Stronger Witness

by Gary Johnson

It’s football season! Friday night lights are on again at high school fields across the country. University stadiums fill on Saturdays and the NFL has begun its scheduled games from Thursday nights through Monday nights. Americans love football, particularly when we are at a home game cheering on our favorite team.  

Home field advantage is real. That’s why, as Christians, we must candidly admit we no longer have home field advantage in our country. Come to think of it, as Jesus followers, we are viewed as the despised away team.  

Think with me. In the first century, Christians were opposed by the government. The Roman Empire hated Christians, arresting them, even executing them for simply being followers of Jesus. Moreover, Christians were opposed by people who had differing spiritual beliefs. Jews who didn’t realize Jesus was their Messiah persecuted Christians. Those who believed in the Greek or Roman pantheons did all they could to oppose Christians. Believers were arrested, their property was often confiscated, and untold numbers were martyred as Jesus followers.  

Nothing has changed. Life for Christians in the twenty-first century looks much like life in the first century. In America, followers of Jesus are often opposed by government at all levels: federal, state and local. Churches fight zoning restrictions or find themselves defending their tax-exempt status if their campus hosts non-church, atypical activities Monday through Saturday. Christian values and beliefs are not respected nor wanted from school boards to city halls. People of other religious beliefs – or even those with no belief – often oppose Christianity. At times that opposition has been violent and life-threatening. Shootings have claimed the lives of Christians as they gathered in worship services and Bible studies. A study by the Family Research Council (December 2022) revealed that acts of violence against churches in American have nearly tripled in just the last four years. Clearly, we are the away team.  

So, what do we do? How can we respond? It’s time for a stronger witness. We CAN do this! Believers in Bible days were able to do so. We are reminded that “we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1). This verse is referring to the many people of God who are listed in Hebrews 11, the “hall of faith” chapter. Such witnesses lived for God in the face of great opposition. If they can do so, so can we. And in practical ways, here’s how.  

Jesus told His followers, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). What applied to Jesus followers then applies to us now. He told them that they would receive power from the Spirit that would enable them to witness for Him in an ever-increasing geographical way. Think of concentric circles, moving from local Jerusalem to outlying Judea, then into Samaria and eventually to the ends of the earth.  

Similarly, we can witness for Jesus in an ever-increasing relational way. We witness in our immediate family (i.e., spouse, children, grandchildren, siblings, parents), and then to our extended family (i.e., aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.). Next, we witness to our circle of friends and finally into our spheres of influence at work, school, the neighborhood and beyond.  

And being the away team, we need a stronger witness.  

Being that the Holy Spirit is fully and completely God, He never changes! The Spirit is forever the same, and just as He gave indescribable power to first-century Christians, He can do the same today – IF we want Him to do so. There are FOUR specific ways the Spirit’s power enables us to have a stronger witness. 

WHO to REACH 

In Acts 8:26-40, we read of how Philip was used of God to bring a high-ranking official of the Ethiopian government to belief in Jesus. In verse 29, we read that the Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” The Spirit still directs us to people who need Jesus. He prompts our thinking. He makes our paths to cross with those individuals who are far from God. The question is: do we ask Him to do so? Do we listen to Him when He does? I have been a Christian more than 45 years, and I have yet to audibly hear the Holy Spirit, yet I know that He speaks to me through Scripture, through situations, through godly people, through my conscience and more. Just as the Ethiopian was ready to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Spirit can lead us, as stronger witnesses, to people in our lives who are ready to make the same decision.  

WHAT to SAY 

In Matthew 10:16-20, Jesus encouraged His followers, telling them that when they faced persecution, they were not to worry about what to say. He told them, “At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (vv. 19-20). The same is true today. When we worry about what to say, how to answer a question about Jesus and our faith in Him, we don’t have to be anxious! The Spirit of God can – and will – bring to our minds what to say. We can have a stronger witness as we depend on Him. 

WHERE to GO 

In Acts 13:1-3, the Holy Spirit prompted the leadership team in the church of Antioch to send Paul and Barnabas on a particular mission. Imagine that. The church in Antioch was growing prolifically and yet they sent out their “A Team” to another location. The Spirit of God deploys us to places – both locally and globally – where we can be stronger witnesses for Jesus.  

HOW to HELP 

In Acts 10:38, we read of how God anointed Jesus “with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with Him.” When we think we cannot possibly be of help to the broken and spiritually lost, it is then that the Spirit of Jesus in us who gives us the strength to help. We do not do that which is good with our own strength. We can—and must—go around doing good in the power of the Spirit! When we do small things with great love, we are stronger witnesses for Jesus.  

We don’t have to settle, give up or forfeit just because we’re on the away team. The Holy Spirit gives us power for a stronger witness – and remember, we are on the winning team!