Who Are You?

Introduction

The Avengers End Game was the climatic conclusion to Marvel’s cinematic universe up until that point. There are loads of iconic moments and if you have seen most of the Marvel movies, but have not watched End Game I would recommend you do so. In Avengers Infinity Wars which proceeds this movie, the evil villain Thanos accomplishes his goal of wiping out half of the population of the universe.

In End Game, the movie starts with the remaining Avengers tracking Thanos down to this peaceful hut on a remote planet and killing him. However, due to some time travel hijinks a Thanos from another time line enters the battle. Long story short the heroes who were wiped away at the end of Infinity Wars return in a dramatic battle, and one iconic moment is when the Scarlet Witch looks at Thanos and claims, “You’ve taken everything from me,” and the Thanos from the other timeline responds, “I don’t even know who you are.” While this Thanos was still Thanos, it was not the Thanos that had in fact taken everything from the Scarlet Witch, so Scarlet Witch’s identity was completely unknown to Thanos. They had no prior relationship until that very moment.

Your identity is important. Some people may identify with a the career they’ve chosen saying things like, “I’m a car salesmen,” or “I’m a teacher.” You may also identify with certain hobbies that you participate in like “I’m a runner,” or “I’m something of a gun enthusiast.” Your identity lets people know what you’re about in a short sort of way.

Some things you identify with hold more weight than others. Like your identity as a human with rights and your identity with your country, but there is one identity and one relationship that your entire eternity hinges on you getting correct. Many people think they have it, but according to God’s word, many people are deceiving themselves. I’m talking about an identity found in Christ.

Paul’s Identity

Acts 19:1-10

In the first few verses of Acts 19 Paul meets some fellows as he enters Ephesus who identify with John the Baptist. They had learned from him and been baptized with water to show their repentance of their sin, but Paul identifies with Christ. Part of his identity in Christ is being an ambassador on Christ’s behalf, so he tells them of the Jesus, the one that John was waiting for. Being good disciples of John, they realized that Paul was telling the truth and 12 guys were baptized and began identifying in Christ not just in John. Now I call this their identity in John as Christ adjacent because it is almost there, but it is still not fully in Christ. On this day they recieved their identities in Christ.

Paul went on to continue preaching to people in Ephesus and fulfilling his role of ambassador for Christ. During this time several people found their new identities in Christ. The town of Ephesus was originally under the Greek god of Artemis, and many of the Ephesians would identify as worshippers of Artemis. Now though they found their identities in the true God through Christ. All because Paul went and shared his identity with them being obedient to God’s calling on his life to be an ambassador for Him. The people in Ephesus were also now becoming ambassadors for Christ as they identified in Christ.

The Brothers’ Identity

Acts 19:11-20

As all of these people were coming to find their identities in Christ, there were some people who did not want to identify in Christ, but wanted the power that came along with that identity. See, God had begun performing miracles through Paul as he was obedient to follow God’s calling. These seven Jewish brothers wanted the power of Christ without the identity of being in Christ. These boys rolled up on a man who had an unclean spirit living inside of him. A regular demon type spirit, and they thought they would use Paul and Jesus’ names as if they were magic words to cast this unclean spirit out of this guy. The demon looks back at these dudes and says, “I know Jesus and I recognize Paul, but who are you?” or in other words, “I don’t even know who you are.” The demon jumped these seven boys beat them up real good and sent stole all their clothes. Took their Gucci bags, Air Jordans, and everything. These guys did not stand a chance because they were trying to use the power of Christ’s identity while only identifying as Christ Adjacent.

After this happened more and more people began finding their identity in Christ and an interesting thing happened. They began to burn their magic books. Now I do not know what magic books they had, but they saw these things as sinful, and they burned them. Here’s the thing if you’re identifying in Christ you have to let go of your identity in sinful things just like these guys. If that means that you find your identity in sexual immorality then you need to repent from that identity and identify in Christ. If that means you find your identity in being a swindler you need to repent and identify in Christ. Here’s where the rubber meets the road. If repentance is not a common character trait in your life, you might be surprised when you stand before Jesus and he looks at you and says, “I don’t even know who you are.” Jesus says as much in Matthew Chapter 7 verses 21-23.

Your Identity

Matthew 7:21-23

When you identify in Christ, it is more than a simple label. It is who you are, and it represents a relationship that you have with your savior. From these verses you have to know that these guys thought that they had done everything right. They prophesied, cast out demons, and did Many good works in the name of Christ. As it turns out they themselves had never identified in Christ they were identifying Christ adjacent. It is my great fear that many many people who come into church week after week, who volunteer, who tithe regularly, who do good work after good work are actually simply doing these things because they see this as what is expected and not out of a genuine desire to know and grow and serve God. And on that day when they stand before Jesus they will have Him look at them and say “I don’t even know who you are.” Unfortunately, my fear is that you don’t even know who you are. These guys in these verses had no clue that they weren’t getting into heaven.

When I was in the fourth grade, I had a friend who had multiple brain aneurysms and passed away. While my parents had made a practice of reading Bible stories to me, I had not thought much about what happens after you die until this moment. I asked my mom how to go to heaven. She told me that I had to do this and this and this the usual stuff, to me it was all just my ticket to heaven. I went through the motions, but I did not find my identity in Christ.

Things moved forward and when I was 15 years old, I had a friend who brought their Bible to school and I decided I would start reading mine as well to keep up with conversation. I had been reading through Revelation and Matthew and one night I was lying in bed feeling rather guilty about somethings when I just got fed up and said to God, Why am I feeling this way I am already a Christian, and God’s response stopped me dead in my tracks. He brought these verses in Matthew 7 to my mind, and said, I have never known you. This experience was so jarring I realized that I had wrapped my faith around myself and the idea that I would spend eternity in paradise and that I did not care if God was their or not. I prayed that night that I wanted that I needed to know Him that all I wanted was to know Him. Peace entered my life on that day, as I found my identity in Christ. I know that Christ knows me and I know Him. I identify in him and I want others to find their identity in Him as well, but who are you?

What would Christ say to you today if you asked him if he knows you? Is your identity in Christ or just Christ adjacent? Your eternity hinges on the answer to those questions. God will reveal it to you if you seek. If you’re unsure, it is certainly never a bad day to recommit to your relationship with Christ as well. As the worship leaders come, grapple with the question, who are you? What would Jesus say? My faithful servant or I don’t even know you?