You Will Be My Witnesses

Every follower of Jesus has been given a job description, and it is simpler than most people realize. In Acts 1:8, Jesus told His disciples they would receive power from the Holy Spirit and would be His witnesses, starting in Jerusalem and reaching to the ends of the earth. A witness is not asked to be a lawyer or a theologian. A witness is simply asked to tell what they personally experienced. That firsthand account cannot be argued away, because it belongs to the person who lived it. The same calling that was given to those first disciples belongs to every believer today.

The Great Commission, found in Matthew 28:18-20, gives this calling three essential dimensions. First, Jesus establishes His authority over all of heaven and earth before sending anyone anywhere. Believers go not on their own strength but under the full jurisdiction of heaven. Second, the assignment is to make disciples, not just church attenders. The goal is to reproduce the character and life of Jesus in others. Third, every believer goes with the assurance of His constant presence. Jesus promised to be with His people always, and the Holy Spirit has fulfilled that promise ever since.

Despite this clear calling, research from the Barna Group found that 51 percent of churchgoers have never even heard the term Great Commission. Fear of rejection, feelings of inadequacy, and waiting for the perfect moment are among the most common reasons believers stay silent. But the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4 shows what a simple, unpolished testimony can accomplish. She had a complicated past and no formal training, yet one honest encounter with Jesus brought an entire city to Him. Your story works the same way. Someone in your circle right now is waiting for you to open your mouth.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

We're in July. Man, God, we're in July. And uh July, we have uh we're starting a new series today for the month of July. The focus is on evangelistic fruitfulness. Evangelistic fruitfulness. Now our monthly theme is reaching the lost and making disciples. So for the whole month of July, go willing. The first week we're going to be visiting this subject. And today, the subject title is You Will Be My Disciples. Now, I want you to turn your handouts upside down. Everybody turn your handouts down. Don't look at your handouts for now. I'll tell you one too. Um, there's a reason for it, and I'm going to let you guys know soon. Our main text for this study today, you'll be my witnesses. It's from the book of Acts, chapter one. We read from verse 4 to 8. And out of respect for God's word, I want you to please stand with me as we read through our main text today. Acts chapter 1, verse 4 to 8. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them, please underline the word commanded. He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem. Sustern instruction, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me. Verse 5, please read with me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Verse 6. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom back to Israel? Verse 7. And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the world. May we lift up our voice for a short time of prayer. Father, we want to thank you, bless you, adore you, worship you. Truly you are the King. Truly you are amazing. Truly you are awesome. Truly, there's not like you, Father. This is the time that you have carved out for us today, for you to teach us your word. We pray for every single person in person and online, Lord, that this word today will shed light, Father. You said the entrance of your word produces light, and that is what we want to know. Help us to get our thoughts together. Lead us, Holy Spirit. You said that when you have come, you shall lead us into all truth, for you shall take what belongs to Jesus and shall reveal it to us. That's the word. And Father, we've summoned you today in one under your leadership and your futureship. The Bible says that the government shall be on today. We've got it because of you. We need you to help us understand your word with clarity, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Father, challenge us today. Let your Holy Spirit take absolute control of your word and deliver it in every heart that Father will leave this place, understanding clearly that you have called us and given us a job description to be your witnesses. We bless you and thank you and adore you. In Jesus' name. And like Tess says, Amen. Please take your seats. Now I want to begin this with this uh thought. I remember a few weeks ago, Danielle came and uh Danielle said that she witnessed an accident. There was a road rage that she witnessed. And I think she had to go and give uh what's it called, a statement about what she saw. So imagine that there was a court case, and Danielle went to court and he's called to the witness stand, and he raises up a hand and he swears to do one thing to tell the truth. Now it's interesting that everyone here, I don't know if anyone here has ever been called upon to be a witness for something. But an eyewitness account is one of the most, it's it's eyewitness account isn't accurate. Hopefully it's truthful and hopefully it's it's accurate. But in court of law, eyewitness account trumps everything else. Now, notice what an eyewitness is never asked to do. Danielle was never asked to be the lawyer. She wasn't going to prosecute the case. She was simply going to tell them the roadway, what she saw, and she was credible, we call something a credible witness, okay? Credible witness is somebody who has a first-hand information about what they saw. So witness is never asked to win a case. Her job was not to win the case. Her job was not going to cross-examine the person, the opposition. Her job was not to deliver the closing statement. She was simply there to do one thing, to tell what she has seen and what she knows to be true. Now that is her entire assignment. If you're called upon to be an eyewitness for a case, all you are ever asked to do is to give a first-hand account of what you saw. Does it make sense? You are not, you are not going to cross-examine, you are not going to, you know, lean into truth. No, you are just simply going to say what you saw at the time. So this morning, and remember when Jesus called them in the text that we just read, he told them that they will be his witnesses. That was the assignment that Jesus gave them at the time. And that is an assignment that we are going to study today that relates to every single person here. Now I just want to take you back on a six-month journey, man. Time flies. In the last six months, this year, we began this year by saying that this year was the year of spiritual fruitfulness. Remember that? And in the last six months of fruitfulness, we've covered a lot. In January, we began the year about uh what it meant to be planted by the rivers of water. How many of you remember that? What we spent about four weeks talking about being planted by the rivers of water. In February, we talked about being pruned for productivity. Amen. God pruned us for productivity. March, the focus was rooted in God's word. In April, we were filled with the fruits of the Spirit. Remember, we went through the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5. And in May, we talked about being equipped with the gift for service. We made sure that everybody understood that everyone had a gift that God expects them to use for his service. And in June, we spoke about being part of God's family, the family that God is building. So we've come a long way in the last six months, and we've dealt with, we stayed focused on the subject that we began this year by being fruitful. Now, all that led us to this month. And this month we are here for evangelistic fruitfulness, okay? Now watch this now. Our main text in Acts chapter 1, we established something that actually, if you you know your Bible, you will know that that was and cross-reference to that in Matthew 28. Acts chapter 1, verse 4 to 8 was the last conversation that Jesus had with the disciples before he ascended to heaven. And this morning we're going to examine that conversation. Okay, we're going to find out some important truths about this final instruction that Jesus gave us. We're going to find out that that wasn't