This material was originally presented in PowerPoint format to a high-school audience. If you have any questions or would like a copy of the original PowerPoint, feel free to drop me an email at robert.fox@alltel.com
[A Christian and a Gentleman]
Slide graphic: The most excellent Mr. Darcy, portayed by Colin Firth in the A&E presentation of Pride and Predjudice
Slide text: What does it mean to be a Christian
Does anyone recognize this guy? This is the most excellent Mr. Darcy, from the A&E presentation of “Pride and Prejudice”, played by the actor Colin Firth. Mr. Darcy, in this epic novel, was a gentleman. Does anyone know what that means? That they behave well? That they are courteous? That they have honor?
Actually, the original meaning of the word “gentleman” meant none of these things. The word had a very precise meaning, which was nothing more or less than the fact that a man had a coat of arms and some landed property. In it’s original meaning, when you said that a man was or was not a gentleman you were not complementing or insulting him, you were just giving information about him. There was no contradiction in saying that someone was a gentleman and a liar, or in saying that someone was a man of honor, but no gentleman. The word “gentleman” had a precise meaning that was not a matter of opinion or judgment, it was a clear statement of fact.
Then, slowly, over time, people began to use the word differently. People began to say that it was less important whether a man had inherited land and a coat of arms than whether he behaved honorably – as a gentleman should. The word “gentleman” gradually ceased to be used to describe the fact (land and title) and began to be used to describe the expected behavior. In doing so, it really lost all meaning. Whether or not a man was a gentleman or not was a matter of opinion on which people could easily disagree.
When a word ceases to become a term of description and becomes merely a term of praise, it no longer tells you facts about the object, it only tells you about the speaker’s attitude about the object. The word “gentleman” now conveys little more meaning than that the speaker likes this person. The word has been spoiled for it’s original intent. Now, if you wish to use the word to convey the meaning of land and a title, you can’t do so without an explanation.
This same thing, this slow spoiling of the meaning of a word, is happening to the word “Christian”. The word is now being used to describe the way Christians should behave. To be “Christian” today means to be generous, self sacrificing, kind, and compassionate. And a Christian certainly should be all these things, just as a gentleman should be honorable, courageous and courteous. But the way a person behaves does not make them a Christian in the real sense any more than behavior makes someone a gentleman in it’s original sense. There is a movement, whether intentional or not, to mask the real meaning of the word.
Today I want to talk about the “real” meaning – what does it really mean to be a “Christian”?
[What Does it Mean to be a Christian?]
Slide graphic: Jesus embracing a modern person
Slide text:
Does it mean that you:
• Live in America instead of Israel or Iran?
• Believe in a certain list of right and wrong?
• Behave better than another group of people?
• Are sorry for the bad things you’ve done?
• Have been baptized?
• Are a member of a church?
• Believe Christ was God, etc.?
• Pray, read your Bible, and go to church?
• Try to behave like Christ behaved?
Because the word has lost it’s original meaning, there is a great deal of confusion about what it means to be a Christian. Probably the most common belief, one which some of you in this room may have been led to believe, is that a Christian is someone who believes that Jesus was God made flesh, believes that Christ died for our sins and rose again, and tries to be a good person. These things may well describe the behavior expected of Christians, but they are not what makes a person a Christian. Whether you like it or not, the Bible clearly says more is required.
In the Bible, the word "Christian" only appears three times.
• In Acts 11:26, Luke writes "...The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch."
• In Acts 26:28, King Agrippa tells Paul; "In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian."
• In 1 Peter 4:16: "...but if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not feel ashamed, but in that name let him glorify God."
In all three cases, the Greek word Christianos (khris-tee-an-os’) is used, which means, literally, “follower of Christ.”
