Have You Accepted
Sermon
CRITICAL DECISIONS IN FOLLOWING JESUS
Sermons ForPentecost (Last Third)
This morning I want to talk to you about becoming a Christian - the invitation of Jesus to come and follow him. It is not my intention to judge who is or is not a Christian, or criticize anyone's experience of salvation, or to suggest that you are not already a member of God's family. My intention is rather to allow this text to speak clearly to us about Jesus' invitation. My purpose is to give voice to Jesus' call to discipleship.
I approach this text from Matthew with a few assumptions, a few underlying givens. Let me share with you what they are.
1. Our text suggests that Jesus invites people to join him - to come to the marriage feast. I believe that Jesus still invites people to the marriage feast. That marriage feast is the life of following Christ, the experience of committing your life to God, of being saved from the power of sin, the experience of grace, the experience of being born anew. The call to follow is still being heard. The power of God to change people is still operative and available today as it was when Jesus told this parable.
I believe the Holy Spirit is leading people from darkness to light. "There is being added to the church day by day those who are being saved." God is still in the business of converting, changing people, calling people to leave their nets and follow. The invitation to the marriage feast needs to be heard today as much as it did 2,000 years ago.
E. Stanley Jones, one of this century's greatest missionaries, reminds us that the church will never outgrow the necessity of producing conversions. I strongly believe that. Every time I step into this pulpit, I do so with the expectation that God will call people to become Christians, to repent and believe the gospel. I believe there are people sitting here this morning who will experience in a very real' way the call to become a Christian. Jesus is still inviting people to the marriage feast.
2. Another assumption, a given, a basis from which I speak: I believe that there are still those who will not come, who have not accepted the invitation, who make light of the invitation as the text suggests. There are in our midst those who are too busy with other interests and distractions. They don't take it seriously. They put off accepting the invitation. There are all kinds of reasons, but the fact is, some are present who have not come to the marriage feast, or they may come but without a wedding garment. They may come to church. They may believe in God. They may say their prayers. But they are not part of the marriage feast. That is, they have not accepted the invitation to come and follow Jesus. They have not known what it means to be saved by grace, to believe in Jesus, to be born again. There has been no commitment of the heart.
We live in an environment within the church where we sometimes assume that everyone is a Christian. Most of us have been baptized and confirmed. We all know John 3:16 and the Lord's Prayer. But that doesn't mean all of us have accepted the invitation to the marriage feast. There are those who do not have on the wedding garment. They mingle among the Christians. They know the party line, but something is missing.
So I enter this pulpit with the assumption that some have yet to accept Christ's invitation to come. Some have not taken it seriously. I don't know who you are, but you do and God does. Today you will hear the invitation once again.
3. Another assumption or maybe a hunch I have this morning is that some don't know how to accept the invitation. You are still asking, what does it mean to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus? How do I 'become a Christian?
I'll never forget my senior sermon at the seminary. Everyone wanted to do their best for our last homiletics class. We were graduating and soon to be ordained pastors. My assignment was a text that dealt with prayer. I prepared well. I thought I did okay. Then came the time for the critique. All my classmates gave their comments. Most of them were very encouraging. I was pleased. Then my homiletics professor, Dr. Halvorson, gave his critique, and I'll never forget it. He said, "George, you preached a good sermon, but something was missing. You showed us a beautiful place to be. That place was a life of prayer. You told us what that place could do for us. You made it very attractive, but you didn't tell us how to get there." He was right.
I wonder if I have been guilty of the same thing in talking about becoming a Christian, a follower of Jesus. I may have described what it means to be a Christian, a beautiful picture. But have I missed telling people how to get there, how to accept the invitation? Do I take for granted that people know how to get there?
So I assume this morning that some of you are waiting for the invitation to be given to you clearly. Some have never realized that they need to respond to the invitation. Some have received bad information about the invitation, the marriage feast. That is, they may think of it more as a walk through the desert than an invitation to a marriage feast. They have listened to the wrong reports.
