The Work of Witness
…the work of witness, the daily conversational use of words
in the service of the gospel...[1]
Introduction
All of us realize that our physical
bodies must function properly in order for us to have good health. A function can be defined as “a necessary,
characteristic action of an organism, without which the organism will
die.” Breathing, as an example, is one
of those functions for our bodies. If we
do not breathe, we do not live. Similarly,
the church has crucial functions to perform in order for the church to
live. Four functions of the church are:
·
Worship
·
Ministry (care for the needs of one another and
of those in our community)
·
Nurture/education (discipleship)
·
Proclamation/witness (evangelism, witness,
missions, outreach)
The church carries out its
mission through worship, proclamation and witness, nurture and education, and
ministry. This lesson deals with the essential action of the church to proclaim
and witness. This action
includes the church’s efforts to preach, to witness, to evangelize, to do
missions, and to reach out to persons who need to hear the gospel of Christ. So let’s look at the church’s
responsibilities that are in this essential function, focusing especially on
our outreach efforts.
Exploring Scripture
Proclamation/witness is part of
our calling as followers of Jesus, and it flows naturally from our relationship
with God in Christ. There is a wonderful
story recorded in John 4:1-42. It illustrates the work of witness.
4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was
gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 2 although in
fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 3 So he
left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So
he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had
given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus,
tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said
to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone
into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I
am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not
associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and
who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have
given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw
with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are
you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it
himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will
be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them
will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring
of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so
that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The
fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your
husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a
prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you
Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is
coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in
Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we
worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet
a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the
Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship
in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called
Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I
am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised
to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why
are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to
the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told
me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They
came out of the town and made their way toward him.
31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat
something.”
32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you
know nothing about.”
33 Then his disciples said to each other, “Could
someone have brought him food?”
34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who
sent me and to finish his work. 35 Don’t you have a saying,
‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at
the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who
reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and
the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows
and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have
not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the
benefits of their labor.”
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in
him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So
when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he
stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became
believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just
because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that
this man really is the Savior of the world.”
The
Samaritan woman in this narrative had a life changing encounter with
Jesus. She became a witness to Christ.
Her experience is exemplary. Recall what happened -
·
She met Jesus.
·
She became a witness to Jesus.
·
She invited others to meet Jesus.
·
Others followed Jesus because of her testimony
and their experience.
Questions to Explore
1.
Who led you to know the saving power of Christ?
2.
What is your “Samaria” – what segment of our community
needs to hear the gospel from you? Who
are considered outcasts by some who need to be befriended by you and me?
3.
For whom can you pray – the family that will buy
the home for sale in your neighborhood, the persons who will rent the vacant
apartment near you, the acquaintance who knows your name but does not know your
Lord, the stranger who connects with you in some small way with whom a
relationship can be built, a co-worker, a neighbor, others?
4.
What are some tangible ways that you can begin
to reach out to these persons – pray for them, share time with them, have a
meal with them, invite them to join you in an activity, others?
5.
The woman left her water jar to tell others
about Jesus. What are you willing to
leave behind? How has Jesus changed you
so that you will find an urgency to share the gospel with the persons
identified above?
Explore the Scripture
Witness flows
naturally from our relationship with Jesus. It is also a commitment. Witness is
a spiritual and social practice that requires focus and alertness. Paul
addressed this in Colossians 4:2-6:
2 Devote yourselves to
prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too,
that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery
of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim
it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward
outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your
conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know
how to answer everyone.
This
text helps us “get started”. God can use
it to awaken us to steps we can take in our journey as witnesses to Jesus. It is
a call to alertness.
Alert in Prayer
·
Prayer kindles our love for God.
·
Prayer strengthens our fellowship with other
Christians.
·
Prayer focuses our attention on others and
conditions us for proclamation/witness.
Alert to
Opportunities
·
Open Doors
- Paul wanted them to pray for his missionary activities. We can engage
the mission of God by embracing opportunities to support organized missionary
efforts.
·
Outsiders - We
have an individual and congregational call
to witness to others in our local setting. Some need to enter a relationship
with Jesus. Some need to enter a vital relationship with a local Christian
church.
You may
recall the principle of rows we introduced during the sermon series, Fieldhands. We can be alert to opportunities to witness to
the:
·
Neighborhood (ministries of FBC Waco)
·
Neighbors/FRANS (friends, relatives, associates
and neighbors)
·
Newcomers
·
Nations
Alert to Speech
The gospel must be shared in deed
and word. Our speech must be gracious,
salty and responsive. The work of
witness is the daily conversational use of words in the service of the
gospel. Using words is necessary.
Application
1.
Make a list of persons you know who need Christ
– your relatives, your neighbors, your co-workers, your acquaintances. Set a time to pray for each, by name, asking
God to give you an opportunity/open door to speak with each of them about
spiritual matters.
2.
Identify the various local missions ministries
of our church. Keep the list with your
prayer list for persons. For the next
month, pray about your involvement in one of these ministries. Commit to exploring your involvement with one
of them in the next three months.
3.
The gospel is shared both in what we say and in
how we live. Are you living a life
worthy to be called a follower of Christ?
Make a list of your actions that point others to Christ, even if you
never said a word. Make a list of your
actions that distract from your witness.
Make these matters a part of your prayer life, asking God to make you an
instrument for the spreading of the gospel in our community.
Analyze your role in the church’s essential
function of proclamation and witness.
Are you alive and well, and helping the church to be so? If not, what steps can you take to help our
church be alive and well in this regard?
Share your thoughts with the outreach leader in your class
