Sharing the Gospel as Good News (1)

I think that clock's fast, but I'm slow.

Welcome, friends.

Our topic this morning is the fountain pulse of witness bearing.

There's a bit of an outline there for you.

The late and beloved Tim Keller, in his final public written words

addressed to the state of the evangelical church in America.

Where are we? How did we get here? And where do we go from here?

And among his seminal points, for me, most vivid and arresting

was his diagnosis of a troubling malady.

A malady which alarmingly touches us at one of our vital organs as a people of God.

The gravity of Tim's assessment was this.

We are sickest where we need to be most healthy.

Well, what was this vital organ so afflicted?

In Tim's mind, it was our ability graciously to engage

unbelievers around us with the gospel.

Well, I've become persuaded that Tim's diagnosis is on the mark.

And if it's so, what more burning topic to take up than this?

So with this sense of supreme saliency, let's take it up together, team.

So how do we hope to do so in these next four weeks,

should you come along for the journey?

Well, here's a map of where we're headed.

Today, we'll begin by asking,

how does witness bearing fit into our Christian life?

What place does it have?

And what calls it forth and sustains it?

Our witness, that is.

Next, we'll ask the fundamental question.

So in the next session, Lord willing,

what is the message we bear?

And there we'll explore what we mean by calling the gospel good news.

What is the significance of it being news?

And what's so good about it anyway?

Then on the third session,

we'll identify some of the common barriers and obstacles to our witness bearing

and explore how we might overcome them.

And then with resolute determination,

my wife Anita always helps me on this.

We want to be really practical.

And we will follow up with a kind of a top 10 helps for sharing our faith.

And finally conclude with some suggestions as the first steps as to how to get started.

So that's our excursion prospectus.

So let's begin our tour by turning to our divine guide

and beseech his traveling mercies.

Father, we do crave your blessing presence with us in this endeavor as we're together.

Spirit, take these things of Christ and give them to us,

just as Christ promised you would do,

that we might both will and do your good pleasure.

And we want you, Christ, to be exalted in our lives together as your people of God,

such that when Christ is exalted, you have said you will call many to yourself.

So do it, Lord.

We ask for your glory.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

So let's turn to the question,

how does witness bearing fit in to our Christian life?

What are its fountainheads and its energies?

And I want to propose five fueling dynamics of our witness bearing.

And here they are.

It flows from the commission of our King.

It reflects an attunement to the great drama.

It's impelled by love of neighbor.

It's central to our praise of the Savior.

And it arises out of a spirit.

And it arises out of a spurring of the Spirit.

So first, the commission of our King.

Our witness.

Well, what commission is that?

Well, it's been called the Great Commission.

And it's recorded by each of the gospel writers.

Every single one of them.

The Matthew account is probably most familiar.

Where Matthew writes, recording Jesus' saying,

All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

and teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Matthew 28, 18.

Go.

Actually, it might be better rendered going or as you go.

And that's to say, as we go about, wherever it is that it takes us,

always and everywhere, let gospel witness accompany our goings.

And we quickly get the impression that it's far deeper than a task.

As great as the task is, it might even be regarded in some sense as an identity.

Think of yourselves as ambassadors.

The term is Paul's from 2 Corinthians 5.

You are always and everywhere representing me to the world.

Ever being my embassy, calling a world to be reconciled.

I can pull back.

We can put some chairs up in front if we need to.

That's fine.

My commission is that you be the one through whom I make my appeal to a lost and a dying world.

As it says in 2 Corinthians 5, where we drew that term ambassador.

2 Corinthians 5, 18 through 20.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, in Christ, God is reconciling the world to himself.

And he is making his appeal through us.

Therefore, we are ambassadors.

We implore on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Now, some have suggested, yeah, yeah, that's only the apostle.

That's what he was supposed to do.

He's really only talking about himself.

You know, the we and the us, that's the royal we and the royal us.

That's what's going on there.

But this is a grievous mistake because it's impossible.

As clearly, this is God's plan for reconciling not a little portion of the Mediterranean around the first century,

which Paul might have managed to do on himself, you know, because as remarkable as a fellow he is.

No, no, but this is God's strategy for reconciling what?

Non-rhetorical.

The whole world, yeah.

The whole world.

The whole world.

So, you know, that's something that it's going to take a whole village, the whole people of God to pull off, not just one apostle.

So, it's going to involve more than that, as impressive as Paul is.

