THE WINDOW
BIBLE-TEACHING MINISTRY of
CEDAR LODGE BAPTIST CHURCH
Thomasville, NC
a fellowship of faith, family and friendship
Dr. Russell Brownworth, pastor
Pillar 7. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ
The greatest and most noble purpose in life is to glorify the Lord through the fulfillment of His great commission. I will glorify the Lord by sharing my faith with my family, and by joining with them and others in specific activities that cultivate a passion for fulfilling the Great Commission.
July 4, 2004
19“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (NASB)
I was glued to the newscasts on Thursday as reporters detailed all the charges brought against Saddam Hussein. The broadcasts indicated that this would be a “first” for modern times, having an Arabic dictator brought to trial for crimes against his own people (as well as war crimes).
Hussein was defiant in the face of the charges, claiming that the trial and all the court proceedings is nothing but “theatre”; the real criminal is President Bush.
A number of the “experts” interviewed on Thursday made some really strong claims; that a fair trial was impossible. The lawyer who defended Panama’s Manuel Noriega in the 1990’s flatly said, “The prosecutor could walk into the courtroom wearing a Ronald MacDonald costume, present no evidence at all, and the jury would convict Saddam Hussein in 30 minutes.
Another indicated that, for the sake of freedom around the world, this trial would be a hinge, upon which history swings; we are watching the beginnings of a new door of freedom.
Now, that grabbed my attention, because it will only be true freedom if it’s a fair trial. Dictators like Saddam Hussein never give a fair anything! Freedom, on the other hand, is based upon the consent of the governed; and that consent is grounded in fair application of the God-granted rights of all people by our Creator. God made us free; to continue to live truly free, we must grant that same freedom to others, regardless of how guilty they appear.
Saddam Hussein’s trial will be watched around the globe by billions of people.
• They will watch a jury being selected and seated.
• They will hear opening arguments from the lawyers and admonishments from a judge;
• it is all preamble to the meat of any justice system – witnesses!
Without the sworn testimony of credible witnesses there is no justice, and therefore no true freedom. In the end, the fate of Saddam Hussein, and the living conditions of many people being tormented under the hand of totalitarian dictators, rests squarely on the shoulders of witnesses who will stand and tell the truth. There are some parallels I see with respect to that trial process.
• A jury can have its verdict thrown out by a judge; it happens occasionally.
• A judge can be overruled by a higher court. It happened this past week. Judge Honeycutt attempted to take the phrase “God save this state and this honorable court” out of his courtroom. He also tried to do-away with witnesses placing a hand on the Bible to pledge to tell the truth. Judge Honeycutt got overruled by the Supreme Court of North Carolina.[1] The judge got judged!
• But the witnesses – testimony just stands as what it is – the witness of one’s life and credibility as opposed to another’s.
This morning I want to talk with you about being a witness for Jesus Christ. Years ago R.A. Torrey wrote these words: "I would like to ask what right any man has to call himself a follower of Jesus Christ if he is not a soulwinner? There is absolutely no such thing as following Christ unless you can make the purpose of Christ’s life the purpose of your life."
The purpose of Jesus’ life was to bring lost people to God for forgiveness. That’s also the purpose of any true follower of Jesus Christ.
• There is a difference between being an admirer of Jesus and His disciple. It’s the difference between being a fan and a follower.
• There is a difference between those who sit in the stadium and those who grind it out on the field.
The question comes; do you consider yourself a disciple of Jesus? If so, you must take the self-test, AM I A WATCHER OR A WITNESS.
Now, it is not my main purpose in this message to inform you that Christians ought to witness, especially if it’s only a guilt-trip. If someone has to coerce or manipulate you into sharing the best news that the world has ever known, what you have is, at best, an experience with religion, and not a relationship with the Christ.
By NATURE one who is in love will share the happiness.
This morning, rather than convince you of OBLIGATIONS (the "oughtness" of witnessing), let’s review the FOUNDATIONS (that which formed the beginnings) of our relationship with Jesus. As we remember how and why we came to Jesus, it will make more sense when we think about helping others find the Master. First, there is His:
Commission
If you are a Christian, you got that way through a realization, and a reaction. You understood the fact that you were a sinner; you understood the fact that Jesus is the Savior for sinners, and you believed in Him, asking Him to save your poor sin-sick soul.
Now that only happened because SOMEONE ELSE WAS FAITHFUL TO THE COMMISSION. If you think you found Jesus entirely on your own you’ve not thought it through! Throughout the years the church has fought, and many have died, to preserve the Word of God for you to know about this Jesus, the friend of sinners.
• Somewhere along the line somebody shared Jesus with you....It may have been a Bible someone else printed, a tract, a sermon.
• In the end, it was your decision to become a Christian, but you never would’ve known there was a decision to make, were it not for someone else’s faithfulness to the great commission – to go and tell…YOU!
Why would someone share the gospel with you? There is an example in Acts 10 (Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost). God INSTRUCTED the apostles to share the Word. And in our text, Jesus’ last instruction to the disciples was "Go make disciples".
Ours is not a defensive posture; "Here we stand" - Jesus commissions each newborn believer to share his love. I heard about a man who got tired of his defensive stance. He was tired of those Saturday morning people coming round with their bad gospel, disturbing his day off.
