The Importance of a Witness
- Read John 4:39-42
This past week I got a call from some men I’ve worked with in Orlando, about some appliances they had available. They said, “Gene, we’re tempting a warehouse over here on Lee Road, and we have a number of appliances, some of just about everything. We were going to haul them to the dump, but Dave reminded us that you have a cap pile down at your church that you recycle and we were wondering if you wanted these. I told them sure . . .
Tuesday night at 4-H I told the folks that if they a need for some appliances, we had some used ones coming.
Lady shared with the Episcopal church and they put the word out at their thrift store. We had a dump trailer filled with file cabinets and appliances, word got out that we had a semi trailer filled with appliances and furniture from Disney properties.
For a while, the church driveway looked like it does during Christmas in the Country. People streaming up and down it.
That’s about how I picture it with the people coming out of town to see Jesus. People streaming from the town to see this “Man who told the woman everything she had done. This couldn’t be the Christ could it?”
As we look at this passage, I would like you to notice with me first, Why Jesus Came.
I. WHY JESUS CAME - Verse 42
Jesus did a great many things while He was on earth. He raised Lazarus from the dead, and what a miracle that was.
He went around healing the sick and casting demons out of people who were possessed.
He fed the multitudes and 2 occasions. One day He fed 5,000 men, plus women and children. On another day He fed 4,000.
He stopped storms by speaking to them.
He walked on water.
He turned water into wine.
He taught. He confronted hypocrites, and religious folks who thought they had it all together and who looked won their self-righteous noses at folks who didn’t live like them.
Jesus did a great many things, while here on earth. But the most important thing He did was to do something for us we could not do for ourselves. He came as Savior of the world. He came to pay a price that we couldn’t pay.
- Read verse 42.
> John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him, should not perish but hath everlasting life.
What was the primary mission of Jesus? What was the primary reason He came? It was tho save us from our sins.
Mary became pregnant. Joseph was going to divorce her. He was going to put her away. But an angel came to talk to him and told him that this child was from the Lord. Then in
> Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a Son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.
I sure am glad our denomination and other Christians around the world have followed the example of our Lord and tried to minister to people. I am glad we have built hospitals and established medical facilities around the world; but if we are not sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ we are wasting our time.
I am glad we have established orphanages and followed the example of our Lord in loving on and taking care of children.
When my dad was young and getting a bit distracted and a little wild, mu grandfather tried to give him something to do to help keep him out of trouble, so he sent him to live with his uncle on a ranch in Jacksonville. It got him off the street and gave him something to do.
When my dad saw my brother and I starting down the same path, hanging with not the best people in Orange City, he moved us out here to the woods, to give us something to do, to get us off the street and to help keep us out of trouble.
Several years ago, we started a 4-H club . . . to teach, to serve, to minister . . . but if we are not sharing the Gospel we are spinning our wheels.
1/2 the year we run Mission Possible Camp to teach the kids . . . but if we don’t teach them about the Lord Jesus Christ, if we don’t teach them about the Savior of the World, we are helping them for only a very short time.
The Bible teaches on many things . . .
Family, finances, relationships, friendship, employee - employer interaction, speech, politics and the importance of wisely choosing our leaders, but the most important message of the Bible and the reason it has survived for so many centuries when people have tried to destroy it, is that it contains the most important message. That Jesus came as Savior of the world.
Let me ask you my friend, why are you here today? Why are you seeking Jesus?
Remember when Jesus fed the 5,000? The next day they came looking for Him because they wanted t make Him king.
- Read John 6:47-66
There are some who follow Jesus today because they have heard a prosperity Gospel, Jesus will make you healthy, wealthy, and will make everything work out for you.
Such a Gospel would probably come as a surprise to those Christians being persecuted in China right now. It would be a surprise for those in prison camps in North Korea, arrested because of their faith.
One day Jesus will wipe away every tear, but today is not that day. Jesus said in this world you will have persecution.
Jesus came to be our Savior.
