Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

By Defining our Identity 08/16/09

Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging our Vision

Title: : ‘By Defining our Identity’     Text: Acts 21:37-22:29

Introduction:

ILL: A heavily booked commercial flight out of Denver was canceled, and a single agent was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger pushed his way to the front and slapped his ticket down on the counter. "I have to be on this flight and it has to be first class!" he insisted. "I’m sorry, sir," the agent replied. "I’ll be happy to help you, but I have to take care of these folks first." The passenger was unimpressed. "Do you have any idea who I am?" he demanded in a voice loud enough for the passengers behind him to hear. Without hesitating, the agent smiled and picked up her public-address microphone. "May I have your attention, please?" she broadcast throughout the terminal. "We have a passenger here at the gate who does not know who he is. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to the gate." As the man retreated, the people in the terminal burst into applause. (Kevin Taylor)

The sad truth is we live in a society full of people

·       Who don’t know who they are.

·       Who don’t feel like they fit in

·       Who are searching for a sense of belonging.

·       In other words, they have lost their identities.

And many of these people desperately search for some sense of self...they look to TV personalities like Oprah and Dr. Phil, to internet chat rooms, and to the self-help sections in Borders because they all promise to help locate their missing self...to help then discover their true identities.

Even Christians, at times, experience an identity crises. Not because we don’t know who we are...but rather we have just forgetten. And when we forget, we open the door for bad choices that have serious consequences.

You see....my identity determines my destiny. It determines how I act and what I do.

The moment King David forgot who he was, he made a horrible choice.

·       Because of his momentary lapse, he chose to watch Bathsheba sun bath.

·       Because of that moment of forgetfulness, he chose to have Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband killed.

·       Then, because of the blood on his hands he is told by God he cannot build God’s temple...the one thing he truly wanted to do.

·       In a way, he lost everything, because, for a moment he forgot who he was...

How many times have we sacrificed aspects of our destiny for the momentary pleasure of forgetting our identity?

Before I can walk in God’s promises, before I can seek the destiny God has prepared for me, I have to settle the question of who I am...I have to define my identity.

Background: This is what we find Paul doing in our text this morning. He had the opportunity to tell his story to the lost people of Jerusalem...to identity himself to the people who wanted him dead. This would be no time to forget. And he didn’t.

Transition: Open your Bibles to Acts 21:37 (pg. 850 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it’s there we’ll discover, like Paul, we enlarge our vision of God by defining our identity.

I. Acts 21:37-40 Mistaken Identity

Read: Acts 21:37-40

Paul speaks to the Roman commander and surprise, the commander finds out he speaks Greek. This convinces him that Paul was not the Egyptian who caused so much trouble in Jerusalem a few years back and skipped town before he could be captured.

Because of a similar situation in Jerusalem, the commander mistook Paul’s identity for that of a terrorist.

Has anyone ever done that to you? Not mistake you for a terrorist, but were surprised when they found out you were a Christian?

·       Perhaps the reason for the mistaken identity was because the person didn’t know you well.

·       Perhaps the reason for the mistaken identity was because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

·       Perhaps the reason for the mistake identity was because you had forgotten you were a Christians and acted in a way that was contrary to how the person perceived Christians should act.

Paul set the record straight by telling the Roman commander who he was, he defined his identity by telling him he was a Jew from Tarsus.  The next time your identity as a Christian is mistaken, I pray you’ll have the opportunity and boldness to also set the record straight.

Transition: Defining his identity gave Paul the opportunity to speak to the crowd, not only about who he was, but whose ....he was.

II. Acts 22:1-5   Old Identity

Read: Acts 22:1-5

Notice how Paul begins to define his identity to the crowd. He speaks to the Jews in their language. This would have separated him not only from the Romans who had him bound, but from the Jews from Asia who would have spoken Greek, not Aramaic, and who were responsible for causing all the trouble in Jerusalem concerning Paul.

But that’s not all. Speaking in Aramaic would have certainly gotten the attention of the native Jews by touching their sense of national pride. Paul had their attention.

You see, at one time....Paul was just like them. That was his point. By revealing his ‘old identity’ Paul was saying, look, I was just like you, I did the things you do, I believed the things you believe...including persecuting the group you call the Way, those who follow Jesus. If you don’t believe me, just ask the religious leaders.

Notice that he doesn’t attack or accuse them....he relates to them by identifying with them...at least in the way he used to be. Why would he do that? Paul thought, if God could save me, a far away form Jesus as I was, He can save them too. Paul knew and he wanted then to know that he was no different than they are.

