What is a Christian?

What’s in a Name?

I always enjoyed teaching the 11th grade English unit on The Crucible by Arthur Miller (husband of Marilyn Monroe). The story is based on the witch hunt that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. The main character is an honorable but imperfect man named John Proctor who is presented with an opportunity to save himself but is required to sign a confession that is a lie. In an emotional plea for his life but, more importantly, his reputation he cries out:

“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”

The power of the name was a serious matter to Proctor, and it is important today. Back in the day we used to simply “give our word” which was based on our name, our reputation. Now we sign our name, even when Amazon delivers a package. You can’t read it but somehow it makes something, somewhere, official.

In a recent study on Wednesday nights, we took some time to consider what it means to be called a Christian. What does that name, or title mean. If I were to ask someone if they were a Christian, there could be a thousand different answers. Some may say, “A Christian is someone who “follows” Jesus.” But there are problems with that response…

#1 - Mormons say the “follow” Jesus but they deny the Trinity, believe that Jesus, Satan, and humans are spiritual siblings, and believe that humans can become gods themselves.[1]

#2 – According to our missionary friend in Sri Lanka, Buddhists have no problem accepting Jesus as a god and “following”. Their problem is letting go of their other 1 million gods.

Natasha Crain writes… “Describing a Christian simply as someone who ‘believes in’, ‘trusts in’, or ‘accepts’ Jesus has similar problems of ambiguity.”

What Is a Christian Anyway?

The book of Acts recorded the beginnings of Christians:

Acts 11:25–26 NIV

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Just like a person from Italy is called an Italian, a person of Christ is called a Christian. Seems simple enough but we live in a culture that distorts words. In the early church, being a Christian was a radical idea. It was a movement away from the traditional norms. It meant embracing the truths of Jesus and incorporating them into their everyday lives.

Our community has become quite a mixture. When I grew up, I expected Texas to be filled with horses, cowboy hats, and dusty country sides. That may to true for a small minority of Texans today. In our area you are more likely to see a car with a Texas license plate but a bumper sticker for the Seahawks, Ravens, or Bills. We may be living in Texas (and loving it) but pieces of our loyalties still identify with our first home. Christianity demands no division of loyalty. I don’t think it is said any better than C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:

The Christian way is different: harder and easier. Christ says, “Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”

I hope that you would want to be this type of Christian – no longer any loyalties to the old world, the old way of thinking. We need to truly understand what it means to be a Christian, now more than ever before.

More than a Name!

I would like to talk a walk with you this morning through some revelations about Jesus Christ that give us a better understanding of what the name Christian represents. In my mind, I think that the disciples came to some important discoveries in their journey as Christians.

Christians Have Revelation

Imagine a family of mice who lived all their lives in a large piano. To them in their piano-world came the music of the instrument, filling all the dark spaces with sound and harmony. At first the mice were impressed by it. They drew comfort and wonder from the thought that there was Someone who made the music—though invisible to them—above, yet close to them. They loved to think of the Great Player whom they could not see.

Then one day a daring mouse climbed up part of the piano and returned very thoughtful. He had found out how music was made. Wires were the secret; tightly stretched wires of graduated lengths which trembled and vibrated. They must revise all their old beliefs: none but the most conservative could any longer believe in the Unseen Player.

Later, another explorer carried the explanation further. Hammers were now the secret, numbers of hammers dancing and leaping on the wires. This was a more complicated theory, but it all went to show that they lived in a purely mechanical and mathematical world. The Unseen Player came to be thought of as a myth.

But the pianist continued to play.[2]

When did you realize that your world of music existed because of the Divine Pianist? A Divine Restorer? Christians have had the ultimate epiphany, Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:13–17 NIV

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.

Christians understand Jesus as the Promised Deliverer and the child of the Heavenly Father. Position…authority….power…. This frames a Christian’s understanding of the world. Origin, meaning, purpose, and destiny.

Christians Realize Jesus is Life

Let’s take it one step further. The miracles of Christ and the conflict between Jesus and the religious elites must have been an interesting spectacle for the crowds. But it was His radical teaching that separated the crowd from the disciples who would eventually become the first Christians. Embedded in the Words of Jesus was a sweetness that the disciples were beginning to realize. It is one thing to understand the position and authority of Christ, but is even greater to understand that the sweetness of life flows only from Him.

John 6:68–69 NIV

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

If you have a Life Application Bible you could see the editor’s comment that says:

We can’t stay on middle ground about Jesus. When he asked the disciples, “Are you going to leave, too?” he was showing them that he was not taking their faith for granted. Jesus never tried to repel people with his teachings. He simply told the truth. The more the people heard Jesus’ real message, the more they divided into two camps—the honest seekers wanting to understand more, and those rejecting Jesus because they didn’t like what they heard.

Peter replied, “To whom would we go?” In his straightforward way, Peter answered for all of us—there is no other way. Though there are many philosophies and self-styled authorities, Jesus alone has the words that give eternal life. People look everywhere for eternal life and miss Christ, the only source. There is nowhere else to go.[3

A Christian then, understands the revelations of the Person of Jesus and understands that life is found in Him. (This can be difficult to remember when circumstances are hard. Faith!)

Christians Realize that Jesus is Both Lord and God

My next observation comes after the Resurrection of Christ. You may remember that the disciple Thomas was reluctant to believe until he saw and touched Jesus.

John 20:26–29 NIV

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Thomas’s response was to call Jesus his “Lord and God”. I think this is an observation that transformed Thomas into a man who willingly gave the rest of his life to serving his Lord. You may recall Jesus’ response to a Scribe who was impressed with Jesus’s teaching.

Jesus himself highlights the importance of Lordship. Today’s Christian culture has become too concerned with believing in God, or being a moral person, or even doing Christian activities, or accepting Jesus as Savior but never surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus in their lives.

“According to the latest research, about 70 percent of Americans are Christians (based on people’s self-identification and how researchers group religions). However, research also shows that just 9 percent of Americans have a biblical worldview—accepting core truths taught in the Bible. These statistics show that there’s a major disconnect between the popular use of the word Christian and the beliefs you might assume that word represents. ”[4]

Being a Christian Means Both Believing and Living in Christ

A name means something! I watched a few minutes of the Arkansas/Oklahoma football game yesterday and noticed the Arkansas quarterback with Exodus 15:2 on his forearm:

Exodus 15:2 NIV

“The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

What a wonderful testimony. Thank God for Christian men and women standing for God in testimony and demonstrated in their lives!

During the intense persecution of the Church during the Roman Empire, investigations were done to find out who these Christians were. One report a century after the Resurrection said this.

They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good yet are punished as evildoers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. To sum it all up in one word -- what the soul is to the body, that are Christians in the world.

If that is how the Christian is described in persecution, how will we be described in a culture of individual freedom?

[1] Crain, Natasha. Talking to Your Kids About Jesus. Pg 249-250. [2]Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Practical Illustrations: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians(Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2001), 120–121. [3]Bruce Barton et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2001), 402. [4] Crain, Natasha. Talking With Your Kids About Jesus. https://books.apple.com/us/book/talking-with-your-kids-about-jesus/id1478034566