And as to verse 20, I don't know, people don't, well, if you have your Bible open, verse 20, and you happen to have a pencil,

cross out the U, cross out the U, cross out the U in verse 20.

It's not there in the Greek.

You see, Paul is not making an appeal to the Corinthians.

Be reconciled.

You know, I beseech you, you should be reconciled to Christ.

No, they already were reconciled.

They were believers.

What he is doing is explaining what we, as reconciled believers, do.

We all implore, be reconciled to Christ.

He's just given us our job description.

So, our witness bearing flows from our marching orders.

We are under the King's commission.

With all authority on heaven and earth, he sends us on this errand.

He appoints us as ambassadors.

And this is quite an authorization.

Now, think of Christ's words to us as his disciples for a moment as an authorization.

An authorization.

An authorization.

All authority is given to me.

And it's wonderful to know of your authorization.

When you feel your presence or activity may be exposed to some challenge.

What are you doing here?

You've no right.

This is not called for.

This is unwanted.

This is an offense.

I remember when I was a graduate student in Cambridge.

The colleges would have a number of gardens.

Lovely gardens.

But they were stratified.

And you could only use certain ones if you had certain authorization.

Each required its own authorization to set foot in.

And whenever I'd go into certain gardens.

Say that might have been gardens of another one of the colleges.

There was always this low-grade anxiety.

That somehow my authorization would be challenged.

There was a palpable difference in my cadence when I was in my own college garden.

Knowing my indisputable authorization to be there.

So brothers and sisters, if ever there were an indisputable and all-conquering authorization,

surely it is this one given to us by the King of Kings and the Heir of all things.

So may that put a confidence in our step wherever we go, wherever we happen to be.

As the Lord said to Gideon, Judges 6.14,

Go in this your strength.

Have I not commanded you?

Have I not sent you?

So our witness flows from the commission of the King.

But also our witness reflects an attunement to the great drama.

You see, all of us find meaning in the story that our lives are a part of.

And no human being can live without implotment.

And for the Christian disciple, that governing plot is supplied by the great drama of redemption.

It just pulses progressively through the whole of Scripture.

And one place where the drama and its implication for our lives surfaces vividly

is from the pen of the Apostle in his letter to the 1 Corinthians.

Again, if you have your Bibles, take a look if you'd like.

1 Corinthians 7, 29 through 31.

And the context of this instruction is Paul's answering some questions about marriage and singleness.

But we won't look into those.

But I want us to catch the framework as to how he answers this question.

So the framework.

This is what he writes.

Pick it up in 29.

This is what I mean, brothers and sisters.

The appointed time has grown very short.

From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none.

And those who mourn as if they were not mourning.

And those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing.

And those who buy as though they had no goods.

And those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it.

For the present form of this world is passing away.

Notice that for Paul, something has happened which radically alters the way we are in the world as believers.

This event absolutely conditions the way we now live.

We might be married.

But because of this event, we don't simply settle into our domestic routines.

Yes, like others, we weep and we rejoice.

But not as if those emotional highs and lows were somehow decisive.

Now, our engagement with the world cannot be our engrossment with it.

Why not?

What is this all conditioning reality?

Well, the key to understanding why not is the Apostle's phrase,

The time has been shortened.

Verse 29.

The word for time there is not chronos, just kind of chronological duration, one moment after another.

But rather the word kairos.

That is the specific quality of a particular period of time.

A critical moment in which much is at stake.

A time of opportunity that will not last indefinitely.

What is the great event that has charged time, which injects drama into this drama?

And what are the great events that have become bookends that bound our time and animate it,

energize it, electrify it?

Well, those events are the coming of Christ and his coming again.

There is cross and resurrection and with them a call for all everywhere to repent and believe

and his imminent return as judge of all.

That's what bounds time.

And notice that the Apostle also supplies the ground for this radical living.

For the present form of this world is passing away.

Verse 31.

What does he mean by the present form of this world?

Well, not the created order itself,

but rather the created order in rebellion.

The world that has judged Jesus on the cross by nailing him to it.

But of course, the world's judgment of Christ was its own self-judgment.

The judgment of the cross means that this present world order is passing away.

So, in light of this saving act of God in Jesus and his imminent return as judge,

and in light of the verdict that lies over this present world,

to live a life utterly absorbed in other things is to be completely out of touch with the grand drama that we live in.

