follower of Christ. You may never stand in a pulpit and preach a
sermon, but you will preach by every word you say or don’t say and by every
thing you do or don’t do. God has laid
before every Christian a congregation to hear the message we preach. For me, it is in the pulpit (and also on
social media and on the internet and wherever else I can use my witness to
spread the Gospel).
But for
you, it may be as a mother talking to your children. Or as a Father.
Or it maybe as a teacher by the way you interact with your students in a school.
Or as a nurse tending to patients and talking with co-workers.
Or as a grandparent grandparenting.
You can fill in the blank with whatever roles God has given you. He has put you there for
a reason.
Every Christian is to influence their own circle of influence with the message
of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
And we should
not feel overwhelmed with the task. For Jesus
sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to do it.
It is the same Holy Spirit who enabled the Peter to preach and win 3,000
to Christ. It is the same Holy Spirit that in Acts enabled believers to speak foreign
languages and perform other miracles and caused the Church to grow
exponentially, though it was sorely persecuted. The some Holy Spirit empowers you to be a witness for Christ.
So, in closing, I want to implore you with two things.
- If you are not yet a Christian, won’t you choose to be one today? Repent of your sins and turn to Jesus. None of us know how long we have in this world. And once you leave it, it will be too late to repent. So repent and turn to Jesus today.
- If you are a Christian, dedicate yourself to the main calling of every follower of Christ—to be His faithful witnesses who preach the message: “There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.”
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