[It was suggested to me that I should post this for the sake of those
who might want to incorporate the better parts into future sermons.
As a whole sermon, it's not all that great, but it has a couple of
decent spots. If you'd rather hear it than read it, go to <http://
HolyTrinityLC.com/HTLC/Sermons/Sermons.html> or <http://
HolyTrinityLC.com/PodcastMp3s>. FWIW, EJG]
*Are We* 'His Witnesses'?
St. John 15:26-16:4
On the basis of this past Thursday's Second Reading, the account of
the Ascension from Acts, chapter one, a great volume of literature
has arisen to help us "be [His] witnesses...unto the ends of the
earth." Some of that literature walks closely with Scripture, while
the vast majority of it that I have seen does not. A lot of it
clobbers the believer over the head with the Law, placing him under
the requirement of 'winning souls' if he's a 'real believer', and so
forth, because not doing so must indicate that you are 'ashamed of
Jesus'; it puts the believer into what amounts to the Preaching
Office, even though God hasn't called him to that Office. Much of it
has to do with how you can make the Word of God 'more effective'...as
if you are able, and as if God's Word needs your help!
More, the whole idea of such 'witness effectiveness training' not
only cheapens the Word of God, but also both the motivation of love
and thankfulness that ought to be driving our efforts in spreading
the Gospel and the very souls of those whom we would wish to win to
Christ. These misvaluings of people and of the Word are sin--gross
sin, in fact!--and come both from Man's usual turning of Gospel into
Law, God's grace and promise into something to do, instead of
something to believe, and from a misunderstanding of the word
'witness' that comes from such an inclination to 'do' and to 'have
equality with' the Apostles. In the purest, Biblical sense, you and I
cannot be witnesses of Jesus.
The word 'witness' has been forced to mean, simply, "to tell people
about Jesus," but that's not what it means in the Bible. "To bear
witness" is, Biblically, "to tell what you have seen"--not what
you've heard from someone else, but what you have actually
experienced yourself. On that basis, you cannot 'bear witness to' the
crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. In fact, the Apostles
themselves make this clear when they search for a replacement for
Judas: the one who would be an Apostle must have been with them from
the start and have seen Christ walking about after His death (Acts
1:22).
This was absolutely necessary, because the facts must be established
in the mouths of eyewitnesses--not by second- and third-hand hearsay.
It is when those who have only hearsay seek to be 'witnesses' that
they must assume the unhealthy and unscriptural burden of
'convincing' the unbelieving to believe them, as they 'share their
testimony' and often put what they see as the blessings in their life
on par with the Gospel. What a terrible burden this is, to have
someone's salvation depend upon me and upon how smart I am and how
holy and how 'blesséd' my life appears to them so that 'my witness'
is found credible and convincing! How much better it would be if
their ears and hearts were fixed on Jesus, and not on me!
No, we are not "His witnesses" in the proper sense. If we want a
'title', we are His 'bailiffs': our role in evangelizing is simply to
bring the witnesses forward so that they can testify and be believed.
In our Gospel reading a couple of Sundays ago, we saw the Holy Spirit
acting as a prosecutor, convicting the world of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment; He called His witnesses, and now we
simply bring forth those witnesses so that they can tell the truth
that saves.
Who are the witnesses in this proper sense? When Jesus speaks these
words in Acts 1, He is speaking to the Apostles; so, too, in today's
Gospel, when He says to them "And you also are bearing witness,
because you have been with me from the beginning." They were
eyewitnesses, as the Law required for the establishment of truth. But
how shall they bear witness, since they have left this life? How
shall the Church be, as St. Paul says, "built upon the foundation of
the Apostles and Prophets"?
The Apostles and Prophets did not merely speak to their own
generation; their words did not fall upon concrete and get washed
away by the rain. Instead, they both spoke and wrote what the Holy
Spirit wanted all mankind to be certain of: the history of the Lord's
cross-won deliverance of Man from Man's self-inflicted death and
damnation. Thus, as Jesus said, the Spirit would come to testify and
the Apostles were already engaged in the first component of being
witnesses: they were seeing the things to which they would bear
witness when the Spirit came.
Thus, we have the Apostles speaking and writing, as St. Peter
indicates, "as the oracles of God." This is a wonderful assurance for
us, today, too: when we say what the Bible says, we know that it is
still God Himself speaking! We don't have to find any new revelation
and wonder whether we have heard it right, but we have, instead, the
Word of God that "forever stands firm in the heavens" (Psalm 119:89),
the Word that doesn't depend upon any strength in us to accomplish
its purpose, but prospers in what the Lord sent it forth to do
(Isaiah 55:11).
The sending of the Holy Spirit to make sure that the Bible turned out
just this way was a comfort to the Apostles, as well. The Spirit's
testimony was identical to their own, showing that they weren't mis-
remembering...and anything where their memories were lacking, He
provided the correction and had them word their writings with divine
perfection, so that what Jesus said of the Old Testament is equally
true of the new: "The Scripture cannot be broken" (St. John 10:35).
