Search: What is a Christian?
Baptism Sunday
Sycamore Creek Church
June 30 & July 1, 2013
Tom Arthur
Acts 11:26
Peace Friends!
What is a Christian? That’s the question we want to search for an answer to over the next several weeks, and it’s a great question to answer on Baptism Sunday!
Growing up in a very expressive Pentecostal church, I thought I had the answer to this question all figured out. I was so sure about this, that I had made it into a rule about who I would and wouldn’t date. Here was my answer: a true Christian is someone who raises their hands when they sing in worship. I wouldn’t date anyone who didn’t raise their hands in worship.
Sometimes I also thought that a true Christian was someone who prayed the sinner’s prayer. Of course, I prayed this prayer over and over again. It was kind of like taking Tylenol for your sins. A little later in life I read a book that helped me figure this whole thing out. You didn’t have to say this prayer over and over because I was taught, “once a Christian always a Christian.” I guess the first time you took the Tylenol it fixed everything for the rest of your life.
I think I was a little confused growing up. I was missing something. And I’m guessing I’m not the only one. Some Christians say that a Christian is someone who is baptized. No baptism, no Christian. Others say, “Nope. You’ve got to be confirmed.” Some say that as long as you’re part of our church, you’re good to go. Our “brand” is the true brand. Others believe that if you’ve gone down at the alter call, then you’re a Christian. Still others say that if you’re born again, then you’re a Christian. Of course, some people are born again and again and again. Some say if you believe the right things, then you’re a Christian. Others say that if you behave the right way then you’re a Christian. It seems that if you ask ten Christians to answer this question, you’ll get eleven answers.
Of course, you could ask non-Christians what a Christian is and you might get this answer: Christians are judgmental, homophobic moralists who think they are the only ones going to heaven and secretly relish the fact that everyone else is going to hell. Yikes!
Here’s the problem about defining a Christian. The word “Christian” is only used three times in the entire Bible! Three times! Here’s one example:
When Barnabus had found Saul/Paul, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met withthe church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”
Acts 11:26 NRSV
Notice that “Christian” is used by outsiders describing “Followers of The Way.” In fact, this word “Christian” is often a derogatory label put on Christians by those who aren’t Christian. Let’s look outside the Bible at the word “Christian.” Tacitus was a first century Roman historian. Here’s what he said about Christians:
Consequently, to get rid of the report [that he had burned down the city], Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called ‘Christians’ by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus…
Christians were “hated for their abominations” because they didn’t worship all the Roman Gods, and they were “called ‘Christians’ by the populace.” Can you feel the derision in this label? It’s hard to define the word “Christian” because the Bible doesn’t define it. You can make it mean just about anything you want.
On the other hand, the Bible does have a word to describe those who follow Jesus: disciples. The word “disciple” is used two hundred and seventy two times. A “disciple” is clearly defined in the Bible. Let’s go back to that passage we read from Acts, a book that tells the history of the early church:
When Barnabus had found Saul/Paul, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met withthe church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”
Acts 11:26 NRSV
Disciple is pretty easy to understand. A disciple is a learner, pupil, apprentice, adherent, or follower. It’s someone who says to the leader, “I’m trying to decide about such and such (my marriage, my parenting, my job, my money, my life). How would you think about this? How would do this? What questions would you ask about this situation?”
There are many different ways these questions are answered in the Bible. Here’s a couple of examples:
Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha…She was devoted to good works and acts of charity.
Acts 9:36 NRSV
Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.
John 13:35NRSV
A disciple is someone who loves like Jesus loves. A disciple is someone who is seeking to follow in the way of Jesus’ love for God and for others.
Jesus gives us pretty clear direction about this. Someone comes to him and asks Jesus what the most important commandment is. Here’s Jesus’ answer:
Jesus said to the lawyer, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40 NRSV
Love God with everything you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself. In our church we use “three simple rules” to describe what that means:
- Do no harm
- Do good
- Stay in love with God
Love means not harming other people. Love means doing good to them. And both of these two things are made possible by staying in love with God.
