Any Evidence of Christ?

Acts 11:26

Message No. 0796 | Twitter @GodandUs | www.wisdom-speaks.ca

Preview

It’s the season when we celebrate the birth of Christ, but it’s also a season to assess ourselves and ask if we have lived Christlike lives throughout the year, and if we can confidently invite anyone to Christ without them challenging us about our own behaviours. This episode is an encouragement for us to take stock and see if we have lived as Christ’s ambassadors and are able to represent Him before other people.

Kindly share this message with friends and family by forwarding to them the email or the link to the blog. We write every week. If for some reason you miss the email for a particular week, please head to www.wisdom-speaks.ca/blog and you will find all the messages there. Happy reading and God bless you!

Text

People who live in New York are called New Yorkers, and those who live in Toronto are called Torontonians. If you live in other parts of Nigeria, all you need to identify a Lagosian (people who live in Lagos) is the way he or she behaves - the way they drive, their impatience as they want things done at the snap of the finger. In other parts of the world, people are identified in similar ways, sometimes it’s the way they dress, their accents and other ways they speak, the food they eat, and certain behaviours that are associated with where they came from. 

In Acts chapter 11 verse 26, the Bible says that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. There was no naming ceremony or change of name announcement in the newspaper, so to the ordinary ears, it would look like the naming just came from nowhere. However, the name was a natural conclusion from the behaviour of the disciples. Paul and Barnabas had spent a year teaching the people of Antioch in the church, and from the ways they (and other disciples) behaved, everyone could see Christ in them, and for this reason, the people christened them Christians.

Sadly, in today’s church, we have plenty of people coming, but it sometimes feels challenging to name them. I’ve heard people say to some christians, “If this is what a Christian is, then I don’t want to be a Christian.” The church of God is filled with people of non-uniform behaviour, so it is difficult to call them Christians. Our impatience, our intolerance, our lack of love or care, our selfish behaviours, our hurtful words, our tolerance for sin and other Christ-less characters - all combine to make it difficult for the world to declare that we are Christians.

In Matthew chapter 7 verses 21-23, the Bible says:

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' 

This is the season we Christians celebrate the birth of Christ and we want our friends and family to know about Him. But what will they say when we invite them to church this Christmas? Will they clap in sarcasm and say “Yeah, right, what evidence have I seen in you that you are really a Christian?” Or will they thank us for inviting them to the secret of the excellent behaviours they have seen in us over the years?

If we must win anyone to Christ or even have the chance of inviting them to church this Christmas, we must first check ourselves to see if there’s any evidence of Christ in us. We must assess ourselves to see if our behaviours have changed since we gave our lives to Christ. We must determine if Christ is really in us or if He is only on our lips. People must see change in us before we can preach change to anyone else. Will the people around us see Christ in us this Christmas?

What to Do?

Show fruits worthy of repentance (Matthew 3:8).