Witnesses
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Witnesses
Witnesses
Joh 15:26-27
26 “When the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father —the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me.
27 You also will testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.
Christ gathered His disciples the night before His death.
31 Then Jesus said to them, “Tonight all of you will run away because of Me, for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.
32 But after I have been resurrected, I will go ahead of you to Galilee.”
33 Peter told Him, “Even if everyone runs away because of You, I will never run away!”
34 “I assure you,” Jesus said to him, “tonight, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times!”
35 “Even if I have to die with You,” Peter told Him, “I will never deny You!” And all the disciples said the same thing.
Matthew 26:
Jesus foretold they would all abandon Him.
He graphically illustrated His love for them by washing their feet.
Gave them a series of magnificient promises in John 14.
He also warned them of the world’s opposition.
He spoke to them about abiding in Him by the power of the Holy Spirit in John 15.
And now he comes to the end of chapter 15 and He tells them how they will also testify of Him.
The nature of Christian Witness
I. We’re Witnesses to a lost world.
“You also will testify...”
Testify to whom?
Look at verses 18-25 — the context tells us the world that hates us.
And we’re commanded to go and confront the world with the Gospel.
19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew
Think about the ambiguity of our culture of postmodernism and relativism. Nothing is more needed than a clear presentation of the Gospel.
But in order to confront the word with the message of the Gospel, three things have to happen.
Nothing is more needed than a clear presentation of the Gospel.
We have to be in the world. — “I am not praying that You take them out of the world.”
We are not a part of the world. — “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
We must do so in love.
24 The Lord’s slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient,
25 instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth.
26 Then they may come to their senses and escape the Devil’s trap, having been captured by him to do his will.
15 but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
II. Our Witness is from the Father.
“When the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father — the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father...”
The ultimate witness is God the Father, who testifies of Christ in several ways.
God spoke in the OT and the theme was the Lord Jesus Christ. , , Luke 24:44
The Father testified to the Son through the divine works that Jesus did.
The Father spoke directly testifying of Jesus. — “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
The Father testified of the Son by sending the Holy Spirit.
III. Our Witness is about Christ.
“He will testify about Me. You also will testify...”
The ministry of the Holy Spirit to the lost worlds is to testify about Jesus. Likewise, our message is not political activism, social reform, or self improvement — but Jesus Christ.
2 For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
That’s a clear Biblical emphasis of our message.
1 When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom.
2 For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
3 I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
4 My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit,
5 so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved.
19 For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the understanding of the experts.
20 Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?
21 For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached.
22 For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.
24 Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom,
25 because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Not only the truth of Christ, but a message of repentance.
37 When they heard this, they came under deep conviction and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: “Brothers, what must we do?”
38 “Repent,” Peter said to them, “and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This was Christ’s message.
18 A ruler asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good but One—God.
20 You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother.”
21 “I have kept all these from my youth,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, He told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
23 After he heard this, he became extremely sad, because he was very rich.
24 Seeing that he became sad, Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!
25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard this asked, “Then who can be saved?”
27 He replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
IV. The Witness of Christ is through us.
“You also will testify.”
Amazingly, we are the final link in the witness chain. We testify what God the Father and God the Spirit testify. We do this in the power of the Holy Spirit.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
19 by the power of miraculous signs and wonders, and by the power of God’s Spirit. As a result, I have fully proclaimed the good news about the Messiah from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum.
Romans
We are qualified like the apostles, who had “been with Him from the beginning.”
21 “Therefore, from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us—
22 beginning from the baptism of John until the day He was taken up from us—from among these, it is necessary that one become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
We are not eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ as the apostles were. But we are called to point people to the truth of Christ as revealed in Scripture and we demonstrate the power of His resurrection life in our lives.
4 Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life.
10 My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
God chose us as a means to reach the elect among the lost.
13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
14 But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher?
15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things!
16 But all did not obey the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message?
17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
Romans 10:1