Strong Encouragement for New Believers, Part 1 | A Strong Foundation for the New Believer

Luke 7:18-35

This message is to encourage new believers. It’s to encourage all of you who have been saved for a short period of time, let’s say five years or less, that you might grow strong in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. If you’re less than five years old in the Lord, I want you to listen carefully to these, what is going to be simple, but profound words of encouragement from your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

But the message that I’m giving today is delivered with the whole church in mind because I want all of us to see our great responsibility here to minister to one another that we all together might grow strong in Christ. If you’re five to 55 years old in the Lord, or even longer in Christ, I want you to consider carefully a few things. Ask yourself, as you sit there in your seat, as you think about the current condition of your relationship with Christ, as you think about your current energy, your current involvement in the church, as you think about your current involvement in the lives of other Christians, ask yourself how you are regularly and consistently and practically helping other Christians around you grow strong in Christ.

Think about the last time that you shared Christ with an unbeliever, and you did so in love because you’re concerned for their soul. Ask the Lord, as you sit there today, whether you shared the whole gospel or just the happy parts. Did you share the hard parts? Did you use words like sin, and righteousness, and judgment, and wrath, and condemnation, and the warning of hell, and call to repentance, and point to faith in Christ for a life of obedience, for a life of dying to self? Is that how you shared Christ?

Listen, if you’re vision of Christ has dimmed somewhat, if your passion has cooled, if you love for Christ has grown somewhat cold, consider, as we go through this morning in a message for new believers how you maybe need to hear this afresh. Consider how you may need to repent for yourself and not just think about the person around you that needs to hear this or so and so. But return to your first love and fan into flame the passion that you once had.

In fact, I’d like you to look, this is a preview of coming attractions, but look at Luke 7, Luke 7 and verse 44. Consider whether your life, as you sit there now, resembles more the coldhearted Simon or the fervent love of the forgiven woman. Look at Luke 7:44, “Turning toward the woman Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.’”

How do you think of yourself? Are you one in need of just a little forgiveness because you’re not really that big of a sinner? Or do you stand with that woman? Do you bow with that woman? Do you weep with that woman? Think about the contrast. Simon had this calm, collected demeanor, didn’t he? He’d been around the church for quite some time. He held positions of honor. He maintained a respectable image for others around him. He’s not to be commended for that.

The woman here made a scene, not for the sake of making a scene but because her love for her Savior overcame her sense of self-consciousness and self-awareness. Her faith had saved her, and she could go in peace. Listen beloved, that’s what we want to see stirred up in our church, a passionate and grateful and fervent love for Jesus Christ that is unashamed and poured out on one another.

So here’s the first word of comfort and encouragement from our Lord. We need to be encouraged, number one, we need to be encouraged that we embrace God’s Messiah. Number one, we need to be encouraged that we embrace God’s Messiah. Look at Luke 7:23, Jesus said, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” New believer, are you offended by Christ? You say, no, of course not. I just professed faith in him and trust in him in the waters of baptism in front of all these people. Of course I am not offended by him. I love him. I worship him. He’s forgiven me of all my sin.

Listen, you need to understand that that attitude, that joy, that passion, that desire for worship is no small thing. You need to stop and realize that we belong to a very, very small minority of people on this earth. We, in this building, we adhere to this ancient religion and we worship a crucified man, one that was condemned by the state and then handed over by his own people. I mean the whole world of popular opinion is against the one that we worshiped.

In popular judgment today, we look for hope in an old and outdated book. We preach a religion of, let’s, let’s just call it what they would say, dubious origins. We trust in a God whose morals, in their judgment, are quite suspect. I mean, condemning homosexuals, wiping out whole civilizations and angry wrathful judgment, promoting the worship of a crucified Messiah, seriously? We do not make sense to the world.

We were born into this world thinking just like they did. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were blind to all of this and apart from the divine miracle of regeneration, like the people of First Century Palestine, we would also ignore John the Baptist. We would reject Jesus the Christ. We would persecute all the apostles and the prophets. We would persecute all those who follow their sayings and their teachings, apart from regeneration. Like the people of our own day, we would react to Christianity with anywhere from bored indifference to active hostility. But we don’t. This is God’s doing. This is not our own doing, it’s God’s doing.

