Key Verse:
“Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. – Luke 12:8-9 NKJV
Has the church gone silent?
We are living and breathing testimonies of God. However, I must ask, are you testifying of God? Do you testify of God’s power, His mercy, and His grace? This is not a question to challenge your Christianity. I ask this question because it seems like many people choose to hold in their testimony. I am of the mindset that holding your testimony inside is simply not good for yourself and definitely not good for the world. We must bring our testimonies out into the world, and that will be my focus in today’s message.
We, as believers of Christ, should be testifying of the Lord. You will recall that in last week’s sermon I spoke of our call to edify. The call to edify, we learned, is a call that encourages spiritual growth in ourselves and the encouraging of spiritual growth in our neighbors. For the past month, I have mentioned that we as the Church (the collective body of believers in Christ) have failed in a couple of tasks: healing and edifying. I feel that we have started to also go silent on testifying of God, and in doing so, this could lead to a failing church.
We do not want to become like the lukewarm church of the Laodiceans (Revelation 3:14-19). The Laodiceans’ church was neither cold nor hot for the Lord, so He said he would vomit them out of His mouth! The Laodiceans had become rich and wealthy, and felt they were not in need of anything; little did they know how wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked they really were. You see, no matter how much people think they don’t need God, they really do need God!
Testify: to make a statement based on personal knowledge or belief: to bear witness. In other words, to testify means to attest to or to make known. The Church should be full of testifiers of God the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. We should be testifying of this truth: God is Alpha and Omega, righteous, merciful, gracious, and everlasting. So why are we gone so quiet on the Lord?
Our testimony, John says (1 John 5:11), is that God has given us eternal life in His only begotten Son. This testimony is the truth, and this is a truth we should shout about. Yet, I’ve noticed that when this truth is opposed, many believers go into their shells and hide. When this truth is challenged by those that do not believe, we go silent – we stop testifying of God.
Must be fully convicted
We must be fully convicted in our faith in Christ. Convicted: to be guilty. Therefore, we should be fully guilty of our faith in Christ and have no shame in our conviction. Our faith in Christ should be crystal clear to anybody.
When someone is full in their convictions, I have noticed that they act completely different from someone who is not as convicted. What do I mean? The one who is full in their convictions very rarely hesitate in their movements; they’re always moving straight ahead regardless of what others may say. I have noticed that those who are full in their convictions are also very loud and proud in doing what they believe in (whether it’s right or wrong). There is very little silencing of someone who is fully convicted; you cannot tell them otherwise.
My feeling is that some of us believers remain silent because we are fearful instead being full in our conviction of faith in Christ. We are afraid to testify because some of us may be shy and that may not be our strong suit. Some of us may be like Moses and say that speaking is simply not something we’re good at that. Some of us may be unsure as to what it is we should be testifying about in the first place. Lastly, many of us simply don’t want to be wrong about what we say – we’re afraid of being wrong.
This honestly kind of reminds me of being a child in school; when the teacher would either call on you to answer a question or to go to the chalkboard to do math. I saw a lot of kids be slow to answer or move to the chalkboard in my day, and I imagine that many of you probably have as well. This would often happen because the student was not fully convicted in what they were doing and ended up believing they would be embarrassed or mocked.
My uncle loves watching Jeopardy, and he always talks about how he sits and gives his answers – I and my brother do the same when we watch. My mom loves her Wheel of Fortune and will solve the puzzles out loud. I imagine that all of us do this when we sit and watch shows like Family Feud as well. We have no fear because we are sitting in the comforts of our homes, and we are able to give our answers full of conviction.
We, as believers, must overcome our fears so that we can testify of the Lord our God. You see, testifying and the sharing of our own testimonies is what helps to encourage others to the follow the Lord. As believers, we can no longer be afraid to share our testimonies with others. Sadly, those that came before us and would testify of the Lord are starting to pass away, and a new generation of testifiers must rise in this world.
Where is the zeal for the Lord? God says be zealous! We, therefore, should burn hot for the Lord in our faith. We should, in other words, be excited to let somebody know about the Lord.
Bearing Witness
There is no need for being afraid to testify (or bear witness) of the Lord; we must conquer our fear and I want to help you do so. I want to reference Luke 12:11-12 in which Jesus says:
11 “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. 12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Jesus was talking about confessing (testifying) Christ before others in our key scriptures for today’s message. In those days, we read how the disciples were literally brought before the Sanhedrin council (Acts 4) and testified of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul would also stand before councils (Acts 17:22-34) and kings (Acts 26) testifying of Jesus Christ. These men were filled with the Spirit and testified boldly of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, when “they”: they refer to those that stood against what the apostles were testifying of. “They” still exists today and they are still standing against the testimony of Jesus Christ. “They” are the same ones that often ask “who gave you authority over what is the truth”? “They” look and live for the confrontation against those that have faith in the Lord. “They” should remind you of somebody that also opposes the Lord as well.
“They” do not understand that you have also been filled with the Holy Spirit. It is not that we say we have authority over the truth, but we do have faith in the truth! You see, this truth was not created by us but we believe it was established by God – that is our faith! We must be ready to stand in this truth because the world will always combat this truth. However, let the Lord guide you in your stance and in your testimony.
Jesus told us (John 14:26) that the Spirit will call to remembrance all things we have learned. We are told that the Spirit will teach our very tongue in that hour of stance what we ought to say (Luke 12:12). We should never be afraid to bear our testimony to men because the Helper is with us, will increase in us, and we will be bold in our word.
Don’t be ashamed of your testimony. Firstly: only you can tell your testimony. Secondly: God has worked something in your life and only you can share your testimony with others – don’t hold in that testimony. When Israel left Egypt, they became walking, living, and breathing testimonies of God. When Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, he became a living and breathing testimony of the Lord’s power and love.
We were once lost to sin but God has raised us all to be living and breathing testimonies of His power and love. Have not shame in bearing witness of the Lord, because we certainly do not want Him to have any shame in us in that day. What do we testify? As the Apostle Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:9:
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