A follower of Christ is not someone who attempts to dress, speak, and behave like Christ. If that were true, we would all wear robes, speak Aramaic, and be carpenters (that is - before we start healing the sick, raising the dead, and walking on water). No, a follower of Christ is not someone who mimics him, trying to be Christ-like, it is someone who obeys his orders. The Christian life is not an imitation of Jesus, but the manifestation of His life and character in us, "that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal body" (II Cor. 4:10,11). To be a Christian, you must embrace his mission – not a generic mission, but the mission he has specifically for you.
A “follower of Christ.” In the middle ages, barons and kings had many followers (retainers, vassals) to perform specific tasks for them. These followers did not all dress up like their lords and walk and talk just like their lords, parroting and aping their behavior. No, the followers trained themselves to the service of their liege lord, and carried out any order he gave. Their life and death were their lord’s to command. They were they tools their lord used to build his kingdom. This is what the Bible means by becoming a follower of Christ. It means you have accepted Christ as your personal Lord, and have chose to serve as his tool in whatever way he commands. A liege lord was one to whom you had given your allegiance – something that would have been well understood by the readers of the King James translation. This is what Thomas meant when, after the resurrection, said “my lord and my God”. Christ, when he called his disciples, did not call them to behave nice – he called them to follow him.
Today I want to answer three questions:
• Why do I need to be a follower of Christ?
• How do I become a follower of Christ?
• What do I do when I become a follower of Christ?
[The Problem]
Slide graphic: Kanji character for “forbidden,” broken down into it’s components – “two trees”, and “God”
Slide text:
So – Why to I need a “Lord”?
What is the problem?
• God is perfect – we are not
• We must be separated from Him
How did that happen?
• God created mankind with free will
• God set before us two choices
• His way – the tree of life – living forever with God
• Our own way – the tree of knowledge of good and evil
To understand the problem, you need to understand the way the world was designed to work. One of the best places to look for that is in Genesis.
One of my favorite illustrations in the Bible is of the two trees in the Garden of Eden.
• The Tree of Life, the one God told us we could eat from, the one that represented his will and plan for our lives (live forever in His presence)
• The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which mankind was specifically told not to eat from. It was counter to the will of God.
Satan was not lying when he said that if Eve ate from the tree of Knowledge of good and evil, she would be like God. To choose this tree rather than the tree God chose for us meant that she rejected God’s plan and chose instead to decide for herself what was good or bad for her. She wanted to be the judge of what was right and wrong in her own life. She wanted to be god of her own life.
What was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil? The word used for Knowledge doesn’t mean science or understanding. It means intimate familiarity in the biblical sense, as when they used to say that a man “had knowledge of a woman.” The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil means that mankind elected to consider (have intimate knowledge of) all their choices and select for themselves which path to follow. God had already told them the only correct choice was the Tree of Life. The chinese pictograph for “forbid” or “warn” is a combination of the symbols for two trees and the symbol for God. If I could design my own witness-wear, it would be a t-shirt with just this one symbol on it. I think this symbol alone tells the story of why we need Christ.
We think that Satan is evil incarnate. Why? What did he do wrong? He rebelled against God. He certainly believed that God existed. Satan had walked with God and talked with Him, but Satan decided that he would rather be in control of his own destiny than to serve God. He cut himself off from God. The chose not to take direction from God (the Tree of Life) but to choose for himself (the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil). But when you think about it, that is exactly the same thing that Adam and Eve committed. They decided not to follow God’s instruction, but to look at all their options (intimate knowledge of good and evil) and decide their path for themselves. They rebelled against God. Their sin is exactly the same as Satan’s. We are no better than Satan.
That is it. That’s the one and only problem in your life. You are cut off from God because you have chosen to find your own way. The problem has never been which church you belong to, how often you perform some religious ritual, how pleasant a person you are, whether you were baptized, or how literally you believe the Bible. None of those things save or condemn you.
Note: In Revelations, John tells us there will only be one tree in heaven – the Tree of Life. An only the ones who had chosen that tree on earth will be there to see it.
[The Solution]
Slide graphic: soldier talking to young child
Slide Text:
So – How do I become a follower of Christ?
