The Reborn Identity Study 1 Discovering Our Spiritual Identity Hal Gaudet

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2 Study 1 - Discovering Our Spiritual Identity Welcome The Reborn Identity Christians Thriving in Anti-Christian Cultures Hal Gaudet Introduction - Today we begin a 3 part mini-series called The Reborn Identity - subtitle - Christians Thriving in Anti-Christian Cultures. In case you haven t noticed, Christians here in the United States have been experiencing an increasingly anti-christian tone in our culture. This anti-christian sentiment comes from both our society and our government. By anti Christian, I mean an attitude or response to Christianity that is either direct opposition to Christianity or alternative thinking to Christianity. And I m defining anti-christian this way because the original Greek prefix anti means either against or instead of. In our culture here in the States today, there is plenty of instead of Christian thought, belief, and philosophy. And in addition to the instead of Christianity thinking there is definitely an against Christianity sentiment that has been sharply increasing over recent years. This anti-christian bias is rapidly approaching near persecution levels. Now, just to be clear, we here in the U.S. don t know Christian persecution - not yet. At least nothing like what is currently being experienced in many other parts of the world. 2

3 None of us here are in danger of losing our lives because of our allegiance to Jesus Christ. Right now our country prohibits Christians more than it persecutes them. Maybe you were surprised by some of the facts in the video we opened with, maybe not. At the very least I hope you aren t apathetic to what s going on. If you are, is it because you ve become disillusioned by the Christianity you ve seen and experienced so far in your life? Maybe you heard about this great God and his love that was so extreme for us that he became one of us, Jesus Christ, to die in our stead and pay for our sins against our Creator so we could be reconciled with him. And maybe you heard about how his early followers brought this incredible hope to the world and saw thousands upon thousands enter into relationship with their Creator through faith in Christ. Maybe in your present day Christian experience there isn t as much talk of hope and miraculous life change and grace and forgiveness. Maybe there s more attention given to rules for insiders and condemnation for those outside of God s family. If you ve been turned off in your faith in Christ because of Christians seeming to live differently than Christ lived - well then this study is for you. I believe you will be encouraged by what we discover from our early Christian brothers' and sisters' lives. These Christians knew what real persecution for being Jesus followers was all about. And remember, there s a big difference between persecution for being like Christ versus being rejected or picked on by your peers because you re a self-righteous, judgmental jerk. The early Christians weren t known for being selfrighteous or judgmental; but they did know persecution. 3

4 Early Jesus Followers Many of us have read or heard about the atrocities that early Christians suffered from persecution coming from the Roman government. During the first century, one of the greatest expansions in Christian history was fueled by severe persecution. There was a great scattering - a great sowing of seed called the diaspora in those early years that displaced thousands of Christians from their homes into many new countries and regions where a Christian presence had never been known before. Yet, despite the hatred and persecution, these first century Christians thrived. One such area where Jesus followers were thriving was Galatia; an area where modern day Turkey is located. Fast forward to just over 300 years into Christian history, persecution in the Roman Empire had all but ended - Jesus followers were thriving to the point that Roman Emperor Constantine was making the Christian faith the official religion of the whole Roman Empire. But that calm from the storms of persecution didn't last long. There was a sudden resurgence of persecution against Jesus followers - and it came from the same Roman government that had just embraced Christianity. A Roman Emperor named Julian who was born in 332 A.D. served as Emperor from A.D. Julian was the nephew of the first Christian emperor, Constantine, who had worked to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. But Julian was known as an apostate because he wanted to abandon Christianity and bring the Roman Empire back to paganism and the polytheistic belief in all of the Greek and Roman gods. 4

5 Now true paganism back in the day, would have let everyone worship whatever or whoever they wanted to. But instead of letting each person worship the way they wanted to, Julian stripped the Christians of their privileges, powers, and rights. Julian became very hostile to Christianity, referring to Christians as atheists because they didn t believe in the plethora of Greek gods and indulge in Roman paganism. Julian even went as far as to develop a three-fold strategy to effectively disenfranchise Christians. Listen to this, it might sound familiar. 1. First, he used legislation to cut off Christians from contact with the mainstream society. Many Christians lost their citizenship as Romans and the benefits and privileges that went with citizenship. He also passed legislation making it illegal to actively and publicly promote the Christian belief system and its principles. 2. Secondly, he attempted to establish a pagan church structure to compete with and overtake Christianity by placing pagan leaders he approved of in leadership within Christian groups. 3. Finally, he mounted a philosophical assault on Christianity, trying to show that its belief system was actually harmful. Much of this sounds really familiar to what has been happening here in America right now. 5