a theological lecture. You know, you were not in a seminary. Jesus wasn't giving them a final theoretical lecture of what you're supposed to do. No, he was giving them a job description. Somebody say amen. And there were four words for your job description. Tell somebody, say, I have a job. And Jesus said to them that you will be four words. You will be my witnesses. Amen. You will be my witnesses. And again, we've already begun with explaining what a witness does. Okay? And so Jesus told them at the time that you've been with me for three and a half years. Now, in the interest of time, there's so many things I wanted to share about that particular text, but it's so interesting. But we don't have time to be able to go deep into it. So we're just going to stick to a subject. But remember that Jesus ushered them spent three and a half years with these guys, which of all you wanted three years, three and a half years. And every morning they saw him, what he did, how he went about business. He was teaching them. And I was listening to preaching on this quite interesting, actually. The way Jesus taught his disciples was interesting. He taught them with illustrations, he taught them with parables. Okay, he taught them with pictures that would stick with them. Okay. And for three and a half years, they walked with him, they ate with him. You know, they were in missions with him. And he constantly taught them for three and a half years. And so his final instruction, now this is after the resurrection, right? He dies, he resurrects, he spends 40 days with them, the Bible says. And in the final time that he was living temporarily till he returns, he gives them a specific instruction. So in other words, we're saying the whole three and a half years you guys have been with me, it was leading to this point, okay? That you go out there and tell everybody about what you have seen for the last three and a half years with me. Okay? So you will be my witnesses. All right. It's important that we have that on the back of our mind. So let me ask you an honest question this morning. When was the last time you told somebody plainly and personally what Jesus has done for you? I want you to think about it a little bit. When was the last time you did that? If Messiah gave us all that job description, your job as a Christian is basically to be a witness, then when was the last time you did that? We're gonna unpack something called the Great Commission. That is why I asked everybody to turn their hand out upside down. Now I'm gonna read uh a study. Uh bear with me about five minutes, and uh you'll find out in a minute why I asked you to do that. There's a group called the Banner Group, okay? And the Banner Group had conducted several influential studies on the Great Commission, revealing a significant gap between many churchgoers, uh prophets, and what they understand are practical regarding Christ's command to his disciples. So in 2018, the Banner Group had this research, okay? And these were their findings. Number one, half of US churchgoers don't know the Great Commission. Okay? In other words, half of the U.S. churchgoers do not understand the last instruction or the commander Christ gave his followers. One of the banner's most excited studies conducted in partnership with Seed Company found. Number one, listen to this. Okay? Only 37 correctly identified, I'm not going to say the verse, of the Great Commission. Only 33% admitted, 33% admitted they did not know any Bible verses to do with the Great Commission. 31% selected the wrong passages. Okay. Number three, the young generation shows lower awareness. Knowledge of the Great Commission decreased among young adults. The response who said they knew what the Great Commission was was like this: 29% elders, baby boomers 26, Generation X 17, Millennius 10%. So research on uh what's it called? Discipleship making. The Great Commission is not only about evangelism, but also about making disciples. The Branner uh letter research found that 39% of Christians are not engaged in discipleship at all. 39%. Only 28% are actively both being discipled and discipling others. 33% are considered discipleship makers who are intentionally helping someone grow in Christ. Research on personal responsibility. Listen to this. The Barnab group also found this that only 52% of practicing Christians strongly agree that they had a personal responsibility to tell others about their faith. In other words, 48% of the church says, I have no responsibility to tell anybody about Jesus. So, what these findings mean for church leadership. For pastors and ministry leaders, the research suggests several priorities, and we're going to go through them. Number one, teach biblical basis on the Great Commission, not just the phrase. That's why we're doing this this morning. Number two, help believers understand that every Christian is called to make disciples, not only pastors and missionaries. That's what we're doing this morning. Number three, build intentional discipleship pathways rather than relying solely on Sunday morning service. That's what we're trying to do with this church. Increase Bible literacy so believers recognize Christ's mission and understand its implications. And then finally, equip members to confidently share the gospel in everyday life. Now, I I know that most of you guys have been here for a while, and probably dealt with this subject before, but out of curiosity, I'm just gonna ask. Before we go on. Just two verses. Two verses in the Bible that has to do with the Great Commission. How many of you here, and be honest now you in church? How many of you here wrote Matthew 28, 18 to 20? You didn't have to show me. I said, how many of you showed me my hands, please? How many of you wrote that? Show by hands, how many of you wrote Matthew 28? That's a great commission verse. You said show by hands, I said. Okay, show my hands. Matthew 28. Holy India? And uh Naomi. Okay. So the statistics is right, isn't it? Right? 30% of the church knows, have an idea about what the Great Commission is. How many of you have heard the term? I mean, you know, though we are we those from Africa, we know. So, because that's what we do. We just stand in the basis and preach, so everybody knows about the Great Commission. But we're talking about American church now. How many of you here know what the Great Commission really is? Okay, so remember we just read Acts chapter 1, verse 8, right? Where Jesus gave his disciples who have been with him for three and a half years a command, and that's why I actually need to underline the word command. And the command was that you will be my witness. Okay, in other words, their job moving from that on was to go and bear witness of what who Jesus was. Doesn't make sense to anyone, okay. Then he said to them that wait until I endure you with power. The Holy Spirit is gonna come, and then it's gonna enable you to be able to do this task that I've called you to do. And so the Holy Spirit did come, didn't he? Okay, great. So on the day of Pentacles, the Holy Ghost came, and we see evidence in the Bible that when the day of Pentacles, the Holy Spirit came, they were boldened, okay, to be able to now go out on the streets and Peter one day preached the message, and 3,000 people gave their life to Christ as the first fruit to Christ. And so right now, every follower of Jesus simply, and we're gonna look into some important things today. That the fact is that the empowerment to do this has already been given us. Now let's unpack the great commission, okay? Go within Matthew 28, verse 18 to 20. That scripture, that scripture verse, the word great commission itself is in the Bible, but that scripture verse, it's what the church understands to be the great commission that Jesus sent us to the world to do something specific. Okay? And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, listen carefully, all authority, please answer the word authority. By the way, this is one of my most favorite subjects in the whole Christian walk, talking about evangelism. My most favorite subject in the whole world. Watch this now. He said, All authority has been given to me. It's important. Please understand the word authority. That's really in handouts, actually, because we we kind of separated out. All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Man, I wish I had time.

