“And You Call Yourself a Christian!”
November 3, 2017
Ephesians 4:1-3
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:17-24
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Acts 11:26
“So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”
It was about 1961 or ’62 in Wirt, Minnesota. I had just done something bad or mean (probably picking on my little sister.) I was in junior high school and she was a couple of years younger than me. Whatever I did made her really mad and she turned around and snapped at me – “And you call yourself a Christian!” Her words were dripping with scorn and disapproval. My mouth dropped open as she flipped around and ran off to tell mom. I was a little puzzled by her remark. I yelled after her, “I never claimed to be a Christian!”
Even the world knows what a Christian should look like; even a child has a pretty good idea of how a Christian should act. We all have a God given built in standard of right and wrong and we know a Christian should do what is right. A Christian tends to be kinder, gentler and more forgiving than the world when evaluating someone’s actions. The world can be quite harsh in its assessment and judgment of the Christian.
In the most recent surveys I found that 83% of Americans claim to be Christian. That doesn’t quite jive with Jesus words when He said,
“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.” Matthew 7:13-14
In my study only 4% of people in America claim to be any other religion. The other 13% don’t claim any religion. They are atheist or not sure. Of the 83% of those who claim to be Christian less than 20% go to church regularly. 17.7% of people who claim to be Christians go to church on any given Sunday. Apparently Jesus’ definition of who is going to heaven is quite different than the world’s or even Christendom’s. According to our scholar, most people are going to heaven in America -83%. In Jesus’ evaluation only a few find the way to eternal life. The gate to heaven is small and narrow, He says, and only a few find it.
Who are the few that find it? What do they look like? What does a Christian look like? Well, our Scripture in Acts told us the followers of Christ were first called “Christians” in Antioch. Why were they called Christians? Because they looked and acted like Christ did. What a compliment! Wouldn’t you like someone to think you act and look just like Jesus? How sweet is that! But that is what the word ‘Christian’ actually means. Christian means ‘Christ-like’.
If you want to be a true Christian – you need to know what Jesus is like and emulate Him. And the main characteristic of Jesus is 1) love. Jesus said,
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:8
“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:16
The main characteristic of Jesus and therefor the main characteristic of the TRUE Christian is Love. Love is caring about others. As a fallen sinner in a fallen world our number one priority is us. We are selfish and self-centered. We are hedonistic and self-seeking. If we love others or do acts of kindness it is with thought of benefiting somehow. That’s why fallen man does good. Jesus said,
“If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?” Matthew 5:46
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Mathew 7:21-23
There are a lot of people who are going to end up in hell who did a lot of good things. But ‘good things’ don’t get you to heaven. A relationship with Jesus Christ does. And if you do have a relationship with Jesus it will be characterized by love - Love for God and Love for others.
Another characteristic of the true Christian is 2. obedience. Did you notice in the previous verse it said,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Jesus said, ““If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15
“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.”
John 14:21
“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23
I could give Scripture after Scripture saying the same thing. Obedience is NOT an option. The true Christian walks in obedience. Sometimes we may fall. We are weak and certainly not perfect - so the Word says,
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.” 1 John 2:1-5
The Characteristic of the true Christian is obedience. There is provision if we fall but our lives should not be characterized by sin or constantly falling. That is what the Holy Spirit is for. He comes to give us power to live a Christlike life. We should not be weak and frail and unstable in our ways. If we are, we need to seek the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Listen to the instructions Jesus gave to the first Christians.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…”
Acts 1:8
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”
John 14:15-17
The True Christian is characterized by 1) Love; 2) by obedience and 3) by being filled with the Holy Spirit.
When we are immature in the faith we may try to imitate the fruits of the Spirit like Justice – but we will become too harsh and judgmental without the Holy Spirit. We may try in our own strength to be more loving but may become enablers instead of producing the true fruit. Perhaps we try to be kinder and become insincere flatterers. I could go on – but you get the idea. Listen to the fruit of the Spirit again.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25
When the Scripture says “Against such there is no law” I think what it is saying is that you can’t legislate the fruit of the Spirit. You can say, “Thou shall not kill or lie or steal”. But you can’t make a law that makes us kinder or gentler or more loving. It is not by ‘DOING’ it is by ‘BEING’. This fruit is produced from a heart filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, don’t be confused here. The Holy Spirit will not just wave a magic wand and instantly make you what you ought to be. You can even beg Him to just take away your will and make you do what you ought to do. I’ve prayed that way before. He doesn’t work that way. His Holy Spirit will lead you to a particular fruit you need to grow in and ask you to begin the work. Listen.
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3
Notice the Scripture says “to make ‘every effort’. It isn’t easy. Listen.
“3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:3-11
Do you understand that when the Holy Spirit comes He won’t do everything for us but will lead us into the Truth and empower us to become like Christ; to become, in fact, TRULY Christian.
The Scripture says,
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…” Romans 8:29
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image…” 2 Corinthians 3:18
We are being transformed into Christlikeness – or we ought to be – if we are truly Christians in the best sense of the word. Are you? We will never reach perfection in this world – but we ought to be striving- making every effort to be more like Jesus today than we were yesterday. Every day is a gift from God – that’s why we call it ‘the present’. I like that. No matter what yesterday’s failures were – we have a new fresh page. God is forgiving. God is patient. He is so gentle and kind in the ways He deals with us. Think about those areas in your life you need to be more Christ-like. If you are unsure – just ask your mate or parent or kid – they know. They can tell us. We can fool those who don’t see us every day – but those we live with KNOW the real us.
But the Holy Spirit knows best. Tell Him you want to be more Christlike. I pray often that Jesus would make me more like Him. I ask Him for more faith; more power; more wisdom; more fruit. The Bible says “We have not - because we ask not”. It starts with asking.
The true Christian has these Characteristics, 1. He is loving; 2. He is obedient; 3. He is Spirit led; and 4. He is a seeker. Jesus said,
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,” Matthew 6:33
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8
If you want to be one of the chosen few – a TRUE Christian - you need to be a seeker. Seek God first. Hunger and Thirst for righteousness. If you do – you will be filled.
As I have shared this morning, perhaps the Holy Spirit has been touching your heart about something you need to change. Now would be a good time. It takes a simply prayer like this to start:
Dear Jesus,
As Pastor shared I have realized I haven’t been very Christlike in a lot of areas. Please forgive me. Holy Spirit I want to be transformed into the image of Jesus. Mold me and make me more like Christ. I pray in the powerful name of Jesus.
