Pentecost

Pentecost HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE A CHRISTIAN? 5/27/07

As a Pastor, parent, and new father-in-law, I am intensely interested in how the Christian faith works in everyday life! I’m not impressed by any religion that does not actually work out in practice, which I believe the Christian faith does. When I look to prove the genuineness of Christianity and the authenticity of the Gospel, I look first at the lives of Christians…not to creeds, but to Christians; not to doctrine, but to disciples. I have become convinced of the truth of the Christian faith by observing the lives of faithful Christians. Christianity is founded and supported by historical fact and not on myth or a series of beautiful sentiments; and although I am prepared to argue the value of Christianity as the only sane and sensible way of encountering this life and whatever lies beyond it, what convinces me most is the lives of people who are truly following Jesus and living Christ-like lives.

There are people claiming to be Christian who offer no evidence to support the claim. But, I would suggest that we wouldn’t judge the value of music by a poor performer and we wouldn’t judge the value of painting by a bad painter, so it is not reasonable to judge the Christian faith by focusing upon the hypocrites whose religion is, at best, some caricature of real religion claiming the name of Christianity!

The genuine Christian has a quality of life, exhibiting three particular characteristics which I find quite remarkable. (1) An inner tranquility: Christians are busy with all kinds of responsibilities and heavy burdens to bear, but they do so with an inner peace, something I rarely see in those living absent of a relationship w/ Jesus.

(2) An unquenchable joy: Christians never expect, nor enjoy, any particular immunity from trouble…but, I experience in them the ability, not only to cope courageously with difficulty, but to cope with a measure of humor and joy. I have witnessed this often enough to know it is true. (3) Whatever their background or circumstances may be, genuine Christians have a quality for which I can only use the word “love”. We so mis-use this word that it has almost ceased to mean anything at all. But, there is in the genuine Christian life not merely kindliness and charity, but an outgoing love focused upon the needs of others people. This is a love deeper than kindness, warmer than charity, and more costly than mere expressions of helpfulness. This love is not some sentimental, vague feeling of goodness towards others, but bears a divine quality, much deeper than any human feeling & expressing itself in and through human beings!

We all know peace of mind when we have no worries, and joy when our days are happy, and love when among friends dear to us. But what I believe is unique about the Christian life is that these experiences, these characteristics, exist amidst harassing circumstances and depressing conditions. There is something God-like about these characteristics and I believe such people, through the Holy Spirit, have somehow begun to share and show the qualities of Christ Himself!

I have nothing against nice, good, decent, kindly people. I know many of them. With that said, they don’t really provide much hope for a broken and sinful world. Christianity, on the other hand, holds out hope for every person who is prepared to believe in and follow Christ! As Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…”(Jn. 14:12) The genuine Christian is the man, woman, boy, and girl who possesses faith in Jesus Christ, doing in their life what Jesus did in His! There is something transforming about a relationship with Jesus which offers the power to rise above our own sinful nature and become the people God created us to be. As one author put it: “Christianity brings the hope of being the person-we-knew-we-were-always-meant-to-be to the person bogged down by failures and fears and sins.” Pentecost records such divine power bestowed upon ordinary humans like you and me!

Jesus told Philip, and everyone ever since who is willing to listen: “Don’t you know me? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…It is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (Jn. 14: 9-11) Jesus is God, a central doctrine of the Christian faith, and when rejected, one is left with thoughts of God so huge, overwhelming, or untenable that either God doesn’t exist at all or is utterly unknowable. But, just suppose the Christian claim is true: that a God so immeasurably vast and infinitely beyond our human understanding focused Himself at a particular point in time, in the man Jesus…this means God wants to make Himself known to us and God expresses His character in terms we can understand, revealing Himself within the limits of a human life.

Being a Christian, then, begins with accepting the claim of Jesus Christ to be God in human form; dropping our ridiculous habits of trying to justify ourselves and accepting the reconciliation which Christ brings; knowing there is nothing which life or death can do to interfere with that relationship; believing that Christ is alive and able to supply the spiritual needs of all who trust Him; and experiencing earthly life with the very vitality of God, enabling us to live a quality of life the non-Christian can never know, nor produce! Christians are Spirit led and Spirit fed! AMEN.