THE ENCOUNTER

THE ENCOUNTER

                “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3

                I think we can all agree that Yeshua did not involve Himself in idle chatter. He came preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and everything He said and everything He did was a key to that kingdom.

                As Creator God of this vast universe, He came into the world as one of us, but born of a virgin. He came to walk in our shoes and to endure our temptations, to overcome them and then to die at our hands. There was nothing casual about His mission. There was not a single pointless endeavor, an idle word, or a wasted moment.

                So when Yeshua started a sentence with “Truly, truly” He was saying something of profound importance. This voice that spoke the worlds into existence is now speaking a most foundational truth into lost humanity.

                Here He is telling us that Adam sinned and when he sinned he lost that part of him that had made him in the image of God. Therefore since he was no longer in the image of God; everyone subsequently born into Adam’s race was born lost and without hope. And since it was the Spirit of God that Adam had lost, every child of Adam must be born again by the Spirit of God in order to be saved.

                When I was a child growing up, we were focused on doctrine. Adventism has I think 28 fundamental doctrines of which about seven of them are unique to Christianity. And because it was this uniqueness that must be embraced if one was to become an Adventist, evangelism focused on teaching these doctrines. So when a person checked off on the doctrines he or she was ready to be baptized into the church.

                 I am not making fun of doctrine. In fact, once a person is born again, it is important to study to show oneself approved unto God, a workman that needs not be ashamed. But we must make it clear that none of those doctrines will save you. Not the law, not the Sabbath nor the state of the dead, or any prophetic interpretation of last day events. None of it can save any of us.

                Only one thing can save us and that is in dying to the kingdom of this world and being born again into the kingdom of God through the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

                So, in spite of the fact that I grew up in evangelism and sang in the meetings and visited those who came, I was 40 years old before I had that one encounter that changed everything.

                I know that Adventism has changed its focus over the years and they have struggled to make Jesus Christ the center of their faith, but in many ways, it seems obvious that the Sabbath is still the kingpin of their Gospel. It remains the supreme focus of their presentation to the world and I must profoundly say, to both Adventists and to Messianic believers that the Sabbath will not save anybody.

                Before any other concern, we must be born again. We must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as a matter of primary importance. What we learn and what we do as a matter of obedience and growth after that is a matter of maturity. A baby is born with many things to learn in his life, but first of all, the baby must be born. Likewise a baby Christian has many things to learn in his Christian life, but first of all, he must be born again, or he hasn’t even started his new life.

                Jesus said, “Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” And then He went on to explain that we are born of the Spirit. Yeshua was born, conceived by the Holy Spirit and that is what made Him the Son of God. Likewise we must be born of the Spirit in order to be children of God. If we are not born of the Spirit, then we are not His children. And it doesn’t matter how many good things we do, we are still children of Adam and children of a kingdom that is on a fast train to hell.

                Now why am I talking about this? Am I trying to create an argument? Am I trying to stir up trouble? Absolutely not. I am sharing with you what I have discovered in my life and I am here to say that all of the doctrines that I grew up with do not add up to salvation. We live in a most critical time in earth’s history. If we don’t have Jesus as the foundation of our faith… if we have not been born again into His kingdom, then our persecution and death may be in vain.

                There may be Sunday laws in our future. After all, pagans love uniformity and conformity. If they are to enforce a global religion, it is likely that they would choose Sunday as their universal day of worship. But I am here to tell you that the 250 thousand Christians that were crucified and beheaded over in the Middle East in recent years did not die because of what day they kept. They died because they were Christians who refused to renounce the name of Jesus.

                As a Messianic believer I am here to tell you that keeping the Feast Days or the Shabbat will not save you either. “What can take away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

                What we believe in terms of doctrine is highly important. It must be provable by the Bible and not just a hand-picked text here and there. We must indeed embrace the entire Bible as the fountain of our doctrine, but as Jesus said “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but they testify of Me.” John 5:39.

                 So, here and now, apart from all argument, I would like to invite you to have that divine encounter. Laying aside all other concerns, come to the foot of the cross and there accept Jesus as your Savior. Accept Him as the Only God and Savior who died in your place, who can also raise you up by the power of His resurrection to become a child of God… born again into the kingdom of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

                I came to a critical point in my life where all of my doctrine and my Sabbath keeping could not deliver me from the power of Satan over me. I have shared my story before, but let me say here that in a moment of divine clarity, I finally understood that I needed Jesus at a much more fundamental level than I had ever known Him. In my weakness I invited Him in and He came in and even though I have had many things to learn and unlearn, life has never ever been the same since that encounter that changed everything.

                “For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.” Romans 3:28. So is Paul saying here that the Law is unimportant? Not at all. What he is telling us is that there is something of primary importance.  Something deeper and more foundational. Without being born again, all of the law keeping in the world will not save you. Being born again then is even more fundamental than keeping the law, for the law is almost pointless unless we are children of God. The law can only lead us to the foot of the cross and there its work is finished.

                “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Rom. 6:8-11.

                If you have never had that divine encounter with Jesus Christ on the basis of His death and resurrection for you, I invite you to come to Him now, in the privacy of your own home. Ask Jesus to be your new life. Ask Him to come into your heart by His Holy Spirit. At the foot of the cross, we repent of all that we were as children of Adam and we ask God to make us children of the last Adam, Jesus Christ.

                For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Cor. 15:22

                “So also it is written, “The first man, Adam became a living soul.  The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” 1 Cor. 15:45.

                Today, you can put first things first. You can have that divine encounter with Jesus that changes everything. And you can have that encounter every day and you can walk in it because you are now a child of the Kingdom. You have passed from death into life.

                “And the witness is this; that God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” 1 John 5:11, 12. Don’t settle for anything less.

                “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.  2 Cor. 1:21, 22.

                You are now a child of God, living in a covenant signed by the blood of Jesus and sealed with the Holy Spirit. And with this seal, Yeshua has promised that what He has started in you He will finish. Now… go and be His disciple.