Can I Get a Witness?

• 2nd Sunday After Epiphany
with John 1:29-42  and  1 Corinthians 1:1-9

www.FirstChurchBville.com   @FirstUMCBville   @kerrfunk

• Yesterday my family and I tried our hands at Lost Escape Room Huntington… After the experience, the staff took our pictures why? So others know we had a good time.

• I meet with pastors at Panera. Got an email asking me how the experience was. Would you recommend? I think a better question would be Will you recommend?

• We tell about what we like, what we know.
And it works both ways: we tell about what we don’t like!
And unfortunately too often we spread news about what we don’t know!

We testify about what we know best

You know I run, I read, I motorcycle, I participate in AA. I am a good witness for these, an evangelist (a good news teller).

What makes you trust somebody’s testimony?
You trust testimony based on
[relationship + enthusiasm + interest]

• IMAGINE you had a sibling telling you
We have found the Messiah.
How “big” is that news?
Bigger than “I went to the Lost Escape Room…”

Imagine telling your sibling the same.
How comfortable are you telling that news?

• The Messiah, word sibling to Moses,
savior, liberator, anointed.
Anticipated ruler, with flavor divine.
Usherer of good era, freedom and peace.

What would such a person look like today?

• Jesus: What are you looking for?
brothers: Where are you staying (we want to know more about you)
Jesus: come and see (an invitation and a promise)

Personal interaction is greatest inroad to God, to church.
Psalm 40: I will tell.
1 Cor 1: we are called to be witnesses.

• Why are you Christian? Why are you follower of Christ?
Why am I?
God knows best who I am,
closeness with God helps me know me better.
See brokenness in world, and God addresses it
like no other. Makes whole.

• Why am I United Methodist? Combination of beliefs/teachings and practices. Free grace of God AND response/responsibility of individual. Gospel/good news is coming and is now, therefore socially active.

• I believe that what I have is worth having.

• Hymn 2153 I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me

John 1:29-42 (CEB)

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is really greater than me because he existed before me.’ ³¹ Even I didn’t recognize him, but I came baptizing with water so that he might be made known to Israel.” ³² John testified, “I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and it rested on him. ³³ Even I didn’t recognize him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit coming down and resting is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴ I have seen and testified that this one is God’s Son.”

³⁵ The next day John was standing again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus walking along he said, “Look! The Lamb of God!” ³⁷ The two disciples heard what he said, and they followed Jesus.

³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them following, he asked, “What are you looking for?”

They said, “Rabbi (which is translated Teacher), where are you staying?”

³⁹ He replied, “Come and see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.

⁴⁰ One of the two disciples who heard what John said and followed Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Christ). ⁴² He led him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). X

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 (the VOICE)

1 Paul, called out by God’s will to be an witness for Jesus the Anointed, along with our brother Sosthenes, ² to God’s church gathering in the city of Corinth. As people who are united with Jesus the Christ, you have been set apart for service. You are all called into community to live as saints with all who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.

³ I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will shower you with grace and peace.

⁴ I am continuously thanking my God for you when I think about the grace God has offered you in Jesus the Anointed. ⁵ In this grace, God is enriching every aspect of your lives by gifting you with the right words to say and everything you need to know. ⁶ In this way, your life story confirms the life story of the Christ, ⁷ so you are not ill-equipped or slighted on any necessary gifts as you patiently anticipate the day when our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, is revealed. ⁸ Until that final day, He will preserve you; and on that day, He will consider you faultless. ⁹ Count on this: God is faithful and in His faithfulness called you out into an intimate relationship with His Son, our Lord Jesus the Christ. X