unknown 18:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. I mean, if you I keep I keep I keep telling you guys to pay particular attention to the word therefore. What is the word therefore? Why is the word therefore there? The therefore there is that every limitation that will limit us from doing this has been taken away. Okay? All authority. Now that word authority is the Greek word exusia. Okay? Excusia. Now in the Bible, there are a couple of words that are used that can be interrelated, interchanged. Okay? Now, this word particular here means a couple of things, but in my opinion, the most important interpretation of this word is the word jurisdiction. Okay? Now, what's a jurisdiction? A juristriction, and I use this as an example all the time. We have we're in a village of Plainfield, and there's a village of Romanville, there's a village of uh Bolinbrook. A Plainfield policeman has jurisdictor over the land of Plainfield. In other words, a Plainfield policeman cannot go to Bolinbrook and pull someone over in the streets of Bolinbrook. They have no jurisdiction over there. But the state police of Illinois can pull anyone in anywhere in Illinois because they have jurisdictor over the whole of Illinois. Okay? So Jesus is saying that all jurisdiction, in other words, and this word heaven and earth here, it's it's packed. We're talking about as far as the, you know, when you look at the Old Testament, in the beginning of all Christian heavens and the heavens and the earth, um, the heavens, that word heavens in in uh the Greek is the word shamae. Shama'i can mean a couple of things. Shama'i means that the atmosphere of heaven that we're looking at also means the celestial world. In other words, wherever these scientists are taking their telescopes, and we're talking about the galaxies, the galaxy, the solar systems, you know, that is the heavens, the entire universe. Okay, that'd be a proper word to use. And so Jesus is saying that my jurisdiction is an entire universe. Okay, including Earth as well. Then he turns around and says to them, verse 19, because of that, because I own everything, and because I have authority and jurisdiction everywhere, and then go and make disciples of all nations. And it's a baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, verse 26, teaching them to observe all the things I've commanded you. And he ends by saying, And lo, this is so critical, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. So, what Jesus, and if you read the preceding verses to this, Jesus asked them to go to a specific place. He came and then he, before he left, he gave them this instruction. Now, what I want you to understand this morning, what we just read was not a great suggestion. Okay? I won't, I'm not, he wasn't trying to suggest something to us. The book of Acts used the word command. Okay, it wasn't suggesting, he was giving them a great commission, and this great commission, we're gonna look at three important dimensions of this great commission in the next few minutes. Now, watch this now. He first says authority. Now, this is the way you got to look at it. Before Jesus tells you to go somewhere, he establishes that he owns the ground beneath your feet. Okay? Wherever God asks you to go, he doesn't ask you to go on your own. He accompanies you. And the critical part of it is he said, Lo, I'm with you to the end of the age. In other words, wherever you are, I'm accompanying you. Okay? So he says, Your authority has been given to me. So we go to, we don't go in our own name. We don't go on our own credibility. We are not going on our own strength. We are going under his authority. Now remember a few years ago I preached the message about delegated authority. Authority is a very important thing. It's a very interesting thing. Let's say that again, we come back to our story, a policeman in Plainfield, William Plainfield. The authority in Plainfield is a mayor. Okay? The mayor makes sure that everything functions properly in Plainfield. When a policeman is it's uh it's it's it's employed and sworn as a policeman to give him a badge, and whenever the policeman stands anywhere of this 11,000 square feet of what divided is in Plainfield, he's actually standing under the authority of the mayor. Does it make sense? Okay. So when Jesus told you to go somewhere, or whatever God has asked us to do, it's never your own authority, your own credibility. It's nothing got to do nothing with that. This is why, if you don't understand, we pray and we pray in the name of Jesus. Okay? Because the name Jesus is the name that carries all authority. Okay? And so the first dimension of understanding's instruction is that God's authority backs you. It's important you get that. His authority backs you. Every time we stand and do anything in his name, you are not doing it in your own strength. You're doing it in the authority of heaven. When you pray in the name of Jesus, have you asked yourself a question? Why do you do that? That's the authority that establishes what God wants you to do. The other thing is that we gotta understand that He not He's not just senders because of His authority, He gave every single person an assignment. The assignment is go to make disciples. It's a specific instruction. Now, if we had time, I'll probably explain to you in the in the day what discipleship actually meant. Okay? He did not say go invite people to church. Because that is what we do as Christians, we invite people to our church. No, he said, go make, in other words, go make people, disciple the people who follow Jesus, obey the voice of Jesus, and go to reproduce Jesus in someone else. So the whole concept of discipleship is that you you when you be when you're somebody disciple, you understand that person, and ultimately the goal is to be like the same person. Okay? And so the instruction was very specific. He said that's why he said teaching them to observe all the things that I've commanded you. Why? Because I'm always going to be with you, always going to encourage you, remind you of the things you have to say. But the goal is very simple. We don't want a bunch of people who come to church, we want a bunch of people that behave like Jesus. Does it make sense to everyone? Okay, so we have we have an assignment, and then we have the assurance. You have the authority, you have the assignment, you have the assurance. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Do you pee? Do you guys know that when Jesus gave them that promise that will never leave nor forsake you in the book of John, up to this point, Jesus has never left us. Do you guys know that? Oh my god. Every assignment God gives you comes wrapped in the promise of his presence. Oh, that's so powerful. You were never alone. So whenever we use the name Jesus, we wrap ourselves in his authority, we move under his assignment, and we have the assurance that he's always gonna be with us. Okay, temporarily he left in person, but the spirit of God came, and the spirit of God has been with us ever since. Okay, so let's go back to our main test again in Acts chapter 1, verse 8. And let me read the text again just as a refresher. But you shall receive power. This power here is not the power we just read about Xusia. This power here is the way Dynamo, the ability to do tremendous things. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, Christian community, the Holy Spirit was never meant to just let you speak in tongues or make you feel like the Holy Spirit had, okay. You will be my witnesses. The empowerment to do this work comes from the coming upon of the Holy Spirit, okay? An empowerment specifically is to be a witness to Jesus. Okay? And then he tells them that he gives them this is an important thing we're gonna study Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the world. Now, I want you to notice there's uh I hope Devon put this image up for me. I wanted to put an image up for me. It's called the Gospel Image One. Notice the geographical progression. Is there is there that image up there, Azair? What's Jason? Yeah, no, that's two. Put a one there, please. The first one that's the other one. Yes, that one. Okay. Now, this is critical. Watch this now. We're talking about the progression of the gospel, right? He says, You are gonna be witnesses to me. Now, before we planted a church, what I used to do was to host evangelism seminars with I worked with many churches about this specific subject. And I can always tell what is going on in people's minds when it comes to subjects like this. So Jesus told them that you begin from Jerusalem. And somebody said, I'm in Plainfield. So where is Jerusalem? Somebody said, I'm I'm I mean, I'm I'm I live in Juliet, so is that my Samaria? Which is this? You gotta find out. The progression is very simple. You see that the progression is up north, right? Jerusalem, and it says Judea, one step, and it says Samaria, further north, and then it says shoot to the ultimate parts of the world. So my question to you is Jerusalem, what is worse to Jerusalem? Jerusalem is your home, your family, your workplace, your streets. The people closest to you is your Jerusalem. And Jesus never told them to go straight to the ends of the world. He said, begin from those that are close to you. Now I want every single person here to get this very clearly that what we are studying this morning is an expectation from heaven. This is not part of you just go to church and the preacher man. And the reason why there are 52% of the church don't know about Great Commission is that most pastors don't talk about the Great Commission. There are so many issues around that people are dealing with that we've forgotten the most important aspect of our call to Christ is to be witnesses. And so every single person here, Jesus told them that you begin from your family, you begin from your workplace, you begin from your streets, the people that are closest to you. Now, what is Judea? Judea will be your region, familiar ground that still takes what's called intention to rich. You know, a few years ago we used to talk a lot in this church about intentionality. And so we begin with your surroundings, and your Judea is going to be familiar ground, okay? Intentionality to rich. Then it talks about further north, Samaria. Samaria is the uncomfortable place. Now it's so important. As I take that image out for a minute. Now, Samaria. For those of you who know a bit of biblical history, it's interesting that Jesus is telling him to go to Samaria. Because in his time, the Jewish had nothing to do with the Samaritans. Okay? Absolutely nothing to do with the Samaritan. I don't have a lot of time to kind of uh you know teach about the background of that. But the important thing is that he asked the disciples to reach on the uncomfortable places. It's so interesting that if you put an image up, Isaiah, please put the image back up again for me, please. I want to teach you something real quick. So you were in Judea, right? Or Jerusalem, and Samaria was up north, okay? Now, if you wanted to get to, let's say, Galilee, right, which is further up north in Samaria, you know what they were doing? They were literally walking around, they would not walk through Samaria because no Jewish person wanted to put a foot in Samaria. Why? Because the Samaritans, according to Jews, were unpure. They were married to the Assyrians, and they are intermarried as Syrians and were producing babies. So the Jewish people who thought they were poor, they were pure, which had nothing to do with Samaria. So this is Jesus who comes on the scene and tells them, You go to Samaria with the gospel. You're not hearing me. And what does it represent to us? Uncomfortable places. People who don't look like us, think like you, or worship the way you worship, whom God loves the same. And so you want to, you know what I mean? So God is very intentional. I said, Okay, Ray, sat with your home, your people. People are comfortable with you, people know you. Now stretch yourself a little bit more to Judea, okay? It's still within your scope of what you know. But then from Judea, you want to take it right to the Gentiles, where you would otherwise not look at them, people that you're not going to talk to them, people not going to speak to them. It makes you uncomfortable. My gospel reaches them. Okay? Then it says, then after you've conquered Samaria to the end of the world, okay? And the end of the earth are the nations God has called us to reach through missions. And so, you know, it's interesting. It's profound, part of the call of God for every single believer. As I take the image now, please. They needed a starting point, and the starting point was in Jerusalem. Where you stand, where you are standing right now. Now go with me to the book of Luke 24, and we read verse 48. And then we found another profound verse. Now the background story to this is that Jesus was dead, resurrected the same day. A couple of his disciples were on the road to Elimus going. And Jesus came instead of walking with them. And they were telling Jesus, you don't know what has got what has happened in Jerusalem today. Okay? And if you read the verse over and over again, the Bible says that Jesus then spoke to them and their eyes opened. And verse 48 says that he said to them, thus it is written, and that it is necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead the third day. 47. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations. The word nations are ethnos, ethnic people, every ethnic person. Okay? Beginning from Jerusalem. That's emphasis again. And you are my witnesses to these things. Okay? So again, almost every single one of the writers in the New Testament, towards the end of the New Testament, emphasizes this that we're supposed to do. So beginning from Jerusalem. But what the Luke, the doctor wrote, he said to all nations, all ethnic people, all ethnos. So the gospel is universal for all ethnic people, ethnos, but we begin from Jerusalem. So you begin from where you are, you begin from around you, you begin from people you're familiar with. There's nobody who's outside this covenant with God. And then we take it to the end of the world to the ethnic people. And the goal here is to be witnesses for Jesus. Now, the image that Isaiah put up a little bit, Isaiah, put a second image up for me, please. Now just imagine that in a huge river like that, you know, you drop a stone in the middle. Okay? The stone doesn't just go to the end of the river, it does something. There is, like I said, I see something. It creates this ripple exactly where it lands, and this ripple moves around, circle by cycle. And this is how the gospel travels through a life surrendered by to Christ. And it's always starts, it always starts exactly where you are. And so it I don't know if this brings a clear explanation to it. When you begin from where you are, there's it has this ripple effect. Amen. And gradually, so it's from Jerusalem, and then we go to Judea, and then we go to Samaria, the uncomfortable places, and then we go to the ends of the world. Now there's another verse in the book, I think, uh look, I think it was. And you remember the story that Jesus, uh, the master sent his servants to go and invite people to a banquet. And they went and sent invitation, and people said we're going to come, and the banquet was ready. And the master sent them to go back and call them to come, and they wouldn't come. They said that they started giving excuses, right? And he told the guys to go to the byways and highways, and they went and they brought people in, but there was still room. Oh, you're not hearing me. There was still room. And he sent them back and said, go back to the hedges. And you know, those Greek words are so interesting. Those are where those barriers that we need to break and cross. Those are the people who don't speak English. These are the people who have Hindus and other gods. And these are people who's going to take a little bit more effort to get them into the house of the Lord. But God says, that's the assignment I've given you. That is the assignment of every single person. So I want to talk to you quickly about what makes a credible witness. Who is a credible witness? Let's go back to the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 8. We want to sit there for the whole series. But you shall be you shall receive power of the Holy Spirit to come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem. Um I hate uh book of Acts. Anyway, what's it called? Windows. But you shall be you shall receive power when the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the world. Okay? And then we go back. Let's cross-reference quickly to Luke chapter 24, verse 48. Again, behold, I send your promise of the Father upon you. That you tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you endure with power from on high. And so in Acts, Messiah is telling them that I'm going to endure with power. And in Luke, he makes the same reference, Luke 24, 48. He says that wait for the promise of the Father, tarry in the city of Jerusalem, don't go anywhere until you endured with power from on high. Now, the way you got to look at these two verses is important. Before witnessing, before missions, before anything, there is power. Now watch this now. He's done what he has to do. He's gone to the cross, he's resurrected. Amen. He's living. But he says, I know you guys are probably eager to do this, but wait. Because there's an aspect that is so critical that if that aspect, you don't have that aspect, you're not going to be successful. Okay? And he says, I am going to give you that. The person I'm going to give you, the one that's going to come, is going to equip you, is going to strengthen you, is going to make this work possible. In other words, the power that Jesus is talking about was the power to do supernatural things. The power for your voice to be echoed. The power for your voice to be recognized by satanic forces. The power for you to have so much breakthroughs in what you say, that power is essentially heaven speaking through you. And so when you lift up your voice and you speak, it's not you speaking, it is heaven speaking through you. Does it make sense? So attempting evangelism apart from the Holy Spirit is like a courtroom witness testifying without any memory of what actually happened. It cannot be done. Before anything, you cannot manufacture this power that Jesus is talking about. Now it's unfortunate that the reason why I believe the church is not enjoying this instruction of Jesus is because we have neglected the very source of what is enabling us to do it. And this is what we're going to be studying about what makes a credible witness. So, what actually makes a credible witness? There are five important things, and you have them in your handouts. The first one is personal experience. Amen. You cannot share what you have nor personally received. Okay? Your relationship with Christ must be real before it can be reported to someone. Now, most of us are still struggling with our relationship with Christ, with our work with Christ. And because we're struggling every single day, it is impossible for us to be able to share him effectively. Because you still have issues, you still have questions. Whether all those things should really be behind you, that you are not ever going to be able to confidently share Jesus with anyone when you still don't know who he really is. And so what makes a credible witness, your first thing is your personal experience. Make sure that your work with Christ is solid. Make sure that you really have received him. Christ must be real to you. Okay? It's not something that you just say. Most of us in the church, all we do now, we're talking about something that we've never experienced. Because your pastor says, or somebody else says, or somebody sings a song about it, and you run with it. But really, you have not really experienced Messiah in your life. But you come to church every Sunday. How then are you able to confidently shine with someone if you do have not experienced it fully? If you don't experience how truthful it is, if you don't experience the salvation, if you don't experience the healing that comes with him, if you don't experience the confidence, if you're not really solely relying on him but relying on your own strengths and your abilities, how can you confidently tell somebody that this guy saves? So your personal experience is number one. Number two, you need to, your personal experience leads to a transformed life. Your changed life is evidenced before you can even open your mouth. And because