Believe
• Sin must be punished. The punishment for sin against God is death
• God himself became man, lived a blameless life, and suffered and died in our place, so that we would not have to.
Commit
• Belief alone is not enough – even Satan believes. What Satan will not do is commit to serve. That is the only difference between you and him.
• We must choose again, and this time, choose that God’s path is better than our own.
So now we know the problem – we are cut off from God because we chose to decide for ourselves what to do with our lives. We chose not to follow God. Once you understand that this relationship has been broken, how can it be restored? What to you do to become a Christian – a follower of Christ? In one sense, there is nothing anyone can do to become a Christian. Everything necessary to become and be a Christian has been done by Jesus Christ, which is why He said "It is finished!" (John 19:30) as he was dying on the cross.
Many people would say that all you have to do is “believe” – believe that Jesus was God made flesh, that he died and rose again to pay the penalty for us and restore the broken relationship. How many of you have heard people say that? Well, those people are wrong. If all it took to restore us to God’s will were belief, then why is Satan separated from God? He certainly believes in God. In the temptation in the wilderness, he clearly understood Christ was the son of God. He certainly understands now, if he did not before, what Christ’s death and resurrection mean.
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder (James 2:19)
“But wait!” you say. What about all those verses that say all you have to do is believe? Like:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
There you go – “whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life”. How much clearer can you be. Unfortunately, this word “believe” is another word that has changed meaning over time. The book of John, like most of the New Testament, was written in Greek. The actual word used here, the word translated as “believe” is the Greek word pist-yoo-oh, which actually doesn’t mean “believe” the way we understand it today. It means to trust and to commit.
This verse actually should be translated today as “whoever trusts Christ and commits to follow him will not perish, but have eternal life. There you go. You have to commit. You have to choose. Two trees – the path that God has chosen for you, or the path where you decide for yourself.
Some of you may have been surprised by what I’ve said today. You may have thought you were a Christian because you believed in God, believed in Christ, were sorry for the bad things you have done, and you hope to be a better person. All those are great things, but I’m sorry to tell you that they do not make you a Christian. To be a Christian, a Christ-follower, you have to choose. You have to admit that living for yourself, deciding your own destiny is not the right way. You have to desire to change. Not change your behavior, but change your allegiance. Instead of living for yourself, you have to pledge allegiance to Christ as your lord. You have to commit to live the rest of your life as his follower, training yourself in his service, ready to follow his commands no matter where they lead.
Once you make this choice, you may backslide, you may even start living for yourself. But you cannot lose your lord. Your allegiance has been given and you are his forever, regardless of how passionately you follow Christ. You may take back control of the choices in your life for a time, but your allegiance has been given away to him, and you cannot take it back or lose it.
The Bible actually says we must die – die to our own desires to choose our own way, and let Christ, living in us, lead our lives. And yet, we find that when we die in this way, we are really, deeply fulfilled. Our lives have meaning and purpose. We have direction and an eternal goal. Jesus said, "I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). "I am the life" (John 14:6). Paul said "Christ is our life" (Col. 3:4); therefore, "for me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21). The Christian life is following Christ’s personal leadership to live as God intended you to.
Paul, in his New Testament letters, often introduced himself as a “bond-servant of Christ”.
[Your Choice…]
Slide Graphic: Closup of Morpheus’s glasses from the movie “The Matrix” showing the reflection of his hands, one holding a red pill, one holding a blue pill, and Neo reaching for the red pill
Slide text:
There is something wrong with the world.
You are being lied to.
Take the blue pill, and believe whatever you want to believe.
Take the red pill, and we will show you how deep the rabbit hole goes…
We can only show you the door.
You’re the one who has to walk through it.
(Note: in our youth department, we give the students and leaders “Justice League Names”. After a rather formal interview process which includes spiritual gifts, talents, passions, experience, and peer feedback, we pick, or make up, a name that best represents the fully empowered person you were created to be. This is unbelievably effective among the teens, who spend a great deal of time searching for their identity in the world. Drop us a line if you would like to hear more about it.)