Some have made light of it because they don't believe there is any hope for them. They have gone too far in rejecting the invitation to a marriage feast. They have listened to the wrong reports.
Some have gone too far in rejecting the invitation. Their sin is too great. Their background is too awful. Their heart is too hard. Their temptations are too strong. Perhaps their own negative self-image keeps them from taking seriously the invitation to follow Jesus. They don't really believe that God's grace can be so free, so accepting, so forgiving. If you are among this group, I assume that you need help in knowing how to accept the invitation of Jesus.
4. Another assumption I begin with is that if you reject the invitatiQn long enough, there will come a time when it is too late. In this parable that Jesus told, the king sent out his servants to call those who were invited. Some would not come. Remember now, a parable is a story meant to get across an important truth. He sent other servants to call them, to plead with them to come.
The king didn't give up after the initial rejection. He gave them another chance. Perhaps a new voice, a different approach would convince them. But when they continually rejected the invitation, the king became very angry and he destroyed the whole city and turned to others with the invitation. To continually reject God's invitation to follow Jesus is very dangerous and risky. Because there will come a time when it is too late. Today is the day of salvation.
Those without a wedding garment will be thrown out. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus ends by saying, "many are called, but few are chosen." Only those who accept the invitation are chosen.
What I'm saying is: it's urgent business. It's not something to put off. If you reject the invitation, you run the risk of bringing upon yourself the judgment of God. I don't know what form that judgment will take, but it will come. If you believe in the promise of God for your salvation, you can also believe that he will keep his promise about judgment. As one Baptist preacher said, "If God meant anything, God meant everything."
So let's review. Today's sermon operates with the assumptions that:
1. God is still inviting people to the marriage feast. The Holy Spirit is still calling people to follow Jesus. God may be calling you.
2. Some have yet to accept the invitation. There are still those who make light of it or are too busy. Therefore, the call to accept needs to be heard.
3. Some have never clearly understood how to accept that invitation, how to become a Christian.
4. There will be a time when it is too late. If you reject continually, there will be a time when the door will be shut. There are serious consequences to rejecting the invitation. From this perspective I now proceed to talk about becoming a Christian.
Jesus Invites Us To A Different Way
I want to be as clear as possible in what I say, so listen carefully. If your mind has been wandering, I invite you back.
The invitation to the marriage feast is God's invitation to follow Jesus. It is God saying I want to show you my love, my plan for all people and all creation to live in harmony. I want to show you a different way to wholeness, to health, to meaning and purpose. "Come to me," says Jesus, "and I will give you rest." That rest means rest from a life of toil and struggle that doesn't seem to make a difference. It is a call to the kingdom, the reign of God. It is new and different.
- The world says - domination, accumulation and consumption is the way. Get all you can get.
God says - I invite you to another way.
- The world says - conquer, control, compete.
God says - I invite you to another way.
- The world says - an eye for an eye, get revenge, resist evil with evil.
God says - I invite you to another way.
- The world says - conform, be part of the majority, agree with the masses, go with the flow.
God says - I invite you to another way.
The invitation is an invitation to a marriage feast not a desert experience. That means the kingdom is about love and laughter. It means grace and forgiveness. It means partnership and harmony. God wants you to know and experience unconditional acceptance. God wants to put loving arms around you. God wants to lift you up out of the miry clay you are in. God wants to forgive you. God wants to free you from bondage and guilt. God wants to give you rest.
If there is bitterness in your heart, God wants to take that bitterness away. If there is no joy in your life, God wants to bring laughter. If there is regret or shame, God wants to wash it away. God will remember your sin no more. If you are living under the power of sin, if you are driven, addicted, captive to another allegiance, bound by another strong attraction that is destroying you, God wants to release you, set you free, give you a fresh start. It is God's will that you experience wholeness. It is beautiful, like a marriage feast.
