True enough, Christianity is not about just coming to church every Lord’s Day, it‘s about going out to the field of missions, after much feeding from the Word.
===========================ooooooOOOOOOoooooo===========================
When you learn some especially exciting news, don’t you want to jump right up and tell everyone you know? I know I do. It’s only human nature. Well, as a Christian, you now know the greatest, most incredible news in history: God sent His perfect Son to die for the sins of the world, and all who believe in Him will live forever in heaven.
So don’t just sit there; tell others!
Tell them by the way you graciously accept criticism or disappointment. Tell them by the way you humbly acknowledge success. Tell them by the way you answer a question about your faith. Tell them by remaining true to the commands of Christ, loving your enemies, or bearing the unmistakable fruit of the Spirit. But tell them! And then be ready to speak to them the truth of Christ.
In the same way that we are God’s spiritual children—branches of His one true Vine—we represent the body of Christ, and He is our Head. When Christ walked the earth, He manifested love, holiness, wisdom, power, and all the authority of God. Christians, as members of the body of Christ, are to reflect those attributes to the world.
We read that God has predestined believers to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28–29). Think about the miraculous nature of that statement. Christ takes our human bodies, which are physically frail and subject to sin and death, and makes them into His temple—literally dwelling in them, planting in them His glory, that they might manifest Him to the world.
Therefore, every member of the Body can and should be a witness. “You shall receive power,” said Jesus, “when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses” (Acts 1:8). Jesus also said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20). There is no waiver given, no excuse accepted. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17–18). Anyone reconciled to Christ has the ministry of telling others about Him.
We are not citizens of this earth, because “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). We belong to a different realm, yet we live in the world and are called to be ambassadors, telling the people of this perishing world that they, too, can be reconciled to the King of kings, and that He desires to make them subjects of His eternal kingdom.
This doesn’t mean you have to witness by preaching on street corners—though I can tell you from firsthand experience that it’s an unforgettable adventure. Your witness may be by example, or something you write one day, or take any number of other forms. But however it happens, don’t worry about whether or not you’ll do a good job. Just remember that the Holy Spirit empowers us—individually and as a body—to witness: “When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning” (John 15:26–27).
ON TRIAL
In those two verses we discover the basic concept of our witness. The very word takes us into a law court. We see a judge on the bench and a prisoner on trial. We hear the case argued by the prosecution, then by the defense. Both call witnesses to substantiate their arguments. The setting implies that Christians are witnesses in a trial, so to speak. Jesus Christ is on trial. The judge is the world. The defense attorney is the Holy Spirit. The prosecutor is Satan.
The world judges Christ based on witnesses. Some people judge Him to be a fake; some, a good man; others, a moral teacher; still others, a liar; and so on. If a witness tears down the claims of Jesus Christ by the kind of life he lives, it would be better if he were out of the courtroom altogether. He only confuses the issue. The Holy Spirit defends Christ through the members of the Body who witness and confirm by their lives the testimony of Christ (John 15:27). Thus all Christians are witnesses, either helping or hindering the cause of Christ.
God’s Word sets forth five positive aspects of our witness: it is to the world, of the Son, by the Father, through the Holy Spirit, and in the Body.
Witness Is to the World. As we discovered in chapter 7, the world hates Christians. It ostracizes them and even kills them. The world is also antagonistic to the gospel. But Jesus said believers must witness to such hostility: “When the Helper comes,” you will confront the world and witness to it.
How should you react when you are faced with the opposition of the world? Should you retaliate in anger or withdraw in self-pity? No! You are to bear witness before the world whatever the cost—and count it all joy to suffer in Christ’s place (James 1:2).
Witness Is of the Son. John 15:27 declares, “You also will bear witness, because you have been with Me.” Christ is on trial, and a Christian’s testimony must be of Him.
Preaching centers on Jesus Christ throughout the New Testament. The apostle John describes himself as one “who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:2). Testimony is always directly associated with Jesus Christ. In fact, we even read that the Old Testament witnessed of Him: “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation19:10).
The apostles had no doubts that they were to witness of the Son. Jesus told them, “You shall be witnesses to Me” (Acts 1:8). Their sermons in the early church were always about Him, as when Peter preached to Cornelius and said:
- The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all the things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly. (Acts 10:36–40)
Biblical witnessing is a testimony to Jesus Christ. It is proclaiming the great truths of His virgin birth, sinless life, atoning death, physical resurrection, bodily ascension, and coming again.
Witness Is by the Father. When Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit, He sent God’s witness to this world: “When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26). It was the Father’s supreme concern to bring honor and glory to the Son, and the Spirit helped Him. Jesus answered the Jews’ question about His identity by saying, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me” (John 8:54).
