Silver Street Mission
2004: January collection
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Straight talk
Acts 10: 34 – 44
Rev.
Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 18 Jan, 2004
All design
and contents (c)
Peter R Green
2002
Christians will face hardship.
But don’t be afraid. We are on the winning side. Yet we will only
overcome as we find strength through the blood of Christ, and power
as we testify to him.
ON A MISSION FROM GOD
Should only professional Christians
testify? I am a professional. I don't think that you have to be
a professional to minister, but my very position tells you all,
“Professional is better.”
I really want you to see that professional
is not better. I really want you to see that we can all be ministers
of God.
I love the movie, The Blues Brothers.
It’s about two brothers, raised in a Catholic orphanage. The orphanage
is broke and has to close down, and the two brothers are sad that
their home is about to disappear.
They go to an African–American revivalist church service,
looking for some encouragement. The Spirit touches them, and calls
them on a mission for God, to raise the money to save the orphanage.
They get into all kinds of scrapes, but, in the end, they
succeed, they raise the money; the orphanage is saved.
It’s a fun movie, it’s not meant to be very philosophical.
But it does have a message. God can use not very well–educated,
not very “spiritual”, not very classy people to do wonderful things,
if they try, if they stick at it, if they never let go.
And that is certainly true of the Blues Brothers. Whatever
obstacle comes their way, they are never shaken, because they are
on a mission from God.
This film is not on my list of what you all must see before
the month is over. Some of you might find the language a bit strong.
I’m just giving you an illustration.
If you are educated, if you are classy, if you are more “spiritual”
than most, you’d better do a good job, because you have all those
advantages. If you are an ordinary Joe or Joess, you are the kind
of person who has to depend on God to do it through you. And that
means you are out front from the start.
Peter, James, John, Andrew, were not professionals. They
were fishermen. They depended on God for their testimony. Matthew
was in finance; only Paul and John the Gospel writer were experts.
Paul had Rabbi training, and John may have been a priest. Most early
Christians were not the kind of people who got invited to black
tie dinners.
Yet they are the people who turned the Roman Empire around,
not by force of arms, but by the power of the Gospel.
And they are people like you and me.
CALLED
TO BE WITNESSES.
If you want to testify effectively, you need to know what
the message is.
Our message is Jesus and our experience of him.
I preached on forgiveness of sins recently. Do you remember
that sermon?
I noticed something as I preached. You all noticed when I
told of my vision of Jesus.
You paid attention, because it was personal. It was my testimony,
and people love to a testimony, a personal experience.
To overcome the enemy, you need a testimony. And you have
a testimony if the blood of Jesus has touched your life.
I have been an expert witness in several Town Planning cases.
Did I tell you that I got told off by our Barrister?
I have a Masters Degree in Town Planning, and I enjoyed Planning
law. I even knew a solicitor who used to phone me tor legal advice
on planning matters. So once I gave in to the temptation and wrote
a legal opinion in my planning report.
At the court, the Barrister read my report.
“Who wrote this?” he asked.
“I did,” I replied.
“Well, it is not your job to argue the law, it is your job
to be a witness,” the Barrister said. “You tell us what you, as
a trained and qualified Town Planner saw, heard and experienced,
but we barristers make the case about the law.”
He still used what I wrote, but he apologised to the court
that it was in witness' report.
On the witness stand, no one asked me about the law. They
asked me how many times I visited the site, what I had said to the
owner, what vehicles were there, what impact his business had on
the area, but nothing at all about the law. I was there as a witness
— to testify, not to argue a case.
There are people who argue a case for Jesus. Theologians
reason it all out, apologists communicate it to ordinary people.
But you are called a witness, because everyone is called to be a
witness.
You don't have to explain kenosis.
You mightn’t know what a premillennialist is. If you can’t explain
the Chalcedonian Definition, you’ll get by. Those things are for
theologians.
Theology has a place, but the message is our testimony to
what Jesus does.
Someone criticised my preaching once. Well, lots of people
have criticised my preaching, but this one objected that I use a
lot of illustrations from my own experience.
One reason I do that is that I want to be your model. What
you know best is your own story, and the best bit of your own story
is the bit about Jesus and you. But how do we start?
THE
OCCASION OF TESTIMONY
In the story of Peter with Cornelius, you might not clearly
see the personal experience part, because it is mostly implied.
When Peter preached at Pentecost, in Acts 2, or in the story
about the healing of the cripple at the Temple in Acts 3, you'd
have seen something much clearer.
At Pentecost, Peter began preaching just to explain the experience
that he and the others had had of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit
on the church. The Christians had experienced it, the crowd had
noticed it, so Peter told about it.
But, at Cornelius’ house, Peter begins,
“I now realise how
true it is that God does not show favouritism 35 but accepts men
from every nation who fear him and do what is right...”
This is because both Peter and Cornelius had experienced a miraculous
work of God. Peter didn’t need to describe it again, because everyone
there knew about it. He only had to remind them and explain it to
them.
Cornelius was not a Jew, but he was a man of prayer. An angel
appeared to him while he was praying and told him to look for Peter.
So he sent some men to find Peter and ask him to come and explain
to them about God.