How do you accept this invitation?
1. Be obedient to the call. Say a decisive Yes. The Holy Spirit will work in your heart, in your conscience, in your inner self. There will be a nudge, a hunger, a desire to be different, a longing for change. Your conscience will give you a reminder that the way you are going is wrong, a dead end. Something is missing.
Be obedient to that call. Answer Yes. Say it out loud. Say it clearly, decisively. Tell God, "I want to accept your invitation. Just as I am, I come." It might help to go home, get on your knees, or go for a walk and tell God out loud: "I accept your invitation." Or come to the altar here later this morning and pray that prayer. Declare a clear yes to the invitation.
2. Let go in order to come. There is a kind of natural resistance to this invitation. Attractive persuasions distract us, lure us away, hold us down. Our sins keep a strong hold on us. When Jesus invites us to come, he invites us to repent. That means to let go of our sins, let go of our excuses, let go of other allegiances, our pretending. Let go of trying to serve two masters.
Come in honesty. Come with your brokenness. Confess to God, I have sinned. I have been hiding, pretending. I want to be changed. One of the first steps in the Alcoholics Anonymous progam is to recognize one's need. That same honesty is important in the call to follow Jesus. Without it all of our intentions fall short.
3. Receive God's unconditional love. Let God love you the way you are. Don't try to be good enough. Don't wait until you are good enough. Don't compare with others, measure your worthiness, or look to see if others are coming with you. Just come to the banquet. Receive God's love. Enjoy grace.
It is God's love that will transform you, not your promise to be good. It is God's love that will wash your eyes. It is GOd's love that will empower you to follow, not your down payment of a good life. It is God's love that will give you that sense of being forgiven, not your good grades in behavior. The hymn says it so well, "Just as I am, I come."
4. Take hold of someone's hand as you come. To accept the invitation to the marriage feast is to come into a fellowship with others. We don't have a private room by ourselves at this feast. At this celebration we will belong to a family. We will discover others who are broken, others who are in the process of finding wholeness. The invitation is an invitation to live in community.
Find someone you can hold hands with. By that I mean talk to someone about your decision, your struggle, your joys. Ask for help in following Jesus. Find a companion, a friend or friends, who will support you, pray for you, help you to be accountable. Being a Christian is personal, but it is not private. Hold someone's hand. Find a friend by being a friend. This is where the church can be of help to you. You don't have to tell the world, but tell someone.
5. If you want to follow Jesus, then follow him; not just believe, but follow. You learn what that means in the book called the Bible. The invitation to the marriage feast is not to a cheering section sitting in the bleachers or to a good ol' boys club. It is not a rest stop, but it is an invitation to a movement, to a mission to change the world. So if you and I want to take the call seriously we will find some disciplines are important. The Bible needs to be our constant companion. We will give a priority to this operations manual. Let the scriptures be a source of learning how to follow.
In conclusion I want to urge each of us to think about this invitation. Have we accepted this invitation to the marriage feast? Have we responded with a clear and decisive yes?
There was a doctor who received a call late at night to come to the hospital. Someone was near death and needed a physician's attention or death was certain. The hospital was 30 miles away in another town. The doctor dressed and took off in his car. At a stoplight a man jumped into his car, pulled a gun, and told the doctor to get out. "I need your car. Get out," was all he said. The doctor got out and had to find another way to get to the hospital. When he finally arrived the nurse met him and told him the woman just died. "You are too late, Doctor. But would you go and say a word to the husband. He is weeping uncontrollably in the family lounge." When the doctor entered the lounge he found the husband in a corner. To his great surprise he discovered that the husband was the very man who pulled the gun on him because he needed his car.
Sometimes we push out of our lives the very thing that can help us. It might be the church, it might be the Bible, Christian friends, a nudge to make a clear commitment. It might be taking the step of accepting the invitation to the marriage feast.
