Almost Christian

[AI translation] My Christian Brothers and Sisters! In the wake of the Word that has been read, one of the most interesting scenes of the New Testament comes to life before us. The apostle Paul, returning to Jerusalem from his third pilgrimage, was arrested and imprisoned by his enemies. He was sent to the Roman governor, Festus, who was also the guest of the viceroy of the Jews, Agrippa. In front of such a distinguished and illustrious audience, the apostle was able to deliver his plea, which was nothing less than a very strong and powerful testimony in favour of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. It was under the influence of this speech that King Agrippa says to Paul these characteristic words: 'You almost persuade me to become a Christian! So there was a time in the life of the non-Christian King Agrippa when he could have been a Christian. There was a moment in his life when he almost became a Christian. He was barely missing something to join the ranks of those redeemed by Jesus Christ from eternal death. She almost became an heir to eternal life. Why almost, and why not quite? Where was the moment, or where were the moments, that prevented the "almost" from becoming the "quite"? That is what we are looking for in this story this morning. It is all the more reason to take the trouble to do so, because even today, for so many of us, our greatest mistake is to be almost Christians. Let us now face the question of what this almost-Christianity consists of, and how we can change it.Paul openly asks King Agrippa the question. And without waiting for an answer, he immediately continues, "I know that you do. For without knowledge of the prophetic books he could not have been king of a people whose nationality was one with its religion. And those prophetic books - today's Old Testament - speak from the first letter to the last of the Jesus to whom Paul has just testified. But it was not only from the prophetic writings, but also by reputation, that the king knew the Jesus of Nazareth, who was spoken of by people throughout the land, in parlours and huts, in every part of the country. The Roman soldiers who guarded Jesus' tomb could be paid to keep silent about what they saw on Easter morning, but that could not stop the news of Christ's resurrection from getting out. So Agrippa had read the Scriptures, knew the life of Jesus, the events that happened to him, yet Christ never became a living reality in his life. Why?
1) Because it is not enough to know the Scriptures, it is not enough to know Jesus to be a Christian. Faith is much more than mere knowledge. The undeniable fact is that there is knowledge in faith. To believe in Christ, one must first of all know Him. One must know His life, His teachings and His works. But this is only one part, the foundation of real faith.
The word "faith" has a double meaning: on the one hand, it means believing what has happened, believing what is true, knowing things as they are or have been. It means that I believe that what is recorded about Jesus in the Gospels is true, just as I believe the events recorded about Louis the Great or about Maria Theresa in the chronicles. A Muslim can believe all this about Jesus, Agrippa believed all this, and any of us today can believe it, without this belief making anyone a Christian. Because this belief is only a so-called historical belief. Anyone who believes in Christ with this faith is as indifferent to the life of Jesus as he is to the life of Alexander the Great or any other historical greatness. For faith is not simply a calling, but an acceptance with confidence. True, Christian, saving faith means, therefore, accepting Jesus Christ, whom I believe died on the cross and rose again, as my Saviour, accepting God as my Father, and opening my soul to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
The almost Christian knows the Bible, the very Christian feeds on the Bible. The almost-Christian believes God, the fully-Christian lives Christ. The almost-Christian has Christ in his head, the fully-Christian has Christ in his heart. This "almost" becomes "fully" when historic faith becomes saving faith, when the knowledge of Christ becomes the experience of Christ, when Christianity descends from the head to the heart.
2) Another characteristic feature of the almost-Christian man is seen in King Agrippa's behaviour when, after the great speech of defence, Agrippa, retiring with the whole court, consulted with his entourage and found that there was nothing in the man worthy of death or imprisonment. Agrippa has to admit that there was nothing wrong with Paul's sermon, the preacher himself is a nice, sympathetic person, speaks beautifully and truthfully - and yet Agrippa lets the whole sermon pass his ears. He does not do what the sermon called him to do, and continues to live as if nothing had happened. The sermon is good, the preacher is a nice man - he just doesn't take him at his word, even though he speaks the truth. In almost all cases, this is still the case today. There are preachers who have a real following in a congregation, whose words are listened to, whose sermons are attended, whose words are heard, whose words are believed - and yet they are not accepted. If someone were to come into this room right now from the outside and say the house is on fire, we would not be delighted with their voice or their oratorical skills as they shout this message, but we would be trying to get out of here as quickly as possible. And if someone talks about God's punishing wrath coming upon this world like a devastating storm, like a fire upon a house, so we should flee from it by repentance - then we delight in preaching, rather than repenting.
