Paul and His Testimony
Notes
Transcript
What is a Testimony?
What is a Testimony?
Good Morning,
Today we have had the pleasure of hearing the way God has been at work in the life of Kimmie. How her life had been one way, but when it pleased God to reveal His Son to her. She accepted that gift and has been radically changed, she was born again. Thank you for sharing your testimony with us.
Prayer
This morning we are continuing our series on Galatian, Of Man or Of God. If you can please, turn in your Bibles with me to today’s passage. We are in Galatians 1:11-24. If you are using a pew Bible that will be on page 1074. I will say that we will be spending more time in this passage in the weeks ahead so please be patient we are doing a more topical style sermon that fit with this passage.
Because we focused so heavily on what the true Gospel is and who Paul is trying to please, we are not going to spend a lot of time on that aspect this week. Paul is still in the defense of his ministry portion of this letter and we will again have more time to look at that in the next few weeks. I want you to remember a couple weeks back, I stated that is the job of the elders here to equip the church for the work of ministry and because of that I want to look at these questions on the screen. What is a testimony and what is its purpose? Paul repeatedly gives his conversion story throughout the New Testament. He gives it in Acts 22, Acts 26, In our passage today Galatians 1:11-24, 1 Corinthians 15:1-10, and in 1 Timothy 1:12-17. In each of these passages, there is a purpose behind why Paul is sharing his testimony and each time it is slightly different.
So what is a testimony?
So what is a testimony?
So what exactly is a testimony? You hear this word thrown around a lot in Christian circles and we need to remember that not all of us even know what is being said. The Greek word or a form of the word we translate as testimony is used several times throughout the New Testament. It means essentially the same thing as what we would think of in the court of law. An eye witness gives their account or testimony of the events of a crime. We are giving our account of how we came to Christ and how He has changed who we are. We are in fact witnesses of what Christ has done in our own lives and in the lives of others. If you have placed your faith in Christ, you have your own unique account of how that came about. We had the pleasure of hearing Kimmie’s account or testimony today, a few weeks ago, if you were here, you heard Amber’s and mine. Two of the Gospel’s are unique testimonies of the life and work of Jesus in the lives of his disciples.
So, what is the point of it, why is it such an important thing, I mean beyond the obvious personal part of it? There are 4 major things that our testimony accomplishes and we will see three of them in the passage today.
Establishes confirmation of the Gospel message.
Evangelizes those who don’t know Christ
Encourages believers
Exalts God
Sorry, I had to do the pastoral thing where I start each point with the same letter, but hopefully it helps you remember.
1. A testimony establishes confirmation of the Gospel message
If we look at the context of our passage today, we see that is one of the main aspects of Paul giving his testimony. It is to confirm the Gospel that he is preaching and his ministry. Paul was a persecutor of the Church and it would appear that many people knew of his former manner of life. We see that in verse 13, Paul says they had heard of former life. Many who come to Christ later in life can share in this experience. The people who knew us before, hopefully, see this change in who we are. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
One of the most exciting parts of the Gospel message is that through Christ and His work we can be reconciled to God. I like what Merriam-Webster says about the word reconcile.
Some common synonyms of reconcile are accommodate, adapt, adjust, and conform. While all these words mean "to bring one thing into correspondence with another," reconcile implies the demonstration of the underlying compatibility of things that seem to be incompatible.
Why do I like it? Because apart from Christ we are completely incompatible with God. He is holy and we are not, He is righteous and we are wicked, He is just and we try to manipulate things to our advantage. But through Christ the old has passed away and we are a new creation. We are different than we were before, or at least we should be. This newness is confirmation of the gospel, your testimony along with the thousands of others who have experienced this bear witness to the power of God.
