What is a Christian

Intro

Have you ever wondered, “What makes someone a Christian?”

Is it certain things they do?

Go to church, help the poor, don’t swear, don’t do drugs

Is it things they believe about the world?

Lying is bad, killing is bad, reading the bible is important

Is it certain character qualities?

Because a person is kind they must be Christian

Is it what they wear?

People with bible verses or Christian symbols tattooed or a cross bracelet or necklace, etc

Is it just because they say so?

“I am a Christian”

This question of “What makes someone a Christian” is what we are going to discuss for the next few weeks

Because it can be a bit confusing for a few different reasons:

If you’ve never been around church or Christianity, maybe no one has ever told you what being a Christian really means

If you’ve grown up in church, maybe you’ve assumed certain things, been taught certain things and you have an idea of what being a Christian means, but it is still confusing

Maybe you’ve been in and out of Christianity, your parents sometimes take you to church, sometimes pray,

Maybe you know people who say they are Christians, but aren’t different from people who say they are not Christians

And I want to be very clear with you guys about what it actually means to be a Christian

My hope and my prayer for all you of is that you desire to have a deep faith in Jesus and pursue lives glorify Him in everything you do

Body

So where did the name “Christian” come from?

It occurs only 3 times in the bible, and it was a name that was given to people whose lives and teaching imitated that of Jesus

The way language worked was to just add “-Ian” to the leader as a name for the followers

Mitchellians, Ethanians, Aidenians, etc.

So the people who were “Christians” were first called that because they followed the teachings of Jesus

Thats why you’ll sometimes hear me say “Follower of Jesus” instead of “Christian” because they mean the same thing

What can we learn from just the name “Christian?”

It means that if we are going to call ourselves “Christians” that we have to be followers and imitators of Jesus

What does it mean to “Follow Jesus?”

Its similar to following a celebrity of YouTuber (Student example)

Someone you want to imitate, to think like, to be

Following Jesus means that we want to be like Jesus

Not in a weird way of we want to be the son of God and die on a cross for people

But that we want to follow Jesus’ teachings, to be the type of person that Jesus was on earth

Not that we’ll earn anything special, but out of a response to what God has done for us

We’ll talk next week about how a person becomes a Christian and unpack that more

But someone isn’t a Christian just based on a name they call themselves and if they follow the teachings of Jesus

There are people who believe Jesus was a good teacher and follow his teachings because they are ethical and good. Not because they believe he is the son of God, or that he died for their sins

A Christian is also someone who has been forgiven of their sins by accepting the sacrifice of Jesus.

We’ve talked about this a few times at youth group

Christianity states that God and humans cannot exist in a right relationship because humans are sinful and God is sinless. Because of his great love for us, God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross as a sacrifice for your sin. So because of Jesus’ sacrifice we can have a relationship with God and know him forever.

To answer our question: “What is a Christian?”

A Christian is someone who has accepted the sacrifice of Jesus, cleansing them of the consequences of their sin, and someone who desires to glorify God with their lives

Conclusion

There’s a lot more that goes into following Jesus, and I just want to introduce the idea this week to get the ball rolling

We’ll go over a lot more in the coming weeks, and I hope that these discussions will give you all a better picture of what being a Christian means

Not to intimidate you, or guilt you into following Jesus, but because words matter and if you are going to say you are a Christian I want you to know what you’re saying