Who are You?

I have, though, been asked, What are you?

Within the first month of our ministry in Wisconsin, I was approached by the unsaved husband of one of the ladies in our church.

He introduced himself to me by asking, So what are you?

I remember being stunned by that question.

My mind raced as I tried to figure out how to respond.

What do you say to that?

Um I'm a human being?

As it turned out, he wanted to know my family history.

He was Swedish.

Yes.

He had heard that I was part Swedish, and so my ancestry, what I am, was important to him.

And now I'm confused because I'm part Swedish and part Bohemian, so there's the Czech group going.

Should I identify as Czech or should I identify as Swedish?

Or maybe the Irish side?

That was almost thirteen years ago.

That question, what are you, is even more important today.

In all the wrong ways.

Our postmodern culture is obsessed with self-determined identity.

What you are is more important than who you are.

What you are in your self-determination is superior to all else.

It's the inner personal identity of a person that has become all-important.

How one self-identifies has become supremely important.

As a result, we have political identities, racial identities, ethnic and cultural identities, and the most vocal today is gender identities.

This personalized religion of self-identification has escalated to the point where you can be fined in some places of our country for using the wrong pronoun to refer to someone.

Self-identification has become a god to be worshipped.

What about you?

Is identity important to you?

Is it meaningful to you to have some means, some marker of identification, something that says, this is who I am?

Maybe, like the gentleman who approached me, your identity is found in your ethnicity.

Maybe it's found in your culture.

Maybe it's found in your political association.

Maybe even you are one of those who struggles inwardly, privately, with gender identity.

Now I know it's only my second Lord's Day standing before you, but I would like to make a significant request of you.

Are you ready?

If there is anything in your life that rises to a level of great significance in your life by which you identify yourself, demote it.

Demote it.

Not asking you to ignore it.

Not asking you to forget it or in some way remove it from your consciousness.

I'm not asking you to relegate what is important to you, to your personal human identity, to a place of insignificance, but to a position that is not primary, that is not foremost in your life.

Let's bring it down.

Why would I ask that of you?

Well, first there's a practical reason.

It's because self-identification promotes division.

Rather than bringing people together, it tends to drive them apart.

So if we are going to obey Scripture and live out the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, standing firm upon our own assertive self-identification will not be conducive to obeying that command.

But secondly, there's another reason, and that is there is a greater identity that supersedes any other we might have.

I'm not suggesting that our perceptions of self-identification are pointless or even unimportant.

What I am saying is that there is an identification that is more consequential, that is of greater import and more fundamental than that which we assign to ourselves.

Well, enough introduction.

What's my point?

My point is this.

As Christians, we must understand and be crystal clear about our identity, and to do that, we must know who we are.

Why are you here?

Think about that question for a minute.

Why are you here?

Is it because this has been your church home most or all of your life?

Is it because you identify with our theology?

Or perhaps you simply identify with the free church?

Or maybe you're here because this church is in close proximity to your home.

Or maybe you don't know who you are and you're just searching.

You're discovering, you're thinking.

If you are, welcome.

More than that, who are we?

Together.

Corporately.

Are we more than a collection of random, self-identifying people who struggle to agree and get along?

Are we more than a ragtag group of motley characters gathering every Sunday because we think it's the right thing to do?

Who are we?

I would direct your attention to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, as we seek to establish who we are.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

I'd like you to notice this morning the first three verses.

To the Church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus says the Lord.

Over the next few months, I want to walk through the first three chapters of the book of 1 Corinthians.

We need to hear what has been recorded for us in this part of God's Word because it shows us who we are, and it clarifies who we are not.

We will also see in these chapters our purpose as a local church, what we are to be about, and what is to guide and to shape us.

Now, understanding these first three verses ought to erase any confusion about our identity.

I wish these first three verses would be plastered over local news and television and national news, because it would straighten out a whole bunch of identity issues.

But the Apostle Paul didn't write this letter to this ancient church because they were uncertain about their identity.

He wrote, at least in part, because they had inflated egos.

The city of Corinth was destroyed about 150 years before Christ.

Then Julius Caesar rebuilt it about 44 BC to honor himself.

From that point forward, Corinth grew and grew and grew to become, maybe we might say, the New York City or the Los Angeles of its time.

The city's position put it in control of two major harbors so that it controlled, it dominated the entire shipping industry for the area.

As a result, the city grew to be extremely prosperous and powerful.

But with that prosperity came problems that accompany prosperity.

The distance between the poor and the wealthy increased.

Those with money began to use it for their personal advantage by buying friends, buying possessions, even purchasing power and authority.

And as some of those people then came to faith in Christ, those same problems came with them into the local church.

Position, power, and wealth were abused by the believers in the church at Corinth.

That's one of the many issues that the Apostle Paul wrote to correct.

But understand this.