6 Check out what s been happening in the U.S.: 1. Legislation has been being used and new legislation is being added at an alarming rate that prevents Christians from sharing their faith in mainstream society. 2. Secondly, as much of a blessing as the laws of our land are that allow for freedom of religion, presently, these same laws are permitting multiple systems of religion into America. In actuality, Christianity is being hindered by our government while Islam and others are being embraced. 3. Thirdly, our government has recently mischaracterized Christians as naive extremists who are willing to harm others in the pursuit of Christianity s agendas. Sounds a lot like what the early Christians were dealing with under Emperor Julian. But out of fairness, it s not just governments that have and are painting Christianity in a dark light. Recent surveys* show that more than ⅔ of the American society don t go to church because of one or more of the following - maybe you ve even had someone say something like this to you: church people seem self-righteous and sometimes hypocritical as a non-christian, I feel like I m being judged by Christians I feel like I fit in and find more acceptance in other places than with Christians 6

7 Christians seem very critical of people different from them churches want my money but I don t trust Christianity s agendas I am concerned about different churches rules Christians don t seem concerned with real needs in their community church doesn t seem worth my time Somehow modern day Christians in America have picked up an identity that does more to push people away than draw them closer to their Creator. This is a severe case of mistaken identity or maybe even identity theft. Now it is true, some of this identity crisis has been falsely put upon us; but some of this false identity we ve been labeled with we ve brought on ourselves by the mismatch between how and what we say we believe and how we actually live that out - or not. In our country today, people don t get the good news of the Christian message because so many of the people delivering that message don t look anything like the Master they claim to follow. And that's only if we bother to slow down long enough to talk to people in our lives about God. If the gospel message is about grace, forgiveness and reconciliation, then why do we communicate the good news of the gospel by first telling people that if they die without believing in Christ they re going to hell? 7

8 We arrogantly assume if we just inform people of the facts of the gospel that we are doing the work of spreading the gospel while ignoring how we come across with condemning language and hypocritical lifestyles. Paying attention to what we say while ignoring whether or not our lives are matching our message doesn t work with any other relationship in life - it doesn t work with our spouses - our kids - our parents - our bosses or employees or co-workers. So why would we expect that to work when telling people outside of God s family about Christ s love and sacrifice. If we haven't shown Christ-like acceptance and sacrificial serving like our Master lived, then we have little credibility when trying to tell others about his Kingdom. And I'm including myself in this discussion; this is about all of us. Now, before we get all discouraged and feeling guilty and beating ourselves up - let me say this: we can have hope. As much as we have opposition against us today, early Christians amid intense persecution - more than just opposition - early Christians were able to overcome and not just survive, but thrive! Listen to what the very frustrated Emperor Julian wrote about Christianity that he referred to as atheism because Christians believed in the One True God - Julian wrote this: Atheism (Christianity) has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not one single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them. 8

9 Notice what these early Christians were identified by: loving service being shown to strangers caring enough to bury the dead feeding and taking care of the disenfranchised caring for the poor who were Christians and the poor who were not Christians This ticked off Julian - he wanted to shut Christianity down - he failed. Because of this identity that the Christians of his day lived by. This was the identity that the early Jesus followers were known for. This was their heavenly Father-given, spiritually-reborn identity. And this is the identity we have to return to. We ve got to get back to who we really are in Jesus Christ. We ve got to get back to our reborn identity. Only by getting back to being known by our reborn identity, our reborn spiritual roots will be able to turn around declining faith in our own lives, as well as turn around a declining Christianity in our own country - and yes - thrive! In this series, we re going to try to figure out what Christians can do to thrive in anti-christian cultures? 9

