Sermons at Immanuel
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What is a Christian?
Knowing God.
Scripture Readings
New Testament Reading: Hebrews 11:29 – 12:2
11:29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.
31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace.
32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets —
33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,
34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection.
36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
37 They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented —
38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39 Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised,
40 since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect.
12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. (NRSV)
Other Scripture passages referred to include John 3:16 and John 17:3
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What's it all about?
Have you ever stopped to wonder, what, exactly, is a Christian? or, what is Christianity really about? Have you ever been asked that by someone else? Perhaps even more important, though it doesn’t happen all that often, do you know what you would say if someone asked you, 'How can I become a Christian?'
Perhaps you know exactly what you would say. But I have often thought it would be useful to review basic issues like that – and it seemed to me that today was a possible day to do it, when we aren’t trying to keep in step with what Junior Church are doing.
But, although I’m not going to follow our readings as we do that I’m not going to abandon them completely. The one from Hebrews reminds us that there were a whole load of people in the Bible who did things by faith, or because of their faith. Some did remarkable deeds. Some suffered for their faith. And this can give a clue, a starting point, for thinking about what being a Christian is.
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So, what is a Christian? How does one become one? Some of you may feel that, well, you know all that, and I hope for many of you that’s true. But there may be one or two for whom it isn’t, and maybe some of us will discover there is more to it than they thought. And, as I suggested at the beginning, all of us could do with giving some thought to what we would say if someone asked us – 'I know you’re a Christian – what’s it all about?', or even, 'How can I become one?'. Even if you don’t like the way I answer that question, then perhaps it will make you think how you would answer it.
But these people of faith in our reading – some of them achieved a lot, and others of them endured a lot, because of what they believed. Yet at the end of chapter 11 it says that they didn’t receive what was promised at the time because God had provided something better – for us as well as them.
We aren’t told what that 'something better' was – I guess because the writer assumed people would know. And they did know, I’m sure, because they knew what being a Christian was all about.
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Knowing God
Being a Christian – at least for us as individuals – is all about knowing God, knowing Jesus – having a relationship with him and experiencing his love. Christians are people who know God and know his love for them – through Jesus.
Now, that’s actually a pretty amazing idea – having a relationship with God. Some of us have probably got a bit used to it and it doesn’t strike us particularly forcefully – but others will find it perhaps exciting, or maybe just incredible.
But, thanks to God’s wonderful love for us, a relationship with God is actually something all of us can have. In fact, it’s what God wants all of us to have. How does it happen?
There are probably as many ways of entering that relationship, of becoming a Christian, as there are Christians, so I don’t want to be unduly prescriptive. But I’m going to suggest 4 points that may help. I hope they’ll help you to understand our faith better. They may help you if you are ever asked what your faith is all about. And it may just possibly help someone here to begin that relationship for themselves.
So, 4 points. And they are, first of all, 3 things to know about, and then something to do.
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God's love
The first thing to know about is God’s love. But it’s not just God’s love, it’s the fact that God loves you and wants you to know and love him.
There’s a wonderful verse that I’m sure many of you were encouraged to learn by heart in Sunday School or at some other time – John 3:16. It really does set the scene for the Christian faith:
'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life'
God doesn’t merely love us. He loves us so much that he went to the trouble of sending his Son Jesus so that we could have eternal life. And that means he wants us all to have eternal life – it’s not just something he only grudgingly gives to a few specially deserving people.
But there’s another verse which is also important – it’s this, John 17:3:
'This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent'
Eternal life isn’t just life that goes on for ever. I know that’s the literal meaning of the words, but when Jesus used the term he meant a great deal more. First and foremost, eternal life is a relationship – knowing God our Father and Jesus his Son. It’s a relationship that will last into eternity – but, just as important, it’s one that can start now – it doesn’t have to wait until our physical death.
So, God loves you – God loves us all – and wants each of us to have eternal life – an everlasting loving relationship with him.
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Sin
But, of course, there’s a snag, and the snag is called sin. The second thing we need to know is that Sin prevents us from knowing God and experiencing his love.
The Bible describes sin as breaking God’s law. (see 1 John 3:4). But God’s law isn’t an arbitrary list of do’s and don’ts. It tells us how to behave towards God and – just as important – how to behave towards one another. After all, Jesus did sum up the whole law by saying it was a matter of loving God and loving our neighbour. (see Matthew 22:37-40)
The Bible also tells us that we have all sinned (see Romans 3:23). In case we are inclined to object that we’ve never done anyone any harm, it’s as well to remember that even an unkindly thought or a failure to care as much as we could for someone can be a sin.
So, we have all failed to love both God and our neighbour. Failing to love God is a rejection of the very love God wants us to have. Failing to love our neighbour means that we have hurt or offended someone else that God loves.
God cannot stand idly by and say it doesn’t matter. God is rightly and understandably angry at his love being spurned or his loved one harmed – just as you or I would be if someone hurt us or hurt someone we love.
In other words, we incur God’s wrath. The Bible paints all sorts of terrible pictures of what this means – punishment, vengeance, death, the fires of hell (see Matthew 25:41, 46; Romans 6:23; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9). But in essence what will happen is that, instead of eternal life with God, we will be eternally estranged from him. Our sin has destroyed the very possibility of any relationship between us and God – the relationship that, at the same time, God longs for us to have.
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God's solution - Jesus
Which leads us on to the third thing we need to know – how God sorted this out. The solution is that Jesus dealt with our sin – through him we can know God and his love.
Quite how he did it isn’t easy to explain. You may have come across explanations – like Jesus died in our place or took our punishment – and these can be helpful to some people but not always to others. I’m not going to try to explain it, but take a rather different approach.
