Untitled Sermon

Last person you told about Jesus?

Perhaps church/club? friend? family? co-worker? doors? street?

What was it like? How did it go? smooth/straightforward? every word perfect? mumbling, stuttering, not quite sure of what to say?

What was the response? encouraging - interest and questions? blank misunderstanding? angry rejection?

Are those wrong questions? Have you ever told anyone about Jesus? Kept faith quiet... For yourself and doesn’t matter what other’s believe?

3rd week of series “What church should be like” - 3rd W - Witnessing. We should be a witnessing church.

What? A witness declares truth about what they have experienced. Key aspect of faith in Christ. We know we should be telling others about Jesus? Why?

Before main passage, want to look at several others that trace pattern of witnessing through the Bible. Help us understand - DNA of church. More than just individuals - whole church!

Witnessing through the Bible

1) God’s people have always been witnessing.

OT - worked slightly differently to what we consider evangelism. But God’s people - nation of Israel - were supposed to be witnesses of God to other nations. Three verses that show this:

i) Exodus 19:3-6

3 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

God speaking to people after rescue from Egypt. Note - treasured possession if you keep covenant. God’s grace primarily for Israel.

v6 key - Kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

God has set Israel apart from other nations - dedicated to him, holy. But doesn’t mean they pay no attention to rest of the world. Hence kingdom of priests.

Called to represent God to world, seek to bring the rest of world to him.

Consider role of a priest - supposed to stand between God and mankind - bring mankind closer to God and share God’s truth, justice, favour, discipline and holiness to mankind.

Whole nation of priests! An example to other nations - other nations wanting to follow one true God. Proclaiming his truth and his character, living in obedience, trusting him.

Ultimately - mirror God’s glory, show that the nation’s idols are not God.

Corporate commitment - as a whole people they were called to do this. Not just special individuals.

We see this played out in Ps96 - turn with me.

ii) Psalm 96

Connected to 1 Chron 16 - when ark brought to Jerusalem. Key moment in history of Israel.

Read key verses and comment:

v1-3 - Declare, nations, all peoples. Called to tell everyone about God’s wonderful works.

v4-6 - Difference between God and idols - very clear, they need to declare it!

v7-9 - Call to nations to come and give him glory he deserves.

Goes on... but clear that Israel has this role of being a witness to the nations and should be taking it seriously.

iii) Isaiah 43:21

Section - God speaking to his people in exile. May seem random but shows us something important:

19 See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the desert

and streams in the wasteland.

20 The wild animals honour me,

the jackals and the owls,

because I provide water in the desert

and streams in the wasteland,

to give drink to my people, my chosen,

21 the people I formed for myself

that they may proclaim my praise.

v21 key thing here: Why did God create the nation of Israel? that they may proclaim his praise.

Proclaim here - means more than just praising God, but also declaring and proclaiming his praises - his excellent character to the nations.

God himself explains that his people have this role! Clearly important aspect of what it means to be God’s people.

Could show you more verses - but point: God’s people were always called to witness to their God by how they lived and worshipped him among the other nations of the world.

However, as a sinful rebellious people, often witness was pretty poor! How many times they go after false idols, reject God - in exile!

Needed a better witness: Jesus Christ. Jesus came to reveal the father by living a perfect life and revealing God’s power to save on the cross.

And what did Jesus do?

2) Jesus send out witnesses

Not so long on this, but important to see. Jesus was not a lone wolf - he begins by sending out his disciples - remember passage last week?

Luke 9:1–2

9 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Jesus sent out witnesses to himself even before he died and rose again. But after that great event that changed history... we get great commission. So familiar with Matt 28, thought we’d look at Acts 1:8 briefly:

Acts 1:6–9

6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

Clear statement: you will be my witnesses. You will testify to all that you have seen. The Spirit gives you this power to testify to the truth about me.

And note the expanding locations - Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth.

Jesus leaves disciples with clear mission - go and be my witnesses everywhere! And sure enough that is what they do - no one can stop them witnessing to the truth about Jesus and what he had done for them.

