The Art & Science of the Personal Testimony

If you want to get a job done, it helps to have the right tools. For example, let’s say you want to remove a nut. According to YouTube, you can use duct tape, zip ties, or a pair of quarters. You could also use an adjustable wrench. But far better to have a socket wrench, it’s one of the best tools for the job. Or let’s say you want to unscrew a Philips-head screw. You might be able to use a butter knife, a coin, or a credit card. If you have a flathead screwdriver you might be able to use that. But it’s much better to have a Philips-head screwdriver. Most of the time it’s even better to have a drill. It’s one of the best tools for the job.

God’s people have a job to do. The book of Acts is dedicated to telling the story about how God’s people work to get that job done. We said a few weeks ago that the big idea of the book is that the risen Jesus gives the Spirit to His church so they will give the Gospel to the world.

We get this from Jesus’ words at the beginning of the book in Acts 1:8, in what is sometimes called the Great Commission: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” If you’re a Christian, your job is to be a witness to the world about Jesus. But what does it mean to be a witness? A witness tells the Good News that Jesus died and rose again so others can be forgiven. Our job is to help give the Gospel to the world.

But how are we going to get the job done? First and foremost, God has given us His Holy Spirit. In other words, He’s given us Himself. But He’s also given us many other tools. Today we’re going to talk about one of the best tools for this job. One of the most important tools in your Great Commission toolbelt is your personal testimony.

The Apostle Paul is the main character of the book of Acts. Beginning in chapter 9, the book has largely followed Paul as he labored to get the Gospel to the world. And as we near the conclusion of the book, we’re going to listen as Paul’s personal testimony is repeated for the third time. I think that’s significant. I think it’s because one of the most important tools in Paul’s Great Commission toolbelt was his personal testimony.

But before we consider Paul’s example, let’s catch you up to speed on what’s happened to Paul. Two years have passed since our story ended last week. During those years Paul remained a prisoner of a Roman governor named Felix. History tells us that near the end of those two years, the Roman Emperor Nero fired Governor Felix and replaced him with a man named Festus.

Much like in politics today, the first few weeks of Governor Festus’ administration was a flurry of activity. Just three days after arriving in the governor’s mansion in Caesarea, he traveled to Jerusalem, a major city in his district. While in Jerusalem, he was confronted by the same Jewish religious leaders that had falsely accused Paul two years before. Surprise, surprise, they’re still angry at Paul and they still want him dead. They urge the new governor to send this prisoner he’s inherited to Jerusalem to stand trial, once again hoping to ambush him on the way.

Governor Festus doesn’t buy it, insisting on hearing Paul himself. When he returns to Caesarea and listens to the false accusations against the Apostle and his bold defense, he’s convinced that Paul is innocent. But the governor is a politician. He’s only been on the job for two weeks. If he releases Paul, he may incite a riot, putting his career in jeopardy. If he doesn’t release Paul, he’ll be guilty of condemning an innocent Roman citizen. So he offers Paul a compromise: travel to Jerusalem and I’ll preside over your trial there.

But Paul’s no dummy. He hasn’t forgotten the plot against his life two years earlier, and he knows his rights as a Roman citizen. In two years he’s been denied justice in the courts of two Judean governors, so he turns to his last resort. He appeals his case to the emperor himself. This likely caught Festus off guard, but he had no choice but to comply. Roman law required that he write a detailed report of the charges against Paul before he sent him to Rome. So he called upon a political ally, King Agrippa II, to listen to Paul’s story and help Festus write the report.

Turn in your Bibles to Acts 26. There are four main characters in our story today. Governor Festus, who just wants help writing a report. King Agrippa and his sister Bernice, who want to see what all the fuss is about. And Paul, who has a job to do—to get the Gospel to the world. And as Paul demonstrates, one of the most important tools in your Great Commission toolbelt is your personal testimony.

The other day I was given a tool I’ve never used it before. It’s very simple-looking, basically just a hollow metal barrel with a rubber grip at the top. Websites like Google and YouTube can help you learn how to use a tool like this, but the problem is I didn’t even know what it was called so I didn’t even know how to look for instructions.

Before you use any tool, you need to know the answer to two questions: What is it? and How do I use it? We’re going to answer those same two questions about the personal testimony, one of the most important tools in your Great Commission toolbelt.

