SERMON: “We Are Witnesses”
Acts
|
In the
Gospel reading for this evening/morning, Jesus’ grieving disciples are
gathered on Easter evening. And did you get the picture of what happens
then? All at once the two who had
encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus burst into the room—no doubt, totally
exhausted and nearly out of breathe—and start falling all over themselves
telling that Jesus is risen and how they had finally recognized him, when
into the room comes Jesus himself! “Peace be with you,” he says,
and then he asks for a snack—to prove by eating that he is really still
himself, just in a resurrected body.
And then he “opens their minds” to understand that his life, his
suffering, his death, and his resurrection were all foretold in the Hebrew
Scriptures. And then he tells them
that because of his life, death, and resurrection, “repentance and
forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.” And finally he says, “You are witnesses
of these things.” The writer of the book of Luke
repeats this charge from Jesus when he continues the story in the book of
Acts, chapter 1, verse 8: There, he quotes Jesus as saying to his disciples,
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the
ends of the earth” (NRSV). A witness is someone who can give a firsthand account of
something he or she has seen, heard, or experienced. And Jesus calls his disciples “witnesses.” WITNESSES OF WHAT? What did those disciples see, what had they
heard and experienced that they could, then, go and tell everyone? What difference did it make to them that
the Risen Christ was standing right in front of them, swallowing a piece of
fish? Well, think about it—when they
saw, heard, and experienced the Risen Christ—they were seeing the Word of
God in flesh; they were seeing all that evil could do, defeated;
they were witnesses to the power of God to bring life from death! ARE YOU A WITNESS? Now, before you say, “but I wasn’t there to
see and hear and experience as they did,” listen to this truth from 1 John
5:10: “Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their
hearts” (NRSV). And what do witnesses do but testify?! SO TO WHAT DOES YOUR LIFE
TESTIFY? WHAT IS YOUR WITNESS? Just as the disciples saw in the
Risen Christ the death-defyingly powerful Word and Witness of God, what do
others see when they look at and listen to you and me? |
Shouldn’t our lives
testify: THIS IS WHAT THE POWER OF GOD CAN DO IN ONE PERSON’S
LIFE?!
But when people
look at you and me is that the witness they receive?
YOU DON’T OWE ME
AN ANSWER. But, remember ~
To the extent that
our words don’t match our deeds;
To the extent that we continue to mess
around in our same old sins—never truly overcoming them by the power of the
Holy Spirit;
To the extent that we say we believe
in God’s forgiveness but refuse to accept it for ourselves and extend it
to others;
To the extent that we reject the wisdom
of the Holy Spirit and yield to the values of the world around us,
living lives that look just like everyone else’s ~
~ To that extent, our lives witness not
to the power of God but to the power of death.
And we disgrace the Holy Spirit of
God within us.
You don’t need me to tell you what
thoughts, words, and deeds are pleasing to God.
We witness to what
we know:
Today’s
reading from 1 John tells us: “No one who knows Jesus deliberately keeps
on sinning; no one who deliberately keeps on sinning even knows who He
is” (1 John 3:6).
DO YOU KNOW
JESUS? If your answer is “yes,” can
the world see and hear the difference?
ARE YOU A WITNESS TO GOD’S RESURRECTION POWER?
LET’S PRAY TOGETHER—for those who do not
know Jesus as Lord and for those who do.
Copyright
© 2006
All Rights Reserved.
Contact Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church