Last week we concluded that Christianity is Christ. Today we will go through various scriptures in the bible to further answer this question.
Being a Christian is usually connected to attending church on Sundays and listening to a man at the pulpit in religious garments. Some of these people may believe that engaging in this regular activity is all that it takes. However, the bible shows us otherwise.
In the bible, we first see the word used in Acts 11:26; And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
Here we see the the word Christian was used to refer to the disciples. So a Christian is a disciple? What is a disciple?
In Matthew 4:18-22 Jesus calls his first disciples. 18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
This scripture shows us that a disciple is a follower of Jesus Christ. As well as this, the bible explains how you can be recognised as a disciple in the following verses. John 8:30 Even as he spoke, many believed in him. 31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
John 13:34 ‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’
John 15:8 'This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples'
So we see a disciple is also someone that practices Jesus' teachings, someone that loves all and someone that brings Glory and honour to God.
Ok is that all it takes? Nearly. Let's re-read verse 30. "Even as he spoke many believed in him." So? So before you become a follower of Jesus Christ, be a believer? Believer of what exactly? That Jesus Christ is the son of God. I'm going to say that again, a believer that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me
John 20:31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Acts 16:31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”
Why must I believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God? These five messages couldn't have made it any clearer. Jesus Christ is the centre piece!
Bare in mind that a disciple is a believer but not every believer is a disciple.
So there we have it, a Christian in not someone who partakes in religious practices, it is not someone who acts holier than thou or someone who has studied theology and thinks they know it all. A Christian is someone who has chosen (you can't be born a Christian) to believe in Jesus as the messiah and chooses to live as a disciple following his teachings. There is no criteria you must meet to be a Christian, the bible tells us to come as you are but through Christ you wont stay as are.
I end with this parable** Matthew 20:1-16 'The parable of the workers in the vineyard' (see below). The workers started their shifts at different times in the day but at the end were all paid the same wage. It's the same with coming to Christ, it can happen at any stage in your life. Finding him is the ultimate goal, it doesn't matter when it happens. And just like the landowner treated them equally, it is the same way Jesus Christ will equally accept us. Just as the landowner paid them an equal wage is the same way the Jesus Christ paid an equal price for us all. There is no favouritism. At the end they all receive their reward just as we do.
**parable - a story told by Jesus
The parable of the workers in the vineyard
20 ‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 ‘About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the market-place doing nothing. 4 He told them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” 5 So they went.
‘He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?”
7 ‘“Because no one has hired us,” they answered.
‘He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard.”
8 ‘When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”
9 ‘The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 “These who were hired last worked only one hour,” they said, “and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
13 ‘But he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
16 ‘So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’
