Devotional

Magnify the Lord with Me

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Oh, magnify the  Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!

Psalm 34.3

The way David’s expression comes across in english might raise a question in our minds – just how would we go about doing this? Just how would we magnify the Lord? Is he not beyond magnification?

Wishful thinking?

Where might we obtain theological lenses or devotional mirrors big enough to magnify Him? The Lord is an infinite being. Is the Psalmist engaging perhaps in hyperbole or wishful thinking? 

Actually the Psalmist is spot on. He realises more than most of us that The Lord’s person, character and works are intrinsically great things and there is nothing he can or would do that can make them any greater.

Altered thinking

The lenses and mirrors within a microscope or telescope do not enlarge the object of their focus in a material way. The size of the thing being magnified does not change, it is our perspective which changes. As the lenses and/or mirrors get to work, the true wonder of the object comes into our field of view. We behold things which otherwise we might not have seen. We observe characteristics which otherwise we might not have noticed. Our intellect and our hearts are stirred – not by an intrinsic change in the object – but in the perspective which enlargement affords us. The more we study the object, the more cause there is for wonder, the more cause there is for awe. The longer we stay, the more we see and the more we see, the more we are compelled to share our findings.

This is where the Psalmist finds himself. Enthused with his own findings which he goes on to speak of in the Psalm, he is compelled now to share these with others and encourage them to do the same.

Faith-full thinking

It is a happy thing to magnify the Lord; for as he becomes bigger in our heart’s appreciation, other things which had been in focus now are forced to the edges. Eventually all objects in our peripheral vision vanish and only he is in focus. This was Mary’s experience in Luke 1. Gone are the fears from the angels salutation, her soul did magnify the Lord. Her own hearts’ enjoyment spilled out into the world through song as she ‘made’ the Lord great.

Far from being wishful thinking then this is in fact, faith-full thinking. The truth is, the Lords name bears far more frequent scrutiny than it receives, far more space than it occupies, far more time than it fills. Exalt his name we should, magnify we must, until the earth [is] filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2.1).

Readers will forgive any naiveté present within the writer’s comments about optics. Hopefully the gist of things is still clear.
Devotional

What Does a Thankful Response to God Look like?

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Imagine you are David, King David. How would you demonstrate your thankful heart to your God? Something dramatic perhaps – a large banquet, a celebration or a big communal offering at the temple? At very least it would surely involve a daily commitment?

Perfect Response

The perfect response in fact is not sacrifice, not an offering, none of the above. Rather, it is – an open ear.

Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.

Psalm 40.6

Yes you are reading – or better, ‘hearing’, that correctly. This may come as a bit of a shock. Sacrifice has so much more drama to it and it was after all the means of atonement. Yet, without a teachable spirit, without a willingness to listen, without a heart that was open to God’s instruction, sacrifice and burnt offering could easily be empty rituals. An open ear is antecedent to all outward show of thankfulness.

This is an ear 1 which is positively, generously given to the business of listening. Like a disciple that hangs on every word of his masters voice, like a child who is captivated by a wonderful story teller, their ears draw them in, engrossing them in the business of the speaker’s words. It is an intellectual, spiritual and active kind of listening – listening that has the full intention of acting without reservation on the things being laid out (cf. Prov. 8).
Apparently one cannot underestimate the simple value of a heart that is disposed to listen, love and obey. This has always been the response God has wanted. From Abel (Matthew 23:35), down to you, it is what God wants in the faithful.

Now think of this – that God’s Son, the eternal Son of God – adopted this very disposition – even though it ultimately meant the death of a cross.

Perfect Dedication

Look again at Psalm 40. The Psalmist goes on to describe the character of someone who has an open ear. He delights to do God’s will.

I delight to do Thy will, O My God: (cf. John 4:34).

The open ear of the Lord Jesus affected his whole ministry. We can describe it as having:

  • Conditioned him: “wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)
  • Energised him: Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work (John 4.34)
  • Controlled him: Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do…(John 5:19)
  • Empowered him: I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me (John 5:30).

We often speak of the tireless work of the Saviour, the travelling here and there, the way he spent himself in service. But it is remarkable to think that all the work that he did, was ‘Thy will, O My God’. When he went into the wilderness to be tempted, when he called his team of disciples to himself rather than blaze-the-trail on his own, when he cleansed lepers, healed paralytics, when he went through the corn fields on the Sabbath, when he taught by the seaside, when he sent the demons into swine, everything he said, everywhere he went, every situation he found himself in – it was all, without reservation done in accordance with his fathers will. Allow that long sentence to sink in.

