Hold Fast

Can I Get A Witness Sermon

Can I get a witness? Can I get a witness? Ever recall hearing that in worship, or maybe just in conversation? The phrase was thought to originate in early church gatherings and was usually asked after the preacher had delivered the message to invite others forward to bear witness by sharing a testimony to what God had done in their life. Their was power in the testimony of the word lived out. Have you ever thought about the power of witness?

Nowadays, we rely on all sorts of things outside of eyewitness accounts. We can google it, video it, make it up, and collect DNA. Thanks to Facebook and Google, we all have become overnight scholars and scientists and have no need for eyewitness anything, but this was not the case in the time of Paul. There was no Google. There was only the word of testimony, the power and credibility of witness.

Here in the church in Corinth, like any other church, there is stuff that has to be sorted out and dealt with as the members are trying to figure out what following Jesus really means. There have been issues of abuse of spiritual gifts and other stuff causing division and now a disbelief in the resurrection, particularly the resurrection of the body. You will hear more about this from Bro. Rob next week, but this was a very big deal.

While resurrection was not a new concept, resurrection of the body was. It was hard for the Corinthians to understand. Just like today, there were many other interpretations of resurrection, many thoughts on the body and spirit circulating around. So Paul in his letter reminds them of all that he shared at the beginning. He reminds them, or makes known to them again, the good news that they have received, in which they stand, and through which they are being saved, if only they would hold firmly to it. Otherwise it’s all for nothing.

It’s kind like when you get in the car and you put the gear in Reverse when really it’s supposed to be in Drive. When I was learning to drive, I was terrified to back up and I’ll never forget the day when I was leaving the house that I put my parents Rodeo in Reverse and floored the gas pedal (thinking I was in Drive.) I moved alright, straight through the fence and into the neighbor’s backyard. This is how it is with our faith. If we aren’t holding fast to the good news, we can quickly head off in an entirely different direction.

That is how Paul feels about resurrection. If we loosen our grip on the resurrection, we end up in a lot of other places and out witness becomes false. Paul says to hold fast to what is of first importance, what is essential- Christ died for our sins. Christ was buried. Christ was raised on the third day and appeared to others. Does this sound familiar? Some think that Paul was sharing part of one of the early creeds here. Think about what we say together in the Apostle’s Creed:

“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.”

When we share in Holy Communion together today, we will move through these same motions as we say together, “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”

There are pieces to this good news: death, burial, resurrection, and there is witness. Paul is saying, Christ rose again and walked around and appeared to people. He didn’t come back as some sort of wispy ghost. He was embodied. And he appeared to Peter and the disciples and the women (although Paul doesn’t add that in) and to more than 500 folks most of whom are still alive. If you don’t believe me, you can ask them too. They saw him. It happened. Resurrection is real!

And then Paul ends the first part of this chapter by sharing that God appeared to him last of all as the“the least of all the apostles, unfit.” He says God appeared to him as “one untimely born.” This phrase is translated from the word ektroma which is a medical term to describe a premature birth or miscarriage, or one that is not fully formed. Remember there was no NICU. A preterm birth during this time meant death. Paul considered himself as good as dead because he had persecuted the church of God. He felt that he had no measure of worth to be called an apostle.

The other lectionary texts for today reveal similar responses. In Isaiah 6:5 we see Isaiah’s vision of the throne room of God and Isaiah’s response of “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips...” Then in the gospel of Luke we see Simon Peter responding to Jesus’ miracle in saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” (Luke 5:8).

Yet when we encounter the risen Lord, everything changes. Paul says, “but for the grace of God I am what I am and his grace toward me has not been in vain” (1 Corinthians 1). The risen Lord began to raise some things within Paul, and his whole life became a witness. Paul was raised from tearing down the church to building it up. He was raised from ridiculing others to serving them. He was raised from picking apart the gospel to proclaiming it. Paul continued to share what happened to him, and then others shared, and the church grew in number. This is the power of a resurrection life. This is the power of witness.

Out witness is not something reserved for me or Rob or Connor on Sunday mornings. The resurrection of Christ breaking forth in our lives is something we are all meant to proclaim. In the early years of Methodism in America, they used to have what was called camp meetings. They were sort of like large-scale revivals and were predominantly lay-led. These meetings were filled with such passionate, rambunctious outcrys of worship that Methodism was nicknamed “a boiling hot religion” or one that was “taking heaven by storm.” The campground was a place where all of those who were marginalized in other areas of society were invited to worship together. Francis Asbury called the enthusiasm as “the very lifeblood of the movement.” More than one preacher who came over to help lead the movement didn’t know what to do with the enthusiasm they found. Laity would get up and witness to God’s power in their life, and the Holy Spirit would fill the people.

Maybe you are having a hard time relating. Maybe your life has not had a Damascus road experience like Paul or a throne room vision like Isaiah or a miracle experience like Peter. We don’t have to embellish the resurrection for we didn’t create it and we certainly didn’t earn it. Too often we get spiritual stage fright and anxiety, thinking there is no way God called us too. Our stories are too shameful, too boring, too painful, too trivial to be told or shared. Listen dear friends, when I think of who I was before the fullness of God took over in my life- phew! I was one of those Christians that only wanted a partial resurrection, a little to make me feel better but not enough to really change anything. I knew that if I fully met with the risen Lord in my life, nothing would stay the same. I do not boast in my former self but I gladly join Paul in proclaiming “but for the grace of God I am who I am.” I don’t want to ever move past God’s grace or get beyond the resurrection.

The resurrection may have happened in a particular time and place, but it is always unfolding itself in our lives, story upon story, witness upon witness. This witness is found within you. I was recently visiting someone and they shared a beautiful testimony of God’s healing and perseverance of prayer. I met with another and listened to how God was working after years of prayer to bring them into a place that they were called to be. I have listened to another live out the pain of losing a child and then live into the resurrection of a life called into mission. I listen to reports of successful surgeries and treatments while also watching a young woman with ALS praise God just for the gift of being able to write her name. I have watched grieved hearts, tired bodies, and frazzled minds get up and serve others as if it was the only thing they had to do. Last weekend I witnessed kids from across the state worship and seek a deeper life in Christ.

Lewis Galloway says, “Whenever Christ turns a life around, heals a marriage, transforms a bitter heart, forgives a sinner, teaches a fearful person to love, or shows a greedy person how to give, there is a witness ready to take the stand to tell the good news of God’s grace.”

There is power in our witness. There is power when others hear the story of the risen Lord living in your life. It is as Revelation 12:11 says: “they defeated him through the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.” There is power when we get up and share our life and say “but for the grace of God I am who I am.” You may feel think you are unfit as so many other disciples have before you, but I hear God saying “watch what I can do with their life. I am going to bring them from death unto life for I hold both in my hands. I will make all things new. They shall be my witnesses and their lives shall tell my story that “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”