Witless Witnesses
Sermon, March 12, 2000
Texts: Exodus 20:16, John 8:31-32, Acts 10:30-39a
Acts 10 introduces a very interesting man, the centurion Cornelius. He was an officer in the Roman army, which was occupying Israel. Cornelius was a Gentile, who the religious leaders of Israel considered unclean. This centurion was also the enemy, and even one of the enemy's leaders, but he is not introduced to us this way by Luke, the author of Acts. Cornelius is introduced as a devout man who feared God, a man who gave generously to the poor, a man who was constant and faithful prayer. In verse 22 we learn that he is even respected by the Jews, which says quite a bit about his character and reputation. It is important to note that Cornelius did not believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior....not yet, anyway. He was not a member of the church. But Luke makes a point of telling us that Cornelius' prayers had been heard by God.
Does God hear the sincere prayers of those who aren't Christian? Yes, of course, He does. He even hears the words of the atheist. How could He be God and not hear everything? The Bible tells us that God not only heard Cornelius' prayer, God even sends him an angel, which means this non-Christian outsider to the church has just received a unique, rare, personal ministry from God. Note...Luke does not say that missionaries brought God to Cornelius. God found Cornelius all by Himself; He had long been at work in Cornelius' world. What Cornelius desperately needed, though, was someone to help him understand the God who was already very present and active in his life. Cornelius needed what so many of your neighbors and coworkers and friends need right now. He needed a faithful witness who could interpret the very real presence and activity of God for him, he needed someone to help him better understand the God who was there. God is very much at work in all of this world, He loves the world, and, as Paul intimates in Romans 1, everyone...everyone....sees the work of God, all are witnesses of God's activity, but many are witless witnesses. I don't use that term in a derogatory sense, I use it as defined by the dictionary: to be witless is to be devoid of understanding. Many don't understand the very real, vital presence and activity of God they are witnessing, they don't understand the God who is there, they don't understand the workings of divine grace that keeps interrupting their lives. The church's role is never more and never less than to interpret the very real presence of God in people's lives by being faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ. As just intimated in our preceding hymn, many, many long to hear "...the old, old story of Jesus and His love." Here in this sanctuary, week after week, we hear about the God who is very much alive and active in us and in our world. Here we seek to renew and clarify our vision of Christ so we can recognize Him at work outside of the church, as He graciously interrupts our lives and the lives of those around us. Friends, there are Corneliuses in your lives! If you pay attention this week you will hear their voices, telling you about their search for spirituality, telling you about their encounters with God and their longing to understand Him. Now, they may not call it that. They may start off by telling you about their fears for their children, about their difficulties at work, about their frustrations in marriage, about their longing for something more, about their thirst for something that seems just beyond their reach. If you graciously listen, it will not be long before you find they are asking about the God for whom they yearn. And they need you to be faithful and true witnesses of Jesus Christ.
So, on this particular afternoon just a little before tea time, the grace of God interrupts Cornelius' life. God sends the angel, who tells Cornelius to go find the apostle Peter, who is staying with the Tanners at their beach home in Joppa. Cornelius promptly dispatches three of his men to go find and fetch Peter. Thus, Peter was called to the bar, so to speak, as a faithful witness to and for Jesus Christ. It's easy to miss the subtle irony here: this is the same Peter whose most infamous moment was when he was a lousy, faithless witness, when he bore false witness and lied three times about his relationship with our Lord. I think Peter learned a painful personal lesson about bearing false witness, and, after experiencing the gentle grace of Jesus Christ, he went on to be one of the most effective and powerful and clear witnesses for Jesus Christ in the early church.
All of this is sort of a long introduction, but we continue this morning with our study of the Ten Commandments, particularly the ninth commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." I believe there is a reason for God's precise choice of words in the ninth commandment, that He has a far greater end is in sight that just getting His people to speak truthfully. The commandment doesn't say, "Thou shall not lie." Nor does it say the corollary, "Thou shalt speak truthfully at all times." The commandment specifically and purposefully uses the terminology of witnessing. "Do not bear false witness," or, the implied corollary, "Do all you can to bear faithful and true witness." Yes, God desires us to be truthful; yes, He wants us to be honorable with our tongues, but truthfulness is not as an end in itself. The ultimate greater end is to equip and train us to be better and more faithful witnesses to and for the One Who is the Truth, the Way and the Life. Jesus said to His disciples just before He was taken up to heaven: "You shall be my witnesses." What does it mean to be a witness of, or to witness for, Jesus Christ? Is being a witness something you say, or something you do, or something you are? The answer is...Yes. A witness is something you are, but what you are always determines what you say and do. In a court of law, a witness is someone who testifies to what he/she saw, experienced or studied.