Hard to imagine, stifling even – to never exercise unilateral power – yet, it was his delight. He took pleasure in doing the will of another. Flawlessly.

It also:

  • Vindicated him: So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me (John 8.28).
  • Concealed him: Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works (John 14:10).

Oh for dedication like this. Ada Ruth Habershon had it about right when she wrote

Lie still, and let Him mould thee! Oh, Lord, I would obey;
Be Thou the skillful Potter, And I the yielding clay.
Bend me, oh, bend me to Thy will,
While in Thy hand I’m lying still.

So we learn the proper response of a thankful heart, an open ear. With that in order, all other things that follow will be saved from being empty ritual. Rather they will be loaded with faith, sincerity and glory for God.

Perfect Work

But this all led to the cross did it not? Is that the end of those who’s ear is open? Not according to Hebrews 10.12. This glorious man is no longer in the grave but sat down, at the right hand of God no-less. It turns out that an open ear is the way to blessing, wonderful, glorious blessing.

As the Hebrew writer (quoting Psalms) reminds us, the work is:

  • Done only once – a perfectly open ear, enabled Christ to be successful on his first and only offering for sin. There was no need to repeat. (Heb. 10.10).
  • Forever finished – the horror of Calvary never needs to be repeated (Heb. 10.12). There was nothing left undone by the one who heard and did all that the Father willed for him.
  • Immeasurably valuable. You and are I are found to be forever perfect in Gods sight. The value of a work done by a man with an open ear is truly immeasurable (Heb. 10.14).

And it’s value could be enjoyed further by us today if we would but respond in thankfulness like David did and open our own ears, unreservedly, to the Father’s will for us.

  1. The Hebrew word for ‘open ear’ is literally, ‘digged’. This suggests the removal of all material that might impede hearing so as to guarantee audible fidelity . ↩
Pastoral

You can’t win…or can you?

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One of the things about the flesh principle within us, is that it is a master of getting us in a spiritual corner. And this can be crippling.

Let me convey what I mean here with an illustration. It’s a scenario we all know very well. Imagine you’re pouring a cup of tea. And someone approaches you and looks at you with raised eyebrows, “Making a cup of tea are we?” The question is loaded. You respond, “yeah I fancy one – sorry – did you want one too?”. And then the punch line – “no thank you – it’s just nice to be asked”. Ouch!

The point of this, is that you can’t win. If you had asked in the first place, you would have been turned down, and since you didn’t ask, you’re made to ask anyway, only to be turned down. You’re cornered. Leaving aside the finer details of a scenario such as this, the point is, the person who approached you is being unreasonable. A better word is implacable. Really, really, awkward.

We need to understand that the flesh is like this. If we listen to the flesh, if we answer to its calls on our thinking and actions, we will always lose. Only by refusing its unreasonable demands upon our hearts and minds and by subjecting ourselves to the demands and freedoms of The Spirit of God, can we get out from underneath its crippling influence.

Take for example, the use of spiritual gift. If the Flesh has its way, one of two things will happen. Either, you will use your gift in a proud way or, you will be convinced into thinking that you shouldn’t use it because you are not good enough. It’s a lose-lose situation. And notice, how either case, is totally at odds with the other. In other words, in the first case, pride is the issue and in the second case a false-humility is the issue (pride dressed up in another way). There’s no middle ground here, it’s just one extreme or another. And most of us can relate to this.

At times, we’ve used our gift and we’ve been proud about it. We feel good about what we did and take private pride in how effective we were. Nothing done for God there then – not really, apart from his sovereign hand over it. And then at times we haven’t used our gift, because we didn’t feel worthy, or maybe we had shame about the pride we’d had previously, or any number of other totally pathetic excuses. It’s a lose-lose situation. The flesh is totally unreasonable and whether we apply it to gift or any other dimension of spiritual activity, the flesh will always have us in a corner. Truth is, we can be quite naive to this clever ploy of the flesh. We need to watch out for this kind of thinking. It doesn’t make sense and whenever we detect ourselves as being spiritually crippled, we can know for sure that this is not God’s will.