WHAT is a Personal Testimony?

Let me give you a simple definition. A personal testimony is your story of how God brought you from spiritual death to life. Every personal testimony should include three main ingredients: an explanation of (1) Life Before Christ, (2) Trusting Christ, and (3) Life With Christ. Each of these ingredients is included in Paul’s story.

DEATH (Life Before Christ)

Most stories end with death, but not the Christian’s story. The Christian story begins with death. Paul says this beginning in Acts 26:4—"My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. (5) They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.”

He continues telling his story in verse 9—“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. (10) And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. (11) And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities. (12) In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.”

Paul begins his personal testimony by talking about his life before Christ, a life marked by spiritual death. But notice, Paul is a very religious person. He’s a Pharisee, the strictest group in the entire Jewish religion. And he wasn’t a Pharisee in name only, he was zealous! He devoted his life to putting heretics and blasphemers to death. Included those who were following this man named Jesus of Nazareth. At the time Paul would have considered himself to be spiritually healthy. Looking back, he admits that he was spiritually dead.

He puts it this way in Ephesians 2:1-3—And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Is this how you understand your life before Christ? When you reflect on who you were before you became a Christian, do you recognize that you were spiritually dead? When you tell your story, how do you tell it?

Some of the Christians in this room have what some might call a “boring” testimony. You weren’t a drug addict or an alcoholic. You didn’t sleep around. You never experimented with Eastern Mysticism. You were never incarcerated. You weren’t an Atheist. You grew up in a Christian home, your parents taught you about Jesus, you went to church regularly as a child, and somewhere along the way you too believed the message your parents and Sunday School teachers taught you. Don’t be ashamed of that type of story, Christian. Before you met Jesus, you were no less dead than Paul was.

Imagine we had two corpses on the stage, one from May 1920 and the other from May 2020. If by some miraculous power we were able to resurrect those corpses, which miracle would be greater? They’d be equally great! Why? Because you can’t get any deader than dead! One may be more decayed than the other, but they’re both equally dead. In the same way, every person is spiritually dead before Christ. Some lives may be more decayed by the effects of sin, but they’re not more dead. Every personal testimony is a miracle.

If you have one of those boring testimonies, make sure you when you tell your story you talk about your spiritual death. Don’t say things like “I’ve always been a Christian” or “I’ve always been a good person,” or “I’ve always believed.” Other Christians might understand what you mean when you say things like that, but unbelievers don’t. Tell them that you are were dead in your trespasses and sins.

If you have an exciting testimony like Paul, make sure you don’t glorify your past. I’ve heard some people tell their stories and it almost sounds like they miss all the drunken nights of commandment-breaking. That’s not how Paul talked about his life before Christ. Notice in verse 10 that he calls these people he used to persecute “saints.” I believe Paul was brokenhearted whenever he thought about his former life. Some of you can’t share your testimony without your eyes watering. I think Paul was probably the same way whenever he thought about his life before Christ.

The second main ingredient of a personal testimony is:

CONVERSION (Turning to Christ)

Every personal testimony should include a story of conversion. Conversion is the moment when we respond to God’s work in our hearts by turning to Christ in repentance and faith.

Paul tells that part of his story beginning in Acts 26:13—At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. (14) And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ (15) And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, (17) delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you (18) to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

In verse 18 Jesus summarizes what conversion looks like. In conversion, your eyes are opened. You turn from one direction to another. You’re rescued from darkness to light. You’re delivered from Satan’s power to God’s family. You’re forgiven. You’re placed among a new people. You’re sanctified (made holy) by faith in Jesus.

Paul summarizes his response to Jesus in verse 19—“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” In just a few words Paul packs a mountain of theology. What’s the heavenly vision? It’s the Good News that Jesus is God, that He’s alive, and that He will forgive whoever who repents and believes in Him! What does it mean to be obedient to this heavenly vision? First, Paul must turn from his old life. This is what the Bible calls repentance. Second, Paul must turn to Jesus and trust Him. This is what the Bible calls faith.

Here’s why this is so important: if there is no genuine repentance and faith, there is no genuine conversion. To put it another way, unless you repent and believe you cannot be saved.

