The Lord's Supper, Winter, 2021: "Testimony"

Lord's Supper: Winter, 2021 Testimony is what we are all about today. We heard Natalie's testimony of who the Lord is, how she met him and what he means to her today. Now we know what "testimony" means. Just in case you don't, here is a definition: It is a statement given for the purpose of establishing and recording the truth. It is usually connected with a courtroom. When a person is asked-or it's demanded of them-to give a testimony, how does it begin? "I swear to give the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God." Quite the introduction. It is the raw, unadorned truth about how the person giving his or her testimony experienced the situation. Notice though how the oath is not stated: "I promise to tell you what I think about what I might have seen according to my own truth." If someone were to say something like that, what would the judge tell the defendant? "Back it up and say it again! We are about THE truth, not about 'YOUR' truth." Or as Francis Schaeffer-extremely godly man who wrote extremely godly stuff would say, "true truth." In other words, to give a testimony means "I'm not making this stuff up. This is the truth as best as I witnessed it, and God, who is truth, will help me to tell it to you." So, a testimony is directly tied to truth. That's obvious. Now, the Lord loves truth. Again, obvious. Scripture tells us that it is impossible for God to lie. And God also expects his people to tell the truth to each other. When God gave the 10 Commandments-not 10 Suggestions, the 9th one simply states: "you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." God considers truth to be a really big deal. We heard the testimony of the truth of God in Natalie's life. And today, together, we are going to participate in the testimony of the truth of God in our lives. It is called various things. Communion. The Lord's Supper. The Eucharist-or thanksgiving. This event is a demonstration. A re-enactment if you will of the truth about what God did for us in Christ. In this re-enactment we have some very common elements. Bread. The contents of a cup. Jesus and his disciples used unleavened bread and wine. We use gluten free crackers and grape juice. The setting was a dinner of remembrance. After centuries in bondage in Egypt, the Lord sent Moses to deliver his people. Historical fact. Truth. Ten plagues. The first 9 disasters-God calls them his wonders-only served to have the king of Egypt dig in his heels and refuse to let God's people go free from their slavery. Then came God's wonder #10. It got personal for Pharoah, for God promised to kill his first born son-and any other family who did not apply the blood of a lamb at the doorway of their home. All of Israel feared the Lord and obeyed. They believed the truth of the matter. Pharoah and his people did not fear the Lord. They did not believe that God told the truth. It took the angel of death to convince Pharoah that indeed, God means what he says and says what he means. Only for Pharoah, it was too late. God's angel killed Pharoah's first born son. Passover was the observance of historical truth. God's people participated in the testimony. It was a solemn, joyous thing. A lot of food. Fellowship among family and in the case of Jesus and his disciples, it was fellowship shared between the disciplemaker par excellence and his disciples. On this particular Passover observance, Jesus added the most unique features. At one point in the meal, Jesus took some unleavened bread. He broke it and gave the pieces to his disciples. He called this bread, "my body." A further excursion into the unexpected were his next words, "my body is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me." This statement was Jesus' witness to his men. If we were his disciples, walking and talking with Jesus, we would have right away remembered the day he said this to the crowd of thousands, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger." There was a second testimony Jesus gave during this meal. It was a cup of wine. Here's what he said about it: "Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." The broken body of Jesus. His shed blood. Two statements of testimony establishing truth. In the case of our Lord, it was prophetic truth. In a few hours after the meal, the Son of God would experience his body being broken. He would shed his blood for the forgiveness of sins. Both of these elements together fulfilled the prophecy of God's word called the New Covenant. "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah . . . For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." This statement of truth, this testimony of God cost the sinless Son of God His life. But before Christ gave his life, there was something that we need to see. A profound thing, really. Profound, but we so often miss it in the high drama and the dreaded anticipation of Christ's flogging, crucifixion, death and resurrection as we read in the gospel accounts. John, the disciple whom Jesus loves recorded the conversation between him and governor Pilate in John 18:36-38. Pilate asked Jesus if he was king of the Jews. Jesus eventually answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king-in other words, 'Absolutely'. