ACTS 26:28-29
“The Almost Christian”
By: Rev. Kenneth Emerson Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
The apostle Paul was in chains. The religious leaders wanted him condemned…
…they wanted him killed because he had come into Jerusalem preaching the Gospel of Jesus the Resurrected Christ.
Paul had been in a Roman prison for more than two years…
…Then his final trial comes when King Agrippa comes to visit.
King Agrippa said to Paul: “You have permission to speak for yourself.”
So, once again, Paul tells his story.
It is essentially the same story he has told on many occasions.
Like all people whose lives are divided by an event which completely changes them, Paul goes back again and again to that decisive event.
While Paul was defending himself—what he was really trying to do was save the souls of those who were there to judge him.
As Agrippa listened to Paul, he listened like a person who is living in a different world…
…whose God is more like a piece of stage furniture…rather than the One for Whom and through Whom this entire stage has been built.
“King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.’
Then Agrippa said to Paul, ‘Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?’
Paul replied, ‘Short time or long—I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.’”
After Paul had finished his defense, both Festus and King Agrippa acquitted him.
They didn’t think that Paul had done anything that deserved the death penalty.
They had acquitted him but they didn’t appreciate him.
They were willing to let him go, but they weren’t willing to take him in.
They passed judgment on Paul, at least this is what they thought…
…but in reality…
…by Paul speaking to them the Gospel of Christ…
…They were passing judgment on themselves by not accepting it.
And the number of people who are doing this very thing to this very day are countless…
…these are the people who find no fault with Jesus…
…they are willing to let Him live…
…but they never see the greatness of Him and never feel His love.
They would raise no hand to hurt Him or block His way…
…but neither would they lift a hand to be part of his kingdom on earth…
…opening their hearts to receive the matchless power of His grace.
They are the silent, self-approving acquitters.
They go down among the scores of nameless men and women who have passed by the Glory of Life and have never known it.
It is hard to even try to conceive of a tragedy more terrible than theirs!
The classic Rock band: the Doobie Brothers have a song: “Jesus Is Just Alright With Me.”
There are many in this world who are willing to sing: “Jesus is just alright with me, Jesus is just alright, oh yeah.”
But Jesus is not JUST ALRIGHT!
That won’t cut it.
Jesus Christ is Lord!!!
Jesus Christ is God!!!
Jesus Christ is the One and Only Way for humankind to find the forgiveness of sins and enter into everlasting life!!!
Jesus Christ is the Truth, He is the Way, He is the Life… No one comes to the Father except through Him.
Did Christ die in vain?
Is Jesus JUST ALRIGHT?
Jesus is not JUST SOME lucky rabbit’s foot that we can rub when we want good luck…
…Jesus is not just some passing acquaintance of Whom we can say: “I don’t care what they may say, I don’t care what they may do, Jesus is just alright.”
Jesus is not just one among many other ways to enter the Kingdom of God!
Unless we call on the name of Jesus…
Unless we trust in Christ and Christ alone for our salvation…forsaking all others…even ourselves…
…There is no salvation for our souls!!!
“On Christ the Solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.”
In our Epistle Lesson for this morning Paul warns: “the time will come when [people] will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
How many people who call themselves Christians will not put up with sound doctrine?
A good way to test this is to go witnessing.
I remember, one day, walking up to a man on the beach. I asked him if he knew Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.
He got very angry with me, and told me to…well…basically “Go away.”
I asked him, “Do you belong to a church? Are you a Christian?”
He named the denomination he belonged too, and said that he was a regular attendee.
I was shocked.
I said to him, “Well, if we are both Christians, then we are brothers in Christ.”
When I was in college, and regularly witnessed on campus…it was very unusual to find a person who believed that they must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God…
…there were very few who believed that they must accept Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives in order to be saved…
…and yet most of these people called themselves Christians.
John Wesley said that there is such a thing as “The Almost Christian.”
He said that these people “have a form of godliness…but not yet its power.”
“They faithfully attend the house of God…they have the outer life of reverence and conduct that scripture requires of the real Christian…Even ordinary people without spiritual enlightenment have recognized that we have obligations to truth and justice. Accordingly, they have looked with disgust toward those who perjure themselves, give false testimony in God’s name, slander, falsely accuse others…”
They may even have regular family prayer, and private prayer as well…
…but they are still “Almost Christians.”
