The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
When I was finishing up high school and before I headed off to college, I spent a lot of time with Christian kids of the Baptist and Evangelical persuasion. Many of these kids had a passion for Christ, and they joined groups like Campus Crusade for Christ, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and The Navigators. And those groups were evangelistic in nature. They were all about sharing, bearing witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Groups like this, though, they tend to like these big events. They tend to like retreats and meetings and performances. And these groups have a strong emphasis on evangelism, which they understand to mean offering up their personal testimony concerning their conversion to Christianity, both to groups and to individuals.
I sometimes found myself in these gatherings with my friends, and each one of those gatherings had a structure, and part of that structure was time reserved for a predetermined person to stand up before the group — in this case it happened to also be a radio program — and to offer their personal witness regarding their own conversion to the Christian faith. A fundamental part of that was testifying to the circumstances and the moment, the very day, and if possible the time, when one chose to become a Christian.
Well, that’s all well and good, and I believe that the Lord God can use personal stories to relate to those who have yet to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of salvation, as convoluted sometimes as it would get. Since the content of these stories, though, are personal and unique experiences to the testifier, the people to whom the testifier speaks are expected to accept word for word the story and conversion process of the one offering the testimony, both in particular circumstances and also in its theological content. We’re simply supposed to trust the story, even if the storyteller has told us that they’ve had a history of addictions and lying and betrayal and the like. We’re simply to trust what has been said. Who’s to say that the teller of the story has in fact learned to subdue their problems and their addictions? Or who’s to say they haven’t embellished, or even concocted, the story altogether, for the sake of getting praise and attention? I knew that to be the case for a couple of my friends, despite their good intentions.
Organizations and church bodies like these rely too much on the testimony of men, which John says in our Epistle lesson today is good — one talking about Jesus is a good thing — but that the testimony of God is so much better. That was 1 John 5:9: “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.” In other words, given the way in which the general person gives a personal testimony about their, quote, conversion experience, it’s better to trust what the Bible says rather than how the story is being told.
Today is the seventh and final Sunday in Easter. It’s unique in the church calendar. It’s unique in its position in the church’s story of salvation, and in that calendar itself. It is the only Sunday in the 10-day window between the Ascension of Jesus Christ and Pentecost. On Sunday, its significance is reflected in the fact that each and every year, the story of the appointment of a new twelfth apostle, in this case Matthias, who succeeds Judas, is the recorded reading, each and every year. It signals that it’s time now for the apostles to begin to preach and teach publicly the doctrines of the Old and New Testament. That is, they aren’t giving their personal conversion experience. They’re being given a specific command to fulfill the ministry of the church, that is, to proclaim the doctrines that God Himself testifies to.
Notice this: Judas had a replacement, and that replacement had to actually be an eyewitness to specific things that happened in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Chapter 1:21-22: he had to be a man who, the apostles said, “accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us — one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
Looking back on the Easter season, we see that the Easter season’s actually constructed in such a way as to bring us to Pentecost Sunday. That is, it’s about the death, resurrection, and ascension, and doctrines of Jesus Christ. The second and third Sundays always, always, no matter what calendar we’re using, always recount post-resurrection appearances, stating the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and even at one time 500 people at one time saw Christ Himself after the resurrection. The fourth Sunday focuses on a theme based on Jesus’ teaching of Himself, that is, He is the only Good Shepherd. The three final Sundays, 5, 6, and 7, prepare the church specifically for Pentecost, and they focus on John chapters 14 through 17, ending with the High Priestly Prayer for the church, focusing, by Christ’s prayer, on what we the church are supposed to be doing, that is, speaking, preaching the universal truth about the one holy Christian apostolic Church. In these chapters, Jesus prepares the disciples for the arrival of the promised Helper, namely the Holy Spirit.
The seventh Sunday of Easter considers the High Priestly Prayer, where Jesus prayed for His church, and specifically that we be united in the truth. And we’re going to get to that important part of the truth: speaking the truth, rather than one’s, quote, personal experience, isn’t necessarily the very same thing. All this is designed to create in us a right understanding of the Christian message, of the Christian doctrine, and of the ministry of the now New Testament Church.
