Hebrews 12: 1
Sermon: Witnesses and witnessing
According to the Bible we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.
I don’t think this means that we are living our lives on a stage
and that the angels and all of God’s people who have died and gone to be with the Lord
are up above looking down on us
as if they were in the Gallery of a theatre.
The word ‘witness’ can be a noun or a verb.
A ‘witness’ (noun) is defined as a person who has seen or can give first-hand evidence
of some event,
or a person who testifies, especially in a court of law,
to events or facts within his or her own knowledge.
To ‘witness’ (verb) means to see or be present at or know at first hand,
to give evidence of or about, and to attest to the genuineness of something.
In the context of Christianity and today’s Scripture reading,
we ask who make up the ‘cloud of witnesses’ that surround us,
and the answer is those who have personal knowledge of God and Jesus Christ,
and have individual and personal experience of forgiveness and salvation,
not people whose parents were Christians
or people who knew people of faith,
or who went to church at some time
or who were Christened years before,
or who passed an exam in RE.
A witness cannot be someone who says
‘I learned about X from someone, and believe it to be true’;
that would be second-hand,
and what in Law is called ‘hearsay’.
To be a valid and worthwhile witness, someone must be able to say ‘I saw it’
or ‘I heard it’, or ‘I experienced it’,
and that is the same with God and the Gospel and salvation.
No one can be a true Christian just because they know someone else who is one,
or because their parents were Christians,
or their wife or husband or grandparent.
A Christian is someone who has personal knowledge
and personal experience of Jesus Christ,
and is individually and personally born again of the Holy Spirit
and can personally Witness and Testify that Jesus is Lord.
If we are such, then not only are we surrounded by a ‘great cloud of witnesses’
but one day, in God’s plan and timing,
we should have in our hearts the assurance
that we will be part of that heavenly gathering.
Statistics recently published show that while 12% of the population of the U.K.
attended church on a regular basis in 1979, only 7 1/2% did so in 1999.
As we walk through any town or large city anywhere in the country
we can see buildings that once were used for Christian worship
now being used for other purposes.
In our own area churches which once had their own minister
are now linked or united and some have only half or even a third of a minister’s time.
Our churches are sometimes called places for the grey hair and the nay hair’,
and it is true that the majority of churches are not reaching the majority of teenagers,
nor single young men and women, nor young marrieds.
The worst-case scenario is that many churches will close,
in the not-too-distant future,
and some of these will become warehouses, wine bars or worse.
Yet, in the Irvine, at the Cross on Bank Street,
Sikhs have bought a disused warehouse and turned it into a Gurdwara
where they meet to worship at least every Saturday.
So, if we can be brutally honest for a minute, let us ask ourselves: “Does it matter?”
I mean, if people don’t believe in God or an after-life,
if they are ‘good people’, does church-going matter?
Would it really matter if all the churches in the country closed down
and those who wanted to could read their Bibles and say their prayers
in their own homes?
If ’Universalists’ are right,
that is, people who believe in a God who loves everyone
and who would never send anyone to Hell
(OK except maybe Hitler, or Osama Bin Laden, but certainly not anyone we know),
then what differ¬ence does it make whether a person goes to church or not,
believes in God or not,
believes the Bible is true or a load of Fairy Stories,
because at the end of life we all end up in the same place.
If people believe Christianity is just one world religion
and all the others are equally valid ways to God or the gods,
then does it matter whether someone is a Christian or a Buddhist or a tree-worshipper?
Can anyone become a member of ‘the great cloud of witnesses’
just by being a decent person,
not committing a crime,
by paying their taxes and bills on time,
regardless of what they believe or disbelieve?
The answer is ‘No’ if Jesus is, as he claimed to be, “The Way, the Truth and the Life”
and if He was telling the truth when He said “No one can come to the Father
except by Me”,
and the answer is ‘No’ if we are all “sinners” who, in St Paul’s words,
“have fallen short of the glory of God”; so we cannot save ourselves.
If Jesus and St Paul and whoever wrote Hebrews were all telling the truth,
testifying to what was true,
then believing in the divinity of Jesus, being a Christian,
and worshipping God with other Christians,
and living a moral life-style does matter,
and eternal damnation or Hell is the fate or destination
of those who will not enter into the Kingdom of God,
no matter how decent and law-abiding they were in the eyes of the world.
God really IS a loving God,
a God of grace and mercy and peace
who forgives sinners, no matter how bad, who believe and repent,
but there is nothing in the Bible to support the ‘Universalist’ view or opinion
that God accepts into heaven everyone regardless of what they believed or did.
Jesus said (Matt 16:18) that he had come to build his church
and that the gates of hell or death would never prevail against it.
This means there will always be a “Church’
or visible evidence of the Kingdom of God on earth,
but there is no cast-iron guarantee that any particular local church congregation
or denomination will survive for ever,
especially one which does not preach and teach the true Gospel.
Does the existence of Christian Churches or our particular church matter?
