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How Do We Witness?
Matthew 4: 18-22
September 26, 2004
The Rev. Kong Namkung

Last week God spoke to us about what we share with others.  In that message we talked about four R’s.  What are they?  They are Recognize, Realize, Respond, and Receive.  Recognize God’s plan for your life, Realize your problem, Respond to God’s remedy found in the cross of Christ, and Receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord.  This is what you share with your family members and friends.  When we share Jesus, it is very important for us to be “wise like serpents and pure as doves” (Matthew 16).  

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair and his beard cut as always. He began to have a good conversation with the barber who attended him. They talked about so many things and various subjects. Suddenly, they touched on the subject of God. The barber said: "Look man, I don't believe that God exists." "Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, it's so easy; you just have to go out in the street to realize that God does not exist. Oh, tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God exists, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't think of loving God who permits all of these things." The customer thought for a moment, but he didn't respond because he did not want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long hair and a long beard. It was very long time since he had his hair cut and he looked dirty and unkempt. The customer entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say they don't exist?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here and I am a barber. Why I just worked on you!" "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did there would not be any people with long hair and long beard like that man who is outside." "Ah, barbers do exist, what happens is that people do not come to me." "Exactly!"- affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God does exist. What happens is people don't go to Him and do not look for Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."  As you share Jesus Christ, you may encounter atheists or agnostic people, then remember the words of Jesus, “be wise and pure” in being a witness.

 Today, I want to share with you about how we witness Christ to others.  We need to tell the person, whom God wants you to share Jesus, sometimes nicely, but sometimes we just tell the person the truth even though we may hurt him or her, “You are in trouble with God and that God alone has provided a way to escape.”  But how do we witness to them? Do we all have to share the same way? No, because the unbelieving world is made up of a variety of people: young and mature, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, people live in urban and rural, with different races, different personalities, different values, politics, and religious backgrounds. It is going to take more than one style of witnessing to reach such a diverse population! So what is your style?

1. Confrontational? (Acts 2) Peter, who was full of the Holy Spirit, stood before the people in Judea and Jerusalem.  He talked about the prophecy of Joel and what David said about Jesus.  Then he said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2: 38) 

2. Intellectual? (Acts 17) Paul had three major missions trips.  In his second mission trip from 49 to 52 AD Paul was in Athens.  He saw the city was full of idols.  There was some “Epicurean, who believed that the ultimate goal of human beings is to have happiness.  That could not be obtained by temporary and temporary pleasure, and Stoic philosophers, who sought to live with the harmony with nature.  In order to in live harmony with nature human beings needs to press down our desires.” (Acts 17:18)  Paul debated with the philosophers to convince them intellectually.  Paul wanted to bring these people to Christ. So he debated with them philosophically. 

3. Testimonial? (John 9) One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!

4. Relational? (Mark 5) Jesus went to the country of the Gerasene.  There was a man, who was possessed by a demon.  He was out of control and stayed among the tombs.  Chains and shackles could not bind him.  Jesus ordered the demon to come out of him and go into swine.  Two thousands swine were dead as the demon went into them.  Then, Jesus said to the man, who received a new life,  “Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you.”

5. Invitational? (John 4) The Samaritan woman at the well begged the people of the city to come and hear Jesus for themselves.

6. Serving? (Acts 9) She lived in Joppa. Her name was Tabitha. Dorcas was her Greek name.  God had given her the skills to make tunics and clothing for widows and did good works and donated lots of charity.  Dorcas impacted her city by doing deeds of kindness.

The Bible tells us that we have to use different methods in order to share Jesus Christ with different peoples in different settings.  Don't ever think you're a second class Christian because you don't proclaim Christ like Peter or Paul. Discover your own method.  God has given us all different gifts and talents.  We Christians cannot be the same as one another in sharing Jesus Christ; likewise the unsaved cannot be the same in receiving Jesus Christ.  Find your method.  Then get out of your chair, if you do not get out of your chair, your head is getting bigger and your hands and feet are getting weaker. As you get out of your chair and use different methods to share Jesus with different people, for the Glory of God, Live by faith, not fear!!!   J.K. Johnston, Why Christians Sin, Discovery House, 1992, p. 142.

