Meadows Church
Welcome to Meadows - in person AND online!
We believe that God is with us in both the times of peace and the times of uncertainty. As you learn to navigate these days, we are here along side of you. Thank you for joining us virtually today!
Who are you? And how did you come by that identity? It may seem like an elementary question but it carries enormous weight and consequence. If you are a true disciple of Jesus Christ, your identity has changed by the grace of God. The problem is, many Christians are still living out an identity that was forged through family and life experiences BEFORE they came to know and follow Christ.
Who you are does not determine how you live; what you believe you are determines how you live. Satan knows this behavioral axiom well. The Devil works hard to steal our spiritual identity and deceive us so that we live out the mired messages of our past, our failures, our struggles, our hurts and our dysfunctions.
That’s why the daily devotional reading of Scripture is so important. God’s Word is truth and the truth sets us free; free from our fears, our insecurities and our anxieties. Free from our brokenness, our sins and most importantly, free from our past identity.
Witnessing as a duty will never be as effective
as witnessing out of delight.
People are longing for worth, significance, protection and purpose. It is all found deeply and richly in Jesus Christ. The more you bask in the beauty of your identity in Christ, the more winsome your witness will be to a hungry and hurting world. You don’t need to be a professional speaker, or a dynamic story-teller, or a persuasive salesman; simply, declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
1 Peter 2:9
You can’t accomplish what God has called you to do
without believing you are who God says you are.
Over the past five weeks, we have explored four anchor truths of our true identity in Jesus Christ. The crowning conviction of that identity is that we are faithful witnesses of the Living God. The book of Revelation gives the title to Jesus Christ in chapter one verse five, “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.” The closer you walk with God, the more you die to yourself, the more Christ lives in you by faith, the more you and I will live our lives as faithful witnesses.
Peter alludes to four aspects of a faithful witness that we should explore this morning.
Here they are in summary form:
(1) a faithful witness magnifies the attributes of God;
(2) a faithful witness inspires others toward intimacy with God;
(3) a faithful witness remembers the perils of lostness; and
(4) a faithful witness confirms the reward for following God is worth the risk.
1. A faithful witness magnifies the attributes of God.
- “. . . that you may declare the praises of Him . . .”
- The eye-witness testimony of John (1 John 1:1-3 NLT)
“We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
- Divine proof of Jesus’ divinity (Matthew 11:2-6)
When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me."
- The Apostles’ conviction (Acts 4:20)
As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."
- The Holiest of witnesses (John 15:26-27)
"When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father-- the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father-- he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
Are you exploring and explaining and exulting in the incomparable attributes of God’s eternal nature?
2. A faithful witness inspires others toward intimacy with God.
- “. . . Him who called you . . .”
- Christ’s invitation to intimacy (Revelation 3:20)
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
- The parameters of intimacy (John 10:27 NKJ)
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
- The evidence of intimacy (Luke 24:32)
They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"
Are you experiencing rich intimacy with God and urging others to do the same?
3. A faithful witness remembers the peril of lostness.
- “. . . out of darkness . . .”
- The witness of the man born blind (John 9:25b)
“One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"
- David’s song (Psalm 18:16)
“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.”
- Paul’s call (Acts 26:13-19)
About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' "Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?'"'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' "So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.
- John Newton’s tribute (“Amazing Grace”)
How willing are you to bear the burden of those still in the dark?
4. A faithful witness confirms the reward for following God is worth the risk.
- “. . . into his wonderful light.”
- David’s assessment of the good life (Psalm 84:10)
- Paul’s assessment of earthly trials (Romans 8:18)
- Contrasting assessments (Mark 10)
- “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he can never lose.” Jim Elliot’s journal entry for October 28, 1949; martyred by the Auca Indians January 8, 1956
Benediction Blessing
May you explore ever deeper the breathtaking nature of God’s
excellence.
May your heart leap to respond to the intimate call of God.
May you never lose touch with the peril of those who are lost.
May your soul be ever buoyed with the conviction that God’s ways are
wonderful and right.
And may you live each day basking in the glory of your true and
eternal identity in Christ as a chosen nation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession and a faithful
witness! Amen and Amen!