Our Purpose: Witness
Text: Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Rom. 10:14-15
Introduction
1. Read Matt. 28:18-20
2. Illustration: A man was talking with a friend about a statement another friend had written. He said, "I think it is a beautiful statement. I like the adjectives he uses, but I also want to see more verbs." As you know adjectives are descriptive words; verbs are action words. We can speak with glowing adjectives for lost souls. But we need to demonstrate our concern with verbs. We need to put our concern into action.
3. Every organization, whether it is a buisness, civic group, or church, has to know its purpose in order to be successful.
a. A business has to know what its product is and who it plans to sell it to.
b. A civic group has to understand who its constituency is and what is its function.
c. A church needs to understand why it exists and what it is supposed to do.
4. A business or civic group gets its purpose from a number of different sources, but a church discerns its purpose from the Bible - God’s Word. According to the Bible our purpose is five fold:
a. Witness
b. Worship
c. Fellowship
d. Discipleship
e. Ministry
5. This morning we are going to look at the first of those five purposes: witness.
Thesis: As the body of Christ, we witness because Jesus has commanded us, empowered us, and wants to use us.
Transition: We witness...
I. Because Jesus Has Commanded Us (Matt. 28:18-20)
A. Go
1. In this text, known as the Great Commission, Jesus tells his disciples "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:"
a. Contrary to what many people believe, the command here is not "go."
b. Go ye is actually a participle and conveys not a command to go, but the assumption that the listener will automatically be going. In other words, the idea expressed is that "as you are going" make disciples.
c. It’s not the command itself, but it is an assumption based on the command.
d. In Jesus mind it is a no-brainer, we’re going!
2. The real command or imperative is to teach or make disciples.
a. Teach: to cause someone to become a disciple or follower of—Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. The telling or the witnessing is only the first part. We must then teach them how to follow.
c. Reaching the nations is not merely a matter of education but the full process of discipleship, i.e., teaching and training, beginning with conversion.
3. A part of making a disciple is baptism.
a. The disciples were to baptize people because baptism unites a believer with Jesus Christ in his or her death to sin and resurrection to new life.
b. Baptism symbolizes submission to Christ, a willingness to live God’s way, and identification with God’s covenant people. —Life Application Bible Notes
4. The command is to make disciples, but you cannot make disciples if you do not tell them, and you cannot tell them unless you go.
5. We are to go — whether it is next door or to another country — and make disciples. It is not an option, but a command to all who call Jesus "Lord." —Life Application Bible Notes
B. Not An Option
1. Illustration: A third grade Sunday School teacher was giving a Bible lesson on the commandment "Honor thy Father and Mother." "Now does anyone know a commandment for brothers and sisters?" the teacher asked. One particularly perceptive child raised her hand and confidently responded, "Thou shalt not kill!"
2. This text is called "The Great Commission," not "The Great Suggestion!"
3. It was such a strong commandment that Jesus automatically assumed we would do it.
4. Jn. 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
5. If we want to be Jesus disciples, then we have got to do what his commanded us to do, and that is to witness.
Transition: Another reason we witness is...
II. Because Jesus Has Empowered Us (Acts 1:8)
A. You Shall Receive Power
1. Jesus tells his disciples in verse 8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
a. Again, this is a command. It is a command with a future twist to it. "You shall be..."
b. This is the commission that still holds for today. This is not given only to a corporate body, to the church as a body; it is not a corporate commission. This is a very personal command to each believer—personally, privately.
c. It is a direct command for you and for me today. It is our business to get the Word of God out to the world.
d. We can’t say that it is up to the church to send missionaries and to give out the gospel, and then sit back and let others do it.
e. The all-important question is whether you are getting out the Word of God.
2. However, it is a command with a promise: "But ye shall receive power..."
a. Power: the potentiality to exert force in performing some function —Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. Illustration: Once when I was a little boy, I was spending the week with my sister and borther-in-law on their farm. The let me drive the garden tractor. They told me how to start it and how to make it go, but the one thing they never told this young city boy was how to stop it! To make a long story short, they finally caught up with me after I drove it through an electric fence.
c. Jesus would never ask us to do something, and then not give us what we need to accomplish the job.
3. Lk. 24:49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (ESV).
a. The reason that he told them to stay put was because they were not ready yet.
b. The didn’t have the right equipment to get the job done.
c. But once the Holy Spirit came upon them they would be "clothed" with power from heaven.
4. Notice, however, that once they had received that power they were supposed to use it.
a. They were not supposed to sit around and puff out their chests and say, "look at all this power I have."
b. They were supposed to go and use that power to its full potential.
c. They were to go and be witnesses!
B. Equipped to Be a Witness
1. That day came when the promise of power was kept.
2. Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
3. This gift of empowerment is the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues.
4. God has kept his promise to empower us, now we need to be obedient and use his empowerment for the reason it was intended.
5. It was not intended so we could:
a. Sit on it
b. Place it on a shelf
c. Set it on a pedestal to look at
6. It was intended for us to:
a. Preach the gospel
b. Win the lost
c. Minister to needs
Transition: He has given it to us to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
III. Because Jesus Has Chosen to Use Us (Rom. 10:14-15)
A. How Shall They Hear Without a Preacher
1. The apostle Paul asks the question "how shall they hear without a preacher?"
2. Carrying God’s gracious offer involves human beings whom God has brought to Himself and then uses as His heralds.
3. They share God’s message of salvation because He will save everyone who calls on His name.—Bible Knowledge Commentary
4. Too many Christians get hung up with that word "preach."
a. They assume that it involves getting behind a pulpit and delivering a well-honed message.
b. However, (Since the Gr. word for, “preach,” means “to be a herald, to announce,” it is not limited to proclamation from a pulpit. —Bible Knowledge Commentary
c. If you are called of Christ, then you are called to preach the Good News to every living creature.
5. Mk. 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."
B. Will You Answer the Call
1. God Calls Busy People: In the Bible, God never goes to the lazy or the idle when He needs men (or women) for His service. He goes to those who are already at work—the busy person.
a. Moses was busy with his flock at Horeb.
b. Gideon was busy threshing wheat by the winepress.
c. Saul was busy searching for his father’s lost beasts.
d. David was busy caring for his father’s sheep.
e. Elisha was busy plowing with twelve yoke of oxen.
f. Nehemiah was busy bearing the king’s wine cup.
g. Amos was busy following the flock and raising sycamore fruit.
h. Peter and Andrew were busy casting a net into the sea.
i. James and John were busy mending their nets.
j. Matthew was busy collecting customs.
k. Saul was busy persecuting the friends of Jesus.
2. God calls people just like you to proclaim his word to a lost and dying world.
3. The only difference between some of us and all of these people of faith in the Bible is that they were willing to answer the call.
a. They have the same God as us.
b. They have the same Holy Spirit as us.
c. They have the same weaknesses and failings as us.
4. The question that I need to ask, and that you need to answer, is will you take seriously the sign over the door of the church "We are now entering the mission field?"
a. Will you acknowledge that you don’t have to be in the jungle to be on the mission field?
b. Will you acknowledge that God has empowered you to his herald of Good News?
c. Will you acknowledge that God wants to and can use you to lead others to Christ?
5. 2 Cor. 5:20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
Transition: God has chosen you to to be his ambassador!
Conclusion
1. It is a part of our purpose to lead others to Christ.
2. We must do so because:
a. He has commanded us.
b. He has empowered us.
c. He has chosen to use us.
3. Will you accept God’s call? Will you become the soul winner that God has chosen you to be?