Well, if we believe that people need the Gospel,
and that faith in God and personal commitment to Jesus
can make a difference to the number of children born to single parents,
the problem of drugs, the amount of crime and vandalism, gang membership, rioting,
and to every individual’s personal search for meaning, value and purpose in life,
and to where they will spend eternity,
then the answer is a definite “Yes’.
If we believe it is important to keep our churches open and viable,
not only in order to have a pastor or minister;
not only to keep the institution” going,
not only to preserve a building we have been identified with for years,
but because they are local branches of ‘The Kingdom of God Unlimited’,
then the answer is the same: “Yes”.
If we are in agreement so far, then where do we go from here?
Churches could employ trained, specialised, God-gifted evangelists
to go out on the doors and into the streets
to proclaim the 2,000-year old message that we are sinners
and that only in Jesus and only through his shed blood can there be salvation.
Treasurers might tremble at the initial salary outlay,
but would be happy at the income brought in by new members’ offerings.
Two of the problems associated with this idea are,
firstly where do we get these people from;
and secondly, it could have the effect of encourag¬ing other church members
to sit back and leaving witness¬ing to the professionals;
but Jesus’ words at the end of Matthew 28 are for all of us.
To use the language of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, in 1878,
every Christian should have “a burden for souls” or a concern for the lost”,
unless in our heart of hearts we don’t believe non-Christians are “lost”,
so the prospect of our friends or loved ones spending eternity in Hell-fire
does not worry us.
But if we do, then we must all have a desire to work with, for and through the Holy Spirit to turn the god-less into God’s children,
and to do this, we must, must, must, every one of us, be “Outreach minded”,
as Jesus said His disciples should be.
We must look for, grasp, and take every opportunity that comes our way
to WITNESS, to share our faith, speak up, speak out, not be shy,
but tell people what we believe God has done for us in the past,
is doing for us right now, and will do for us throughout eternity,
because, and only because, of His grace and the shedding of Jesus’ blood.
This, to some, does not sound “British” or “Scottish”
but British or Scottish Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are out there doing it,
so what’s different about British or Scottish Evangelicals?
Some people say ‘God knows those who are His’
and in the fullness of time He will bring His Elect into the visible church;
but Charles Hadden Spurgeon
said that the more doors he knocked on and the more he witnessed to people
the more of the Elect he met.
Jesus did not say ‘Wait for them to come’; He said ‘Go and get them’.
We all meet people that Charles Hadden Spurgeon never lived to meet
or who Billy Graham will never meet:
family members, next-door-neighbours, shop assistants, customers,
hill-walkers, dog-walkers, work-mates, etc. etc.
Who do you think God has “called” to tell them about Jesus and the Kingdom of God?
Guess what, it could be you and me?
This does not mean “Bible-bashing” and boring them to death every time we meet them, but just being sensitive to the situation and their needs
and being determined not to miss a chance that the Holy Spirit can use,
to witness to what we know and what we have experienced,
what we have been witnesses of, and what we can witness to.
Let’s invite them to our church and pray that whoever is ministering,
will preach the ‘old, old story’ of God’s love and amazing grace
that we believe is still relevant to 21st-century men, women and children.
Let us not “hide our light under a bushel” but sing our, or rather God’s, praises to others.
People out there have cars, money in the bank,
and in many ways “have never had it so good”, in spite of the recession,
but are they happy, really?
If so, why do so many turn to drugs, drink, comfort-eating, or extra-marital affairs,
and to cults, sects and New Age crystals, and gangs, vandalism and violence?
We should not only witness to those who have never been to church;
think about those who used to, but don’t any more.
Someone once said ‘churches have narrow front doors but wide back doors
so let’s really ‘take the bull by the horns’
and ask people who have left our church why they left,
and if they have a valid reason, as opposed to excuses for their laziness or apathy,
let’s apologise and try to get them to give us another chance.
If we don’t so something, all of us, because Matt 28 is for all of us,
the worst-case scenario will come about, and maybe this church will not be ‘open for business’, or at least ‘God’s business’, even in our lifetimes.
But if we DO do something; if we share our faith with just one,
who then becomes a committed believer in Jesus Christ as Lord,
and they share their faith with one other person , and they with another and so on,
then the best-case scenario could be that pubs, wine bars, night clubs and casinos
will close instead,
and churches will be forced to extend their buildings
to accommodate increased numbers of attending, giving and energetic members,
and, God willing, we will see divorce rates, abortion statistics,
drug deaths and alcoholism decline
and gangs break up as their members lead more positive and happy lives;
as people not only believe in, and worship God,
but also live and behave according to His will.
I hope no one regards this message as only ‘wishful-thinking’,
but that we will even more determine to be people with a “vision”,
people obedient to Jesus’ Great Commission,
people determined to witness according to the direction and strength of Almighty God,
and to bring further praise and glory to His holy Name,
and to increase the final total membership of that great cloud of witnesses.
Amen.
