Special: Truth Behind the Title: Christian

Special Focus: The Truth behind the Title Christian
Scripture: Within the Text

Greetings:
This might raise a lot of eye brows and if you do not read your Bible, then I expect you to have a problem with this message. Religious people are going to fight this message but that is alright. Let them stay with their religion, I am welcoming you to Kingdom thinking and living. I preached a sermon last Saturday “Who is the Real You?” at a youth prayer breakfast and at the end I noticed that the Holy Spirit never said you were a Christian. I asked God why is that the case? And His answer was so clear and it is in the scriptures. First, the word Christian appears 3 times in the entire Bible! So for us to call each other that and for it to only appear 3 times should raise some questions in your mind. Second, the first time it appears is in Acts after Jesus ascended back to the Father! So from Genesis to Acts, Christian was not mentioned. So Jesus did not call you that and God did not call you that so who did?
Well let’s investigate and look!

First Occurrence of the Word Christian – Acts 11:22-26
So the first time the disciples were called Christians was at Antioch. So they were called that by man. Jesus did not call the disciples Christians. So man gave us the title of Christian. Now I preached Saturday about what God did call you and that email will follow this one. The problem with the church is that the church has lost it’s identity and the church is conforming to what man has perceived them to be and not what God has called them to be. So man developed what they thought a Christian was based off of what they saw in the disciples. That is all well in good but like men as time progress, things change and we change to fit the times. And this is exactly where your identity gets messed up as it relates to the word Christian. Can we safely say this is where denominations come into play? I believe this and I believe that. Now some will say that is why I go to a non-denominational church! But if your church is a Kingdom preaching, Lord Jesus Teaching, Bible believing church then we are all the same. So do not let the devil divide us where we all are the same.

Second Occurrence of the Word Christian – Acts 26:28
Here we see Paul and King Agrippa discussing about the doctrine of Jesus Christ. And we see King Agrippa tell Paul that he almost persuaded Him to become a Christian. Now please keep in mind that from Antioch to now the term Christian had spread throughout the Empire and I am sure that King Agrippa had heard the term by the time of His encounter with Paul.

Third Occurrence of the Word Christian – 1 Peter 4:16
Now Peter writes a letter to the believers in Asia Minor and in His first letter here we see if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God on this behalf. Now we will have to understand when this statement was made in order to understand why it is located here. Paul was arrested by the Roman government for spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom and teaching the Lord Jesus to the people. While under house arrest, under the leadership and guide of the Holy Spirit we get the letters like Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon. So when the disciples were first called Christians, Paul was not under house arrest yet so the title carried throughout the Roman Empire and the land. So that is why you see it mentioned in the letter from Peter, but you only see it once. So, Christian was a title given to you by man and not by God.

So, the question is, Who are you really? Stay tuned to the next email!

Abba’s Ambassador,
Min. Calvin Calhoun, Jr.