The Christ Oriented Life Part 3: Our Witness

Colossians 4:5–6 NASB 2020

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

Big Idea: When Christ is at the center of all we are and do, then we will be properly prepared to speak to the world about Him and His ways.

Intro

Knowing when to say what is critical if we want to have a great impact on our world. Knowing the heart of the One sends us to speak to the world helps us have clarity in the when and what we should say.

Imagine a football team of people who understand the goal (score touchdowns) but have not studied the playbook. Is that a winning team?

We know our goal is to lead people to Christ and to disciple them to maturity, but do we know Christ’s playbook? Have we spent time learning who he is, his character, his strategies, and listening to the promptings of the Spirit?

Tension

We often struggle to witness well because many of us attempt to do so in our own strength.

The only way we can be effective as witnesses for Christ is if we are fully empowered by Christ to do so.

Truth

I. We need supernatural wisdom to discern the hearts of unbelievers when we approach them.

Jesus approached his followers much differently than he approached the world.

Mark 4:11 ESV

And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables,

We must seek to understand the limitations the world has regarding its ability to understand the truths of the gospel.

We must also seek to have practical insight into who the Spirit is working in and how.

Our aim here is to join the Spirit in His work. When we understand that preaching the gospel to the world is primarily the Spirit’s work, it changes the way we approach the work.

We learn in wisdom, to hear what the Spirit is doing and saying to a person rather than forcing our own way into a situation.

Consider how much stronger our witness is when the Holy Spirit has gone before us, and we are operating in conjunction with what He is already doing.

People will be at different levels of readiness to hear us but the Spirit knows all about them.

We must pray that they will have the light of grace.

1 Corinthians 2:14–16 NASB 2020

But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The world is utterly trapped in their darkness. The key to breaking them out is prayer and Spirit-led preaching.

John 3:19–21 ESV

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

Isaiah 59:14–15 ESV

Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

He can renew any mind. We need the Holy Spirit to help us to like Christ, meet people where they are and prepare them to receive our message.

II. We seek to keep Christ at the center of every encounter we have with outsiders.

Whether He leads us to overtly preach the gospel, serve, or just get to know people we must keep ourselves centered on Christ.

When we are centered on Jesus, our witness carries much more weight than when it is just us working in our own strength and personality.

We pray and keep Christ central.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ESV

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

We stay ready by keeping Christ central in our lives and by doing good works in the world.

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

We stay ready through regular prayer and study of the Word. We cannot clearly proclaim a message we do not know well.

2 Timothy 4:1–5 ESV

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

We see in the life of Jesus an ever preparedness, and a constant listening to the Spirit for direction on opportunities to engage the world and how.

We also see this in the lives of the Apostles. Look at how Peter and James were primed and ready when an opportunity to display the glory of God arose.

Acts 3:2–7 ESV

And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong.

With God, there are no wasted opportunities. Each encounter we have has the potential to knock a person off of the path of darkness and onto the path of light in Christ.

III. Christ empowers our answers to the world through saturating us in Him.

We bear much fruit for Christ only when we are connected to Christ.

One of the biggest challenges the church faces in evangelism is our own mouths and actions, and how lacking they are regarding the things of Christ.

What I mean is that many believers are focused on everything but Christ in our daily lives. What we put in is what will come out.

Matthew 15:17–20 ESV

Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

What comes out of our mouths often reveals what is truly inside of us.

If what mostly comes out of us is something other that Christ, we must ask questions about what spirit we are being filled with; the Spirit of Christ, the spirit of this age, or perhaps even our own spirit of rebellion or independence.

"Seasoned with salt” means that our speech is touched by Christ and his gospel.

This is a general practice and not merely something we do when we speak to an unbeliever.

Jesus wants our speech to be saturated with gospel at all times. When this is true, we will be much more prepared to speak to outsiders.

If you want to be an athlete, you have to think like an athlete always and not just when you get onto the field. In fact, if you have not been an athlete off the field you will perform very poorly on the field.

How are you performing as a Christian when off the field?

Are we seeking the glory of Christ in the way we relate to the world?

We must seek answers from the Spirit, because only answers from the Spirit can answer the deepest questions the human heart faces.

Luke 12:11–12 ESV

And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

The absolute best way to be prepared to be a witness for Christ, is to spend time with Him daily.

Many Christians find themselves stumped and lacking wisdom when they stand before the world. Much of that comes from how little they stand before their God.

If we are with God, he will empower us. Remember the Apostles? The religious leaders knew they had been with Jesus not because of their intellect or whit. It was because the power of Christ was clearly present with them.

Acts 4:13 ESV

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

This also means that anyone can be a great witness for Christ. You don’t need a seminary education. You need time in His presence and He Himself will qualify you before others.

Apply

Commit yourself to seeking and knowing Christ above all else.

Pray and ask God to reveal any ways in which you have not been prioritizing Christ in your speech and thoughts daily.

Pray that the Spirit will give you wisdom to discern the hearts of people.

Pray for intentionality and boldness in every conversation you have with the outside world; to share the truth about Jesus, even and especially where the message is not popular.