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world-to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" Let me make a couple of brief comments here. First, remember the truth of repetition in Scripture. If Scripture says it once, it is important. If Scripture says it twice in rapid fire succession, it is very important. Notice what the Lord Jesus repeated, for emphasis: I was born. I have come into the world. This was a set up for what was to follow. Why was Jesus born? Why did he come into the world? To bear witness to the truth. Now this statement right here does not sell well-at all--in our culture. For what do we hear all the time? There is no such thing as absolute truth. See, truth is so . . . exclusive. So . . . narrow. But in the words of one author: To speak about the truth is the one purpose for which Jesus has come. The birth of Christ. His life. His mission. His position as King and Messiah. All of it--and more--are wrapped up in the word: truth. From the get-go, the world hated Jesus. Unless he gave them what pleased them. He healed them. He fed them. He raised some of them from the dead. Wonderful. But when he declared the truth about reality-who he was and what he came to do-all of it was met with disdain. Remember even Peter told him, "Jesus you need to stop talking about all this crucifixion business. You are going to get yourself-and us--killed." Jesus told him, "get behind me Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. If you could, you would prevent me from going to the cross. But my mission, as Messiah, is to die for the sins of the world, and rise again from the dead. Peter, I am Lord over life and death." Jesus' life was wrapped up in his testimony. His life was a statement of the truth of who he was and is. And Jesus also gave a testimony about us. A statement of who we are-image bearers of God. Fallen. Evil. Wicked. Dead in sins and trespasses. In dire need of salvation before the wrath of God consumes everything evil. Messiah Jesus' mission was to rescue us. His broken body and his shed blood made that possible. Down through the ages, Jesus has been in the rescue business. But again, the truth does not set well with humanity. We are evil and Jesus tells us the truth about who we are. But. Now THAT is the biggest word in the human language. "But" means, "get ready for things to go the other way!" And here is how it happens. The Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of his or her sins. And like Isaiah in the presence of God, they realize they are undone. "Woe is me!" they cry out. "Is there any hope for me?" And gloriously, the Holy Spirit brings not only the conviction, he also brings the witness. "Turn around! Look at the cross, dear one! You can be forgiven!" And multiplied millions around the world, down through the centuries have done just that. The Spirit of God makes us alive. God the Father is satisfied. Our sins which were many are now taken away in Christ. We are forgiven! We are now his sons and daughters through repentance of sin and faith in Christ. I love how brother Paul Washer describes this: We enter in through the narrow door-the door of course is Jesus. And because we have received new life, we will continue to walk on the narrow road, following Jesus the rest of our days. Not perfectly, but loyally. And it stands to reason. "Follower of Jesus" is a description of a Christian. "Imitator of God" - mimic of God - is another way of saying it. So, a Christian as it were, accompanies Jesus on His way. Jesus doesn't accompany us on ours. Jesus places strict demands on all followers, and all would-be followers of his in Luke 9:23: And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Now this is significant. Of all the things Jesus could have said to indicate who would be his followers, he put the one's own cross front and center. In the first century, people who took up crosses were going somewhere. To their death. And everybody knew it. They were not coming back. Once a follower of Jesus took up his or her cross, it was never again business as usual. They were making a statement. They were giving a testimony--establishing and recording truth in their lives. They were now living a totally new normal, never to return to one's old ways of living. Every cross-carrying, follower of Jesus is making a solemn, but joy-filled testimony. See, our testimony to follow Jesus is to be a joy-filled thing. Take newly weds for example. Right after the honeymoon both bride and groom begin to establish their lives together. And both bride and groom are excited! The bride can't wait to get to work to tell all her friends who were not at the wedding about that day. When they ask her about it, her countenance falls. Her face becomes grim. Through clenched teeth she says, "We exchanged vows. We made a solemn promise for better or worse." RIIIIGGGHHHTTT! No! What does she do? How does she act? She is full of happiness! It is because they made a solemn promise to one another is why she is elated! And every year, the couple remembers their vows. It's called anniversary. For Kitty and me, we will be celebrating 42 years in a couple of months. Praise Him! We have had some "for better" times. And some "for worse" times. But the testimony of the truth of our marriage happened on Guam, April 5, 1980, when we made joy-filled vows to one another. So, now, we followers of Christ have made solemn, joy-filled promises to him because he gave his grace and mercy to us. We know the truth and are trying to live out the