I encourage you this morning to be obedient to the call. Let go of that which may be holding you back. Be honest before God. Receive God's unconditional love. Come just as you are. Take hold of someone's hand. We need each other. And begin a disciplined plan to read and study God's way found in the Bible.
Don't push out of your life the invitation from the one who can give you life. Amen.
I approach this text from Matthew with a few assumptions, a few underlying givens. Let me share with you what they are.
1. Our text suggests that Jesus invites people to join him - to come to the marriage feast. I believe that Jesus still invites people to the marriage feast. That marriage feast is the life of following Christ, the experience of committing your life to God, of being saved from the power of sin, the experience of grace, the experience of being born anew. The call to follow is still being heard. The power of God to change people is still operative and available today as it was when Jesus told this parable.
I believe the Holy Spirit is leading people from darkness to light. "There is being added to the church day by day those who are being saved." God is still in the business of converting, changing people, calling people to leave their nets and follow. The invitation to the marriage feast needs to be heard today as much as it did 2,000 years ago.
E. Stanley Jones, one of this century's greatest missionaries, reminds us that the church will never outgrow the necessity of producing conversions. I strongly believe that. Every time I step into this pulpit, I do so with the expectation that God will call people to become Christians, to repent and believe the gospel. I believe there are people sitting here this morning who will experience in a very real' way the call to become a Christian. Jesus is still inviting people to the marriage feast.
2. Another assumption, a given, a basis from which I speak: I believe that there are still those who will not come, who have not accepted the invitation, who make light of the invitation as the text suggests. There are in our midst those who are too busy with other interests and distractions. They don't take it seriously. They put off accepting the invitation. There are all kinds of reasons, but the fact is, some are present who have not come to the marriage feast, or they may come but without a wedding garment. They may come to church. They may believe in God. They may say their prayers. But they are not part of the marriage feast. That is, they have not accepted the invitation to come and follow Jesus. They have not known what it means to be saved by grace, to believe in Jesus, to be born again. There has been no commitment of the heart.
We live in an environment within the church where we sometimes assume that everyone is a Christian. Most of us have been baptized and confirmed. We all know John 3:16 and the Lord's Prayer. But that doesn't mean all of us have accepted the invitation to the marriage feast. There are those who do not have on the wedding garment. They mingle among the Christians. They know the party line, but something is missing.
So I enter this pulpit with the assumption that some have yet to accept Christ's invitation to come. Some have not taken it seriously. I don't know who you are, but you do and God does. Today you will hear the invitation once again.
3. Another assumption or maybe a hunch I have this morning is that some don't know how to accept the invitation. You are still asking, what does it mean to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus? How do I 'become a Christian?
I'll never forget my senior sermon at the seminary. Everyone wanted to do their best for our last homiletics class. We were graduating and soon to be ordained pastors. My assignment was a text that dealt with prayer. I prepared well. I thought I did okay. Then came the time for the critique. All my classmates gave their comments. Most of them were very encouraging. I was pleased. Then my homiletics professor, Dr. Halvorson, gave his critique, and I'll never forget it. He said, "George, you preached a good sermon, but something was missing. You showed us a beautiful place to be. That place was a life of prayer. You told us what that place could do for us. You made it very attractive, but you didn't tell us how to get there." He was right.
I wonder if I have been guilty of the same thing in talking about becoming a Christian, a follower of Jesus. I may have described what it means to be a Christian, a beautiful picture. But have I missed telling people how to get there, how to accept the invitation? Do I take for granted that people know how to get there?
So I assume this morning that some of you are waiting for the invitation to be given to you clearly. Some have never realized that they need to respond to the invitation. Some have received bad information about the invitation, the marriage feast. That is, they may think of it more as a walk through the desert than an invitation to a marriage feast. They have listened to the wrong reports.
Some have made light of it because they don't believe there is any hope for them. They have gone too far in rejecting the invitation to a marriage feast. They have listened to the wrong reports.
