Christian???
Gospel of Luke • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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What is a Christian?
What is a Christian?
This term has been abused over the years… It has become so commonly used — misused I should say — that it has lost its meaning.
The word “Christian” is only used in the Bible 3 times… And it was not a term that the disciples used to refer to themselves!
.... We like to call ourselves Christians.... Our world tosses it around like it’s a crown… A title demanding respect…
“Christian” — “one who professes belief in the teachings of Christ.” (Merrium-Webster)
Many would define it as “one who follows Christ”… who learns from Him… Who emulates Him… Who shares His teachings… But here’s the problem…
People in today’s world toss the term around like it’s nothing.
Pastor Dean Courtier states: “Christian is a term that has been cheapened and confused by common usage.
The word Christian is now an expression that covers a wide range of religious ideas, error as well as truth, paganism as well as the revelation of God’s divine truth.
The meaning of the term Christian has been so stretched that it covers everything from rationalistic modernism on one hand to frothy sentimentalism on the other.
Everything from worldliness to self-righteousness.
The term Christian can be used to describe that which is coldly ritualistic or that which is nothing more than emotionalism.” — Pastor Dean Courtier
For many people it has become nothing more that a business slogan or a political term…
That’s not what the term originally meant!
It was not a “positive” term… It did not denote someone of high-esteem… To be called “Christian” in the 1st century meant you stood out! You didn’t fit in! You were one of those weird people who were not to be accepted!
"That’s one of those Christians!”
“That’s one of those followers of the ‘new way’!”
Do you see the issue?
Where being “Christian” once had a distinctive mark, it has lost that distinctiveness…
So… How do we get that distinctiveness back?
It is that distinctiveness that changes the world.
So, how do we get it back?
— By realizing who we are…
The Bible calls us “Saints” 60 times in the NT… “disciples” 30 times… and “believers” 80 times…
We are a people who are
— Called to Redemption…
— Restored to New Life…
— Repurposed into the Kingdom of the God of the Universe…
We have been given a New Story! Our True Story…
So… How do we live within it?!?
— Realizing our purpose.
What does the Bible say our purpose is? What dod Jesus tell us to do?
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Then…
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We are called to “GO”… to “Teach”… to “Share” what we have been given with the world around us…
First, in our immediate community… in the place in which we live and work… Then into the world around us…
I want you to notice something — We don’t do it alone!
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Then He says, “And surely I am with you...”
We go in the power and authority of Christ Himself! That means that we will inherently stand out from the world!!!
We will be noticeably different… Are we?!?!
1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God.
2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets.
3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.
7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,
10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”
11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
I. It means giving up our life — our story — for His!
We cannot step into the story that God has written for us until we step out of the one we are trying to write for ourselves!
We cannot begin a new story, until the old one ends…
Jesus called Simon, James, and John to leave their “old lives” behind… to walk away… and to let Him rewrite the story of their lives…
10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.”
and they did!
11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
God will rewrite your story into something absolutely mind-boggling… if you will let Him…
The Christian Life means leaving everything and faithfully following Him!
II. It means making ourselves unclean for the sake of those who need to be made clean.
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
Jesus reached into the filthiest… nastiest… vilest places in this world… willingly making Himself unclean… because He loved us that much…
He asks us to do the same!
To reach into the deepest… darkest… most filthy places … means to risk being shunned by the world!
It means willingly allowing people to look at us as though we were the craziest thing they’ve ever seen…
It means being avoided by some (many actually) so that some might experience the love and grace that we have received!
III. It means suffering indignity so that forgiveness may be received.
18 Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus.
19 When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
These four men humiliated themselves… It was in now way dignifying to climb a roof that didn’t belong to them… to vandalize someone’s home… to make themselves filthy and unruly in other’s eyes… but they did it for the sake of that man!
All so that he could receive the forgiveness and healing he needed!
…
Jesus suffered the “scorn of the church” because he forgave when the “church” didn’t think He should…
III. It means accepting those who the world rejects.
27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him,
28 and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.
29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Sometimes doing what Christ calls us to do means that we will have to hear people complain… accuse us of wrong-doing… even claim that we are “not teaching the Bible” (yes, I’ve heard all of those things)
“People living in the dark, hate the light, because the light reveals their sin.” (Jn 3:20)
The world does not like when the Christians live like Christians… Are we afraid to accept certain people because of what the world might think?
Are we acting like the pharisees and scribes when Jesus went to Levi’s home?
look what Jesus says to them in Matthew’s account:
13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
We are called to show mercy and grace… We are called to reach out to others…
Church… We are not called to sit in a pew, and expect someone else to do it!
We are called to “Go!”
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
“teaching them to obey…” includes this command!
Look at this command close…
Jesus illustrates it in this chapter of Luke’s gospel…
— “God and make disciples” - “Call them”… just as Jesus called Simon and the others…
— “Teach them” - “show them”.... just like Jesus showed them through His actions… w/ the leper and the paralytic man…
— “Baptize them” - We baptise with water into faith… Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit…
Then we are to do it all over again!!! (the calling of Levi)
Church, we have a purpose!
And that purpose is to do whatever it takes to help others get to God! To Find forgiveness in Christ! To step into their true — God-authored — identity in Him!
Even if that means getting dirty… enduring shame and ridicule… or having to face harsh criticism and mistreatment....
But the reward is greater than we can imagine!
Because we will hear God say to us “Well done! My good and faithful servant!”