And this is why every believer must be a witness specifically about what he has seen or heard concerning Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. The believer is commissioned by God in Acts1:8 where Jesus told His disciples “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
If the Holy Spirit has come upon you then you too have been given power to be His witnesses. And in a wonderful coincidence the name Ed, my name, means witness. It is used only once in the Bible in Joshua22:34 where it says, “And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the Lord is God.”
This has been a real blessing to me. Because it’s anectdotal as to why I have been so compelled to share the gospel since the very first day I got saved. Before I knew anything except that Jesus loves me I couldn’t be quiet about it.
And you know the funny thing was that I didn’t realize that many of those I was telling about His love had already heard and rejected it. I was shocked to find out that there were actually people who had heard of and rejected this kind of love. And after 47 years of walking with Jesus it still shocks me when they do.
The examples we see in scripture of someone sharing the gospel show us why we do it, and how we are to do it. And for what purpose we are doing it.
In this we acknowledge what it is and what it is not that inspires us to tell people about Jesus. Yes, telling people about Jesus is the gospel message.
We can jump in with a show of our knowledge of the scriptures to overwhelm them with truth. But, many times it is so much better when we ease into it. Conversing with them about the things in their personal lives that we can deduce may be what is blocking their coming to a saving faith.
And then weave that information into the conversation we are having. Finding out what they think and believe. And use it to help them see truth that will change their lives forever for the better. A change that leads not only to peace and joy in this life. But, a blessed hope and surety of the fullness of joy and peace in the next life.
This is why when Jesus found someone who was humble/teachable He addressed their need accordingly. And when He encountered someone who was not He would address their need accordingly too.
He showed the woman at the well how her current circumstances had gotten in the way of her being able to know her messiah. And then when He revealed Himself as her messiah He said something most people take the wrong way. He said, “now go and sin no more.”
The sin Jesus was referring to was not all her wrong behaviors He had just revealed to her that He knew she was doing. The sin Jesus was referring to was that she not return to the life before she met Him. Her life before she had met Him to know Him.
And when Jesus encountered the Pharisees who were completely unteachable He told them who they were and why that condemned them. Using very strong language about them to break through their hard hearts.
Both of these examples were Jesus loving people enough to tell them the truth. By using what they told Him about themselves like a mirror. So they could see themselves clearly to know exactly why Jesus said what He said.
Because the truth is what sets men free. And not just any truth. It has to be the truth about who Jesus is, who God is, and what the atonement is for. For it is only in knowing these that we know we have come to a true and saving faith.
Because if our faith is not in the Biblical Jesus, God, and atonement. Then our faith is vain. And the salvation we hope for is really only the condemnation of unbelief. Or at the very least will lose what they have wrought as 2John says.
The “church” understands this about the cults like Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses. But, they too have been deceived by doctrines that keep them from the true and saving faith. Because their faith is in a different Jesus, a different God, and a different atonement.
So unbelief is not just not believing in the Biblical Jesus, God, and atonement. It is also when we are deceived to believe in someone and something other than the Jesus, God, and atonement the Bible reveals to us.
The woman at the well could have misunderstood Jesus when He said “Now go and sin no more”. Because she could have understood Jesus to mean that she must stop breaking the law. And by doing so she would have missed a true and saving faith in Jesus.
Because keeping the law, even when done blamelessly as the Bible says Paul, Zachariah and Elizabeth, and Job did doesn’t not equate to eternal life. Because only knowing and trusting in Jesus can give eternal life.
This is why you can be completely moral never doing anything wrong and still be unsaved. Like these Israelites doing the works of the law and not trusting in the God who gave them to Israel for her preservation. That showed in Paul’s ignorance that caused his initial rejection of Jesus as messiah.
Or by trusting in the keeping of the law for righteousness. As those Jews Paul was speaking about in Rom.7 had done. Making the law their idol by placing it between them and God as their mediator instead of Jesus.
The Pharisees could have misunderstood Jesus when He told them they were white washed tombs full of dead men’s bones. By believing He meant they were not doing the works of the law. And simply tried even harder to keep them. And they too would have missed Jesus.
Because Jesus didn’t say those things to the Pharisees to condemn them to hell. He said them so they would see the truth that of the error their focus had caused was keeping them from seeing that He was their messiah, and turn to Him for deliverance from the very law they falsely believed could save them.
