Witness
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Intro
Intro
As Disciples at Epiphany, We exist to glorify God through God-focused, passionate worship, in developing deep relationships with one another through Christ-centered community, in being sacrificial servants to God and to one another, and to reach our neighbors through our witness in Christ.
Last week we talked about being a servant, and having a servants heart in the church. The effect that it has as parents on your kids, and how you can impact the world from your immediate context. Serving God, and serving others is a calling that we have, and in that calling is also being a witness for Christ in this world.
Our heartbeat for epiphany cannot be limited to inside these walls, but outside. That is the dream of your pastor and elder team, that we go outside of these walls and reach the people that are out there.
Our purpose is to be a witness for Christ to our neighbors, co-workers, strangers, really anyone.
When we encounter Christ, and we give our lives to Him, there comes into our hearts a desire to share Christ with others.
We have an example in Jesus
We have an example in Jesus
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Christ is our example, He is not sending us to do something He never did.
Jesus didn’t allow social barriers to hold back from salvation.
About midday Jesus stops at the city of Sychar, by Jacob's well, and Jesus stays at the well while the disciples go into town to find something to eat. It is here that Jesus meets the Samarian woman, whom we know as the woman at the well.
Jesus breaks several cultural barriers in talking to this woman. He talks to a woman in public, something no self-respecting Jewish man would do, and He talks to a Samaritan, something no Jew wanted to do.
During the course of the discussion Jesus tells this woman all about her life, and reveals to her that He is, in fact, the long awaited Messiah. He offers her living water, or salvation and as the disciples return the woman returns to the village to tell all she could find about meeting Jesus.
Now the disciples are amazed: First of all that their teacher would lower Himself to speak to a woman in public and furthermore that He if He did choose to speak to a woman, she would be a Samaritan.
The story of the woman at the well teaches us that God loves us in spite of our bankrupt lives. God values us enough to actively seek us, to welcome us to intimacy, and to rejoice in our worship. As a result of Jesus’ conversation, only a person like the Samaritan woman, an outcast from her own people, could understand what this means. To be wanted, to be cared for when no one, not even herself, could see anything of value in her—this is grace indeed.
We are now sent by Him
We are now sent by Him
Pay attention to what the woman did, after encountering Christ.
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.
As this woman went and the firs thing she did was to tell others about Jesus. We too are called to do the same.
We are sent by Christ.
We are sent by Christ.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
“The Father has sent me, So I send you.”
We are a sent people, we are called to be people who carry the Gospel literally to the whole world, and that includes our neighbors.
So, who are we sent by? By Christ! The Great Commission.
We are sent by Christ into this world to be witnesses for Him. Christ in His authority and power is sending us to the nations to share the Gospel, and the abundant life that people can have in Christ.
So, who are we sent to? The world
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Christ has told us that we are going to be His witnesses in the entire world. And that is what He has called us to do. This means that every person that we encounter is someone who could potentially have a relationship with Christ right then.
Christ has told us that we are going to be His witnesses in the entire world. And that is what He has called us to do. This means that every person that we encounter is someone who could potentially have a relationship with Christ right then.
This is where the change needs to happen, anyone remember the song “give me your eyes” by Brandon Heath? It is talking about having the eyes of Christ, to look at the world around him and see the people how Christ is looking at them. We are sent to the hurting, to those who are going through a family split exposed to divorce, or another means, we are sent to those who are struggling with addiction, those who are broken, those who are in this world and might not just know what to do with this life. Church these are the ones that we are called to go to.
Anyone can be a witness. It doesn’t matter where you came from, or what you have done, when you experience life in Christ, you have the authority and power in Christ to go to the world and share Jesus.
The Message We Carry
The Message We Carry
Did you notice the progression in the video of the man? It may have had a rough start, literally waking up in the church parking lot. But the progression happened by starting with The people offering him coffee and donuts, then it went to inviting him to church, to them studying the Bible together. This progression is where life transformation happens, it’s the Gospel, something as small as offering him donuts and coffee to warm up lead into this man surrendering his life to Jesus.
Listen to this story about a man named Doug
Listen to this story about a man named Doug
The message that we are carrying is healing.
The message that we are carrying is healing.
Look at our world today, what do you see? You see brokenness, hurt, anger, hate. You see things like bombings in france happen, or shootings in las vegas, or hate in peoples heart towards others. What is the fix to this? As a christian, I can tell you that laws will not transform the hearts of man, nor will more education, but Christ is the only one that will bring about transformation in our world.
The message we carry is life.
The message we carry is life.
The message we carry is life.
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
This life that Christ is giving is one of joy and peace. Not free of hard circumstances, but the circumstances are put in their proper place in ones life.
the way or style in which we fulfill this calling must continually be adjusted and modified because human culture is always changing. Our message must never change, but the way we deliver that message must be constantly updated to reach each new generation.
Jesus went where the people were, and shared the words of life with them, never accepting sin as ok, but knowing and loving the people that he came into contact with, wanting these sinners to know Him and have life.
The only way to stay relevant is to anchor our ministry to unchanging truths and eternal purposes but be willing to continually adapt how you communicate those truths and purposes.
That is our goal at epiphany, to never water down the Gospel message, but to continually adapt how we share them with others. To be the hands and feet of Christ, anchored in the truth of God’s Word, and letting a hurting and broken world know that Jesus loves them, and will bring healing to their lives.
Look at our world today, what do you see? You see brokenness, hurt, anger, hate. You see things like bombings in france happen, or shootings in las vegas, or hate in peoples heart towards others. What is the fix to this? As a christian, I can tell you that laws will not transform the hearts of man, nor will more education, but Christ is the only one that will bring about transformation in our world.