Bridge Church Vancouver

Personal mark

Personally – I am coming clean – washing away the dirt of my life 

Acts 22:3   “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.  4 “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons,  5 as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.

Acts 22:6   “But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me,  7 and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’  8 “And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’  9 “And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.  10 “And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.’  11 “But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.

Acts 22:12   “A certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,  13 came to me, and standing near said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very time I looked up at him.  14 “And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth.  15 ‘For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.  16 ‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’ 

Paul personally encountered the risen Jesus

Paul had been a devout Jew, a religious man, a person keenly aware of human spirituality  -  but something very different happen in his life now, he encountered Jesus who had confronted him and his own way of life. 

When a person encounteres Jesus, and He encounters them and their life, it is not an ambiguous meeting.  Jesus is completely loving and honest.  He is not going to let us continue on in our own foolishness and life patterns that do nothing but produce pain and death in our lives.   

Sin deadens our spirits, it leads us to death of our souls.  It makes me less responsive to God and life

I don’t hear his voice well – I cant distinguish his voice from all the others

I have no spiritual strength to respond to the truly good, the best I can muster is to respond to the convenient counterfeits.   

Sins trap is to tell me that I am a bad person, I am not worth anything, I don’t matter, I deserve what I get – that is the voice of sin – not God 

Sin leads me to guilt – not God – he leads me to life and freedom 

Sin does not want me out of the forest 

When Jesus confronted Paul on the road to Damascus, Jesus said “Saul, why are you persecuting me?”  Paul had to deal with the reality that Jesus was God in that moment, and that he, Paul, was doing things that directly opposed God, not just God’s ideals or ways, but God himself.   

Jesus confronts us with our sin, not so we can feel bad about it but so we can be set free from it.  You can not be free from that which you do not know holds you.  When he confronts me with my sin – he is close enough for me to hear him with out the mocking birds or echos because he speaks directly to our hearts. 
 

When Jesus confronted Paul on the road, Paul alone heard the voice of Jesus.  The men traveling with him didn’t – the mocking birds and echos can not respond for they do not hear the voice of Jesus – for he speaks into our hearts and we know that it is him. 

He says “you must turn from all the ways you have been trying to find meaning and fulfillment in life and come with me.  Trust in me and not the lies… 

If you have been involved in stuff you know is not right, your not alone, the forest is crowded, and you know it doesn’t satisfy your heart, your soul has not come back to life by doing those things,

Whether they are sexual sins, or lies, whether you steal, or cheat, whether you hurt others or yourself,  

Jesus says come with me and you will find forgiveness and cleansing. 

Jesus did not come to judge you – but he came on a search and rescue mission.   

When they rescue people off the mountain, they may have done stupid things to get them where they are but he rescue team doesn’t judge them, they don’t care what they did to get them where they are at, they only want to save them.   

Jesus does the same for us and now our response is a very personal response:

I have made a choice – I am going in a new direction now 

Getting on Jesus’ path means we follow his directions now,  

If the rescue team says ‘take hold of this rope’ you don’t ask for a different colored rope or a chain 

Jesus says “you want to follow me, be baptized” 

It becomes a marker in your life, an event you look back upon 

It is not an issue of are you ready, I don’t know enough, I am concerned about what others may think, 

Jesus takes care of everything you need to be ready, as long as you have made the decision you want out of the forest. 
 

Public mark

Publically – I am distinguishing myself publically – I am coming out as a follower of Jesus 

I have told someone about it – it is a public declaration of a personal reality 

When you get on the path that leads you out of the forest, you defy the echo and mocking birds 

To say “I believe in Jesus” and continue to wander around in the forest says your not really interested in leaving the forest 

Perhaps this person doesn’t really trust that Jesus will lead them out of the forest

Or perhaps they have just grown accustomed to the darkness of the forest and found some comfort in their misery – they are not truly convinced there is anything but the forest – these are the deadest souls of all. 

But when people begin to make a public movement towards exiting the forest they discover there really is light that previously they had only heard rumors of or their hearts only dreamed of in the most private places of their imaginations. 

Purposeful mark

I am purposing the direction of my life and heart in a different direction

Mark on my heart as a follower 
 

I am acting on my choices – I am changing  - this is the truly our work of salvation – actions of faith  

This is when life begins to come back to my spirit. 

This is when I begin to hear God’s voice and can distinguish between the real voice and the echo or mocking bird