What does it mean to be a Christian?

Question- What do you think it means to be a Christian?

The word here translated literally means a soldier of Christ or a follower of Christ.

The believers at Antioch were called Christians because they had not only believed the gospel but had also been taught the Word of God by Paul and Barnabas and it had so shaped their lives that those around them immediately recognized their likeness to Christ.

“If I am to wholly follow the Lord Jesus Christ, I must forsake everything that is contrary to Him.” -A.W. Tozer

So what must I do to rightly be called a Christian?- Notice they were not calling themselves Christians, it was those around them who noticed their resemblance to Christ.

If I am to be a Christian...

I Must Trust Christ as Savior

There must be a definite moment in my life when I trusted Christ as savior.

No one has “always been a Christian”

You may have been raised in a Christian home, you may have been in church all of you life, you may have been baptized, you may have read the Bible through a number of times, but you must still have come to the place where you were convicted of sin and have made a personal decision to trust Christ at some point in your life.

- Saul’s conversion - Saul’s Testimony before the Jews - Saul’s testimony before King Agrippa

Over and over Paul recounted the moment when he had met Jesus Christ.

Many who would identify themselves as Christians today have never actually trusted Christ as savior.

I Must Yield to Christ the Word

If I am to follow Christ I must follow His example in submitting to the Word of God. Jesus Christ lived in perfect submission to the Father.

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Jesus Christ is the Word incarnate so if we are to be followers of Christ we must yield ourselves to God’s Word.

This means denying ourselves in favor of pleasing God. , ,

Can you be a homosexual Christian? ,

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Can you be a Christian without going to church? ,

Can you be a Christian without sharing the gospel?

Just because we place the word “Christian” in front of something does not mean that it is immediately sanctified and approved by God.

A Christian is one who has a desire to be conformed to the image of Christ. ,

One reason for the weakness of Christianity today is that so many Christians today are extremely unlike Christ and much of this is due to a rejection of the Word of God as the authority for living.

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” -Mahatma Ghandi

I Must Yield to the Spirit of God

Yes I must yield to the Word of God but what should I do in those areas where the Word of God is silent? I must yield to the Spirit of God.

There will be circumstance that we face where there is no clear chapter and verse that deals with exactly what we are facing. Yet we have the Spirit of God that will help us to know what we ought to do in these situations.

- walk in the Spirit

Conclusion

We will never be perfect Christians but we ought to be striving to follow Christ and we are hypocrites if we declare ourselves to be Christians but we align ourselves in direct opposition to the clear teachings of scripture.

Like the believers in Antioch, our lives should so resemble Christ that we would not have to call ourselves Christians but instead we would be labeled as such because those around us see the resemblance.

Can you be a Christian