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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (20-2-1994 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
Although the Apostles we read of in this book were
unique, and have no successors today, in some ways we are called to carry on
their tasks. They were commissioned to be witnesses; they laid the foundations
of the church in that the church was built on their ministry and teaching. We
are not laying the foundations of the church, but we, like them, are called to
be witnesses to Christ. We have not known Him as they did, not having seen Him
with our eyes or heard Him with our ears. Yet we do know Him, we are His and He
is ours. His power has touched our lives and is continuing to do so. He has made
all things new; we are not the men and women we once were.
As we consider Acts 1:8, we are
going to apply it to our own lives. Some people have looked at this subject
under three heads: (a) the Focus of our witness is Christ, (b) the Scope of our
witness is the world, and (c) the Power of our witness is the Holy Spirit. We
are going to consider the first and the third of these heads. The matter of
scope, i.e. geography, can be summarized as witnessing in ever increasing
circles. The early church were called to witnesses in Jerusalem, where they
lived, then in Judea, the adjacent area, then further afield, Samaria, and
places where they would encounter hostility, on to the ends of the earth. We
equally have a responsibility, not only in personal activity but also by prayer
and giving, for evangelising the whole world.
So we will focus on the Lord’s requirement of us, and the Lord’s provision for us, in the matter of witnessing.
You will be my witnesses. In
Isaiah 43:10, Israel was called to be God’s witness in the world. Now in Acts,
the Church of Christ is called to be God’s witness in the world.
We are to witness to Him, not to
ourselves, to a church or a denomination, to a certain preacher or set of ideas.
This needs to be made clear, because many get no further than talking about
their organization, or their own ideas. People want us to join their group,
increase their numbers, support their society, and accept their doctrines. But
the distinctiveness of Evangelical Christianity is that we are concerned to
speak of Christ, and to urge men to be rightly related by repentance and faith
to Him.
And there is no doubt where our
emphasis will be – the eternal Son of God, the One through whom God has fully
revealed Himself. We must point to His great work of Atonement and sin bearing
on the Cross of Calvary. This was God’s greatest work. We have a great Master,
and a great message to bring to the world. We must point to Him as the only
Saviour. He is not one of many religious options in our pluralistic society.
There are not many paths up the mountain to reach God, only this one.
God requires three things of men
– repentance, personal faith, and whole-hearted surrender of life and
possessions. Eternal issues hang on a man’s response to Jesus Christ. He will
be the judge at the end. The Christ to whom we bear witness is the Christ of the
Cross, the Gospel, the New Testament, not the Christ of men’s theories and
speculations and much modern theology.
But we must do more than just bear
witness, we must be witness. Not advocates, but witnesses. Not heralds,
but witnesses. In the deepest sense, we have to know what we are talking about.
We are living proof of the message we preach. We must be clear we are saved and
renewed. We are the trophies of what Christ has done and can do. Be a witness
that there is peace with God, there is newness of life, that character can be
changed, hatred can turn into love, lions turn into lambs. In Christ we can
become better husbands, fathers, sons, wives, mothers, daughters, friends,
employers, employees, neighbours, citizens.
Our lives should witness to the
fact that it is possible to live wholly for Christ even in a world where
materialism is so dominant. We must show that Christ can be found in trouble, He
brings comfort in pain, calm and peace as we face an unknown future and prospect
of death. We must witness to what we have known of Him, received from Him, and
be able to say with the Psalmist, Come and hear all you who fear God, and I
will declare what he has done for my soul (Psalm 66:16). Say with the
Apostles, We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard (Acts
4:20).
Nothing is so effective when it
comes to witnessing than personal testimony. When plied with questions and
problems which we cannot answer, we can speak with conviction of the reality of
Christ in our life. One thing I know, though I was blind, now I see (John
9:25). George Whitefield said, “I would not preach an unknown Christ for ten
thousand worlds”. It was said that a mark of the Puritans was that they
preached a “felt Christ”. Only what comes from the heart reaches the heart.
We witness effectively in proportion to the reality of our experience of Christ. If we have a present, living and growing trust in our Saviour, an up to date experience, we can speak with conviction.
This enormous requirement that the Lord makes of us can
appear daunting. We feel helpless, cowardly, acutely aware of the
inconsistencies in our lives, what to say and how to say it. We also face the
difficulties of the days in which we live, when there is little respect for the
Christian faith, ignorance of the Bible, much modern religion has misrepresented
the Gospel, and there are so many distractions. As yet we have unique
opportunities. Because most people give the church a wide berth, the only way
they are going to hear the Gospel is through individual Christians being
witnesses.
Do you feel weak for the task?