How many of you have Justice League names yet? I would like to hear about them. On the Mission trip, I was named “Professor Morpheus” by a group of my so-called friends. Morpheus, you see, lives fully empowered by his spiritual super-power. In the Movie, “The Matrix,” Morpheus understood that there was a bigger mission. Morpheus had a strength of Faith that was unshakable, even when he did not understand the path the mission was taking, even when the mission seemed doomed, even when he was in great personal danger. Morpheus not only believed, but he committed his life to the completion of the mission. Morpheus was dedicated to showing people the Truth about their world, showing them that they had a choice.
I am not Morpheus. I do not have an unshakable faith. There are many times when I shrink back from telling people about the Truth because I don’t want to look foolish. There are many times when I live for myself, and not for the mission.
But all of us, even me, have spiritual gifts. We have a character and nature shaped by God. According to these surveys we take, my gift is in teaching. I won’t comment on my ability (or lack there-of), but I will say that I am passionate about it. The times in my life when I have felt closest to God are when I am digging into the Truth, and trying to communicate that Truth to people I care about. When I am closest to the will of God, if I am fully following Christ in the moment, then I become … Professor Morpheus.
You know, I thought at fist these names were a little juvenile. A little silly. But then I came to understand that it’s not about getting a cool name. It’s about understanding your spiritual character, about having a desire to live a fully empowered life as a Christ follower.
God has a name for you. He has created you with special super-powers that are only powered up when you have Christ inside you and are fully following his direction for your life. Living as a Christ-follower is scary, and dangerous. It is not safe. But it is good. It is powerful. It is exciting.
It is only available to the Christ follower. The one who sees the two trees and chooses to let go of control their own destiny and serve Christ as their liege lord. The two trees are one illustration, but the Bible is chock full of examples of God setting before his people a choice. A choice to follow him or to live for themselves.
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse- 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today… (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)
19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life… (Deuteronomy 30:19)
The choice is to follow Christ, not to behave like Christ.
In August, Don Chalupka (the Mastermind) is going to take two Sunday mornings to talk about the death and resurrection of Christ – about what it means, about many theories the world has about what must have really happened, and about the scientific and historical evidence. I can’t wait to hear it. After that, we will begin a series of about three meetings talking more about spiritual gifts, what they are, how they are given to every single believer, how to determine what yours are, and how to recognize and use your spiritual superpower.
[A Red Clay Halo For My Head]
Slide Graphic: Inner-city youth with angel wings
Slide movie: Performance of “red clay halo”, by Gillian Welch and David Rawlings
Slide text:
All the girls all dance with the boys from the city,
And they don’t care to dance with me.
Now it ain’t my fault that the fields are muddy,
And the red clay stains my feet.
And it’s under my nails and it’s under my collar,
And it shows on my Sunday clothes.
Though I do my best with the soap and the water,
But the damned old dirt won’t go.
But when I pass through the pearly gate,
Will my gown be gold instead?
Or just a red clay robe with red clay wings,
And a red clay halo for my head?
Now it’s mud in the spring and it’s dust in the summer,
When it blows in a crimson tide.
Until trees and leaves and the cows are the color,
Of the dirt on the mountainside.
But when I pass through the pearly gate,
Will my gown be gold instead?
Or just a red clay robe with red clay wings,
And a red clay halo for my head?
Now Jordan’s banks they’re red and muddy,
And the rolling water is wide.
But I got no boat, so I’ll be good and muddy,
When I get to the other side.
And when I pass through the pearly gate,
Will my gown be gold instead?
Or just a red clay robe with red clay wings,
And a red clay halo for my head?
I’ll take the red clay robe with the red clay wings,
And a red clay halo for my head.
