God's Amazing Grace #3 (The God of Open Arms)
Text: Acts 15:6-11
We certainly are glad to welcome everyone here this morning who has come together looking
to celebrate or receive a message of good news from the One who knows us the best and loves us
the most. Since the dawn of man’s existence on this planet we have been living our lives in one
of two directions:
either purposefully away from God or trying to make it on our own back to God and yet in the
midst of it all God sent Jesus to declare one great truth about our heavenly Father:
He is the God of open arms!
If you have ever been embraced by an open arm kind of person, someone who just simply is
overjoyed at your presence or return you know the kind of feeling that the person has for you
and what soon hopefully you will have:
complete joy!
I remember one stretch a few years ago that Sydney didn’t see me for about 1 week. I was gone
before she woke up in the morning and got home after she went to bed at night and finally one
morning I was reading the paper on the couch and I heard the faintest ‘Daddy’ and this tired
looking three year old came running as fast as she could with her arms open wide to welcome me
home.
I don’t think there is anything that is supposed to bring people more joy than the idea that
ones who were so close but then separated are back together again!
The one place where this should be predominant and yet for some it is not is the house of
God- above everything the church today is the greatest reuniting center of all time!
As the greatest degree of reunion has taken place in the church with the Father of all- the
greatest amount of joy should be felt here as well.
Romans 14:17- the kingdom is righteousness, peace & joy.
Galatians 5:22- the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy & peace.
Acts 8:4-8- there was great joy in that city.
Indeed heaven is continually celebrating the return home that all of us make when we
respond to the love of Jesus.
As we said last week and this will be a determining factor if we are going to be joy filled
with God is we need to understand that receiving God’s grace- being accepted despite who we
might be- does not depend on us earning it but only by receiving it as a gift!
Now as someone said- this is kind of like the difference in people who sing songs.
Sometimes I wish we could go back to the early church to notice their singing and how informal
& unprofessional it really would have been. But, when we sing our songs- do we get to listen to
the music or are we too busy making sure we got it right?
Trusting in grace allows us to celebrate the Father- we get to listen to the music, but trying
to earn it is like only feeling good about a song after we know it was sung just right-
whatever that means!
We can be or can remain that joy filled people of God when we realize how exactly we are
saved or accepted by God! We can’t earn it- we can’t bring enough to the table where God says
okay I’ll give you what I have to offer now. But God simply gives everybody an offer to be
saved no matter what he or she has done or who he or she might be!
Now, here is a problem that I am faced with:
can everyone be forgiven so easily?
It is hard for me to imagine that somebody who does a foul act on Saturday can come to God on
Sunday and be accepted. Or, even harder- can come to God that very night! Maybe even harder
still- God will rejoice that the person does!
Let me just say before we get into this morning’s text that as hard as that might be for some
of us to grasp: we need that to be the case!
Turn in your Bibles to Acts 15:6-11
Now to understand what we are getting into we have to know what’s been going on:
you have one of the fiercest church fights that has ever taken place. You have the 12 apostles,
you have the apostle Paul & even the physical brothers of Jesus involved. This fight came
close to making the Christian religion divide into 2 separate groups.
What was the debate over?
'How are people saved?'
This is the greatest question that every generation of Christians must have an answer for. It
wasn’t whether everyone could be saved; people had no problem with that- it was a question of
how everyone could be saved!
You have churches like that today- we believe all can be saved, but the difference is in how.
So, here is the battle- how are people of all nations saved?
Here is really the #1 guy speaking. This should settle it for all generations! (Matt.16:18)
We all can read that phrase- the question is can we all believe it! Notice what Peter says:
He does not say the Gentiles will be saved by grace! He says, we will be saved by grace as
the Gentiles are!
This is big news and it forever should erase a prejudice in our minds:
even the religious cannot be saved except by grace!
Even people who spend their lives ‘devoted’ to God by pious deeds cannot earn salvation but must
be forgiven & accepted despite themselves as everyone else is.
Why is it necessary for the foulest among us to be able to be accepted by God?
That’s how any of us are accepted.
When we look at the world around us we have always known that there were two types of
people! Our problem is that we haven’t always identified the two groups properly.
When we think of God and the world at times the categories have been the sinful group vs.
the righteous group!
Basically until the sinful group became like the righteous one they could never have God
in their lives.
Peter however changes that doesn’t he?
Notice everybody no matter where they are from, who they are or what they have done if saved are
going to be saved only by God’s grace.
So, it is not the sinful vs. the righteous but it is better stated as the sinful that
realize they need God’s grace vs. the sinful that do not!
Look at who Jesus came for: Matt.9:13
When we look at it this way we see something different about God:
He is not looking to condemn anyone! (John 3:17, 2 Peter 3:9, 1 Tim.2:4)
When we look at our world there sure is a lot of damage out there isn’t there?
So many people hurting others, so many destroying themselves all because of a little word with
big consequences: sin!
Some realizing the hurt & pain that a fallen world has try to ignore the root of the problem,
some even go so far as to blame God for it- these people don’t see the need to change or to
accept God’s offer. So, they go on pretending that nothing is wrong and nothing is needed on
their part.
What people really need though is not a condoning of what they have done, not just a simple
gloss over of wrongs committed- but what they need is the freedom that ‘forgiveness’ brings.
(1 John 1:8-10)
Listen, because God doesn’t want to condemn us for the wrongs we have done- we can acknowledge
them as wrong and understand that the burden of bearing them or hiding them is no longer ours.
There is nothing greater than being able to run home to the Father and realize that He is a
God of open arms. Isaiah 1:4,18.
Isn’t it better to not be afraid of God ‘finding’ out what we are?
So we ask, what is our work as God’s people in this corner of the world?
What is the #1 thing we must be concerned with?
There is sure a lot to deal with even after people respond to the love of God! Most of the
New Testament is actually about that work.
Isn’t our work simply this:
to let people see the God of open arms & to experience Him genuinely?
Our message is not what is the world coming to but look who is in the world!
Isn’t it better to see Jesus as the friend of sinners that he was notoriously known for then the
person who can’t wait to cast so many people into the fires of hell?
When we see God as the God of open arms welcoming our return to Him- it is much, much easier to
find the kingdom that is more about joy than nervous anticipation, more about peace than fear
& more about soothing than spanking.
Our sins hurt God & His heart- his first reaction is not ‘what are you doing?’ but His
first reaction is ‘let me heal your wound’!
Next week we are going to address some of those concerns we might have about people getting off
to easy as we look at the subject of what grace teaches us but for now we realize that all of
us do not get from the Father what we deserve, instead we get what only the perfect Son
deserved but He gives that to us when we simply return and submit ourselves to His loving
embrace….
1 Tim.1:15- Christ Jesus could save the worst so he can save you
Back to lessons page.
Back to home page.