The Name We Claim

I don’t know how it came about that very first time. No one does. Luke does not tell us. Maybe he did not know. But somewhere in the mix of people from Cyprus and Cyrene who were spreading the word about Jesus a pure Gentile, neither Jewish by birth or conversion, heard the good news.

Maybe this first man simply asked. Perhaps Simon of Cyrene, the man who carried the cross of Jesus according to Luke, was telling his story about that terrible and beautiful moment, and someone asked him to explain the good news. Cyrene was a chief city of Libya on the Mediterranean coast in North Africa. Libya is in the news today as a center for terrorism and perhaps the terrorism that is killing Coptic Christians in Egypt.

Maybe Simon of Cyrene didn’t really think about the theological and sociological and political consequences of sharing the good news with a pure pagan. Maybe he did.

In any event, a Greek person, completely disconnected from the covenant of promise, heard the good news and responded in faith. The Holy Spirit fell on him or them just as he had fallen on the Jews at the beginning. Gentiles were convinced that Jesus was the Promised One. They joined the gathering of believers with other disciples of Jesus.

Thus began the transition from disciples of Jesus perceived as a Jewish sect to the disciples of Jesus perceived on their own. Instead of being associated with Moses and Abraham they were now associated with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior regardless of what they knew or do not know about the Old Testament.

The news of the resurrection of Jesus could not be contained to one group. Everyone on the planet needed to know that a man had come back to life after being dead and buried. Death has been defeated! Who could withhold such information? How could anyone see it as only about a single race or nationality?

The spread of the gospel to the Greeks at Antioch seems to be of this spontaneous nature. These messengers dramatically changed the church. They are doing what naturally follows from the discovery of great news. They are telling everybody.

The disciples of Jesus had various names in those early days:  “followers of the Way,” “Nazarenes,” or members of the “sect of the Nazarenes.” As we see in Acts 2, they were also called “believers.” And here they are called “disciples.”

The term “Christian” appeared first at Antioch. It means “Christ-one” or “little Christ” or simply “follower of Christ.” It was apparently given by Gentiles to all who worshipped Jesus. 

The adjectival ending of Christian denotes “adhering to” or even “belonging to” as in slave ownership.

The term is used only three times in the New Testament. 

• Agrippa asked Paul (Acts 26:28): “Do you think that in a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” 
• Peter used it in I Peter 4:16: “If you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.”
• And here in our text the historical footnote: the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

Merriam-Webster Definition of Christian: of or relating to Jesus Christ or the religion based on his teachings. : of, relating to, or being Christians: treating other people in a kind and generous way.

Here at Syrian Antioch, in the NE corner of the Mediterranean Sea, a church was birthed that included both Jews and Gentiles, the first such church in the spread of Christianity. Antioch was a major city, the third great city of the empire after Rome and Alexandria, with 500,000 people. Imagine how different it was for these followers of Jesus, fleeing persecution in Jerusalem, to arrive here and begin telling their story in this intensely urban, amazingly diverse melting pot of slaves, Roman officials, and indigenous pagans. 

Three of Paul’s missionary journeys originated at this church, making it the great missionary congregation of the early church. Some people think that Luke was from Antioch and maybe also Theophilus to whom he refers in his gospel and the Book of Acts.

Christian: It’s the Name We Want to Hear

Telling only to Jews. The natural impulse carried the gospel to people like them—fellow Jews. This is not the work that created the name “Christian.”

We hear the name Christian from people unlike us—from Gentiles in Antioch.  The outsiders see the difference better than the insiders.

Close association with Christ is necessary to get this label. When they heard it, they knew that they were being identified with Christ, which was their goal in life.

We want to hear this label, or whatever corresponds to it, in our own day and time. We want the culture to see us as Christ’s servants and attendants. 

Christian: It’s the Name We Want to Own

The name could mean “belonging to Christ,” like a slave. This would be in perfect unity with the teaching of the New Testament. Paul called himself the doulos of Christ. Romans 1:1, as elsewhere. The word doulos means “a slave, bondman, or a servant, attendant.” Sometimes it is translated one way, sometimes the other.

The term “Christian” came to us from the unbelieving world as a way of identifying those early believers in Jesus. But very soon the followers of Jesus claimed that name and began to self-identify with it. Why? Because it is a great name for who we really are.

Claiming the name means we get to define it. After nearly 2,000 years the term has lost its original punch. Now it means “treating other people in a kind and generous way.” That is not the original definition. The original definition had everything to do with our identity in Christ.

Christian: It’s the Name We Want to Earn

By Proclamation: Jews on the Geographical Fringes, “men from Cyprus and Cyrene,” “began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus” (Acts 11:20).

By Demonstration of the Spirit’s Power: “The Lord’s Hand Was with Them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.” (Acts 11:21)

• The Holy Spirit empowered the witness of the disciples just as he empowers our witness. We find ourselves explaining about Jesus, and suddenly we have an intense sense of God’s presence in the middle of it all.

By Living the Christ Life.

• We ought to live in such a way that people associate us with Jesus. We should sound like him and walk like him and be like him enough that they see us as “little Christs.”
• John says that if we say we know him, we ought to walk as he walked.” (I John 2:6).

By Sharing in his Sufferings. Paul wanted to know the “fellowship of his suffering.” He said “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” 

• Even in secular Europe which has largely abandoned its Christian roots, the radical Muslims attack because the cross of Christ is everywhere in those countries. The enemies of the cross see these people as Christians though they no longer truly confess Jesus as Lord. “The soldiers of the Caliphate,” Islamic State insists, target any nation which “carries the banner of the cross in Europe.”
• You may be called to suffer for this name. That will be a great privilege that you should receive with honor and thanksgiving rather than complaint or confusion. As with these first Christians, we identify with Jesus in our suffering.

I think this is a very good time, dear people, to remember who we truly are. We are not chasing the American Dream. We are not living like everyone else. We are not who we used to be. We are “Christians,” Christ-ones. We have been bought with a price. And we are planted in our city so witness to the risen Christ.

Barnabas saw “what the grace of God had done” in that great city of Antioch. I want you to look around and see the faces of your fellow worshippers. I want you to see what the grace of God has done in New Orleans.

Now I want you to look inside and see what the grace of God has done in you. It’s time to give thanks that you bear that name which is above every name—the name of Jesus.