So what do we do? Well you cannot reason with the person who wants to be asked, but when asked, doesn’t actually want a cup of tea. Likewise, you cannot reason with the flesh. Anyway, the flesh has been crucified with Christ at Calvary, so there is no need to reason with a principle which you should be reckoning as dead. We need instead, to adopt the clear thinking of scripture.

Let’s return to our scenario about spiritual gift and apply this there. Scripture makes it quite clear that spiritual gift, in fact this applies to natural gift as well, is not inherently ours. For natural gift, scripture teaches us that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’. So who you are, with all your skills and abilities is a product of God’s creative hand in your life. When your brain is firing on all cylinders and you’re living out God’s intentions for you – yes, it’s you who’s doing that – but only because God made you that way. You owe all your talents to God. So, any time you feel any tinge of pleasure about what you’ve achieved – and that itself is not wrong, don’t succumb to the flesh and be proud of that, take time to thank God. Does this mean you have to thank God every time you do something well? Well, why not? It’s not difficult to send up a quick thank you to your Father in heaven – and when you do – you are filled with a sense of wonder that God has entrusted you to steward that moment in time by employing his gift of grace, in whatever form it may manifest itself. You do not purchase that ability, you did not acquire that ability. The clue is in the word – it is a gift. And if anyone takes any pride in a gift, it is the giver, when he sees it being used.

“For I say…to every man…to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith”

Romans 12.3

At the same time, to be in receipt of a gift, is to be obliged to use it. Imagine if someone bought you a valuable gift and your response was – “oh no…I’m sorry, I can’t take that; I’m really not worthy of your kindness”. There is really nothing very attractive in that kind of response. Who says the giving of the gift has anything to do with your worth anyway? Can’t you be loved, just because you are loved, or does love always have to be withheld, until it finds a worthy recipient? These are strange notions to the word of God. He doesn’t give us gifts because we deserve them. For reasons only known to him, he decides to employ us in his service and gives us gifts because, we’d be useless without them. They are a necessity, not a nice-to-have. It’s the flesh that convinces us, that our lack of worth is a problem. It certainly would be, if our employment by God was based on law, but it is based on grace. We don’t think too well of the sinner who doesn’t feel the obligation of God’s love towards him and rejects, the ultimate gift. But it doesn’t stop us falling foul of the same unregenerate thinking.

As we have said, since our ability to serve God is based on a gift, from him to us, we are therefore obliged to use it. No false-humility will pass. If there is a problem of unconfessed sin in your life, then you must confess that sin and enjoy the forgiveness which Christ can give you, and then get back to serving him.

In a roundabout way, there’s something humorous about the unreasonable person who tries to run a guilt-trip on you whilst you make a cup of tea. It is somewhat laughable. As they try on their put-down, they score an own goal against themselves, because when ever we make someone else look bad, inevitably we come off looking bad ourselves. But there’s nothing really that humorous about the attempts of the flesh to cripple us from serving God. Christian service has a significance about it which means that any attempt by any means to impede your service for God, has to be swiftly detected, dealt with and moved on from. You cannot win with the flesh. Each day, each moment, we must refuse its unreasonable demands upon our hearts and subject ourselves to the demands and freedoms of The Spirit of God. If we do this then we won’t so much win, we will conquer, more than conquer.

…we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Romans 8.37
Topical

Dear wandering believer

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How is it going?

I’m not writing to judge you. I’m writing to plead with you, that you repent, something we all need to do daily.

Only in your case it may be that it is long overdue. Such a plea is not the plea of a judgemental onlooker, but a loving friend who with an element of fatherly sorrow watching a son or daughter gradually slipping away from enjoyment in spiritual things, undoing yourself, spoiling yourself, maybe ignorantly or maybe, wilfully.

It is painful to watch.

Why are you doing this?

Why are you making the choices you are making? Why is it that so many young believers, truly, gloriously saved, soon take a path that leads away from God, His Word and His people?

Perhaps it is because they quietly resent God allowing difficult things to happen in their lives. They feel no loyalty to God because they feel He is not being loyal to them. Perhaps some think by making the choices they have they can in some way get back at God or at least show Him that it is His fault. Then He will reverse their circumstances and then get back on track again. When you think of it in these terms, it’s not dissimilar to blackmail?

Is that why you have wandered?

No? Well, maybe it is because you think you know better than God. You are forgetting or resisting to remember that God knows better in every case. You accept the circumstance of your life but instead of obeying His Word you obey your own wisdom, your own plan of events, your own way out. You will fix things.

