Northside Church - Sydney
Anchor Points Week 1: I Can Know I Am Saved
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Contrary to popular belief, when a 34-year-old Catholic monk nailed some pieces of paper to the door of the local church, nobody would have been surprised. In the time and era we're talking about, the door of the local church was the community notice board, because life revolved around the local church. It was the center point of community life, and so the door of the church was the community notice board. That's where you'd find the minutes of the town council flapping in the breeze. You'd find some legal notices. You might find some enterprising salespeople with little announcements about advertising in their wares, you might see a few requests for babysitters or whatever if they had those in those days. It was like those notice boards that some of you see at the supermarket, you know, with all the different cars for sale and so on. It was also a place, if it was an academic town, it was also a place where scholars would put up their latest thinking, their ideas on all kinds of subjects. In that way it was a kind of an early version of letters to the editor. So nobody would have been surprised when this Catholic priest nailed some paper to the church door. Now some of you are a couple of steps ahead of me, and you know that the date we're talking about is October 31, 1517, the Catholic priest is Martin Luther, and the church is Castle Church Wittenberg in Germany, I think they say Wittenberg, like that, Wittenberg. That's what we're talking about, Martin Luther, nailing his 95 feasts to the door. This was the genesis, this was the starting point of what we now know as the Protestant Reformation, which progressively would sweep the globe, drawing millions of people away from the Catholic church and into this new Protestant revival. It was a radical theological concept, which was to lead ultimately to Luther, being declared a heretic by the Pope of the day, known as the 95 feasts. This theological discussion paper, among other things, had a real crack at the abuses of the Roman Catholic church at that time, particularly in the area that came to be known as the selling of indulgences. Now if you've not done any church history, let me tell you about the selling of indulgences. This was a scheme thought up by the Catholic church in the Middle Ages. It wasn't the church's best era I might add, but they sort of dropped a scheme where you could pay to have your sins forgiven. Never mind prayer and claiming forgiveness through, just a moody, make sure, you know, like at $10 or we'll cover it, you know, 20 will really cover it, you know, that kind of thing. You could pray to, or rather you could pay to guarantee that you wouldn't go to hell. You could actually pay to get a loved one who you believe was already in hell, out of hell. I'm not sure if you could get a corrupt priest who would, like, you could pay to keep somebody who'd really missed you off, in hell. I'm not sure, possibly. It was just so much corruption in the Catholic church, which was the only church, at that time. Terrible. I mean, buying your own, buying your salvation, buying your salvation. It was just an appalling idea and it was repugnant to this 34-year-old Catholic priest by the name of Martin Luther. This money was used by the way to pay for things like parts of St. Peter's Basilica, the Crusades, different eras. It was just a wrought ripoff. Martin Luther was not impressed, but if nothing else, if nothing else, this particular abuse of the Catholic church certainly proved the desperation that people have to be sure of their salvation, prepare to write a check for it, prepare to spend whatever money was involved to be sure of their eternal salvation. And friends, over the centuries, this aspect of human nature has been given special attention by the various religious movements of the world. Let's face it, today, most of the world's religions include teaching designed, ultimately, to lead the penitent believer to experience salvation in one form or another. I mean, that's the ultimate aim of most of the world's religions, to acquire salvation. I mean, in Buddhism, the emphasis is on certain spiritual practices leading to enlightenment in the achievement of Nirvana. In Hinduism, salvation is all about self-realization and released from the negative influences that might otherwise hold us back. And of course, this process in the Hindu faith involves reincarnation. If you didn't get it right, first time, maybe you might get it right, second time. Salvation in Islam is a matter of observing the five pillars of Islam, which we haven't got time to go into today, but they really do, one of them really particularly relates to one's daily behavior in the areas of morality and spirituality. Entry into heaven in Islam is entirely based on one's performance in these areas of morality and spirituality, although one sure fire way of getting into heaven, if you are of the Islamic faith, is to die as a matter for the church, a doctrine that is sadly horribly distorted and abused by the leaders of many terrorist groups who lead young zealots into suicide bombing with that sort of promise. Well, now Christianity is unique. Christianity is unique among the world's religions because as Sam so often says on a Sunday night, we acquire salvation not by something we do, but by something that's already been done. We receive forgiveness of sins in the promise of eternal life through belief in and commitment to Jesus Christ and his death on the cross and his resurrection. In doing so, we receive power. We receive power through the Holy Spirit to live as we're meant to live. We don't get it right every time we slip and fall, but there's a construction process taking place in every Christian. We're all under construction and we're being renewed and restored daily in our relationship with God through Jesus. Now, friends, that's at the heart of our salvation. We know that. It's a relationship. It's not adherence to a long list of do's and don'ts. It's a relationship between us and God, the Father through Jesus, the Son. The Bible describes this relationship as being like the very best father-child relationship you can imagine in an earthly sense, the very best and then some, you know, add on. Many other components. And how's all this achieved? Well, we read about it just a moment ago. It's achieved through a beautiful blend of God's grace and our faith. Listen to that passage again from Ephesians, the first couple of verses, "For it is by God's grace you've been saved through faith." It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are