Why are we so poor at witnessing?
Andrew Alsop
This title begs a question: Do we believe that our gospel witness and
testimony is poor? Having been asked to respond to this question, I am
assuming that whilst not true of every church or individual, this is
generally the case. If you believe that the Lord is enabling you and
your congregation to maintain a powerful witness, please evaluate this
article; a critique will be welcome.
In considering this question, I am compelled to look first at myself
and to compare my testimony with that of the apostles and early
disciples. My conclusions are:
1. We lack a sense of compulsion
When arrested,
interrogated and threatened for their preaching following the healing of
the lame man at the temple gate in Jerusalem, Peter and John said, We
cannot but speak of the things which we have seen and heard (Acts 4:20).
Their experience of Christ Jesus, his life, death and resurrection, was
so real that they could not contain themselves. This was not just
because they were eyewitnesses of these things. As eyewitnesses they had
been scared into hiding even on Resurrection Sunday, but the Holy Spirit
brought these things home to them so powerfully that bearing witness to
Christ became their overriding purpose. It gripped them and galvanised
them.
We are not all called to be preachers, but even as we go about our
daily responsibilities the compulsion to bear testimony to Jesus Christ
should always be bubbling away beneath the surface. Recently I was
speaking to a corporate banker, who concluded the business part of our
conversation very rapidly, and then wanted to talk about sport. Before
long he was speaking of the 1999 European Champions Final when
Manchester United defeated Bayern Munich. He had witnessed this live,
but he told me about it as if it were only yesterday. I think to myself,
why am I not as eager to speak of Jesus Christ? Where is that sense of
compulsion of which Peter and John spoke? We need God the Holy Spirit to
pour it out upon us. We need in all earnestness and seriousness to plead
with him to do so.
2. We are not reconciled to suffering
We tend to think of suffering for our witness as something unusual
and to be avoided at all costs. We are likely to accuse (in our minds if
not openly) bolder brothers and sisters as rash and foolish, especially
when their witness results in ridicule and suffering. But such an
approach is often a cloak for our own embarrassment and reluctance to
accept suffering. By contrast, Peter and John, having been beaten and
threatened for speaking about Jesus, rejoiced that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name. To be effective and uninhibited
witnesses, we need to be reconciled to the prospect of being thought mad
and extreme, and to suffering ridicule, ostracism and maybe even
violence to our persons and property.
3. We tend to be governed by worldly values
It is often the case that we value each other and ourselves by
worldly standards. The measure of our worth is our wealth, education,
our achievements in this world. We live this way; we see other
Christians living like it, and we cannot bear that they should continue
to amass wealth and enjoy a life of ease and pleasure while we deny
ourselves, and so we hinder each other. Instead of each setting an
example, we esteem those who do well for themselves, and make them our
example. By contrast the Apostle Paul says, I have coveted no one’s
silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that these hands
have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me (Acts
20:33-34). This liberated him in his witness, whereas the espousing of
worldly values in our hearts robs us of conviction and power. Our words
of witness will sound hollow even in our own ears, as well as of those
who hear us, if we are not sincere, self-denying Christians.
4. We are too easily discouraged
Think of how few converts Noah, Moses and Jeremiah saw in all their
combined years of testimony. However, they all maintained a powerful
witness over many years. Their example should strengthen and nerve our
souls in days of discouragement. Our fewness and the hardness of men’s
hearts should make us appreciate all the more the privilege we have in
being the ones to keep the torch of testimony ablaze at such times. We
must not allow previous rejection, or mere indifference to allow us to
think that we are wasting our time in telling others about Christ. What
does Paul say? We are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are
being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the
aroma of death to death, and to the other the aroma of life to life’
(2 Corinthians 2:14-16).
5. Maybe we just don’t care for those who are perishing
Perhaps the plight of the ungodly isn’t very real in our thinking.
However, consider the concern shown by many as they demonstrated against
the invasion of Iraq. Whatever our personal opinion about this matter,
there are many who were sincerely concerned for the Iraqi people as they
faced the horrors of war, and they were prepared to demonstrate to
convey that concern. We Bible-believing Christians believe in a hell
much more terrible than anything that was experienced in Iraq, but do we
care enough to open our mouths to tell of the love of God in Christ
Jesus? We need to ask for the Spirit of our Lord Jesus who cared for the
souls of those who did not care for themselves. This same spirit was in
Jeremiah as he witnessed to his fellow countrymen of coming judgement: O
my soul, my soul! I am pained in my very heart! My heart makes a noise
in me; I cannot hold my peace. Because you have heard, O my soul, the
sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war (Jeremiah 4:19).
May God visit us with power and liberty in our witness. May Christ
and his gospel become so real and important to us, so glorious an answer
to the plight of this world, that we can say for ourselves: we cannot
but speak of the things which we have seen and heard.
(Andrew Alsop is a director of Airsprung Beds, based in Wiltshire,
and has also had experience of the pastoral ministry.)