Or perhaps, you think you are even doing Gods Will and perhaps that is partly true – some of the things you are doing are right – and you have silenced your conscience to the things that are wrong, for the time being. You will see if things work out as you intend and all being well they will. You haven’t really considered the fact that they might not. They shouldn’t – you know what you’re doing, right?

These are all completely understandable positions to take if we believe what Jeremiah wrote, “The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

But – they make no sense in the light of the Gospel. Which is the strange thing. Under the message of the Gospel, you threw off the notion that you knew better than God, recognising that what He had to say about your sin was true. You did not reject the truth of the gospel because of the difficult circumstances of your life but rather embraced it knowing that it provided the only hope of ultimate release. You did not accept some of the truth and not all of it, but in total humility accepted completely the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You knew you could not fix things, only Christ could do that. You repented and placed faith in Christ alone.

That was then, this is now. What happened?

You do know of course, that Gods Word is brimming to the full of cases of ‘been-there-done-that’? Really. This is why it is so painful to watch you doing what you are doing. You have a whole slew of people’s lives that stack up against the choices that you are making shouting ‘don’t make the same mistakes we made!!’

People drinking at broken cisterns. People trusting in their own strength. People putting other things first. People either deliberately or ignorantly making there own way in life. People who had known salvation but did not live in the good of it.

The nation of Israel is an epic case in point. Redeemed from Egypt they faced circumstances which they viewed as unfavourable and despite knowing the power of God in the most remarkable way they chose to trust in the deceit their hearts served them. They chose to play to the music of their flesh.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. So it was for Israel, so it will be for you.

Of course you will never stop being saved – but you have already chosen to live as if you never were. As if God’s ways didn’t matter. And so in your relationship with Him, you are all but dead.

Wandering believer – it will not end well.

God loves you, He incarnated Himself, died and rose again for you. He knows what you face, He suffered too remember. He knows that people around you are flawed, He was surrounded by flawed people too remember? He knows that the Fathers will is tough, He reeled away from it too, remember? But – he never wandered. He never pointed to anything in his environment and said – because of that, because of them, because of this – I’m going to do it my way.
It is time to get back into The Word, back into Gods love, back into Gods people. Life is too short to waste it in self-pity. Too short to waste it in misplaced distractions.

Sing with the hymn writer:

O to grace how great a debtor, Daily I’m constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love; Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.

Hebrews 12:1-6

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Devotional/Poetry

The Struggle

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How great the struggle, unrelenting,
Of man to live in life anew,
Sometimes the soul is glad consenting,
Yet all too often it will not do.

The things we would we do not,
Though sure we know for best
That He intends them for us
So we might be full blessed.

Instead the things we would not
Prevail against our mind,
And soon we’re cast full downward
By sin it’s pleasures blind.

Then follows the regret,
We’ve felt it many times,
It passes soon and we forget
The pain of many crimes.

Pain for which Christ Jesus died,
His love to us is fully known,
God’s grace and mercy like a tide,
Why then to sin are we so prone?

Oh wretched man I am,
How will I then be free?
Thanks be to God for Christ raised up,
Life new can surely be.

Whilst prone to doubt and question
If this is all I need,
May God help me by faith to hold,
With Spirit help proceed.

By mercies of the living God,
By future looking eye,
To serve today Him only,
The struggle to defy.

Teaching/Topical

Blessed by Books

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I have just finished reading ‘Waiting on God’ by Wayne Stiles. Sarah and I read it together over the course of a few months. What a great book, I heartily recommend it to you.

The book was recommended twice to us by friends and we had purchased a copy for several folks in bible class before we read it ourselves. After entering in on a period of our lives where we were having to do our own bit of waiting, we decided we should take a look. This week we read the closing chapters. As well as the book making significant impressions on our perspective for Christian living, I came away reminded of the blessing that it is to be able to read and be encouraged, enlightened and challenged, by books. If you’re not a reader, you’re missing out.

Of course, God’s Word is the source of all revelation and the ultimate source of encouragement and challenge for believers. It is ‘profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness’ and so forth (2 Tim 3:16). In fact, so essential is The Word of God, that the Apostle Paul wrote, ‘the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.’ (2 Tim 2:2). So began a tradition of passing down the truth from one generation of faithful men to another.

