Acts 11:19-26; 1 Peter 4:12-16 – I Am a C?
There were two evil brothers. They were rich and used their money to keep their ways from the public eye. They even attended the same church and looked to be perfect Christians. Then, their pastor retired and a new one was hired. Not only could he see right through the brothers’ deception, but he also spoke well and true, and the church started to swell in numbers. A fund-raising campaign was started to build a new assembly. All of a sudden, one of the brothers died. The remaining brother sought out the new pastor the day before the funeral and handed him a check for the amount needed to finish paying for the new building. "I have only one condition," he said. "At his funeral, you must say my brother was a saint." The pastor gave his word and deposited the check. The next day at the funeral, the pastor did not hold back. "He was an evil man," he said. "He cheated on his wife and abused his family." After going on in this vein for a small time, he concluded with: "But, compared to his brother, he was a saint."
I don’t think I need to tell you how much damage has been done to the name of Christ by those who bear His name. Those of us who call ourselves Christians, if we were honest, would say that at some point in recent memory we have given a wrong impression of who Jesus is: by a sharp word, by a condemning attitude, by a fit of emotion, or by a desire to do what we want to do, despite the consequences.
Let me tell you how this sermon was born. I was driving to Windsor last weekend and on the radio was a song I recognized, called “Walking in Memphis.” The last line of the song goes like this: Now Muriel plays piano every Friday at the Hollywood and they brought me down to see her and they asked me if I would do a little number, and I sang with all my might and she said, "Tell me are you a Christian child?" And I said "Ma’am I am tonight." Now, I don’t know all that the writer meant by this line, and I don’t know being a Christian has anything to do with playing piano in a club in Tennessee, and I don’t have the time to figure it all out. But it got me thinking – what IS a Christian? What makes a Christian? What are the distinguishing characteristics of a Christian?
So I turned to Acts 11:26 for an answer. It’s the 1st mention of 3 of the word “Christian” in the Bible. You could call it the rule of firsts. The 1st mention of something in the Bible is significant, because it defines the thing. So, the 1st mention of Christian should give us a clue as to what they are. Let’s start in v19 to give the picture. (Read v19-26.)
In this passage, the word “Christian” is used to distinguish the group of people who worshipped this Jesus Christ god as opposed to the people who worshipped any other god. The word “Christian” perhaps had an insulting tone to it at first – you know, with a sneering “oh, he’s a Christian” kind of meaning. Or perhaps it was the new name that God Himself would give to His people, as prophesied in Isaiah 62:2. At any rate there they were, with a new name to set them apart from the others.
And that’s an important thought too. They were set apart. They were different. They wouldn’t have needed a new name if they were the same as they always had been. For the early believers, they were called a new name because they were new people. They were different from what they had been. They were changed. If we were listing the biblical qualities of people specifically called Christians, the first of them would have to be “changed.” Being changed. Different. New. Fresh. Altered.
And yet many call themselves Christians by default. As in, if they’re not Buddhist or Muslim or Hindu or Shinto or Jewish or New Age or witches or druids or neo-pagans, then what’s left to be but Christian? Perhaps this area is a little different because we are still pretty traditional and small-c conservative, so most everyone around here is more Christian than Muslim. I understand that. But sometimes that’s even harder, because it’s easier to blend in. If your neighbor across the street believes the Bible is true, and is a good person, then it’s awful easy to look just like them. It’s awful easy - too easy - to blend in and not look any different from happy pagans, as they say.
So in this culture it seems quite possible to be a Christian and not be any different from anybody else. And many Christians seem quite content with that. You know: “Don’t expect me to forgive my neighbor. Don’t expect me to come to church. Don’t expect to do anything once I get here. Don’t expect me to get along with others. Don’t expect me to pray. Don’t expect me to read the Bible. Don’t expect me not to complain. Don’t expect me give up a good parking spot in the rain. Don’t expect me to come to anything special going on. Don’t expect me to tithe. Don’t expect me to invite others. Blah blah blah. But certainly don’t tell me I’m not a Christian either.”
Now I know that any one of those by itself is not a good indication of someone’s faith. We often set up rules like: “You’re not a good Christian if you …” Usually the rules we use to gauge others by are one of 2 things: 1) something we do well, as in, “since I’m so good at this part, everyone else should too.” And, 2) something we stumble on, as in, what we harp on others about is really what we have problems with ourselves.