Out of touch with the nature of this limited critical moment

and the fleeting kairos opportunity for bearing witness to the saving event of Christ

and a calling of a world passing away under judgment

to align itself to God's saving Messiah, Christ.

So, what does it mean for us to be attuned to the grand drama?

Well, it means that the chemist cannot be exclusively consumed with her experiments,

nor the artist be forever absorbed with her canvases,

nor the geologist with her rocks,

nor the historian with manuscripts, Kevin,

nor the philosopher with their puzzles,

for such would be utterly out of touch

with the supreme fact that we are caught up in a grand drama.

And so, the Christian baker cannot simply coax out the treasure of wheat, rye, barley, and yeast,

but will also herald the news that Jesus is the bread of life.

Neither may the Christian electrician simply install light bulbs,

though she will attempt to do them well,

she will also testify to the light of the world, Christ.

Nor must the Christian cobbler merely make shoes,

make them well as he will.

His feet must be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Anything less would be to be completely out of step with the drama that we inhabit.

And what of our witness-bearing role in the drama?

I mean, should we think of it as an insignificant role, really?

Or is it a leading role in the drama?

Well, let's think in terms of the unfolding drama of witness to Christ

and our place in that story.

Let's think of some of the protagonists together.

Who are some of the great witness-bearers to Christ the Messiah?

Well, there was Moses,

who testified of one who would come after him

and speak God's words to the people.

In Deuteronomy 18, 15.

There's the prophet Micah in 5.2,

indicating where the Christ, the coming Christ, would be born.

It was that prophecy that led the wise men to Bethlehem.

The star just got him to the general region.

It was actually the scriptures that lead you.

Isaiah spoke of him as a suffering, sin-bearing servant, Isaiah 53.

These and many other Old Testament prophets

bore witness to the Christ who would come.

And the final, the final Old Testament prophet,

John the Baptist, Jesus identified,

this is Matthew 11, verse 11,

Matthew 11:11

Jesus identified as the greatest of all the prophets.

Greatest in the sense of his witness to Christ.

You see, all the other former prophets

had a witness that was connotative.

The Christ that comes will be like this,

and like this, and like this,

and this will be true of him.

It was all connotative.

But John's witness was denitative.

This is he.

This is he.

Compared to all of his forebearers,

John's witness was the clearest,

and thus the greatest.

But remarkably, does anybody remember

what Jesus goes on to say after that?

Remember?

Remember?

He says,

John the Baptist,

the greatest of all of the prophets,

but the least in the kingdom of God

is greater than he.

What?

The least in the kingdom of God?

The least of us,

New Testament saints,

greater than John the Baptist?

In what sense?

In what sense?

In what sense could we be greater than John the Baptist?

Well, in the same sense in which

John the Baptist was greater than all the other prophets?

In terms of the articulateness of his witness to Christ.

And Jesus is telling us that the least of us,

New Testament saints,

because of where we are in the unfolding drama,

and what we know about Christ in his great salvation,

we can give witness to Christ more articulate than John the Baptist,

and all of the preceding prophets.

Oh, friends, does this not give us strong encouragement to bear our witness?

May our attunement to the great drama energize us in our testimony to Christ.

Let's live in that drama.

Let it deep die our consciousness and shape our imaginaries.

And there will be a natural and inevitable flow of witness as it does.

So, attunement to the great drama, from that flows our witness.

But also, our witness is impelled by our love of neighbor.

Impelled by our love of neighbor.

Friends, we follow a master who is full of compassion and love for the lost.

Matthew records in 9.37,

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them,

because they were harassed and helpless,

like sheep without a shepherd.

And this description of spiritual destitution of the lost

is cast in such vivid language.

The word rendered here in our translation, harassed,

originally meant flayed, mangled,

and came to indicate vexed with weariness and sorrow and worry.

In B.B. Warfield's classic work,

The Emotional Life of Our Lord,

much of the discussion of that long essay

is devoted to Jesus' remarkable compassion and love for the lost.

To his disciples,

after the encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well,

he urges,

Look up, I tell you.

Lift up your eyes

and see that the fields are white for the harvest.

John 4.35,

So often I confess that I see,

or I think I see,

not the whiteness of readiness for harvest,

rather the darkness of hardness of heart,

the opposition of devotion to sin in my neighbors,

rather than the oppression of the devastation of sin.

You see the difference?