Alongside bible teaching meetings, books written by others are a vital way in which truth is passed down in this way. Were we infallible ourselves, we could rely solely on our own bible study (2 Tim 2:15). Yet even faithful men like Spurgeon recognised the benefit of learning from others. In a lecture where he spoke on the use of commentaries in 1876, Spurgeon cautioned against elevating man’s books above God’s Word. He also conceded that not all commentaries are equal, the bible student must be discerning. His bigger fear though, was that we might have some sort of aversion to them all. He stated, ‘It seems odd that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves should think so little of what he has revealed to others.’ He also pointed out that in some cases, men have spent a lifetime studying one book – who could fail to see the benefit of drawing on a commentary that represents the digested version of an entire life’s work. 1

So it is with all books written by believers. We must not elevate the human author above the divine. We must be discerning. That said, we can benefit immensely from truth passed down to us by others whether spoken formally in a teaching meeting, informally over coffee or in written form as with commentaries and other topical writings. Books have the advantage that you can enjoy them all in one sitting or in smaller chunks when it’s convenient. They give you time to reflect as you read. They can be very direct without causing you offence. They can rekindle your love for The Word again when your bible reading habit has grown cold.

Books allow you to sit under the teaching of men who are now with The Lord. These men were given for the ‘equipping of the Saints’ (Eph 4:12). How good to complement your exposure to teachers of the present day with teaching from men of the past.

‘Waiting on God: What to Do When God Does Nothing‘, was a very timely read and perhaps that’s why I enjoyed it so much. Drawing lessons from the life of Joseph who waited more than most, it challenges all areas of our lives, individual, family and church. It’s good to get a proverbial spiritual prod now and again and this book certainly does that. It has humbled us to remember that we are just human, God is sovereign. Stiles’ writing is very direct and in just a few places, for an Englishman like me, a little coarse; but in no way does that take away from the overwhelming blessing this book and meditation on the life of Joseph has been.

If you don’t follow my recommendation to read ‘Waiting on God’ can I encourage you to develop a balanced diet of reading both topical and expository books alongside your daily devotions. To do so is to follow in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul himself who, right to the end of his life, was quite fond of the odd book, see 2 Tim 4:13:

“Bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas when you come–and the books, especially the parchments.”

Finally,

“whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Phil 4:8).

  1. Spurgeons Lecture on Commentaries: http://www.spurgeon.org/misc/c&cl1.php ↩
Bible Class

I Love to Tell the Story: Part 1

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This series was a mini series on Witnessing. In this first part, we looked at God’s Word as the basis for this practice, beginning with the Lord Jesus’ very own words on the matter.

Acts 1: 8

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

The following notes are as usual, broad-brush. It is a fairly extensive topic – verbal and non-verbal witness, different forms of evangelism and so on so we’ll just lift out from scripture some of the key elements on this key subject.

Outline:

  • First we’ll ask- Who can be a witness?
  • The motive for witness
  • The mechanics of witness
  • The Material for witness
  • The Method of witness
  • The Manner of Witness

 

Who can be a witness?

Two years ago today I was driving home from a young peoples meeting in Stowmarket and as I pulled away from some roadworks that had reduced us down to one lane the driver behind me sunk his 1 series BMW into the back of me. We both pulled over and exchanged details as you do and there were some workmen close by so I approached one of them and took down their details as well. That way we had a third party who could help establish the truth between potentially different versions of the accident. And if it did get legal, he would have been called as a witness – someone who could state what he had seen and/or what he knew. That is what a witness is – someone who will state the truth, what they have seen and/or what they know. That’s how we understand it in the present day but those ideas are also consistent with the use in scripture, as we shall see.

Think about this – Ever since Satan’s misrepresentation of the character and will of God in the garden of Eden God has been looking for those who by contrast, will bear witness to the truth. Those who are willing to truthfully represent Him – His character, will, purposes, plans and mind. He chose a nation and to some extent they were effective in their witness. The tabernacle was in part just that, a testimony, a witness – it’s called as much. You think of people like Rahab – the witness of the nation reached her somehow. And the witness was a story of the truth of God’s power and redeeming love. Naaman – the nation now broadly ineffective in its witness, but still, there were individuals like the young maid who were prepared to state the truth about the God of Israel.

And now, Christians are called to be witnesses. In a world where Satan continues to misrepresent God, spread his lies and keep men in darkness, we are called to shine as lights, share the truth and represent God as no less than his very own ambassadors.

