Practically Sanctified

Matthew 18:23-33 “the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

Ever had someone try to sell you something? I was leaving a mall on Friday, ahead of Bonnie and the kids with some groceries. This nice young man stops me by a booth and goes into a spiel about moisturizer and dead sea salt and oils. I was able to walk away without buying anything, especially when I found out I needed to spend $60 to get something. He rubbed some stuff on the back of my hand and it went into my skin. He did the same thing on the inside of my wrist and it didn’t – and he claimed it was his product that made a difference. I understood that it was because the skin is slightly different and he was just using it as a sales pitch.

I am up here speaking from the Bible. Sometimes people may look at me and think I am doing a sales pitch, just trying to get their money or something from them. What they don’t understand is that I am trying to give them something… for free. No strings attached. In fact, it is not even me offering it, I am just trying to make them aware of it.

In the Old Testament the word for grace means “to bend or stoop”. It talks of a superior granting something unasked and unearned to a subordinate. We often read in the Old Testament where people found favour in the sight of God. That is the word Grace being used. The first time it is used is when Noah finds favour in the sight of God – in the midst of judgment for sin, we see the grace of God. It is something that is extended fully and freely to those who won’t ever be able to repay it. It is favour undeserved and unearned.

You and I, then, could never offer grace to people on a human level, because we are not superior. What we understand, is that we never offer our grace, we offer the grace of God to those around us. He is the Lord God, the gracious Host of Heaven. His grace is offered freely to all. Romans 6:23 talks about the free gift of God. The passage where we started this series of sermons was Romans 5 where we read that it is grace in which we stand. So what is this grace? What is this thing that allows us to find a place to stand even in the midst of struggles and difficulties?

First of all, Grace is Freedom. What is freedom? In a sense it is the opposite of legalism. Galatians 5:13-14 says “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”” It is freedom from control, from the tyranny of sin and the Law. The Law could never grant us freedom, never will. It was there to show us the need for grace; the Law was there to show us that we could not do it. Romans 6:17-18 says this: “But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Do you hear that? Sin is no longer master over you. People are walking all around us in this city in bondage to sin and they don’t realize it. They may feel it; they may know something isn’t quite right, because the Spirit of God is pointing them to the answer. But they are still without hope, for hope is found in Jesus Christ. The hope you and I have is that Jesus is coming back for us; that He has gone to heaven and is preparing a place for us. You are free, in the grace of God, from the tyranny of sin. Romans 8 explains that God has provided you everything you need to live a life of holiness. He has given you the Spirit to guide and direct; to chastise and convict. All you have to do is respond in faith to the grace of God and you will be victorious.

Understand that Grace provides the way, but it doesn’t force you down the narrow path of righteousness. You have to respond to the grace that goes before you. Did you hear Kathleen’s testimony last week? She knew something heavy was coming her way. God was getting her ready, so that when her husband Rick became seriously sick with the West Niles Neurological Syndrome, grace was already surrounding them and going before them. God is faithful and just and will not allow us to be tempted or tried beyond what we are able to endure, but will with the trial provide a way through it.

This grace is also the freedom to be all you can be. The armed forces are notorious for campaigns that talk about being all you can be. The truth is we are in a spiritual war. We are involved in a heavenly battle not just for a commodity in the ground, or a piece of land, but for the very souls of people. God gives us in His grace the freedom to use our strengths and gifts and talents unhindered by sin and the fallenness around us, if only we respond to Him. Grace is freedom, the freedom to choose where we had no choice before.