So this leads us to our main passage for today - later as Peter writes his letter, his message is clear:

3) The Church must be a witnessing Church

Many good passages about the importance of evangelism - Whole of Acts, letters of encouragement. So why 1 Peter?

Key verses - 9-10. Chosen because of the particular emphasis on the fact that this is something the whole church should be involved with.

Let’s look again at v9-10, and as we explore the verses we’ll see how they inform our understanding of the rest of the passage:

1 Peter 2:9–10

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Passage helpful, perhaps more than others, shows how the church now fulfils the role of the nation of Israel. How?

Peter begins by giving 4 titles to the church - 4 titles that first applied to Israel, now the church.

A chosen people. The fact that God chooses who he will save is something we thought about in last week’s cat. and it is mentioned throughout this letter. In the OT, it is Israel who are the chosen people of God - Ex 19 - his treasured possession. But now it is anyone from any nation who God calls and who puts their trust in Christ. Jews & Gentiles can be among God’s chosen.

A royal priesthood and a holy nation. Note the clear reference back to Exodus 19 (earlier) - very similar wording. Peter is showing that the church is now doing the role of Israel: mediating God’s blessing to nations as it witnesses to gospel.

Remember this is a corporate thing - everyone is a priest (every Christian here today), part of God’s holy nation.

1 Pet 2:4-6 gives us a picture of how Peter understands this:

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,

a chosen and precious cornerstone,

and the one who trusts in him

will never be put to shame.”

That old adage that the church is not a building but the people is very true! In fact Pet. says as a holy priesthood we are being built into a spiritual house - a temple. A focal point for people to come and understand about God. Temple was important aspect of witness to God’s character and grace. Something we should also be doing as a church!

Finally, a people belonging to God. It’s masked in our English translation, but Peter uses a phrase from Isa 43:21 when he uses this term. Another connection back to OT, showing that church now is the New Israel, made up of people from all nations.

Why v10: Once not a people, Gentiles, no access to God, or his mercy. Now you are a people of God - anyone can receive God’s mercy through Christ.

It’s quite strong isn’t it? Pet ensures there is no mistake about the identity of the church as the New Israel. And then he explains what we as the New Israel are to be doing:

“that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

The reason God has chosen us, made us his people is so that we can declare his praises.

The ESV translation is helpful at clarifying what this means:“that you may proclaim the excellencies of him”

So this declaration is more than just declaring something in the church setting, this is proclaiming far and wide - seeking to tell everyone about something.

That something? God’s praises, or “excellencies” - declaring the wonder of God’s character, his love, what he has done for us. Everything about God and his grace is praise worthy and should be declared to the world!

News you can’t keep quiet? [] twins born! Do we feel like that about gospel? Declaring excellencies of God. Challenge - do we really believe that he is excellent and worthy of praise above all else. Often we can fear people more and keep quiet. Pet is clear - church is to shout it from the roof tops. We are to be a church that witnesses.

Before we consider what this means for us practically today, I just want to point out briefly 2 aspects that are involved in our witnessing.

i) We declare the gospel message.

It sounds basic but is crucial: v9 - God called us out of darkness into his wonderful light! Jesus, the light of the world, came to save us from the darkness of our sin. Can’t get more of a contrast - light & dark.

Important to remember as we evangelise. We are no better than anyone else. We are not worthy of being saved any more than anyone else. We are saved by the grace and love of God. He had mercy on us, we didn’t earn salvation.

Huge message of hope for those struggling - it doesn’t matter who you are, what you’ve done, Jesus has paid the price and your sins can be forgiven! Jesus says this about the church in Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

Remember verses from 1 Pet 3 we started with - always having an answer. Comes from confidence in the gospel, that we are safe and secure in God’s love apart from our own action. He brings us into the light.

ii) We declare the gospel by living out its message

Look again at v11-12:

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Two things to note - part of living out the gospel message is fighting against sin - we are at war! That means trusting God’s spirit to give us the power to stop sinning, it means repenting quickly when we fail. It means no longer accepting that it is inevitable that we will continue in sinful patterns.

Secondly - We seek to show God’s love in the gospel in the way we live our lives in the world. We do good works not to earn salvation but because we are so thankful for being saved!