Is this how you understand the moment you turned to Christ? When you reflect on the moment when you believe you became a Christian, do you recall genuine repentance and faith? When you tell your story, how do you tell it? It’s not necessarily wrong to talk about “walking an aisle,” “getting baptized,” “praying the prayer,” “accepting Jesus,” or “asking Jesus into your heart,” but I would encourage you to explain your story the way the Bible explains it. I would encourage you to talk about repentance and faith.

The final main ingredient of a personal testimony is:

OBEDIENCE (Life With Christ)

The personal testimony should also include some explanation of a life transformed by a relationship with Christ. That’s what Paul does beginning in Acts 26:19-23—“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, (20) but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. (21) For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

If you could summarize Paul’s new life in Christ in a word, which word would you choose? I think the most fitting word is obedience. He begins this section by saying he wasn’t disobedient. Then he explains how he was obedient in Damascus, in Jerusalem, in Judea, and among the Gentiles. When he told people about Jesus, he told them to be obedient. He was obedient to Jesus, even if it meant risking his life in the process.

Is this how you understand your new life with Christ? Is your life marked by obedience? When you tell your story, do you talk about obedience? Sadly, many testimonies I hear don’t sound like this at all. Far too many Christians talk about a transformation in purely subjective terms: “I had this new sense of peace,” “I finally had joy,” “I never felt alone again,” “for the first time I knew genuine love.” Now all these things are often true for believers, but none of them are the best evidence of a believer.

It’s fashionable among many Christians to downplay obedience, but the Bible consistently depicts the believer as the person who obediently follows Jesus. Jesus says this in John 3:36—"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Hebrews 5:9 says Jesus is “the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” In Romans 6:17 Paul says thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.

Friend, if you claim to be a Christian, but your life is not marked by obedience I invite you to examine yourself this morning. Titus 1:16 talks about people who “profess to know God but deny Him by their works.” Is that you? Are you claiming to be a Christian because you prayed a prayer, walked an aisle, or got baptized one time? Or is there concrete evidence in your life today that you have been converted?

If I were to ask you to prove that you’re alive, what would you do? Would you go and locate your birth certificate? Would you point to it and say, “see, I’m alive!”? Of course not! If you want to prove that you’re alive you speak, you listen, you walk, you move. The same principle is true for believers in Jesus. You know you’re a genuine believer not because you can point to a baptism certificate or some date in your Bible that records when you walked an aisle. You know you’re a Christian because you speak to Jesus through prayer, because you listen to Him in His Word, because you walk in obedience to Him.

None of this means you obey perfectly, but if you’re a Christian you will obey truly. Your desire is to obediently follow Jesus. That’s why the church is so important. PBC Family, one of our responsibilities is to help each other obey Jesus. In fact, I would suggest to you that you cannot obey Jesus without a church family. There are too many “one another” commands in Scripture that require a local church family. When we take communion and look around, we’re reminded of our responsibility to help one another. And if one of us continues in unrepentant disobedience, our responsibility is to remove that person and treat them like an unbeliever because believers are people who strive to obey.

One of the most important tools in your Great Commission toolbelt is your personal testimony. Like Paul, your testimony should talk about your spiritual death before Christ, your conversion when you turned to Christ, and your new life of obedience to Christ.

When I was given this tool, Cameron told me it was used for driving nails into concrete. That gave me enough of a head-start to learn what this tool is called. It’s officially known as a powder-actuated nailer, but it’s sometimes called a gun nailer, a .22 nailer, a power nailer, a concrete nail gun, or by the trademarked brand name Ramset. Once I learned what it was I was able to learn how to use it.

Now that we’ve answered our first question—what is a personal testimony?—let’s answer our second question:

HOW Should I Use My Personal Testimony?

It’s not enough to know what a testimony is if you don’t know how to use it. From Paul’s example, I want to show you a few basic principles on using your personal testimony.

Speak COURAGEOUSLY

Because two thousand years have passed, the significance of Paul’s testimony is lost on us. Paul is speaking to two genuine celebrities in his day. King Agrippa was the son of King Herod, the ridiculously wealthy king who died in Acts 12 after allowing a crowd to worship him like a god. He was the great-grandson of King Herod the Great, who famously tried to kill the baby Jesus decades earlier. Bernice, who was with King Agrippa, was something like a fashion icon and sex symbol in her day. One author says “most of the first hearers or readers would raise at least one eyebrow at the thought of this fashionable and powerful woman coming into contact with Paul. It is as though, reading the story of some travelling evangelist, we were to come upon a photograph of the preacher shaking hands with Marilyn Monroe.”ii N.T. Wright, Acts For Everyone: Part 2 (London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 202.

