Two weeks ago we started a new series on how to become a Christian. For emphasis, I want to reiterate that one mistake we often make when addressing this important subject is answering in mechanical, impersonal terms. Sometimes when I hear people talking about how to become a Christian I think, "They may as well be telling me how to fill out an IRS form or how to operate a computer program or how to fix my automobile. All would be equally exciting!"
Relationship, relationship, relationship.
This is why we cannot emphasize the relational dimension of becoming a Christian enough. Being a Christian means being in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Christianity is all about relationship. Relationships involve emotion. Relationships involve our hearts, our passions, our energy, our time, our minds, and our love. We never want to boil down the relationship we can have with Christ to a set of cold, lifeless propositions. We never want to become a church of lemmings who hollowly chant facts about a God who we have never come to know. Instead, we want to worship and profess a God who we have come to know personally, experientially, and relationally.
If you asked me what Jesus Christ was like, I could answer in a number of ways. I could say, "He is creator. He is judge. He is infinite. He is holy. He is good." Would all of these facts be true about Jesus Christ? Absolutely! Are all of these characteristics essential things to know about Jesus? Absolutely! But is Christianity a chemistry test or is it a personal relationship? Is describing someone the same as knowing and experiencing someone in a relationship?
It is far better for me to talk about our relationship with Jesus Christ. It is far better to talk about how we have experienced God's goodness or his holiness or his power or his unconditional love or his faithfulness. It is better to talk about how we experience Christ every day, how he personally touches our lives, how he speaks to us, how he moves us, and how he transforms us from day after day. It is better to talk about why we live to please Jesus Christ, why he means so much to us, how we spend time with him in prayer, how we have come to know him personally, or how we have gained the assurance of his unconditional love. If we speak in this way, people will know the true essence of Christianity.
If we talk about our relationship with him, people should be drawn to Christ.
The true essence of Christianity is entering into a personal relationship with Christ and not just knowing data or facts or propositions or truths about God. Last week and the week before we talked about trust and repentance. Specifically, we talked about how these two steps allow us to begin a very real and vibrant personal relationship with Jesus. Trust and repentance aren't religious terms so much as they are relational terms.
Confession.
This morning we move toward a third major step in becoming a Christian. This step is confession. Like faith and repentance, confession is also a relational term. But confession relates to a whole other dimension of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Confession is a public declaration of relationship. It is an affirmation, a pronouncement, a proclamation of that which is of ultimate importance to us. It is the outward verbalization of the inner faith that invigorates our hearts.
One recent example of confession that sticks to my mind is one given by Kurt Warner. In 1999, Kurt rose from obscurity to bring glory and fame to the Saint Louis Rams. He went from stocking groceries and playing arena football to becoming the NFL's most valuable player for 1999 and also the most valuable player for the Super Bowl that year. In spite of all his success, Kurt has continually, consistently, and unapologetically declared his trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in front of millions of people.
In 1999 during a Billy Graham crusade, he announced to over forty thousand cheering fans, "Who am I? I am a devout Christian man. I am not a football player. That is what I do. When I throw a touchdown pass now, my thoughts are on how can I use this success on the field as a platform to glorify and praise my Lord Jesus Christ. People often ask the secret of my success as a football player. It has nothing to do with how I work out in the off-season or how I manage my diet. The secret of my success is simply Jesus Christ." Most recently after games, on the radio, in television interviews, and whenever he gets the opportunity, we have seen him talk about Jesus Christ. There isn't any ambiguity about this relationship or what is important to him.
The Bible speaks to confession as being essential to our relationship with Jesus.
When we read the New Testament we discover that confession is absolutely essential to our relationship with Jesus Christ. Consider a few passages from scripture. In Romans 10:9-10 (NIV) Paul says, "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."
This passage clearly demonstrates the necessity of confession. Our faith has to work its way up from our hearts and out through our mouths and in to the ears of an attentive world. And only then God promises us, "you will be saved."
Another passage that should concern us is Matthew 10:32-33 (NIV). Jesus himself says, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven." If that verse doesn't keep you up at night, perhaps no verse of scripture ever will!
What these verses teach us is that Jesus expects us to verbalize our relationship instead of keeping it a big secret. These verses are not included in scripture as a threat, "Say it or burn!" They are not intended to prematurely coerce a profession of faith as many religions do. These verses are meant to be understood within the larger context of scripture and especially in the context of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In Matthew 12:34 (NIV) Jesus says, "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."
The barometer of your heart.
Another way to say this is that your mouth is a barometer of your heart. You can peer right into the heart of a man by listening to the words that slip off the end of his tongue. If your mouth is chatty about Jesus Christ, your heart is chatty about Jesus. If your mouth is silent about Jesus, than your mouth just called your heart's bluff! The heart and mouth join the chorus in either professing Christ or denying Christ.