No, God created us sinless and perfect in the Garden of Eden. Our parents, Adam and Eve sinned and that caused a separation between God and man. And everyone of us since that time have sinned as well, and Jesus came to pay the price for our sin, to do away with that separation, to help us be reconciled with God. He came to be the Savior of the world.
II. FOR WHOM JESUS CAME - v42
1. Jesus came for the world. - Interesting, the Jews didn’t think that. They thought their’s would be the only nation saved. . . .
> John 3:16
He came for the world.
2. He came for the worldly - These were the rejects of society . . .
3. He came for the welcoming - v40
They invited Him to stay.
Jesus will always stay with those who welcome Him.
> Revelation 3:20 Behold I stand at the door and knock. . .
If the Lord is not in your home, it is because you have not welcomed Him. If the Lord is not in your heart, it is because you have not welcomed Him.
*** Plan of salvation.
III. HOW JESUS CAME - v39
He came through a witness.
On the morning of September 11, Jeannie Braca switched on the television to check the weather report, only to hear that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.
Jeannie’s husband, Al, worked as a corporate bond trader for Cantor Fitzgerald. His office was on the 105th floor of Tower One.
Al had survived the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and had even helped a woman with asthma escape from the building.
Jeannie knew that Al would do the same thing this time, “I knew he would stop to help and minister to people,” she said, “but I never thought for a minute that he wouldn’t be coming home!”
A week later, like so many others who were in that building, Al’s body was found in the rubble. Al’s wife, Jeannie, and his son Christopher were devastated!
Then the reports began to trickle in from friends and acquaintances. Some people on the 105th floor had made a last call or sent a final e-mail to loved ones saying that a man was leading people in prayer.
A few referred to Al by name.
Al’s family learned that Al had indeed been ministering to people during the attack! When Al realized that they were all trapped in the building and would not be able to escape, Al shared the gospel with a group of 50 co-workers and led them in prayer.
This news came as no surprise to Al’s wife, Jeannie.
For years, she and Al had been praying for the salvation of these men and women. According to Jeannie, Al hated his job and couldn’t stand the environment. It was a world so out of touch with his Christian values, but he wouldn’t quit.
Al was convinced that God wanted him to stay there, to be a light in the darkness, and although Al would not have put it this way, to be a hero!
Al was not ashamed of Christ and Christ’s words…and he paid the price of taking up his cross daily. Al shared his faith with his co-workers….many of whom sarcastically nicknamed him “The Rev.”
And on that fateful day…on September 11, in the midst of the chaos, Al’s co-workers looked to him—-and Al delivered!
At the same time, Al too tried to get a phone call through to his family. He asked an MCI operator to contact his family.
“Tell them that I love them,” he said.
It took the operator more than a month to reach the Bracas, but the message brought them much-needed comfort.
“The last thing my dad did involved the two things most important to him—God and his family,” his son Christopher told a writer for Focus on The Family.
“He loved to lead people to Christ. That takes away a lot of the hurt and the pain.” (From sermon by Joel Vicente).
There was a Baptist preacher in England named Francis Dickson. He had a man in his church named Peter. Now they don't have church staff in English Baptist Churches, but Peter was the closest thing Francis had. One Sunday they asked Peter to give his testimony in church. Peter stood to share and said,
"Folks, let me tell you how I was saved. I was stationed with the Royal Navy in Sydney Australia." And he said, "I was walking down George Street in Sydney one day when out of nowhere came a little white-haired man. He stopped me on the street and said, 'Excuse me sir, but I want to ask you a question. I hope you won't be offended, but tell me, sir, if you were to die today, where would you be in eternity? The Bible says it will be either heaven or hell. Think about it wouldn't you sir? That's all, God bless you. Tudelu.' And he was gone." Peter said, "Those words cut like an arrow shot out of heaven to my heart. I was deeply disturbed. But I didn't know what to do. For six months I was under conviction. Finally we sailed back to England. I had one Christian friend. I sought him out, and he helped me to Christ."
They had what we would call a revival meeting in that church where Francis Dickson was pastor. And part of the revival team was a young man whose name was Noel. They asked Noel to share his testimony.