10 By "thrive" I mean we are able to live out our faith in Christ in a powerful enough way that we are attracting the people in our lives to relationship with God no matter how our government or our society treats us. We are going to be getting our advice from one of the original Jesus followers, Peter, from the first letter he wrote to first century Christians and what he taught them about their spiritual heritage and their reborn identity. Because what he taught empowered Christians 300 years later to thrive in their anti-christian culture under Emperor Julian, and it will empower us in the same way. This week we will look at: Discovering our spiritual identity; Next week we ll see how to Reclaim that spiritual identity, and then our third week we ll look at how to Communicate our spiritually reborn identity. For the 4th and 5th parts of this study, Enduring our reborn identity and Protecting our reborn identity, we'll have podcasts up online in the near future. So let s get started with Discovering Our Spiritual Identity and what makes up a spiritually Reborn Identity. With the time we have left today, I d like us to grapple with this question as we look at 1 Peter chapter 1: What are some identifying marks of a spiritually reborn person that they want to let show to draw others to God? 10

11 Passage 1 Peter 1:1-4 NLT 1 This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. 2 God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. May God give you more and more grace and peace. 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. Okay, here s the first reborn identity marker : optimism Jesus followers can have an incredibly optimistic, expectant outlook in this life because of the incredible, unimaginable future that is being kept for them by God. No matter how crappy things get here in this temporary life, there are awesome, mind blowing things awaiting us in heaven. So if you see yourself as a pessimist, guess what, your real identity is that of an optimist, you just need to remember and think about what God has promised you and is waiting for you! So the first one is optimism. Continuing on, 1 Peter 1:5-6 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. 11

12 Okay, here s a second reborn identity marker : gladness Peter says we can be genuinely glad because of the protection our heavenly Father allows us to enjoy in real time right now - combined with - the incredible joy that is waiting for us even though we are in the middle of troublesome times right now. Peter points Christ followers attention toward the future and not to dwell on the pain of the present which can paralyze us and demoralize us. Even amid the crud that this life throws at us, we can be truly glad! There's the second one, gladness. 1 Peter 1:7 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. Here s a third reborn identity marker : genuineness Without minimizing the suffering that first century Christians were experiencing or dismissing the trauma and even death that so many Jesus followers were experiencing back then, Peter helps them to see purpose in the pain. Peter teaches Christians that their faith is seen as genuine when it is hit with extreme "heat". When people outside of God s family see Christians not walk away from their relationship with God even when continuing on becomes painful or even life threatening, it is seen as real - as authentic. It s not seen as fake, hypocritical, or put on. And it is attractive because of its genuineness. 12

13 Coming through trials and persecution reveals a relationship with God that is genuine. There's the third one, genuineness. 1 Peter 1: You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls. 10 This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. 11 They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ s suffering and his great glory afterward. 12 They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen. 13 So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. 14 So you must live as God s obedient children. Don t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, You must be holy because I am holy. Here s a fourth reborn identity marker : self-control As God s children, we Christians must remember Whose kid we are. We want those outside of God s family to be able to identify us by the way we act - we act like our Dad - our heavenly Dad. Parents a lot of times will draw conclusions about other parents based on the behaviors we see in their kids. 13

14 If we want people to understand how loving and giving our heavenly Father is, do our lifestyles conflict with a loving giving spiritual identity because I speak hatefully or consistently act out of selfish agendas? We must remember, people around us are watching. If we live as our heavenly Father s obedient children, we don t keep living as we did before we trusted Christ just living for our own selfish comforts and pleasure but we learn to look out for others. People will see all of our heavenly Father s good and holy qualities in us, but we have to consistently choose to control ourselves to be known as God s kids. And that s a fourth reborn identity marker, self-control. Continuing on, 1 Peter 1: And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as foreigners in the land. 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days. 21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory. Here s a fifth reborn identity marker : self-sacrifice 14

15 Notice Peter teaches Christians to have a healthy fear - a reverent respect for our heavenly Father. But notice what this respect is based on. Peter points Christians to respect their heavenly Father because of the personal sacrifice God has shown them by taking the penalty of their sin on himself. God earned our respect through self-sacrifice - he died for us. It is a sense of appreciation for our God s personal sacrifice that inspires a reverent respect for our heavenly Father and causes us to want to earn the respect of others through honorable self-sacrifice in their behalf. When we sacrifice something of ourselves for others and earn their respect we point people to our Master and Teacher, Jesus Christ, who earned our respect through his self-sacrificing actions 2,000 years ago. There's a 5th reborn identity marker, self-sacrifice. 1 Peter 1: You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. 23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 24 As the Scriptures say, People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. 25 But the word of the Lord remains forever. And that word is the Good News that was preached to you. Now I love how Peter wraps up this first teaching on our reborn identity. He shows us that the very thing we were reborn BY - Jesus showing his acceptance of us by his unconditional sacrificial intense love - is what we are reborn to DO - to accept others and show unconditional sacrificial sincere love. 15

