“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:4-7
Today is a day in which we are partaking of communion together. We are taught in the New Testament to do this and to remember Christ and the salvation He brought to us by coming to this earth, dying on the cross and resurrecting back to life.
This morning you are going to be spoken to briefly by three of us and we will attempt to lead you in three separate devotional times. Our goal is to take time this morning to pause and reflect on the salvation that comes to us from Christ. What really happens when person becomes a Christ follower? There are three things that take place through the miracle of the new birth. We are going to examine them today in this order: Justification, Adoption and Regeneration.
Wes Humble: Justification
The Facts of Justification:
All the doctrines of the Bible are important, but none is more vital to the peace and rest of the Christ follower than the Bible truth of Justification. The believer does not ascend to the peak of Christian joy until he appreciates this aspect of the grace of God. Forgiveness is wonderful; pardon is wonderful; cleansing is wonderful; but Justification is more wonderful.
The question of man’s justification before God was raised early in man’s history. In the Book of Job we read, “How should man be just with God?” (Job 9:2), and “How then can man be justified with God?” (Job 25:4).
In the New Testament the Apostle Paul, chief exponent of the doctrine of Justification, developed it more fully. After his conversion, and during his visit to Antioch in Pisidia, he said, “ 38"Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.” Acts 13:38, 39
Paul says that forgiveness and justification are made possible through Jesus Christ, but he makes it clear that the two are not identical. If a criminal is found guilty and convicted of crime, he may be forgiven by the offended party and even pardoned by the governor, but he remains guilty of his offense. His guilt was established and the court records carry it as such. He has been forgiven but not justified.
The Apostle is saying that God does two things for the guilty but believing sinner that no man can possibly do for another; that is, He both forgives and justifies. Justification is more than forgiveness. We can forgive another for his wrong, but never can we justify him. Forgiveness assumes guilt; therefore, the guilty one cannot be justified. On the other hand, if we justify a man, then he needs no forgiveness, because justification assumes no guilt. But since all men are both guilty and condemned sinners before God, all need both forgiveness and justification before entering the Kingdom of God.
The Fruits of Justification
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we[b] rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we[c] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:1-5
Today, we will symbolically eat and drink the broken body and shed blood of Jesus Christ. We do it to remember and honor the salvation He brings to us. I call you to remember today that you have been justified through His cross.
William Gee: Adoption
As we prepare to share communion today, let’s talk about God . . . and his people . . . and adoption.
Adoption is not new to us. We know it’s when, for whatever reasons, a person leaves their natural or genetic family and enters into another family, with all its privileges, and expectations, and responsibilities. Sitting in this celebration gathering today there are families and individuals that have gone through this and experienced the changes that come with it. But we need to think beyond our textbook understanding or the legal definition of it.
Think about it with me:
a mother, a father, a family,
choosing to open their homes and lives, inviting another person into the circle of love and care, that is their family. Looking another person in the eyes and telling them they are wanted, they are needed, they have a home. Saying, “You are ‘part of us’ now, and our name is your name—when people see you, they see us.”
What kind of love, what kind of acceptance, what kind of grace is that?
Amazing. Beautiful.
Interestingly enough, this change in identity; this transformation of peoples’ lives is never called adoption in the Old Testament, but God uses the language of family powerfully and repeatedly to set His people apart, this group that was identified as God’s people, Israel.
God declares that he is the Father of the nation Israel, whom he loves as his child (Isa 1:2; Hosea 11:1). He calls Israel His “firstborn son" (Exod 4:22). He specifically, says to David (and the Messiah), "You are my son; today I have become your Father" (Psalm 2:7); and of David's promised descendant, "I will be his father, and he will be my son" (2 Sa 7:14). Israel’s relationship with God was familial, Israel was adopted by God—His sons and daughters.
Now out of this group of people comes Paul in the NT times.
He knows the God’s law, Israel’s history, and is one of the “best-of-the-best” young leaders in the community. He knows he’s adopted by God because he’s one of God’s people, Israel.
So as any good son who thinks people are dragging his family name in the mud, Paul starts going around and dealing with this little group of people who think they’ve got a new and better way to relate to and live with God; he locks them up and wishes them death.
Now these people are following the teachings of a Jewish teacher whose name you might have heard of, Jesus. His followers swear that though he was killed, he was later raised from the dead by God’s power. They claim that He was the savior God promised to send long ago (the Messiah or Christ) and that He brought the Kingdom of God in a new and unexpected way—not with power and might for Israel, but with love and hope and reconciliation—think adoption, here—for all peoples.
Paul heads up north, to Damascus, to take out a pocket this growing assembly people. But on the way, he meets God face to face and learns that God’s work and plan is much bigger than he ever realized. His love and plans go far beyond the little community of the Israelite people—God is concerned about all of his lost children.
Paul sees it way back in Genesis 3 when God’s first kids, Adam and Eve, walked out of the Garden, the home God had prepared for them; God has never given up on or quit pursuing his alienated kids.
After this encounter, Paul thinks and speaks differently about God’s love and desire to be reconciled—once again, think adoption—with all people.
When Paul is speaking to a group of people at Mars Hill in Athens, the intellectual center of Greece—think Denison, OSU-N, Mount Vernon, liberal arts education—he tells them that God created all we see and know, including all people—from one original family he adds—and that He has engineered and rigged history so that humankind would search for and find Him; because he is not as far from us as we tend to think. Paul drives this point home by quoting their own “intellectual” poets, declaring that all people are His children (Acts 17).
Keep in mind he is not talking to people who even believe in this God as Paul does. They have thousands of gods in their faith systems. But Paul is sharing with them that they are being invited into a “father-child” relationship by the one true God who is creator of and provider for all people.