I was going somewhere with my daughter, Ali, in my truck the week before the mission trip. If any of you have ridden with me, you know I listen to either classical music or NPR. As it happened, the “Prairie Home Companion” was playing, and one of the guest musicians was Gillian Welch. You may have heard her on the soundtrack of the movie “Oh brother, where art thou?” singing “Didn’t leave no body but the baby” with Allison Kraus. That’s when the sirens turn Pete into a toad.
Gillian wasn’t singing that song on the radio, though. She was singing a song of her own called “Red Clay Halo”. It’s a song about a young woman who lives out in the country where the red clay stains everything. She spends her entire life struggling to get clean, never able to get the stains out of her clothes, never able to look as clean as the people from the city. She is surrounded by clay everywhere, and looks forward to heaven, where she will finally be clean, but suspects that instead of golden robes, she’ll get nothing but “a red clay robe with red clay wings, and a red clay halo for [her] head.” At the end of the song, she says that, given the choice between the golden robe and the red clay robe, she would take the red clay.
Ali and I got to talking about it (She talks about everything). We decided that the red clay robe was really a badge of honor – a tribute to how hard she had had to struggle to be clean all her life.
This was, as I said, right before the mission trip. I began thinking; you guys are the kind of young men and women that most people would consider pretty good people. Some of the kids we would meet on the mission trip might be much more rough around the edges. I think the world would compare you to a group of at-risk inner-city Detroit kids, and say you were much better “Christians” than they.
I think, though, that you have grown up in a good environment, and it may take very little effort for you to be “Christian” in the sense the world uses the word today – you behave as society thinks a Christian should. Other people, like the Detroit at-risk teens, may have grown up in a horrible environment, surrounded by evil influences, alcohol, gangs, drugs, violence and crime. While they may appear to be much worse people in the world’s eyes, the world can’t see how hard they’ve had to struggle.
When we get to heaven, all the evil of the world that clung to us will fall away, and all that will be left is the measure of how hard we pursued God. I think that we may very well see that some of these “bad seed” kids will be honored far more than you and I because they have had to follow Christ farther and through a more dangerous battleground. Of course, it was the power of Christ that transforms us, not our own efforts, but it is you and I who must have the courage, the desire, and the driving passion to desire to follow Christ where he wants to take our lives.
The world sees how clean you are when compared to other people. They see how good a job you’ve done making choices for yourself. God sees how strong your desire is to wash away the red clay of the world to become more like Christ, to follow his direction for your life in every choice. When we get to heaven, it isn’t important how close you were to the world’s concept of good Christian behavior. What is important to God is how strong your desire to follow Christ was – how far you pursued him, and how difficult it was for you. Red clay robes and red clay wings, and a red clay halo for my head – that’s what I want. To carry forever in heaven a badge of honor given to me by God himself saying that I did well, that I ran a good race, that I passionately pursued a standard of excellence, that I struggled desperately my entire life in every choice to be a follower of Christ my Lord.
[Prayer Groups]
Being a Christian is not believing in God and acting Christ-like. The Bible clearly states that being a Christian means being a Christ-follower. It means voluntarily giving up control of your own future and turning it over to Christ. Declaring that he is your liege lord and you are his vassal, to command however he wishes.
If you have not made that choice, you are not a Christ-follower. That choice is where Satan himself stopped – he was unwilling to turn over his destiny to God’s control. He wanted to choose his own path. He believes in God. But he wont give up control to God. Unless you give up control of your life to God, you are only a Christian in the sense the world has come to mean the word – you act like a Christian should. But that does not make you a real Christian any more than acting like a gentleman should act means to have a coat of arms and inherited land. Billy Sunday once said “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.”
If all you have been doing is acting like a Christian, then you still have this choice in front of you. You need to chose. The choice is a commitment, not to behave nice, but to follow Christ. Choose to be a Christ-follower, or choose to live your life by your own choices. Choose the blue pill or the red pill. Choose the tree of life or the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Choose life!
I don’t usually pray here, because you are about to go into your prayer groups, but please let me pray for you today. If you need to make this choice, please come see me after the prayer. Or talk to Greg or to one of the interns. But choose. Today.