Again, in verse 23, after interacting with the disciples of John the Baptist, going from 18-22, that section, Jesus spoke words of encouragement to his people. “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” The one who is not offended at Jesus, offended by who he is, by what he does, by what he says. The one who is not offended, that’s the one who embraces Jesus Christ. And it’s not just that we’re not ashamed of Christ. It’s that we boast in him. We take pride in him. “Blessed in the one who is not offended by me.”

As we’ve learned, the verb offend, it’s the word skandalizo, to, to trip somebody up. We get our English word scandal, and the verb, to scandalize, from that word, but it’s the idea of putting a stumbling block in somebody’s way. For whom is Jesus Christ a stumbling block? Well first of all, it’s for all those who try to shove Jesus into their own expectations. He’s a stumbling block for all who want to conform him to their preconceived notions and ideas and that mentality started with and was typified by Jesus’ own people, the Jewish nation.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “We preach Christ crucified, which is a stumbling block to the Jews.” That’s the same word, skandalon. Jesus didn’t fit their expectations about what a Messiah should be and do and so they took offense at him. They rejected him. They ended up committing the greatest crime in history, which is the bitterest irony of all time. They crucified their own Messiah. How bitterly ironic and sad.

But secondly, Jesus is a stumbling block to those who find his words offensive, his commands unreasonable, his thinking antiquated and outdated. All the irreligious, the non-Jews, the immoral by biblical identification, they’re called Gentiles, that’s us. We need to recognize the Jews had help in crucifying their Messiah. They were assisted in their crime by the Gentiles for whom Christ is also a stumbling block and a rock of offense. Paul said, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.”

So the Gentiles, too, they have set their expectations about what a Savior should be and do, and Jesus doesn’t fit their expectations either. So they scoff. They laugh. They scorn and they mock, and they join the Jews in crucifying the only true Savior, Jesus the Christ. That is a big mistake. That is a fatal mistake of eternal consequence. All sinners, whether of the Jewish kind or the Gentile kind, all sinners, whether living in Jesus’ day or our own time, all of them alike, Romans 9:32-33, “Have stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written, ‘Behold, I am lying in Zion, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

Paul is quoting there from two places in Isaiah. I’d like you to turn back to Isaiah chapter 8, Isaiah chapter 8. And while you’re turning there, I’m going to read from the other place that Paul quotes from, which is Isaiah 28:16. In Isaiah 28:16, this is one of the references, “Therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone stone of a sure foundation: “And whoever believes will not be in haste,”’” or another way to translate that is, ”that will not be disturbed, panicked, or put to shame,” which is how Paul renders it.

The other passage Paul quotes from, Isaiah 8:11-15, “For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and he warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ‘Do not call a conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, to trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

I hope you caught that. The Lord God of Israel, Yahweh, the Lord of Hosts, he is a rock. He is the rock, period. He is rock-like and for some, that rock is a rock of refuge, a sanctuary beneath which we hide, but for many, for both houses of Israel, for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that rock is a stone of stumbling, an offensive rock. It’s a trap and a snare. Then this in verse 15, “Many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.” That is to say, swept away in judgment.

According to that prophetic warning, Simeon also prophesied this when Jesus was just a baby. He said, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that’s opposed so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” So when Jesus said, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me,” Luke 7:23, that’s a word of warning to those who would be offended of him. But it’s a word of comfort and encouragement to those who believe; same intent of Isaiah’s words, as well, strong encouragement to all who believe.

New believer, do not fear what they fear. New believer, do not be in dread, but the Lord of Hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, let him be your dread. And I can tell you this, new believer, if that one is your fear, you will fear nobody else. You will fear nothing else if you fear him and him alone. “The righteous are as bold as a lion. But the wicked flee but no one pursues.”

What makes the difference between Isaiah and those whom God calls to belong to him on the one hand and then the many who do stumble over this stumbling stone? What makes the difference between them? Turn over to the New Testament, 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2. And Peter also quotes from this in Isaiah. You find the same passage quoted again, and here we learn why we believe and others do not, 1 Peter 2:4-10, “As you come to him,” that is Christ, “a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone.’” I love that imagery of standing. Of course it’s standing. It’s a stone. You don’t move it. It is what it is.

“‘I’m laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.’ They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

You see the answer? Why we believe, why you new believers turned away from all your friends, family, who condemn you; away from this culture who thinks this is totally ludicrous what we’re doing here. Why we believe and they do not, what is the difference. There in verse 7. The honor that we have received of not being offended by Christ, of not stumbling over the stumbling stone, that honor is for those of you who believe. Why do you believe, and others don’t? Are you smarter than they are? Well, let’s just say it’s easier to see when the lights are turned on. “They all stumble,” end of verse 8. The world stumbles because the lights are off. “They disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you,” verse 9, emphatic contrast there. “But you yourselves are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession that you may proclaim his glory.” Let’s just say that.

You can turn back to Luke 7 now. We learn from Jesus that those who are not offended by him, not scandalized by him, we learn that they are blessed. They are blessed by God. That is equivalent language for what Peter called chosen, elect, beloved by God, a people purchased by God, by Christ for God’s own possession. For you new believers in our midst, you have joined the company of the rest of us who have embraced God’s Messiah. And as I said, that is no small thing. That is God’s doing. We are among the blessed, not because of our own worth, merit, strength, pride, intellect, power. We’re among the blessed because we have been specially and sovereignly favored by God. And that’s the reason.

None of this is by your own merit. We don’t do this, deserve any of this favor, all this is God’s doing. “For by grace you’ve been saved through faith. It’s not of your own selves, it’s not of your own doing; it’s the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast in self.” It’s not a matter of merit, not a matter of intellect, strength, or human wisdom. It’s a matter of divine grace.

So listen, if we embrace Jesus as God’s Messiah, if we are not offended by, by him, it is because God has favored us. For others who are not so favored and blessed by God, they all get Jesus wrong. Peter, in contrast to the wrong opinion of many in his day, he made the good confession, Matthew 16:16. He said of Jesus, you’re not just like Elijah or one of the prophets or even John the Baptist raised from the dead. You’re not like any of that. You’re something completely different. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Did Jesus turned around and say, oh, Peter, wow! Good job.

No, he didn’t look at Peter and commend Peter. He gave glory to God. “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.” Even your own flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, “but my Father who is in heaven.” Jesus was constantly encouraging his disciples that way. Later on he told them on the eve of his crucifixion, John 15:16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.”

Beloved, new believer and old alike, let that thought comfort you. Let that truth fill your heart with joy, encouragement, and strong confidence. The fact that you’re not offended by Christ, along with the rest of the unbelieving world, the fact that you embrace Jesus as God’s Messiah in contradistinction from the rest of the unbelieving world, that is not your own doing. Rather, it is the gracious will of God. It’s not up to you and it’s up to God. And that means he will hold you fast.

Remember that when you’re down and discouraged. Remember that when your sins come back to haunt you. Remember that when the evil one comes to tempt you, entices you into sin and you fail yet again. And then that evil one becomes not just your enticer and your tempter, but also your accuser. oh, look at you. You belong to Christ? Sure you do, you hypocrite! You just look at him and say, I am what I am by the grace of God. God chose me.

You belong to him because you have embraced his son the Messiah. He is your king because God has willed it. And God has affected it. Jude assures us the same way. He speaks of the one who is able to keep you from stumbling, to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, that one is the only God, our Savior and through Jesus Christ our Lord, to him belongs glory and majesty and dominion and authority before all time and now and forever.

Listen, if that all-powerful, high, and majestic, if that glorious one chose you, do you think he’ll ever let you go? “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” We’re not offended by Christ. He’s not a stumbling block to us. We embrace him, we love him. That is God’s doing. Not only are we unashamed of Christ, we boast in him. And I’d encourage you, new believer and old believer alike, but you new believers boast of Christ. Get used to boasting in Christ. Speak of Christ to others, be verbal about that. Be unapologetic about that. Be bold, humble, but bold in your testimony of what God has done. Get used to speaking openly about him. It pleases God for you to honor his Son publicly. You know why? Because God honored his own son publicly, lifted him high on a cross.