Are you a Christian?
There is still a majority of people of the United States who would call themselves “Christians,” whether it was true or not.
Are YOU a Christian?
As Christians, we pattern our lives after what we find in the Word of God – amen?
People who don’t make that claim, and who don’t actually do it, shouldn’t call themselves “Christians.”
Based upon that criteria, are you SURE that you should call yourself a “Christian?”
Did you know that it is debatable whether or not the term “Christian” is actually applied BY the saints of God in the Bible to themselves?
Acts 11:26 describes the first use of the word “Christian:”
This appears to have been the term that outsiders called Christ’s people in Antioch.
And it was in no way meant to be flattering.
Acts 26:28 – “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.”
But we often read the words “disciples, believers, saints” and “brethren.”
And, several times in the Book of Acts we read of “the way,” and references to God’s saints as people of “the way.”
It appears that for a short period of time, Christianity was simply called “the way.”
We might guess that it was popular for a while but then was replaced with that word “Christian.”
It seems that the more that God’s people heard themselves called “Christians” the more they liked it.
Was this the language which Paul used to ask the High Priest for his authority,
It could be either, and I have no problem with either,
But I rather think that this was Luke’s term and not Saul’s.
“But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.”
Acts 18:25 & 26 – “This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit,
And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard,
They took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”
Acts 19:23 – “And the same time there arose no small stir about that way.”
Acts 24:22 – “And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them.”
For example, I realize that this isn’t politically correct, but . . .
The Lord Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
And the man who uttered them should have been either locked-up as insane or crucified,
Except for the fact that what he said was absolutely true.
He who has seen Christ has seen the Father.
Even when He was here among us He was IN the Father, and the Father was IN Him.
And that exclusiveness is reflected in the term “the way.”
For years there has been foolish talk about various religions each presenting a different way to reach God.
Islam is one way; Judaism is another way; Buddhism has its special way, and Catholicism has its way.
But notice that when Christ calls Himself “the way,” and the Bible calls Christianity “the way,”
They are in contrast to all false and corrupt religion, but it was in the very face of Judaism that these words were first spoken.
False and corrupted religions are not just one of MANY ways; Jesus Christ is THE ONLY way.
And Moses knew the Lord as well.
When Moses came down from the top of the Mount with the Law of God, did the people of Israel have access to salvation and eternal life?
Humanly speaking they had the means of knowing Jehovah.
As Israelites, to them “pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”
But almost immediately after the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, Israel began to change the revelation of God or at least their perception of that revelation.
As the Lord Jesus put it:
“There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country:
And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.
And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.
But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? He will miserably destroy those wicked men.”
And why?
And what’s more: whosoever rejecteth this Christ has no way to come to God.
There are no other options and the sinner can’t make connections in some other airport.
The problem is that we are evil and wicked husbandmen, who hate the fact we aren’t landowners ourselves.
As it was true of Israel in Jesus’ day, so it is true of them yet today.
We don’t want God sovereignly telling us what to do and not to do.
We don’t want Him to tell us that He possesses the only way.
We despise the authority of the Lord over His creation.
We even hate the fact that we are actually A PART of His creation.
We would much rather consider ourselves to be creators; not the creation.
They want THEIR way, THEIR opinions and to live for the moment.
When Christ said that He was “the way,” he was, in fact, addressing this rebellion of ours.
It’s not just that He has revealed the Father to us, and paved a strait and narrow road to the Lord.
But He has dealt with the sin which has separated us from God in the first place.
The way to God, the Father, is through the cross of Christ and the Christ of the cross.
He hasn’t just MADE a way, but He IS the way.
He is the ONLY way.
And this is one reason that “the way” became a term which identified the early saints of God.
As we go from day to day, or year to year the scenery changes, and our fellow-travelers change.
Sometimes the road is up hill, and sometimes it slopes gently downward.
Sometimes the sun is shining on us, and sometimes there is a bitter wind in our face.
For some the road is wide with lots of companions, and sometimes the way is narrow and lonely.
Sometimes the trip is over solid ground and other times it’s more like we’re crossing a shaky bridge.
And all of this idea is taken up in this phrase “the way.”
Christianity is a way, a path for the living of our day to day lives.
It gives us directions and provides us with companions who are going in the same direction.
Along this way there are all the necessary stops, shops, churches and inns to strengthen us and enable us to reach our destination.
Along the road there are warning signs, speed-limits and even a few stop-lights.
There are traffic cops, road hogs and tow-trucks to help pull us along.
There is even on-coming traffic which seems bent on turning us around.
But the road has been designed and built by the Lord who loved us and gave Himself for us.
He is the way, the truth ,and the life.
Just as there are people who think that Christianity is nothing but a code of morality, to be accepted or rejected by whatever whim they are following at the time.
There are far many people who think that Christianity is just a creed, a system of things to be believed.
And of course both things are true in part, Christianity does entail things to be believed.
And then we have a more complete list which we publish on our web-page and which we hand out to people who visit our church a few times.
On March 31, 1937 construction was begun on the huge Lion’s Gate suspension Bridge.
One end of that bridge is planted in beautiful and unique Stanley Park,
And the other end takes the driver out towards Whistler, the Sunshine Coast and North Vancouver, and one of the ferries to Vancouver Island.
To a lot of people the Lion’s Gate Bridge is a relic of the history of Vancouver.
To others it is a status symbol.
But to thousands of people it is a bridge across the first narrows of Burrard Inlet.
They are not just the decorative lion statues that stand at either end of that bridge.
And then there was the first train, the first car, or the first person to carefully & gingerly to inch across.
But following them came tens of thousands of others.
They had trusted Christ as the only way to the Father, and they were committing their lives to walking the way that the Lord proscribed.
When the Lord broke Saul’s stubborn heart, and he said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” he stepped out onto that same way.
Later is advice to all of us was to “yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.”,
Bible Christianity is a life, not a creed.
It begins in a Person – THE Person of the Lord Jesus Christ – “the way, the truth and the Life.”
“And this is life eternal that we might know God, and Jesus Christ Whom He has sent.”
When that sinner has met the Lord, as Saul did, then begins a walk together down through valleys and over mountain passes to the ferry or the bridge that carries us into the City of God.
“Can two walk together except they be agreed?”
This way is supposed to be a way of righteousness and diligent struggles against sin.
This way is supposed to be a road of service and glory brought to the Lord who saved us.
This way is best enjoyed when we have set our “affections on thing above not on the earth.”
This way begins at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?”