Some have gone too far in rejecting the invitation. Their sin is too great. Their background is too awful. Their heart is too hard. Their temptations are too strong. Perhaps their own negative self-image keeps them from taking seriously the invitation to follow Jesus. They don't really believe that God's grace can be so free, so accepting, so forgiving. If you are among this group, I assume that you need help in knowing how to accept the invitation of Jesus.
4. Another assumption I begin with is that if you reject the invitatiQn long enough, there will come a time when it is too late. In this parable that Jesus told, the king sent out his servants to call those who were invited. Some would not come. Remember now, a parable is a story meant to get across an important truth. He sent other servants to call them, to plead with them to come.
The king didn't give up after the initial rejection. He gave them another chance. Perhaps a new voice, a different approach would convince them. But when they continually rejected the invitation, the king became very angry and he destroyed the whole city and turned to others with the invitation. To continually reject God's invitation to follow Jesus is very dangerous and risky. Because there will come a time when it is too late. Today is the day of salvation.
Those without a wedding garment will be thrown out. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus ends by saying, "many are called, but few are chosen." Only those who accept the invitation are chosen.
What I'm saying is: it's urgent business. It's not something to put off. If you reject the invitation, you run the risk of bringing upon yourself the judgment of God. I don't know what form that judgment will take, but it will come. If you believe in the promise of God for your salvation, you can also believe that he will keep his promise about judgment. As one Baptist preacher said, "If God meant anything, God meant everything."
So let's review. Today's sermon operates with the assumptions that:
1. God is still inviting people to the marriage feast. The Holy Spirit is still calling people to follow Jesus. God may be calling you.
2. Some have yet to accept the invitation. There are still those who make light of it or are too busy. Therefore, the call to accept needs to be heard.
3. Some have never clearly understood how to accept that invitation, how to become a Christian.
4. There will be a time when it is too late. If you reject continually, there will be a time when the door will be shut. There are serious consequences to rejecting the invitation. From this perspective I now proceed to talk about becoming a Christian.
Jesus Invites Us To A Different Way
I want to be as clear as possible in what I say, so listen carefully. If your mind has been wandering, I invite you back.
The invitation to the marriage feast is God's invitation to follow Jesus. It is God saying I want to show you my love, my plan for all people and all creation to live in harmony. I want to show you a different way to wholeness, to health, to meaning and purpose. "Come to me," says Jesus, "and I will give you rest." That rest means rest from a life of toil and struggle that doesn't seem to make a difference. It is a call to the kingdom, the reign of God. It is new and different.
- The world says - domination, accumulation and consumption is the way. Get all you can get.
God says - I invite you to another way.
- The world says - conquer, control, compete.
God says - I invite you to another way.
- The world says - an eye for an eye, get revenge, resist evil with evil.
God says - I invite you to another way.
- The world says - conform, be part of the majority, agree with the masses, go with the flow.
God says - I invite you to another way.
The invitation is an invitation to a marriage feast not a desert experience. That means the kingdom is about love and laughter. It means grace and forgiveness. It means partnership and harmony. God wants you to know and experience unconditional acceptance. God wants to put loving arms around you. God wants to lift you up out of the miry clay you are in. God wants to forgive you. God wants to free you from bondage and guilt. God wants to give you rest.
If there is bitterness in your heart, God wants to take that bitterness away. If there is no joy in your life, God wants to bring laughter. If there is regret or shame, God wants to wash it away. God will remember your sin no more. If you are living under the power of sin, if you are driven, addicted, captive to another allegiance, bound by another strong attraction that is destroying you, God wants to release you, set you free, give you a fresh start. It is God's will that you experience wholeness. It is beautiful, like a marriage feast.
How do you accept this invitation?
1. Be obedient to the call. Say a decisive Yes. The Holy Spirit will work in your heart, in your conscience, in your inner self. There will be a nudge, a hunger, a desire to be different, a longing for change. Your conscience will give you a reminder that the way you are going is wrong, a dead end. Something is missing.
