Witness to Others Always

We are in the middle of a sermon series entitled “Always.” We have been spending the last few weeks examining what those that are followers of Jesus should attempt to always be doing. You can find all of the previous sermons on our You Tube channel.

This week we will turn our focus to choosing to witness to others always concerning our faith and understanding of Jesus. Our scripture comes from 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10. The words will be on the screen.

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9 For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Please pray with me…

We have a God that loves us and desires for us to pass on the love he has for us to those around us. It seems at times that we have forgotten about this aspect of the Christian faith. We have moved away from a willingness to tell others about the one who has saved us.

The existence of our churches and the reason why many of us if not all of us are here today either in-person or online, is because someone told us about Jesus. Someone let us know about the one who came to earth for us, died for us, and arose from dead for us.

We have Paul laying out for us three of the main attributes of the Christian faith. He tells the believers in Thessalonica how proud he was of the way that had been living out their faith through the love and hope given to them by God.

They have heard the word and they have responded. What we need to remember is that these believers are thought to be for the most part not Jewish. They had been worshipping other gods. Paul had to show them the love of God for them to understand the hope they would receive if they would decide that this God was different. He was the one and only God.

Faith is what should lead us to express to those around us the love that God has for us and them and the hope that he offers us in a world filled with corruption and sin. We have a God that forgives us and also helps us maneuver through life in this broken world.

Our love for God and for those around us should remind us of the actions of Jesus within scripture. We have Jesus as our example that no one is unworthy of us speaking to or helping to understand the hope offered through being willing to follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Hope is the message that many people need to hear right now. Both those within and outside of the church have dealt with so much over these last few years that they may have lost all hope.

They may be seeking what they have been missing in their lives. We have an answer. We have Jesus. The one who wants to remove the power of sin from their lives and the one who will never leave them and will always surround them and us with love.

We can offer hope for today and also hope for the future. We can speak about the God that desires to be in a relationship with them and help lead them through this life. And about the one who wants to live with them forever. How after death our Spirit lives and resides with our God forever.

It is through the Holy Spirit that this is made possible. Jesus spent time with his disciples. He helped them understand what God desired from them. He led them into a closer relationship with God.

Then, he announced that he would one day be killed This led to confusion for his disciples since the Messiah, their Savior was to help the Jewish people be free from human oppression.

Jesus let them know that his death would not free them from human oppression. His death would be able to free all people from spiritual oppression. They would be able to have an even closer relationship with God.

That closer relationship with God would include the helper he was leaving them, the Holy Spirit. He promised them God within them to help lead them as he had led them through his time on earth. That promise of a helper was fulfilled and has been passed down from generation to generation.

It is our turn to continue to pass along the love of Jesus. The hope we have found in Jesus. And the promise of the Holy Spirit to those that God places before us. Jesus and the disciples began what we are to continue.

Scripture tells us that we are called to be a witness to those in our midst. Jesus’ last words to his disciples were for them to use the power of the Holy Spirit to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

This would mean that we should be letting those around us, those like us, those that don’t like us, and those not like us, know about Jesus. There are no people groups, there are no individuals that we are exempt from letting know about the love and hope we received when we became followers of Jesus.

We are to become the sent-out ones. Our first reading focuses on Jesus making the decision to send out his disciples into the world. They are being sent out in pairs to preach and to heal. They are to tell those around them about God and heal those that needed physical healing.

Jesus wants to make sure that they will be relying on God while they are out following the will of God. They are to go out without any food and without any money. They are to only have enough clothes for them to wear at any one time.

They left Jesus and did what he asked. They didn’t hesitate. They showed that their faith was greater than their fear. The fear of how their message would be accepted by those around them. We don’t know for sure but that might be why Jesus sent them out. He wanted to see how strong their faith was. Would they be willing to follow him no matter the circumstances.

He had been with them. He had shown them what to say. He had them see him heal various people in various ways. He hoped that they would be willing to trust that he had prepared them to go out and serve him.

The disciples relied on the knowledge and the trust that they had in Jesus. We have Jesus giving them power before sending them out. We have been given that same power. We have been given the Holy Spirit within us to help guide us when we serve and tell others about Jesus.