The Epistle lesson, 1 John 5, teaches us that the church has been charged with three fundamental tasks. Number one: to bear witness, or to use another Greek word, homologeo, to confess the faith of Christ, that is, the teachings and the experiences of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Number two: the church is to show mercy, that is, the forgiveness of sins and kindness to those in need. And number three: a life of fellowship, of together-life lived together as a family in Christ, with Him as our head. The Greek text uses three words to describe the duties of the church, and if you put the three together, they have kind of a nice ring to them: martyria, diakonia, and koinonia. Those three words encompass the full scope of the activity of a congregation like ours, those faithful to the Word and Sacrament ministry.
The church exists first and foremost to witness, martyria, the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to both those who know Christ and those who do not. Witness. That’s how the church began. 1 John chapter 1, verse 1: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life — the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.” They aren’t giving a personal experience. They’re proclaiming a fundamental fact about the person and the work of Christ and His relationship to the heavenly Father.
The church is also called to care for those in need, to be merciful, diakonia. This includes every kind of mercy the church can show: helping the poor and the downtrodden, providing for them with their basic needs. It also covers Holy Absolution, the forgiveness of sins, that kind of mercy. It includes all kinds of mercy. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That’s the epitome of mercy.
The church is also called to, quote, gather together, not only in the breaking of the bread back there in the fellowship hall, when we eat, drink, and have fun, but in the breaking of the bread here, in the Holy Sacrament, the table of fellowship, where we partake of Christ’s very body and blood under bread and wine. And for that, that word koinonia is used, which is altar and table fellowship: “That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship, koinonia, with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
In the Epistle lesson for today, the word for witness, martyria, is used six times in just three verses. The translation I use this morning uses the word “testimony,” but the word can be translated either “witness” or “testimony.” Verse 9: “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.” Jesus teaches us what it really means to give a Christian testimony. First, it starts with historical statements of fact, of what God did in history, and it ends with what God is doing each and every Sunday to the faithful, in hearing the Word and receiving the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. It begins with Christ and history, and it ends with our actions and our reception of God’s grace and mercy in the church. That’s what a true biblical model of testifying to Christ looks like.
One of the great problems among Lutherans, and every Christian of whatever denomination, is they always forget the last part of bringing the person to the church, either in the story being told, the witness being given, or actually picking them up on Sunday morning. As we give testimony that the Father has given us to speak to others, the truth and falsehood of the claims of Christianity don’t lie within our ability to prove, quote unquote, the story to be true. We’re simply to be faithful to the biblical text, and what we’re taught to say and to do and to think, and how to see the world. It is the Holy Spirit, the Helper, and God the Father and the Son who convince the hearer that in fact the statements are true. It’s God’s testimony. It’s not ours.
In simple terms, the testimony or witness you are speaking to others is the story of what God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have done since Genesis chapter 1. The story is for you, not necessarily about you. And that’s the mistake of most testifiers these days.
Last week’s Epistle lesson pointed us in the right direction, and did so in a pretty profound theological way. That was 1 John 5:6-8: “This is he who came by water and blood — Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.” Just speak the Gospel, get the facts right, and let God do His work. You do yours. That’s how it’s supposed to be. These three verses refer to Jesus’ birth, to His life, His suffering, His death, and His resurrection. That’s what the water and the blood all cover. The passage also speaks of the Holy Spirit, who constantly shines the light of Jesus and the truth of His Word into the whole world, as itself a witness. It refers to the waters of Baptism which wash away our sins, to the bread and wine in Holy Communion which feeds us, remits our sins, and keeps us steadfast in true Christian faith until the heavenly banquet, where all who believe the testimony shall participate. All of these are objective truths set forth by God the Father Himself. These facts of the Gospel are immutable. They don’t change. This is God’s testimony, not the testimony of well-intentioned but theologically confused kids or adults.
