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Home , Mark 13

Mark 13:9-11 Witnesses For Christ Reformation Sunday November 4, 2012

You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the . On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. (NIV84)

For a lot of those who call themselves Christians, ’ words —“Do not worry beforehand about what to say” —are unnecessary. These Alfred E Neumann Christians don’t worry about what they’re going to say when they have an opportunity to speak the truth of ’s Word to those who don’t know it. The reason they don’t worry is because they’ve already decided what they’re going to say—nothing. If the opportunity to stand before someone as a witness presented itself to them, they are going to keep their mouths shut. Like Martin Luther said when he stood before cardinals and emperors at the Diet of Worms, “On the advice of counsel, I decline to answer.” (Of course that’s not what Luther said. We’ll come back to what he actually said later.) We are inclined to come up with all sorts of reasons for our silence. We say that we don’t see such opportunities (which is probably because we’re not looking for such opportunities). We say that we’re not sure what to say in such a situation. We’d probably use some incorrect terminology or say something that would just make the hearer’s spiritual situation worse (even though it’s difficult to imagine how we could worsen the situation of someone who is already headed to hell). We convince ourselves that there could be considerable fallout for ourselves if we speak, and sometimes it’s best to keep quiet and live to fight another day (even when we not only plan to avoid fighting this particular day but also have no real intention of fighting another day either). We assure ourselves that they’ve probably already heard God’s Law and God’s Gospel before (even though we make no effort to truly assure ourselves of this by actually asking them). But here’s something none of us—myself included—are going to want to hear, and here’s something that most of us are—at least initially—going to try to deny: Oftentimes, the reason we don’t say anything is because we don’t care enough to do so. We don’t care if our neighbor, co-worker, classmate, or relative spends eternity in Hell—or at least we don’t care enough to risk suffering any consequences—or even any inconveniences—that might come from speaking up. There’s a Youtube video that’s received a lot of attention in Christian circles, receiving over 250,000 hits. Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller) speaks about an encounter he had with someone who gave him a after one of his shows. Penn’s response is interesting, because it’s not what we’d expect from someone who is an avowed atheist. No, he doesn’t read the Bible cover to cover and become a Christian. (Although you never know what might happen in the future…) But his response is both interesting and humbling to the point of making us hang our heads in shame. Here’s an excerpt: “I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a Heaven and Hell and that people could be going to Hell, or not getting eternal life, or whatever, and you think that, well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…How much would you have to hate someone to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe it—that that truck was bearing down on you—there’s a certain point at which I tackle you. And this is more important than that.” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhG-tkQ_Q2w ) I believe there isn’t much that can be added to that quote. If, at this point in the sermon, knowing Jesus’ commands to speak the truth of his Word (“Go and make disciples…teaching them” [:19], “you will be my witnesses” [Acts 1:8]), and hearing what even an atheist thinks about those who refuse and/or simply casually pass by opportunities to do so—if those things don’t make you confess that you have sinned both against your fellow man and against God, then you are either a better Christian than all the rest of us put together (not likely), or you are no Christian at all. May we humbly and sorrowfully confess that we have, in the area of witnessing, sinned grievously both against God and against our fellow man. Jesus, the one who spoke the words of our text, did not fail to testify. He not only testified to the truth to the common folk in the regions of and , but he also testified to the truth to those who, humanly speaking, had power over him. He testified in the presence of the powerful . He testified of their sin and their need for a Savior. He testified that he was that promised Savior. He testified before the high priest, , saying he was the Christ, the Son of God. (Matthew 26:63-67) He did this knowing that his opponents would charge him with blasphemy and put him to death. But love—both for the truth and for his fellow man—compelled him to testify. He testified similarly before Pilate, once again saying that he was the Son of God—even though he knew that Pilate was the one who could, if he chose, free him. (Matthew 27:11) Jesus testified because he knew that, as he said in our text, “the gospel must be preached.” But perhaps even more amazing than his testifying to the truth concerning who he was and what he had come to do is that when he had an opportunity to testify on his own behalf, when he had an opportunity to testify to the truth by summoning an awesome display of his power that would have forced kings and governors and any earthly power to loose their grip on him, he remained silent. Because just as he knew that the Gospel had to be preached, he knew that the fulfilling of that Gospel meant that he must be executed, that he must suffer the full wrath of God for our sins of lovelessness for our neighbor. And that’s exactly what he did! After keeping the law perfectly for us by testifying to the truth as well as obeying all of God’s other commands, he shed his blood on the cross to make the gospel promises a reality—to win your and my forgiveness! That is the message that every sinner needs to hear, and it is the message that every repentant sinner yearns to hear—for that message assures us of forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