What is my impulsive heart response to my lost neighbors?

What catches my eye and holds my gaze?

One of our daughters, I won't name which one,

when young, would sit on our stairs,

concealed there,

and listen to the conversations that we would have

in our living room with those who were present.

And when the guests left,

she'd finally come down,

and then she'd go around just from memory

by the different voices

and characterize each speaker that she had overheard.

And quite insightfully and incisively,

but often very critically.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Whoa, daughter.

She was very young.

Whoa, daughter.

What is fundamentally true

about each one of our guests

who are here with us tonight?

They're sinners, Daddy.

More fundamental.

More fundamental than that.

All right, Dad.

They're in the image of God.

Yes, daughter.

Dearest daughter.

Make it your practice

when you encounter a son of Adam

or a daughter of Eve

to spend the first ten minutes

discovering and delighting

delighting in how they reflect the image of God.

It will make your encounters

much more fruitful

and your life much more joyful

if you do so.

I'm struck by a phrase in Mark's account

of Jesus' encounter with a rich young ruler.

Do you remember it?

Mark 10, 21, Mark says,

Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

He saw something lovely in him

and his heart went out to him.

Brothers and sisters,

I fear that sometimes this is not us

at our best.

We have not lately been known for love

when it comes to the unbelievers around us.

I remember asking some of my unbelieving

new friends at the gym,

hey, if you could ask

evangelical Christians

anything you would want to ask,

what would you want to ask them

if you had a question for them?

And one of them immediately responded,

I'd ask them,

why do you hate us so much?

Why do you hate us so much?

Isn't that sad?

I recently asked a sauna full of unbelievers,

hey, if you could take all of your experiences,

all your encounters with Christians,

kind of squeeze into a Rorschach ink blotch,

and then just freely associate,

what would you see?

Come on, tell me, what would you see?

You know, I can't even repeat it.

It was so unflattering.

Now, this is not everybody,

and I know there are just luminous,

luminous exceptions of this.

Just this morning,

I was praying that my widowed mother,

who was running into some hard times,

would find a way to church,

it would be a new church,

and someone would befriend her.

And when I called her,

she was at someone's house from the church

who had invited her to lunch,

and they were sitting down

for a nice roast beef Sunday dinner.

So, oh, people of God,

you do it so well.

You do it so well.

But let's try to abound still more

in this area.

What if, instead,

we were to gain the reputation

for having a keen eye

for the virtues of others around us,

and a readiness to affirm them?

What if we became known

for speaking over our neighbors

their love-worthy qualities,

and sincerely and routinely

complimenting them whenever we can?

Shall we despise them

for their waywardness and sinfulness?

Wait, but doesn't our understanding of grace

forbid looking down on any sinner?

For what causes us to differ

from anyone else,

presses the apostle.

And what do you have?

What do we have

that we have not received?

1 Corinthians 4.7.

Or 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul says,

By the grace of God,

I am what I am.

John Newton, in his memoirs,

impresses this same point

with a vivid illustration.

He writes this.

Speaking of our relation to unbelievers,

those who believe

the doctrines of sovereign grace

act inconsistently

with their own principles

when they are angry

at the defects of others.

A company of travelers

fall into a pit.

One of them gets a passerby

to draw him out.

Now, he would not be angry

with the rest for falling in,

nor because they are not yet out,

as he is.

He didn't pull himself out.

Instead, therefore,

of approaching them,

he should show them pity.

In the same way,

Newton continues,

a truly saved one

will no more despise others

than blind Bartimaeus,

after his own eyes were opened,

would take a stick

and beat every blind man he met.

Yeah, it's true.

But, we might object,

this is not Newton anymore.

We might object,

yeah, but these unbelievers

live immoral and misdirected lives,

which deserve God's judgment.

Yes, God's judgment,

not ours.

We're not to judge outsiders.

And would ourselves

only deserve God's judgment

as outsiders to Christ?

As the apostle writes to the Corinthians,

in 1 Corinthians 5, 12,

for what do I have to do

with judging outsiders?

Is it not those inside the church

whom we are to judge?

God judges those outside.

So, how do we engage

our unbelieving neighbors?

I love to generate an image

from Psalm 126, verse 6.

Psalms 126:6

We go about them weeping,

bearing our seed for sowing.

