Transcribed from Sermons by Bruce Peterson at Grace Chapel in Scottsbluff, NE. The video of this sermon can be found by clicking this link.
For a printable list of the primary verses to use when sharing the Gospel via this method, click on this link.
We are in the Book of Revelation this morning. Our launching text is Revelation 20:11-15.
Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
These are super foundational verses in how to witness to someone—how to help someone else that you know and love come to faith in Jesus Christ. It's a super important section of its own right in the Book of Revelation, but because it's so substantial in how to witness to somebody I thought we would do a mini series on how to evangelize.
If you don't have faith in Jesus Christ, I hope you get saved during this series. If you are hearing this for the first time, I hope you come to faith in Jesus Christ. It's an amazing gift of God that he would offer us salvation.
Last week I talked about focusing on the gap between us and God.
We talked about the verses which show us the problem: God says we have to be holy like he is holy.
The consequence to that is: you are going to stand before God and give an account of what you’ve done.
We learned last week that there's actually an angel in heaven who is writing down in books everything we think, say, or do. It's an accounting of our debt to God. This should crush people.
When you are telling people the Gospel you want to start off by crushing them. I mean that. You will know you have done your job well when they ask for the solution to their sin problem.
They'll ask, “Okay, what am I supposed to do?”
But let me qualify this, most importantly, when you are explaining the giant gulf between God and them, do not use their personal sins as your example. If you're talking to someone who you know is having an affair with their wife, don't bring it up. Don't bring up their addictions. Don't bring up their habits. Don't.
This is because we all fall short, as humanity, we all fall short. You don't have to pick their particular sin and drive home that one, because, if you do that, a wall is going to go up between you and them and they will not hear you. That's not the goal.
“The goal isn’t to offend them, it’s to open their heart up to hear God.”
The goal is not to offend them, it’s to open their heart up to hear God. And if you pick their particular sin; like, “I know you’re embezzling money at work.” They will be like, “Okay, conversation’s over.”
Don't do that, don't. Instead, look inside yourself and just be open, be honest, be like, “Let me just pour out how I feel inadequate before God.”
Believe me, if you do that they will get on board with you; like, “Oh, I too feel inadequate. I too am not the perfect husband. I too am not the perfect father. I too am not the perfect employee. I too don't love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I don't do it, I love me.”
That's all easily demonstrated by our time, by our checkbooks, by our lives. Don't pick their pet sin, don’t even bring it up, it doesn't matter, that's irrelevant. Those things are hot buttons in people's lives and if you touch that, they're going to get defensive. That's not the goal at all.
So, crush them because they're humans and humans have no right; we have no claim to self-righteousness. Humans have no righteousness, we're not good in general.
Let me read the text and then I'm going to give you another illustration that I like to use when I'm trying to demonstrate the gap between us and God. This is our launching text:
Revelation 20:11-15 (NIV)
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Okay, so that's our launching text. Interestingly enough, it's not at the end of the Book of Revelation, it’s in chapter 20 and there's 22 chapters. Why is this? Because everyone whose name is in the Book of Life goes into the Kingdom of God which is on a new planet in a new city—the city of Jerusalem—and we live happily ever after.
But, who gets into the Kingdom of God? Not everyone goes in. You have to have your name in the Book of Life. Notice, if your name is in the Book of Life you get to go in.
But, if you have books--plural--what's in the books? Every sin.
What is sin? By definition, it means to miss the mark.
What's the mark? Holiness. Anything that's not holy that you participate in is sin.
Okay, let's narrow that down. What do you do that's holy?
What do you do that God would also do? It's a pretty small list, isn't it?
Let me ask you this, what do you do or think that God would not do or think? That one's easy. That's big, right? We missed the mark. We sin all the time.
But, people tend to think they're good. Most people you talk to will think they're good enough for Heaven, or at least they're good enough that they shouldn't go to Hell.
God says that's not true. No one is holy, not even one (Romans 3:9-20), that's last week's sermon.
Here's one of my favorite illustrations for this:
I like to picture Holiness as God saying, “You can get into heaven if you can swim to Hawaii.”
The question is, is it possible?
Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images
Imagine California, there's the beach, all of Humanity is on that beach. The waves are rolling in, and the goal is Hawaii. We're all gonna give it our best shot. We're gonna, because we gotta, we gotta get to Hawaii, because we want to get to Heaven. We don't want to drown, we want to get there, we want to go.