This is why we witness. To help people see why they are missing Jesus. Not to show them why they are missing the law. This is why when we witness we do not focus on their works. We focus on what they believe.
We don’t need to make them aware of their bad behavior. We need to make them aware of Jesus and His love for them. Because being good can not save anyone. Only knowing Jesus can save us. And these are not the same thing.
Think about it this way. Before you meet someone that you don’t know would that cause you to change how you live and the choices you make? No. It’s only after meeting them that adjustments are made accordingly that you change what you do. This is especially true when it comes to a spouse.
And this is exactly why Paul uses the analogy of marriage to describe the Jew’s relationship to the law vs a relationship with Jesus in Rom.7. Saying that they can not be joined both to the law and Jesus ate the same time. Any more than a woman can lawfully be joined to her husband and another man at the same time without being an adulteress. This is true in both cases.
This is why in 2Cor.5:19 Paul said that the “ministry of reconciliation” that God has commissioned every believer to is the believer telling them that not only is “God not imputing their trespasses to them.” But, also that this has been made possible because “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.”
This reconciliation took place 2,000 years ago. And was finished at the cross when Jesus said, “It is finished”. Tetelastai meaning all that Jesus said in Mt.5:17,18 He came to fulfill had been fulfilled. Finished.
And now the law could pass away without heaven and earth passing away first. So that judgment for salvation would be based only on our belief or unbelief in Jesus and His resurrection.
This means that your works whether good or bad are not the reason you are or are not saved. God has taken care of that misunderstanding by abolishing the means by which works were imputed to anyone by the cross in this dispensation.
This leaves only Jesus. Who is really all men have ever needed for the abundant life He came to provide for us. This leaves only the reconciliation of men to trust in the savior by trusting in Him and His resurrection. And not by works of the law. Or any works for that matter.
So when we talk to people we need to keep this in the front of our thinking. That introducing them to Jesus is not done through a reminder of their shortcomings.
It is helping them see who Jesus is and the truth about His atonement. Showing why their behavior has no bearing on their need for Him. Because it is that they do not know Him that has denied them of eternal life. Not their works.
So even though you may not ever see them again. And may never have the opportunity to get to know them in a very personal way. You can still show how much you care for their eternity by showing them how Jesus shows all men that He loves them.
He showed men His love for them by becoming every bit as human as all men are. To join with us in our mortality. So that in that humanity He could be tempted in all points just as we are.
This is what made Him able to share in our sufferings. So that as Heb.2:18 says, “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.” He is able to comfort us.
And being mortal also enabled Him to enter into our death with us. To conquer our death by His resurrection. So that as Heb.2:14,15 says, “that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Making an opening through the wall of death through faith in Him that is eternal life.
This then is the message of reconciliation all believers are commissioned by God to take to the world. This then is the reproof of the Holy Spirit He brings to the world. The reproof that they do not believe in Jesus. That this is the only sin all men are accountable to God for.
And this reproof is the same reproof Jesus gave to the woman at the well. And the same reproof Jesus gave to the Pharisees whose current righteousness was to be exceeded for men to have eternal life.
Because the righteousness of works is not the righteousness God requires us to have for eternal life. For eternal life ours must be the righteousness that is by faith. To trust in Jesus just as Jesus trusted the Father. This is how Jesus was righteous. And this is how we are righteous.
Our righteousness is not Jesus’ righteousness he earned by keeping the law perfectly that is given to us when we trust in Him. It is the righteousness that is of faith Jesus expressed in the Father. And our righteousness is our faith in Jesus and His resurrection.
Paul said it like this in Gal.2:16: “16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”
Being “justified by the faith of Christ” means we are justified the same way Jesus was justified. By having the same kind of faith in Jesus that He had in the Father. Trusting in Jesus saying “Nevertheless not my will but thine be done”.
This is how we are born again. First by the water/flesh birth. Then by the Spirit of God. This is how a spirit is created in us that makes us children of God and heirs to His kingdom. Confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus as Paul said in Rom.10:9,10. And believing in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead. By this you will be saved.
Do this and you will have eternal life right now. Do this and you will receive an immortal body at the resurrection. Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!
This message can also be heard at: https://rumble.com/v79mhvc-offended-or-not-by-gods-spirit-we-must-tell-them-acts18.html