reality that Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5.17: "If anyone be in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come." Regardless of how treacherous the road, we loyally follow Jesus, constantly exercising our will to rejoice in him, as Paul tells us in Philippians 4.4: "rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, 'rejoice'." But our testimony unto Christ most certainly will not be met with the applause of the world. Our testimony before the watching world will be met with disdain. Always has. Always will. The truth is that unless a person responds to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, our testimony will seldom be welcomed. Certainly, when we provide for the needs of others. When we speak kind words to them and are patient with them, they will sometimes respond positively. But when we tell them the truth about who Christ is, who we all are, that we are accountable to the Lord and we will face him one day, that does not go over well. At all. Nevertheless, Christ has called us to not only give a testimony. Our very lifestyle is to be a witness for him. Remember how when the Lord stood before Pilate? On the human level, the governor had the power to set Jesus free. I would imagine if Jesus would have begged for his life, perhaps Pilate would have found a way to make that happen. But Jesus was a witness to the truth. And he gave his life for the sake of his testimony. I find it very instructive that the word translated witness is the greek word martus. What does that sound like to you? Martyr comes to mind. At this point we need to ask a sobering question: how did the greek word martus become equated with dying for Christ? The simple answer is that the testimonies of the early Christ followers so often resulted in their deaths that we look back and say, they died as martyrs. Witnesses for Christ. But it wasn't the fact that they worshiped Jesus is what got them into trouble. It was because they worshiped Jesus only-not Caesar and Jesus, is what cost Christians their lives. It was OK to follow Jesus, as long as one bowed the knee to the Emperor as a god as well. And Christians could not, and cannot do that. It reminds me of what brother Paul Washer said of what persecution of God's people will look like when becomes common in our country. As we saw earlier today, persecution is not only a reality in our country, it will greatly intensify as times goes on. Washer rightly said that we won't suffer because we worship Jesus. We will suffer because we will refuse to bow down to the idols of the day. He said that we will be accused of being absolutely intolerant bigots and haters of the worst kind if we hold to the truth. For example, if we as Christians respectfully but firmly continue to say Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God we will be persecuted. Persecution will occur when we say that the only marriage that God accepts is between one biologically born man and one biologically born woman. Or that Christians refuse to give in to the demand that pronouns are to be used based on one's preferred gender and not biology. And even take the issue of covid and the wearing of a mask, or 2 or 3 and statistically how low the death rate actually is. Or how safe, or unsafe, the vaccine actually is. The bottom line is simply this. Christians are to witness to the truth of things. About who God is. About who we are. About how we are to operate in his world. We are not allowed to bear false witness to one another, like lying to a male when he demands we use a specifically female pronoun to spare his feelings for example. Love for our Lord means we tell the truth to fellow image bearers of God. Every one of us must draw the line in the sand. What non-negotiables are in your life because you are a faithful witness to true truth? Are your lines the covid issue? Or pronouns according to one's biology? Or that Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God? Or something else? Where are you going to take your stand to be the faithful witness the Lord has called you and me to be? We must figure that out sooner rather than later. The politically correct, cancel culture crowd really hasn't begun to flex their muscles yet. But they will, in increasing measure and intensity. Now is the time to settle the issue in the very core of our being, before the real heat of the battle comes. In the challenging words attributed to Martin Luther, who was definitely persecuted for his faith, though he didn't die as a martyr for Christ: "If we are correct and right in our Christian life at every point, but refuse to stand for the truth at a particular point-and I will add moral and cultural point--where the battle rages‑then we are traitors to Christ." There is a battle for truth in our culture. Let's stand firm as those who give a true testimony, a faithful witness to Christ! So, this morning, let's ponder anew and afresh of just what Jesus' faithful witness cost him. And in response, let's commit ourselves to following him. Joyfully. Solemnly. Willing to pay any price. Out of our love for him, because he loved us first. Jesus challenged us in this way: For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. May we live our lives the way the Lord would have us worship him-in Spirit and in truth. Everywhere we go. With everyone we are with. For the glory of God and for the sake of Jesus.