In fact, of the 5 times Paul specifically talks about adoption, 4 times he is speaking directly about how people can become children of God—Christ-followers—because God has chosen to pursue people for His own. He chooses us. Let us and all others choose Him as well.
The full scope of God's work of salvation—past, present, and future—is seen in His work of adoption.
So, as we prepare to share this communion meal, let me say, welcome home. Enjoy this family celebration-meal waiting ahead of us, and let us remember it is the spirit of Jesus that has brings this family—God’s family—back together.
Tevis Austin: Regeneration
*Sitting on chair- Pictures of butterfly
One of the books that I enjoy reading to my kids is “The hungry caterpillar.” I have a friend who farms butterflies and sends me a picture almost every month. It is a pretty amazing process by which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. And if that process is disturbed in any way, the caterpillar will fail to become what it was created to be, a butterfly. If it doesn’t have the right nourishment it won’t be able to grow, if it isn’t able to form a cocoon it won’t be able to change, if the butterfly isn’t permitted to struggle and push it’s way out of the cocoon it’s wings won’t have enough strength, if the butterfly isn’t given the time to fill it’s wings with fluid after it leaves the cocoon, it won’t be able to fly. A beautiful picture of transformation or regeneration.
From the very beginning God loved us and created us to be holy and in relationship with Him. In fact, out of all creation, we were created to be like him, the only creation made “in God’s image.”
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves.”
What does that mean? We are…
Spiritual beings – our spirits are immortal and will outlast our earthly bodies
Intellectual – we think, reason, solve
Relational – we give and receive love
Moral Conscious – we discern right from wrong which makes us accountable to God.
We were, are made in the image of God. That doesn’t mean we were made to become God or even a god. That is one of Satan’s lies. Many religions and new age philosophies promote that on your own you can get rid of the impurities in your life so that you can become god or one with god.
The desire to be god shows up every time we want to control our circumstances, our future, other people. And that resulted from the first sin – desire to be in control, to be god. If you are like me, I feel anything but in God’s image. Even after I chose Christ, I don’t feel like I’m in His image. That is because sin has distorted God’s image in us.
How can I become what I was created to be? What does that look like? How can His image be restored in us? How can we become godly?
God knew what He was doing in the beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of His Son…We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in Him. Romans 8:29 (The Message)
Ever since we chose to do our own thing, God’s plan has been to make you and I like His Son, Jesus. You and I were created to become like Christ. This process of becoming like Christ begins at the point when we choose to believe in Christ and the sacrifice He made so we might have a relationship with God.
Early in the formation of the Church, Paul, a leader in developing the Church, wrote a letter to a person he had been mentoring named Titus. Paul reminds Titus what takes place when a person chooses Christ.
Titus 3:4-7
But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love. [5] He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit. [6] He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did. [7] He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.
Verse 4 – because of his grace,
Verse 5 – saved not because of anything we do
Verse 5 – washed away our sins = justified
Verse 5 – gave us new birth, new life through the Holy Spirit = transformation
Verse 7 – declared not guilty - justification and adopted to receive eternal life
This is why we celebrate communion. At the point in which you choose Christ, when you choose to accept the sacrifice God’s Son made for us, your slate is clean, you are declared not guilty, you are excused as the video referred to earlier, you are adopted into His family, and a transformation or regeneration takes place. Like a caterpillar is recreated to become what it was created to be, a butterfly. God’s desire is to recreate, remold, reshape you in the image of Christ. His desire is for you to become the very person you were created to be which is only possible because of the sacrifice of Jesus - the body that was broken, the blood that was shed for you.
Reflection before communion.
Have you experienced true forgiveness, the warmth of being adopted into God’s family, spiritual transformation?
Have you embraced the power and depth of Christ’s sacrifice, His salvation, that we honor and celebrate as we participate in communion?
1 Corinthians 11:23-34
Ever since the early Christians met secretly in homes to remember the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, the church has been celebrating the Communion Service. Of all the things we do in the church, this one event should hold the most meaning for us, and it should cause us to be humbled by the message behind the service.
Today, we are going to partake of the Communion once again. But, before we do, I want to draw your attention to what these verses teach us about this special time. Allow me to point out several marks of this time known as Communion. As I do, please look into your own heart and examine your life on the basis of what the Bible says about this event known as The Lord's Supper.
1. It is a time for commemoration
The idea of remembering is more than just recalling that an event took place. It has the idea of stirring up the mind to relive with Jesus Christ as much of His life, death and resurrection as is humanly possible. It is a time to remember that:
1. He left heaven to be born in a human body - Phil. 2:5-6
2. He became poor that we might be rich - 2 Cor. 8:9
3. He bore our sins in His Own body on the cross Pet. 2:24
4. He willingly took our place at Calvary - Isa. 53:4-6
5. He shed His blood for our redemption - Rev. 1:5; Rev. 5:9, 1 Pet. 1:18-19.
6. He conquered death for us forever - Matt. 28:1-6; Rev. 1:18
7. He ascended back to Heaven to finish His redemptive work and to serve as out High Priest forever - Heb. 7:25
2. It is a time of contemplation 23-25
Not only are we to remember what Jesus has done for humanity, but we are to contemplate what His sacrifice means to us as individuals. We have done that today in remembering the blessing of salvation.
3. It is a time for identification
When we take the Lord's Supper, we are publicly identifying ourselves with Jesus Christ.
4. It is a time for declaration
This verse reminds us that when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, we are declaring His death and resurrection to new generations of people. This is to be a time of education as well as a time of worship.
5. It is a time of expectation
A. We are also reminded that this time serves to stir up our thoughts concerning the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
6. It is a time of examination
23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
27Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 1 Cor. 11:23-29