This week we’re exploring how following Jesus impacts our lifestyle by one principle: grace.  Grace is one of the most important, life-changing aspects of Christian story.  Here’s how the Bible talks about grace:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

(Ephesians 2:4-10 ESV)

Here is an easy way to remember the meaning:

God’s
Riches
At
Christ’s
Expense

A friend had a young child at home, and a baby on the way and his mother loved to help out by cleaning up the house.  One particularly stressful time she was coming down to decompress the situation by cleaning up the house.  My friend came home that day to find his wife madly cleaning up the house, before the mother in law arrived.  She didn’t want her mother-in-law to see a messy house, even though she was there to clean it as a gift.

We so often we think that we have to have cleaned up our lives before we can accept what God wants to give us.   We don’t have to have sorted ourselves out before we can accept God’s free gift of forgiveness, his grace.

When you ask someone why they don’t like Christianity…you’ll often hear “it’s just a bunch of rules.”  I don’t need a book to tell me how to be a good person.  If that was true, I wouldn’t want to be part of this religion either.

But it’s not true…that’s the religion that Jesus came to get rid of, and not his hope for us.  Here’s the version of Christianity that people are usually describing:

  1. Obey God’s laws
  2. God will accept you
  3. He’ll provide you with loving care
  4. He’ll give you a new status, as a servant of God.

 

This is a law religion, the kind of thing the Pharisees liked to promote.  Jesus didn’t have very nice things to say about that!

The problem is – no one has ever obeyed God’s laws perfectly enough to earn God’s love.  Actually, there was one person – Jesus.  He knew our hopeless situation, and did something about it.  Jesus was all about grace.  This involves the same steps, but in a different order:

  1. God loves and accepts you…unconditionally
  2. God will provide you with loving care.  He wants to be part of your life today, not some day in the future.
  3. God will give you a new status: Child of God adopted into his family
  4. You now return God’s favour with thanksgiving and living in his way.

In grace…we are given God’s love, care and fatherhood as free gifts, even before having proven ourselves worthy, and that gives us a lot to live up to!

Question: Where have you typically seen laws and rules in your faith?  As the way to earn God’s love, or respond to it?  Why?

Reminder:  Last week we talked about worship, and asked you to complete our online survey about worship here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8TS7K93

Reminder: Earlier in this series, we saw the importance of reading the Bible together in sync, so our new daily bible readings start today in our mobile app and web site.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - May 13, 2014

Tuesday - Study It - Pioneer Spirit

The book of Acts was written by Luke, a medical doctor who took an interest in the teachings of Jesus through his mentor, Peter. He’s examined the evidence for Jesus’ life in his earlier letter, the Gospel of Luke, and this time he’s looking at what happened to those who decided to continue following Jesus. Jesus has given his followers a huge mission – we learned this last week – to share his good news with the entire world. To the ends of the earth! He gave this mission to twelve central disciples and a hundred or so people who may have gathered around them in this story. It would be hugely daunting, with no modern communications, travel options. They were in uncharted territory, and needed a guide. Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit, and said to wait for him to arrive. Here’s what happened on the day of Pentecost, a Jewish festival. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” (Acts 2:1-13 ESV) How could they know if this was truly the Holy Spirit, their guide for this mission they’d been assigned? They experienced three phenomena that only God could produce. Wind It sounded like wind, but wasn’t. It was the Holy Spirit. Not a bad attempt at a physical description of God’s Spirit – we know we can feel the wind, see its effects, but also that we can’t ever pinpoint or control its source. It’s out of our control, and in the case of a sailboat, we have to admit this if we ever want to get anywhere, by adapting ourselves to the reality of the wind’s direction and strength. Flames It looked like fire, wasn’t. This phenomenon didn’t burn them or produce heat. It just appeared and rested on them. They were on fire! Tongues These people sounded like they were speaking languages they knew, but they weren’t. They were speaking other people’s languages. Tomorrow we’ll see the meaning of all this, particularly the languages or tongues. Why all these odd signs of the Spirit? John the Baptist said Spirit would come with wind and fire. God has used these signs before – in Exodus God appeared as a pillar of fire to guide his people. But why now? Question: What do you think God is trying to teach these disciples through wind, fire and speech? What’s he showing them about the Holy Spirit?

Related Topics: Ascension, Early Church, Jesus, Pioneer | More Messages from Ryan Sim | Download Audio

From Series: "Pioneer Story"

We read through the Book of Acts as a Pioneer Story for the church.

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