I encourage you to share Jesus Christ with others.  If you do not share Jesus Christ, your passion for Christ and your compassion for the unsaved people will be extinguished.  When you share Jesus with others, God sets you on fire of witnessing.  Elton Trueblood, the Quaker scholar, once compared evangelism to fire. Evangelism occurs, he said, when Christians are so ignited by their contact with Christ that they in turn set other fires. It is easy to determine when something is aflame. It ignites other material. Any fire that does not spread will eventually go out. A church without evangelism is a contradiction in terms, just as fire that does not burn is a contradiction.

When you share Jesus Christ with others, you have to have the following ingredients for effective witnessing. You need to Care, Dare, Share, and Prayer.

1) Care: show concern for the person, and concern for your life before him.  Rick Warren in his book, The purpose Driven Church, says, “People do not care how much we know until they know how much we care.” (p. 40)

2) Dare: it takes courage to witness--courage if the person is a stranger to you, and even more if the person is a close friend or relative.  A fellow in Alaska has been throwing the Word of God into the ocean for a third of a century.  Missionary Everett Bachelder has tossed more than 1,000 mayonnaise jars and ketchup bottle into the Bering Sea.  He has crammed them with Scripture message written in 100 languages.  Wind and waves have carried the story of God’s love to the far corners of the earth.  He has received responses from as far as 10,000 miles away.  Kids from the various area churches help him fold the messages and put them in the jars and bottles.

A man in Singapore, distraught over a romance gone sour, was about to commit suicide by jumping into the waters from a cliff.  Bur he saw a bottle wash up against the rocks below.  Deciding to leap when the bottle broke, he watched it hit the rocks again and again without breaking. Curious, he climbed down the cliff, saw the messages, opened the bottle, and discovered it related to the word of God, he then sought out a missionary in Singapore and got saved.

3) Share: If you want to make a lasting impression, share yourself with the person. Evangelism is not what we tell people, unless what we tell is totally consistent with who we are. It is who we are that is going to make the difference. If we do not truly enjoy our faith, nobody is going to catch the fire of enjoyment from us. If our lives are not totally centered on Christ, we will not be Christ-bearers for others, no matter how pious our words. [Show and Tell, Citation: Madeleine L’Engle, quoted in Christian Reader (May/June 1998, p. 50)]
 4) Prayer: Don't discount the effectiveness of prayer in the preparation of people's hearts for the Good News.  

Where are we going from here?  Last week I asked you to take our church mail with you.  This week as you leave the sanctuary, take two with you.  Share Jesus Christ with people; those whom you love the most, and  those whom you think the most important person in your life. Use all different methods in order that you may bring them to Christ.  Jesus said in today’s scripture lesson to his disciples, “Follow me, I will make you the fisher of people.”   It is Jesus who calls us to be fishers of people.  It is Jesus who makes us fishers.  Please, do not forget you are the fishers of people.  If you have a strong desire for catching fish, you will.  “Our idea of fishing is to put all the exertion up to the fish. If they are ambitious we will catch them. If they are not, let them go about their business. “  Don Marquis, Prefaces.

When you bring a person to Christ, there is a great joy in heaven and your heart.  Many years ago some men were panning for gold in Montana, and one of them found an unusual stone. Breaking it open, he was excited to see that it contained gold. Working eagerly, the men soon discovered an abundance of the precious metal. Happily, they began shouting with delight, "We've found it! We've found gold! We're rich!" They had to interrupt their celebrating, though, to go into a nearby town and stock up on supplies. Before they left camp, the men agreed not to tell a soul about their find. Indeed, no one breathed a word about it to anyone while they were in town. Much to their dismay, however, when they were about to return, hundreds of men were prepared to follow them. When they asked the crowd to tell who "squealed," the reply came, "No one had to. Your faces showed it!

I pray that you have a great joy as you share Jesus Christ with others.  God in heaven will rejoice as you reach out to the unsaved.  I see God’s smiling face because you obey God.  I anticipate seeing a dazzling smile in your face because you find the lost ones and give them the most precious “Rock” in their lives.  Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

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Matthew 4:18-22

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
NIV

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