Sermon Theme
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It wasn’t planned. No one sat down in the early church and strategized about what to do.
The times were uncertain but at the same time exhilarating People didn’t know what to expect as the church grew phenomenally – sometimes thousands in one day. 3,000 at Pentecost and 5,000 when Peter and John healed a 40yr old man crippled from birth.
Then it happened… “Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So, for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” (Acts 11:25-26, NIV)
For more than 2,000 years, we followers of Jesus have been called by that name.
We ask today, ‘What is a Christian’ – apart from the cliché of one who follows Christ.
Many claim to be such – especially at Census time. The church is made of many ‘nominal’ Christians “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21, NIV84)
So, what is a Christian truly?
Sermon outline
- WHAT’S IN A NAME?
- ANNOINTED IN CHRIST
- THE ANNOINTED LIFE
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Sermon Outline
Readings
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 12, QA 32
32 Q. But why are you called a Christian?
A. Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in His anointing.
I am anointed to confess His name, to present myself to Him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life,
and afterwards to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity.
1 Peter 2:9–17 (NIV84)
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
13Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority,
14or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
15For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
16Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
17Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.
Text
1 John 2:18–29 (NIV84)
18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
22Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.
23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
24See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.
25And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.
26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
