- Jesus
Christ is now seated at the right hand of God the Father—He is Lord!
a.
“The LORD says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your
enemies a footstool for your feet.’” (Psalm 110:1)
b.
“Exalted
to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy
Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” (Acts 2:32-33)
c.
“Who then is the one who condemns? No
one. Christ Jesus who died—more than
that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also
interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34)
d.
“Since, then, you have been raised with
Christ, set your hearts on things above, where
Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1)
- Jesus is
alive! If He’s dead then why listen to what He taught? Why obey His
commandments?
- Because
Jesus paid for our sins on the cross, He has the authority to forgive our
sins
a.
“‘But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to
forgive sins.’” (Matthew 9:6)
b.
If while on earth He had the authority
to forgive sins, what about now that He is in heaven?
c.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me.’” (Matthew 28:18)
- We must sell
our freedom to be saved—we are forgiven of our sins by becoming slaves of
Jesus
a.
Because we’ve all sinned, we all owe a
sin debt we can never repay—it’s like making Interest payments on a loan
without ever paying down a penny of the Principal
b.
Christ paid-in-full our sin debt on the
cross and has the authority to forgive our sins
c.
When we make Jesus our Lord and Master,
He purchases us as His slaves along with all of our sin debt and frees us from
it. For example: when someone purchases a company, they not only purchase all
of its assets but also all of its liabilities.
d.
We’re now free from our debt of sin but
now completely indebted to our Lord who owns us as His slaves—we’re no longer
free to live how we want because we’re now slaves of Christ
- We now
belong to Him as His slaves and must live in obedience to Him as our Lord
and Master
a.
“Will
he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also,
when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only
done our duty.’” (Luke 17:9-10), “We
are unprofitable servants.” (NKJV)
b.
“You have been set free from sin and
have become slaves to righteousness. … But
now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness,
and the result is eternal life.” (Romans 6:18, 22)
c.
“For
none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves
alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord.
So, whether we live or die, we belong to
the Lord.” (Romans 14:7-8)
d.
“You
are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your
bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
e.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
f.
“For
to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
- The Lord
Jesus Christ is not a hard taskmaster—His yoke is easy and His burden is
light
a.
“Then the man who had received one bag
of gold came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew
that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering
where you have not scattered seed.’” (Matthew 25:24)
b.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
c.
“In fact, this is love for God: to keep
his commands. And his commands are not
burdensome” (1 John 5:3)
- Water
baptism is where we make Jesus Christ our Lord, committed to obey all His
commandments
a.
Christ Himself was baptized and
commanded His followers to be baptized
i.
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the
Jordan to be baptized by John.” (Matthew 3:13)
ii.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I
am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20)
iii.
“Whoever
believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will
be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)
b.
“Then the eyes of both of them were
opened, and they realized they were
naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. … The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:7, 21)
i.
In baptism, we “put off” our old sinful
self and “put on” a new self as if clothed with Christ
ii.
“Or don’t you know that all of us who
were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the
Father, we too may live a new life. …
For we know that our old self was crucified
with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”
(Romans 6:3-4, 6)
iii.
“So in Christ Jesus you are all
children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
(Galatians 3:26-27)
iv.
“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self,
which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the
attitude of your minds; and to put on
the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
(Ephesians 4:22-24)
v.
“Do not lie to each other, since you
have taken off your old self with
its practices and have put on the new
self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3:9-10)
- Before
becoming a Christian, we must first count the cost to be sure we can
finish
a.
Suppose one of you wants to build a
tower. Won’t you first sit down and
estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ... Or
suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten
thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ... In the same way, those of you who do not
give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14:28, 31, 33)
b.
It’s not how we start but how we finish,
it’s better to not even start than to start but not finish
c.
The Bible likens Christianity to
running a race, it’s about crossing the finish line
d.
When I first became a Christian almost
30 years ago, I didn’t know what I was signing up for—I went through times when
I was living ungodly and almost didn’t finish