I want to avoid setting up rules like that. I’m just saying – we have come not to expect a change in someone who claims to be a Christian. We are too content with an improved performance but an unchanged heart. Myself included. I see the areas I wish would change faster, but remain fairly at ease with the way things are.
Well, moving on, the other of the 3 mentions of the word “Christian” in the NT that I want to look at is found in 1 Peter 4:16. The context is undergoing trials and hardships. Read v12-16. The writer is saying that we all from time to time go through trials. Sometimes for bad reasons, like when we have done something wrong. But sometimes we go through trials for no other reason than for being followers of Christ. Just as Christ suffered, so will His followers. After all, the very word means “Christ in one” or “little Christs”.
Yet we are surprised when we learn that the world doesn’t always take kindly to people it cannot own and make submit to its rules. We say, “God, why are You doing this? Why are You letting this happen to me? Don’t you love me anymore?” We take things personally, when what is wrong is really that the world’s system opposes the One who said, “Do not live for yourselves.” The world is opposed to Christ, not us personally. But it lashes out at us because it can’t get to Him.
So when trials come, how do you act? Another aspect of being a Christian, it seems, is bearing challenges. When the enemy throws painful accusations against us, do we really act like the One we call our master? Peter seems to say that being a Christian has something to do with how well we do bearing challenges. Do we lash back? Do we defend ourselves? Do we get angry? Do we question motives? Do we rally the troops on our side? Or, like what Peter said about Jesus 2 chapters earlier, do we “entrust [ourselves] to Him who judges justly”?
I mean face it. Every single one of us in this place has been hurt by someone, probably even recently. Most likely even by a Christian, perhaps even by someone in this church. When they hurt our feelings, or opposed our viewpoint, or shot from the hip, or questioned our motives, or scolded us unnecessarily. The question is NOT: have we been hurt? The question IS: how do we handle it when it happens? We usually either revert to animal instincts: take to fighting, or take to flighting. But how did Jesus, whom we call Lord, react? He bore it. He forgave. He knew that God was the One He would answer to. He knew that painful afflictions are only temporary. Of course the words hurt – words always hurt worse than sticks and stones. But He bore it. If we Christians took an honest look at ourselves, would we say that we follow in the footsteps of our Master?
At this point I’d like to share an insight that our DS has seen about Christian living. You can read in Romans 12:1 that we are told to “offer [our] bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is our spiritual act of worship.” The KJV translates it as our “reasonable service”. Reasonable – sensible, rational, logical… normal. It is normal to give yourself to God. It makes sense. As since Paul was speaking to Christians, he was saying: it is normal to offer your body, your brains, and your whole being to God. That is normal Christian living. The problem is, we consider that far-fetched. To give yourself to God completely, not holding anything back, giving Him all your time, all your talents, and all your treasures is far too much. So instead of being normal, we are content to be average. To be like everybody else. To fit it. To not get called a radical. To look the same. And so we exchange normal Christianity for something far more average.
But, that’s not what God wants for us. He has more for us than being average. Let me explain. Two weeks ago, I had my van in to the Ford dealership to get a lot of things looked at: the starter, the dome light, the brakes, as well as getting my tires changed for winter. My van was among many being worked on that day. It was average. Some were likely sicker than mine, and some were likely not as bad as mine. It was average.
To be normal would have been driving a healthy car with nothing wrong. That is the plan. Nothing wrong. That would be normal. But not really. We have gotten used to driving unhealthy vehicles for a number of reasons: costs too much to get fixed or buy brand new or whatever. So while it should be normal to drive a perfectly-running vehicle, it is not. It is above average. It is better than average.
You see how “normal” has been minimized by “average”. It should be normal to drive a healthy vehicle but it isn’t. It should be normal to offer ourselves completely, whole-heartedly to God, but it isn’t. It is not normal. It is above average. It is radical. It is out of the ordinary.
But, like my van, we can get it checked out. Folks, I suggest we check our lives before the one who defines what a Christian is. I suggest each of us allow ourselves to checked over by Christ Himself. Honestly, if He showed you something that was wrong in your life, would you listen? It’s one thing to say I don’t have God’s words, or some other preacher. But if Christ Himself pointed something out, would you listen? If you didn’t, could you call yourself a Christian? I think today is a good day to allow Him to search us. Am I being changed? Am I bearing challenges? Am I walking as He did? That is the heart of being a Christian. Allowing Him to work on us. Will you let Him today?
