The other day, I was thinking of the term we used to use for being a shining light to the world. That term was “witness.” I don’t think it’s used much anymore. It was never a great term to begin with, in my opinion, because when I think of a witness, I think of a court and that you are actually seeing something with your own eyes.
But the idea is that we confess to others the trueness of Christ based on what we have experienced. That’s sort of the idea. But the term had gone on to mean things like going out and handing out tracts to strangers on the street, trying to “slide in the Gospel” in a conversation with someone, wearing Christian T-shirts, or driving around with a Christian bumper sticker.
All these things are okay if the Spirit leads you to do so, but when I was growing up, it was sort of pressured upon us to do so, and I think many times it backfired because we tried too hard.
I searched for the meaning of “witness” in this sense, and there’s very little actual scripture to back up the term. But I came across this, which I’d like to share with you. The basic definition of witness, or witnessing, is that: “we who have experienced new life in Christ give an account of His love and forgiveness, both verbally and in the way we live our lives.” And it’s that last point I’d like to talk about today.
But first, three things to remember when witnessing is:
1) The THEME of our witness is Jesus Christ.
2) The POWER of our witness is the Holy Spirit.
3) The VALIDITY of our witness will be shown in how we live our lives.
Again, that last point––how we live our lives––is what I would like to talk about today.
So if you have your Bibles, I will go to three scriptures today. Last week, I mentioned that I would continue reading out of Philippians Chapter 1, and I had thought I would leave it there, but I was compelled to preach out of Philippians 1, 2 and then a rather lengthy passage out of Romans. So the first is out of Philippians 1:12-14; 27. Then we’ll read Philippians 2:13-15, and the third is Romans 11:11-20.
I know that’s a lot, and it bounces around quite a bit, but it all goes together.
It’s a theme I come back to quite a bit, and I second-guessed myself quite a bit by going back to it again. I think that I sometimes say the same things over and over again, but I feel compelled to do that. I think it’s so necessary in this world in which we live. The idea of being a Christian isn’t as popular or as well respected as it once was.
I came across this yesterday, and you may have seen or heard about it. This is from an online article on the Fox News website:
An Arizona school board member wearing cat ears during a meeting said she would oppose having a contract with a Christian university over the religious and Biblical beliefs they espouse, Fox News Digital found.
The Washington Elementary School District, which serves students in the Phoenix and Glendale areas, had an ongoing contract with Arizona Christian University for five years, enabling their student teachers to be placed in its schools for field experience. The contract opened up opportunities for recruitment and hiring.
On Feb. 23, the board agreed on a motion to dissolve the partnership with the Christian university….
Other members of the school board expressed similar concerns.
School board member Kyle Clayton blasted the university for “teaching with a Biblical lens.”
“I, too, echo what Ms. Valenzuela said when I… looked into not only their core values, but the statement of faith… [which they] ask their students to sign and live by,” he said.
“Proselytizing is embedded into how they teach. And I just don’t believe that that belongs in schools.”
I won’t comment too much on that, and you can read the whole article if you like. But it goes to show you that being a Christian in our society has been, for the past 30 years or so, looked down upon, and it’s getting worse. I remember when Pastor Harry was here a couple of weeks ago, he feared that persecution was going to come to the U.S. in the form of churches that are noncompliant with progressive liberalism and that they would probably be denied certain things and maybe taken off the “grandfather” list of things like taxes and fees and made to comply with other building and grounds issues that they can’t afford.
Here’s an example of that right here, but it’s a Christian university being denied something simple and ordinary.
What do we do? How do we live? The answer is to just be faithful no matter where we are. It’s not up to us how people respond; it’s up to us to be faithful where we are. Let’s take a look at that.
I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation for ease of understanding.
Scripture:
Philippians 1:12-14
“12 And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. 13 For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. 14 And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.”
Then if we go down to verse 27, we read:
“27 Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.”
And the first sentence of the next verse says, “28 Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies.”
Now if we turn to the next chapter and read Philippians 2 verses 13-15, it says:
“13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”
And lastly, let’s read out of Romans 11, starting with verse 11:
11 Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. 12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
13 I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this, 14 for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them. 15 For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead! 16 And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.
17 But some of these branches from Abraham’s tree—some of the people of Israel—have been broken off. And you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree. 18 But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.
