“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21)

I am sure that many people can look back on their courting days when they were on their best behavior trying to impress a boyfriend or girlfriend.  For some that might have been a completely authentic act and there was no guile at all, but for others it might have been a pretense rather than a preview of coming events. Authenticity is hard to come by.  When I spoke at my Dad’s memorial, that was one of the words I used to describe him.  When it came to my father, what a person saw was what what a person got.  He had no ulterior motives to his actions.  He was one of the most real men I ever knew.  As Christians, that is what we need to be- real.

I talked about that in last Sunday’s sermon on New Year’s resolutions.  The world is desperate for realness because we are surrounded by falseness.   Many people are doing the anatomically impossible by speaking out of both side of their mouths and many others seldom walk they way they talk.  It seems being genuine is just a pastime that people do only when it is convenient.  

There is a story about the time a fire broke out in a great theater. Hoping to avoid a panic, the manager sent out the lead actor to make the evacuation announcement. He explained what was happening and what the people needed to do to be safe and the crowd thought it was part of the show and give him applause. The actor continued and repeated the situation with more passion  and the people repeated their applause.  As the actor pleaded with them to run, they shouted bravos and suddenly the walls of the theater started to crash in around them. What they needed that day was a word they regarded as authentic.  Christianity is more than a performance. We need to give the “audience” lifesaving words they regard as real.

The writer of Hebrews states, “Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await him.”  (Hebrews 9:28)  If we have accepted the sin-bearing sacrifice of Christ, then we should also be one of those who is eagerly awaiting His return.  That may be one of those signs of authenticity. Do we anticipate the rapturing of the church with eagerness and try to bring as many others to take that incredible transformation with us, or would we just as soon have the rapture delayed because we prefer this world’s pleasures to heavenly ones.  If we think this world offers anything close to what heaven brings, we may not be a “real” as we would like to think.

When Jesus called for those to follow Him, some had other things to do first.  Dr. Luke records the following in 18:22-23  “When Jesus heard this, He said to him, ‘One thing you

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still lack; sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.’  But when he had heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.”  If we knew that tomorrow was the Day of the Rapture, would we be disappointed?  We might be disappointed for those who we know would be left behind, but would we also be disappointed because we think God can’t make eternity as cool as the world around us?  If we don’t believe in God’s wonderful provision, it is hard to be authentic about our faith.  It will be more of a have-to faith than a want-to one.

There is a story about a young girl who really wanted to go to college, but one of the questions on the application was “Are you a leader?”  She knew she wasn’t, but to be honest, she wrote “no” anticipating the worst.  Surprisingly, she received a letter of acceptance with an attached note that said, “according to our applications, we will have 1,472 leaders enrolling this semester. We thought it would be good to have at least one follower.”  If we were to fill out a heavenly application that asked, “are you an authentic Christian,” there would probably be only few that would write no.  The question is, how many should write “no”?  The next question is, if we should write “no,” why don’t we change, so we can write yes.  Remember, authentic will never mean we are just like Christ- authentic means we intentionally strive through the power of the Holy Spirit to be as Christlike as we can.  It means that “realness” is a priority in our lives.

We don’t want to be a sad replica of the real thing.  The original is Jesus Christ.  We are supposed to replicate him, not to be a cheap knock-off of sorts.  There is a saying that realness is being the same person when no one is around.  When we attend church it is easy to think that everyone is authentic, but what are they like during the week?  Sunday is sometimes like the courting stage of a relationship.  “All dressed up in the Sunday best wearing smiles to impress.” But realness also necessitates consistency of behavior.  If we are going to live out our faith, it cannot be selective.  It needs to be an all-the-time thing.  If we enjoy the world so much that we think going to be with the Lord would be step down, authenticity is probably pretty hard.

We are to be imitators of Christ, but not superficial ones.  We are called to follow in His steps.  On the battlefield when someone is carrying a mine detector those behind him follow in his steps- exactly.  They do not take their own path.  The place their feet right in the footprints of the one who can take them to safety.  We need to do that.  We cannot be the one who knows exactly where to step, but we can certainly be the one who doesn’t drift  to another path.  The people around us may not be able to see Jesus ahead of them and they may just step where we do.  If they have more than one set of footprints to choose from, that starts to be confusing.  We need to stay in step with Christ, for our own benefit and for the benefit of those who may follow us.

We have an example of authenticity in Christ.  He was not caught up in the world.  In Philippians 2:13 it says, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”  He will help us to be like Him. We are not left to be Christlike without Christ’s help.  So let us be like the Corinthians who were “awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7), and like the Philippians whose “citizenship was in heaven, from which also [they] eagerly waited for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Philippians 3:20).  The degree of our authenticity may be in direct proportion to our degree of anticipation for His return.  If we are lackadaisical about that, we might be lackadaisical about our “realness.”