We can begin by going back to the great verse I mentioned earlier - John 3:16:
'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.'
Now that verse doesn’t give any explanation. But it does say that Jesus, God’s Son, did come so that everyone may have eternal life. And to have eternal life, it says, we have to believe.
The point I want to make is that, if we believe it’s true that, through Jesus, we can have eternal life, it doesn’t matter how it works – or, at least, it’s of secondary importance. And in the end it comes down very much to believing – to having faith in Jesus and what he has done.
But it isn’t just blind faith – we have grounds for believing that it’s true. Let’s think for a moment about some of the things Jesus said and the things that happened to him.
For a start, Jesus said he had to die. Not only that, but that he would die as a 'ransom' for many – a price paid to release us from the problem of sin. (see Mark 8:31 and Mark 10:45) Then, Jesus proclaimed that sins were forgiven – and that it was through his suffering, death and resurrection that this had happened. (see Mark 2:5, Matthew 26:27-28 and Luke 24:46-47) And Jesus claimed to be the only way to God the Father. (see John 14:6)
Then, Jesus was raised from the dead. At the very heart of the Christian story is the resurrection – the message that Jesus, after dying on the cross, was brought back to life again. (see Mark 16:5-7, Acts 1:3 and Acts 2:32-26)
And then, Jesus was recognised as Messiah, as Son of God – and indeed as God. He was proclaimed to be Son of God at his baptism by a divine voice from heaven, and his disciples and others gradually came to recognise him for themselves as Son of God, as Messiah and, ultimately, as God. (see Mark 1:9-11, Matthew 16:16, John 20:28 and Colossians 1:19)
What do we make of all that?
Jesus was recognised as no less than the Son of God – indeed, as God himself in human form. If they had any doubts beforehand, the resurrection proved it to the disciples.
As God, then, he must have known what he was talking about
- when he said he had to die
- when he said that our sins would be forgiven
- when he said he is the only way to come to God
– even if we don’t fully understand why or how.
Never mind the detailed explanation. We have a personal assurance from no less than the divine Son of God himself that our sins are forgiven through his suffering and death and we can have eternal life.
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So...
So we have 3 facts:
- God loves you and wants you to know and love him
- Sin prevents us from knowing God and experiencing his love.
- Jesus dealt with our sin – through him we can know God and his love.
But knowing these 3 facts doesn’t in itself make you a Christian – or give you a relationship with God. You have to act on them.
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Our response
There is something we have to do. We each have to respond to God’s love – and to what Jesus has done – by receiving Jesus.
You don’t get to know God, let alone experience his love, if you don’t make contact. If you’re going to have a relationship you and God have got to get together! Fairly elementary, really.
God has, as it were, made the first move by sending Jesus. What we need to do is receive Jesus and welcome him into our lives. A verse in John’s Gospel puts it nicely:
'To all who received him [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God' (John 1:12)
You couldn’t receive Jesus – you couldn’t welcome him into your life – unless you believed in him – unless you knew who he was and what he has done. In practice that means:
- Firstly, accepting that we are sinful – and sincerely wanting to reject sin and to know God and his love
- Secondly, accepting that because of Jesus’ death and resurrection our sins are forgiven
- Finally – and this is perhaps the most difficult bit – accepting Jesus for who he is – in other words, as Lord and God – and that means letting him be in control of our lives! If you have a Lord, he’s the boss – and he’s in control of your life now, not you!
Doing all that requires a conscious choice. You have to decide for yourself if that it is what you want to do – and do it. And it requires a commitment – if Jesus is your Lord, he is Lord not only today but also tomorrow and the rest of your life.
It sounds a tall order, put like that – but it’s a commitment to someone who loves you deeply – far more than any human love – and who wants to transform your life into something meaningful and worthwhile. And it’s a commitment to a relationship – a two-way thing. God is committed to you – to loving you, to supporting you, to helping you when things get tough.
Perhaps you have already made that choice, that commitment. Perhaps you did it many years ago. Or perhaps you’re not sure if you have or not, or If not, whether you want to.
But supposing you did decide at some point that it is time to make that commitment, that choice – what do you actually need to do? You have to make that choice in your own heart and mind. But as you make it you do need to involve Jesus – to put it simply, you can’t make Jesus Lord of your life without telling him!
So it needs to be made as a prayer. Prayer can be thought of as talking with God or talking with Jesus, although it can take many forms and doesn’t have to be out loud – God knows our thoughts. But you may find it helpful to use words, whether out loud or silently in you mind and heart. You may like to say some words like this:
Lord Jesus,
I want to know you and your love.
I want to love you in return.
I know I am sinful, and I am sorry. Thank you that my sins are forgiven because you died on the cross.
I want to reject sin and live in a way that pleases you. Be Lord of my life and help me by your power.
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Summing up
Summing up then - 3 facts:
- God loves you and wants you to know and love him
- Sin prevents us from knowing God and experiencing his love.
- Jesus dealt with our sin – through him we can know God and his love.
But knowing these 3 facts doesn’t in itself make you a Christian – or give you a relationship with God. We have to respond to God’s love – and to what Jesus has done.
If you want eternal life, if you want to know Jesus’ love and have him as friend, you’ve actually got to make that response, that choice, that commitment to him as Lord and recognise what he has done. And you’ve actually got to commit yourself to developing that relationship and to growing in faith.
You may like to ask yourself if you have ever made that commitment – or if you need to renew it. Perhaps this is the time.
This sermon was given at Holy Communion on 19th August 2007 - the 11th Sunday after Trinity. © Copyright David Gray 2007.
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