"Hi, I'm a Christ Follower"

“Hi, I'm a Christ Follower”
Act 16:22-34 NLT - [22] A mob quickly formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with wooden rods. [23] They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape. [24] So he took no chances but put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks. [25] Around midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening. [26] Suddenly, there was a great earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! [27] The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself. [28] But Paul shouted to him, "Don't do it! We are all here!" [29] Trembling with fear, the jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down before Paul and Silas. [30] He brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" [31] They replied, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with your entire household." [32] Then they shared the word of the Lord with him and all who lived in his household. [33] That same hour the jailer washed their wounds, and he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized. [34] Then he brought them into his house and set a meal before them. He and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.

A major contemporary problem in Christianity today is the prevalence of Christian culture in place of Christianity. I was talking with a friend today about how focused we have become on getting as many people we can saved and in the church building, but we are not interested in changing them. We live in a nation where we are taught to “get saved and get right with the Lord.” Rarely do religious discussions go beyond this. In many places, church is a contemporary social activity, whereby one gains acceptance into the community by engaging in that society's ritualistic habits. Yet if this is what we label Christianity, we have missed the point, and we are no different than the pagans who sacrificed every year to the Corn King because it was expected to uphold their family and community's sense of honor. A parody video of the “Mac vs. PC” ads illustrates this point with the “Christian vs. Christ Follower” advertisement. In it, one man shows all external appearances of being a good Christian: he is dressed to the nines, decked out with Christian bracelets, bumper stickers, and a mountainside of theological books. Proud of his appearance, he asks a young, casually dressed man what he wears to show Christ. The man replies, “Well, nothing, I guess. I don't know, I just try to follow Christ in the way I live my life.” The video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RtfNdg1fQk.

The point of this video is to show what true Christianity looks like. Unfortunately, our culture has really begun to believe that being a good Christian means merely going to church every Sunday, praying before supper and bedtime, and not cursing or stealing or doing any of those sorts of awful things. In other words, Christianity has become a mere external shell by which a man's commitment to Christ is shown only in his willingness to dedicate two hours of his Sunday and 20 seconds of his meal.

But is this the Biblical picture? Can we really keep playing Church and playing Christianity? Can all we are really be reduced down to a line in a typical country song or a stereotypical portrayal on a film? The Scripture doesn't seem to think so. Isn't it interesting that every time we see an instance of persecution, witness, or salvation in the Bible, it involves a radical transformation and dedication of one's life? It is a continual pursuit of God that often leads to great suffering and death.

In Acts 16 we see yet another scenario. Paul and Silas, after casting out a spirit from a fortune-teller, are thrown into prison for upsetting the profiteering occurring from the fortune-teller. Notice especially the spirit of Paul and Silas in prison, however. They “were praying and singing hymns to God.” Now, this certainly shows us why we sing those hymns, be they modern or antiquated. Now we see why we pray. We pray and sing because the joy that is within us from Christ overflows and overfills us even in times of desperation. It has been in the moments of suffering, in the moments where I believed God should be furthest away, that I felt Him closest to my heart. Following Christ fills us with an overwhelming love that can't be contained. It spreads out. The scripture says “the other prisoners were listening.” True Christianity doesn't need t-shirts and bracelets, though they may often times be used to help spark an interest in unbelievers or serve as great reminders to us. True Christianity doesn't need a pew, nor a building. It simply needs Christians. If Paul and Silas can worship in a prison cell and impact the prisoners, you and I can do the same! Wherever we are, we must remember who we are following. God's true Church is filled with love and compassion. It is filled with godly men and women willing to die for the truth than to live in separation from God. Christians are so concerned with people that they can't stand to allow the world to live in eternal separation from God.

I hope the picture you see from Paul and Silas presents clearly and precisely the image of the true Christian. Becoming a Christian isn't just a goal. It isn't just something you check off a list and write in your Bible. It isn't something you appeal to occasionally for some cultural value but then do not actively live out. Christianity cannot not be lived out. We must be very concerned about those who have proclaimed Christ as their Lord and yet live for years in sin, never acknowledging Him. The Scripture says of them: “if they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them” (2 Peter 2.20-21). Beloved, we must not allow depravity to invade our lives. We must not become cultural Christians, but become Christ-Followers. We must also do everything we can to bring back those who have become that way. If you have become a mere cultural Christian, won't you turn back to God today? Won't you see what it is like to fully and passionately follow Christ in a relationship that is based on love and commitment, not on guilt and social acceptance? Amen.

With love in Christ,




Austin Aldrich