Sermon Central
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Witnesses For Jesus
Contributed by Christian Cheong on Apr 28, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: We are witnesses by spiritual birth. Witnessing is who we are, more than what we do. We are not alone in witnessing for Christ.
“When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me. 27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
We have come to the last lesson today. It has to do with our role as witnesses for Christ.
• We are called to testify what we have seen and heard and experienced in Christ.
• We are not alone in this. The Holy Spirit is doing the same thing. And He is doing it through us.
• We cannot succeed without Him. Jesus explains in the next few lines into Chapter 16 that the Spirit enlightens and convicts (cf. John 16:8).
The Gospel will be seen and heard in our world today through us, those who have seen and heard and experienced Christ.
• “You must testify, for you have been with Me from the beginning,” Jesus said. That’s the basis for witnessing.
We are not witnesses today because we do witnessing. We witness Christ because we are His witnesses.
• We don’t testify because we are called be witnesses for Christ. We testify because we are witnesses of Christ.
• How did I become one? The moment I met Christ. That puts every believer of Jesus Christ on the platform - we are all witnesses of Christ.
WE ARE HIS WITNESSES BY SPIRITUAL BIRTH
You may not know all the doctrines of the Bible or the in and out of theology, but YOU KNOW CHRIST. That suffice.
• You got something to say. You can share your personal, first-hand experiences with Jesus (something that no one can copy or imitate).
• You are the best witness of your own encounters with Jesus Christ! I cannot even replicate that.
The Apostle John puts it very well in 1 John 1:1-4. He says, “Why am I writing this?”
• 1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.
All of us come to know Christ differently. Peter had his own experience, so did Thomas, and Matthew, and Andrew, and Paul.
• They are all not the same but they points to the same born-again relationship that they had with Jesus Christ.
• You are a witness of Christ by spiritual birth. You have a story to tell.
We are introducing people to a PERSON whom we know. It flows from the RELATIONSHIP we are enjoying with Christ.
• A formula may help; some skills in sharing Christ can make it easier; knowledge of theology is surely beneficial.
• But ultimately, we are sharing with someone our FRIENDSHIP with Jesus.
• Who we are tells. Who we are itself is a testimony, because the Gospel is not just some cold, hard facts. It is a relationship that people are asked to see.
That makes all of us who knows Christ His witnesses, by default.
• We are His witnesses — His evidence if you will — to convince an unbelieving world.
Witnessing is more than something we do, it is WHO we are because of Christ.
• WHO we are testifies to the transforming power of Christ. We are witnesses of His resurrection and His life-changing power.
• Witnessing is more than doing evangelism. It is more than knowing a formula or learning the art of presenting the Gospel.
WITNESSING IS WHO WE ARE, MORE THAN WHAT WE DO
This phrase WITNESSING has been so commonly used to describe the WORK WE DO in sharing the Gospel that we failed to see that witnessing is taking place all the time, even without me talking about Christ.
• If people know I am a Christian, even if I don’t say anything, I am a witness. My life tells, whether I like it or not.
• I may not be a very good witness, but I am one, because people are reading me. They are reading the meaning of Christ in my life.
The moment they know you are Christian, they are reading the value of Christ in your life BY YOUR LIFE.
• If you are often sad, depressed, unhappy, ungrateful, going around with a long face, that’s what they are going to read of a life with Jesus.