and in our union with Christ Jesus. He's created us for a life of good deeds, which has already prepared us to do. But you know friends, whereas many of the world's religions see salvation as they understand it, as a kind of end in itself, you know, once you've got it, once you've tickled the boxes, it's yours, you can relax. That's not how it is in Christianity. For the follower of Jesus, it's different. You see, for the Christian assurance of salvation is not meant to make us comfortable or smug. It's meant to call us into action. It's meant to make a difference in the world. In that sense, the certainty of our identity, the certainty of our standing in Christ is meant to significantly affect how we live, how we think, how we see ourselves. And the remaining moments today, I want to remind Christians of the amazing benefits of being certain of your salvation, not having any doubts, lots of hope I make it. It's been a pretty bad week. You know, I want to remind you of the benefits of having certainty, a daily certainty. And for those of you who are yet to embrace Christianity in any service, we always have people who are still inquiring. Basically, I want to try and tell you what you're missing out on. If you haven't got certainty of salvation, you see, when we know, when we know our salvation is assured, number of things happen. Number one, our relationship with God is based on love, not legalism. This is one of the key themes of Paul's Letter to the Romans. And Romans is a book that deeply impacted Luther. He loved Romans, and he based a lot of his teaching in the Reformation Movement on Romans. Have a look at Romans 3, verses 21 to 24. Listen to this. Now, God's way of putting people right with Himself has been revealed. It has nothing to do with law, even though the law of Moses and the prophets gave their witness. God puts people right through their faith in Jesus Christ. God does this to all who believe in Christ, because there is no difference at all, everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence. But by the free gift of God's grace, all are put right with Him through Christ Jesus who sets them free. You can picture Luther there in Wittenberg, pouring over this sort of stuff and getting very excited as he had this new revelation of how God operates. Of course there are moral and ethical and behavioral implications arising out of our relationship with God through Christ. Of course. But our salvation ultimately is dependent on God's grace, otherwise the parable of the political sun might have had a different ending. Okay? You think about it. Here's the welcome home party. And it's going great, except that the prodigal son, still dealing with the demons of the far country, still struggling with some of the addictions he's picked up over the years, he's had a few too many. And he gets involved in an altercation, a bit of a punch-up with one of the waiters, one of those, you know, "What? What do you want?" "What are you looking at?" And you know how that sort of stuff goes, you know, well, I don't know from personal experience. I've seen that in the movies. And all of a sudden there's a full-on punch-up. And it's a mess. There's tables everywhere and the prodigal son's getting into it, and it is a huge. Now, what's going to happen? Is the father going to say, "Okay, okay, fella, if that's how you show you gratitude, you just leave right now. You get out. Right now. Come on. It's over. You go. Is he going to do that?" I mean, those of us who know about parenting will know that in light of such a, I mean, in light of such an outburst, there's going to be disappointment. There's going to be a rebuke. But the fact is, this guy's already been accepted back with the father knowing that he's been living in the far country out of control, a kind of a real flaky kind of lifestyle. And that boy's going to be restored and he's going to be reconciled within the family, of course, because he's made the decision to return. He's been accepted back into the fold. His relationship with the father is not so much dependent on daily actions or daily performance as an overall standing and status as a son and as an heir. That's how it is for parenting. That's unconditional love with the kids you love. They'll be paying and disappointment, but like you're not going to… So friends, that's one of the great blessings of knowing we're saved by grace. It takes away the guilt and the pressure of trying to be good in our own right, trying to really try hard and can do better because in our own strength, we can't do that. That's the gospel. If we could do that, then Jesus would not have had to die on the cross. Something else. Our salvation is assured, our response to others is born out of devotion, not out of duty. In other words, we care for people not as a way of earning brownie points for some heavenly reward down the track. That's not the motivation. We serve out of a sense of deep gratitude for what God has done for us through Jesus as John writes in his first epistle, chapter 4, verse 19, "We love because He has first loved us." That's the deal here. Like most of you, I've mixed in wide circles, not just in the church. I continue to mix in wide circles, healthy Christians do. No good being pleased up in the church all the time. And I'm the first to concede that Christians don't have exclusive rights to qualities like love, compassion, kindness. We don't have exclusive rights to those things. There's lots of groups who express those things. But I will say this. When you experience the care and the support and the unconditional love of the people of God in a community that has been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm not talking about some angry, legalistic, fundamentalist group down the road, I want to tell you how bad you are. I'm talking about genuine love and Christ-centered compassion. When you experience that, there's nothing like it. That's been my story. Nothing like it. And one of the wonderful aspects of being a pastor is you get to see this happening all the time. It's Sam alluded to earlier. You get to see this happening all the time. So many expressions of practical care and compassion every day, we sit officially here through our pastoral care program and all the lives that are touched in any given week through the work of Helen Solomon and her team and the ministry team. We see it with our work with Hope Street beyond Northside. We see it unofficially, spontaneously, informally as people just reach out and make phone calls, write emails, drop in on people. We see that all the time. And then you see special evidence, special evidence of the