You are in good company – was there ever anyone more cowardly than Peter, and
indeed the rest of the Apostles? Was anyone more dogged by pride and
self-seeking than James and John? Did Paul not admit to weakness, fear and
trembling? Think of the odds stacked against them – the vast religiosity and
bigotry of the Jews, the intellectual power of the Greeks, the military might of
imperial Rome. They had this new religion about a crucified Jew being the hope
of the world! They could not have looked more ridiculous.
There is great danger in meeting
problems with the wrong answer. There is danger in finding all manner of
substitutes for the Holy Spirit. Some put their reliance in orthodoxy and right
doctrine. Certainly there is a crying need for right doctrine. Men need the
truth of the Gospel. Men need the truth as it is in Jesus. But the truth on its
own is not enough. Neither is it enough to be well organised and business like,
though this is important in its place too. We must not rely on these things
either. Similarly, techniques and skills in pastoral practice, stress on
counselling, are all valuable in their place. A leader or minister with a good
biblical background, and as much learning as he can take, helpful if he knows
Christ history, and can read the Bible in original languages. Yet there are
awful snares, temptations and perils attached to these things, men can become
conceited because of their education and qualification – and rely on these
things instead of the Holy Spirit.
Once a young pastor went
confidently into the pulpit, proud and assured of his abilities. The service was
a total disaster, and he left the pulpit feeling confused and humiliated. The
verger said to him, “If you had gone into the pulpit the way you came out of
it, you might have come out of it the way you went in.” In a sense, the better
organized, the more gifted, the better qualified we are, the greater our danger,
because we may use these things as a substitute for the Holy Spirit.
Not only must we have the right
message, but we must also have the right method. To rely on anything other than
the Holy Spirit will lead to failure. The Holy Spirit used all that Paul was,
but Paul had to come to an end of himself first. Our testimony of God must be
divine in origin, and also divine in operation. Human intellect and skill and
eloquence cannot empower it. There is no point in holding up candles to help the
sun to shine. No point in preaching Christ of Calvary unless we have the power
of Pentecost. How often we try to do what only the Holy Spirit can do. We can be
so afraid of Pentecostalism that we try to pass over the power of Pentecost,
with its fire and flame.
The answer to our situation is
the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the blessed Trinity, the one for
whom the disciples waited at the first Pentecost, who now dwells in every
believer in Christ. The Holy Spirit distinguishes Christianity from all other
religions. He reminds us that the Gospel is not only a creed and a moral code.
He brings life, transforms character, he raises the sinner from death, imparts
the life of God into man’s souls, makes him adequate for all God calls him to
do and to be. Apart from Him, theology and organisation are bare skeleton and
dry bones. Because of the Holy Spirit, God is not only with, among and through
men, but He is in men. He burns the truth into our souls and writes it on our
hearts.
The Holy Spirit can take and
fill and use men who, by this world’s standards, are fools, and weak and
despised. “All God’s giants are weak men who have done great things for
God” (Hudson Taylor). They have reckoned on God being with them. The
indwelling of the Holy Spirit has allowed them to delight in their weakness and
insults and difficulties, because when I am weak, then I am strong (2
Corinthians 12:10). God has promised, "My grace is sufficient for you,
for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9).
When the Holy Spirit is allowed
to fill and dominate, then He performs a transformation. Consider how cowardly
Peter was made bold. The proud are made humble; fools are made wise, when
God’s love is shed abroad in their lives. He will sanctify and deepen our
natural gifts, quicken our mental faculties in heavenly things. We receive a
newness of consciousness of Christ, a new aliveness in prayer, and Christ’s
grace is more visible in our lives. New fruitfulness in service, abundant life
and new power.
Is this a vision we have lost?
Have we become so concerned about orthodoxy that we preach it powerlessly? The
great need for churches and individuals is power. A powerful truth – but we
are preaching it powerlessly. Power from God is our duty, our need and our
privilege. The One who indwells must fill, dominate and control. We must become
empowered men of God. Renounce self-management and hand ourselves over to God
Himself. We possess by being possessed. All reservations have to go, that He
might fill and control, that the fire of God might fall. He is not meant to be
at our disposal – we are meant to be at His.
Lindsay Glegg once likened it to
a man trying to sell a factory to a prospective buyer. He promised that he would
have this and that put right before the handover. But it turned out that the
buyer was not interested in the building – only in the site. He intended to
pull down the old factory, and build on the site an electric generator, giving
warmth, light and heat to thousands.
It doesn’t matter who we are. Our personality is a site which the Holy Spirit wants to use. “Seek Him. Yearn for this power. And when the power comes, yield to Him. Let Him loose you and manifest His power in and through you” (Martin Lloyd Jones). If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:37-39).
