Sharrington/ Swanton Novers/ Blakeney
12-05-02
Acts 1:6-14
Story: A man was arraigned for murder in Los Angeles about 70 years ago. The case against him looked pretty good, but his lawyer thought of an ingenious ploy.
In his summing up speech, he said: “Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, you must find my client not guilty of murder if there is the slightest doubt in your minds that he is the murderer. And now I have one final witness. The true murderer is about to walk through the door.”
All eyes swung towards the door but no one came in.
“ You see” the lawyer continued: “there is doubt in your minds about my client’s guilt, otherwise you would not have looked towards the door.”
The jury retired to deliberate and came back after an hour with a “Guilty” verdict. The lawyer was beside himself.
Before the judge could pass sentence, he sprang up and said “But I proved beyond doubt - that you had a doubt about my client’s guilt.
A shrewd old man in the jury stood up and replied:
“As everyone looked towards the door, I watched your client’s eyes. He didn’t look towards the door because he knew no one was coming through. Why? Because he was the guilty one.”
This morning/evening I want to look at the subject of witnesses – but unlike in that Los Angeles courtroom, I want to look at effective witnesses.
And I would like to base my comments on the reading we have just had from the Book of Acts.
The Book of Acts tells the story of how Christianity spread from Jerusalem - an obscure outpost of the Roman Empire to Rome - the very capital itself.
When Jesus died on Good Friday almost two thousand years ago, conventional wisdom said that this was not a great way to start a world religion.
So how did an obscure carpenter from Nazareth, who
never wrote a book,
never held high office,
never led an army and
died an ignoble death on a Cross
become the man to have affected civilization more profoundly than any other?
1.1 His Death and Resurrection
One reason for the spread of Christianity lies in the fact that after Jesus died, He rose again from the dead – an event that we remember at Easter every year.
In our reading from Acts 1, Luke records that Jesus “showed himself to the apostles and gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive.” (Acts 1:3)
The late Lord Darling, a judge in the English House of Lords once said that:
……there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict that the resurrection story is true“.
1.2. The Power of the Holy Spirit
Another reason for the spread of Christianity lies in the fact that the Power of the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples at Pentecost (as recorded in Acts 2) - an event we will celebrate next week (19th May 2002) as Whit Sunday or Whitsun.
The power of the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost - to enable the disciples to share their experience of Jesus with the world. In other words, to be His WITNESSES.
And with that in mind I would like to focus on Jesus’ final words to his disciples - that were read to us earlier from Acts Chapter 1.
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8).
It seems to me that Jesus is saying that there are three ingredients if we are going to be effective in sharing our faith with others. These are:
1. Knowing what kind of witness you are called to be
2. Knowing God’s timing and
3. Knowing God’s power
1. The first ingredient to being an effective witness is knowing what kind of witness God has called you to be
The disciples were called to be God’s witnesses. Witnesses to what? To the life, teaching and resurrection of Jesus that they had experienced.
In a Court of Law, a witness can do one of two things
He can be a witness of events that occurred. In which case, he simply recalls what he has seen or experienced.
Alternatively he can be an expert witness, who explains to the Court the meaning of the evidence (usually it is a complicated set of facts).
And throughout history the Church, there have been both types of witnesses.
God has called those who have had an experience of Him to share that with others.
And he has called others to be expert witnesses who can explain the Christian faith. These people are what we call Apologists.
And as an aside, if you would like to go and hear a very good Christian apologist, may I recommend that you go – and take your friends - to hear
J. John.
He is speaking at the Royal Norfolk Showground, from 7.30 every Wednesday evening from now until June 12th 2002.
And there will be a final meeting in the evening of Saturday 15th June.
But back to my subject. It is important that we do not confuse the two types of witness. We need to know what type of witness God has called us to be.
We don’t have to be expert witnesses before we can tell others - of what Jesus has done in our lives.
2. The second ingredient to being an effective witness is knowing God’s timing
God’s timing was important. The disciples were told to wait for power from on high.
And they were told where to wait – in Jerusalem.
God had a perfect plan for them.
If we are to be his servants we need to be obedient to his commands. He told them to wait – and wait is what they did.
Timing is important.
It is only as we draw close to Jesus and listen to what he says to us that we will be effective in sharing our faith and building up the church.
3. The third ingredient to being an effective witness is knowing God’s power
God’s power is awesome.
God took Peter – the very Peter who denied Jesus before the Crucifixion in front of a servant girl of the high Priest and gave him boldness. In fact he gave him such boldness after Pentecost that Peter stood up and gave his testimony to Jesus before the High Priest himself.
But God’s power isn’t just to take a man and make him a bold witness. It is more. The power of the Holy Spirit also brings about conversion.
The apostle Paul came to Corinth to preach the Gospel “not with eloquence or superior wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:1) but “in weakness and fear and much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). Yet God used that weakness and fear to ground and mighty Church.
Paul relied on a “demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (1 Cor. 2:4), as he put it.
I saw a similar thing about ten years ago in Mission France.
Story: Billy Graham Rally in Mulhouse, France
Maddy and I went to a Billy Graham rally in Mulhouse during Mission France. We were surprised to see about two thousand people in the tent. Billy Graham was preaching in Paris and the talk (with translation into French) was beamed onto a big screen in Mulhouse.
I can’t say I found the talk particularly inspiring. I had heard better. However, when Billy Graham gave an altar call – I thought a herd of bulls had got loose in the tent.
About half the people there streamed forward. And then I realised it wasn’t what Billy Graham said but it was the power of the Holy Spirit that had reached these people’s lives.
In conclusion, Jesus commissioned his disciples to be his witnesses. They were not to preach it in their own strength but were to wait on God for his empowering.
They were God’s witnesses, in his timing and with his power.
We as the Church today have that same Commission – to share the Good News of Jesus with those around us.
It might feel daunting – but Jesus promises us the power of his Holy Spirit to enable us to fulfil it.
If you feel inadequate to do this – you’re in good company. The Early Church felt inadequate. The Apostle Paul felt inadequate.
But he had a God who gave him power and this power is available to us today - the power to preach his Gospel.
Let us make that our prayer this morning/evening, that God will empower us to preach His Gospel to the world around us.
