They come in many kinds: slip-joint, diagonal, needle-nose, parrot-nose, midget… Do you have any idea what I’m talking about? Pliers. If you were here last week for the Easter sermon, you know that I’m pretty clueless when it comes to pliers. I used one for an object lesson but had to stop and ask you what kind of pliers I was holding. I believe it was a water-pump pliers.
You may find it easy to give name to any tool you see at Canadian Tire but is it as easy for you to make sense of the many different kinds of Christians there are in this world? There are Lutherans, Catholics, Baptist, Pentecostal, and Reformed just to name a few of the supposed 38,000 Christian denominations in existence. With so many “flavors” it’s not surprising that many are confused as to what really makes one “Christian.” With the help of the Apostle Paul we’re going to find out.
Paul was a Jew who once persecuted Christians a little less than 2,000 years ago. He figured that Jesus was just a pretender and not the Son of God he claimed to be. Jesus changed Paul’s mind, however, when that man was on his way to the city of Damascus to arrest more Christians. Jesus appeared in a blinding light and declared that Paul’s days of persecuting Christians were over. Instead, Paul was to become Jesus’ spokesman to Jews and non-Jews alike.
Paul recounted all this to King Agrippa, a great-grandson of Herod the Great, and his sister Bernice who were in the coastal city of Caesarea to welcome the new Roman governor, Festus. Paul had been brought to Caesarea to stand trial for disturbing the peace through his preaching. As Paul defended himself he gives us a clear understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
The first thing we learn from Paul is that a Christian is someone who is obedient to God’s commands. After Jesus appeared to Paul on the way to Damascus the apostle wasted no time in carrying out God’s mission for him. Already in Damascus he began telling people about Jesus. He eventually travelled throughout the Mediterranean world preaching to everyone from common criminals to Roman governors. Paul didn’t do this out of a sense of duty. He earnestly wanted all people to enjoy the blessings of forgiveness that he himself had come to enjoy. Paul said to King Agrippa: “I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains” (Acts 26:29b).
Jesus may not have appeared to us as he did to Paul in a blinding flash of light but he has made our mission clear. Shortly before he ascended, Jesus said that our purpose in life is to tell others about him as we go about our daily lives. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t eagerly share God’s Word as readily as did Paul. It took me a week to get up the courage to give some of my gym buddies an invitation to our Holy Week services. I kept coming up with excuses of why it wasn’t a good time to talk about Jesus when in reality I was just afraid of what they might think of me. Sometimes we hesitate to tell others about Jesus because we don’t want to impose our beliefs on them. But a Christian is someone who believes what Jesus told his disciples: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). If someone said they were going to drive to Vancouver by heading north on Hwy 2, would you be “imposing your beliefs” on them if you said: “You won’t get to Vancouver that way. You need to drive south and west, not due north”? Of course not! You’d simply be steering them in the right direction. Failure to say anything wouldn’t be very kind. In the same way, the only way into God’s holy presence is through the cleansing blood of Jesus. If people around us don’t realize that, it’s our privilege to tell them. And there are many people in this world who think they are headed for heaven but don’t realize that they can’t get there without Jesus. Let’s tell them about the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
So if we have failed to steer others to Jesus, can we not call ourselves Christian? A Christian is not someone who is perfect. Paul said to King Agrippa: “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20b). A Christian is someone who knows he is imperfect and wants to change. He does that through repentance. To repent means to feel sorry for our sins – sorry that we offended God, not sorry we got caught. But repentance is more than a feeling. Paul makes it clear that repentance is an action. The way we show others that our heart is repentant is with repentant hands and feet. If we have stolen from our employer, for example, we will admit our sin and give back what we took. If we have hurt our parents, we will apologize and speak kindly and patiently to them in the future. If we have been misusing God’s gift of sex, alcohol, or even food, we’ll stop and find out exactly how God wants us to use these blessings.
So often those who think of themselves as Christian figure they can keep sinning as long as they acknowledge they believe in Jesus. The Apostle John puts a stop to that notion when he writes: “The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:4-6).
Please don’t misunderstand me. We don’t earn God’s forgiveness by being sorry for our sins and cleaning up our act. The truth is we’ll never be able to clean up our life so that it is sin-free, just as you’ll never be able to clean your kitchen floor so that there isn’t a spot of dust on it. While you’re mopping one side of the floor dust is falling on the other side. That’s how it is in life isn’t it? I may work hard to be patient with my co-workers and make real progress but by the time I come home I’m so exhausted from this effort that I let my guard down and don’t think twice about losing my temper with my children. No, a Christian is not someone who is perfect; it’s someone who daily acknowledges his lack of perfection and seeks forgiveness from Jesus. A Christian is also someone who is confident in forgiveness because he believes that Jesus suffered and died to pay for sin and then came back to life to prove that our debt had been paid.
When Paul mentioned the resurrection Governor Festus interrupted with a shout: “You are out of your mind Paul!” (Acts 26:24a) This Roman official could not accept that the dead would rise. It seemed preposterous. Can you see what else it means to be a Christian? It means that you’ll be considered nuts by the rest of the world. “You believe that the dead will be raised?” “You believe that God created the world in six days?” “You believe that there was once a huge boat called an ark filled with all kinds of animals?”
Are we nuts to believe what the Bible tells us? Not at all! “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable. 26 The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner” (Acts 26:25, 26). Christianity is not based on wishful thinking; it’s rooted in historical fact, explains Paul. If this were not true, the Roman governor, or at least King Agrippa would have objected to what Paul was saying about Jesus and made it clear that he was making the stuff up. But they didn’t say a word in protest because they knew what Paul was saying was true. No, Agrippa didn’t believe in Jesus as his savior but he couldn’t deny that a man named Jesus had been crucified. Nor could he deny that Jesus’ body was no longer in the tomb where it should have been in Jerusalem. If it had been, the Jews would have produced it as evidence at Paul’s trial.
So no, you’re not nuts for believing what you do as a Christian. And don’t worry about being called a maniac. That’s a small price to pay for what awaits all those who put their faith in Jesus - a life of glory that will never end. Just imagine the best day of your life. Maybe it was your birthday, an anniversary, or your last vacation. As great as it was it could have been better. You didn’t get everything you wanted for your birthday. Your spouse was late in coming home to celebrate your anniversary. And your vacation cost money that you’re still trying to repay. But in heaven we’ll never say, “Wow, today was great but I wish…if only…it’s too bad that…” No. There will be none of that because we’ll forever live in a world without sin.
I may not know a whole lot about pliers but thanks to God I know something about Christianity, and so do you. A Christian is a follower of Jesus, not just in words but in actions as well. Most importantly, a Christian trusts that God has forgiven him and is bringing him to a better place. If you’re not sure of this yet, my prayer for you is Paul’s prayer for King Agrippa: “Short time or long – I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am” (Acts 26:28). To become a Christian. That’s not just what I want for you; it’s what God wants so that you’ll one day be with him in heaven. Amen.
