[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], July 2020]
We’ve spent a few weeks looking at what it means not to be a Christian – a follower of Jesus, but now we want to talk about how to become a Christian. What are the essential steps?
In these last couple of videos we’ve been looking at the question “Am I a Christian” and I feel a bit bad cause I’ve been a little bit negative really. I’ve been talking about what it means not to be a Christian. Being a Christian, being a follower of Jesus Christ which is basically what it means, isn’t a cultural thing, it’s not dependent on the country you live in, it’s not something you’re born into, it’s not something you inherit from your parents. Being a Christian – being a follower of Jesus Christ – is a conscious decision that you need to make.
[00:53] I want to talk a little bit, certainly in this video and possibly in future videos as well, about what does it mean to be a Christian. How does it start? What is the process? When the disciples were anointed by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and they preached the good news of Jesus Christ they told those people that were gathered, God-fearing followers of God who were gathered for the festival of Pentecost, they told them what happened to Jesus. At the end of that sermon preached by Peter they asked the question “What do we need to do, how can we be saved?” Peter told them these words “Repent then and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.” Therefore I see one of the first parts of the process of becoming a Christian, a necessary requirement of being a Christian, is repentance.
[02:04] In the Old Testament this was made up of two Hebrew verbs, the first one to feel sorrow and the second one to return. In the New Testament they use the Greek word ‘metanoia’ which means to change your mind, to be different than you were before, to change your heart, change the way that you are living.
[02:30] These two phrases are probably best illustrated in a story that Jesus told. It’s a story called ‘the parable of the prodigal son’ and probably most of you know it but, if you don’t, it’s basically a story of a rich guy who has two sons. The youngest son decides that he’s had enough of living with his folks and he demands his inheritance. He basically robs the family of half of their belongings so that he could go off into the city and live his life the way he wanted to. He did exactly that, he wasted his money on wild living (you can probably imagine what that involved) until he got to the point where he had lost everything. He found himself living in poverty looking after somebody else’s pigs which for a Jew was the very worst thing he could possibly do. He comes to the stage where he comes to his senses. He realizes that he had messed up, that he had brought this on himself, that in his own words he ‘had sinned against heaven and against his father and his family’. He decides that he’s going to return home, not as a son but as a servant, and just plead the mercy of his father.
[04:00] As he’s approaching his family home little does he know that his father has been out there, probably every day, watching and waiting for his son to return. When he sees at a distance his son walking towards his home the father hitches up his cloak and he runs as fast as he can, he wraps his arms around his son and he welcomes him home, not as a servant but as his child. He celebrates and he gives him gifts because his son that was lost is now found. That is an amazing image of what it means to become a follower of Jesus Christ – to become a Christian it has to start with a heart change.
[04:55] That’s exactly what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It’s getting to that point where you are convicted by the Holy Spirit that you are a sinful person, that you have messed up, that you have fallen short of what God wants for your life. This isn’t so much about whether or not you’re a good person because you could be an amazing person yet not a follower of Jesus Christ. No, this is a conviction by the Holy Spirit deep within your heart and within your mind that you are not who you should be, not who God has intended you to be and that you have been lord of your own life when actually you need to make God and Jesus lord of your life. It’s that change of mind, that realization that you are not who you should be and you want to be someone different. It’s this idea of returning to your heavenly father, to your creator as a person who has made you who you are and wants to have a relationship with you. It’s not someone you have to go on some sort of spiritual search spiritual journey around the world. God is there waiting for you, all you need to do is turn to him and he will run to you with arms open wide, just embracing you and welcoming you home not as a servant, not as someone to do his bidding but as a child, as part of his family. You will be adopted into his family and it’s his blood that runs through your veins and it’s his spirit that lives within.
[06:44] When it comes down to it, whether you’re a Christian or not is not so much about what you do or what you don’t do but it’s all about the direction of which you are facing. Are you facing towards God, journeying with him, running towards him, trying to be like Jesus or have you got your back turned to him because you’re in charge of your life, you decide what you want to do and you are the person that you want to be.
[1] YouTube link: How Do I Become A Christian? Part 1
Bible references: Luke 15 v11-32
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Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