We sow the seed of our witness,

and we water that seed

with our tears of compassion and love,

in the hope, indeed confidence,

that the powerful work

of the Spirit

shall one,

as a result of that,

we shall one day come home

with shouts of joy,

surrounded by the sheaves

of a great harvest

that the great Lord of the harvest

has wrought among us.

So,

we,

our witness flows

from love of our neighbor.

our witness is also

a central aspect,

four,

of our praise

of our Savior.

Our praise of our Savior.

As Peter wrote,

mightily encouraging

the exiled believers,

you are a chosen race,

a royal priesthood,

a holy nation,

a people for his own possession,

that you may proclaim

the excellencies of him

who has called you out of darkness

and into his marvelous light.

First Peter 2.9.

We are to proclaim

the excellencies of him

who called us out of darkness

and into his marvelous light.

Isn't that interesting?

Why,

that seems like

a simultaneous

description

of gospel witness

proclaiming him

and praise

his excellencies.

Hard to pull him apart there.

And,

that's no surprise,

for we rightly

think

of our declaration

of Christ

as Savior,

that is,

witness bearing,

as a species

or a family member

of praise.

It's praise.

It exalts Christ.

It holds him forth

by holding him up.

And,

is this not

the natural,

one might say

even irrepressible,

bubbling up

of testimony?

And,

if you feel

the Lord has done

great things for us

and we are filled

with joy,

it's hard not

to express that joy

in praise.

And,

this is,

this sort of

natural,

irrepressible,

bubbling up

of testimony.

Why did I say that?

Think of,

think of

having just been

delivered

from the bondage

of Egypt

through a

Red Sea escape.

Isn't it

kind of instinctive

that like Miriam,

we just look around

and grab the timbrel

and then

take up the dance

and take up a song?

It just,

just seems natural

to do this.

And,

witness bearing,

it's the

bubbling up

of the

fizz

of wonder

and joy

at God's

salvation.

Here's how

Spurgeon

expressed it.

When the Lord

first pardoned

my sin,

I was so

joyous,

I could scarce

refrain from

dancing.

I thought

on my road

home from

the house

where I had

been set

at liberty

that I

must tell

the stones

in the street

the story

of my

deliverance.

So full

was my

soul of

joy

that I

wanted to

tell

every snowflake

that was

falling from

heaven

of the

wondrous

love of

Jesus

who had

blotted

out the

sins

of one

of the

chief

of

rebels.

This is

from his

morning and

evening

February

1st.

Praise

and with

it witness

bearing

is inner

joy

made audible.

Inner

joy

made audible.

And my

aim here

is not

to make

anyone

among us

feel bad

if we don't

have much

of this,

many bubbles

if you will.

Rather it's

just to

point out

the bubbling

spring.

And some

of us,

I know I

do often,

I just go

around dehydrated

and I need

to drink

deeply

from God's

saving grace

in my

life.

So let's

carry around

the picture

of our

beloved

in the

locket

of our

memories

and often

open it

up to

gaze upon

him.

I have

someone's

picture on

my cell

phone

and when

I see

that picture

my heart

leaps

and it's

hard not

to muse

about her

which puts

me in a

frame to

want to

speak about

her.

And when

I do

what comes

across

is that

it's

really easy

to like

her and

it's hard

not to

love her.

And in

this respect

praise

and its

family member

witness

bearing

is not

just

natural

but it's

self-

energizing

and self-

accentuating.

It just gets

richer and

deeper

the more

we give

it vent.

What C.S. Lewis

writes of

praise is

also true

of witness

bearing.

Again,

same species.

It augments

our delight

in Christ.

It helps

to compound

and even

complete it.

Lewis writes,

and this is from

his reflections

on the Psalms,

I think

we delight

to praise

what we

enjoy

because the

praise

not merely

expresses

but

completes

the

enjoyment.

It is

its

appointed

consummation.

It's not

out of

compliment

that lovers

keep telling

one another

how beautiful

they are.

The delight

is incomplete

till it

is expressed.

It's

frustrating

to have

discovered

a new

author,

Lewis writes,

and not

to be able

to tell

anyone

how good

he is.

To come

suddenly

at the

turn of

a road

upon

some

mountain

valley

of

unexpected

grandeur

and then

to have

to keep

silent

because

the

people

with

you

care

for it

no more

than

for a

tin

can

in

the

ditch.

To hear

a good

joke

and to

find

no one

to share

it

with.

Michael

Green

in his

classic

work

Evangelism

in the

early

church

speaks

of the

first

Christians

gossiping

the

gospel.

