For August, we're doing a series of messages titled "Octane". Whenever you fill up your car, you'll notice that there are three different octanes. There is 87, 89, and 92. High performance cars and jet aircraft use higher octane fuel, whereas ordinary vehicles use lower octane fuel. High octane fuel withstands greater pressure. It's more stable and it burns much hotter, more efficiently, and very cleanly.
The premise of this series is this question. What would it look like for you as an individual and for Lakeside as a church to be higher octane? What would it look like for our lives to shine a little brighter? For our passion to burn with greater intensity? For our engine to hit on all cylinders and run more powerfully? Our higher octane as individuals and as a church matters for God's glory.
This morning we'll talk about the octane of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Next week we will speak about the octane of our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Then we'll tackle the octane of God's family, the Church, and finally, our relationship with the world at large. When you give your life to God, all of these relationships undergo radical transformation. So first, let's talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ. What does a higher octane relationship with Jesus involve?
Believing in Jesus is the Key to Knowing God the Father
Your relationship with Jesus is the single most important relationship in your life. And the single most important dynamic in your relationship with Jesus is believing him.
What we know about Jesus is that he never pretended to be a prophet or some teacher. He announced himself to be equal with God (John 5:18), to be Creator God (John 1:1), and to have been present with the Father from all eternity (John 1:1). Jesus claimed to have been sent from the Father not to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17). Jesus announced himself to be a light shining in the midst of all the darkness and confusion (John 8:12). He declared the words that he spoke were the very words of God (John 12:49-50). He also said that the works he was doing were the very work of God (John 5:19). He claimed to fulfill all the law and the prophets, and said that all the ancient scriptures pointed to him (John 5:39). He claimed that everything he did was pleasing to the Father (John 8:29).
Here's the bottom line. Jesus was sent from the Father to radically reorient everything we've ever assumed to be true of life and death, heaven and hell, angels and demons, and sin and righteousness. Jesus came to teach about the coming judgment and the afterlife, the purpose of history, the purpose of our lives, and the purpose of suffering. He spoke of the nature of evil, the nature of reality, and the nature and character of God. He came to transform our thinking, to renew our minds, and to usurp the empty thinking of men and conformist ways of our world. He came to earth to give us his very mind, the mind of God (the mind of Christ). Belief in Jesus requires that we view our world through a whole new lens! To have a relationship with Christ means taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ. Believing in Jesus means that we believe as the living Christ and God the Father believe.
Believing in Jesus is the Key to Forgiveness
We've grown accustomed to scoffing at the sins of other people. You can always find people whose sins are more outrageous than your own. The problem is that God doesn't weigh your sins according to what other people have done or have not done.
God weighs your sins according to the standard of his own holiness and righteousness. Apart from Christ, none of us have any basis for confidence before a perfect and holy God. In Jesus' day, if you were a lawbreaker and sinner, an adulterer or a swindler, you were done. If you were steeped in sin or if you were diseased, you were done.
What Jesus insisted we believe, however, is that God's love for the world is so great that he sent Jesus to save the world and not condemn the world (John 3:16-17). Jesus claimed to be the Christ, the lamb of God who came to take away the sins of whole world (John 1:36). In John 3 Jesus explained to Nicodemus how even in old age, a man can be entirely born again. Being born again occurs during baptism in the water and the Spirit. In John 4 he took away the shame of the Samaritan woman who'd been with five different men. In John 5:14 he warned a man who he healed to stop sinning, so that nothing worse would happen in his life. In John 8 Jesus intervened on behalf of the woman caught in adultery, and shamed her hypocritical accusers by reminding them of their own sins. In John 8:24 (ESV) Jesus tells the crowds, "I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins." In John 8:34 (ESV) Jesus warns, "... everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin." But then in John 8:36 (ESV) he promises, "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
Believing in Jesus is the key to knowing God. Believing in Jesus is the key to being forgiven.
Believing in Jesus is the Key to Eternal Life
I never grow tired of John 3:16 (ESV) which says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." That's a promise! And what if you don't believe? John 3:18 (ESV) says, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."
John 5:24 (ESV) says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." John 5:25-29 (ESV) continues, "Truly, Truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment."
The good news is that we all get resurrected. The bad news is that all the resurrected are judged also.
In John 6 Jesus claimed to be the bread of life who gives the true bread of God, eternal life. In John 11 Jesus shows himself to be the resurrection and life by raising Lazarus to life, who by then was four days dead, with his body beginning to decompose. In John 11:25-26 (ESV) Jesus quizzes Lazarus' sister, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" In John 20:30-31 (ESV) the writer of John states, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
Believing is the key to knowing the Father, the key for forgiveness of your sins, and the key to receiving eternal life.
Earlier I mentioned there are three grades of octane of gas at the pump. There is 87, 89, and 92. Believing that Jesus is the Son of God, believing that Jesus is the key to knowing God, being forgiven, and gaining eternal life is one level of octane, say 87. I spent the first 20 years of my life just moving from unbelief to belief, just getting to level one of octane. Maybe you're like me. I was reluctant to believe. Don't be afraid to seek answers to your questions. I pestered every believer around me until I got answers I needed.
So what's another level of octane in our relationship with Christ? Say 89 Octane, one grade above 87. 89 Octane is when you go from become unconvinced to convincing others. I love how one moment the Samaritan woman is unsure of who Christ is, but then the next moment she is telling everyone in her town about Jesus. And guess what? Then her whole town believes that Jesus is the Son of God! If you really are convinced that belief is the key to knowing God the Father, being forgiven, and inheriting eternal life-- then who are you telling about it?
Could it be that you need help sharing your faith? Tomorrow night we have a one hour class to help you share your faith. It's called "Go Deeper". Stop in!
Another level of octane, say 92 Octane, is when you go from learner to teacher. We will always be learners. But this church badly needs teachers. We need believers who are unafraid to teach other believers. We need parents teaching their kids.
We need people meeting in one another's homes, fostering that deeper belief. Tomorrow night we have a one hour class to help you learn how to teach your faith to others. It's called "Lead Out" If you find 3-4 believers who will agree to meet with you, we will help you develop into an official small group leader or class leader at Lakeside. Come tomorrow night and learn more.