April 18
Josh 16:1-18:28 | PS 87:1-7 | Prov 13:11 | Luke 19:1-27
Repentance means to change one's mind, to accept God's standards and to abandon your own previous standards of right and wrong. This is a necessary step in initiating a true relationship with God. It is very important to realize that nations don't repent, churches don't repent, it is people who repent. Many feel they are in the right church, or belong to the right denomination. Realize that there are those filling many churches and many denominations who are in a true relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no one right place. The question comes down to: Are you comfortable playing religion or do you realize you are lost without Him? We may dress up nice, be upstanding members of the community, be considered a "good" man or woman by the standards set up by a society. But in the end this means nothing. Realize that there were many Nazis who looked the part as they attended their churches week in and week out, yet were guilty of atrocities against mankind. I go to Calvary Chapel Old Bridge. This is an evangelical church. Many in mainstream denominations would call this one of those "born again" churches. Many deride those who attend churches like this, pointing to one of their relatives who perhaps led less than an exemplary life, only to change and now attend one of these churches. Churches need to be hospitals for the lost, not a photo op for Who's Who. They need to be places where those who are lost find grace and mercy extended by fellow sinners, of which we all are, but sadly way too many don't realize this. You can only be found if at one time you acknowledge you were indeed lost.
In Jewish society at the time of Jesus, a tax collector was deemed the lowest of low, in the same level as a murderer in the eyes of many. They were deemed traitors to their own people. Zacchaeus was a tax collector. We read of the initial interaction between him and Jesus in Luke 19:5-6, "And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully." The people who witnessed this, being the upstanding members of Jericho were shocked and dismayed, knowing what kind of man he was. But Jesus concludes this meeting with these words in 19:9-10, "And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”" Jesus follows this up with a parable. In this parable, we read in 19:12-14, "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’" In the end, some trusted the nobleman, while others chose not to, and Jesus concludes in 19:27, "But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.’ ”
One of the scariest portions of Scripture is found in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" Many go through the motions but refuse to actually allow Jesus to reign over their lives. Your denomination and church cannot save you. Your pastor or priest cannot save you. Dressing nice and regularly attending church cannot save you. Memorizing your prayers and singing hymns by heart cannot save you. Acknowledging your being lost in your own strength, realizing the sinner that we all are, making a change in your mind or repenting, and in that spirit of total dependency accepting what Jesus Christ did on the cross for you and me, that and that alone is what will save you.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: