(Clip) How Do You React to Jesus Christ — Tim Conway

The Need for a Savior and Substitute

And the question is always this, do you need a Savior? You see, as I look at these Jews, I met Christ. They despised Christ. They're still hoping for a Messiah. But they're still hoping for the same kind of thing they were hoping for 2 ,000 years ago.

They were hoping for somebody that would come along. They want somebody that's going to sympathize with them over the Holocaust. Sympathize with them over their sufferings. They're going to congratulate them on their lineage with Abraham.

They're going to congratulate them on their supposed righteousness. But this is really what all the religions of the world do. This is Judaism. This is Hinduism. This is Islam. Why did we have people that got up out of that chair there in Nepal and say, no, I am not praying in the name of Jesus Christ.

They have no perception that that's exactly what they need. This is the question. Do you need a Savior? Do you need a substitute to bear your sins? The penalty for you? Who is Christ? What has He done?

He's a Savior. Do you need a Savior? That's the question. People are astonished at Christ in one of two ways. They're either astonished, verse 14, man's way to where they're horrified, or they're astonished by Christ in the verse 15 way, God's way to where they're silenced by it all.

Christ's Suffering and the Call to Repentance

And you know what Peter says? Peter says the prophets said this was going to happen. This was foretold by the prophets. This should not have surprised you. It was foretold by the prophets that the Christ must suffer.

And He's fulfilled it. He's fulfilled it. And what does He say? Repent, therefore. Repent. We looked at that not too long ago. Repentance. Repent. Re-pent. From the Latin, think again. From the Greek, an afterthought.

Change your mind. That's the question. Has the Gospel done anything to you? You see what it did to these people? In Acts 3, do you see what it did to them? Suddenly, they saw He needed to suffer. He needed to die.

This thing was really all about sin. That's the thing to ask. Has this Gospel message produced any change, any difference, any significance? Has it silenced the mouth? You know, one of the most certain indicators when somebody professes Christ that it's not genuine is when their mouths are not silenced.

Because what this does is it humbles us. This is what repentance is. You rethink and you come to recognize. You come face-to-face with what the prophets were saying. This is the apostolic pattern. You call men to rethink this whole thing.

Rethinking Human Ignorance and the Crucifixion

So much of bad Christianity is the way it is because people don't think. And the reason people's mouths are not shut and silenced is because they don't think. This is what they're being called to. Rethink.

Change your mind. The people in Acts 3 crucified. Think about who they crucified. The Author of life. They denied the Holy and Righteous One. Why did they do it? They were ignorant. That's what He says.

Just like your leaders, you were ignorant. What does that mean? They didn't think. Oh, they thought some things, but they weren't thinking the right thing. They weren't rethinking as they ought to. And He's calling them, think again.

Re-examine. Admit that you've been wrong. That's what the rethinking is all about. You're rethinking, I wasn't right before. I thought Christ was insignificant. I wrote Him off. Rethink this all. You need to be prepared to listen.

Admit that you may have been wrong. That's the beginning of repentance. Perhaps, after all, I've been wrong. I mean, people are so comfortable with their neat little theories. Oh, we got the Big Bang all figured out.

You got it all figured out. Are all your neat little theories really going to hold? I mean, did God spill the soul of His Son? Psalm 22. You have to look at the cross. Did God vent the fullness of His wrath?

The Cross and the Fullness of God's Wrath

And this is the kind of thing where you can almost see it. It's like coming close to a nuclear reactor or something. You can almost see it's like Christ as He comes close to it. He's got to touch it. He's got to embrace it.

His hair just being driven backwards. That's how it was in the garden. He's in the anticipation of this. And it's like if you could see it in the spiritual realm, it's like He's so inundated by the reality of this that He said that He despaired even of life when He got to that point.

And the pressure to even squeeze blood out of the pores like that. And He's pleading with His Father, take it away! Take it away! You're going to look at that? You know what you need to do? You need to rethink what hell is.

The vengeance of God. We sang about it. But I'll tell you, if you have no hiding place, you can think about the Christ whatever you want. You can, well, He doesn't heal me and I didn't get what I want.

You walk away. Listen, the thing that they didn't realize about the coming King was that they needed most of all before God was they needed to have their sins dealt with. They needed forgiveness. And when you watch Christ come close to this thing and you watch how the blood came out of His pores and how in a pathetic fashion, please take this cup away, I'll tell you what you need.

Christ's Atonement and Total Forgiveness

You need somebody who will take that full cup and they'll drink every single last drop. My sin, not in part, but the whole, every drop is gone so that when I stand before God, it is with total forgiveness.

Absolute. Be big enough to think again. Be wise enough to think again. What authority do people have? Their opinion? Well, I think this. That's basically what it is. Think again. Hear the prophets. Look what they say.

Can you dismiss this? Seriously, think, think, think. Very shortly, death is going to take hold of you. It is going to squeeze on you. I don't know, do you ever imagine what those last moments are going to be like?

Facing Death and Eternity

Do you ever imagine, what's the last 24 hours of my life? The last minute. What is that like? And then you fly off into eternity. You better think. What do you need most of all? Do you need somebody simply to come along and sympathize with you?

Pat you on the back? Brethren, what we need most is somebody who came under the crushing vengeance of God in our place. And that's what Scripture says. God laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. God crushed Him.

When you see Him marred, that isn't something to recoil from in horror. You behold Him there broken, mangled, suffering, marred, pain, shame, agony, punishment, pathetic, injured. You don't want to lightly dismiss that.

You need to think again. You need to change your mind. There's nothing more important than that. There's nothing more important.