Who Am I?

Did you ever have that teacher who the only reason you paid attention in class was because they might call on you to answer a question, and you didn’t want to look a fool? Just sayin’

When I first began preparing this message, I recalled a scene from the movie “Overcomer”.

I have shared this with many of you in the past, so if you have already heard it, please indulge me for the moment.

In this scene one man asks another “who are you?” His reply was “well I’m a coach, a husband, a father, and almost as an afterthought, he said “and a Christian”.

1 Peter 2:9 describes who we are. I’ll preface this with, I will use “who am I, who are we, who are you?” interchangeably.

Peter writes, “but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of the darkness into His marvelous light”. There’s a whole lot of good news in that scripture, but let’s zoom in on a couple of these.

First-A royal priesthood- to me, Peter is saying Christ is the King Priest, and we are in His Royal Kingdom.

Go back with me to that movie scene for just a minute. When thinking about who you are, or if being asked by someone to describe who you are, did you mention being a Christian last on your list, or even mention it at all?

I know I’m guilty just as this man was. Isn’t it amazing that we would list our Royal Priesthood last, or not mention it at all?

The second description is “a holy nation”. As Christians, we must regard ourselves as a holy nation. The word holy means “set apart”. Christians are a nation “set apart” from the world, and that is becoming more evident, by the day.

So, who am I? A royal priesthood, and a member of a holy nation set apart by God.

This past week I attended the funeral of a friend. On the drive to the funeral, I listened to a Christian podcast, and the speaker said “as Christians, people must see us and say “whatever that is that you got, I want some of it””. We must be the salt of the earth.

In Matthew 5:13 Jesus calls us to be the salt of the earth.

During the funeral service, the pastor said Jeff was the salt of the earth. After hearing “salt of the earth”, twice; in about as many hours, I became convinced that I was to include this verse in todays message.

One of the qualities of salt when we consume it, is that it creates thirst. When people see Jesus in us, they thirst for what we have. Our “saltyness” creates thirst and wanting more of Jesus.

Think about this…

Do you recall the story when Paul and Silas were in prison and praying and singing hymns to God, and the prison doors opened? The guard woke from his sleep, and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped, and Paul called out “do yourself no harm, for we are all here”.

Picture this… you are in prison but innocent of a crime, and the prison doors open, but you decide to stay put!

Paul was the salt of the earth, and that guard thirsted for what Paul had and he asked Paul “what must I do to be saved?” As I was writing this it caused me to ponder, “did God open the prison doors because Paul and Silas were singing praises to Him, or so the guard could be saved?

Pause- Probably both!

So, who are we? We are the salt of the earth.

Over the last three days, things have come at me in a very rapid succession. Several verses came to me quickly, while others, God revealed one at a time.

Early Friday morning a verse popped up on my phone from a daily devotional that I receive. It was 1 John 3:1. “Behold, what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

I had originally chosen John 1:12 which also declares us children of God, but 1 John 3:1 seems more appropriate, because it ties in with 1 Peter 2:9.

Let’s re-look at part of the verse “therefore the world does not know us (because we are a holy nation, set apart) because it did not know Him. Since we are children of God, we are set apart. Isn’t that beautiful?

Who are we? We are children of God.

Now, consider this;

If you had painted the Mona Lisa, how would you treat it?