In the 2000 years since Jesus accomplished those things, believers have been summoned before governors and kings to be witnesses to them, just as Jesus promised in our text. Very early on in the book of Acts, Peter and John healed a man in the temple courts. This led to the drawing of a crowd. Peter and John saw this for what it was—an opportunity to testify—and they seized it, telling about Jesus’ work as Savior and his from the dead, and urging the people to repent of their sins and believe in the risen Savior for the forgiveness of sins. As a result, they were arrested and brought before “the rulers, elders and teachers of the law…Annas the high priest…Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest’s family” (Acts 4:5-6). There their message did not change, as they boldly said, “It is by the name of Jesus Christ of , whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed…Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10,12). Although they were then commanded to keep silent, Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19,20). One chapter later, the disciples are rebuked for ignoring the command of these powerful people. Their powerful response: “We must obey God rather than men!...We are witnesses of these things…” (Acts 5:29,32). Shortly before Jesus had ascended into Heaven, he told his disciples that they were to be witnesses (Acts 1:8)—and they knew that a silent witness is no witness at all. Thank God for brave men like the disciples and others who, through the centuries, proclaimed the truth of God’s Word. Thank God for early Christians who were fed to the lions rather than shrink back from the truth! Thank God for men like John Hus, who would not even back down from something as powerful as the . His earthly life was soon snuffed out, as he was burned at the stake. But the truth to which he testified lives on. Thank God for Martin Luther, who was called to testify before cardinals and emperors, and did so uncompromisingly at the Diet of Worms, saying that his teachings were taken from Scripture, and therefore “Here I stand! I can do no other.” Thank God for the signers of the Augsburg Confession, who clearly recognized (and also took advantage of!) their opportunity, and therefore chose to preface their confession with words from Psalm 119:46: “I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame.” The signers knew very well that they might be put to death by men—but they knew that by their clear confession they would not be put to shame before God. Thank God for believers today in countries that are violently hostile to —far more violently hostile than anything we experience here in the United States. Thank God that through them, Jesus words are being fulfilled —“The gospel must be preached to all nations.” While the persecutions we in the United States receive are mere fleabites by comparison to what other have suffered and are suffering, the opportunities God gives us to testify are no less important. And while sometimes it is fear that leads us to fail to testify, sometimes it is a recognition of the importance of those opportunities that leads us to worry unduly about how we are to testify, about what we are to say. Jesus comforts us with the words, “Do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” Don’t make out Jesus to say that we shouldn’t bother giving some thought about what to say—that we should just climb up into the pulpit, as it were, without any planning and forethought whatsoever, uttering the noble-sounding (but in reality, lazy) notion that we’re just going to “let the Spirit move us.” Jesus doesn’t say, “Don’t plan what to say.” Rather, he says, “Don’t worry about what to say.” That is, we don’t need to fret about crafting the perfectly winsome, yet inoffensive, yet appealing, persuasive, inspirational, emotionally and psychologically manipulative presentation that will do exactly what we want it to do. We think that when it comes to testifying, the results are all up to us—that we are responsible for ensuring the outcome we desire—maybe even compromising the message if necessary, so long as we get an outcome that at least is a reasonable facsimile of the ideal outcome. But when the Holy Spirit calls you to testify, he isn’t looking for some superhuman combination of a speechwriter and an inspirational speaker and a Svengali. He’s just looking for a spokesman, a mouthpiece. He’s just looking for someone who will give voice to his (the Holy Spirit’s) words. Once he has that, he’ll take care of the rest. Of course, if we’re going to be the Holy Spirit’s mouthpiece, we’re going to have to know his words. We can’t expect the Holy Spirit to give us what we haven’t previously give him the opportunity to put into us. It’s not likely that the Holy Spirit is going to be able to give us a knowledgeable answer to give to others if we haven’t made much effort in the past to become knowledgeable about the Word of God. So that truth gives us our continued mission—to keep mining the truths of God’s Word daily so that we have the words that the Spirit can use when an opportunity arises—and we can be quite certain that it will! And when you have done that—even though not always perfectly—we may indeed not worry. Whatever the consequences of our speaking the truth—rejection, social isolation, ridicule, flogging, even death—we have a God who loved us enough to send his own Son to save us, a Savior who has prepared a place for us in Heaven, and a Holy Spirit who has promised to give us the words to say—words that he will use to proclaim the truth and to bring salvation to those who hear them. Amen.