Category: witness

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The Christian and the World

I have been thinking about the Lord Jesus’ prayer for his disciples in John 17 and what it represents. This is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the New Testament. Yet it is not very long, only 26 verses that can be read aloud in six minutes. But it is profound and rich in significance for us.

You see, when Jesus prayed, his prayer included all who would believe in him in the future (John 17:20). That means his prayer included people today who believe in him. His concern is for his disciples’ lives in this world. His prayer in John 17 mentions “the world” 18 times. This indicates that he intends for his disciples to live in this world without being shaped by the world’s distorted values.

The “world,” as Jesus used the term, is not the world of nature, or the general population of people, We know that God loves people. The term instead refers to society organized without God and against God. “In this world you will have trouble,” he told them in John 16:33. “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

In John 15:19-20 our Lord set his disciples apart with these words, “If you belonged in the world, the world would love its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. . . . If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”

In the world

When Jesus prayed for his men, he prayed specifically about their relationship to the world. “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world” (John 17:15). He did not want them to stand aloof from their neighbors like Pharisees, or to withdraw  from contact like monastics of the Middle Ages. He wanted them to love their neighbors as they loved themselves. This was how they would bear witness in his name.

Jesus offered them, and us, some benefits that will enable us to bear witness effectively. One is his joy. A joyful Christian is a contagious witness. He prays “that they may have the full measure of my joy within them” (John 17:13). Jesus had already told his disciples, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). “Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete” (John 16:24).

Another benefit is God’s word. “I have given them your word,” he prays in John 17:14. The world rejects the word of God and substitutes human wisdom. People of the world cannot understand the word of God apart from the convincing ministry of the Holy Spirit. Believers, on the other hand, aspire to live lives that are regulated by God’s word. They look at life through the lens of scripture. The disciples of Jesus had accepted the word of God and this set them apart from the world (John 17: 6-8).

Not conformed to the world

Jesus said, “They are not of the world any more than I am of the world” (John 17:16). This means that our attitude toward the world should be the same as that of our Lord. It has been said that the closer we are to Christ, the less attractive the world will be.

So Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). To “sanctify” in this context means to dedicate, or to set aside for a special purpose. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “I sanctify myself” (John 17:18). He was dedicated to the special purpose for which the Father in heaven had sent him into the world: to provide eternal life to those whom the Father had given him. Likewise, his disciples are set apart for a special purpose.

Sent into the world

The Lord’s people are being sent into the world on a mission. The word “mission” comes from the Latin word “to send” or “to dispatch.”  “As you sent me into the world,” Jesus prayed, “I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18).

Jesus prayed for the disciples that they would remain in the world and be as he was — at the same time “a friend of sinners” (Matthew 11:19), and “separate from sinners” (Hebrews 7:26). We are not to adopt an attitude of withdrawal from the world, but neither are we to adopt an attitude of conformity. Rather our attitude should be one of mission: loving service and witness.

James Boice summed it up nicely: “What does it mean to be sent into the world as Christians? It does not mean to be like the world; the marks of the church are to make the church different. It does not mean that we are to abandon  Christian fellowship. . . . All it means is that  we are to know non-Christians, befriend them, and enter their lives in such a way that we begin to infect them with the gospel.”

Just as Jesus was sent into the world, so we have been sent into the world to represent him with compassion and love. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

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Water for a Thirsty Soul

I remember a time when I was seriously thirsty. I was exhausted after a long day’s hike on the Appalachian Trail. I had camped near what my map said was a reliable water source. The spring was dry. The story is longer but it ends well. The Lord mercifully took care of me by sending some fellow hikers along who shared their supply of water and Gatorade. What a relief!

Jesus was tired and thirsty when he and his disciples stopped near a town in Samaria. The disciples went to buy food and Jesus waited beside Jacob’s well, the village water supply.

Presently, a woman came to draw water from the well. Jesus crossed two cultural barriers and asked her if she would give him a drink. She was a woman and she was a Samaritan. John 4:9 makes clear that traditionally, Jews did not associate with Samaritans. So Jesus defied custom when he, as a Jewish man, asked her, a Samaritan woman, for a drink.

She was puzzled and asked Jesus, “How can you ask me for a drink?” He answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). “Living water” refers to a flowing spring, a never-ending, abundant supply.

Then the Lord went further and said that anyone who drinks from the water that he gives “will never thirst” (John 4:13). It will be a spring that wells up to eternal life. To “drink” is to believe in Jesus. As he said on another occasion,
“If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, streams of living water shall flow from within him” (John 7:37).

A conversation ensued which resulted in Jesus telling her that he is the Messiah, the Christ of God. He is the Savior who has the divine authority to promise eternal life. As a result of this conversation, she and many others put their faith in Jesus as “the Savior of the world” (John 4:39-42).

The famous British journalist Malcomb Muggeridge described his conversion to faith in Christ in terms of receiving this living water. Formerly a Marxist, a cynic and a skeptic he achieved worldwide notoriety for his pungent critiques of Western civilization. His faith in Jesus Christ transformed him into a Christian apologist and outspoken witness. Later in his life he wrote:

“I may, I suppose, regard myself, or pass for being a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me on the streets — that’s fame. I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for admission to the higher slopes of the Inland Revenue — that’s success. Furnished with money and a little fame even the elderly, if they care to, may partake of trendy diversions — that’s pleasure. It may happen once in a while that something I said or wrote was sufficiently heeded for me to persuade myself that it represented a serious impact upon our time — that’s fulfillment. Yet I say to you, and I beg you to believe me, multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing — less than nothing, a positive impediment — measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty, irrespective of who or what they are.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Be a Friend

I read about a man whose lawnmower had broken down. He struggled for a long time to get it running. Nothing worked. His neighbor appeared unexpectedly with a handful of tools.

“May I help?” he asked. In twenty minutes he had the mower functioning beautifully.

“Thanks a million,” the man said. “Say, what do you do with all those tools?”

“I make friends,” he answered. “Call me anytime.”

Making friends is a great way to share our faith. In today’s world it may be the best way. After all, how much attention do we pay to addressed-to-occupant junk mail or to bumper stickers about Jesus? How do we react when strangers show up at the door uninvited?

Real friendship is different. By building friendships we build trust. When people trust us, we can freely talk about what’s important in our lives.

Summertime is an opportunity to make new friends. We see our neighbors out-of-doors. We can fire up the grill and invite them over for burgers. Or invite them for a walk in the neighborhood. Or a round of golf. Or a Labor Day block party. Or PTA back-to-school events.

I once heard Howard Hendricks say, “I’ve never found a verse of scripture that tells unbelievers to go to church. But I have found lots of verses that tell Christians to penetrate the world.”

He quoted pollster George Gallup as saying, “Never before in the history of the United States has the gospel of Jesus Christ been professed by so many while at the same time making so little impact upon society.”

If we who follow Jesus will simply do what he told us to do and love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we can make a difference in society, and for eternity. The key is friendship, building relationships of trust.

Pastor Randy Faulkner