St. Francis of Assisi once said ”Preach the Gospel to all the world – and if necessary use words.”
The way we live is vital if we want to be effective for the Kingdom. Indeed we need to excel in all three of the relationships of John 15 if we want to be true servants of the Lord.
These are our:
RELATIONSHIP to Christ
RELATIONSHIP to other believers &
RELATIONSHIP to the world
1. RELATIONSHIP TO JESUS (John 15: 1-11)
The first and key relationship in John 15 is the relationship we have to Christ. Christ describes our relationship with Him as being as close as the branches of a vine are to the vine itself.
I think the key to our relationship to Christ is John 15:4 when Christ says: Abide in me.
When Christ talks about abiding in Him, I think of three aspects to the word.
1.1. The first aspect of abiding is that you can’t rush it.
The very word "abide" seems to me to be the opposite of "hurrying". There is almost a tranquillity about it.
Jesus took time to go off and pray in a heavy schedule.
We read in the beginning of Mark’s Gospel, after healing many in a particular town:
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (Mk. 1:35)
Story: One Saturday last year, I went to Flamborough Head and spent time simply looking at the seabirds. With no particular sense of time, I just sat down and wondered at the beauty of creation.
That conjures up one aspect of abiding for me. Just being there! Taking time for God, not snatching time with Him.
1.2. The second aspect to "abiding" is getting to know Christ.
If you hang around someone long enough you get to know that person well.
As we spend time in prayer, meditating on God’s word,
listening to what He would say to us, we will get to know Him - what he likes and what He dislikes.
Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger. It is knowing Jesus that makes us Christians.
1.3. The third aspect of "abiding in Christ" is allowing Him to change us for the better.
When you are around Jesus, he changes you. It is our changed lives that are going to impress people
Story: My father was very anti-church when he was alive. However two years before he died, we were sitting in my lounge in Switzerland when he said:
“I can see your Christianity has been good for you. It is not for me, but I can see that it has been good for you”
He had seen something in my life that he found good.
There are some people who think that Mission is all about knocking on people’s doors, giving them a tract and inviting them to church.
But it is more than that. It is the way we live that counts.
St. Francis of Assisi once said”Preach the Gospel to all the world – and if necessary use words.”
I became a Christian not by being preached at but by seeing Christ in the life of a Christian and saying – He has what I want.
Story: I remember a story Richard Wurmbrand tells in his book "In God’s Underground".
Wurmbrand was a Christian Lutheran Minster who was put in prison for his faith in Romania by the Communist authorities for his faith.
Wurmbrand and a young Communist lad, who would have nothing to do with Christianity, shared a cell together.
Rations were very low in the prison, and yet Wurmbrand used to share his bread with that young atheist.
On e day Wurmbrand was telling the young man about a Christain of whom it was said that he was like Jesus.
The young man said to Wurmbrand "If Jesus is like you, I would like to know him" What a witness for Christ.
You might ask “How can I evangelise?”. One way will be by the way you live.
Do you know Christ intimately or is He distant?
Has He an effect on your life? That’s what mission is about.
2. RELATIONSHIP to one another (John 15: 12-18)
The second relationship that Christ speaks of in John 15 is relationships with other Christians
The world out there is looking for something different from the Monday to Friday rat race. At the weekend, they want to get away from all that. If they see us as nothing more than an extension of the bickering that is going on in the office, they will not be attracted to our message or our Saviour. If they see us as loving caring people who they like to have around, we will win them for Christ.
Jesus said that when we get the relationship with Him right, it will affect our relationship to other Christians
Jesus left us two simple commands
Love God and love one another
Story of Mustapha. When Maddy and I used to live in Basle, Switzerland, we had the privilege of running a refugee church.
At times we had more Moslems and Hindus than Christians in the Church.
One Moslem refugee, Mustapha became a Christian because as he put it:
You gave me, a stranger, love and in Islam there is no love.
That is how we are going to reach people for Christ. By being a living testimony to Christ’s love.
3. RELATIONSHIP to the world (John 15:19-16:4)
The final relationship Christ speaks of in John 15 is our relationship to the world i.e. those outside the Church.
Jesus calls us to testify in John 15:27 to Him. In other words, we are to be a witness to Him
3. 1. What does the word WITNESS mean in the New Testament.
The Greek verb used in the New Testament is "martyreo" which is the root from which we get the word "martyr".
In a Court of Law, a witness is simply a person who testified to what he had seen. He is not defence counsel for the accused nor the public prosecutor. He doesn’t have to come up with a theory as to how it happened nor is he to report hearsay. He simply has to relate what he has seen or what he knows. Put in other words, we are to testify to what we know personally about Jesus.
We are not disinterested witnesses. When we encounter Christ it changes our lives.
If you feel this is difficult – you are not on your own. I feel like that too. However we can ask Jesus to give us the strength to do it.
We don’t need to know the answers, we just have to be prepared to share what we do know about Christ
Perhaps our Christian witness is best put by John in his first epistle when he says 1 John 1:1
11 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched-- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life
John was simply telling of what he had seen and heard of Christ.
3.2. Christ sends the Holy Spirit to enable us to WITNESS to him
WITNESSING to Christ will require courage and strength but we are not simply LEFT to get on with it in our own strength
We read in Acts 1:8 that Jesus tells his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit to come before preaching the Gospel.
8 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."
We would not be here today if the Early Church had not recorded what they had heard and seen about Jesus.
In Early Church, it wasn’t long before the word, "martyreo" developed into our modern meaning of "martyr" with the persecution under the Roman emperors Nero and Diocletian. The early Church were persecuted because they refused to sacrifice to the Emperor, who was claiming to be divine. The Romans saw this as an act of treason, but Christians put their witness to Christ before their own lives.
Anglican Martyrs
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, the architect of the Great Bible (which was a forerunner of the Authorised Version), reformation of Church Law, many of the Articles of the Church of England, two prayer books which form the basis of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer), died at the stake for witnessing to Christ.
Bishops Latimer and Ridley died for the faith that we have as Anglicans inherited. And you will all recall the words of Latimer to Ridley at the stake when he said: "Play the good man Master Ridley, for this day we will light a fire in England that will never be put out".
Other Testimonies
A few years ago in a news letter, I read the following testimony that really touched me about a young man in Japan 400 years ago who was martyred for his faith:
Story: 26 Christians were executed at Nizhizaka Hill in Nagasaki, Japan on 15 February 1597. Amongst them was a young seventeen year old boy, Thomas Kosaki, who was to die for his Christian witness along with his father. He wrote a letter to his mother the evening before his crucifixion.
Let me read a translation of it to you
"Mother, we are supposed to be crucified tomorrow in Nagaski. Please do not worry about anything because we will be waiting for you to come to heaven.
Everything in the world vanishes like a dream. Be sure that you never lose the happiness of heaven. Be patient and show love to many people.
Most of all, about my little brothers Mansho and Philipo, please see to it that they are not delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. Mother, I commit you to the Lord"
You see, unlike in a Court of Law, witnessing to Christ transforms your life and can have consequences.
Paul puts is very succinctly in Romans 12:
121 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
The challenge to us is: Is our witness a life changing witness. Can I leave you with a parting thought?
If being a Christian were made illegal, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