Needless to say, this requires at very least that we know God personally. Thinking back to the road accident that I mentioned – it would have been plain foolish for me to have driven to a nearby town and just selected someone from random to be a witness on my behalf, because they had know knowledge of the accident and know knowledge of me as a person. They wouldn’t be able to properly represent the events surrounding the accident. And so with our subject here, God isn’t calling every man and women to witness.

So who can be a witness? A Christian – someone who knows their sins forgiven and is following Christ. And as we follow him we convey the truth about him to others. In the New Testament, the witness is presented as someone who values the truth more than he values his life. Witness in scripture is inextricably linked with the idea of truth. Establishing truth, maintaining truth, proclaiming truth and so on. So just very simply, let’s ask ourselves a question: as Christians are we fulfilling our responsibility to witness? As those that are saved by grace and following Christ, are we telling others about what we know about him? For all the thousands of lost people in your locality, the jury is still out and if there is no one willing to tell them the truth about Christ they will remain in the kingdom of darkness. Worse still they may remain in the darkness because we misrepresented God.

The motive – why we witness

  • Obeying Christ: the primary motive for witness is perhaps this – that Christ expects it. In the events leading up to his ascension, The Lord Jesus made clear the responsibility of those who loved him to tell others the truth concerning himself.
    In Acts 1 it is clear from Luke’s record that Christ viewed his disciples in particular as witnesses and tasked them with that responsibility. Bear in mind that those who he was referring to had been with him from the beginning, (John 15:27) “you have been with me from the beginning”. Their knowledge was particularly intimate. Peter says in Acts 10:39 that they were “witnesses chosen before God”. So these were if you like expert witnesses and in fact when the idea of witness is referred to so far as the New Testament believers are concerned it firstly refers to this group. By extension we can apply it to ourselves but if we are to be honest in our exposition we should point this out.
    And then we have the record of the ascension events in the gospels and we can see that Luke places an emphasis on preaching the gospel whilst Matthew emphasises making disciples. All the gospels make clear the scope of the mandate, it is to all nations. So here is our first motive – Christ instructed us and because we love him we should obey him. But let me suggest a few other driving elements here.
    Following Christ – the Lord Jesus himself was a witness – John 5:36, “I have greater witness than that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me”
    Honouring Christ: Proverbs 14:25 – ‘A true witness delivers souls: but a deceitful witness speaks lies.’ You will remember that when Christ was on this earth, men sought false witness against Him. And so today, there are many who still bear false witness about the person of Christ. Paul said “woe is me if I preach not the gospel” and we can apply this to that ourselves individually and collectively. Whether Christ has instructed us or not we should want to share and live gospel truth. Matthew wrote, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

So the motive then, obeying, following and honouring Christ.

The mechanics – how witnessing works

We won’t need to spend a great deal of time on this but it will help steer our thinking in the right paths if we briefly remind ourselves of the doctrine related to witnessing is concerned.

  • The subject of our witness is Christ.
  • The power of our witness is conveyed through the Holy Spirit based on the Word of God. This is pivotal truth that you can see brought out in the upper room ministry (so-called) of the Lord Jesus and then played out throughout the book of the Acts
  • The truth we convey for our witness is from the Word of God

Now what are the implications of these points? Firstly, if the subject of our witness is Christ then subjects like apologetics or perhaps the story of our own personal conversion – these things take second place so far as our focus in witness is concerned. Furthermore, it will necessary to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. A witness that expresses the truth concerning Christ will need to be backed up by a life that is modelled on Him also. A jury wouldn’t think too highly of the testimony of a witness in court no matter how compelling it might be if they know that person to be a liability in the community.

Second if the power of our witness is conveyed through the Holy Spirit, it follows then that to be effective in our witness we must be living set apart lives, not having fellowship with the works of darkness, not grieving him.

Third, if the truth we convey for our witness is from the Word of God then we must be acquainting ourselves with it daily.

Fourthly, if the subject is Christ, the power is conveyed through the Holy Spirit and the truth is from the Word of God we are reminded of this that, “Salvation is of the Lord”

Now finally on how witnessing works, we should remember that a significant component of our witness is conveyed non-verbally. In other words, your attitudes, behaviour, temperament, character should all demonstrate that you have been with Jesus. And by so doing you will silently albeit powerfully convey the truth of Christ. We have already quoted Matthew 5:16 – “let your light so shine”, the other references there to being the salt of the earth all indicate the expectation of Christ for us to be influencing the world around whether we speak or not. This is an important aspect on its own but all the more so when we realise that our verbal witness will be unconvincing if our non-verbal witness is out of step. Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Philippians 1:27, “let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.” And Paul speaks in Galatians 2:14, of those whose “conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.’” We should ask ourselves whether our life is coherent, it makes sense. I have kids and they are quick to notice when my life doesn’t.