Another way we describe what it means to love as a disciple is to tell God’s good news story. It can be illustrated this way:
When you look around you, you notice that the world is pretty messed up. There are so many hurting people and so many hurting places. We’re destroying our earth. Our families are falling apart. There’s brokenness in all our relationships. There’s injustice and oppression all around the world. And when we look at this broken world, we have a longing for something better. That longing points to something. Like our thirst points to water or our hunger points to food, our longing for a better world points to a world that was better. When God created this world it was designed for good. It was designed for people to live in equality to one another, mutually submitting to one another’s needs out of love. It was designed so that every person would have meaningful and purposeful work, that no one would lord it over others. It was designed so that the earth and all of creation would be in a supporting relationship with humanity, not a destructive one. But something happened. We turned inward on ourselves. Our will was bent inward and became selfish. We looked out for number one, me. And so this world was damaged by evil. God, the creator, looked at this damaged world and loved it. And so like a painter whose painting had been damaged, he didn’t throw it away, but he chose to fix it. And so God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to redeem the world and heal it and restore it for better. To create a community of people who would follow him to learn how to live anew a life of love. To fix the broken relationships between humanity and God and between humanity and one another and between humanity and all of creation. This community is called the church. And the church at its best is on a mission to heal the world. Those who claim to follow Jesus don’t just hang out in their comfortable church buildings, but they are sent together to heal the world. To break down the structures that oppress. To make just the unjust. To love the unlovable. To bind up broken families. To show God’s love to the one who feels worthless. A Christian is a disciple of Jesus who has joined a community that is following Jesus learning how to love one another and God so that we can be on a mission to help bring healing to a broken and hurting world.
You may wondering, why we can’t just skip the whole Jesus thing and go straight to healing the world. The problem is that the world’s wounds are so big, that we can’t do it without the resources of the creator God in Jesus Christ. We need the power of Jesus’ love to both sustain us from turning back inward and to show us how to love. We can’t do it alone. That’s what got us into this mess in the first place. We need to follow Jesus because he’s the only one who has ever lived in this world and loved perfectly, and he’s the only one who can heal our selfish bent inward called sin.
Just think if those called “Christians” all lived this way. We probably wouldn’t have had WWI, WWII, the Civil War, slavery, or the need for the civil rights movement. The world just might look at us and say, “Look how they love one another! They confess without being prompted. They tell the truth even when it costs them. They remain faithful to their marriage even when tempted. They are generous with everyone around them. I don’t know if I want to be one, but look how they treat their wives, their husbands, their employees, their employers, their teenagers, the hungry, the poor, the widows, the children. I don’t know if I want to be one, but I wouldn’t mind working for one. I wouldn’t mind my child marrying one. I wouldn’t mind having one live next door.
What would it look like to love people the way Jesus loved you? Well, Jesus was crucified, so get ready!
Of course we don’t even live up to our own standards to love, let alone God’s. That’s why we need Jesus. And today we’re baptizing several people into this community, this family of God who is on a mission. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality. The inward reality is that we’re receiving all that God has for us to join in the mission of Jesus to heal a broken world. Baptism is water, and water can be a lot of things. Water is death. If I hold you under long enough, you will die. Water is cleansing. We wash our hands and our whole bodies in water. Water is life. You can only go a short time without drinking water. Water is growth. You water your plants and they grow. Water is community. Villages, towns, and cities are always formed on the banks of rivers, lakes, or springs. Baptism then is death, cleansing, life, growth, and community. Baptism is entrance into the community seeking to die to selfishness, be cleansed from the past guilt of brokenness, gain a new life of healing, grow in love by following Jesus, and join the community that is sent to heal the world together. Baptism is the water of God.
So let’s baptize some people today who are seeking to be a disciple of Jesus.
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