Wesley could relate to this circumstance.
For many years he lived as an “Almost Christian.”
So writes Wesley: “for many years, I have abided by the outward forms…I have been diligent to shun all evil, and to keep my conscience clear, making the most of every opportunity to do good toward everyone. I have steadfastly and carefully used every public and private means of grace. Always and everywhere, I have striven for a consistent seriousness in my conduct. God, before whom I stand, is my witness that I have sincerely maintained a genuine purpose to serve him. I have had a zealous craving to do his will in everything. I have desired only to please him who called me to ‘fight the good fight,’ and to ‘take hold of eternal life.’ Even so, by the Holy Spirit, my own conscience bears witness to me that all this time I was only an Almost Christian.”
What did Wesley lack?
What do any “Almost Christians” lack?
Is not the ground of everything from which everything else springs in Christianity…faith?
Some people may not believe in all the claims of Christ.
Some of us like to pick and choose.
Jesus has told us: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
And our Lord made it clear that this is not always easy…it is the narrow road…not the wide and easy road which leads to Hell…the road which most are taking.
Following Christ might mean that our families will disown us…or not want to have much to do with us…
…it might mean that some or all of our friends will no longer want to spend time with us…
…I had to learn this the hard way.
I didn’t want to give up my old friends when I became a Christian.
And over time, I chose them over Christ.
It was something I struggled with…painfully…for almost ten years…
…until, until, by the grace of God…
…He restored my faith, and I finally ran with it…not looking back!
Following Christ will mean that we have to make adjustments as to who or what we worship.
We cannot worship both God and money…
…we cannot be of this world…and yet be not of this world at the same time…
…and the list goes on and on and on…
…and all these things take faith.
Without faith, as the Bible says, it is “impossible to please God.”
…but we are not talking about just any kind of faith.
If our faith does not lead us to repentance, then we are deceiving ourselves.
As Wesley writes: “Remember, even the demons believe that Christ was born of a virgin, that he wrought all kinds of miracles, and that he declared himself fully God. Demons understand that, for our sakes, Christ suffered a most painful death to redeem us from everlasting destruction. They know that he arose on the third day, that he ascended into heaven, that he sits at the right hand of the Father, and that he shall come again to judge both the living and the dead.
The demons believe these articles of our faith.”
But true and genuine Christian faith is not only to believe that these things are true, but it is also to have a steadfast faith and confidence in Christ to save us from everlasting condemnation.
We must have a certain faith and confidence that we place in God, trusting in what Christ has done for us that our sins are forgiven and we are reconciled to God.
And from this faith comes a heart that loves God and obeys God’s commands.
As Wesley preached: “whoever believes in the full sufficiency of Christ is an Altogether Christian.
This faith, resulting from God’s power within us cleanses our hearts”…
…it causes us to “obey God and to be happy to spend and be spent for others.
With joy, this kind of trust patiently bears the world’s judgments against Christ.”
It causes us to endure being mocked, ill-treated, and hated.
It causes us to be able to accept whatever God’s providence allows, whether this comes from malicious people or from demons.
“Those who have this faith are more than Almost Christians. They are Altogether Christians.”
Remember how, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism said that he was once and Almost Christian?
After many years of serving as a priest in the Anglican Church…John Wesley wrote in his journal: “In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.
About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
My friends, do we have this assurance?
“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ now stands in our midst. If any one should die without faith in, and love for, him, it would have been better for that person if [they] had never been born.”
Let no one turn us aside by empty words and cause us to stop short.
Rather, let us keep on seeking God until we know Him.
“May we all move beyond being merely Almost Christians.
We can become Altogether Christians. Then, we will be justified through faith by the redemption that is in Jesus, knowing that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Let us pray: Almighty God, we do not want to be merely Almost Christians, and thus miss out on being Your children and experiencing Your glory. May we keep on seeking You until we can say with faith, “My Lord, and my God!” May we “Always pray and” never “lose heart.” Give us that joy…that faith so that we may lift our hands to heaven, and proclaim to You, “Lord You know all things; You know that I love You.” In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray. Amen.
