INTRODUCTION: "The Biggest Trial in History" (A short skit)
This is the biggest trial in history, bigger than the O.J. trial, the Menedez brothers, Susan Smith, The Oklahoma bombing, or President Clinton’s trial. T.V. cameras, reporters, microphones and 35 mm cameras are everywhere in the courtroom. The room is packed, not even any standing room left. The defendant sits quietly starring straight ahead with a look of calmness, yet uncertainty on his face. The crowd is loud but suddenly as if everybody in the courtroom knew the doors were about to be opened, they hushed as the doors creaked open and YOU, step into the back of the courtroom. You can feel every eye in the room burn a hole through you as everyone turns to look at you, everyone except the defendant. He just sits there starring straight ahead into space, so it seems. Your eyes immediately find Him but you quickly turn them to the people around you that are still watching as you slowly ease into your seat in the courtroom. Someone is on trial today and you are the STAR witness. The crowd begins to get loud again until the sound of a pounding wooden gavel pierces the noise and quietens the crowd. The defendant’s attorney steps up and says, "I call my first witness to the stand. I call Mr./Ms. ________
The attorney turns to you as you sit down on the stand. He leans forward looking you square in the eyes and ask you the biggest question of your life. "Do you know this man?" He then turns and points to the defendant, JESUS CHRIST.
Application: One day we will all be on trial for how we lived our life and who we lived it for. One day God will ask us that question, what will our answer be? If you call yourself a Christian people are looking at you daily and asking themselves this question. Does ________ __________ know Jesus, or does he just fake it.
SCRIPTURE TEXT: Matthew 10: 32, 33 (NLT)
32 "If anyone acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will openly acknowledge that person before my Father in heaven. 33 But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before my Father in heaven. [1]
Here are three ways that people will know whether we know Jesus or not and three ways that will help us stay on track with our relationship with Jesus. The first of which is……………… you say you know Jesus through……………
I. YOUR WORDS
Matthew 12:36, 37 (NLT)
36 And I tell you this, that you must give an account on judgment day of every idle word you speak. 37 The words you say now reflect your fate then; either you will be justified by them or you will be condemned." [2]
A. YOUR WORDS NOT SOMEONE ELSE’S WORDS
1. Who do YOU say Jesus is? (Matthew 16:13:18)
2. What is YOUR relationship to Jesus? Or with Jesus?
3. It’s who your mom or day says Jesus is. It’s not what they have taught you but what do you know of Him and what do you think.
4. For far too long young people have been thinking they could get by on mom and dads relationship with God. You must find Jesus for yourself. You must have a relationship with Him yourself.
5. It’s not even about what the Youth Pastor says about Jesus. What do you say?
"What’s your testimony of who Jesus is? Can your words prove that you know Him or do you even want people to know that you do?"
B. THE POWER OF YOUR WORDS
PROVERBS 18:21 (NKJV)
21Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. [3]
1. Your words concerning Jesus have great power on all those around you, not just the words about Jesus but your everyday talk has the power to convince people whether or not you know this man?
2. Your testimony is your verbal declaration of your witness of who Jesus is.
3. Your words, or testimony of who Jesus is can change the eternal destiny of a person’s life.
ACTS 26:28,29 (NTL)
28 Agrippa interrupted him. "Do you think you can make me a Christian so quickly?"
29 Paul replied, "Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains." [4]
4. Could you stand in a courtroom full of people and by just the words you speak prove to those in the room that you know Jesus? Can you confess Him before men? If you can’t then you don’t know this man.
II. BY YOUR WORKS
JAMES 2: 14-17 (NLT)
14 Dear brothers and sisters, what’s the use of saying you have faith if you don’t prove it by your actions? That kind of faith can’t save anyone. 15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, 16 and you say, "Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well"-but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
17 So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all-it is dead and useless. [5]
A. Actions Speak Louder Than Words
1. True, your words are powerful yet without works to back up your words, they are powerless and meaningless. How many young people are here tonight that say they are Christians but the way the live their lives say otherwise. You see your words mean nothing if you don’t have the actions to back them up.
2. Your works are the proof to your words. You can say all day long that you know this man, but you actions deny Him.
TITUS 1:15,16 (NLT)
15 Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are defiled. 16 Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are despicable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good. [6]
3. What you do is a reflection of what is in your heart. What goes in must and will come out in some way, form, or fashion.
MATTHEW 12:33-35 (NLT)
33 "A tree is identified by its fruit. Make a tree good, and its fruit will be good. Make a tree bad, and its fruit will be bad. 34 You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. 35 A good person produces good words from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil words from an evil heart. [7]
B. WORKS VERSES WORDS
1. They both are valuable in their own right. Words without works is dead and works without words is not influential.
2. They are both needed not in any particular order. Works give power to your words and words give influence to your works.
3. There are no Secret Agent Christians, no Undercover Christians. If you are willing to live for Him you also must be willing to profess, and claim, "yes, I know this man! If you do your works will give substance and value to your words.
III. IN YOUR WITNESS
ACTS 1:8 (NLT)
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." [8]
A. COUNT THE COST
1. Your witness of Jesus WILL be very costly, but what you give up is nothing to be compared to what you receive in return. Are you willing to testify for Him, does you life show that you know him?
2. Are you willing to pay what it cost to be a witness of Jesus? It won’t just cost a friend, girl/boyfriend, job, etc… it will cost you everything. You see when you sell out to Jesus everything in your life comes under the lordship of Jesus and Jesus is no just number 1 but He is everything.
3. The disciple that was chosen to replace Judas had a lot to think about when he was asked to be a WITNESS, or martyr of Jesus’ resurrection in Acts 1:22.
4. Count the cost of being a witness of Jesus. To know of Him and not to identify with Him or follow Him is a decision that will haunt you in this life and the life to come. (Matthew 10:37-39)
B. ARE YOU WILLING TO DIE?
1. To be a witness means to be a Martyr; which means one who would rather die than renounce Jesus, whether it be with a gun put to your head or whether you do it by your everyday words and actions.
2. If asked, ’Do you know this man?’ will you become a witness of Jesus and take whatever come whether it be death, rejection, persecution, or whether it means life and acceptance?
3. Does Jesus mean so much to you that you are willing to give anything and everything for Him?
a. Girl/boy friend
b. Friends
c. Music
d. Partying
e. Pride, ambition
f. Sport, etc….
CONCLUSION:
"Until we find a cause worth dying for, we’re not really living " Ron Luce