19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” 20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen.
Once again, I want to emphasize that it doesn’t matter what other people think or do, how they respond to us, or how they respond to the message of Christ. Like Paul, who wrote both books that we read from today––the first one he wrote while in prison for the gospel––and it’s like the Old Testament prophets to be obedient to the Lord. It is not on us how others respond to the gospel or our way of life.
Perhaps we can bring others to Christ out of a bad situation just by being jealous of our joy. Have you ever thought of that?
No matter where we are, God can use us just as he did with Paul in prison. I’m not saying that I’m expecting any one of us to go to prison, but our job is to be ambassadors anywhere and everywhere. We do not know the kind of impact we can have. We do not know how we can make a great impact on people by actually making them jealous of our life in Christ.
It’s a strange way to witness, but it’s in the Bible.
Before we get to that, let’s take a look at our first set of verses again. I’m going to reread everything from Philippians 1:
“12 And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. 13 For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. 14 And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.”
Then if we go down to verse 27, we read:
“27 Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.”
And the first sentence of the next verse says, “28 Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies.”
So you’ll notice that Paul establishes that he is in prison for preaching the gospel. And he’s not alone. We often get the idea that Paul is alone for preaching the gospel. We know that the early Church was persecuted, but here, Paul is not alone in prison. He’s being persecuted with other Christians.
And his presence and his boldness has inspired other Christians to be bold as well.
I would imagine it must have felt easy for those other Christians to have felt defeated. Paul says that he is literally in chains. I’ve seen pictures of what a first-century prison would have looked like. Just a basement, really. Dirt and rock with a small, barred window at the top, kind of like a window well in a church. A little light, a little air. Probably some cold and rain, too.
It would be miserable. And remember, they didn’t have indoor plumbing then, so your guess is as good as mine when it came to sanitation. It probably stunk in there. It probably had some disease and bacteria.
I could see why someone would get down. But God came through. No matter where they were, the joy of the Lord was there. The boldness of the Lord was there. God used him, and the other Christians, in those circumstances. And they probably didn’t really have much to do with it.
Paul said that the whole palace guard knew that he was in chains for Christ. Palace guard referred to the prison in which Paul and the other Christians were in. They were in the jail of a Roman palace similar to what Pontius Pilate would have governed from. So it wasn’t its own jail or prison facility. So the Roman guards in the whole palace knew of this Paul and why he was there.
So step one: It doesn’t matter where you are––in the palace or in prison––God can use you. Remember the story of Joseph? He was in prison, and God used him there. Then he got promoted to the palace, and God used him there.
Don’t think that God can’t use you where you are. You might not be like those evil influencers on the Arizona school board. Instead, you might be on the Watkins Glen school bowling team; you might be on the house and grounds at Odessa School; you might be retired and thinking, ‘I can’t influence anyone.’ You never know. You still have family. You still have friends. You might even have enemies. You might have palace guards that know you are a Christian.
If we look at how Paul ends both of these sets of verses out of Chapter 1, he says, “most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.” And then, “Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies.”
I realize most of us don’t have enemies, per se. The word ‘enemy’ can be a bit extreme. I guess the phrase most people would use is ‘frenemy.’ Those are people that we may know, maybe we’re nice to, but they rub us the wrong way. In fact, I had a Facebook messenger chat with someone this week who I was commiserating with because someone we both know, who tends to treat people rather poorly, had treated my friend poorly and she’s about had enough.
But in the case of the Arizona school board, I suppose you could call people like that your enemies. They’ve made themselves out to be God’s enemies, whether they know it or not. And if they’re God’s enemies, they must be our enemies, right?
What does all of verses 28 and 29 say?
28 Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself. 29 For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.
Paul considers it a privilege to suffer for Christ. James told us to “count it all joy” when we face trials of many kinds. Not to get off track, but let’s take a look at what James has to say.
Gotquestions.org says: The word count [in the Greek] is a financial term, and it means “to evaluate.” When James says to “count it all joy,” he encourages his readers to evaluate the way they look at trials. He calls believers to develop a new and improved attitude that considers trials from God’s perspective. James wants believers to know to expect “trials of various kinds” (James 1:2) in the Christian life. We should be prepared and not caught off guard when a sudden trial comes upon us. Trials are part of the Christian experience. Jesus told His disciples, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33).