The way he wrote to correct those problems was by addressing identity.

He wanted them to be reminded of who they were.

There are three important aspects that I want you to notice this morning.

There are more than this in these three verses, but I want us to focus for a few moments on verse 2 primarily.

Here we see how God identifies us, both individually and as a church.

There are three characteristics of our identification.

He says we are identified by who possesses us, by our calling, and by our submission.

So let's consider those briefly, beginning with our identity being determined by who possesses us.

Notice he says in verse 2, to the church of God.

To the church of God.

Now in verse 1, it was through the will of God that Paul became an apostle.

He was an apostle of Jesus Christ.

It's the same God who possessed Paul as an apostle that possesses the church.

Now the focus here, interestingly, is not on the universal church, not on the worldwide church.

It's on the local assembly.

Look what he says next, to the church of God that is in Corinth.

In some ways, it's easier to grasp the truth that the universal church belongs to God.

But here we see that even faith evangelical free church belongs to God.

He possesses the local church.

The church of God is a possessive phrase.

That possessive phrase occurs ten times in the New Testament.

Five of those ten are in 1 Corinthians.

One of them is in 2 Corinthians.

Case you're like me and slow on the math first thing in the morning.

Six out of ten, that means 60% of the occurrences of this possessive phrase are to the church at Corinth.

Apparently they had a problem with identity.

Maybe they were like some of us.

We like to stake our own claim on the church, don't we?

As though we are the ones who possess it.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say, Pastor, this is my church.

I haven't heard that here.

We like to assert our own ownership of the church, don't we?

We like to assert our ownership of the church so that we can control it or direct it or to ensure that our voice is heard.

We like to express our feelings when something is done with which we do not agree.

It is, after all, my church, right?

Wrong.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it is not your church.

It is not my church.

The church did not belong to the wealthy in Corinth.

It did not belong to the poor.

It did not belong to the strong or the powerful.

It did not belong to the weak.

It did not belong to the elders or to any pastor.

It was the church of God that assembled in the city of Corinth.

The church does not have identity because of who attends.

Or by who is a member.

Or by whom it is led.

It has identity because of who possesses it.

Who are we?

Right this minute, who are we?

We are the church of God.

And we can even go further and apply that on a personal level.

Two times, chapter 6, verse 20, and chapter 7, verse 23, the apostle Paul told these ancient Christians, you, singular, are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

Now I don't know about you, but if I buy something for a price, it's mine.

Right?

It's not yours, it's mine.

So very clearly in this book, the Apostle Paul is telling this church, collectively, you belong to God.

Individually, you belong to God.

You are not your own.

Who we are as individuals and as a church begins with possession.

It is not what we possess, but who possesses us.

We have a tendency to squirm a bit with that kind of language today.

We've just celebrated the 4th of July, right?

What are we celebrating?

Our freedom.

The fact that no one possesses us.

We live in a free country and we rebel against any idea of someone possessing us, but beloved, we must come to the blessed place of accepting that the one who paid the price for our sin purchased us with his blood.

He is the one who possesses us.

The richness and the security and the confidence in our identity begins with that truth.

If you have come to faith in Christ, you belong to God.

And this assembly of believers belongs to Him.

Now, as we move on in verse 2, we find, secondly, that our identity is based in our calling.

It's based in our calling.

He says, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Within the middle of the middle part of this verse are two characteristics of our calling.

Two distinct characteristics that are nevertheless inseparable.

First, he says, the church of God, the church possessed by God, is composed of those who are sanctified.

To be sanctified means to be set apart as unique, as opposed to what is common.

Let me give you an example.

In our packing to move here, Allison packed several boxes of fine china.

I don't know why she didn't want me to participate in that, but it just happened and it was done.

Several boxes of fine china.

But she also packed several boxes of everyday or common dishes.

The china is sanctified.

It is set apart for special use.

The other dishes are common.

They are everyday normal dishes.

The church, even local assemblies like us here this morning, is composed of those whom God has set apart.

You are no longer common or normal.

You are sanctified.

You are set apart by God for God.

That's what it means to be sanctified or to be holy.

The verb here indicates that this was a past event that has continuing effects.

Which leads us to the second aspect of this calling.

Not only are we set apart by God, but those who are set apart are called to be saints or called to be holy ones.

That's going to be a little bit confusing, so let me try to make sense of this for you.

Sanctified and saints.

Two words used in your Bible if you're using the ESV.

Sanctified and saints are the same word.

Same word.

One is a verbal form, the other is an adjective.

We were set apart so that we might be ones who are set apart for God in life.

In other words, you were sanctified to be a saint.

You were set apart to be set apart from the world.

That's your calling.

And this calling is one of two important themes in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians.

The other is a focus on Christ Jesus.

If you'd notice that, it mentioned five times just in these first three verses.

