Road Trippin With Rachael

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: /See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight! John came baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. – Mark 1:1-4 (CSB)

While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the Father’s promise. ‘Which,’ he said, ‘you have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.’ So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, are you restoring the kingdom of Israel at this time?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.’ – Acts 1:4-8 (CSB)

I love all of the carols that I’ve posted about this month. I love the story that they tell; I love the theology that is a part of them; I love what they tell us we are called to do as believers; and I love that they can be used as tools to teach about who God is and what he has done.

Some of the Carols are broad – such as the ones that tell the stories of Christ’s birth like Away in a Manger – but then there are some carols that are obviously not restricted to the Christmas Season, we simply choose to sing them during that time. Go Tell It On The Mountain is one such carol. Meant to be sung at the end of the Christmas Season, this carol is a call to believers of what they are to do now that they have the Good news of Christ.

There is a saying amongst those who are in Baptist circles – “Once saved, always saved.” Although not incorrect, there is more to it than simply saying a prayer, being baptized, and then going about one’s life. As a believer, Christians are called to do something with their faith. After all James challenges believers in his epistle to “Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works” (James 2:18b). In todays last post for our Christ in the Carols Series we are going to be looking at the two calls the Holy Spirit makes in the lives of believers.

The Call By The Holy Spirit To Repentance

Although the Christmas Season is a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, and how God dwelled amongst his people, we cannot afford to forget that today, believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit. As such there are certain things that believers in Christ are going to be compelled to do because of the love that they have for God, and because of what God has done for them and through them. One of these is to be used by the Holy Spirit for a call to repentance.

As we saw in the verses that the beginning of this post, there is always a call. For the Hebrew people at the time of Jesus, there was John. If you have also been reading the mini-series for Advent this year, John comes up pretty early on as the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. John was a voice that was meant to be a pre-curser for Jesus, much the same as the prophets in the Old Testament, John was calling the people to repentance and to turn from their sinful ways. The Holy Spirit was not indwelling believers yet, not until Pentecost which is what we read about in Acts. As a result of having the Holy Spirit inside of each believer, every Christian is empowered to call others. This means two things: they are empowered to share the Gospel and they are empowered to call out sin in the lives of other believers. Some examples of calling otherings to repentance through the Gospel would be: Peter and the Centurion Cornelius (Acts 10:1-48), and Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). The other side is addressing sin in the lives of others believers. Paul is well known for this and regularly does so in his epistles to the churches, particularly Corinth. (As a side note here: this is never to be done to tear someone down, but to lovingly bring them to repentance; there is a system in place to address the sin if it was against you found in Matthew 18:5-20, and if it is a sin that is damaging to the local church or Church universal that can be found in I Corinthians 5:11).

The other part of believers being called to repentance is that now they are able to speak about the forgiveness they have received. Probably one of the hardest and most beautiful part of coming to Christ as an adult is realizing the depth of God’s forgiveness for sin. Both my sister and I came to Christ when we were children: I was almost nine, and I believe my sister was seven or eight. We were rescued and protected by God from doing the things that a lot of people struggle to find forgiveness for. But in our young hearts, we knew that we had sinned and needed to be forgiven for our sins. As an adult, I know what I’m capable of; I know what my shortcomings are and the negative side of my personality. Had I not come to Christ when I did, I know that I have the potential to have grown into a, let’s just say, less than kind person. Despite that, I have been forgiven and I am able to invite others into that forgiveness. Matthew 6:9-15 is The Lord’s Prayer. In it, Jesus sets an example of going to God and asking to be forgiven of sins. He also flips it on its head and tell everyone that they need to forgive others, too. Isn’t that the rub? How often to we want to be forgiven of what we have done, but struggle to forgive others who have committed the same sins as us? (Note: Forgiveness does not mean that it is instant, nor does it equate to a lack of consequences. Anything having to do with sexual sin against a child (0-18) gets reported and the church needs to support the child. If there is sexual sin against an adult, it gets reported and the church supports the victim. There are far reaching consequences to these sins, and the person committing them has to face them or the sin will only get worse, and it is the Church’s job to care for those who have been harmed. Period.)

Called By the Holy Spirit to Be Witnesses

When there is a court case taking place, depending on the level of the trial, there will sometimes be witnesses to are called by each side to testify. These can be character witnesses who know either side, or it could be a material witness who saw the reported crime happen. The passage recorded earlier out of Acts 1, the disciples and apostles are called to be material witnesses – they saw the things that Christ had done and can testify to their validity. John 21:24 records John testifying of his own account that “this is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.” Modern Christians, all all those who have been Christians since the time of the death of the apostles, are character witnesses. We have seen the way that God works in our lives and in the lives of others. Each of us is able to speak of the goodness of God, how our lives have been changed, how we are not the same people, and how we still make mistakes but he is faithful and just to forgive our sins (I John 1:9). Both the material and character witnesses have been called to share the Gospel to multiple groups. The Apostles and disciples of Jesus were witnesses locally (Judea) for many years before the Gospel began to be strategically spread by Paul and Barnabas. Likewise we are witnesses in our local communities, workplaces, and schools. Regionally, the Gospel began to spread as the people wo were there to celebrate the Passover in Acts 2 and heard Peter’s sermon returned to their own towns and shared with their own local people. Today, there are many missions opportunities that people can be involved in, such as volunteering, giving money, or traveling during major disasters. Finally, the early Christians were called to share the Gospel globally. The most famous is the Apostle Paul, but he was widely supported by people throughout his travels by those who couldn’t travel the way he did. Today, there are many service organizations that Christians can be a part of, and there are also a plethora of different sending missionary organizations that deploy missionaries to different places around the world, both open and closed to the Gospel. The Holy Spirit empowers believers to share throughout history and continues to do some today regardless of context.

Final Thoughts

As believers, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to call others to repentance and to speak of forgiveness, not only for ourselves but for others. Modern Christians are also character witnesses to what Christ has done and we are compelled by the Holy Spirit to share locally, regionally, and globally although each person is called to share in different capacities.