Pondering Proverbs – Witness (3)

 

 

“He who gathers in summer is a son who acts wisely, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who acts shamefully.” Proverbs 10:5.

 

Someone may ask, “When is summer? When is harvest time?”

 

In our previous post we saw that Jesus says that the fields are ripe for harvest right now. But let’s take this a step further by looking at 2 Timothy 4:1 – 2:

 

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

 

Can we see that we are to be engaged in Gospel ministry “in season and out of season”?

 

Peter writes that we should always be “ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15).

 

It ought to be normal to witness to others of our Lord Jesus Christ, this ought to be our way of life. But is it? Is the exception when we don’t witness? Or, is witnessing to others the exception in our lives and in our congregations? I think it is, sadly I think it is. How have we come to accept, and even defend, this mindset?

 

Is it possible to make progress if we defend not sharing Christ with others? Is this not disobedience to Jesus’ Great Commission, which is a commandment, that we are to go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples? Is it not a sin to live lives in which our lives, in word and deed, are not a witness to Jesus Christ? Is it not a sin for our congregations not to be a people of witness in word and deed?

 

The recognition of sin and disobedience is important, for once we bring our sin into the open it is exposed for what it is – not an excuse but a sin, and once we confess our sin we are in a place where we can receive God’s grace and mercy and power. We can trust God to answer us when we cry out to Him to make us faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ. And let us remember, dear friends, that Jesus sends the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, that we might be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Lk. 24:44 – 49; Acts 1:1 – 8).

 

Witnessing is to be the rule of our lives, not the exception. The exception should be when we cannot witness – but even then, we can always pray and intercede.

 

Let’s notice a shared element regarding gentleness and patience in the above passages from 2 Timothy and 1 Peter. Paul tells Timothy that Gospel ministry ought to be “with great patience and instruction” and Peter writes that we should witness with “with gentleness and reverence.” Earlier in 2 Timothy (2:24 – 25) Paul writes, “The Lord’s bond - servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.”

 

Dear friends, it is possible to win an argument but lose a soul. We can be firm but not argumentative. Gospel witnessing should be an expression of truth and love – we are to speak the truth in love and we are to love in truth. Jesus witnessed to the Father’s love in truth on the Cross, in His crucifixion – how do we witness?

 

It is far better to witness in our weakness and in love, than in apparent strength and arrogance – for Christ’s strength is perfected in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

 

I am reminded of the owner of a jewelry store in Richmond, VA who came to know Christ through the tears of one of his employees. One day the employee started crying and could not stop, when the owner asked why she was crying she said she was crying because he didn’t know Jesus. When the owner then asked what he could do, she asked him if he would come to church with her. When the owner came to church the next Sunday he met Jesus Christ. I had heard this story over the years when I lived in Richmond, and when I first used it in a Sunday morning message I called the owner, Graham Rees, to hear the account directly from him – and it was as I had always heard it.

 

Have my tears ever brought anyone to Jesus? Has my heart been broken that others might know Jesus?

 

O dear friends, sharing Christ is not so much about knowing information, it is about introducing others to our Friend, our Lord, our Savior, our Beloved – knowing Him is the knowledge we are called to share – it is the man of John 9:25 saying, “…one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”