He said, "Folks, I'd like to tell you how I was saved. I lived for a while in the beautiful Australian city of Sydney. I was walking one day down George Street and out of nowhere came a little white-haired man who stopped me on the street and said, 'Excuse me sir, I want to ask you a question. I hope you won't be offended, but tell me, sir, if you were to die today, where would you be in eternity? The Bible says it will be either heaven or hell. Think about it wouldn't you sir? That's all, God bless you. Tudelu.' And he was gone. I knew enough gospel to get saved. So I went to the house where I was living and that afternoon I got down on my knees and trusted Jesus as my Savior.
When that service was over, Peter went up to Noel and said, "Noel, you've got my testimony. It happened to me just like that. The little old man on George Street." And the pastor overheard them.
Francis Dickson was preaching not too long afterwards in the city of Adelaide, Australia, some 500 to 1000 miles from Sydney, way down in the southern part of the country. And he felt impressed to tell the story about the two men in his church and the little man on George Street. When he started telling the story, a man toward the back of the church stood up and started waving his hand like this. Now we don't do that in Baptist churches, and so Dickson tried to ignore him. But he kept waving until he got his attention.
Dickson asked him, "Hey mister, you want to say something?" "Yes I do! I want to tell you how I got saved. You see, I was walking down George Street in Sydney, Australia. And out of nowhere came this little white-haired man..." And the story was the same!
When Francis Dickson got to Perth, Australia, the largest city on the western coast, he knew he had a story. So he told the story there in Perth. When the service was over, a Baptist deacon came up to him and said, "Sir, I'm another. I was walking down George Street in Sydney, when out of nowhere came this little white-haired man..." That's how I became a Christian.
When Francis Dickson got back to his church in England, he knew he had a story. He told his own congregation. When the service was over, a young woman came up to him and said, "Sir, I'm another. I was walking down George Street in Sydney, when out of nowhere came this little white-haired man..." That's what led me to Jesus
Francis Dickson preached at Keswick, England in the north part of the British Isles. He told this same story. Afterwards an aged man came up to him. "Sir, I'm another. I was walking down George Street in Sydney when out of nowhere came a little white-haired man." That got me started to Christ.
Francis Dickson preached all over the world. He told this story to a group of missionaries in India on one occasion. They said, "Would you talk to us about personal evangelism." After he told this story, a woman missionary came up to him and said, "Sir, I'm another. I was walking down George Street in Sydney, Australia..., It happened to me like that.
He told that story on the island of Jamaica, and an eighth person came up to him and said, "Sir, I'm another. That little white-haired man on George Street helped me to Christ."
A godly layman named Gene War in Oklahoma City is a friend of Dr. Fish. He was telling this story to a gathering of chaplains at Fort Benning, Ga. And as he told the story one of them raised his hand. "Mr. War, you're not gonna believe this. But let me tell you how I became a Christian. I was walking down George Street in Sydney, Australia when out of nowhere..."
Well, Francis Dickson made sure that Sydney was on his itinerary the next time he was in Australia. He wanted to meet this little old man. He got there, but didn't really know what to do. So he called a Christian friend of his and said,
"You'll probably think I'm crazy, but have you ever heard about a little old man who stands out on George Street and asks people when they die, if they know where their going to spend eternity?"
"Sure," he said, "That's Mr. Jenner!"
"Mr. Jenner? Do you know him?"
"All of us know him. He doesn't get out very much any more. He's a bit infirm, doesn't see very well. He's getting on in years."
"Do you know where he lives?"
"I can take you right to his house."
They went to his house. Knocked on the door. A frail little old man welcomed them in. And after introductions were made, Francis Dickson, that pastor from Great Britain, told that little old man about all those people who'd come to Christ through his winsome word of warning and witness. And that dear little old man broke down and copiously wept. He said,
"I've shared with literally thousands of people on George Street in Sydney, and this is the first time in my life that I've ever heard of any who came to Christ through my testimony!"
