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"Finding our identity in Christ" Ephesians 1:3-14

by Phil Ashey, revised by Clancy Nixon

January 2, 2005

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.holyspiritdulles.org

The graffiti on the wall of an underpass was one that said this: "How can I be somebody

in a world that treats me as if I'm nobody?" That's our question this morning... the

question of identity.

A couple of years ago, a movie called Antwone Fisher came out. It was produced

and directed by Denzel Washington, based on a true story. It's the story of a young black

man in the Navy who ends up in a psychiatrist's office because he gets in violent fights.

Through the counseling we discover his real story. It's the story of a little boy who was

abandoned by his mother after she gave birth to him while she was in prison... whose

father was killed before he was born... A boy who was cared for by a cruel foster mother

and aunt, who abused him terribly. It's the story of a boy inside a man, desperately

looking for his identity and unable to find it.

Without an identity, Antwone had no resources to deal with the challenges of

life. We parents have the power to confer on our children a sense of identity, to impart a

blessing. But Antwone had no parents. He was a victim, an angry victim, of his own

unprocessed pain. He begins to understand himself when the Navy psychiatrist, played

by Denzel Washington, encourages him to look at who he is. Antwone tried to find his

identity in being a good person, and tried to live up to the unfair and abusive expectations

of his foster family--- These were the only people around him who had the power to

confer an identity and impart a blessing.

The real Antwone wrote a poem about his search for himself, which I'd like to read

to you.

Who will cry for the little boy/ lost and all alone;

Who will cry for the little boy/ abandoned without his own;

Who will cry for the little boy/ who never had for keeps

Who will cry for the little boy/ who knew well hurt and pain;

Who will cry for the little boy/ a good boy he tried to be;

Who will cry for the little boy/ who cries inside of me?

Fathers have a strategic God-given role to play in conferring an identity on their sons and

daughters, and blessing them in that. Dads, tell your children who they are, and whose

they are. Tell them the stories of how our mighty God saved you from the pit, and how

you find your identity as a servant of the King. Put your hands on your children and pray

blessings on them. When the psychiatrist asked Antwone where he came from, he said,

"I came from under a rock." The result of this kind of life is incredible loneliness. None

of us can live very long without an identity. The stress and pain are too much. Most of

us try to find our identity wherever we receive meaning. These things can be good

things, but they are not things to build an identity on. In matters of identity, the good is

often the enemy of the great, and leads to idolatry.

One common way Americans try to build their identity is around their

possessions -- but we are not our possessions! We have possessions, but we are not

our possessions. In the great stock market crash of 1929, some people looked at the stock

market ticker showing how low the numbers dropped, and they jumped out of skyscraper

windows. They could not imagine living apart from financial wealth. The thousands who

lost their lives and homes to Tsunamis in Indonesia, India and elsewhere found that the

most beautiful homes, coastal villages, even churches could be destroyed in an instant.

If my identity is based on my 401k statement or on the latest ridiculously high valuation

of my house, then if those things are taken away, then I become zero. Would you repeat

after me: "I am not my possessions!"

Once we've got that one down, it's all to easy to try to build our identity around

our work -- But we are not our work! It is so easy to lose your work! Our work often

changes; uh oh, another "reorg" is coming... If we base our identity in our work, we

could feel close to zero if we were unemployed or UNDER-employed. Yet that is all too

common. Men often fall into this trap. Everyone, repeat after me: "I am not my work!"

One seductive way to build our identity is around our ideology or preferences--

but we are not our ideology or preferences. When I was in college, I based my identity

on my philosophy of life--particularly political philosophy. I thought of myself as in the

Vanguard of the Proletariat. Like many young people, I found my views changing pretty

rapidly as I read more and more. If we base our identity on political movements, we will

be disappointed. Political parties change. Same thing with Denominations. Movements

change and grow and shrink. Preferences in leisure activities and consumer choices are

another way to define yourself through external things. Some people say, "I'm a skier,"

or "I'm a world traveler." Repeat after me: "I am not my preferences."

Okay. Once we have that straightened out, it is easy to fall into the most subtle of

deceptions about out identity: We try to build identity around our relationships with

people -- But we are not our relationships with people! This one is the closest to the

truth of the four, but it still misses the mark. The truth is, our relationships change.

People change. We change. Husbands expand their waistlines, sometimes are not as

loving as they once were, and lose hair. Wives can lose their girlish figures, sometimes

are not as loving as they once were, and sometimes they grow hair. People change--

sometimes they leave us, sometimes they die. Antwone learned that parents die,

sometimes when they are young. Many of us here today are parents. Our children

change, and children eventually leave home -- at least that is the plan! If our identity is

built on our children, then when they leave home, we can feel like our purpose in life is

over. But there is so much more! Say it with me: "I am not my relationships with other

people."

And so if we have possessions but we are not our possessions, we have work but

we're not our work, we have ideologies and preferences but we are not our ideologies and

preferences, and we have relationships with people but we're not our relationships, Then

who are we?? For answers, open your Bibles to page 1156, Ephesians Chapter 1. The

Apostle Paul answers that question with GOOD NEWS: When he writes "to the saints

in Ephesus, the faithful IN Christ Jesus" 1:2... and then he goes on, and six times tells us

the blessings for those who are IN Christ Jesus: ( Verses 1:3, 1:4, 1:7, 1:11, 1:13a,

1:13b.) Paul says the good news of the Gospel is that you have an IDENTITY in Jesus

Christ! When Paul wrote this letter he was writing to a people just like us who were

wrestling with the question of identity. He wrote to

Slaves: people w/o family, w/o resources, w/o purpose or higher calling who

were experiencing a new identity and new calling in Jesus Christ.

