Tell It Like It Is

By Steve Drudge

October 4, 2009.

Acts 4:13-22

Have you ever seen one of these?  It’s a tongue screw.

In the 1570’s Maeyken Wens, an Anabaptist in Holland dared to read the Bible for herself and openly discuss it with others rather than just listen to what the priests said and observe the rituals of the church as the means of salvation.  For this she was arrested and tortured in prison for six months. She could have been released if she promised to renounce her direct faith in Christ. But she loved Jesus very much so she wouldn’t.  So she, along with others, was sentenced to death by burning at the stake on October 6, 1573. To prevent them from speaking and influencing others on the way to their public execution the authorities fastened their tongues with tongue screws.  After her terrible death her 15 year old son sifted through the ashes and found the tongue screw as a reminder of his mother’s vibrant faith. (Martyrs Mirror, 979-981)

We don’t have tongue screws to keep us from speaking about Christ, but there’s something even more effective today: a growing expectation/pressure in our culture that religion is fine as long as you keep it private, in your homes and places of worship. It’s “disrespectful” to speak enthusiastically about Christ in public. “Tolerance” and “non discrimination” are today’s buzzwords, but, I heard it again recently – someone being ridiculed mercilessly for even thinking of associating with Christ and his followers.

Christians silence themselves with sayings like, "Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary use words" – a line attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. But no bibliography written within 200 years of Francis’ death contains the saying. Besides, he preached in up to five villages in a day, so he would have never said such a thing. (Mark Galli, CT, May 21/09 evangelism)

If the tongues of Christ’s followers fall silent - for any reason - the spread of the Christian movement ceases.

Yet, if Christ has brought us into a living relationship with God, forgiven our sins, freed us from traps of evil, is restoring us, how can we deny it?  Maeyken wouldn’t.

More than a hundred years after Maeyken some Mennonites cut a deal with the Prince Bishop of Basel: Anabaptists would be safe if they agreed to live only in isolated communities in the mountains above 1,000 metres elevation and did not share their faith with others. In other places, Mennonites made a virtue of their silence, calling it ‘humility’ (MissioDei, Tongue screws and testimony, 7-8).

But the first Anabaptists had not been at all silent. They were the most evangelistic of all Christians. They spoke openly about their new, joyful, liberating discovery of a direct relationship with God through Christ, rather than through priests or state sanctioned church rituals. Like the first Christians who dared ask the established religious leaders, ‘Think for yourselves. Should we listen to you telling us to be quiet, or honestly speak about what we have seen and heard?’

Peter and John, two ordinary fishermen, had just spent the last three years with Jesus. You could tell; it changed their lives.  They had all kinds of stories: first hand accounts of Jesus healing the sick and the demon possessed, his teaching about the kingdom of God. Jesus even had them help him.  Then Jesus was crucified, buried. But on the third day he totally surprised them, terrified them actually, when he showed up among them.  A few weeks later they watched Jesus disappear into the clouds just after he told them, ‘now I leave it up to you to bear witness to everything you saw and heard in me.’

And now when they had called on the name of Jesus, a 40 something man, whom everyone knew had been lame from birth, jumped to his feet and was leaping around praising God.  The people were amazed and wondered what happened, so Peter began explaining all about Jesus who healed him.  Well, talk about Jesus and his resurrection upset the temple leaders, so they had Peter and John arrested. But they couldn’t deny that this guy had been healed; he was standing right there.  So they released Peter and John, and told them to just shush about Jesus.   Peter and John are like, ‘Hello, like we’re supposed to be in some sort of denial, like none of this happened?’

When we were preparing this week, Gerry pointed out how many times the word ‘see’ or ’saw ‘is in this paragraph.  “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John” “when they saw the man who had been cured” “a notable sign has been done”  “We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Testimony is just that – speaking what we have seen and heard.  A witness in court testifies to what they saw and heard. They don’t have to state a verdict, just accurately describe what they witnessed.

The first letter of John begins (1:1-3).

The Psalms are testimonies of ancient people’s experience of God.

John the Baptist “came as a witness to testify concerning that light” who is Jesus. (John 1:7)

Later, Paul testified to his life changing encounter with Jesus in some of his letters that we have in the New Testament. The result was and is a strengthened Christian community.

Testimony was part of the early renewal movements in North America, but then more “respectable” denominations shied away from it as too “Holy Roller” – excessive, emotional. And some abused the practice, talking on and on, feeding their own ego need for attention rather than pointing to God’s acts. Testimonies became too predictable: “I once was lost in sin, but Jesus saved me.” They followed a script.

But authentic testimony speaks from our own real life experience of God. It’s democratic, for all believers, not just clergy. You’ll likely remember the Erb’s farm experience longer than this sermon.

 Neil Cole tells of how his friend, an expert missionary evangelist, met Joe, a very intelligent, self-proclaimed Satanist. But the evangelist’s best logic and fool proof spiritual arguments didn’t touch Joe. 

About a week later Joe was having a smoke with Michelle, a young woman who had just become a Christian. Cole spoke to Michelle later, who said, “Joe just kept talking and talking and I kept listening and listening. Finally, when he stopped for breath, I jumped in, ‘Joe, you’re too smart for me. I can’t keep up with you.’ She paused and cocked her head to one side, ‘But I sense you are lonely.”  Then added, ‘I was lonely too. For many years I would go to bed at night and wonder if anyone in the whole universe cared if I would wake up the next day or not.  Then I met Jesus, and I don’t go to bed lonely anymore.  I know that Jesus loves me and He cares about what is going on in my life.”    For the first time Joe was silent.

Later, Cole bumped into Joe who casually mentioned he was thinking of changing his religion. “I’m either going to become a Christian or Buddhist. The thing that attracts me to Christianity more than any other religions is the concept of grace. No other religion has this. The fact that we can receive God’s blessings without having to do anything to earn it is amazing to me. And the fact that we can be blessed in spite of all the bad things we do is even more remarkable.”  Then Joe went on to describe the cross and how Jesus died even though we are all sinners. His eyes watered up. Joe preached the gospel to himself that day (Organic Church, 152ff).

Let’s not underestimate what God can do through the simple testimony of an untrained, new believer.  Just tell it as you’ve experienced it.

Testimony is not about a spirituality of perfection, or having arrived, having all the answers. It’s about how God has met us in our journey, and our willingness to share that with other pilgrims on the road.

So if we feel inadequate and imperfect, that’s fine; it’s not about us. Well it is, but it’s more about what God has done for us.

God speaks when our stories vibrate with Scripture, with the presence and actions of God.

Testimony, we gather from the Acts of the Apostles, grew the church, it accomplished Christ’s mission. The Board Chair of Emmanuel Bible College writes, “As a Crown Attorney, I am daily confronted with the fact that many witnesses chose to make themselves unavailable to give evidence. The Justice system suffers greatly when their evidence is not heard.”

For the church of Christ in Wilmot, at Steinmann to cease, all we have to do is keep what we have seen and heard of Christ to ourselves and it will die out as we die.  But if we risk (and it is risky) sharing our experience of Christ - not to trying to convince anyone - just saying what we’ve seen and heard - then others have a chance to know Christ too, and will have stories to tell still others.