The Father bore witness to the Son first through the Old Testament. “You search the Scriptures,” Jesus said to the Jews, “for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39). Jesus revealed additional things about the Old Testament witness to Himself as He spoke to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus: “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).
The second way God witnessed of His Son was through Christ’s works: “Jesus answered them, ‘I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me’ ” (John 10:25). The miracles Jesus performed were the Father’s witness. They revealed that Jesus was who He claimed to be.
The third means of the Father’s witness was through direct communication. God actually said in an audible voice, “This is My beloved Son” (Matthew 17:5). The Father, then, is the source of all witness about Christ, as recorded in Scripture: the Old Testament prophecies, the works Jesus did, the words He spoke, and the direct statements of the Father. Your Christian testimony should echo the Father’s witness, and that will happen when you study the Word diligently and share it with others.
Witness Is Through the Spirit. “When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me” (John 15:26, emphasis added). Whatever witness God the Father has in the world, He has through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit calls believers into court to testify. He is also “the Spirit of truth,” and that reveals the kind of testimony He gives. He cannot be a false witness; He is truth and always declares truth. If Jesus Himself ministered in the power of the Spirit, members of His Body must rely on the Holy Spirit’s power to witness.
Today the Holy Spirit dwells within all believing Christians. We carry the witness that proceeds from the Father by the Spirit, and we communicate it to the world. The Holy Spirit has no physical voice; His witnessing is through individual believers. Jesus affirmed that the Spirit “dwells with you, and will be in you” (John 14:17). Acts 4:31 describes witnessing through the Spirit in the early church: “They [believers] were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”
Christians are qualified to witness not only because of the Holy Spirit within them, but also because they have experienced Jesus Christ firsthand. To witness in a court case, we must have been personally involved in the experience; secondhand testimony is unacceptable.
I will never forget the time I had to testify about a crime I’d witnessed. The court asked me three things: “What did you see?” “What did you hear?” “What did you feel?” I could address those questions because I was an eyewitness. John placed this truth about firsthand experience into the context of the Christian life: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life…we declare to you” (1 John 1:1–3). Our witness is not a detached lecture about Jesus; instead, it declares, “I have seen and heard the Christ, and He has changed my life.”
Down through the ages this kind of character witness has been more precious than life itself. The Greek word martus, which means “witness,” is the source of the term martyr, meaning one who dies as a result of his uncompromising stance or testimony. Many times when the early believers stood up as witnesses for Christ, it cost them their lives. The church today needs more who will witness effectively, whatever the cost to their popularity or their lives.
However, it’s very important to understand that people are not saved because of your testimony. No one has ever been saved, or ever will be, apart from the working of the Holy Spirit. Although Paul shared the gospel with Lydia, she was not saved until “the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 16:14). Even knowledge of biblical truths will not save anyone apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
That’s a liberating truth. Proclaiming the gospel would be a terrible burden if a person’s salvation depended on our persuasiveness. How comforting to know that we are responsible only to be diligent and faithful in allowing the Holy Spirit to use us.
Witness Is in the Body. If the Holy Spirit indwells every individual member of the church, then logically He indwells the entire body of believers. The apostle Paul said Jesus Christ is “the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:20–22). The entire church is the temple of the Holy Spirit, just as the individual member is. The Spirit indwells the corporate Body to witness to the world about the Father and the Son.
The Body presents a single collective testimony in two ways. First, the Body witnesses by its visible unity. Jesus prayed, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20–21).
The second way the Body witnesses is by love. Jesus told the disciples that love is the mark of all genuine believers: “Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:33–35). The more consistently Christians show love for one another, the more powerful our impact on the world will be. Individual members of the Body are the last link in the witness of the Father. The testimony of Christ must not break down with us. Each Christian must do his part to witness. As we saw at the beginning of this chapter, according to the Bible, witnessing is not an option. Passages such as Matthew 28:19–20 and Acts 1:8 make it clear that we all are responsible to be witnesses for Christ.
You don’t have to be well versed in all the intricacies of theology to be an effective witness. The blind man healed by Jesus didn’t know how to answer all the theological questions the Pharisees asked, but he could say, “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25). He was able to explain what Jesus had done for him. That’s something all Christians can do, regardless of how much or how little theology and apologetics they know.
Even so, continue to study and grow in your faith and your knowledge of theological truths. I hope to encourage you as Paul encouraged Timothy: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). However you can, whenever you can, be a witness for Christ. It’s your privilege to share the greatest news the world has ever known.
===========================ooooooOOOOOOoooooo===========================
MacArthur, J. (2004). Welcome to the family : What to expect now that you’re a Christian (Page 87). Nashville, Tenn.: Nelson Books.