He heard that group wouldn’t pledge allegiance to the flag, or salute anything. So he got a huge American flag, put it in his living room, and waited. Sure enough, a week later on Saturday came a young lady up the driveway with her little black satchel. Just as she was going to ring the doorbell he swung the door open and challenged her: "I’ll listen to what you say, but first we’re gonna salute the flag and sing the Star-Spangled Banner." So they did. And when they finished, she looked at the man and said; "Mister, I’ve been selling Avon for several years now, and you are definitely the most patriotic person I’ve ever run into."
The commission of Christ is not defensive, it’s AGGRESSIVE. Sagemont Baptist Church in Houston grew from 16 members to over 3000 in twelve years. They have five principles to flesh-out the commission of Jesus:
a. Presenting the claims of Christ without compromise, bathing the message in prayer.
b. Have a vision for what Jesus wants to do through this particular congregation.
c. Believe there is no substitute for hard work. There is no substitute for door-to-door visitation.
d. The people must be taught to give.
e. The church must have a genuine love for people believing that Jesus is the only way to the abundant life.
So, first we can say that Jesus commissioned someone to share the Word with you, so you could become a child of the king. The second foundation of your Christian beginnings has to do with the motivation of Jesus to commission someone to share the Word with you...His:
Compassion
The wellspring of the compassion of Jesus has to do with the fact that He is God. It is His nature to have compassion on His creation. Sometimes OUR compassion level has to be coaxed into growing. As a pastor people expect me to be compassionate. I have to confess, I’m less compassionate than I want to be. There are times when I want to say to the world, "Leave me alone. I didn’t make you a sinner, and if you don’t want to worship that’s your tough luck. I will worship without you!"
Charles Allen, pastor of First Methodist, Dallas, shared in one of his many books how a man said to him once, "I didn’t like our last preacher. He told us we all deserved to go to Hell." Dr. Allen replied, "Well, haven’t I told you the same thing?" "Yes," the man answered, "but; you said it like you really didn’t want us to go there."
The immutable, irresistible reality is that Jesus doesn’t want any of us to go to Hell. And because of that, He died for us, in our place. Compassion can probably be as easily defined as loving our neighbor the way we would want to be loved.
There’s really not a single person that wants to be lost. Someone once described an imaginary scene in heaven, long before the world was created. God said, "I’m going to make a beautiful place, filled with all the wonderful things of the universe. And I’m going to make beings to populate this wonderful place. They will be free, wonderful, and they will be friends. Oh how I’m looking forward to having friendship with them.
But there is one problem....they won’t be able to keep from hurting themselves with sin. I’m going to need a sacrifice to wash them clean."
• And God didn’t have to ask for volunteers,
• He didn’t need a Nominating Committee...Jesus simply said, "Father, if you love them, I love them too. I’ll be your sacrifice."
Compassion shows when it’s real. In WWII the Italian occupation of Ethiopia brought persecution to Christians there. One writer tells of the love demonstrated by believers for each other during this period. When the Italian army invaded and took prisoners, there was no provision made for feeding them. They would only guard them till they starved to death. Christians were allowed to bring food to their friends and fellow believers.
The Christian believers brought enough food so that there was plenty left for other prisoners, unbelievers. Many unbelievers became followers of Christ because compassion brought food to the prison gates![2]
So my beginnings (and yours) in our relationship with Jesus has its foundations in the fact that He commissioned people to share His Word with us, and that was motivated by His compassion for us...And the logical conclusion is that...
He Counts On Us to Be like Him
The most precious thing we ever have to offer the Lord in our service is our testimony. A very pious church member visited the sixth grade Sunday School class. He asked the children, "Why do you think people call me a Christian?" There was an embarrassing silence, then a small voice from the back of the class said, "Because they don’t know you?"
Some years ago a 20 year-old college student mounted a blue light on his truck, put a Fraternal Order of Police sticker on the doors, and wore a uniform, while he started ticketing drivers for alleged traffic violations. He had the "look" of an officer, but he had no real authority.
He also didn’t act like a true officer. He threatened and swore at his "prisoners". There are times when we can be as hurtful to the work of Christ with our reputation as that young man was to falsely impersonate a police officer.
There are hundreds of denominations to which you can belong. There are "billions" of programs (in the Southern Baptist Convention alone!) for witnessing, or sharing your faith. But there is really only one way to approach being a witness FOR Christ...and that is to have your life be a witness OF Christ IN YOU! Remember this one thing, beloved....If you won’t walk the walk, talking the talk is worse than silence. If you won’t walk the walk, take the bumper sticker off your car.
But I won’t leave you there....Have you decided to follow Jesus? Do you want to be a good example? Is living it and sharing it your desire?
Jesus said: "Go and do these things, make disciples, baptize, teach...." But He also said, "I’ll be right there with you." Beloved, there is nothing to fear....Only Good News to share!
Let the church say “Amen”.
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ENDNOTES
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1] The Thomasville Times, Thomasville, NC, July 1, 2004, page 1.
2] Fire on the Mountain, Raymond Davis
