Randall Caselman
Bella Vista Church of Christ
June 30, 2002 P.M.
Becoming An Effective Witness
Reading - Acts 1.1-11
Two thousand years and several thousand miles separate us from the disciples in Acts chapter one... But we do share some common ground with them. We both have the first coming of Jesus in our rear view mirror and the second coming in front of us.... We both live between these two points of time.
I believe the books of Acts through Revelation tell us how we ought to live between these two events. Let me draw your attention to verse eight of our reading... "You will be my witness in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Jesus is commanding His Apostles... and us here tonight... to become His witnesses.
Sometimes we have a problem with this word witness... And we shouldn't. A witness is one who tells what he knows. Jesus is saying... I want you to tell others what you know about Me.
No... We are not eye witnesses as were these Apostles... But we have acquaintance with Jesus and the facts of His coming... His death... Burial... Resurrection... Ascension... and His promised return.
Church... This qualifies us as witnesses.
Paul went to the world of the Corinthians saying... "I know nothing else... I preach nothing but Jesus and Him crucified." You see... If we know Him... We are commissioned to be His witnesses... in word and in deed... By teaching and in lifestyle.
The Greek word translated witness here is Mar-toos. Some form of the word... As a verb or noun... Is used over 170 times in the New Testament. It is translated...
- Witness...
- To bear witness...
- To bear record...
- To testify or report.
Three times mar-toos is rendered martyr... One who has died for his or her witness... For his or her testimony. In classical Greek our word is used in a legal sense. A witness in a court of law describing one who can testify concerning what he has...seen... heard...or knows.
I don't think there should be any doubt that we are to be a witness for Jesus. We are to tell others what we know about Him... His death... Burial... Resurrection.... And what that means to our world.
Our lesson tonight has to do with EVANGELISM... How we can become effective witnesses. What it means to meet this challenge from the lips of Jesus.
An effective witness must die to self.
Being a witness is a matter of crucifixion... The word is mar-toos. It describes one willing to die... One willing to be crucified for His kingdom... Jesus' kingdom.
Church... We are to die to ourselves... And to our personal kingdoms. We are to die to our control of our privacy and schedules and become available to share by life... words... and deeds what Jesus means to us and can mean to others about us.
This is why the church in Acts grew by leaps and bounds.
- 120 in Acts 1.
- 3000 in Acts 2.
- 5000 in Acts 4.
- Multitudes in Acts 5.
- And multitudes multiplied in Acts 6,
Because disciples were willing to die... Willing to be crucified for Jesus... Willing to become a living sacrifice.
The early Christians were willing to really... really arise from baptism to...
- A new life...
- A new allegiance...
- To a work in a new cause and kingdom... His versus their own.
They were persecuted... jailed... killed... impaled on spears... Thrown to wild animals... Beheaded... Hung on crosses... And buried alive. BUT... They continued to witness for him... They continued to live for Him and His cause. Acts 8 says... When persecuted they were scattered abroad... And went everywhere (Doing what?) Witnessing... Preaching the word.
You see... Discipleship is costly...
- It will cost us our reputation... our image... our popularity,
- Our dreams and our successes,
- Our privacy and convenience,
- It will cost us our life.
Indeed... They were crucified... Raised to walk in a newness of life. You see church, we cannot become a witness until we die to self and our personal kingdom.
When Cortez landed in South America, he and his men were greeted by cold rain, an unfriendly landscape and savage natives. Many of Cortez's men began to think of home and wanting to go home, return to Spain. They lost sight of Cortez's vision... So, Cortez burned his ships in the harbor in front of them all. Guess what!! They caught the vision. But to catch the vision they had to burn the ships.
If we're going to be serious about being His witness... we may have to burn some of our ships. Indeed... Being a witness is a matter of dying to self.
Secondly... We must place His Kingdom before our own.
Note verse 6... The disciples asked... When are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel? They were still thinking about God's Kingdom as...
- An earthly place...
- A physical kingdom...
- A kingdom that can be geographically defined...
- Ethnically restrictive...
- Politically realized.
They were struggling with what we have no problem with today. We understand that Jesus didn't come to set up a physical... earthly kingdom... But a spiritual kingdom that would span both earth and heaven.
They misunderstood out of their ignorance... We misapply out of our own self-centeredness. They were naive... We are selfish. We understand that His kingdom is not worldly... But spiritual. Yet... Yet... We still think, talk, and act a lot like the disciples of Acts one.
We come asking Jesus what he has in mind for our kingdom our earthly domain.