One of the first evidences of a withering relationship with Jesus Christ is a Christian who doesn't talk about Jesus, who avoids spiritual conversation, who mumbles through worship and praise songs, and who is embarrassed around Christians who witness. In contrast, one of the first evidences of a flourishing relationship with Jesus Christ is a Christian who tells everyone about Jesus Christ. He just won't stop! He makes the most of every opportunity. There is excitement. There is joy.
In Romans and Matthew Paul and Jesus are just describing the way things are. If we confess Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart, we will be saved. Why? Because there is a vibrant relationship overflowing out of the heart and exiting through the mouth. And the mouth can't help but speak! But if we don't confess, it is because our hearts are dry wells, and a dry well means a dry tongue. Nothing can overflow out of an empty heart and nothing about Christ can be heard from a dry tongue!
Jesus essentially said, "If you acknowledge me before men, I'll acknowledge you before my Father." But if we don't acknowledge Christ, it's because the heart wasn't alive in Christ anyway. The heart was decaying. It was stagnating. It was fizzling out.
The mouth is a barometer of the heart. This is why confession is such an important indicator of whether a true conversion is taking place in your life. We shouldn't say that confession is a requirement for a relationship with Jesus Christ. Rather, it seems better to say that confession is an expression of a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the evidence that something is happening in the heart. It transpires naturally, effortlessly, without solicitation, and without coercion. It cannot help but happen!
Beyond mere words.
But having said this, I want to issue a word of caution. Words aren't everything. It is possible for people to offer false or empty confessions of relationship. In Matthew 7:21-23 (NIV) Jesus says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' "
This verse seems to be a complete reversal of what Jesus said in Matthew 10! These people are acknowledging Jesus before men as, 'Lord, Lord', right? But take a second look at these verses. What is Jesus really concerned about here? Obviously the words of endearment, 'Lord, Lord' are important to Jesus. Without these words, Jesus wouldn't even be looking their way! But what disheartens Jesus is people who claim to have a vibrant, close relationship with him, but who have absolutely no desire to please God by doing his will. This is confession without a right heart. This is confession without repentance. This is hypocrisy of speech at its worst! This is what drives prospective believers far from a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus is not interested in our cheap words. He is not only interested in mere talk. He wants there to be congruence between our outward profession and our inner faith. He wants to see in our lives and hearts what he hears from our lips. He doesn't want us going through the motions of relationship while our hearts run off with another love. He doesn't want us to pretend, or to try and sound spiritual for the sake of sounding spiritual and looking like a Christian. He doesn't want us singing words to songs that we don't mean or care to understand. I remember being at a church when we sang the joyful hymn, "I'm so happy in the service of the king..." with the joy and excitement of a funeral dirge. Jesus is really searching for that genuine, unrehearsed, heart-prompted, joy-filled, personal declaration of relationship that comes from a heart overflowing with a love for Jesus Christ. He is looking for that spontaneous, unambiguous, free flowing expression of the heart that rings with authenticity.
Preparing for eternity.
Something that caught my eye this week was Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV). These verses begin by describing Christ's exaltation into heaven after his death. But pay special attention to how they conclude. "Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Jesus is essentially looking into our hearts now and is listening to the words of our lips for what he will be seeing and hearing for eternity. What he will be hearing is confession. The first steps now of trusting Jesus in our hearts, of kneeling before Jesus in repentance and submission, and of confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, are the steps we will continue in forever. The beginning steps of a relationship with Jesus Christ are just a dress rehearsal for heaven. It is important that we get these things correct now, while there is still time.
Heart checkup.
As we continue in our service this morning, I want you to do a heart checkup. How many people know about your relationship with Jesus Christ? Just you? Just a few? Just two? Five people? Six? A dozen? Who knows about your relationship with Jesus Christ? Do you talk about it with your spouse? Your children? Your parents? Your neighbor? Do your close friends know that you love Jesus Christ? How about your coworkers? Your boss? Your golfing buddies? The members of your club? Your business associates? Your classmates? Your teacher? Your doctor? Your peers?
How often do you express your relationship with Jesus Christ to others? Once in a while? Once a week? Once a month? Hardly ever? Only on Sunday? Only when you are put on the spot? Do you find it hard to talk about Jesus to others? Are you embarrassed? Are you more afraid of rejection? Are you ashamed that Jesus is your Lord and Savior? Do you worship out of the overflow of your heart or out of obligation? To look spiritual? To avoid feeling guilty? To make your parents or spouse happy?
A specific challenge is in order this morning. Let your confession of your relationship with Jesus Christ be something natural. Think, "What has me excited about Jesus Christ this week?" Then speak. Tell someone. Say, "You know, God is so good and let me tell you why." But whatever you do, don't let the biggest fact of your heart become the biggest secret your lips ever kept. Confess Christ. Talk about him. Share your personal experiences. Share the joy of that relationship with others.