So even in the midst of trials, we are to keep our faith, our heads held up, and ask, “Lord, what would you have me do––how can I serve you––in this situation?”
The answer––at least one important answer––can be found in what we read in Philippians Chapter 2, starting with verse 13:
“13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.”
This is pretty cut and dry, and for the sake of time, I’m not going to dwell too much on it, but no matter what circumstance we are in, God is working in us to do what pleases Him. Paul and the other Christians were in chains, yet Paul says God is working. We can be anywhere, and God is still working in us; and as I spoke about last week, God can work through us too.
Notice that verse 15 begins in the middle of a sentence. I like the way it does because it sort of highlights this point––so that no one can criticize you.
When you read that article on the Arizona school board or any article that tries to paint Christians as the enemy, you’ll notice that they really have nothing on us, right? It’s all conjecture. It’s accusations based on assumptions. The Asbury Revival was a worship service at a University––a Christian University. It garnered national attention and thousands of people came from all over the country and even outside of our country.
Did anything negative happen? Did anything bad happen? No, it was the most peaceful thing you could imagine. It was no social/political divisive thing. It was a revival. It was real. And because of that, no one could criticize it.
I remember back in the 1990s when there was a national Promise Keeper’s event––a large Christian men’s conference in Washington, D.C. and women protesters were trying to protest against something that was completely conjectural. The media tried so hard to twist this national Christian men’s conference and turn it into something social and political. But they couldn’t. It was laughable. The conference highlighted how to make men better fathers and husbands and church leaders, and community influencers. And how to do these things Biblically. That’s all. Those protesters looked like fools. They had no idea what was actually going on inside the conference. If they did, they probably would have been all for it. They were fooled by the real enemy, the Devil.
But imagine if those who the Devil fooled actually did see the kinds of things that went on behind closed doors? What if those who were holding picket signs and thought we were the bad guys became believers because they saw Christians being meek and that meekness was actually mighty? Did you know that meekness does not equal weakness? In God’s kingdom, it equals might. Why? Because actions speak louder than words. Meekness is refreshing.
How much more of a witness can we be if we’re meek? How much more refreshing is it to be quiet and humble and gentle and loving and kind?
You know, I read from Fox News earlier, but I don’t watch Fox News. Not anymore. I used to, but I got so sick of the bickering and the fighting and the debating and the arguing and “I’m right, and you’re wrong, and these people are evil, and we’re not evil, we’re the good guys.” That’s the last thing I want to see at the end of the day. Give me something happy and entertaining at the end of the day, right?
I don’t even listen to talk radio as much as I used to. Give me something happy and good. I mean, I know it’s important to know what’s going on in the world and to have the right perspective, but one person can only take so much.
I understand fighting for what you believe in, but how much greater of a point can we make by being simple, ordinary, old-fashioned Christians? Jesus said they––the world––will know we are his disciples by our love. I think that had much to do with how Paul and the other Christians influenced the palace guards.
Again, I don’t have time to dwell on this, but let me read a couple of verses of Romans 11.
Verses 14 and 15 say this:
14 For I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them. 15 For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead!
Can you imagine living in such a way and having such an immense amount of the overflow of God in your life that you actually make people jealous of how you live? Your meekness and humility and kindness and calming, peaceful, wonderful spirit will not only draw people to you, but maybe that’s the thing that will draw them to Christ.
Romans 11 relates specifically to Israel, but it can relate to any unbeliever. Here’s what Warren Wiersbe had to say, and I’ll close with this quote. Just substitute the word Gentiles for Christian and Israel for unbeliever.
He said:
Paul stated that the Gentiles had a vital ministry to Israel. Today, the saved Gentiles provoke Israel “to jealousy” (see Rom. 10:19) because of the spiritual riches they have in Christ. Israel today is spiritually bankrupt, while Christians have “all spiritual blessings” in Christ (Eph. 1:3). (If an unsaved Jew visited the average church service, would he be provoked to jealousy and wish he had what we have–or would he just be provoked?)
How can God use you to provoke a jealousy in others that would want them to have the same redeeming Christ that you have?
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
Featured Image by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash
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