Many times and in many congregations I have observed, my brothers and sisters, that when the pastor, for example on Good Friday, speaks about the sufferings of Christ with his whole soul in him, and even with the Holy Spirit of God in his words, many people wipe their tears of emotion, it seems that everyone is listening and is carried away by the Word. Yet, when the service is over, the pastor receives a congratulation or two for a fine sermon, but the Saviour waits in vain, no one comes to him to surrender himself to him, to prostrate himself at his feet. Even after the most melancholy sermon, when we leave the church, beyond the first street corner, the seeds of the Word have already been blown out of our hearts by the winds of politics or household or fashion. It is a terrible thing, Brethren, when a man hears a sermon - neither opposing what he has heard, nor opposing it, nor rebelling against it, nor even, if he can be very honest, giving the preacher the truth - and yet he simply lets it all go by his ears and goes on as if nothing had happened, as if he had heard nothing. It is a sad thing when one acts like King Agrippa, who almost patted Paul on the back and praised him for being a good fellow, a skilful orator, a fine speaker, nothing wrong with his oratory - but he just does not take him at his word.
How good it would be, my brothers and sisters, if after the service we did not talk about politics, fashion, household chores, but about the message we have heard, about Jesus. We could hurry home and water the seeds of the Word sown in our souls with our prayers, or we could stay here - say in the council chamber - and continue to talk about the big questions raised in the sermon. Let us not be almost captivated by a sermon, but let us strive to be fully engaged by the message!
3) Finally, King Agrippa is also similar to the "almost" Christians in that he almost did something, let's say: he could have done something for the kingdom of God, but he did nothing. At the end of his deliberations, he said to Festus: 'This man could have been released if he had not appealed to the emperor. In any case, as king, he would have had the power to release the prisoner Paul, so that he could have continued his missionary work among the Gentiles. So Agrippa could have done something indirectly to further the spread of the kingdom of God, but he did not. Thus Paul was taken prisoner in Rome, shipwrecked, imprisoned in Rome for two years and martyred during the persecutions of Nero. You cannot get away with all this by saying that this is the way God wanted it and that it was his imprisonment in Rome that gave us the Apostle Paul's letters - because that is the way things are from God's perspective, not ours. It's another thing that God even made good out of what the clumsy Agrippa had messed up. We humans are only responsible for what Agrippa, in his royal power and influence, did or did not do.
Almost-Christians only almost do something for the kingdom of God. But he who has only almost done something has done nothing. This fatal "almost" implies that one had the opportunity, the occasion and the ability to do something, but did not do it. My brothers and sisters, it is my experience that our time, our money, our talents are almost desperately wasted in such unused opportunities. God has given each of us a lot of time, a lot of ability, and more or less money - have we served the kingdom of God with these opportunities as we could have served? We would do well to give a very serious account of this for once, and if the result of that account is that we have served almost, or even nearly as well as we could have done given our talents, then we are no different from Agrippa, of whom we have just had a very damning opinion. I may be wrong, but it is my conviction that none of us served the kingdom of God with time, ability and money commensurate with our talents. Without effort, we could have made even greater sacrifices. So, in that sense, we are all almost Christians.
Brothers and sisters, when Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost make me become a Christian," he himself pronounced judgment on himself. There is a great deal of tragedy in this "almost". It is like a shipwrecked man almost being saved. Not somewhere far out in the waves, but right next to the lifeboat, sinking forever. It's like someone, like a starving, destitute beggar almost getting fed, almost getting lunch from someone, but not getting it, and starving to death. The tragedy in our lives is compounded by the fact that we are content with this almost-Christian life. And yet, Brothers and Sisters, the man who almost reached the station for the train, and was only one minute late, missed the train just as much as the man who reached the station an hour later. He who has almost reached the kingdom of God is not yet in the kingdom of God; he who is almost following Christ is not following Him at all.
Is your life at any point similar, my Brother, to the life of King Agrippa? Jer, with me, we ask God to deliver our faith from our head to our heart, and that we may have the strength and courage to do all things, if need be, for the kingdom of God. Let us ask God to make the "almost" become the "quite" in our lives!
Amen.
Date: 30 July 1939.