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Commentary on "Defining Evangelism and Witnessing"
Day 3: Monday, April 2, 2012 - Witnessing Is . . . ?
Overview
Today’s lesson defines “witnessing”. In short, the author says witnessing is testifying to one’s own experience with God with “the goal of winning souls for Christ.” The lesson ends with thought questions: “When was the last time you had a chance to witness to someone about what Christ has done for you? How has Christ changed your life?”
Observations
Scripture never tells us to “witness” by telling others what Christ has done for us or how He has changed our lives. While personal stories may be part of our witnessing at times, Jesus command to be witnesses was not a command to “tell our story”.
Rather, Jesus said His followers would be HIS witnesses:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 ESV)
Our job, if we are truly born-again Christ-followers, is to tell about Jesus dying for our sin and rising again to give us life. Mormons can tell stories of God in their lives, yet no Adventist would consider a Mormon’s witness to be calling people to truth. In the same way, telling our own perception of how God has touched our lives is a subjective report that is non-transferrable.
Only the truth about Jesus, His eternal deity, His sinless nature, His becoming sin for us, and His rising from death and destroying the curse into which we are born has the power to change lives.
We cannot witness unless we are born of the Spirit after placing our trust in the Lord Jesus and His finished work, His blood shed for our sin and His resurrection which released us from our separation from Him.
If you have not dealt with Jesus personally, I urge you to surrender to Him your worldview, your interpretations of Scripture, and ask Him to teach you the truth. Ask Him to show you Himself the truth in His word as you read. Ask Him to teach you how to live in reality. Ask Him to forgive your sin and to make you His.
He is faithful. He will never cast out anyone who comes to Him:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (John 6:35-37 ESV)
Summary
- Witnessing is not primarily “telling your story”.
- Witnessing is telling the truth about Jesus.
- Unless one is born of the Spirit, he cannot witness.
- Ask Jesus to teach you the truth, to make His word come alive for you, and to show you what Scripture means without Ellen White “lenses”.
- God is faithful. Jesus will never cast out one person who comes to Him in faith.
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised March 30, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 1
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 1
Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Wk 1
Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings
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