So, from California, imagine the masses just going into the ocean. Some of them aren't going very far. Some of them are just going to hit that first wave and they're just going to keep getting caught in that wave. Those are bad people, because this represents going to Heaven by good works, by earning it.
Unsplash.com
From the shore of California, it's going to become evident that people are going to begin to separate themselves.
There are the really bad, who just tumble in the waves and you know they're done.
There's going to be some who just start swimming super hard and they're at the head of the pack, but before they're out of sight they're done, because they're out of energy. They didn’t pace themselves. They're gonna seem good comparatively. From the shores of California, some people seem good.
Do you know what the world record is for long distance swimming? I looked it up. It is the exact distance from here (Grace Chapel in Scottsbluff) to Fort Collins, if you go through Kimball. 155 miles swimming. I don't even like driving to Fort Collins…swimming there? I could swim across the parking lot, I think.
But the goal isn’t to swim to Fort Collins, it’s Alaska--2,400 miles away. That's how far Hawaii is by the way.
iStockphoto.com
So, from California, from the perspective of holiness, some people look amazing. Some people--no question--are so much better than other people. We're not all equals. If we're just talking straight goodness, there's people in this room who are tumbling in the shoreline, and there are people who are swimming out there pretty good. They're good people. I don't think we have any 155 mile people in the room, let's be honest, we're in that 20 mile range, pretty good.
But, if you’re looking out from Hawaii… “Hey, all of humanity is trying to swim here, let’s stand on the shore and wait for them.” And the best swimmer is 100 miles from California... How long are we going to wait? We're going to wait forever, because no one, no one, no one can swim to Hawaii, it's 2,400 miles! The world record is 155 miles!
Unsplash.com
From your perspective you think you're good. But if I had a graph and you looked at the whole graph divided into 2400 segments and the best was 100…If you had to take a test and to pass you had to get 2400, but the best you got was 150…on the graph it’s almost a flat line. No one is good enough, no one is good.
That’s the idea that you’re trying to get across. You don't have to kill them on their personal sin, but you do have to get them to see that they are gauging it wrong. They are saying, “I'm the best swimmer.” Well that may be true, I don't take that away from you, you are way better than me, but you're still not getting away with your sin. You're just not going to do it. Your goodness can't carry you all the way across.
“They are gauging it wrong, saying, ‘I’m the best swimmer.’ Well that may be true, I don’t take that away from you, you are way better than me, but you’re still not getting away with your sin. You’re just not going to do it. Your goodness can’t carry you all the way across. ”
That's point one of the Gospel. Stay on that point until they ask for the solution.
Now we're going to get into the point of today's sermon: Jesus is the hero.
Once they ask for a solution, here's the big point you want to get across: God wants them in Heaven. Say it to them, “God wants you in Heaven, more than you want to go to Heaven. God wants you not in Hell, more than you don't want to go to Hell. No one wants you in Heaven more than God does.
Here's the amazing news, God made a way so that you can know you're going to Heaven.
“People think God says, “Be good to go to Heaven.” You are showing them that God says that idea is wrong, instead, he sent a champion to rescue you. Jesus is the hero of the story.”
He wants to be able to demonstrate all of his promises to you fully. He wants you in his Kingdom. He wants you in his family. God isn’t trying to keep you out, he's trying to get you in. You don't have to try things for yourself, there is a way God has provided. He has made the way.
Your job is to show them how Jesus is God's declared winner. People think God says, “Be good to go to Heaven.” You are showing them that God says that idea is wrong, instead, he sent a champion to rescue you. Jesus is the hero of the story.
Colossians 2:9-15 (NIV)
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
This text explains the solution to Revelation 20.
THE PROBLEM: be holy.
THE CONSEQUENCE: judgment is coming.
THE SOLUTION: what God accomplished through Jesus.
Again, when I am talking someone into faith—into trusting Christ—it's usually about a two and a half hour conversation, so you shouldn't be in a hurry on any of it.
Your goal is to explain everything. You want them to understand so that they can choose on their own to make this decision. Take your time.
Okay, let’s take a closer look at these Colossians verses, they're amazing:
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness.
It gets way better than that…
He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands.
That’s probably going to confuse the person you’re talking to, but it explains it in this next sentence:
Your whole self…
All your badness…
…ruled by the flesh was put off…
…was put off. That's what it means to be “circumcised”, to be cut off, your whole “everything opposed to you” was put off, your whole flesh.
Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Next Paul is going to explain all of that, this is where it gets good.
