[SUB12] AS TRÊS ETAPAS DA VIDA CRISTÃ: O CAMINHO - Luciano Subirá

Hi guys! I'm in Curitiba, in the Botanical Garden, our city's postal card, to bring one more message to your heart. We started, based on Lord Jesus' statement, in Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14, a series of three messages about the three stages of the christian life.

In the text, the Lord talks about a gate and road, both narrow, strait that leads to life and, with that, He summarizes the three stages concept for us: gate, road and target. If you haven't watched the previous message about the gate, you can click the link in the description box and get up to speed. Today we are going to talk about the road and next week's video will be about the target.

With that, we are going to have a comprehensive view of the christian life, how these stages complement each other and how we should interact with God in each of them. Stay with me and in the next few minutes you will understand the road view a little better. Lord Jesus says, in Matthew, chapter 7, verses 13 and 14: "enter through the narrow gate.

For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. " We have already said that Jesus presents us three distinct stages of the christian life in this statement.

He talks about a small gate, He talks about a narrow road and He talks about a destiny or a target, that is life. He shows us that there might also be another road that leads to a different kind of destiny, that is destruction, but I want to highlight what is interesting to us, the road that leads to life. That road has a gate and in the previous video of this series, we talked about the gate experience.

We also showed, the importance of understanding the three stages of the christian life, it is because what God does in our life, in each one of us is different and our interaction with God is also different. And it is the sum of these three stages that will lead us to live God's full work for us. The gate experience and the conversion experience, of the new birth is when it all starts.

Previously we said that, to go through that gate, repentance and faith are needed but not the good work. We said that there is an initial sanctification but I want to show you that, throughout the road and until that moment when we get to the target, there are still other levels of sanctification. There are still other concepts about works that need to be understood.

And we need to understand the Holy Spirit's interaction itself. We say that someone, before going through the gate, cannot have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you, but in the moment of the conversion and the new birth, when that person is born of the Spirit, he receives the Holy Spirit 's seal. The Lord, in the Holy Spirit's person, comes to dwell in that person 's life.

So the Holy Spirit's action is different before and after the gate, along the road. But it will also be different in the end, when we get to the target. So, allow me to talk a little bit about the road.

First, why is it called the road, not only by Lord Jesus? What we call today christianity, our faith, was, in the beginning, called the "the road" in the word of God. I'm not trying to say that we need to change the nomenclature, at all, but we need to recognize that there was a different nomenclature that made much more sense to the teaching, to the illustration behind it.

So, in Isaiah 35:8, God promised, through Isaiah the prophet, a holy road. When, in Matthew 3:3 the bible talks about the arrival of John the Baptist, it says: "this is who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: 'prepare the way for the Lord. " The way for the Lord was not only Jesus' arrival to exercise His ministry, it was the announcement of the salvation He would bring.

We read in the book of Acts, chapter 9, that when the bible talks about Saul' persecution to christians, it says he had authorizing letter to arrest in Damascus those who belonged to the road. In Acts 19:9, when Paul is in Ephesus, the bible says that because a few started to badmouth the road, Paul ceases to preach in synagogues, rents a school from Tyrannus and starts to lecture daily with the disciples who had embraced the faith of the road. In Acts 24:14, when He is before the roman governor defending himself from the jews accusation he says: "However, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the Way which they call a sect.

" The expression "way" appears a lot and it gives a motion idea. We need to understand that, despite of what some believe, simply going through the gate doesn't mean it is all settled, accomplished, done or finished. In fact, going through the gate is only the beginning of something that, as any other way has in its own definition, the meaning, the moving idea.

Moreover, we are going to understand not only the movement, a progressiveness of the christian life, but we are going to understand biblical statements. For example, in 1 John 2:6 says: "whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did. " What does it mean "live as Jesus did"?

In Ephesians 4:1, Paul talks about the way we should walk, worthy of the vocation we have been called. He says in Ephesians 4:17 to the same people from Ephesus: "no longer live as the Gentiles do. " The christian life is presented as a road, as a walk on this trail.

In fact, the apostle Paul talks about running with perseverance the career that was proposed to us. There is a career and that career such as a beginning has an end. And we need to understand that.