Grace is also all about God and what He has done for us, not about what we have done for Him. Listen to this quote from Chuck Swindoll’s The Grace Awakening: “To believe by grace and to live by grace include the reality of risk. Most people find this uncomfortable. Most want some moral report card that objectively measures their progress. Works provide that. But if works are not the basis of our relationship with God, then there is no external proof of salvation or spirituality. If, on the other hand, grace is the basis of our relationship with God, then the reality of our faith is internal. It can be seen – and judged – only by God.” In trying to be obedient to God, to living holy lives, we can sometimes think it is about us. We think that we are doing God a favour. He has done all the work. There is no more work that needs to be done, other than worshipping Him. And holiness, works of service, kind and encouraging words, those are of a higher worship than standing here singing a song. All your doing and stuff, if you are not doing it out of worship to your Creator, it does nothing for you except maybe make you feel good for helping. It does benefits the one you are helping – but I am talking to you as mature Christians. Do it for God, not for my approval, nor for the approval of the person in the chair beside you. How many of us have seen what we thought was a “wonderful Christian” blow it. Anger, or words, or bad deeds… somehow they blew it and we were surprised because we thought we had pegged them as a great Christian. You know what? Extend them grace, God’s grace. Let God worry about where they are at with Him and encourage and do what God calls you to do and be with them. If I blow it, I hope grace is extended my way from you. Life is too short, and the work too much and too hard to be “piddling” around without grace. It is only in grace that God will move in and through us.
Grace is also to be given away. Remember the Scripture we read earlier in the service? How can you and I, who have been forgiven so much, go through life with an unforgiving spirit? God has said we will be judged for that. Jesus said it in so many ways: Your brother strikes you on your cheek, turn the other and let him strike that one. He took your coat? Give him your shirt as well. The point is that we are called to be agents of grace. It is not our grace. Our grace could never be big enough or broad enough. We are agents of God’s grace. Let me leave you 4 thoughts on how to do this:

1) Accept others as they are. Don’t approach relationships trying to change people. Let God do that part, for that is His business. The Commandment is to love our neighbour as ourselves; not love them if they look like us.
2) Let others decide for themselves. We can’t force people to follow Jesus, or to be kind, or even to talk to us. We can pray for them, try to talk to them, encourage them with a verse of Scripture – Grace is lived out in so many ways.
3) Refuse to judge others. Again, this is God’s business to know where they are at with Him. Our business is to love them with the love of Jesus. That is balanced with the stewardship we have of what God has given us, but judging is not part of it. Let people be who they are, and recognize God loves them as much as He loves you. He died for them just as He died for you! And who is to say you have it all together? Who’s to say that you are worthy of being the most Christ-like follower of all?
4) Lastly, express your freedom in grace wisely. Don’t be doing things that cause a brother or sister to stumble; model for them integrity. This does not mean you give in to someone’s legalistic control over you, but be aware of a genuine concern someone approaches you with. Do everything as unto Jesus, not people.

It takes time, it takes pain, and it means change. Are you ready to experience grace anew in your life?

John 3:1-21 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.“
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.“
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.“

Everybody loves a great story. There are classics in literature that many people recognize as great writing. Sometimes it is because of the characters, people we get, we relate too, we are right there with them in the setting. Sometimes it is the action. The author has written a dense novel so there are no slow moments. Ever read a book and that you take it with you wherever you go because you can’t put it down. One danger of writing is having a saggy middle. A good start, and a bang up end; but the author has only one idea. To make a novel means they have to stretch that idea out over chapters; when they should have just written it as a short story. The characters have to be doing something more than just making toast. There are a lot of elements to stories that authors have to contend with, if they truly want to write a great book. One such story is Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, known as Palm Sunday. It is filled with characters and action; children and animals and greenery. Quite the thing! Most of us know the details and we also know it is part of a much bigger and grander and longer story that reaches back before time began.

There’s God – a big Creator, who makes man in His image. Unfortunately that image gets marred and so the relationship is broken between the Creator and His creation. That brokenness was a result of sin – anything that we have done that goes against the character of God. God has a plan, though, to restore that brokenness, for He created man to have a wonderful relationship with Himself. First, He raised a people from one man and woman. He made an agreement with them that though their offspring He would raise a people He would call His own, and out of those people, He would bless the whole world. He did wonderful things for these people, but they struggled to be true to Him. His plan led to His Son becoming one of them; and His name was Jesus. Jesus came so that through His death and resurrection we all could have that broken relationship with God, our Creator, restored. God did the work, all we have to do is accept that and follow Jesus. That is our choice: do we want to ask God to be our Leader and Forgiver?

