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Isa. 43:1-13
Just as Jesus promised guaranteed power from the Holy Spirit, He promised that all Christians would be His witnesses. Most people think of witnessing for Christ as the act of telling someone how to have their sins forgiven and become God’s adopted child. That is true, but witnessing goes much further than that. This verse teaches us that God works IN us before He works THROUGH us. God teaches us something that we understand in our hearts or on a personal level – God working in us. Once that part is accomplished, God then gives us the opportunity to share that with someone else – God working through us! Let’s look at this concept of witnessing beginning with:
- THE MEANING OF WITNESS. In the Greek culture witness came to mean “one who remembers something by personal experience and tell about it.” For us a Christians that means that because we have read The Bible or heard it preached and/or taught we are therefore qualified to share it with others on behalf of Christ. It means we have personally experienced, personally and experientially, the Person of God. With that fundamental meaning let’s consider
- THE MESSAGE OF WITNESSING. In Scripture there are two basic parts of being a witness. One is in the legal sense where at a trial a person had to be able to present evidence that could be proven to be true. The second part was the religious sense. The account of Elijah at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18) and our passage today are great explanations of both sides of witness. Elijah, God’s attorney in this account, call the Gentile nations as prosecutors and witnesses against God. Elijah tells them to prove their gods are really God. When nothing happens, Elijah then gives proof that YHWH is The True and Living God. Isaiah uses the analogy of a court setting to prove to Israel and the Gentile nations that God’s involvement in the national and personal life of Israel is verifiable and therefore makes Him YHWH. The religious sense of the witness enters into the picture when a person is able to verify the presence and activity of God in their own life. It comes as a result of a personal relationship with God as God. Such experience comes only by salvation faith in God. Finally, let’s consider
- THE MAGNITUDE OF WITNESSING! Here is where all this comes home to us as Christians today. The meaning is that every Christian is certainly a witness on behalf of Christ because we have read the Bible and heard it taught and preached. Our salvation gives us personal experience that God actually exists and does all He says He will. The message is our daily life. Think of it this way: as a Christian your daily life, all the time every day, is your time on the witness stand saying, “I have personally experienced God’s salvation and what you see is how it affects a person.” The magnitude of our witness is “ginourmous, or huge!” Consider this: how many people do you come in contact with on any given day? Remember to include those who see or hear you from a distance even though you have no direct contact with them. Then consider how many people they might talk to in a given day. What affect has contact with you had on those people that would cause them to come to you and ask you about Christ? Staggering isn’t it?!?!
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