People of The Day
What is a Christian? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The word Christian gets thrown around and overused too much today.
No wonder so many people in and out of the church are left wondering what a Christian actually is!
Only the true Christian, a disciple, someone who lives a life God can bless, will survive the spiritual conflicts headed our way.
The word Christian only appears three times in scripture
and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers of people; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you are going to persuade me to make a Christian of myself.”
but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.
It can be hard to show what a Christian is if we only look for its usage.
None of these passages tell us anything about what a Christian is or what a Christian’s life looks like!
Christians live a particular kind of life.
Paul speaks of this on several places, but for our lesson today we will consider 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8
1 Now as to the periods and times, brothers and sisters, you have no need of anything to be written to you.
2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord is coming just like a thief in the night.
3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction will come upon them like labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so that the day would overtake you like a thief;
5 for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;
6 so then, let’s not sleep as others do, but let’s be alert and sober.
7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk, get drunk at night.
8 But since we are of the day, let’s be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
Are you ready for the message God has for us today?
Cool, grab your bible, take up your pen, get the sermon sheet, and let’s dig in!
Christians are of the day
Christians are of the day
Are you a morning person?
I am not! — Develop
I wonder if Paul was.
Though from Acts 20 we know that Paul could speak well into the early morning hours.
In fact in Acts 20 after speaking on and on well past midnight a young man fell out an upper window after having fallen asleep during what must have been a fascinating message from Paul!
Without skipping a beat Paul picks him up, made sure he was alright and then continued speaking until morning.
Still Paul could have been a morning person when I consider Romans 13:11-12
11 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed.
12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let’s rid ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
or Ephesians 5:14
14 For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”
And also our passage of 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8.
How ever you might think, Paul does remind us that we are people who belong to the day.
Being of the day is ensuring we are prepared purposefully wearing our armor.
I like the way N.T. Wright Translates verses 7-8, “People who sleep, you see, sleep at night. People who get drunk get drunk at night. But we day time people should be self-controlled, clothing ourselves with the breastplate of faith and love, and with the helmet of the hope of salvation…”
It is the goal of a daytime person, to put in place habits that protect the mind and body.
Paul would tell us for a day person faith, hope, and love are fundamental to the way they live their life.
Everything is wrapped up in Christ for a Christian, meaning the day has already dawned!
Living in the Kingdom of God
Living in the Kingdom of God
Because Christ has fulfilled His purpose for coming into the world the day of the kingdom of God prophesied in the Old Testament has dawned.
Paul reminds us that even though this is a reality, there are still people who sleep to its presence.
Concerning our passage of 1 Thessalonians 5:1-8; N.T. Wright says, “Paul’s vision of Christian virtue, centered here and elsewhere on faith, hope, and love, is all about developing the habits of the daytime heart in a world still of darkness.”
Our existence is of the day, and this is simultaneous with our being sober and alert!
Something we learn from the teachings of Scripture is that this does not happen because we forced it, but by the grace of God through the inner working of the Holy Spirit.
“Having put on” comes before being sober.
Meaning you can’t be sober without your armor.
Without our armor we are neither of the day nor are we alert!
Also “having put on” is an action of both us and God!
We saw in our study of Spiritual warfare last week that we simply cannot do this without God!
We don’t adopt this change from darkness to light on our own!
Paul reminds us in Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
It is a transformation
It is a transformation
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Once this transformation happens we must put habits into practice and live by them.
Habits of studying the word of God, being constant in our prayers,etc.
We have to want to live in the daytime!
This was John’s point! It’s a choice we make!
Jesus made an important point in John 3:19-21
19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed.
21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed as having been performed in God.”
So many things happen in the dark — My own experience with bar hoping
People do so many evil things when they think no one is looking.
People living in the dark don’t want their deeds exposed.
Christians, Christ followers, disciples, do not live that way!
We want people to see us!
There is another part of this walking in the day — Ephesians 4:17-19
17 So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
People of the night walk in ignorance, not of stupidity, but a lack of knowledge of God’s truth!
Church this is a call for us to not be stagnate or happy with where we are in our knowledge of and relationship with God!
As people of the day we are ever learning and ever growing!
Conclusion:
What is a Christian?
They are people of the day, people who walk in such a way that others take notice!
That is one thing we learn from the usage of Christian in its three appearances in scripture.
In a world of darkness we shine as lights!
So what are you going to do based upon what has said today?