Identification with others when sharing the Gospel is important, but it is not enough. Remembering who you were, is not enough...you have to remember who you are.

Transition: When we define our identity it must not first be who we were. Paul understood that. That’s why he tells the crowd about his new identity...in Jesus Christ.

III. Acts 22:6-20         New Identity

Read: Acts 22:6-20

Paul makes no attempt to preach to the crowd. Instead, he uses the most powerful form of witness...personal testimony of what happened to him.

He tells them that in spite of his hostility towards Christianity, he was saved. And note Paul said he was saved to ‘...know His (God’s) will...’ But this didn’t mean he knew where God wanted him to go or what he wanted him to do.

Paul would learn that the will of God, first and foremost, meant being in relationship with His Son, Jesus. When Paul came to understand that, he had the power to do anything God called him to do.

Look, knowing God’s will is not about some itinerary you think He has for your life. God’s will, first and foremost,

·       is for you to be in an ongoing love relationship with Jesus Christ.

·       It is the expectancy that Jesus Christ, living in you, will work through you.

·       When you expect Him to do that, you are in the will of God.

Paul was telling the crowd I once identified with you, but now my identity, who I am, is in Jesus Christ.

Transition: Paul had their attention, they were sitting on the edge of their seats, as it were. So...what happens next? Does he win them over?

IV. Acts 22:21-29       Dual Identity

Read: Acts 22:21-29

No, Paul doesn’t win them over, in fact he add duel to the fire and the riot begins again. Why? It was not just because Paul said God told him to take the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ to the Gentiles...it was part of it, but this was not the straw that broke the proverbial camels back.

It was because Paul told them that God said ‘Quick, leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

The Jews thought it was bad enough to think that God’s blessings would be shared with filthy Gentiles, but to imply that God’s blessings will be removed from us and placed upon the Gentiles was too much.

·       Of course this is exactly what Paul said in Romans 9-11 would happen. And he had already written that letter.

That was enough...they wanted Paul to shut up and to be killed. So the riot heated up again.

The Roman commander steps in again and takes Paul to the barracks to interrogate him. He thinks that if he beat Paul hard and long enough, he would get to the bottom of this riot.

Then as they were preparing to flog Paul, he pulls the trump card.... ‘Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?’ The answer is no...it is not legal and the commander knew it and let Paul go until the next day when he would be ordered to stand before the Sanhedrin.

What is significant about this and what should be comforting to us, is like Paul, we have dual citizenship as Christians.

·       We are all citizens of some country in the world.

·       But we are also citizens of Heaven by faith in Jesus.

And we can appeal to that citizenship when we are in trouble. In essence that is the example Paul sets here.

·       He defined his identity as a Roman and Rome came to his aid...well Roman law came to his aid.

·       We define our identity in Christ and Jesus comes to our aid.

I believe we suffer much of our anxiety and worry as Christians because we have forgotten our identity as Christians, children of God. We have help awaiting us...if we but remember who we are and call upon the One who not only saved us but sustains us in every situation.

Read: In 1 Corinthians 6:20, Paul wrote: ‘you were bought at a price...’

We didn’t pay the price for citizenship in heaven, Jesus paid it for us and by faith in Jesus, we were born again, born from above as citizens of heaven. And just like there are benefits to being a citizen of a country here on earth, there are benefits to being a citizen of Heaven...amen?

What are the benefits? For those who attended my adult Sunday school class called ‘the good stuff about being a Christian’ you already have this, but I think it’s important enough to give out again.

Hand out ‘I am’ sheets.

Conclusion

ILL: During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, there was a shortage of currency in the British Empire. Representatives carefully searched the nation in hopes of finding silver to meet the emergency. After one month, the committee returned with its report. “We have searched the empire in vain seeking to find silver. To our dismay, we found none anywhere except in the cathedrals where the statures of the saints are made of choice silver.’ To this, Oliver Cromwell eloquently answered, “Let’s melt down the saints and put them into circulation.” That reply carries a deeper meaning than Cromwell ever intended. (James Drake)

Our identity is not that of an abstract Christian whose purpose and meaning in life won’t be revealed until we meet Jesus face to face in heaven. Our identity as a Christian is to be revealed and lived out NOW.

The challenge of our text this morning

·       is to be real people, living in a real world,

·       who choose every day to define our identity as Children of God

·       who live in a loving relationship with Jesus, God’s Son

·       and who set the record straight when we are the recipients of mistaken identity.

When we do that, God’s will....will be done in and through us, all for His glory.

We enlarge our view of God by defining our identity.