Apostle Pays says, in Timothy 2 4:7: "I have finished the race, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course and I have kept the faith. " Finishing the course is not only getting to the end of the road, which is the target, but it’s doing it by preserving the faith, because, unfortunately, many might lose the faith. When in Timothy 1 1:19 he talks about those who suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith, apostle Paul is using an illustration about people who started the path, the mission, but aborted it before finishing it, the ship sank and those people got lost before they got to their goal.

We need to understand the road must be lived with our eyes on the target, which is the last phase, the last stage of christian life. Apostle Paul teaches us that and, in the next video of this series we’re going to talk about it in a better way, but we need to be motivated to seek the target during the road. We need to understand that what God does in our life is different than the gate experience.

If in the gate experience we still didn’t have the Holy Spirit, along the road we have Him not only to dwell within us, but to guide us. Romans 8:14 says that those who are children of God are led by the Spirit of God and now we can live a leadership of the Holy Spirit that we didn’t have before. But we need to understand that what changes is not only this interaction with the Holy Spirit, but the work of sanctification.

In the previous video, we said that in the gate experience there is an initial sanctification but it is a fact that this is not the entire sanctification experience that somebody can have. What proves that is what’s in Corinthians 2, chapter 7, verse 1, bible says the following: "Therefore, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates, body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. " If the initial sanctification, going through that gate, had been completed, what is it that could be perfected now?

But there is an improvement and improvement now is a process. In Corinthians 1 1:1 Paul says: "to those sanctified in Christ Jesus", past, something that already happened, "called to be his holy people", there’s a sanctity to be lived, there’s a sanctity yet to be reached, to be perfected and it happens along the road. We need to understand that not only everything is not solved yet going through the gate, as well as it’s not all solved when we enter the road.

Things will only be completed, in terms of redemption, when we reach our target. Bible says that we are waiting for the redemption of our bodies. That hasn’t happened yet.

And Paul says, in Romans, chapter 7 about a war between flesh and spirit and until the day comes when the flesh is fully redeemed, there’ll be a fight against sin. Hebrews talk about the fight against sin. It says: "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your struggle against sin.

" So, during the road, we know we have been already cleaned of our past of condemnation, there’s no guilt anymore for those who have been through the gate, but there is a need for improvement of this sanctity. And, if in order to go through the gate, there was no need for works, we need to understand that after going through the gate, the road must be lived with works. For example, in Ephesians 2:8 and 9, the word of God says: "for it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

" However, in the next verse, the 10, the bible says: "for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. " So if it is fair to say man is not saved by works, it's also fair to say he was saved for the works. In fact, in Paul's epistle to Titus, I want to read that text, in chapter 3, from verse 4 through 8, the apostle says: "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.

He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. " So he says: "This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.

" If on one side He says we do not go through the gate because of the works only because of the mercy and grace of God, on the other he says: "now, after going through the gate we need to walk in the works. " Luther's great dilemma in the reformation, once again raising the banner that salvation comes by faith and not by works, was having to deal with James' statement in the second chapter of his epistle and some historians even say that Luther wanted to take away the book of James of the bible, because James says: 'show me your faith and I'll show you my works. " What James was doing was not saying that you need the works to go through the gate, he is saying that faith manifests itself through works and that, especially after we go through the gate, it is marked by works and, among them James talks about helping the needy.

So, we need to understand each stage of the christian life. We don't live all the sanctification when we walk through the gate, there is something to be developed now, there is something to be perfected now as we walk. But, even as we walk forward, we need to understand that we need to reach the end, which is the target.

We have to complete the career, we need to live the fullness of what the Lord has. We need to understand each stage of the christian life, what God has done for us and what we should do in each different stage. But living the road means keeping an eye on the target and in the next message of this series we're going to talk about the target.

How important it is to see that target, to remain determined to reach it and what it awaits us when we finally get there and finally reach that blessed and glorious destiny of the christian life, the consummation and fullness of what God has for us. Until that day comes, I want to encourage you: persevere, not just walk, run the christian life with perseverance. May the Lord bless you, strengthen you on this journey, in Jesus' name.