What does “uncircumcised” represent? When you still have books. All the badness is still attached to you. Now, watch what he says here:
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh…
This sounds like we're just busting into this conversation a little oddly, but in real life I've just spent 45 minutes demonstrating to them that they're a sinner, and this has all been one conversation.
So, I ask them to tell me what they are doing in these verses to save themselves. Who's the hero in these stories, you or God? How much in this verse are you responsible for?
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh…
What is the person doing so far? Sinning. That's all they're doing.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.
Who did it? God did it.
He forgave us all our sins…
Here’s how he did that:
…having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
That's where you should cheer.
What did he take away in the terms of Revelation? The books. What are the books in Revelation? They are a record of your legal indebtedness. Sin is a debt. You have moral debt before God. He says, “Be perfect.” You’re not perfect.
“You have a real debt you owe to God and you’re going to be asked, how would you like to pay?”
It's the exact same thing as a parent when you tell your kid to do something that is expected and they just give you the bird. There's moral debt, that's a real problem. That's a real issue. It's not just nothing. There's an angel and every single time you know God wants you to do something and you don't do it, it gets written down. You have a real debt you owe to God and you're going to be asked, how would you like to pay?
Look what Paul says happens, Paul said God took the record of your legal indebtedness and he took it away.
Where did it go? He nailed it to the cross.
…he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Now, I'm not going to be just reading this verse to the person I’m telling the Gospel to, I'm going to be helping this person understand it. I'm going to demonstrate it. I'm going to talk about it:
Look, here's the plan, God took all those books and he put them on Jesus. He sent a champion. You can't pay for those books. Your good works aren't going to pay for them. We are expected to be good: be holy. Goodness is not a payment, it’s what you were supposed to always be doing, it’s the baseline. Everything that gets written down is debt.
What are you going to do with that debt?
Remember, we went over the numbers. How big is the number, the accounting of your debt? It's massive. How many times a day, counting your thought life, do you do stuff that is written down as debt? It's a ridiculous number. At the end of our lives these are big books.
God took the books away from you. He cut everything off. That's what it means that he circumcised you: he cut off everything that stood opposed to you, your whole legal indebtedness. And he nailed it to the cross.
Now, I’m going to have a Bible right in front of them and they are going to read Colossians 2:9-15 themselves. Then I’ll ask them:
When Jesus says that he forgave us, how much did he forgive? All of it.
What does it say that Jesus did? Jesus paid for our sin. God wants you in Heaven more than you want to go to Heaven.
What are you doing? You're sinning.
What do you do according to God to save yourself; what in this verse do you do? Nothing.
While you were dead, while you are sitting there right now, God has already taken all your guilt and put it on Jesus. Jesus paid for your sin. Not at the moment when you believe, he isn't in Heaven dying again and again, he paid for it one time. One time for all and all your books are dealt with.
“Unburdened” by Douglas Ramsey from “The Pilgrim’s Progress” book
If you have built up enough fear about the books in the first part of your conversation, this information is a pretty big relief for them. In real life that feels like a lot of weight that you piled on them and when they see that God accomplished this task all that weight gets lifted off and they will physically lighten up in the conversation.
The charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us, was taken away by God and he nailed it to the cross.
And having disarmed the powers and authorities he made a public spectacle of them.
Who or what did he make a public spectacle of? The books, but also the prosecuting attorney who would have prosecuted you for the stuff written in those books. The powers and authorities which would take your debt and hold it against you. The voice of guilt. Whatever those are, whoever those are, however that's going to work, God made a public spectacle of them.
What does it mean if I make a public spectacle of something? Am I doing something positive? No, I'm making a joke of it.
Listen to what happens here, God takes our books, he knows it all, he knows everything, it's all written down. And not only did God the Father take your debt and nail it to his own Son on the cross, but he didn't just barely cover your books, he didn't just barely take your guilt.
If you could barely pay off your debt at the bank did you make a public spectacle of your debt? No, you did not. If you have debt at the bank and you could make a public spectacle of your debt, how much money would you have to have? A lot.
The point is, “Oh, I owe you 10 bucks? Well, here's a million bucks.” That's a public spectacle, it's paying way way more than you owe.
That's the Globetrotters against their rivals the Washington Generals (the other fake team). The Globetrotters make a public spectacle against the opposing team because they can take that ball and do all that fun stuff. They're setting it up so it's no contest.
Jesus didn't just pay for our sin; God did not just destroy our books; he rocked the debt, he annihilated the debt. I'm not just close to being saved, I'm not going to get there and see my debt is just barely paid and that I slid in by the skin of my teeth.