So then the mechanics as I’ve called them, they’re important to ensure we come at this subject of witness from the right angle. Doctrine is important. You can’t behave correctly unless you know what you believe. You can’t undertake witnessing effectively unless you understand witnessing.

The motive, the mechanics and now the material.

The material – what is our witness.

Now we’ve already mentioned Luke’s record so let’s go back there and refresh. Luke records Christ’s own words and to paraphrase – “Christ had died and risen again the third day in order that men and women might be forgiven of their sins through repentance”. So our material for witness starts here:

  • Christ: a declaration of the person of Christ. Paul said, “we preach Christ crucified” and I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). The early church knew little else – they presented Christ, this one who they had witnessed, live, die and become alive again. And as men and women recognised the truth about Christ they realised they were sinners and turned from sin to serve the living God. So in our witness before the jury of this world, we declare the truth concerning Christ and him crucified. I think we’ve lost confidence in the power of that simple message. We’ll go on now to think some other scripturally based elements that make up the material of our witness. But we need I think to renew our confidence in the power of a clear and spirit-filled declaration of the person of Christ. And we can try and analyse how this has become the case but ultimately, if I look to my own heart it’s probably just a question of the fact that he’s not front and centre. However, from experience, when you walk up to someone on the street and start ‘witnessing’ you have very little time on your hands and so you’d better get to Christ pretty quick. I’ve had the thrill of witnessing on the streets – not the soapbox approach, more getting in the middle of a small stationary group of people and sharing Christ. There is nothing like it. And my opening line would often be, “do you have a moment for me to speak to you about the Lord Jesus”. Now you might think that’s a little in-your-face, almost too simplistic. But if they reject you there and then, you can be sure because you started with Christ that you presented them with a genuine opportunity to consider him. If you start with the weather, you may never get to Christ. If you’re one of these people that has the gift-of-the-gab and you can bend the conversation around from the weather then fine. But don’t think starting with Christ is a naive approach. If you don’t have the gift-of-the-gab you’ll find it very difficult to transition to talking about Christ and it’ll come across just as awkward as if you’d started with him in the first place. So just start with him. Tell them what a perfect man he was, that he came to die for sinners and he came because God so loved the world that he gave…I don’t think that’s naive, I think that’s scriptural (cf. 1 Cor 15:1-4). Talk about the life of Christ, that’s scriptural. And talk about his death, burial and resurrection.
  • Judgement: when you present Christ, we are presenting truth. And the truth hurts – Peter elaborates on the words of the Lord Jesus in Acts 10:42, he says that the Lord Jesus “commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead.” So we must graciously present Christ as Saviour but also Judge. We must convey the need for repentance as well as the promise of forgiveness of sins. We must honestly explain the holiness of God as well as the offer of grace through faith.
  • Cultural awareness: when you present Christ, if we look at the pattern of the New Testament – there is clear evidence that are grasp of relevant culture and topical issues is helpful. In the early part of Acts, you think of Stephens witness for example, it’s heavily weighted with Jewish references. Whereas Paul’s sermon in Athens is weighted quite differently, for his Gentile audience and more than that, a Greek, largely religious, intellectual audience. So we are permitted to include in our witness, relevant mentions of cultural and topical significance. Emphasis on relevant. Don’t abuse this liberty and bring too many gimmicks into your material. These references that we make should be carefully selected based on our sensitivity to our audience and with God’s help merely a brief stepping stone into which we can then present Christ. So visual aids for example, make sure they are visual aids and not visual handicaps.

We have also seen in our study in apologetics that if there is a specific barrier to presenting truth it may be necessary to adopt an apologetic position for a while before going on to present Christ. This would often be relevant in a work environment where failure to actually deal with the issues would undermine our effectiveness. Now this leads us very smoothly into method. If material is about what our witness consists of, method is about how we go about it.