What a

great

phrase.

Gossiping

the

gospel.

The

gospel

just

bubbled

up

everywhere

for their

witness

bearing

was a

form of

praise.

The

wonder

and joy

of their

Savior

just

ever

vesting.

Ever

vesting.

What

they were

doing

was

just

simply

praising

God

in

public.

That

was

their

witness.

So

our

witness

flows

from

praise

of the

Savior.

And

finally

our

witness

bearing

arises

out

of

a

stirring

or a

spurring

of the

Spirit.

A

spurring

of the

Spirit.

The

Holy

Spirit's

a

missionary.

A

missionary

comes

from the

Latin

missio

to

send.

The

Spirit

was

sent

among

other

things

to

send

us

out

on

our

mission.

And

this

is

clear

from

the

opening

of

Acts

where

Jesus

tells

his

disciples

Acts

1-8

you

will

receive

power

when

the

Holy

Spirit

has

come

upon

you

and

you

will

be

my

witnesses.

Now

notice

that

link

between

the

Spirit's

empowering

and

witness

bearing.

And

this

pledge

of

the

empowering

witness

energizing

Spirit

was

made

good

at

Pentecost.

In

explanation

of that

event

Peter

references

the

prophecy

of

Joel

back

from

Joel 2

this is

in Acts

2

17-18

where

he

explains

this is

Peter

kind of

quoting

Joel's

prophecy

he says

and in

the last

days

it shall

be

God

declares

that I

will pour

out my

spirit

on all

flesh

and your

sons and

daughters

shall

prophesy

and your

young men

shall see

visions

and your

old men

shall

dream

dreams

even

on my

male

servants

and female

servants

in those

days

I will

pour out

my

spirit

and they

all

shall

prophesy

so

Peter

recognized

Pentecost

the beginning

of the

church

our age

as the

beginning

of the

fulfillment

of this

vision

and this

helps us

in our

grasp

of Peter's

understanding

of how

God's

spirit

animated

new

covenant

people

would

prophesy

and

Peter

clearly

thinks

that this

prophesying

is important

as he

doubles

the single

reference

in Joel

and Joel's

text

prophesying

only comes

up once

when he

quotes it

he doubles

it

what did

Peter

take

prophesying

to mean

Peter's

citation

of Joel

stresses

you noted

that the

activity

of the

spirit

is on

all

of God's

people

sons

and daughters

young

and old

even

servants

implying

not simply

for the

special

everybody

in these

last days

all

God's

people

will have

his Holy

Spirit

and all

shall

prophesy

now

if we

understand

prophecy

here

as simply

foretelling

some sort

of future

event

as it

is commonly

taken

the obstacle

to understanding

it that way

is that

in Acts

that goes

on being

a witness

to what

was fulfilled

in Joel's

prophecy

in Acts

there are only

a few

occasions

where people

are actually

foretelling

things

four to be

specific

11 27

13 1

15 32

21 10

you can

just read

the whole

book

no

Peter

means

by

prophesying

not

exclusively

or not

primarily

foretelling

but rather

forth

telling

of the

wonderful

news

of God's

saving

action

in Christ

he's

speaking

here about

witness

bearing

and the

outpoured

spirit

enables

each

and

every

disciple

powerfully

to bear

such

witness

solid

ground

here

solid

ground

exegetically

what does

that look

like

well the

whole book

of Acts

gives us

a picture

but we'll

just take

one glimpse

of one

little

instance

and only

that

partially

Philip

in his

connecting

with the

Ethiopian

in Acts

Acts 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8

if you

turn up

there

if you

have it

Acts

Acts 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8

I'll pick

up in

verse 26

we won't

read the

whole thing

we don't

have time

but I

commend it

to you

Acts 8

26

now an

angel of

the Lord

said to

Philip

rise and

go toward

the south

to the

road that

goes down

from Jerusalem

to Gaza

this is a

desert place

and incidentally

the angel of

the Lord

here is

subsequently

identified as

the Holy

Spirit

in verse

29

it's clear

that that's

what he

means

angel

messenger

of the

Lord

so

notice

the Holy

Spirit's

direct

prompting

initiative

with

Philip

the life

of a

witness

bearer

is one

open to

the promptings

of the

Holy Spirit

I wonder

if you've

ever

experienced

such

promptings