God wants you saved so much that when he sent Jesus as the champion, he overpaid so much that the debt is a public spectacle. God takes your books and destroys them.
“God wants you saved so much that when he sent Jesus as the champion, he overpaid so much that the debt is a public spectacle. God takes your books and destroys them.”
When I get to heaven I will have no books, zero books. I'll have no books. The angel watching my life has already been fired. There's no one in heaven keeping a record of my sin. It's gone. It's literally gone. I have no books.
Then I ask the person I’m talking to: You know me, am I perfect? No.
I'll say: listen, I am not better than you. Chances are you're better than me, or at least we're pretty equal. I'm not better than you in any regard. But you still have an angel keeping record of your books. I do not, because God wants me saved. The thing is, he wants you saved too and you can get that angel fired today. Because Jesus triumphed over your debt, your debt is gone. You don't have to have books when you show up.
The whole idea is that you're at this scene we're there's two options: there's books or a book. You're either hearing what’s written in the books of your debt or you're hearing your name called from the Book of Life. I'm going to hear my name called from the Book of Life. (That's next week's sermon by the way.)
How do you get this to apply to you? we'll get to that in a second, but let me keep telling you about Jesus, because what God accomplished through him is amazing.
So, I'll say those words and I'll give them a little head’s by saying, “There is something for you to do, but it has nothing to do with saving yourself. But that's coming later.”
All right, so, do you see why I spend time in that verse? I go right from Revelation to Colossians because you have books, but you can also have those books thrown away before you get there. You can have them erased. All those books can be nailed to the cross and and be triumphed over so that they're gone.
Next, I'm going to go to Romans. I'm going to try to explain how it works because what's important is this:
God is just.
Sin creates real debt and God is not just a crooked banker who is your best friend and will simply make it go away through accounting tricks. No, no, no, no, God isn't doing some accounting tricks here.
Jesus is actually going to pay. Your debt was actually nailed to the cross. When Jesus is on that cross for you, he is actually paying your calculated debt. The Old Testament idea of it is that the whole lamb had to be measured to make sure there was enough, that it covered everyone at the meal. But the New Testament idea is that every sin has to be paid for on the cross.
Jesus paid so much that it's triumphed over. It's not going to be even close.
Jesus actually pays for it, the debt is paid, it's not just erased, Jesus pays for our sin.
Romans 3:9-20 (NIV)
What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
We read, “There's no one righteous, not even one,” and I just had that conversation with them. So, I say, “Look, here's God's evaluation of people: no one's good, not even one. No one seeks God. No one cares. Everyday we throw him under the bus.”
Then we look at what God does in the very next verses. I remind them to think about three things as the read these verses:
What are these verses saying that we do?
What does God expect us to do?
Who is the hero: God or us?
Romans 3:21-25 (NIV)
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
What that's saying is: now, apart from being good—because it said that the purpose of the law was to point out our sin to us so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable. So, now set that aside—apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known without us earning it.
We can “tap into” the righteousness of God.
In the Old Testament God talked about the fact that he would do this one day.
This is what he says now: this righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ… to who?… to all who believe.
Here's what happened…
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
I'll come back to this but I read right over it the first time through because I want to get to this:
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood
I'll stop. I'll read it again. I'll have them read it. And I'll say, “Here's what happened, a sacrifice of atonement means that Jesus was the satisfactory sacrifice for your sin. You have debt that you can't pay. You have a mountain of debt. I'm telling you this now and when we are done with this conversation you're going to go sin some more. All you do is make more and more and more sin. God wants you saved more than you want to be saved. God Wants You in Heaven more than you want to be in Heaven. To accomplish that he made a payment for your sin. He a satisfactory sacrifice. Jesus Paid It All so that you don't have to pay it. That's what we just read in Colossians, this is Romans, Jesus is the sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrificed satisfied the wrath of God for your sin. Jesus is the hero.”
Then I'll back up a little bit:
There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned…
What do we do in this text? We are the Sinners. That's what we're doing, sin.
and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
To be “justified” is to be declared innocent. We can be declared innocent freely by Grace.
What is Grace? Stuff you get that you shouldn't. Good things that happen that shouldn't happen, that you don't deserve.
You can be declared innocent. Your books can be thrown away because Jesus paid your debt.
You're making debt. You're making it every day. God wants you saved. So he paid your debt.
Listen to 1 John 2:1-2 they are awesome verses:
1 John 2:1-2 (NIV)
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
What's an advocate? If you have an advocate what do you have? You have someone who speaks for you. You have someone to defend you. You have someone on your side, in your corner.