This explains the scene in Act 25:23—So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

Everyone in Paul’s day would have considered Festus, Agrippa, and Bernice as far more significant individuals than the lowly prisoner, Paul. But two thousand years later, they are only remembered because of their encounter with Paul. Christian, what you do for Christ matters! Take courage! In two thousand years the most powerful, famous, influential, wealthy people in our world today may be long forgotten. But God’s people will still be talking about people who courageously share their personal testimony and point people to Jesus.

You might feel like you don’t have much important to say, but you do. Your story matters, Christian, and God intends for you to use your story as a tool to draw others to Himself. So when you speak your testimony do it courageously.

Speak CLEARLY

Listen to Paul’s clarity in Acts 26:22-23—To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: (23) that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

The most important thing you can talk about when sharing your personal testimony is the Gospel of Jesus. Whatever you do, clearly tell the Good News about Jesus. Jesus suffered and died in our place. Three days later He rose from the dead. He’s the hero! Not you, not me, not Paul. We’re saved because of Jesus. You may have walked an aisle, but you did it because of Jesus. You may have a boring testimony, and that’s because of Jesus. Whatever you talk about, talk clearly about Jesus.

I’ve been telling you for four years I want every member at PBC to be able to pass the 4 A.M. Test. Here’s the test: if I came in your room at 4 A.M. and blew an airhorn and shouted, “What is the Gospel?” would you be able to clearly answer me? Do you know the Gospel so well that even in a startled, half-awake stupor you could recite it?

At PBC we often explain the Gospel using four C’s. It begins with God, the holy Creator. Even though our first parents were in a garden paradise, they still disobeyed God. Now the Curse of sin has spread to all humanity. But God loved the world so much He sent His Son, Jesus the Christ to live a sinless life and die a sinner’s death and rise from death so that whoever Calls on Jesus in repentance and faith can be saved from God’s righteous wrath.

Whatever you do, speak this Gospel message clearly when you share your testimony. It’s the Gospel, not your story, that is the power of God unto salvation. When you speak your testimony, speak the Gospel clearly.

Speak HONESTLY

Often when we’re talking to unbelievers about Jesus we slip into “used car salesman mode.” My apologies to any used car salesmen in the room, but you know what I mean, don’t you? We’re tempted to sweeten the deal by sugarcoating the bad parts.

Paul’s example is different. In Acts 26:20 he says that he told people wherever he went “that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.” Paul speaks honestly. He tells people, “listen, following Jesus means you have to repent. You must turn from your old life. And then, you must live a life of obedience. You have to perform deeds that demonstrate you have truly repented.”

If you’re here and you’re not a follower of Jesus, let me speak honestly to you. Becoming a Christian requires repentance. You must turn from your sin. You must turn from your way of thinking. You must submit to Jesus as He reveals Himself in His Word. You must follow Him in obedience, no matter what He demands of you. Only if you’re willing to do that can you be saved.

Christian, when you speak your testimony, don’t sugarcoat hard truths. Speak honestly.

Speak CONFIDENTLY

Christian, if you’re willing to speak the Gospel courageously, clearly, and honestly, you’ll find that people will often reject you. That’s what happens in verses 24-25. Governor Festus literally starts shouting at Paul and calling him a crazy person. But Paul’s not taken aback. He’s confident in his message.

Notice Acts 26:25-26—Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. (26) For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

Paul is confident because the Gospel message is true. Do you believe that, Christian? If so, speak confidently!

Paul is confident because the Gospel message is rational. It is not irrational to believe that Jesus walked on water or rose from the dead if you believe that He’s God. It is not irrational to believe that God exists if you look honestly at this universe that screams of a designer.

Paul is confident because the Gospel events were public. Christianity

Application

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Speak URGENTLY

Acts 26:26-27

Explanation

Application

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Speak PRAYERFULLY

Acts 26:28-29

Explanation

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Big Idea + Transition

But just like any other tool, you answer these questions so you can use it. Are you willing to use your personal testimony as a tool to reach your friends and neighbors with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

COMMUNION

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i N.T. Wright, Acts For Everyone: Part 2 (London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008), 202.