- Our prayers are Give-me prayers... Give me a new car... A bass boat... A better job... A new
house... New clothes... Better health... More things.
- Look at our check books... What do we spend our money on... His kingdom or our kingdom?
- Examine our diary... What do we spend our time... Talent and energy on... The spiritual or
the worldly?
- What kind of things do we lose sleep over... His concerns... Or our concerns... His goals or
our goals... The heavenly or the earthly... His kingdom or our kingdom?
And all the time Jesus is wondering... asking... pleading... When are you going to be My witness in my kingdom?... When are you going to stop seeking your own personal promotion. To these same disciples... And to us... Jesus said... Seek you first the Kingdom of Heaven.
Thirdly... Becoming an effective witness defines who we are.
Church... In this command... Jesus was not giving a job description but a biographical description. Being a witness for Jesus is not so much what we do... But who we are. Being an effective witness is a matter of identity... My witness.
It is easy for us in the church to experience an identity crises...
- We identify with being a conservative or liberal...
- As a mainstream or anti...
- As a proponent of King James or Modern Speech translations...
- As being progressive or standard...
- As being grace or law oriented...
We have become far more interested in ISSUES... Than in WITNESSING. We need to drop all the labels and just be what we are suppose to be... His witness.
We are commissioned to be witnesses... It is who we are. Detrick Bonhoffer wrote... There is no such thing as secret Christianity. For either the secrecy destroys the Christianity... Or the Christianity destroys the secrecy. You see... secrecy and Christianity are mutuality exclusive. Paul said... When you look at me... It is no longer Paul you see, but Jesus living in me.
As a church and as an individual we need to check who we are... What we stand for.. Are we standing for Christ and Him crucified... Or for church issues.
We are called to be a witness where we are.
Jesus commanded... Go into all the world preaching the Gospel to every creature... Baptizing and teaching all things that I have commanded.
Here in our text the command was into Judea, Samaria, and then to all the world. The early church did just that... Acts 8 tells us that wherever they went they taught and preached the word... They witnessed.
Most of the time... When we think of the Great Commission... We think in terms of our missionaries like Selwyn... Javier... Robert Miranda... Russell Bell... Denny Kruse.. Stan Bryan.. and others. But I tell you folks... Jesus is asking us to FIRST AND FOREMOST to go into all our world. We don't have to go somewhere to make disciples. Jesus is asking us to make a difference where we are... Right here... Right Now!
You see... Becoming His witness is about living with intention and purpose. Not just going to another location with an intent and purpose. Look at our text... Don't leave Jerusalem... You will be my witness here at home... Right here in the city limits, then to Judea, Samaria and to the world.
In physics we learned that the smallest division of the matter was the atom. And that every atom in the universe acts upon every other atom... But only through the atom next to it.
Church... Each of us can... and do have an impact upon all the world. But we do it by impacting upon those beside us... Those next to us. Becoming an effective witness is more about living with intention and purpose right were we are with the people we know the best... Are we willing!!
Being an effective witness means we are willing to take the risks.
It was risky for the Apostles to stay in Jerusalem and preach Jesus there. They are staying in the city where Jesus was arrested... tried... and crucified.
There are few things in this life that challenge us more that being evangelistic every day.
- We take the risk of being labeled as a religious fanatic.
- As a Bible thumper.
- We take the risk of social rejection.
This is the reason most of us here tonight are not evangelistic. We are unwilling to place our social standing... Our reputation on the table for Jesus.
Church... Genuine disciples go where they are sent... Not where they are safe. If we are overly concerned with social safety, we'll never be an effective witness for Jesus.
The Book of Acts is about those willing to take the risk:
- These Apostles took the risk... And 3000 were baptized into Christ.
- Stephen took the risk... And was ushered into the very presence of God.
- Philip took the risk... And baptized the Ethiopian treasurer.
- Peter took the risk... And baptized Cornelius and his household.
- Paul and Silas took the risk baptizing Lydia, her friends, the jailer and his household.
- Paul took the risk... And spread the gospel to the whole Mediterranean world.
- Paul took the risk... And preached to kings... priests... and Caesar.
Isn't it time for us to take the risk?... Isn't it time to testify with our lips and our lives.
I served for several years as the Chaplain for the Fayetteville Fire Department. I learned a lot about Fire Fighting and Emergency Rescue. But the first lesson I learned was that I must be willing to take a risk. You see, rescue is risky business. You have to go into the flames. You have to expose yourself to some danger... No, not carelessly, but nevertheless you must be willing to become vulnerable. An individual who is unwilling to take the risk has no place in Emergency Rescue Services.
