How can we live out our Christian identity?
A few weeks ago we examined our Christian identity. We are called to be for Jesus (serving him self-sacrificially as apostles, as ones sent out into the world with a kingdom purpose).We are called to be like Jesus (taking on the very character of Christ, being holy just as God is holy).We are called to be with Jesus (to walk in close fellowship with God).
But the reality is that we live in a Corinthian, Vegas-styled culture. There is little comfort for any Christian willing to embraceher Christian identity. Do you want to serve Christ? Our culture will teach you to be a slave to your desires. Do you want to become holy? Our culture will harass, ridicule, mock, jeer, and tease you until you succumb to its temptations. At times it can feel as if everything in this world is aligned against our new identity in Christ.
Here is some good news. Do you want to walk in close fellowship with God? 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 (NIV) says, "He (God) will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful."
I want you to imagine for a moment that you are surrounded by two kinds of people. However,one group far outnumbers the other by 100 to 1.
The first group consists of "genuine" Christians.
First, there are "genuine" Christians. I am not talking about "impersonators" who sort of mimic the voice, gestures, and actions of Christ. I am not talking about "headliners" for whom Christianity is all about jockeying for social status, making an appearance, and appearing godly.
I am talking about genuine Christians who sincerely want to be changed and who are being changed. These are the ones who God is saving and delivering from the power of sin. These are the ones who embrace their Christian identity. They are for Christ, becoming like Christ, and are with Christ.
The second group consists of "Corinthians".
But then there is a second group known as "Corinthians". These are people who, though often sincere, are caught up our culture’s delusions. This group is in the midst of an identity crisis. This group includes pagans, but it also includes carnal Christians. Corinthians have one of three characteristics.
(1)They live for themselves and for their desires. Their purpose is self-advancement, being successful, making money, acquiring a name for themselves, acquiring material things, and living for pleasure. They do not see themselves as servants of God with a purpose in a dark world. Their God is their work, their family, their job, their trips, their sports, and their worries.
(2)They refuse to be changed by Christ. They refuse to become like Jesus in attitude or action. Corinthians refuse to repent. When presented the clear choice of righteousness over wickedness, they will choose their sins. They will go on sinning, abusing God’s grace with seeming impunity. They will gamble their souls away. They love darkness and refuse to come into the light because their deeds are evil. "See, I can sort of be a Christian and sort of not be a Christian. Cool!"
(3)Last, they lack genuine fellowship with God. Their prayer lives are dead. Their devotional lives are non-existent. Their Bibles remain on the shelf. They don’t worship Christ. They don’t go to church. They don’t get connected into godly, redemptive relationships. They are spiritually parched. Their conscience isn’t sensitized to the heartbeat of God.
For everygenuine Christian there are 100 Corinthians. Do you see the problem here? If you are a striving to be a genuine Christian, you are vastly outnumbered. When you come here on Sunday and hang out around Christians, it’s like coming up for air. You’ve been suffocating all week long.
Here is a disturbing thought. John MacArthur says, "Every person is either in the process of salvationor the process of destruction. One’s response to the cross of Christ determines which. To the Christ-rejectors who are in the process of being destroyed, the gospel is nonsense. To those who are believers it is powerful wisdom."
Rolling the dice.
I titled this sermon, "Rolling the Dice". I am only reflecting on God’s word. I don’t know for a fact that there is only 1 genuine Christian for every 100 Corinthians. Maybe the ratio is 1 to 50. Maybe it is 1 to 20. Maybe it is 1 to 1000. Only God knows. The sobering reality, however, is that most people are gambling their souls away by virtue of the lives they are living.
1 Corinthians 1:18 (NIV) says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
Are you someone who takes the message of the cross seriously? Are you someone whose life is being changed because of the cross? Are you someone whose identity has been changed?Are you someone who serves because Christ humbled himself and took on the nature of a servant and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross?(Philippians 2:5-11)
Are you one who seeks to be holy and please God in everything because you want to be like Christ? Colossians 1:19-20 (NIV) says,"He (God) was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him (Christ), and through him (Christ) to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
The cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. The cross is inconsequential. It's not even a blip on their radar. It matters nothing. It’s not even a mild curiosity. That Christ had to die on a cross for their sins teaches them nothing about the severity of their offenses against a holy God. Do you want to know what the Greek word for "foolishness" is? It’s moronic. The cross is moronic to those who are perishing.
Corinth was a lot like Springfield, Illinois.
I’ll tell you just briefly what was going on within the Corinthian church. Corinth was city a lot like Springfield. Corinth was full of wise men, scholars, and philosophers. The city of Corinth was full of impersonators, headliners, high profile superstars, wise, scholarly, philosophical, influential, noble, strong, boastful, and self-assured people who were cultural elites. MBA's and PhD's.
These people projected great confidence in everything. They were "experts" in religion, in human nature, psychology, politics, ethics, and morality. And to them, the cross of Jesus Christ-- well, it just didn’t pass muster. They sneered at the thought of God coming to earth, humbling himself on a cross, and projecting such weakness. They reasoned, "How could Christ dying in weakness and failure ever solve my problems?"
My dear brother and sisters in Christ, there is this temptation to feel ashamed of the cross, ashamed of Christ, and ashamed of the gospel. There is a temptation to want to give the cross a makeover, to soften its piercing message. But the burden is not on those who are being saved. The burden is on those who are perishing-- those who are gambling against God’s salvation.
John MacArthur writes,"Where are all the smart people that have the answers? How much closer to peace is man than he was a century ago—or a millennium ago? How much closer are we to eliminating poverty, hunger, ignorance, crime, and immorality than men were in Paul’s day? Our advances in knowledge and technology and communication have not really advanced us. It is from among those who are intelligent and clever that the worst exploiters, deceivers, and oppressors come. We are more educated than our forefathers, but we are not more moral. We have more means of helping each other, but we are not less selfish. We have more means of communication, but we do not understand each other any better. We have more psychology and education, and more crime and more war. We have not changed, except in finding more ways to express and excuse our human nature. Throughout history human wisdom has never basically changed and has never solved the basic problems of man."
MacArthur is saying the same thing about our culture that Paul said to the Corinthians years ago. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 (NIV) and 1 Corinthians 2:1-17 (NIV) sum up this message. Read and take to heart the words of the apostle Paul, which are very relevant to our day and age.
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.' Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."
"Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.' "
"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:'No eye has seen,no ear has heard,no mind has conceivedwhat God has prepared for those who love him'— but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit."
"The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:'For who has known the mind of the Lordthat he may instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ."