OUR IDENTIFICATION TAGS
Text: Acts 11:19-26
Intro: What’s in your wallet--
Driver License, Credit Cards, other items of identification?
What’s in your "safe place"--social security card, food store
cards, medical condition identification bracelet or necklace?
The list goes on, but what about being identified as a Christian?
Theme: We might ask, "Do others see Jesus in me?"
I. Reaction To Persecution
A. Church in Acts 11 was facing hard times.
1. Facing persecution the church scattered.
2. The flames of the Gospel were being fanned.
B. Those living for Christ were labeled as Christians.
1. 2 Tim. 3:12
2. Yea, and all that will live godly in
Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
II. The Pagan Picture
A. our text
B. Acts 26:28, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou
persuadest me to be a Christian.
C. Our text and this verse show observations made by
those outside the Christian realm.
1. Christ reflected in the lives of believers.
2. Saw Christ’s
a. character d. purpose
b. lifestyle e. purity
c. love
D. Do those around us identify us as Christians?
III. Identification of Conversion
A. (Acts 11:21) And the hand of the Lord was with them: and
a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
B. (Acts 11:24) For he [Barnabus] was a good man, and full of the
Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added
unto the Lord.
C. Conversion means an about face.
1. turn from the world
2. turn to the Lord
D. New Testament saints had been dramatically and drastically
changed in lifestyle.
1. (2 Cor. 5:17) Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature:
old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new.
2. Conversion means -
a. turning loose of the old lifestyle
b. clinging to new life in Christ
c. asking ourselves daily, "How is my life in Christ going to affect
those who do not know him?"
E. The early believers acted like Christ and were
identified as Christians.
OUR IDENTIFICATION TAGS
IV. Identification of Commitment
A. Christian commitment is allowing God to
work through you.
1. Gal 2:20, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me,
and gave himself for me.
2. Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory:
B. Lord worked through the Saints of our text-Acts 11
1. v. 19, proclaimed the gospel
2. v. 20, preached the Lord Jesus
3. v. 23, purposed in their hearts to continue
4. v. 26, assembled and taught
V. Identification Of Christians
A. Disciples first called Christians at Antioch.
B. Their lives were give-a-ways.
C. They mirrored Jesus and others could not help
but to see Jesus in them.
Concl: The Kingsmen used to sing as song that contained
the words, Stand Up--Identify--meaning stand up
and be identified as a Christian.
The early church wanted to be effective.
The following are some of the traits we have
with that early church:
*Salvation
*Indwelled and filled w/H. S.
*Great Commission
*Personal Testimonies
*Responsibility to share the Gospel
We must, through our lives, make Christ known.
May folks see Jesus in us.