16 I thought it was really cool that this month's Family Virtue is LOVE: giving someone your time and friendship no matter what. Sincere love looks beyond behaviors, political views, religious backgrounds, and life philosophies in order to look like Christ. Sincere love has no "if you will...then I'll accept you". Sincere love is unconditional - just the way Christ unconditionally accepted us. Sincere love doesn't try fix people in order to be able to accept them. We were cleansed from our sin when we obeyed the truth to believe on Jesus, but he accepted us before our sins were cleansed. Jesus did not say clean up your act and then I will die on the cross for you. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And so now we too must show that sincere love that has been shown to us. This is the new life we were reborn into. And this is the most notable marker of the reborn identity and it s the sixth and final one we ll look at: unconditional acceptance Being accepting in the way we respond to others includes a willingness to be vulnerable; a willingness to be hurt when others don t reciprocate our expressions of care; a willingness to not keep our emotions out of reach. Unconditional love and acceptance is what has been shown to us, so we pay it forward and show others that same unconditional acceptance and love. Unconditional acceptance is the quintessential characteristic of our spiritually reborn identity. When we show it we are easily identified as children belonging to our heavenly Father. When we selfishly hide it, or worse show the opposite, we hide our true reborn identity and suffer the consequences of a mistaken identity. 16

17 Earlier I said we would try to discover what some identifying marks of spiritually reborn people are that we want to let show to draw others to God. So which are we known for today? Are we known as the... Optimistic Glad Genuine Self-Controlled Self-Sacrificing Unconditionally Accepting...reborn children of our heavenly Father? Or are we known for something else because we ve been living out something other than our reborn identity? To help us determine how well we understand our spiritually reborn identity, we have some homework to do. I knew that would excite you. There are some reborn identity self-evaluation questions and exercises in your bulletin. Please do them if you don t do anything with them, then your time in here was wasted. It s like looking in the mirror and seeing a big green piece of broccoli in your teeth and leaving it there. Do your homework and continue discovering your reborn identity, and then come back next and we ll look at Reclaiming Our Spiritual Identity from 1 Peter 2. Let s pray. 17

18 1. Optimism - Exercise: Ask three people who know you well if they see you as optimistic or pessimistic and ask them for examples of why they answered this way. Ask three different people who do not know you well if they think you are an optimistic person or a pessimist (people who don t know us well have to make more of a snap assessment about us based more on first impressions). Based on all 6 responses, do I see anything I need to work on in how I represent who I really am in Christ? Is my true identity, my spiritually reborn identity showing? 2. Gladness - Questions: What 5 things am I glad about right now? Who else knows I m glad about these things? Do any of my friends who are outside of God s family know I am glad about these things? If they did, would it point them to my heavenly Father or to temporary things that in the long run won t matter very much? 3. Genuineness - Exercise: Ask someone who has known you for a while, how you handled the last personal trial or storm of some kind that you went through. Ask them if you complained a lot, prayed a lot, and/or spoke of trusting God in all of it? (It s one thing to say we have a real genuine relationship with our heavenly Father when everything is going well, but it s another thing when the heat gets turned up.) 4. Self-Control - Questions: When I am under pressure or attacked because of my faith, or when I am facing storms and struggles in life, do I use adverse circumstances to justify indulging in things I know are sinful and would disappoint my heavenly Father? If I choose to ignore my reborn identity during tough times, what effect is it having on my credibility with people around me who are still outside of God s family? Which specific 18

19 family members am I hurting when I forget about my reborn identity? Friends? Neighbors? Co-workers? 5. Self-Sacrifice - Questions: Who is the last person I spent money on so they could have something they wanted or needed and it caused me not to be able to get something I wanted or needed? Who was the last person I inconvenienced myself for without looking for anything in return? If it was there, did I take the opportunity to point people to Christ s example of selfsacrificing behavior as the reason for my self-sacrificing actions? Why or why not? 6. Unconditional Acceptance - Question: Would people who know me say I am prejudiced or bigoted? (These can be indicators of selective love or conditional acceptance, neither of which are part of the reborn identity.) With my heavenly Father s help, what will I change? Key Reborn Identity Verses from 1 Peter 1 22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. 23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 1 Peter 1:

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