We'll talk more about that as we go on in this chapter.

But here we told, we are told we are called to be saints or to be holy, to be set apart.

Notice how this theme of calling is woven throughout this chapter, especially the first section.

Verse 1, Paul was called to be an apostle.

Then we read that this is written to those whom God has set apart and are called to be set apart.

Those whom God has set apart are called to be set apart in order to call upon the name of Christ.

Verse 9, God called us into the fellowship of his Son.

Verse 24, in God's calling there is diversity.

In verse 26, our calling has nothing to do with our natural abilities or standing in life.

This calling is woven all the way throughout this chapter.

So you can see now that our identity is not found in our association with any particular group or even with our standing within a local church.

Our identity is found in God's work of setting us apart for himself.

In his particular calling to be his own people who are unique.

That is, we are holy, set apart as vessels for honor for his great glory.

We are like fine China.

That God intends for a special purpose.

That too can be applied individually and corporately.

That's who you are as a Christian.

And that's who the church is.

We are an assembly of set-apart people, which means as an assembly of God's people, we are to be apart.

We are to be distinct as opposed to common in our world.

Now don't miss the impact that this has on our lives.

The one who possesses us has called us to himself.

He has purposely set us apart for his own use and his own glory.

Calling us to display this in the midst of a sin-cursed world.

Do you see how that gives us identity?

We don't have to discover who we are.

If you have trusted in Christ alone, you are His.

That is who you are.

That is who we are.

And we don't need to find out what we are then to do.

We simply need to live out our calling.

We need to be set apart.

Lastly, notice that our identity is grounded in our submission.

Called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

So you can see the progression here.

Those who are called then turn and call upon Christ because he is their Lord.

That implies something much more intense and dangerous than we experience today, at least in our country.

Those of you who are from other places in the world may know more about this than we do.

See, a massive temple dedicated to the Roman emperor and his family sat in the main area of the city of Corinth.

And Roman citizens were expected to go to that temple and offer worship to their emperor, to proclaim him as Lord.

To call someone Lord implies an attitude of submission.

It implies belonging and trust and devotion.

To call one Lord implies that he is master and we are servants.

In the ancient world at the Corinth, the Corinthian church lived in, Caesar was Lord.

It was expected that the people in the Roman world honor him as such because he was the great liberator.

He was the strong monarch.

He was even called the savior and benefactor of the world.

So to call upon Christ as Lord was subversive.

It denied Caesar as Lord.

It denied ultimate submission to Caesar and gave it instead to a crucified and risen Savior.

In fact, a few decades after this letter was written, a lawyer and magistrate of ancient Rome by the name of Pliny the Younger used emperor worship as the determining factor in whether someone was a Christian.

Mostly this was for taxation and persecution purposes, but if they were willing to deny that Christ was Lord and then offer incense to a statue of the emperor, then it was determined they were not Christians.

To worship Caesar as Lord meant you were not a Christian.

To worship Christ as Lord meant you denied everything about Caesar's lordship.

You see how this formed their identity, don't you?

The Christians of that time were people who submitted to Christ as Lord, not Caesar.

Now we don't live under a Caesar today.

But we certainly have lords to which we submit, don't we?

Even if they are self-made lords, we still have them.

A Lord is that which calls us to obey, to follow, calls us to trust, and to which we respond favorably.

I'm afraid that we have too many other lords besides Christ.

Maybe it's a pleasure of some sort that comes before Christ.

Maybe it's a habit or addictions.

Maybe it's something good, like family or work that somehow has worked its place into taking a greater priority than Christ alone.

I would submit to you that perhaps the greatest Lord in our present culture may be the Lord of self.

When self is Lord, anything goes.

When self is Lord, there is no other ultimate standard.

No one can challenge or correct self.

Instead, the Lord of self seeks to establish itself as an unquestionable Caesar.

What I feel rules.

What I think is truth.

What I want is done.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons Jesus said in Matthew, whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

The cross was an instrument of death.

In essence, Jesus was saying, self must die.

The Lord of self must die.

Why?

Because in belonging to Jesus and coming to Jesus, we belong to him.

We are now his own unique set apart people who must submit to him.

Who are you?

Who are we?

Does this passage describe us?

Or do we have room to grow?

This is who we must be.

There are no other options if we have been called by God into the fellowship of his Son.

We must say, both individually and together as an assembly of believers, we must say, I am His.

That's who I am.

Let's pray.

Our Lord Jesus, we come to you confessing our sin.

We are not a perfect people, and yet you died for us to redeem us, to set us apart for yourself.

So we come to you confessing our sin and not just confessing our sin.

We come together now confessing our trust in you.

There will be times when we fail, there will be times when we falter, but we declare together, we are yours.

And there is nothing in this world, there is no one in this world to whom we would rather belong.

Because you are all we need.

Amen.