Our series is on how Jesus resets our goals. We’re basing this on something Jesus taught in his sermon on the mount.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
(Matthew 6:25-33 ESV)
Jesus was saying that we can get so busy and consumed by the day to day concerns of life, we lose track of the point. What was the point? We were created for relationship with God, and one another. All humans gave that up by focusing on ourselves instead, and there is evidence in the world’s brokenness. We can see it in broken relationships with ourselves, one another, our natural world, and with God himself. But God offers his love to us all the same. He invites us to live in his kingdom – to be in a relationship with him as our Lord – thanks to what Jesus did on the cross.
Last week, we learned how Jesus and his death on the cross give us the opportunity to reset life. His death and resurrection reset the world, since death was the most visible consequence of our sin and rebellion against God. He made it possible for us to live in Kingdom of God now, and for eternity.
But we have lots to do. Jesus isn’t saying we should quit our jobs, run around naked and hungry. He’s not saying food, shelter, clothes are a bad thing. They are all part of his creation, like us, and he has plans for it all.
He is just saying that we shouldn’t worry about such things. We shouldn’t be consumed by them. We shouldn’t let them distract us from our life’s true purpose of living in relationship with God, and one another. We shouldn’t let worrying about little goals get in the way of life’s big goal.
Question: When does careful planning turn into worry and get in the way of life goals?
Reminder: We are reading the Bible in sync as one community – so check out today’s reading here.
Reminder: The best way to grow spiritually this year is to join our Christianity 101 in the Cafe Course in Pickering starting tomorrow night, January 22nd. Register for you and a friend today!
Read the Bible in Sync Today
Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
We read an important passage yesterday, and today we’ll focus on just the ending. Here it is again:
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
(Acts 2:32-41 ESV)
The audience were “cut to the heart”. Peter’s words transformed them, not into a state of sadness, but into action. They asked, “What shall we do? How do we make this right?”
Peter has three steps: Repent. Be Baptized. Receive the Holy Spirit.
Repent means to turn. This is the first step of change and transformation. If you’ve been heading the wrong way in life, away from God, then the moment of regret and decision to turn around and head back to God is the moment of repentence.
Being baptized is a sign that God is washing away someone’s sins. By washing that person on the outside, we show the invisible washing on the inside that only God can do. It’s a public act of having sin washed away from your heart, and having accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Receiving the Holy Spirit speaks of continued transformation, well beyond the moment of repentence and baptism, and into the future. The Holy Spirit enables Christians to keep going that new direction, even when it’s hard. What did the Holy Spirit do for disciples? We saw last week that he enabled them to speak of Jesus in every language. These brand new disciples, too, will be sent by Holy Spirit to proclaim good news to everyone in the world. Their numbers are growing, and this good news is meant for everyone of all ages and around the world.
3000 people took on this challenge in one day. They became pioneer people – some of the first members of the church, the global phenomenon of people following Jesus and being transformed by him.
Next week, we’ll see what they did, their practices when they gathered, and how their actions changed.
But first,
Question: What do you think changed for those 3000 people? Internally, spiritually, but also relationally?