Verse for year? By this everyone will know you are my disciples - we love one another. We thought about that last week - welcoming each other!

We want people to see that church is a place where people love each other differently - with grace and not merit! [] why we love some more than others? worth etc. Not before God - so we love all equally.

So there we go: let’s sum up the key points from what we’ve seen:

- The church is the New Israel, the new people of God who are called to witness to the world.

- We do that by declaring the gospel message far and wide, and by living godly lives so that people see the difference that Jesus makes.

I want to now spend some time trying to apply this practically - what does this mean for us as a church?

1) We should witness together

Can anyone tell me what this is a pic of?

UK from space at night. Big bright area here? London! So bright because of amount of lights on in London - can’t spot tiny villages!

This is what we should be like as a church - a city on a hill. Each of us seeking to share the light of Christ. The more who do, the brighter we are in our community.

The focus of our passage and OT references this morning - show that it is the church all together - as a corporate body - who are witnesses to Christ.

Might be easy to look at heros of NT - Paul, Peter etc. and think what amazing evangelists - I could never be like that. Perhaps not in the same way, but think about how quickly the early church grew.

It grew because people who were changed and saved became a church and then spoke to everyone around them about Christ!

As a church we do have ways we witness together - Sundays are key (open to public, welcoming?), we have our regular clubs and activities, sometimes special events - joy to serve alongside many of you.

One key thing is our door to door ministry. That’s right - actually leaving the safety of the hall and going out to talk to people in our local area! Scary! But important - light of Christ in darkness.

Now I know that many of you serve in lots of ways, on Sundays and at these clubs, but this passage should challenge us all to consider if there is more we could be doing.

Often when we go Door to Door there is perhaps 4-8 of us - now look around, there’s a lot more than that on a Sunday! We could be sharing more light in our local community if more were coming out with us. What’s stopping you? Come and let me know, I’d like to know if there are ways we could help you to come out with us.

Of course that’s one example - but I think this passage should lead us to examine ourselves, and ask how am I part of the church as a body reaching out? How am I strengthening the church with my light?

If not doing anything, pray and ask for God’s guidance. Speak to me or Jon. Real joy and privilege to witness together like this!

2) We should witness individually

Earlier I spoke of the impact of the early church as Christianity bloomed as people shared the good news. Of course they were sharing the gospel as individuals in the places where God put them. Friends, family, work colleagues, etc.

Same for us really. When faced with darkness even the slightest light makes a big difference - God calls us to be a light wherever we find ourselves.

I hope John’s testimony earlier was helpful in encouraging you to consider how to make the most of the opportunities God has given you!

And I hope you see that the foundation is the church family, the church body. Bit like this diagram - underneath our efforts as individuals is the church as a whole, there to encourage us, spur us on, help us burn brighter!

Perhaps there is someone that you would love to share the gospel with but struggling to know how - why not be bold enough to speak to someone afterwards, and ask for prayer for God to give you a chance to say something this week?

Reminder again - One 2 One training, really relevant and helpful for encouraging us as a church to read the bible with others.

Finally, as a conclusion we must remember this:

3) We witness in God’s strength

Perhaps you’ve got to this point in the sermon and you’ve been challenged about your need to witness but you just feel inadequate to the job, like you’d definitely mess it up so perhaps it’s best not to bother.

Here’s the thing - we can’t save people. Only God can. Only God can work in someone’s heart. We go in God’s strength with the Spirits help - and he is powerful enough to change even the coldest of hearts.

So we should feel liberated really when sharing our faith. We simply try to share the truth however possible - and no one gets it perfect - trusting that God will work through what we say. And he will! God is strong when we are weak. He is always building his church. As Paul says in 1 Cor 3:

6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

So I hope that this sermon has encouraged you to rejoice that you are part of a witnessing church! That we have wonderful good news to share.

Of course we will only have the desire to witness when our hearts are rejoicing in the grace found in the gospel. We need God’s spirit to remind us daily of the mercy we have received at the foot of the cross so that we will desperately want to share it with others. Let me pray and ask for God to do that for us now.

Pray