Why am I a Christian?

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“Why are you a Christian, dad? And why do you go to church?” a young man asked his father one morning. This is a young man who for the first eighteen years of his life spent every Sunday morning in church with his parents, and whose entire circle of support came from relationships he made through church, and whose grandfather was a minister!

How would you answer those questions? What could you say that might invite others to this faith? The fact is, every person will have a different answer, a different reason, a different story from the Bible, or from the tradition, or from personal experience, that gives shape to his/her story. Many of us can say that we are Christians because of the family we were born into. But at some point in our lives, it became more than that, and each of us made a personal decision to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

By just going to church every Sunday and giving money do not make one a Christian. “Going to church no more makes you a Christian than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger” or “living in a garage does not make you a car.” By becoming followers of Christ, we are being formed in the character of Christ and then we become influencers in the society we live in just as Christ has influenced the world by changing history. In the gospel according to Matthew, we read about the sermon on the mount, commonly know as the 'beatitudes. Jesus taught these to the disciples to know what it means to be a follower of Christ.

The eight beatitudes portray the character of a disciple of Jesus Christ. These are being poor in spirit, being meek in heart, being peace makers and so on. Then from verses 3-16, Jesus teaches the hearers of beatitudes to become influencers of the world by becoming 'the salt and the light'. These are called 'similitudes', a word that comes from the word ‘similar’. If we put beatitudes together with similitudes, we can see that 'out of our character emerges influence'. The early church was greatly shaped by the beatitudes and the similitudes.

Christian faith is not not just following a set of doctrines; rather it is about living a life with character. By becoming followers of Christ, we are being formed in the character of Christ and then we become influencers in the society in which we live just as Christ influenced the world. We are influencers while we are also being influenced. We all make influence in the world during and after our lives. We are being influenced by the people who have lived and died before us and those who we are associating with. I am a Christian because of Christ who made me a influencer in this world by transforming to His character.

Blessings

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Fulll sermon audio: Mathew Philip

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