Method – how we witness

  • Prayerfully: Before we get into the methods described in the NT in relation to active witness, evidently we must approach this task in a prayerful manner. Praying for opportunities, for courage, for blessing, for God’s glory.
  • Openly: for this we go back to Luke again as our starting point. Luke records Christ as saying that these things should be “preached”. The original word is kerysso (ka-ru’s-so), and means to herald – open proclamation of the gospel – it has behind it the sense of something done with formality, gravity and authority. So the expectation of Christ and therefore the divinely appointed methodology so far as gospel witness is concerned is heralding the gospel – publicly, proclaiming Christ. Romans 10:15 – “how shall they hear (what’s the method) without a preacher” – same word, herald. And this is important – this is the overwhelming emphasis in relation to the spread of the gospel in the NT. That’s very important. Witness in this way seems also, the responsibility of men only in the New Testament and also is never done independent of a church and not alone. So when we go out in this way with the gospel it should be done cooperatively.
  • Evangelically: in Acts 8 where you have preaching mentioned several times, you have the two main words for preaching used closely together, ka-ru’s-so that we’ve just mentioned in v6 and euanggelizo (yu-an-ge-le-zo), in v4. Euanggelizo means to bring good news, and the word is used very broadly in a wide range of different contexts including more private witness and informal witness. So what we learn from this is that as well as the formal proclamation of the gospel, our witness should be second nature as part of our every day outlook and the sharing of the gospel should be spontaneous.
  • Strategically: we can lack a certain amount of vision and wisdom in our witnes. Individually, we wonder why we don’t have opportunities, but then we’re not really making ourselves available, praying about it, seeking out opportunities and with God’s help even creating those opportunities. And then collectively, the pattern of the New Testament is very much a pioneering approach to witness. Not planting churches, we can leave that to God as we can the saving of souls. But definitely seeking the Lords mind and will as to where he wants us to take the message. This kind of early church mentality is exactly what we need in our country today because with the passage of the last 50 years and all the fallow ground that’s opened up with Christian testimony, in decline there’s a desperate need and a wonderful opportunity in the locality where God has placed us. Here’s an interesting point – the word preaching meaning proclaim or herald isn’t used in Acts until chapter 8 when Philip takes the gospel to Samaria. Why weren’t the evangelists proclaiming and heralding the message to the Jews in Jerusalem? The point the inspired Word of God is making is that you don’t proclaim gospel truth to people who already know it. They ‘taught’ in the synagogues and they shared the good news, but the first time it was heralded was in fallow ground. Interesting. Ever tried to stand in a meeting where there are only saints present and herald the gospel? It’s not scriptural to do so. Teaching the gospel perhaps, but not heralding. A strategic approach to witnessing would save us from such misplaced effort.

So much then for the method.

Lets bring our thoughts to a close by thinking about the manner of our witness.

Manner of our witness

  • Gentle: Peter says this in his first epistle (1 Peter 3:15), “be ready always to given an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So the manner of our witness should be in meekness, in other words gentle. Never patronise the lost. Don’t be unnecessarily confrontational either. One of the things you learn with street evangelism is to be bold without being cold. You have real people, who are lost and they’re all around you. You make a mistake with your attitude and you might find yourself provoking abuse unnecessarily. You must speak the truth in meekness and in fear. Your witness will be far more convincing this way than if you come across as someone who is a little too sure of himself, possibly a little snobbish, pious. God forbid. Particularly in apologetics, may God help us to be winsome by avoiding the shallow tactics of our opponents. I remember to my shame, coming away from a door some years ago having conveyed the truth to a so called Jehovah’s Witness and saying something to the effect of “that gave them something to think about.” Almost as if this was a competition or a challenge. That was not the right attitude. Those people are in darkness. And if proclaiming the gospel with gentleness seems to be a contradiction then how much we need God’s help in this business of witnessing.
  • Reverent – meekness and fear. As we articulate the truth of God may we do so reverently. It’s a pretty regulating principle that you can extend across everything we’ve said thus far.
  • Sacrificial – witnessing is not about us. The extraordinary story captured by Luke in the book of Acts shows us those who witnessed for Christ were willing to lay their very lives down. And the word for witness in the Greek is actually Martyr so when the Lord Jesus mentioned that as recorded in John 15:27 – he was letting them know what it meant to be a true witness. In Bury St Edmunds, King Edmund is said to have died for the truth – that’s a legend mind-you. But near to his memorial, there is a larger memorial in memory of the 17 Christians who burnt at the stake in the 16th century. What will be the memorial of our generation? How will we be remembered? “Faithful witness” or “self-preservation”?

 

 

Lloyd Stock, May 2015