That is the Gospel. That is the story of salvation in a nutshell, that is found in this book, which is the story of God’s redeeming love for us. There are four sermons in Acts, 2 by Peter and 2 by Paul. They are found in Acts 2, 3, 13, and 17. They contain this God story. They all use Scripture from the Old Testament and talk of God at work in the ancient times. They talk about how Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus. When it comes to Jesus, they reference His miracles, His death on a cross, and His resurrection. They application they have is a call to repentance, to turning away from sin.
I think too often we start with that last point, the fact that we are sinners. We need to balance that fact with the story of God’s grace, of God working down through the ages to provide a way for us to reconnect with Him. The Gospel is Good News. The Gospel is Grace. I want to suggest 4 things that explain this Grace. Then I want to refer to Jesus conversation with Nicodemus which we read earlier. Lastly, I want to leave some thoughts about what this means for you and I.

1) The Gospel begins with the story of creation. It talks of a God so immense He created all that we see, but most importantly He created you and me. He created you and me to have a relationship with Him. This is good news. Jesus said that He came so that we could have abundant life. This is a picture of a shepherd looking after his sheep. You are special – not just because I say so, not just because you may think so, but because the God who created all the wonders of this world and universe took the time to create you and He says so; and He knows you even now – whether you are close to Him or far away; whether you call Him friend or unknowable.

2) The Gospel becomes inaccessible with of the story of sin. Something happened a long time ago that broke that relationship. As a result, you are not strong enough to get to God. You cannot be good enough to get to God. You are not smart enough to get to God. There is nothing you can do to get to God in or of yourself. The reason is because you are marred. Because of sin, you are far away from God. Anything against the character of God is sin.

3) The Gospel becomes viable with the story of Jesus. Because you and I couldn’t do anything to fix what was broken between us and God, God took the initiative. He covered all the bases, paid all the debt owing, provided all the necessary things for our relationship with Him to be restored. He did it all. Through Jesus’ life, death on a cross, and resurrection we now have the opportunity to reconnect with our Creator. He has done it all – all the work is done.

4) The Gospel is your life. There is a decision you have to make. Though the Gospel is now viable and accessible, it isn’t yours until you make a decision. The decision is whether you are going to follow Jesus or not. When you follow someone you learn from them and become like them. It starts with a decision to accept the truth – the truth that you need to change. That change involves asking forgiveness for your sins, and then walking through life dropping the bad and taking on the good. To put it simply, it is loving God with all you got, and your neighbour as if he were you.

There are a lot of details that could be added, but those come with time, as we get to know God better. Paul said it is all about being “in Christ” or having “Jesus in us”. It is simple to say, but it will change your life to live those words.

I want to mention 3 things about this passage from John 3. First, this is part of an ongoing conversation. Jesus started off by saying, “You gotta change – You gotta be born again.” Though the terminology didn’t make sense to Nicodemus, he knew it was about faith and our relationship with God.
Secondly, the key verses are 16-18: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Jesus says here if you do nothing, you are under judgement. God is reaching out to you. If you ignore that, you have made your choice. Notice though, and thirdly, Jesus’ mission. Man is already judged – we don’t need to do that. Jesus came to save, to redeem, to restore. Our mission is the same. We are not called to judge, but to pursue Christ-likeness. This leads me to three closing thoughts about what Grace looks like:

1) Grace gives us the Freedom to ask questions because it is a dialogue. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Do I shy away from the hard stuff because I don’t know if God can handle it? What kind of God do I believe in if I don’t think He can handle the hard stuff? If I truly believe my faith is about a relationship with the Creator, I better be dialoguing with Him.
2) Grace gives us the freedom to grow because it is a journey. None of us have arrived, and we won’t until we see Jesus face to face. We are not here to judge, but to extend grace. We had a great discussion about legalism and the law at our small group on Thursday. My task is to extend grace to those people around me, not judgment. God is the one responsible for that, but while we have breath in our bodies grace is where we live.
3) Grace gives us the freedom to be ourselves because God loves us. Yes, following Jesus means our lives will change. We are bent to holiness if indeed we are pursuing Jesus. His Spirit is at work in us even if our bodies are dead because of sin. But Jesus died while we were yet sinners! Are you struggling with something? Ask me to pray for you, ask us all to pray for you. We all have struggles of one kind or another. We all are striving to live in obedience to the Spirit, and experience tells us that it usually doesn’t happen overnight. We are all on this same pilgrimage, this road leading to Christ-likeness. Lest us walk with each other.