“Witness”
By Mark Winter
Text: John 1:1-9
Have you ever read a scripture so thoroughly that you believe there’s nothing else to wring out of it? That’s what I thought with John’s Prologue, when suddenly verse 8 leapt out: “He himself was not the light (meaning John the Baptist); he came only as a witness to the light.”
A witness to the light. That’s a strange statement. How many of us have walked outside on a summer day and said, “I would like to bear witness that this is a bright and sunny morning”? Anyone standing around you might question what you’re putting in your coffee. Light needs no witness. It is self-evident. It bears witness to itself.
And yet there’s the verse, as bright as noontime: “He came as a witness to the light.” So it must mean that John is talking about another kind of light – and indeed he is.
In John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.” But He was grieved because men loved darkness more than the light. It’s still true today. Darkness gets far more press than the light. Evil sells.
But, of course, without light we would be in a mess. We couldn’t see. If the sun were to suddenly burn out, we would have eight minutes of light and heat left, and then Planet Earth would slip into a permanent deep-freeze. In the Pacific Northwest, where it’s overcast most days, lots of people suffer from light deprivation, which results in mood swings and depression. There’s even a scientific name for this problem: “Seasonal Affective Disorder,“ or S.A.D. People suffering from S.A.D. have to set up special light panels in their homes and get heavy doses of illumination in order to be happy campers. We need light. We can’t survive without it.
We need another kind of light, too. Our souls depend on the light of God. In this spiritually darkened world, God uses us as His witnesses to point out the Light. The Light has always been here. The Light has never gone away. But people who are in sin or despair sit in darkness, and cannot see the Light. That’s where you and I come in. In one Gospel, Jesus said He was the light, while in another Gospel He told His followers, “You are the light of the world.” Jesus is the true Light from heaven, but we can be reflectors of that light, much like a highway sign reflects the high-beam headlamps of a car.
We’re talking about True Light, the Light that came into the world and made Christmas, the Light to whom John the Baptist pointed and said, “He must become greater; I must become less.” John was a witness. He came to testify to the Light. We, too, have been called to this task, and so let’s consider what a witness is and does.
I. A WITNESS HAS SEEN SOMETHING.
We all know that. We’ve seen enough courtroom movies to know that a witness is valuable because he or she has seen something – something crucial that could either convict a criminal or set an innocent person free. Our testimony of Jesus is crucial, too, because it can mean life or death for a soul hanging in the balance of eternity.
But you know what? You can’t witness to what you have not seen. Have you seen Jesus? I will never forget the first time the eyes of my heart were opened to His majestic beauty. Oh, I had “seen” Jesus all my life. He was in the stained glass windows of my boyhood church in Oklahoma City, in the pictures hanging all over the hallways which depicted him as a starry-eyed do-gooder with no grasp of the real world.
Eventually I walked away from Him. Who needs an irrelevant Savior? I would save myself. But after a long, rough road of unfulfilled dreams and broken relationships, I was in the dark, ready to look at Jesus a second time. This time I went to the Bible and read about Him myself. And there I found a pertinent Jesus, a Man who made audacious claims of Lordship and backed them up with miracles of love, a Savior who seemed vitally interested in everyone He met. Could it be that He was interested in me, a nobody going nowhere? I found out that He was. The Light began to dawn in my heart.
I have never forgotten that remarkable, transformational period in my life, and so I yearn to introduce others to the wonder-working Savior whom I met some 18 years ago. That really is the business of the church, isn’t it? Not politics and potlucks, but introducing lost people to Jesus Christ, the Living Light.
Let me ask you today: have you seen Him?
II. A WITNESS HAS SOMETHING TO SAY.
In a court of law, a witness isn’t called to the stand just to sit there and look fashionable. He or she has testimony to share. Psalm 71:24 says, “My tongue will tell of your righteous acts all day long.”
A witness has something to say – are you saying it? I have heard some Christians say, “I don’t have to talk about my faith; I just have to show my faith.” The same people have no problem talking about their job, their favorite restaurant, the football game last Sunday or the latest computer upgrade, but witnessing to their Lord and Savior? Out of the question!
Sure, we are to show our faith. Jesus said so in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
He also said in Mark 8:38, “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.”
It’s not enough to talk, we must do. It’s not enough to do, we must talk. Responsible witnesses come to court (action) and share their testimony (talk).
We are not all called to witness in the same way. In their book, Becoming A Contagious Christian, Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg discuss how different personalities shape evangelistic approaches. A Christian professor might use an intellectual style, while a minister on the streets of L.A. would almost certainly be confrontational. A homemaker in Texas reaches out to her neighbors with an interpersonal style, while across town, in a soup kitchen, a volunteer uses the service approach. Divergent people with divergent styles—yet all witness to the same life-changing reality of Jesus Christ.
In my ministry, I use drama to get the Gospel across. The Bible says that God once used a donkey to make a point, so I suppose He can use a ham. Jesus used drama when He told stories of scattered seeds and wayward sons. People respond to drama. They like stories. They will watch a play when they might not listen to a sermon.
If you’re a witness, you have something to say. And He will use your own style to say it.
III. A WITNESS HAS A DANGEROUS JOB.
To put yourself on the witness stand exposes you to brutal cross-examination and, in extreme cases, physical danger if you give damaging testimony. That’s why we have a Witness Protection Program for mob informants. Being a witness can open you up to danger.
Being a Christian witness is not an easy thing to do. It certainly is unnatural. Our flesh would rather not bear testimony to the light. The bottom line is, we’re afraid. Afraid of ridicule and rejection. Fearful that somebody is going to think we’re intolerant or insensitive for sharing our faith.
Being a witness for God has never been easy. Read the latter part of Hebrews 11. Those who testified of the true light were mocked, flogged, thrown in prison, forced to hide in caves, sawn in two. John the Baptist got his head lopped off for witnessing to the light.
So many Christians want an easy life, a life with no fuss, no cross-bearing. But Jesus promised no such thing. He told His followers to expect persecution and rejection. He said we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses. He said, in effect, that we would have to die – die to our pride, our egotistical ways, our bent toward self-indulgence. We must follow Him and, in so doing, follow Him into dangerous territory, the real world where there is perversion and cynicism and greed and crooked living, full of people who don’t act like us or talk like us or think like us. Right after Thanksgiving, a church sent me a holiday issue of their newsletter. On the back page was a huge caption that announced, “Christmas is for Christians and His Church.” And with respect to this congregation I thought, “NO!” Christmas isn’t just for Christians – it’s for the world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son..” The ultimate evangelistic program occurred on Christmas 2000 years ago. In the form of a babe in a manger, God slipped into a world ruled by a pagan empire, a world of unfair taxes, oppressed masses and sickening religious phoniness. Why did God make such a risky move? To shed light. To make sons and daughters of light.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are to continue God’s Christmas program in these dark times. If we are the light of the world, a city on a hill, then we can’t be hid. In the midst of darkness and evil, we are to shine, shine, shine! Shine forth truth, shine forth love, shine forth encouragement. That’s who we are.
John Wesley’s opponents derisively labeled him an “enthusiast.” In the early years of America, people criticized revivalism – including some preachers. Today some might look at us as “charismatic” or “fanatical.” It costs something to be a witness. It costs our pride, our reputation, our convenient lifestyles – all for the sake of winning people to Jesus Christ. But that’s a good return for our investment.
Witnesses have seen something. Christian witnesses have seen Someone – the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ.
Witnesses have something to say, a testimony of how Jesus Christ has changed their lives.
Finally, witnesses of the Light have a dangerous job because the world embraces darkness.
But God has embraced the world.
Let’s get the word out.