Who do you have according to this verse? Jesus. Jesus, the one who paid your debt is in your corner if you have him.
You have debt so what should you have? You should have books. What do you have? You have Jesus in your corner.
Why? What might Jesus be saying if he's your Advocate and the subject is sin?
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.
I don't want you to sin. Sin is not good for you.
But if anybody does sin…
So, we're not talking about when you're good.
…we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
When is Jesus speaking for you, when you're good or bad? This verse says it, it is when you're bad. Jesus speaks up when you sin.
Who would Jesus say it to? He would say it to his Father and he would say it maybe to the prosecuting attorney—those ones who he triumphed over who he made a public spectacle of? It might be them. But he's saying it to whoever is your critic.
What might he be saying? He's going to say something like, “Oh yeah, I already paid for that. Oh I already covered that. Oh that's already forgiven. Oh don't write that down, his name's in The Book of Life.”
My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.
God doesn't want you to sin. I'm not telling you should go out and sin. Sin's bad for you on lots of levels. It's bad for your life. It's bad for your relationships. It's bad for everything in your world. Sin's bad.
But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins
He's the one who paid. That's probably what he's gonna say, “Oh, I paid for that.
Oh, I paid for that one too.”
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus paid for your sin. God knows your sin.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
What are we doing in this text? Sinning. That's always the right answer for everyone. God knows us. That's why we can be honest: I'm a sinner, God loves me anyhow.
Listen, you have an advocate with God, even though you've sinned all the time.
Back to the swimming analogy: you think that your swimming is going to get you saved. But, God knows you only have like a mile left and you're going to drown. You are not going to make it.
watercolor luxury Yacht on the beautiful blue ocean. Hand drawn illustration, Free Vector Free Vector by adhito alfattah
Here's the amazing news: you don't have to make it. There's a Lifeboat! You can stop swimming right now and you can get in the boat. Forget the Lifeboat, there's a yacht going by and everyone in the yacht is just taking it easy.
Jesus is that yacht. Jesus took all the weight of sin that's dragging you to the bottom of the ocean and he got rid of it. And he didn't just get rid of it, he lifts you into the boat. He paid the debt.
He didn't just pay my debt, he paid your debt. I'm telling you now I know I'm going to Heaven and it's not because I'm good, it's because I'm sitting back in a Lifeboat. I'm going to trust God who sent the Savior for me.
So, I'm still trying to make Jesus big in their mind.
Here's the last verse I use and it's just phenomenal…though these are all really solid verses in their own right that just decimate our sin.
“Our sin is not the barrier, the sin has been conquered by Christ...You do not have to convince God you’re good enough to go to Heaven. That is not the challenge. The the only question is who’s on the hook for your behavior?”
Our sin is not the barrier, the sin has been conquered by Christ. You don't have to convince yourself you're not a sinner. You do not have to convince God you're good enough to go to Heaven. That is not the challenge. The the only question is who's on the hook for your behavior?
Are you still on the hook? Then you're in for a world of trouble.
God is saying he's glad, he's happy to take the hook for you.
Listen to this next text. This next text is so full, you can spend a lot of conversation time with someone over this text. You should just know this text. It should just really be like bread and butter in your life. It's so important.
The author of the book of Hebrews is comparing Jesus and showing him to be superior to everything in the Old Testament. In this particular text he's showing Jesus to be better than the priesthood and his sacrifice better than the sacrifice of the sacrifices in the Old Testament.
So, Jesus is being compared to the ritual of sacrifice, which, by the way, I'll take time to explain this concept to them. This is something we all do, we are stuck in this ritual with God when we feel guilt we make a deal with him: “If you get me off the hook…”You know, we make these vows and these promises. You go to church and you've been trained to confess your sin, you've been trained to do Penance for your sin. You've been trained to repent of your sin. You've been trained in all of these ways in some kind of mechanism to be right with God and God is saying it's all garbage.
Jesus is the hero who deals with our sin, not our behavior.
I'll say all of that and then have them read these verses:
Hebrews 10:11-18 (NIV)
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
We all do the first verse:
Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
iStock photo
This is what we do as humans. We feel guilty, so what do we do? We buy our wife flowers. We go to church for a couple weeks. We'll put a little extra money in the offering. I'm feeling particularly bad, I'm gonna do a little bit extra. Whatever it is…we'll listen to a podcast. We'll do some kind of ritual.