When we speak of the Gospel, and we speak of the Gospel itself, we must understand we don’t have the liberty to do a lot of fancy paraphrasing and simplifying in order to, quote, get the message across. That’s the mistake of the megachurches these days. “Keep it simple, stupid” is not a biblical axiom. Keep it truthful and accurate to the biblical text. That’s the biblical axiom.
As I said at the start of this sermon, in my younger years I hung out with Christian kids of Baptist and Evangelical persuasion. One day they approached me, some of these kids, to ask if I would be willing to stand before a crowd on that particular radio program and give my testimony about when I, quote, gave my life to Christ. I was asked to provide the details of my alleged decision for Jesus, and the circumstances behind which I accepted Jesus as my Savior and Lord. My reply was simple, biblical, and very unwelcome. I said, “I did not give my life to Jesus. He gave His for me and all other sinners. And to the best of my knowledge, I became a Christian in June or July of the year of my birth, 1960, in a Lutheran church that I don’t know the name of, someplace in Duluth, Minnesota. That’s my testimony.” It didn’t make the stage, but it was the Gospel truth, now wasn’t it? It just lacked all the flamboyant things that you’re supposed to put into a conversion story. I wasn’t an addict. I was a kid. That’s kind of almost the same sometimes. But look: you simply tell the truth of the Gospel and let the Lord do His work.
When it comes to sharing our faith, quote unquote, that’s somewhat of a misnomer. It’s not our faith. Our faith is not in faith either. The testimony of the Lord God is historical facts of what the Lord did in both the Old and New Testaments through His Son, Jesus Christ, for sinners like you and me and the rest of the world. John continued in verses 11 and 12: “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Pure and simple. Just straight to the point. And you let the Holy Spirit do its work.
The world today would have us believe that the difference between Muhammad and Jesus is not unlike the difference between Pepsi and Coke. However, the difference between Muhammad and Jesus, or any other religion for that matter, the difference is life and death. Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” And then the uncomfortable part of that passage: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” That’s the truth. Jesus Himself is the life. That’s His testimony. Life in Christ means you have true peace. You have true forgiveness of sins. You have true hope eternal. And you have true love, in the here and now and in eternity. Life in Christ means you have heaven, even in the midst of every trial and tribulation and difficulty in this life, medical, financial, natural disasters, you name it. You still have life and salvation in Christ. Life in Christ means you have the forgiveness of all your sins and freedom from all your past sins, even if people hold your past against you, use it against you, beat you with it. They are of the devil, because God has left your past in the past.
When we talk about witness, mercy, and life together, martyria, diakonia, koinonia, the first person who’s the recipient of that is you and your life. The Gospel reassures you that you have the Son, and because you have the Son, you have eternal life. We testify to this new life in Christ by virtue of the Holy Spirit and the knowledge: whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. That is, if you believe in the Son of God, you already know the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. You already have what you need to bear witness, to testify, to speak to somebody about Christ. It’s there already. And each and every week you come to church, you strengthen that knowledge. You learn more Bible passages. You hear more. You connect more dots. It means that you take hold of God’s testimony of Christ, and Christ’s testimony takes hold of you. You come to understand more and more. Your faith becomes stronger and stronger and purer and purer. You live in the Gospel, and the Gospel lives in you. That’s just the natural process of Christian maturity.
The Word preached in the Sunday sermon, read in personal devotions, taught in Bible classes, informs you, matures you, changes you for the better. As we take time to hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest God’s Word, the Lord’s testimony becomes a part of you. You become actually knowledgeable Christians, and the Holy Spirit brings to remembrance those words that you hear and read in the church service, in Bible studies, so that you can just speak naturally and comfortably with your friends about the fundamentals of the historical facts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. That’s a statement of fact too. The facts of the Gospel are in you already, and because you believe, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, you’re never left to tell the story by yourself. Witness, mercy, and fellowship, martyria, diakonia, koinonia: through the Word and Sacrament ministry, the Lord God has borne witness to you, He has shown you mercy and forgiveness, He has brought you into the fellowship of the saints. Our personal testimony is simply Christ’s testimony. Amen.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.