Let's Be witnesses

The mission of the church is, in reality, a continuation of Christ's earthly ministry…

John 14:12- Jesus states, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Jesus’ purpose for coming to the earth was for the redeeming of men's souls. As we see in Matt. 18:11 where Jesus states, "For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost" and again in Luke 19:10, where he says, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

What we all need to realize is that as Christians, we are all called to share the gospel. Whether we think we have the gift of evangelism or not.

In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fisher’s of men”. The truth is that if you are not fishing, you are not following. Some people don’t want to fish because they don’t want to get their hands dirty, they think, “If I catch this fish then I have to clean it.” But it is Jesus who cleans the fish, not man.

Acts 1:8 declares,
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.

Your Jerusalem can be considered as those people who are closest to you, your Judea and Samaria are those people who are near, but different from you, and to the ends of the earth should be taken literally, that means everyone! No exceptions, no preferences, no picking and choosing who you feel like witnessing to.

I tell you… It will be a fearful thing to stand before a Just and Holy God on the Day of Judgment and have to give an account for those times that you knew God was telling you to witness to someone and yet you willfully disobeyed and did not.

A lot of times we use the bible verse that says “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. (Matthew 5:16), and we think that are deeds can be a witness all by themselves, Yes our deeds are a great witness, but a lot of times people see our deeds and give us glory instead of God. We need to not only witness with our deeds, but also with our speech. In the same way our gospel should not only come in words, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost. (1 thess 1:5). You see, the scripture says when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, then you will be His witnesses. It is very difficult to be God's witness apart from the power of the Holy Spirit and when we do these deeds of love and mercy, we need to tell people where the power comes from. So deeds without words are kind of a half a witness, I believe God wants both."

We can share the gospel anywhere we go, we are not limited, we have freedom of speech here! There is a Christian optometrist, who is pretty wise. He uses Biblical verses as his eye chart. He will sit the patient down, covers one eye and says, "Now read that." The patient begins to read.. "There is none righteous, no not one”. Then he says, "Now read that second line." "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Line three “The wages of sin is death”. Now, there is a guy who is thinking. He is using his work to be a witness. We should all be that bold!

So, there are four possible responses to this call to be Christ's witnesses everywhere. We can say like Moses, who me? We can say like Jonah, not me. We can say like Jeremiah, why me? Or we can say like Isaiah, send me. Send me Lord. Let those who know, tell those who don't.