God is saying those rituals are worthless because they don't actually cancel our the sin. You know from illustrations, like let’s go back to relationships. If you're cheating on your wife, is buying her flowers helpful? No, it’s not that helpful. But that's what we do all the time.
We don't stop what we're doing that’s making us feel guilty; we're not good at that. What we're good at is trying to do these little things which we can try to convince ourselves makes up for it. And we just build in these rituals into our lives that are meaningless. They don't work anywhere in life but we think they'll work with God.
They don't work.
What does your spouse want? Different behavior. They want a behavior change. They don't want flowers. They don't want cards or a night out. They want you to be different.
Your rituals don't work in life. They don't work for your boss. We want better behavior. We don't want, like, funnier jokes during lunch. That's not enough.
But when this priest—meaning Jesus—offered…for what? All time. But when Jesus offered for everyone all over the world for all time, when he offered one sacrifice for sin, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.
What did he do? He sat down.
Why? Because his sacrifice was enough. He sat down for all time.
How many sacrifices? One sacrifice.
He has, what? Made perfect…
For how long? Forever. Those who are still in progress.
Are they a finished product? No.
So, what are they doing? Sinning. They're not perfect yet; they're not finished products yet. But…
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever…
Now, you look across the table and you say: “Do I look perfect to you?” They will say, “No.” Am I perfect? “No.”
But we're talking about holiness, and here's the truth: because of the one sacrifice by Jesus, I have no books. I have no books. And at the great trial, when all Humanity…when I stand before God…and you stand before God, there'll be no books for me.
What's in the books? Sin. I will have no sin on my account.
So, what does that make me? Perfect. I'll have no accusers. I'll answer for nothing.
When it's time for me to open my mouth, who will speak for me? Jesus.
Why? Because, he's my Advocate. I have an advocate.
When you stand before God what are you hoping for? A blue ribbon? For what? Swimming?
When I get there, Jesus, the Son of God, is my advocate and I have no books. My books are gone, God's words about me say:
For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
He knows I'm not perfect. I'm still in progress. I'm only in progress because God is moving me that way. I might have a long progress to go, the progress is irrelevant, I'm already made perfect forever. Watch:
The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”
God is going to move his word into us. It is going to go from tablets of stone to inside us: “I will write them on their hearts”.
Then he adds this:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”
And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
“And where these have been forgiven,” is past tense.
What does God expect of me? Sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
So here's the thing, I can look at you and I'll say, “I know I'm going to Heaven. I know I'm not better than you. God wants us to get to Heaven and this is God's plan. He wants you in Heaven.
Here's what God did to get you to Heaven: he sent his son who paid your debt. He paid for it if you accept it, or not, if you take advantage of it, or not, your debt's already paid.
I took advantage of it I have no books. You are still living your life trying to make your books smaller. How's it going? How big do you think your books are? They're pretty big.
I have no books. I have been made perfect. my slate has been cleaned forever. I will get there and I'll have no books and I will have an Advocate. I'm telling you that's what God did for you, and you can have also have an Advocate instead of books.
My name is in the Book of Life. I don't have books anymore. This is what Jesus did for us, it's a profound truth.
“Forgiven” by Thomas Black
Take your time, make them feel guilty, and then pull that guilt right off of them and put it squarely onto Jesus.
Jesus took your debt all your secret sins that you're doing—they're not secret to God—but they're already paid for. Jesus paid for them when he died on the cross.
They're going to want to know more. They're going to want to ask, ‘How does that count for me? What do I have to do?”
Then we're going to move into Faith.
The answer for them is: you're going to get to choose. As simple as that, you get to choose. Do you want to speak for yourself or do you want Jesus to speak for you?
That's the transition, you make them feel guilty (not with personal sins out of their life, you don't want them to put a wall up). Everyone's a sinner, then, Jesus takes that sin, all of it. You put the weight of their sin on them and then you take it off of them and put it squarely on Jesus.
And they literally get lighter right in your presence. Then you're going to give them the choice to believe. That's what we'll talk about next week.
Let's pray: Father, God, we do again come before you with grateful hearts that you love us enough that you want us to be saved that you love us enough that you took our debt, you paid our bill, it's an amazing privilege. It's an amazing truth.
In “How to Lead Someone to Christ (Part 3)” we will start talking about the choice people have: to believe in Jesus or not. Click here for Part 3.
This series of blog posts titled, “Holding on to Reason”, is named after Amanda’s favorite C.S. Lewis quote: “Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”
Click here for more things written or transcribed by Amanda Hovseth.