care and compassion that North Let me give you a little list of people whom I know and there are others whom I wouldn't know about because most of these people are very humble and they don't make a big thing of this. Let me think about the people or the situations I know about from the last 12 months, 12 months to two years and those that are now are coming up in the next six months or so. This is Northside. Okay? These are people who have gone among the orphans of Eastern Europe. People who have gone to the struggling peoples of Nepal to do some building work. People who have gone to the impoverished masses in the Philippines in Cambodia, to the tribes people of Papua New Guinea and the trip that's coming up to the people of Madagascar. And into the Northside who went to Uganda and Vanuatu just in these last several years. I mean, God's people do this, not out of it as I have a credit. You've got to actually prize that out of most of them that they're even going. They do it out of a deep sense of compassion and concern. I should add India in the whole thing too because I'm looking at Bill Watson right there. India, another one and others have been to Israel and different kinds of trips and that. I mean, just the list is amazing. When you're a short of salvation, you do these things not out of duty. You do them because you just want to respond to what God has done for you. You do them out of devotion very quickly. When we know our salvation is assured, our sense of self-worth and value relies not on what others think of us, but on what God thinks of us. But on this very point that Jesus had some of his most fiery encounters and clashes with the Pharisees. You remember? I mean, they were all about outward appearance. I mean, these were the guys who get to the right spot in the temple and pray when they knew the maximum number of people are watching, really praying, pious prayers, making sure people. And these are the guys who kind of reach for the wallet when the most people were in the near vicinity of the Treasury and they'd – whew, you know, right there. Just to kind of put on a bit of a show, there's evidence in the first century that it was a group of Pharisees called the Bleeding Pharisees. And their thing was they wanted to convince people that they weren't being affected by the problem of lust as they went down the marketplace and all the lovely young women down there. So they would close their eyes and move around so they couldn't see. And the trouble is, you kind of hear the beans from a building site, oh gosh, you know, and here's something else, and these guys end up with a lot of blood on their faces. And that was a mark of purity that you prepared to walk around the market with your eyes closed so you wouldn't be distracted. So they were all about outward appearance. Of course, friends, time and time again, Jesus emphasized that while people may look at the outside appearance, and that's where people are, whew, he's good, very good. That's not where God looks, God looks at the heart. He said, "By their fruit shall you know them." That is by the consistency of their godly lives, not by short, burst, artificial bursts of piety. Such consistency is born out of a realization we have been made right with God. Certainly, of salvation, here's the final point. We know our salvation, when we know our salvation is assured, our view of life and existence is not restricted to here and now, but also encompasses tomorrow and forever. Friends, this perspective enables the Christian to effectively handle setbacks and suffering, delays and denials, because we know that ultimately God is in control no matter what. He will bring us through in his own way and according to his will. And ultimately, of course, the destination is eternity with him. So that changes everything. When you've got that eternal perspective, it kind of changes everything, how you live. You're not thrown by short-term setbacks. You see suffering in a whole new life. You see what healing really is, and it's not always the removal of affliction. Like Tony Campolo talks about being healed of the need to be healed, you know, that kind of thing. There's nothing like knowing for sure that we have been put right with God. There is nothing like that. It's not a matter of smug, self-satisfaction. It's a call to action. It's about making a difference in the world. It affects how we see God, a relationship with him not based on legalism, based on love. Effects how we see others serving not out of duty, but out of devotion. Effects how we see ourselves, not worry about what people think of us, but recognizing that God thinks we are supremely valuable, precious. That's a great motivation for effective living. Certainly, it affects how we see life in the world and future unfolding, eternity, all those kind of things. Well, it's a fantastic message, this Christian message. If you want to ask the question, do you have that certainty today? Do you have that certainty today? I can't recall a time in my life when there's so much uncertainty around the place. Like there's uncertainty financially, there's uncertainty seismologically, is that a word? It's uncertainty culturally. In terms of nationally, there's uncertainty, you know, like there's a lot of uncertainty around today. But here's an area where you can be certain, here's an anchor point that you know is strong and sure. My story and the story of so many others here this morning is that that's what makes for effective living, when you can be sure. Not only where you're heading in this life, but where you're heading in the life after. Somebody has said you're not ready to live until you're ready to die, until you've got all that sorted out. That's the promise for the Christian. And here's an area of certainty that's available to us all as Hebrews puts it. Hebrews 619, look at this, we have this hope as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and secure. Friends, do you have that certainty this morning? You can. We can have a ministry time, it could be that some of you will step out and ask to receive Jesus Christ as step one in getting this certainty we've been talking about. Others will want to come back, back on the road to restoration and reconciliation. Others may want to just thank God for the fact that you know deep down you have this certainty. It's not for smugness and self-satisfaction, it's a call to action, it's meant to make a difference. I quickly ran through all those other world religions, I won't be critical of any religion, but in my experience and my study there is nothing like Christianity as an anchor point of life. It's been a prayer. [BLANK_AUDIO]