This brought them comfort, especially, in the times that Jesus warned
them about in our Gospel--when the 'religious folk' would put His
disciples out of the synagogues and think that killing Christians was
a proper act of worship to the Lord. How tragic it would be in such a
circumstance to have your strength lie only in your own feelings and
imaginations! How much better to have your comfort rooted in what you
had seen with your own eyes--the resurrection of the Lord who died to
free you from sin and death--what you had seen with your own eyes and
what had been expressly told you by God the Holy Sprit, as well!
The Word of God through these eyewitnesses has been left to us, too,
so that we can have comfort in this deteriorating world. We see the
promises Christ left, as well as the warnings, and we remember those
who spoke this Word, what the outcome of their conduct was, as
Hebrews 13:7 says: unjust imprisonment and execution...through which
they remained confident--even defiant!--unto death.
That is a significant testimony: they were eyewitnesses, yet they
were willing to die. Why would all of them, without even one
'breaking ranks', be willing to die for what Scripture says if they
didn't actually see what they had written, but had seen something
else, instead? It is not at all reasonable to think of these men all
lying, all going to exile or execution for something they knew to be
false. No, instead, they remembered that Jesus had foretold these
things and that they should expect such from those who knew neither
the Father nor the Son...and so they endured, "by patience and
comfort of [His] Holy Word."
Like them, the second generation of Christians--those whom St. Peter
addresses in his First Epistle--had to undergo a "fiery trial" and
were in need of such comfort so that they would "not stumble"...so
that they would not be scandalized by this opposition and fall away.
We may think that we're far different from them, living in a time of
relative ease, when the closest thing we have to persecution by the
government is the 'lack of support' for our teaching that the
Constitution largely guaranteed there would always be. Beyond that,
there are the horror stories of persecution soon to come that abound
all over the internet...but what good are they? What do they
accomplish? Will getting worried about such things help us at all?
Would we prevent such persecution if such is what is best for the
spread of the Gospel? How would we prevent it...by our good works?
No, you see...it is neither ours to prevent persecution nor to seek
it out for the 'glory of martyrdom', but, rather, simply to have this
Word and assurance of Jesus that bring us through such trials to the
safety of our Fatherland above. And, while it is true that we might
soon face every harsh reality that the Church has ever faced, the
tales of governmental persecution soon to be really have an insidious
and satanic effect: they make us forget about how dangerous it is to
live without open, blatant physical persecution.
Yes, we are under a 'fiery trial' even when it seems like we are not
under a 'fiery trial', because the devil can just as surely use
'freedom of religion' to trip us up as he can religious persecution,
and the devil seeming to keep his hands off of us can be just as
terrible an attack as when he torments us at every turn. When Satan
is noticeably active, we learn our dependence upon God's grace for
everything in life, but when he 'lays off', we might begin to 'coast
along' thinking that we're all right without thinking all that much
about our whole place on earth and in eternity depending on Christ's
blood and righteousness. Then, after years and decades of such
coasting, the devil may make an attack that truly sets us back on our
heels. How will we keep from being knocked to the ground?
That is why Jesus forewarns you as He forewarns His Apostles: because
you have His Word--established in the mouth and by the pen of
multiple witnesses--because you have His Word telling you what to
expect and how He has triumphed over the devil and the world, over
death and Hell, you are not tripped up so that you fall away. It is
all because of His Word, the Word of the Spirit given through the
witnesses, the Word that declares how He died on the cross to pay for
all of Man's sin and how He rose to declare sin and death defeated
for you. By that Word He establishes you; by that Word He has His
servant tell you in His stead, "I forgive you all your sins"; by that
Word, He takes ordinary bread and wine and makes them His body and
blood to feed you in your salvation.
We dare not trivialize that word, 'witness'...it means so much more
than sharing our perceptions of how God has blessed us or how much
our faith means to us. It is a word of assurance, a word of
irrefutable proof, the testimony of eyewitnesses, of those who know
what Jesus did because they saw Him do it, of those who saw Him
proven dead by the Roman soldier's spear, yet who saw Him alive
again...walking about with the nail prints in His hands and feet,
walking through closed doors, yet able to eat and drink, showing that
He was no apparition, but our physically risen Lord. They saw Him
ascend above all heavens and heard the word from the angels that He
would come back in like manner, on the clouds in glory.
These eyewitnesses Jesus has established for you, so that you can
take heart in every trouble--indeed, that you may "rejoice, inasmuch
as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory
shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." While the
world speaks evil of Him--and of you--these eyewitnesses tell you how
things really are: you are blesséd in the Crucified One, because you
who glorify Him, the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you, and
He shall keep you in this true faith through every trial and unto
life everlasting, to the glory of His name. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +
Holy Trinity, Harrison/Capps, Bull Shoals Mission, Exaudi 2008
________________________________________________________________________
The Rev. Eric J. Stefanski
Holy Trinity Ev.-Luth. Church (Unaltered Augsburg Confession)
P.O. Box 2612 - Harrison, Arkansas 72602
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://
www.HolyTrinityLC.com
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