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Christian Identity
Our name is such an important part of our identity, but it's interesting to think about the fact that we have no say in what our name is going to be.
Acts 11:21, 26
Our name is such an important part of our identity, but it’s interesting to think about the fact that we have no say in what our name is going to be. Our parents don’t ask for our input when they’re deciding what they’re going to call us, whether we like our name or hate it. It’s part of our identity for our entire life. Another name that we wear, that we didn’t choose for ourselves as God’s people is that of Christian.
Have you’ve ever stopped and thought about what that name means, about what it’s communicating, what it tells people about our identity? After Jesus ascended into heaven, the impact of his ministry of his victory over over sin and death, that momentum just continued to build. More and more people were being added to the number of believers every day. Jesus’ enemies obviously hated this, and so they tried to push down this, this momentum by persecution. But this only served to grow the church even more because as people were persecuted in one city, they fled to other cities, carrying with them the good news of the gospel, the good news of salvation by faith in Jesus.
Now one city that they fled to was the city of Antioch, which is about 300 miles away from Jerusalem. And Acts chapter 11, verse 21 tells us what happened there.
The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number of people believed in turn to the Lord. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:21, 26)
Now the term Christian, it’s such an important name because it doesn’t just communicate what we are or communicates who we are and who’s we are. We belong to Christ. Now that word Christ, it’s not a name, it’s a title. And the word Christ is the same as the Old Testament word Messiah. They both mean anointed one. So when we call ourselves Christians, we are saying that we know and believe that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Anointed One. He is the son of the living God and our Savior from sin.
By saying that we are Christians, we’re saying that we are building our life and our faith on this foundation, this confession that Jesus is the Christ. We find our identity in this name. We were lost in our sin. We were blind in our sin. We were dead in our trespasses. (Ephesians 2:1) We were enemies of God. But we have been claimed by Christ and have been made his people. Through Christ, the Anointed One, through Jesus, who lived perfectly, who died innocently in our place we have been forgiven. Everything that made us an enemy of God has been removed from our slate forever. We are his holy people. We have been claimed by him. We are his possession.
Nothing matters more than this. Nothing in our life, not our status in this world, not our income, not our nationality. This is the most important thing. We belong to God because of what Jesus has done for us. We have new life in him and in everything about our life now reflects this new identity. The actions that we carry out, the decisions that we make, the words that we speak reflect this new life that is ours through faith in Christ. Our foundation is Jesus the Living Stone, the Christ. We are Christians. It’s not just what we are. It’s who we are, and it’s who’s we are. We belong to Christ. Amen.