we have all said a sinus prayer, we come to church, we pray, we read the Bible. But somehow, somehow there's a disconnect between who he is and who we are. And therefore, it's very difficult for us because we are not experiencing it, and because we have not a fully experienced Him, we don't have that transformed life to be able to tell others about him. Okay. Number three, spirit-giving boldness. The Holy Ghost came to give the Spirit-giving boldness. Courage to speak does not come from your personality, it comes from the Holy Spirit. And that's the reason why Jesus said, Hang on a minute, don't move. Because if you go on your own, if you go on your own wisdom and understanding, the first time that Pharaoh is going to look at you, you're going to run with your legs, tell you. You know, look at Stephen taking up the whole counsel if you read the book of Acts. That comes with the boldness of the Holy Spirit. And so a spirit-giving boldness comes with a credible witness. Number four, consistent character. Your walk has to match your talk. All your talk means nothing. So what we have done, especially in this country, is that we have begun to develop what we call Christian lingo. We talk Christianese. Everybody knows, no, praise the Lord, hallelujah, praise the Lord, hallelujah. But the truth is that we don't see that consistency in our character. We say one thing, and then the confess confession is another thing. And so if you look at all this credibility, they don't come together. Therefore, we are bound by how to share our faith because we ourselves are trying to figure out this thing with Christ. So watch this. Your walk has to match your talk, okay? And then we'll talk about genuine love. People listen far more readily to someone who cares about them than someone who's trying to win an argument. Okay? Now go with me to 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15 quickly. Now, Post Peter, writing this letter, says to them in the verse 15, he said, but sanctify. The word sanctify is what we get the word saints from or sanctification from. And it simply means to set apart. And Peter is saying, set apart the God in your heart. Okay? And always, always be ready to give a defense. Why is Jesus Lord? Why do you go to church? Why is it not Buddha Muhammad or Confucius? Why is See Jesus. Peter said, Sanctify the Lord in your heart, be ready, be ready to shoot, to give a defense for to everyone who acts you for the reason of faith that is in you. And he aims the verse by saying, With all meekness and with fear. So your testimony, right? We're talking about your testimony. You're a witness. What does a witness do? A witness just simply share their testimony. Okay? Because a witness is about to tell them what he's seen, what he's experienced. And here comes another problem. Because of our work with Christ, there's a lot not going right with us. And so we don't have the testimony to be able to share. So foundationally, there's an issue that needs to be dealt with. Okay? So watch this now. He said, your testimony and a witness's testimony, an eyewitness account cannot be argued with. Why? Because it is your story. You are the only one who knew where you were, what you've gone through, what you've experienced, and where you are now. So who can argue with your own story? That's your witness about Christ, right? It is relatable. Because every single person here has gone through some shady things before you are where you are today. And so when you meet somebody who is also going through what you've been through, it's relatable. That's your witness. Everyone understands a good story. This is why Jesus always taught them about parables. Jesus always made the stories you taught them relatable. And so when you're telling someone about your testimony, it's about being, it has to be relatable. That's your story, okay? And when it resonates with them, it's memorable. I'm not going to forget a good story about someone who was destined for doom that was rescued miraculously. Okay? And so important things, your story, it's your story. It is relatable, it is understandable, and it's memorable. People will forget an argument, but they will remember a true story. Now, how many of you remember, if you're still in the Bible, you remember it's an amazing story in John chapter 4. And again, I briefly just shared about this Samaritan. We all know the story about a Samaritan woman, okay? This was not a theologian. And this woman, if you read the story closely, had a very complicated past. You know, if I was to go to a city or state, like Bishop Gogo travels a lot, and he goes to Uganda and he wants to go and have a crusade. He's going to go to people who are known in the city. He's not going to go to somebody who is the most complicated person. This woman did not, now, there's no way that anybody was going to go and consult her if they wanted to reach Samarit of Samaria for Jesus. Read the story in John chapter 4. He had had five husbands. This is this is the you know the reason why he went to the well at noon? Because she was the top of the town. And even though it was so hot at noon in their time, to avoid everybody, she went to the world at noon. Now watch this now. The moment she encountered Jesus, oh, you're not hearing me. Please read a story when you have a minute today. In John chapter 4. The moment she encountered Jesus, she runs back to the town and shares her testimony. You know what her testimony was? Very simple. Come see a man who told me everything. You see the Christ. Now, irrespective of her past, irrespective of who she was, her testimony at the time was so profound that the story says that the whole village followed her. That one simple unpolished testimony brought the entire city to Christ. How did she achieve that? Everybody knew who she was, and all of a sudden, she says, Come see. He didn't say, you know, I'm I'm out. No, he said, just come see. A man. Who told me everything? So, what's your testimony this morning? That is all Jesus is asking you to share. If you go back to the courtroom scenario that we began with, a witness is never disqualified for lack of a law degree. So Danielle goes on the stage and they lifts up her hands and she swears, I'm a witness, I had a first-hand account. And the judge looks at her and says, Because you have no law degree, I'm disqualifying you. Is that how it works? No. A witness is qualified simply of having been there. A witness qualification is what they saw. Now, I want to ask you this morning, what did you see when Jesus called you? The only qualification you have today is that Jesus saved you and that qualifies you. Because when he saved you, you were the only person there and you saw what he did. You don't need to argue with anyone. Nobody needs to tell you anything. You know what you saw because your eyes saw what he did. You know, hearing me. And that is all you are called to do. Over the years that I've been teaching this subject, I used to hold seminars. Like I said, this is taking me through the whole world to do this. And every time I did this, there's something that I did. I took a census, a poll, a little poll, and asked a very simple question. What was the number one reason why we are all bound from doing this? And it's only lifetime. This is not condemnation. Not everybody sitting here is the entire there is nowhere that I went that it even 5% of the church were involved in evangelism. It's impossible. Nobody does it. Pastors don't teach about it, Christians don't know involved in this commission. We just don't do it. And so, what was the number one reason why we don't do this? Who can guess what the answer was? The number one reason. We're gonna talk about five common excuses. The number one excuse you and this was consistent everywhere. And I'm sure Bishop goes to every part of the world that he was to and he asks this question, you will get the same answer. This is universal, the whole Christian community, the whole church, whether it was in the UK, whether it was in Vietnam, wherever I was, and this question was asked the number one on the list was the same thing throughout the whole world. Fear. Whether I was in the US, dollars, wherever I was, on a Sunday morning like this, teaching the church, it was consistent. Rejection. Fear. Open the Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7, please. This is the truth about who you are. Do you know if you know your Bible in Acts chapter 4? Jesus did something profound with his disciples, man. They opened their eyes. They raised a cripple, I think it was. Yeah. Cripple. No, was it a blind man or cripple man? In the good or beautiful. What was it? Was it a blind man or cripple? Good or beautiful. Book of Acts. Cripple. Okay. So they were taken to the Sahendrian. And the Sahendrian warned them. The whole thing was that don't preach in the name of Jesus anymore. Many years ago, I was studying this, and the Holy Spirit told me something about that particular verse. And the reason why, for 2,000 years, it is still the number one reason was that a spirit of fear was released because they told them this is what they told them in Acts chapter 4. He said a miracle has happened, and we can't dispute that miracle. But so that these guys don't preach in the name of Jesus anymore, let us do something, let us severely threaten them. The spirit of fear was released in the kingdom. But the truth about you is found in 2 Timothy 1:17. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power of love and of sound mind. Whenever you are you are fearful to do something, you know that it's not from God. And so whenever we are crippled, fear of rejection, you know that that rejection is an opposition from the force of darkness, that you are not supposed to do what you are supposed to do. Reason number two, inadequacy. Do you know what inadequacy is? I don't know enough, Bible. I can't quote verse for verse. So what about if I get into a discussion with somebody and it becomes a theological discussion? What am I going to do? Because I don't know enough. I want to tell you that even the Apostle Paul did not feel adequate enough to do God's work. Go with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1 to 5. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come to you with excellence of speech or human wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. Paul said, I wasn't there, I didn't come with you as a theologian to discuss theological things with you. No. Verse 6 says, For I'm determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ who's crucified. Verse 3. I was with you in weakness. This is Paul. In weakness, in fear. This is Paul. And in much trembling. Okay? Verse 4. And my speech and preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the demonstration, you're not hearing me. When the Holy Ghost is involved in this, everything changes. The demonstration of the spirit of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of man but in the power of God. So you don't know our Bible? The one verse you know, when it's backed by the Holy Ghost, changes everything. Excuse timing. Most of us run because we are hands are so busy with work. Timing. You're waiting for the right time to do it. There's never going to be a right time today. The Bible said today. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 2. For he says, in acceptable time, I have had you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is that we say now is. Now is today, right now is the acceptable time. There's never going to be another time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Today, not tomorrow. Excuse number five. Guilt. Do you know why? Because the same way we said that most of us are struggling. You said that my life isn't perfect enough to talk to somebody about Jesus. I'm struggling myself with things. I'm struggling with anger. I'm struggling with this. How do I talk to somebody about Jesus? I feel inadequate. I feel guilty about my life. Because I just lied. So how am I going to talk to Daniel about Jesus when I just lied? You don't hear me. You know what the truth is about that? Tell them exactly that you like your before and your after. It is very simple. You look at 2 Corinthians 5 17. It says, if anyone is in Christ, it's a new creature. If you were a bogus yesterday, you're in Christ, you're a new creature today. Tell them the truth. This is what I was, this is what I am now. Because the interesting thing is that it's never going to be a perfect, it's never going to be a perfect time. You're never going to feel adequate. You never ask anybody, anybody who've been preaching whether they feel adequate enough in God, you were never going to feel inadequacy is everywhere. Especially when you hear, you see the gurus. Man, you're setting you're not here. You hear the gurus preach, you want you are always going to feel inadequate. But the point is that that shouldn't stop you from doing what God has called it to do. What is excuse number five? Intimidation. Someone say intimidation. I'm going to Jamaica now. Intimidation. You are intimidated. Why? Because they won't listen to someone like you. Intimidation. We're going to start singing reggae in a minute. Go with me to Acts chapter 4, verse 13. He says, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, you know, hearing me, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained, they marveled and they realized that they have been with Jesus. That is still the most powerful qualification available to you today. You are you are being with Jesus. You're not hearing me. They won't listen to you, you have been with Jesus. Anybody who has been with Jesus, man, boldness come upon you. There is no fear. Look at Acts chapter 10, verse 14-15. We're closing. I've got a minute.