do you

recognize

them

as the

Lord's

messengers

and such

promptings

need not

be communicated

in an

audible

voice

external

perhaps

they just

present

themselves

as a

distinct

inward

sense

that we

identify

as divinely

given

how do we

do with

these

promptings

well Luke

tells us

of Philip

verse 27

Spirit

prompted

him

and he

rose

and he

went

it's

actually

quite

astonishing

we don't

have time

to look

at it

now

but

to

actually

respond

and to

go

he had

to

overcome

all kinds

of

implausibilities

whoa

whoa

whoa

whoa

that's

like

that's

like a

desert

road

why would

I

expect

to see

anyone

there

it

goes

for a

long

way

it

goes

80

miles

all

the

way

to

Gaza

I

mean

that's

kind

of

that's

that's

kind

open-ended

oh

and by

the way

you know

it's

toward

the south

it could

also be

translated

noon

could be

rendered

noon

that is

the least

the hottest

time of the day

nobody traveled

at noon

in the desert

you die

so it's

an implausible

time

it's an

implausible

place

all

kinds

of

and

where would

he have

been

called

from

he was

in the

middle

of a

massive

evangelistic

crusade

in

Samaria

baptizing

hundreds

and hundreds

and hundreds

what he's

going to

leave that

to respond

to

this

prompting

so all

these things

that he

had

to overcome

but

we

we

notice

how does

he respond

verse 27

he rose

and went

he rose

and went

and subsequent

in the

narrative

the spirit

prompts

Philip

again

it says

in verse

29

and the

spirit

said to

Philip

go

he says

so

Philip

ran

don't you

like that

what a

wonderful

picture

of the

disciples

alacrity

the Lord

says go

and you

just

you run

so

let's

expect

the spirit's

promptings

here's a

good prayer

to pray

as we

enter

society

whether

the

cafeteria

the gym

or the

shuttle bus

what if

we were

to pray

holy

spirit

I'm

available

I will

be

listening

to your

promptings

guide me

and grant

me occasion

to bear

witness

to your

saving

works

about

Jesus

so the

spirit

prompts

our

witness

what a

blessed

experience

and there's

a further

work of the

spirit

in operation

in our

witness

bearing

not only

does the

spirit

prompt

us

he also

prepares

the

hearer

not only

is the

spirit

behind

the

go

he's

also

behind

the

behold

in the

text

did you

catch that

text

where

okay

I'll go

down to

the

middle

of the

desert

he says

it goes

in the

middle

of the

desert

in the

middle

of the

day

and

behold

there's

somebody

here

as if

who

would

have

fought

that

who

could

imagine

that

the

spirit

is behind

the

behold

also

the

extraordinary

providence

of a

ready

hearer

appearing

in the

desert

whose

heart

was

receptive

that's

the

spirit's

orchestration

as

Luke

tells us

of Lydia

in Acts

16

the

Lord

opened

her

heart

to

respond

to

the

things

that

Paul

said

to her

is

this

not

wonderful

encouragement

that

the

spirit

not

only

goes

with

us

prompting

us

and

empowering

our

witness

but he

also

goes

before

us

in

front

of

us

bringing

to

us

God's

elect

who

will

respond

in

faith

as

many

as

are

chosen

as

Luke

writes

of

Paul's

witness

in

Antioch

Acts

13

48

and

when

the

Gentiles

heard

this

this

was

the

gospel

announcement

they

began

rejoicing

and glorifying

the word

of the

Lord

and as

many

as

were

appointed

to

eternal

life

believed

God

has

a

great

harvest

that

the

Holy

Spirit

is

ripening

and

readying

for us

to gather

in

and even

when our

hearers

don't

immediately

seem

very

ripe

or

ready

the

Spirit

is

still

pursuing

the

harvest

he's

pursuing

the

harvest

and

as

the

Lord

said

to

Paul

in

the

tough

and

gritty

town

of

Corinth

we

might

say

the

Las

Vegas

of

its

day

Acts

18

9

and

10

so

Paul

do

not

be

afraid

but

go

on

speaking

and

do

not

be

silent

for I

am

with

you

and

no

one

will

attack

you

to

harm

you

for

I

have

many

in

this

city

who

I

have

chosen

to

be

my

people

brothers

and

sisters

as

witness

bearers

together

we

are

on

an

adventure

that

assuredly

will

bear

fruit

for

the

Father

has

given

to

the

Son

a

number