A day or two later, Peter was praying and fell into a trance,
where he had a vision which very clearly told him not to think of
Cornelius and the other Romans as unclean, but to think of them
as people God lovingly created.
Just then, the men from Cornelius arrived. Angels, visions,
dramatic timings — God was in this from first to last!
With the cripple, Jesus did a healing miracle in the man,
and everyone wanted to know how on earth it had happened. So Peter
spoke.
When I preach in Church, the occasion is that you have come
to hear a word from God.
When you testify at work or wherever you might be, you need
a different occasion. Something has to give you the opportunity.
It may be that someone asks you. Or it may be that you and your
friend have shared an experience that you want to talk about. Or
it may be that God has done something wonderful, and you have to
share it.
The more you can relate it to your own experience, the more
people will want to listen and even respond positively.
My father disliked Christianity for a long time, and mostly
tried to pick arguments with me. But, when I told him about the
couple of times I saw the power of Christ at work in people who
declared themselves to be afflicted by demons, he had no answer,
and he couldn't refute it. I don’t think he entirely believed it,
but he knew I wasn't lying to him either, maybe misinterpreting
the facts.
That had quite an impact on him. I wish I’d done it more
often.
You have an opportunity if you look for it.
WHAT JESUS
DID
The second thing in the story is an outline of Jesus’ work
and ministry. Peter says,
You
know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good
news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. 37 You know
what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the
baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and
healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was
with him.
We Christians are often in such
a rush to get to the death and resurrection of Jesus that we forget
that Jesus had a life on earth.
When Peter preached at Pentecost,
he went into a lot more of the Old Testament prophecies, because
his Jewish audience needed to hear that it was all promised through
the prophets, and that David had written about it in the Psalms
and so on. Cornelius didn't know so much about the Bible,
but he had heard about this Jesus, and about the healings and deliverances
he performed, and about the goodness of Jesus to so many people.
Tailor your tale to your hearers. Some people want a Bible verse,
others don’t. If you are sharing with a Jehovah's Witness, you will
need Bible verses, because she has been trained to read the Bible
in a way that keeps Jesus out of the picture. You need to use the
Bible to bring him back in.
But when I am talking with someone
who doesn’t know or care about the Bible, I go back to the story
of Jesus. Most people who don’t have a background with the Bible
think it is an ancient holy book that you should kiss and put on
a high shelf.
But they don’t think of Jesus and his life in that way. So tell
about Jesus.
Martin Luther, the famous Reformer, used to say that, if you are
called in to pray for someone's healing or deliverance from demons,
you should always tell them about how Jesus healed or delivered,
because that will create faith in the person that Jesus will do
the same for them.
DEATH AND RESURRECTION
But don’t fall into another error
and never get to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Some people
find it hard to talk about death or resurrection.
It was just as hard for the early
Christians. In Athens they mocked Paul when he spoke about resurrection.
Greeks thought the death of Jesus was nonsense and Jews thought
it was blasphemous to think that God could have anything to do with
someone crucified.
But don’t forget it!
Here’s what Peter said:
“We
are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and
in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God
raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
41 He was not seen by all the people, but
by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank
with him after he rose from the dead...”
Here it is: the works of Jesus and
the testimony of believers!
Sometimes I like to tell about how
prayer in the name of Jesus healed my brother when he faced potentially
scarring surgery, or about how, from the day I was prayed for, my
arthritis in my hip went into remission for about two years. Jesus
is still very much active in his world! Testify to his life, his
death and his resurrection. If he has touched your life, then he
is still alive. You are a witness!
JUDGMENT
The last part of Peter’s basic message
is about judgment and forgiveness.
He says,
He
commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the
one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the
prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives
forgiveness of sins through his name.”
It is not popular to speak about
judgment today, but we need to do it. It amazes me how positively
people respond when I declare in the newsletters that God must judge
the evil done by our leaders in these days.
People don’t like hearing of their
own judgment, but they long to hear of a God who is just and who
deals justly with an evil world. That message inspires them.
When the apostles preached about
forgiveness, they often coupled it with judgment, because the promise
of forgiveness is the promise of a way out of judgment.
My grandfather Taylor was a Methodist who didn’t much like Baptists.
He had had a nasty experience with Strict and Particular Baptists
and thought all Baptists were like them. But he particularly disliked
the rules and regulations they had down in Harris Street. He said,
“I like the Methodist way, where all who want to flee from the wrath
to come are welcome.”
Well, that’s just the kind of Christianity
we Baptists must declare. All who want to flee from the wrath to
come are welcome.
Judgment means that God will pour
out his righteous anger, his judgmental wrath, on all evil–doers;
salvation is to believe in Jesus and receive forgiveness of sins
through his name.
You can tell that to anyone!
CONCLUSION
Jesus wants you as a witness, to
shine his light into all the dark corners of this world. When he
gives you a chance, tell about Jesus. Tell what he has done in your
life and experience. Tell about his life and ministry. Tell about
his death and resurrection, where he defeated death and hell. And
tell about his coming to judge, and about forgiveness of sins to
all who believe.
These are they who...
overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb
and by the word
of their testimony;
they did not love their lives
so much as to shrink from death.
Are you one of them? Will you be one from today on? I pray that
we all will,
AMEN
© Peter R. Green 2002. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text.