Sermon Tone Analysis

*“WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?”*

* *

*(Acts 11:26)*

 

*/“And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”/*

Acts chapter eleven is a transitional chapter, a chapter of change.

In this chapter, the focus of the Book of Acts switches /from Jew to Gentile/, from /Jerusalem to Antioch, /and from /Peter to Paul/.

Also, the followers of Jesus Christ were given a new name in this chapter.

They were called “Christians” for the first time in Antioch.

Indeed, this chapter is full of “firsts” in the Christian movement.

Here we meet the first official Christian /missionary/, Barnabas.

And we meet the first missionary /team/, Barnabas and Saul.

We read of the first missionary /offering/, the gift sent from the believers in Antioch to the impoverished saints in Jerusalem.

And, as mentioned, the believers were called “/Christians/” for the first time here.

Change is never easy to adjust to.

“The only person who likes change is a baby with a wet diaper.”

But the Christian movement continued to expand right through these significant changes.

A woman entered a beauty shop where she saw a lady whom she thought was an old friend of hers.

She looked at her a moment, then exclaimed, “Why, Polly Smith, how you’ve changed!

You look taller, you’ve lost weight, and you’ve changed the color of your hair.”

The lady fixed a cold stare on the speaker and said, “I’m /not/ Polly Smith!”

The other lady exclaimed, “How about that!  You’ve even changed your name!”

This is the story of a /movement/ that was given a new name.

The Christian Gospel had broken out of its Jewish limits and had embraced Gentiles as well as Jews.

Because the Jews were not certain God would accept Gentiles, they sent Barnabas the encourager to investigate the work in Antioch.

Barnabas saw that the work was a genuine accomplishment of the Spirit of God, and he remained there to disciple all the new-born babies.

However, the work became so large that he knew he could not do all that was required alone.

He made a long trip to Tarsus and enlisted the help of Saul, who had been out of the public eye for some eight years after His conversion.

When they had returned together to Antioch, the two of them discipled the believers there for an entire year.

Paul and Barnabas were followers of Christ, and the believers in Antioch were modeled after them.

In Luke 6:40, Jesus said, “When the process of disciple-making is completed, the disciple will be like his teacher.”

So it is perfectly suitable that “the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

There are two extreme dangers in trying to define the elusive word “Christian.”

One is to make the definition too /narrow/, and the other is to make the definition too /nice./

/ /

/            /Some make the definition two narrow.

A little boy asked his father, “Dad, what is a Christian?”

The father replied, “Son, a Christian is a person who believes in God and in Jesus Christ, behaves like Jesus, loves other people, prays often, witnesses for Christ, is faithful in church, gives his money to the cause of Christ, and serves other people for Christ’s sake.”

After a moment of thoughtful silence, the boy asked, “Dad, have I ever /seen /one?”       

           

            Friedrich Nietzsche said, “There has never been but one Christian on this earth, and that was Christ Himself.”

This definition is too /narrow/, because it was sinful (but saintly) people who were first given this name in Antioch.

Others say that a person who is born in America and hasn’t murdered anyone is a Christian!

A man left a will that provided $500,000 “to help Christians.”

Ten of the deceased man’s family members filed a lawsuit to invalidate the will on the grounds that there was no way to adequately determine what a Christian is — and they won!

Then there are those who use a definition of the word “Christian” that is far too /nice/.

In November of 1990, a Christian brother in Mount Vernon, Illinois, gave me an obituary notice taken from the Mount Vernon daily newspaper.

It contained the death notice of a three-and-one-half-month-old infant.

I will change the baby’s name for reporting purposes.

The notice was comprised of four brief paragraphs, and it closed with this statement: “John Jones was a Christian.”

To call a three-and-one-half-old infant a Christian is far removed from the truth revealed in the Bible.

This definition is too accommodating,  too sentimental, too ignorant of Biblical revelation, and too /nice/ to be taken seriously.

And it is certainly not my intent to hurt feelings or insult anybody.

It is the truth that sets men free (John 8:32), and such statements are far removed from the mark of truth.

At a point somewhere between these pendulum extremes, too narrow and too nice, lies the real meaning of the word “Christian.”

I will use the word as synonymous with the words, “believer,” “saint,” and “child of God.” Someone said, “The word ‘Christian’ is the noblest nickname ever conferred, but the time has arrived for the word ‘Christian’ to be copyrighted, because great numbers of diverse groups are pirating the word today.”

In fact, a case could be made that the word “Christian” is the fuzziest, most nebulous, and most shapeless noun in the English language.

It has become a much misused, abused, and confused term today.

So the question is urgent.

Just /what is a Christian?

/Can we glean a description of a Christian from the revealed data of Scripture?

Surely we can!

 

                                    *I.

SPIRITUALLY BELIEVES IN JESUS CHRIST*      

 

            First, a Christian is a person who spiritually believes in Jesus Christ.

Give great attention to the word, “spiritually,” in this description.

It is necessary to differentiate between true faith and any other kind.

The Bible indicates that it is possible to “believe” in Jesus Christ, but to “believe in vain”  (I Corinthians 15:2).

A great picture of this possibility is given in John 2:23-25.

“When Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did.”

Note that the word “believe” is used to describe their response to Jesus Christ, and this is the very word that is used 100 more times in the Gospel of John.

In most cases, it refers to /valid/ faith, but occasionally, as here, it refers to /vain/ (or empty) faith.

How do we detect the difference between /valid /faith and /vain /faith?

This passage is a good place to begin.

Note the stated /object/ of the faith of the “many” in this verse, and remember that faith is only as strong, dependable, and valid as its object.

Small faith in thick ice will enable a person to cross the ice-covered river, but great faith in thin ice may drown him!

The object is all-important.

Verse 23 says that they believed in Him “/when they saw the miracles which He did.”  /Their faith was /superficial/ instead of /spiritual,/ /vain/ instead of /valid /and /vital/.

Their “faith” was vested in the /miracles/ of Jesus instead of in the /Master /Himself.

Vain (or empty) faith is marked by several fatal deficiencies.

The person “believing” has /no sense of urgent spiritual need./

There is thus /no turning from sin./

There is /no acknowledgment of the Lordship of Jesus Christ./

The “believer” wants the /luxuries/ of Jesus while ignoring His /Lordship.

/There is /no commitment of life to Christ.

/All of these are marks of false faith, a faith which is far too common in church-going people as well as others.

So the stated outcome is predictable.

“But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man.”

Note the opening word, “But.”

This word alone indicates that Jesus saw the real nature of their faith.

The word “commit” in this verse means to “entrust.”

“Jesus did not entrust himself unto them.”

What a paradox!  /Believing men and an unbelieving God!  /Their faith was vain and worthless faith.

In contrast, a Christian has true faith in Jesus Christ.

But what does this mean?

Believing in Christ means that I accept as a fact that Christ has come into the world to save /me/ from sin and death and to make eternal life available to /me/.

True faith means that /I totally trust Him alone/ as the Son of God who was made sin for me, who bore my sins in His own body on the Cross, who rose again for my justification, by whose blood I am cleansed from sin, and through faith in whom I am born again and receive power to become a son of God.

This kind of faith is a miracle of the Holy Spirit.

Thus I say that a Christian is a person who /spiritually /believes in Jesus Christ.

The Greek word for faith is the noun, “pistis.”

This is the word from which we derive the word “pith,” which means “to become one with.”

True faith, God-pleasing faith (Hebrews 11:6), brings the believer into union with Jesus Christ.

True faith brings the believer into spiritual identification with Jesus Christ.

Thus, Christ and the Christian have a commonness of person and of purpose.