Testimony and Witness

It's always a blessing to come back to our home base.  We get to meet with friends and family, talk and share, and be refueled and revived.  I particularly love talking with one of my brothers in Christ who has such great emotion and passion about life in Christ.  He’s always bringing me encouragement and new insight to life, worship, discipleship, and the gospel.  This time was no different.

As I caught up with him about life, I asked him what has been on his heart this season and he replied to me “testimony.”  He said that sharing the gospel and knowing our testimony has been a burden on his heart for some time now.  Of course I agreed.  This is a mandate of scripture.  So naturally I wanted to share it with you guys.

Witness and testimony has also been on my heart as well.  I got the opportunity to teach in my growth group and that was the subject.  Three points were brought up that I want to share.  The first was boldness.  

Boldness is necessary for the sharing of the gospel because it's hard to do.  That's one of the things that my friend said was difficult for him and the community he was sharing this passion for witnessing with were dealing with.  Having the confidence and fortitude to share with people even when we may be rejected.  My friend said sharing with his daughter was especially difficult because of the pain of her rejection.  Receiving the “no, I don’t need this.”  He confessed that when he did not share it was because he was making his daughter an idol in place of Christ and that he needed the boldness to share in the face of that dreaded “no.” I shared that it's difficult for me and I’m supposed to be an evangelist.  I’m supposed to be the missionary sharing with everyone.  That rejection can stifle our witness and create in us a timidity to share the gospel.  We must pray for boldness in our witness.  Even Paul who was passionate about the gospel and reaching people for the glory of God said he needed prayer to be bold (Ephesians 6:19-20).  So we are not alone in this.  We gain this boldness by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said that we will receive power to be witnesses through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).  We have to call upon our helper.

The next thing that was in the lesson was the content of the gospel.  My friend also said this was a difficult thing for his community.  They knew their testimony but were unsure as to how to communicate it.  The content of the gospel is important because it is knowing what we’ve done and what can be done about it that we can receive this gift from God.  And we definitely don’t want to confuse people in these things.  But I think my friend got it right when he said it's just recognizing that we’ve sinned and that God loves us despite that sin and gave his life for us. This is the plan and the only way to gain life.   

We talked about this subject, my friend and I, for some time.  He said he has been meditating on his sin lately because sometimes he forgets how deep his sin was. He said as he contemplated the depravity of his sin he began to weep over these things.  I wanted to reach out and say that we were forgiven and those things were in his past but I remained silent to finish hearing what he had to say on the matter.  And what he said was profound. He said that his weeping in the end was not at the great sin he had committed before knowing Christ but was because of Christ's great love for him so much so that he would die for and forgive his darkest moments.  He said that the weeping was not for his great sin but for God’s great love. Man, that's awesome! When we contemplate our sin we see how good God really is!

Finally the last point in the lesson was contextualizing the gospel.  It is understanding how we can make the gospel relatable to the person we are speaking with.  This is where testimony comes in crucial.  Having that testimony ready to share with someone makes the gospel relatable because we all share in the same struggles in this world.  We all share in the same brokenness and need for healing.  When we share our testimony we don’t give a forensic or analytical approach to the gospel but an emotional and relatable view of how it changed us.

We must share the gospel.  This is our mandate from our Savior.  But as we do, let us be bold in doing it, know what it is and how it's changed us, and let that fuel us to tell others so that they may know the wonder of our marvelous God!

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. Ephesians 6:19-20

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures 1 Corinthians 15:3-4