Our mission is to bear true witness to the truth and light and reality of Jesus Christ, and we best do that by walking in the truth and light and reality of Jesus Christ ourselves. One reason the Bible puts a high premium on the importance of truthfulness is that untruth is the contradiction of the nature of Jesus Christ. He is Truth...He is utterly trustworthy, eminently faithful, thoroughly dependable, and inherently incapable of lying. And we should strive to be like Him...to the greater end of better witnessing to Him for those around us.I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Not only is our faith true in that it is rational, not only is our faith true in that it is intellectually defensible, not only is our faith true in that it is historically accurate, but our faith is true because the object of our faith, Jesus Christ Himself, is the Truth. Jesus not only speaks of what is true, and He not only commands His followers to be truthful, He Himself claims to be the Truth. He most likely referred to Himself when he said in John 8:31-32: "If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free." To know and honor and obey Jesus Christ is to know and honor and obey the Truth. Because He is the Truth, it necessarily follows that His followers should be people characterized by truthfulness. Why do we ever bear false witness, why do we lie? I would like to quickly suggest five reasons which begin with the letters F-A-L-S-E, reasons I believe are the most predominant of our motivations to bear false witness.
(The following was largely "edited" on the spot during the original delivery and much went unsaid; I grossly underestimated how much time it would take!)"F" is for Fear. This is probably the first motivation for lying for all of us, and probably the most common cause of lying, and most likely Peter's motivation for denying his knowledge of Jesus. From the earliest years of childhood on, we depart from the truth to escape consequences of something we have said or done or left undone. We misrepresent the truth in order to escape punishment, lectures, losing face, or any of a hundred different consequences both real and imagined. One big problem with all this is that the lie motivated by fear always begets more fear...namely, the fear of being found out. We don't like being caught in a lie. We may readily confess to laziness, overindulgence or bad judgement, but we don't readily admit to dishonesty, at least not without shame. To tell the truth and face consequences may be difficult, but it is better...better for us, better for those around us, better for our peace of mind.
"A" is for Animosity. We might bear false witness because we wish to get even, or because we dislike someone or what someone stands for and are more than happy to spread stories about them. If we don't particularly care for someone, and we hear a negative story about them, we love to repeat it even though we do not know for certain the truth of the matter. This ninth commandment implicitly condemns, and the Bible in several other places explicitly condemns, "Whispering," "bearing tales," slander, gossip, and spreading half-truths, which are the most insidious of lies. Interestingly, the Old Testament punishment for a malicious false witness, the Old Testament penalty for perjury in a court of law, was that the perjurer would receive the penalty the defendant would have received if convicted...an "eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth..." Whatever the perjurer wished on the defendant would be meted out to him, even if it were capital punishment.
"L" is for Laziness. We often don't take time to verify facts, we don't make the effort to be faithful "witnesses" to the things we relate, teach and/or report. We often make a false statements not so much deliberately as carelessly. Strict accuracy of our statements requires a measure of discipline, and it is a discipline many of us are too lazy to exercise.
"S" is for Serenity. We lie because we don't want to rock the boat. "S" could also be for Silence. Now, there are times when our truthful opinion is neither necessary nor desired. However, we are often silent because we don't want to cause conflict. It is often the case that the easiest way to avoid trouble is to do or to say nothing. However, if our silence can be taken for approval of something of which we in fact disapprove, then we must speak up. If by being silent I am indicating support for something I believe to be wrong, I am communicating a falsehood. Interestingly enough, to the Old Testament Jew, the sin of silence was as real as the sin of speech. In Jewish law one who refused to give evidence when he had evidence to give was condemned as severely as the one who gave false evidence (see Leviticus 5:1).
"E" is for Ego.. As one wag put it, "The biggest fact that throws a cloud of doubt over the miracles of Jesus is that many of them were reported by fishermen." We embellish and exaggerate; we somehow think it is necessary to make things more interesting; we love to put ourselves in the best light possible; we love to make ourselves out to be better than we are.
Again, one reason God puts a high premium on the importance of truthfulness is that untruth is the contradiction of the nature of Jesus Christ. He is truth...He is utterly trustworthy, eminently faithful, thoroughly dependable, and inherently incapable of lying, and we should strive to be like Him...to the greater end of better witnessing to Him. Friends, there are Corneliuses in your lives, and they desperately need faithful witnesses
(or, if you will, redeemed Peters who rue their former false witnessing), to help them understand the God who is very much alive and at work in their lives. Let us be people of the truth, let us be faithful witnesses of the one who IS the Truth, the Way and the Life.