Roman Citizens and Subjects: who had decided to follow JC and were facing the

threat of persecution and the LOSS of their rights, their status, their jobs, their

family, their possessions and resources--all because of their willingness to follow

Christ.

To both of these, and to us, PAUL says "you have no idea how BLESSED you are

because you now have an identity that is rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ!" (Read

1:3) This statement begs the question: What is so special, so blessed about an Identity in

Christ?? Let me suggest three things from this passage.

First: It comes with a purpose (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14)

Paul writes that when you and I are IN CHRIST, life is no longer aimless and boring! He

says when you and I have our identity in Christ, our purpose is "to be holy and blameless

in his sight" Our purpose, verse 4, is to be his adopted sons and daughters (1:5), and to

share in God's plan for the whole world, to be part of a movement, verse 9, that "brings

all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, Jesus Christ!"

But three times in this passage Paul comes back to the purpose for which you

and I have been called when we find our identity in Christ: "That we might be for the

praise of His glory." God's GLORY is his beauty --his power, his majesty, his love, his

strength--literally the "weightiness" or substance of the real thing we've always been

looking for. And for you and me to BE for the praise of His glory, means that we allow

Jesus Christ to transform our lives so thoroughly that we begin to look and act just like

him--"Living our lives just as he would if he were us." SO THAT when other people

observe how much we love and care for them, they are curious where that comes from.

In this New Year, take time to reflect and ask yourself this question: Does your life

reflect the praise of God's glory? That is your purpose.

Second, Our identity in Christ comes with resources. (Ephesians 1:3, 7-

13)

You know it's one thing to discover and affirm our true identity in Christ--at home, in

the workplace, at school or anyplace--but it is quite another thing to find the resources

we need to live in a way that is consistent with our identity in Christ. How do we do it?

Where do we find the strength and the courage to be different, to live in Christ? Paul

says we have all the resources IN CHRIST! (Read 1:3) Through Christ we have

resources that are SPIRITUAL and therefore NEVER RUN OUT! Paul calls these

resources "spiritual blessings" and they include:

· (1:7) Forgiveness of sins

· (1:8) All wisdom and understanding

· (7) Grace/Power freely lavished on us

· (1:13) The promised Holy Spirit

· (1:19) Incomparably great power--the same power that raised Jesus and can raise

you and me to new life.

David Prior tells story of one follower of Christ, a director in a major

multinational corporation, who found Christ's resources quite unexpectedly during a

Board meeting! The subject on the agenda of the meeting was entirely outside his area of

expertise. It caused great contention. Frustrations and anger were rising in the room. He

found himself praying about their dilemma. Something came into his mind while he was

praying that was totally unrelated to his own wisdom, but was clearly relevant to the

matter at hand... Catching the CEO's eye, he offered this insight, and it swiftly brought a

resolution to their conundrum. During a coffee break, the CEO came round the table to

ask him how he had come up with something crucial in an area where he had absolutely

no expertise. Put on the spot, the man said that he had been praying and that God, he

believed, had given him that particular insight. The CEO replied: "If that's the kind of

God you believe in, then I'm interested"... Prior, The Ministry of Work, p. 7

When we find our identity in Christ, we have all these resources that we can tap into!

This is no big deal for Jesus, he has all wisdom and all power--but they don't come to us

by default. They come to us as we live into our identity in Christ by asking for his help

and resources in every situation--humbling ourselves, asking, seeking and knocking in

prayer.

Third, our identity in Christ comes with a family (Ephesians 1; Notice that the

subject of every verse is "US" and "WE")

In just a moment, we'll look at a clip from a closing scene in "Antwone Fisher."

Here's the context for this clip: He's just finding his birth family. He finds his Mother

for the first time. She cannot seem to handle seeing her grown up son whom she

abandoned as a baby. She hears him tell her about his life, what he has accomplished, his

poetry, his navy career, and how, as a small boy, he always hoped that his mother would

come get him. She cannot speak to him, and stares blankly into space. The scene you

are about to see follows right after his disappointment with seeing his unresponsive

mother; now he meets his father's extended family, including his grandmother. It's an

incredible scene of WELCOME and embrace into the family he has longed and dreamed

for. Let's watch that now. [CLIP]

That's what it's like when you find your true identity in Jesus Christ--

· You walk into a whole new set of relationships we call the body of Christ

· People you've never met before and didn't choose, but FAMILY--people who

love you, and come alongside you because they share your identity! They are

related to you IN CHRIST.

· They care for you in Christ, they encourage you in Christ,

· They extend the family's blessing to you!

· And they share a WELCOME THAT WILL NEVER END! Because your

identity in Christ cannot be taken away!

"For He chose us in him before the creation of the world... In love he predestined us to

be adopted as sons...to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in

the One he loves!" Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV

Points to the sacrifice that makes our identity possible--the life of Jesus Christ, and his

death and resurrection for our sins! His blood makes the connection--and there is

NOTHING in all of creation... more powerful, more enduring, more life giving than

the blood of JC, shed for you and me.

In conclusion:

Q: How can you and I receive our true identity in Christ?

A: By following Jesus for life! What that means: For life: identity in him. For life: for

as long as you live, and on into eternal life with Him! Listen to this scripture: "But

whoever did want Jesus, who believed he was who he claimed and would do what he

said, God made to be their true selves: their child-of-God selves." John 1:18 The

Message

Do you want Jesus?

· If so, then believe he was who he claimed to be, and that he will do

what he says, and find your identity in him, not in possessions, not in

work, not in ideology, not in people--Receive your identity in Christ: an

identity that comes with 1) A Purpose; 2) Resources; and 3) A Family.

· Not sure you want Jesus? Need more information ?... Then keep

coming to Sunday worship to investigate the truthfulness of Jesus claims,

his promises, and his offer of an identity that will always endure!

Let's pray.