Be obedient to that call. Answer Yes. Say it out loud. Say it clearly, decisively. Tell God, "I want to accept your invitation. Just as I am, I come." It might help to go home, get on your knees, or go for a walk and tell God out loud: "I accept your invitation." Or come to the altar here later this morning and pray that prayer. Declare a clear yes to the invitation.
2. Let go in order to come. There is a kind of natural resistance to this invitation. Attractive persuasions distract us, lure us away, hold us down. Our sins keep a strong hold on us. When Jesus invites us to come, he invites us to repent. That means to let go of our sins, let go of our excuses, let go of other allegiances, our pretending. Let go of trying to serve two masters.
Come in honesty. Come with your brokenness. Confess to God, I have sinned. I have been hiding, pretending. I want to be changed. One of the first steps in the Alcoholics Anonymous progam is to recognize one's need. That same honesty is important in the call to follow Jesus. Without it all of our intentions fall short.
3. Receive God's unconditional love. Let God love you the way you are. Don't try to be good enough. Don't wait until you are good enough. Don't compare with others, measure your worthiness, or look to see if others are coming with you. Just come to the banquet. Receive God's love. Enjoy grace.
It is God's love that will transform you, not your promise to be good. It is God's love that will wash your eyes. It is GOd's love that will empower you to follow, not your down payment of a good life. It is God's love that will give you that sense of being forgiven, not your good grades in behavior. The hymn says it so well, "Just as I am, I come."
4. Take hold of someone's hand as you come. To accept the invitation to the marriage feast is to come into a fellowship with others. We don't have a private room by ourselves at this feast. At this celebration we will belong to a family. We will discover others who are broken, others who are in the process of finding wholeness. The invitation is an invitation to live in community.
Find someone you can hold hands with. By that I mean talk to someone about your decision, your struggle, your joys. Ask for help in following Jesus. Find a companion, a friend or friends, who will support you, pray for you, help you to be accountable. Being a Christian is personal, but it is not private. Hold someone's hand. Find a friend by being a friend. This is where the church can be of help to you. You don't have to tell the world, but tell someone.
5. If you want to follow Jesus, then follow him; not just believe, but follow. You learn what that means in the book called the Bible. The invitation to the marriage feast is not to a cheering section sitting in the bleachers or to a good ol' boys club. It is not a rest stop, but it is an invitation to a movement, to a mission to change the world. So if you and I want to take the call seriously we will find some disciplines are important. The Bible needs to be our constant companion. We will give a priority to this operations manual. Let the scriptures be a source of learning how to follow.
In conclusion I want to urge each of us to think about this invitation. Have we accepted this invitation to the marriage feast? Have we responded with a clear and decisive yes?
There was a doctor who received a call late at night to come to the hospital. Someone was near death and needed a physician's attention or death was certain. The hospital was 30 miles away in another town. The doctor dressed and took off in his car. At a stoplight a man jumped into his car, pulled a gun, and told the doctor to get out. "I need your car. Get out," was all he said. The doctor got out and had to find another way to get to the hospital. When he finally arrived the nurse met him and told him the woman just died. "You are too late, Doctor. But would you go and say a word to the husband. He is weeping uncontrollably in the family lounge." When the doctor entered the lounge he found the husband in a corner. To his great surprise he discovered that the husband was the very man who pulled the gun on him because he needed his car.
Sometimes we push out of our lives the very thing that can help us. It might be the church, it might be the Bible, Christian friends, a nudge to make a clear commitment. It might be taking the step of accepting the invitation to the marriage feast.
I encourage you this morning to be obedient to the call. Let go of that which may be holding you back. Be honest before God. Receive God's unconditional love. Come just as you are. Take hold of someone's hand. We need each other. And begin a disciplined plan to read and study God's way found in the Bible.
Don't push out of your life the invitation from the one who can give you life. Amen.