As our main scripture continues, we can see the impact that the Thessalonian Christians had on the area around them and eventually the world. Paul lets them know that the words they have shared with others regarding their faith had first reached Macedonia and Achaia but have now spread beyond those regions.

The word of God spreads person to person. We have a person receive and accept the message of the saving grace of God, and they will be able to spread that word to others around them. A simple conversation with one person can lead many people to be impacted by the love of Jesus.

We can get a glimpse of how faith in Jesus can spread when we go further into Luke. We have in chapter ten where Jesus now sends out 72 followers to spread the word of God. We go from a total of six pairs of believers telling others about Jesus to now 36 pairs.

We have six times as many people impacting the world around them with the words and actions of Jesus being expressed to more areas. The scripture continues that they returned in joy because of what they were able to accomplish through the power they had received.

We also can look towards the story of Simon Peter. Jesus sees him and some other fishermen and ask for them to follow him. Peter along with the other fishermen make the decision that they are going to change professions and go from catching fish to serving God.

After Jesus’death Peter becomes filled with the Holy Spirit and stands among thousands of Jews proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. The scripture tells us that about three thousand gave their lives to Jesus that day.

We also can look at a more modern example. There was an evangelist named Mordecai Ham who was asked to preach at a revival meeting in North Carolina. It was at that revival that Billy Graham would give his life to Jesus.

Many of us know of the impact that this man speaking into the heart of Billy Graham would have on the world. It is believed that over 3.2 million people have given their lives to Jesus through an invitation from Billy Graham.

We may never have someone we talk to about Jesus have that big of an impact, but God cares about each person. God wants to be in a relationship with every one that walks the earth. Therefore, he wants us to tell those around us about the one who offers us love and hope.

We believe that God prepares the hearts of those that he puts before us for us to speak too. We are saying the words, but those words will often come from God and be directed by the Holy Spirit to touch the individual or group around us.

It also may not always involve us speaking that could impact the lives of those that God has placed before us. It is often our actions that lead to conversations. In fact, it is very likely that it was the actions of those sent out by Jesus that led to their message being received in such a powerful way.

Serving thosearound us can lead us to being able to let those we are serving know why we are doing what we are doing. We are to show love to those around us because Jesus first loved us. We will often show that love by serving them as they need served.

Our journey with those that give their life with Jesus does not end when their relationship with Jesus begins. We are to walk with them on that journey. We are to help them receive a greater understanding of what they believe and why they believe it.

The scripturetells us that the faith of the people in Thessalonica grew because they had someone to imitate. Paul became Jesus during his time on earth to these people. Jesus was the example for the disciples to follow, Paul became the example for them to follow.

We will often consider ourselves not good enough to be an example for others. But the best way for someone to grow closer to God and to understand God is to find those that can help them on their faith journey.

It is whywe hope at Kirkersville to help each other with help from God form a greater understanding of who God has made us to be. It is through our time together and our time in prayer with God that we can be formed into the disciples that God wants us to be.

It is why we also want to help each other develop greater knowledge of God so we can receive a greater understanding of what we believe about God. We offer Sunday School and Bible studies so that we can know about the one who came and died for each of us.

It is throughbeing formed and developed that should lead us to be willing to let others know about Jesus. We can complicate the message we share but we might be best off keeping that message simple. Jesus loves us so he came to live among us, die for us, and arose from the dead for us. He wants to forgive your sins so that you can find love and hope through him.

We have at least two reasons why we should choose to witness to others always. The first is that we are called to be a witness to those around us. Jesus didn’t say try to witness he said his followers would be his witness.

That calling leads to us making the decision that we want to follow Jesus in every way. We want to be like those early followers and overcome our fear factor and allow our faith in God to lead us to choose to tell those around us about the one who has saved us.

The other reason depends on if you believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light. If you believe Jesus is the way to Heaven than you should desire for your family, friends, neighbors, and all those that you meet in your lives to know about Jesus.

We should want them to join us with God in Heaven. We should desire to have them not have to face the consequences of not becoming a follower of Jesus. We need to let those around us know about the God that loves them and died for them.

We do this while also remembering that God is with us. He has given us power. He has given us the Holy Spirit within us. He has prepared the way for us. Let us be willing to trust in God and spread the word of God by choosing to be a witness to others for God always.

Please pray with me…