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Acts chapter 10. Verse 14 and 15. Now then, shall they call on him whom they have not believed? How then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Ask yourself these questions. We see all these people around us, we see all these situations around us. Everything's going on around us, and we all love Jesus. You know, lately I've been seeing Uncle Prince posting a lot of good things about church. We see them, we know what's going on. We're going to make a difference. But watch this now. Ask yourself this question clearly. How then will they call on him whom they have not believed? How is anybody calling on Jesus when they have not believed on him? Again, ask yourself, and how shall they believe on him when they have no head? Have you preached to them? And how could they hear without a preacher man? Tell somebody some preacher man. Every single person. At the beginning of the year, we stand and said, Every single person here is a missionary. Every single person in this church is a preacher man. It's not because I stand here every no. Everyone should be able to do what I do with excellence more than I do it here. Because you have the Spirit of God living in you. Every single one of us is called people. You are a preacher, man. Your story is so profound, so profound. Where God found you from, how God dealt with you, what God is doing with you, it's so profound that the world needs to hear it. Look at verse 15. And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Tell them I'm sent. Because Jesus sent us 2,000 years ago. And if you are doubting it, read John 17. When you was praying for the church, it said every single person that was believing apostles through them is also prayed for. You are part of it. Tell them I'm part of it. Now watch this now. And how shall they hear unless they are sent? As it is written. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace who bring glad tidings of good things. So someone in your circle right now is waiting for you to open your mouth. There's somebody in your circle on Facebook. There's somebody in your circle on Instagram. There's somebody that comes to you every single day. It's waiting for you to tell them, Have you ever met Jesus? Let me tell you how awesome this guy has done for me. They're waiting for it. So, in conclusion, this is what we would say. You don't need a seminar degree, degree, degree, degree to be used by God. Contrary to what we believe, special training, degree. I need to have, I need to be a walking Bible. You don't need none of that. You need a testimony and a willingness to open your mouth. Now please tell me. If you don't have a testimony in this place, put your hand down. But if you have a testimony, let me see you shoot your hand right up. Because if you don't have a testimony, that means you are not saved. But if you have a testimony, that means you are saved. That's the one that says, I have a testimony. So that's what we're going to do this week. You're going to do three things. You're going to write out your testimony. Before and how. Okay? And after. Three things. Before, how, and after. Write out your testimony this week. Number two, in under three minutes, you're going to do this. You're going to write a testimony. In other words, you're not going to hold somebody bound and give them a seminary lecture. No, you're going to keep it simple. Snap. Three minutes, you're going to do that. Right? Now, you're going to pray for three specific unsaved people by name. Look around you. Three people that are saved. You're going to make them your prayer point this week. This week, you're not going to ask God to pay any bills for you. You're not going to ask God to bless you. You're not going to do that this week. Okay? You are not going to pray for anything for yourself. Feed me, feed my children, bless me. You're not going to do that. You're going to find three people that are in your circle that you know they are not saved. That today a Messiah came, they're in trouble. And you spend the whole week praying for them. Get your testimony ready. And then the third thing you're going to do, right? Is that you are going to uh what's it called? Ask God one divine appointment this week to speak up. One divine appointment, Lord, from Monday to Friday. Grant me one divine appointment so that I can share my testimony with someone. Very simple. Have you met Jesus? It's not you go to church. It's not you're a Christian. It's not you're a Catholic. Have you met Jesus? Who is he? Oh man, how many meaning? You know when I used to travel, I used to fly a lot. And I'm sitting on the plane and I want to start a conversation. Do you know how to start it? You know, people like to brag about who they are, right? So I just tell, hey, what do you do for a living? You go, let's say you go into Dallas. I said, Do you fly to Dallas all the time? She goes, Yes. So amazing. What do you do there? They're gonna brag. And then after they brag to you, they're gonna ask you, what do you do? I said, wow, I work for the largest company on this earth. We have branches everywhere. I tell people about how to live a life. Dude, this is what elevation speech. You got you, you, you, you don't understand. You don't understand. You have to find a way to get into the hearts of people and tell them about Jesus. Make it all about Jesus. One divine appointment this week. Now, Acts chapter 8 is not a suggestion, it's a promise. Power will come, boldness will come, opportunity will come. Your only job is to be ready when it does. The problem is that God has so much all the time orchestrated, you know, things right, but we're never ready when opportunity comes. And when opportunity comes, we make it a theological discussion, and we'll make it about church, and we'll make it about no, no, no, no, no. Make it about Jesus. Very simple. I have met him. This is what he did for me. That's my testimony. Have you met him? The woman said, Come see, a man who changed everything. He tells me everything I've done. Can't this be the Christ? Ah, Master Tide. We we make things very complicated, things that are very simple. All that God requires from every single person here today, after meeting him, is to be a witness for what he's done for you. Okay. After you met him, just be a witness for what he's done for you.