What is a Christian?
In a few funeral preparation talks, I have people who have described their lost loved one in these terms
He didn’t believe in God
He didn’t go to Church
But he was a good Christian.
That isn’t a very useful definition of what is a Christian
So what is a Christian?
In Acts 11:26 we read:
and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.(NASB)
Story: I was at St Aldates last Sunday (08-07-2012) and I walked in and looked at the bookrack as I went in.
I saw Simon Ponsonby’s new book "Loving Mercy" but decided not to buy it - as I would never read it.
After all I have so many books on my bookshelf I have not read
As I went into Church, who would I run into but Simon himself.
"Have you got a copy of my new book?" he said "It’s free for clergy"
"No" I replied and he vanished off to get me a copy.
He gave it to me at the end of the service and I thought no more about it except I had been triggered by the sermon that their new Curate gave to think on the last words I had had with Addy.
What is a Christian?
As the new Curate preached, and although he didn’t say it - it suddenly dawned on me
A Christian is someone in WHOM GOD DWELLS
God lives in me and you if you are a born again Christian.
Have you ever thought of that?
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT dwells in you
No other religion claims that God comes to live in them
And suddenly, in the middle of the sermon, my mind went back to John 20 where Jesus said:
Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
So there you have it
St Paul addresses the Ephesian Church with these words:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:1)
Could you imagine Paul opening his letter to the Church in St Germans.
I would see him writing:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in St Germans and who are faithful in Christ Jesus
What does the term Saint mean
Someone who is sanctified ¨C who has set themselves apart for God.
A saint is someone in who God dwells.
Perhaps we do have St Angie, St Addy, St Kathy, St. Maddy, St Sandra St. Stephen and St Caroline
You are Saints if God dwells in you!
But I’d like to look at our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel 37 this morning.
The vision opens with
1. THE VALLEY FULL OF DRY BONES
In the Vision Ezekiel sees a valley full of dry bones lying about higgledy-piggeldy.
They are dry which means they have been dead a long time
The Dry Bones symbolise our society - people who are dead to God
People whose God is simply to:
Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
Which is an amalgamation of two biblical sayings:
ECCLESIASTES 8. 15 (AV) Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry and
ISAIAH 22. 13 (AV) Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.
Sadly so many in our villages are simply dry bones when it comes to a life with God.
Like Ezekiel we are called to speak life to them.
2. The LIFELESS BODIES
But then the vision changes and God tells Ezekiel to preach to the bones and as Ezekiel does that the bones rattle together and form bodies with muscle and sinew but they are lifeless
The Lifeless Bodies symbolise for me the religious man or woman who strives to please God by his or her own actions.
Perhaps they come to church on Sundays occasionally but live the rest of the week as if there is no God
Their religion looks fine on the outside but there is no life.
What they need is the Breath of God in them.
3. THE BREATH
The Vision suddenly changes with God commanding Ezekiel to prophesy to the Breath.
Now in Hebrew this is ruah the same word as is used for the Holy Spirit of God in Hebrew
What is missing to complete the man is the breath of God.
It is when we live with the Holy Spirit in us that we really LIVE.
Living the way God wants us to live.
He wants to give us a new heart.The prophet Ezekiel, speaking for God said this:
" will give you a new heart and will put a new Spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will pour my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." (Ez 36:26-27)
When the Spirit of God" The Holy Spirit comes to live within us he gives us a new heart"
As Paul puts it : The Old has passed away, behold the new has come
When God is on the throne, we start to have other priorities.
The challenge to us today is where are we?
God wants to change us.
But we need to RESPOND to him.
As an old preacher, Alun Morris once put it:
The HOLY SPIRIT is a gentleman,
He does not force himself on us.
God is the OPERATOR in our SALVATION.
As Paul put it in Gal 3:1
"You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the one thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the Law or by hearing with Faith?"
All religions look for justification before God.
Justification simply means "being right with God."
We differ however in the way we go about it
All other religions look for salvation in what THEY do
We know however that JUSTIFICATION before God is only possible for those who RECEIVE CHRIST as their SAVIOUR and LORD.
You can’t earn it
Christ being perfect took the penalty of our sin himself on the Cross thereby giving us access to God.
Story: Oh and that book " Loving Mercy". Let me leave you with a very pertinent story
Simon tells the story of Judson Cornwall, an American Pentecostal preacher who, after the war, was invited to speak at a renewal conference in Germany.
But Cornwall had a deep seated grudge against the Germans and simply threw the invitation into the bin.
Remarkably, when his wife emptied the bin, she spotted the invitation, pressed it out and put it on his desk again.
It haunted him for days as he shuffled around it.
Finally the Spirit won and he reluctantly agreed to go.
Arriving in Germany he was not relieved of his dis-ease and the Conference centre turned out to be in the former headquarters of the SS, Hitler’s elite guard, which aroused all sorts of images and old hatreds in him.
He spent two days before the conference praying and fasting and preparing and avoiding the Germans.
On the first night of the Conference he went down to speak and took umbrage at his translator, a somewhat stereotypical Aryan Ueberfrau giant, buxom, blonde hair in a bun.
He spat out his sermon, so it was no surprise that it was badly delivered, badly received and died a death.
He returned to his room and decided to go back to America the next day.
Full of humiliation and emotion he cried himself to sleep.
In the night, he awoke to demons screaming in his mind; You don’t belong here! You have no authority here! Go home!
Experienced in spiritual warfare, Cornwall recognised the attack and figured it had to do with the demonic history of the SS in the building, and immediately rebuked the demons in Jesus’ name.
Three times the demonic voices woke him; three times he rebuked them.
After the third time he got up and asked God what was happening and why his prayers weren’t sufficient and the demons kept returning.
The Lord spoke immediately: "The demons are tormenting you because you really don’t have any authority here. You have no authority here because you don’t love these people. Your authority to minister is related to your love for those to whom you minister. Now you can go on hating these people, pack up and go home tomorrow or you can let me love them through you."
Cornwall acknowleged his deep racism and prejudice.
Too embarrassed to go home, he confessed his sin and asked God to love through him the Germans who he loathed.
He knew he needed a miracle of grace.
Immediately he was overwhelmed by the Spirit of God and filled with Christ¡¯s love for the Germans.
Having spent two days avoiding the Germans and refusing to eat with them, he could not wait for breakfast.
He rushed downstairs to the queue for the breakfast and greeted and hugged everyone in the food line.
When he got to his translator he gave her a big kiss and hugged her.
Immediately she pulled back and barked: "You hate us"
"No, no", he replied "That was yesterday, today I love you"
Judson Cornwall preached that morning and the power of God was on his words.
At the end of the sermon there was a huge line of people wanting to speak with him personally, something he usually avoided, but he sensed God wanted him to be attentive to the people individually.
One by one, people came and thanked him for helping them to forgive the Americans, whether because they had lost loved ones in combat against them or in the bombing raids.
Cornwall saw pain and resentment cut both ways¡but the obedience to the Spirit of Christ heals historic hurts and unites us in the love of God. (p.22-24 Loving Mercy : Simon Ponsonby)
It is our choice how we want to live.
Are we
i) merely bones with flesh and sinews but no breath or are we
ii) people in whom the Spirit of the Living God dwells each day
I know which I want to be
Let us pray.