If you look with me at Deuteronomy 19:15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.” A testimony here is for an offense but it must be established on the evidence of two or three witnesses. In Matthew 18:16 we see the same thing as far as church discipline if someone does not listen you take two or three witnesses. We see in
I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”
Witnesses are incredibly important as far as establishing confirmation of facts, and everyone here, who have placed their faith in Christ, now share in that witness. Paul is unique in his testimony, he was converted by a visit from Jesus and taught the Gospel through revelation of Jesus Christ. So his testimony, at least as far as establishing his role as Apostle, carries more weight than anyone here, but as far as establishing the Gospel message we each help confirm that message.
2. Evangelizes those who don’t know Christ
The next thing it does is evangelizes those who don’t know Christ. This is probably the most pushed part of knowing your testimony. I would agree that it is a useful tool as far as building a rapport with someone. They can see what it is that you have been through and how Christ has changed you. However, at least in scripture it doesn’t seem to be the main purpose of your testimony. If you look at Acts 22, Paul is standing before a crowd of people and he shares his testimony, many in the crowd listen until a point. Paul then tells them how God sent him to the Gentiles, at this point the crowd turns on him. We never see anyone in this passage turn to christ. Paul give his testimony again in chapter 26 of Acts, before King Agrippa. Paul goes through his whole testimony and knows that King Agrippa is familiar with the Prophets. Look what King Agrippa says in verse 28,
And Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”
Your testimony is a valuable tools as far as evangelism goes and many have come to Christ because of another’s testimony used in the right way. So do not hear me say don’t use it, just understand I don’t believe that is it’s main purpose. You should be awed by what Christ has done in your life and you can tell everyone about it. I am just saying do not be discouraged if as you share it you don’t see people coming to Christ. I think it has other, probably more important roles. Which are our next two points.
3. Encourages believers
Look back at Galatians with me at verses 22-26
Galatians 1:22-23 “And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.””
The churches of Judea had not yet met Paul, but they were hearing about the change in his life. I love hearing the testimonies of believers. Everyone of them is unique, but everyone of them is exciting and encouraging. It is so uplifting to hear how God worked in the life of another person. We had a young girl at the church we came from and she was 10 or 11 at the time, but she shared her testimony and her faith in Christ with the church and it was amazing to see her and watch her get baptized. We are to build up the body of Christ, that is one of the reasons we are here. We are all individual parts of one body and it is exciting and encouraging to hear the way God works in the life of another.
It also encourages believers to keep the faith. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 1:12-16 “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.”
Paul’s testimony is an example for those who were to believe in Christ for eternal life and whether you feel yours is or not, so is ours. Your testimony should speak to the power of God in your life and how He has changed you. Our day to day walk should reflect that to other believers and to the world around us. Remember the churches of Judea had heard about his change.
And look what that causes believers to do.
In Verse 24.
4. Exalts God
Because of your and my testimony God is Exalted. Galatians 1:24 “And they glorified God because of me.” Who is it that gets the glory when a person is saved? Remember we bring nothing to our Salvation. God gets the Glory. and We can praise him because of the work in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Only God could do the work in the life of Kimmie to bring about the joy she now has. Only God could have done the work to bring me to the life I now have. God receives glory when we share our testimonies with one another.
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
We can rejoice with one another because of the work that God has done. He gets the glory and we praise Him for the testimonies of His people. I don’t know about in here, but often we forget how excited we should get as believers when someone comes to salvation. Turn with me to Luke 15:7
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
Conclusion
Conclusion
I encourage you to think through your testimony. Sit down and write it out. It is helpful to go through it. It is encouraging and we can reflect on the work God has done in our own lives as we do and praise Him because of it. If you need help, have a resource to help you do it, it is in the back next to where you found the bulletin. I encourage you, after you have thought through it, to share your testimony with others, both believers and unbelievers. It can help you share the Gospel with others and it is an encouragement to believers. If you don’t have a testimony or are not sure about it, trust in Christ, He is the reason we are here and we have one, if you have questions please come talk to Doug, Marc, or myself and we can sit down with you and try to help answer any you may have.
Let us close with a word of prayer