Sermon – “Eye Witness”

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— ² the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— ³ that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

⁵ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

²³ Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. ²⁴ And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. ²⁵ Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”

²⁶ But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. ²⁷ So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

¹⁰ “You are My witnesses,” says the Lord,
“And My servant whom I have chosen,
That you may know and believe Me,
And understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
Nor shall there be after Me.
¹¹ I, even I, am the Lord,
And besides Me there is no savior.
¹² I have declared and saved,
I have proclaimed,
And there was no foreign god among you;
Therefore you are My witnesses,”
Says the Lord, “that I am God.

⁴² And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. ⁴³ Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. ⁴⁴ Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, ⁴⁵ and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

⁴⁶ So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, ⁴⁷ praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

It seems like the Lord always confirms the message with this discussion in sabbath school has morning we were talking about how someone would I witness something, maybe an accident. The several people were witnesses are going to get different views. And my message this morning are titled eye witnesses. eye witnesses, we’re going to hear the word of an eye witness and eye witness and saw the Lord scripture come some 1st john chapter one versus one through 10. Hear the word of the Lord that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon in our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the father, and was manifested to us that which we have seen and heard, and we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that god is light. And in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of jesus christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in US. If we confess our sins, this is a wonderful verse. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sin, we make him a liar and his word is not in US. May god at his blessing, should the hearing and reading of his holy word let us pray. grace of 70 father. We do give you praise and glory and honor. father. We thank you for those that were witnesses to your son, jesus christ. And lord, to thank you for the truth that they proclaim to thank you for the word you’ve given us, lord to encourage us or god to show us your ways to direct us and latest father. We thank you that your sent your holy spirit to help us in guide us and father. We invite your holy spirit to open our ears in our hearts to receive what you have for today. And I just pray that every word father would bring glory, honor to your kingdom, father. It would just touch us in jesus name a man. You know, today in the and the world of law that if you are going to have a trial the, there’s something is very important to have. And that is, I witnesses, isn’t it? To have eye witnesses, someone who has 1st hand knowledge of what this trial is about, whether some crime or some action or whatever it is. It’s good to have an eye witness. Someone has, has seen, is experienced this with their senses. Meaning they actually saw with arise, or else they heard with their ears. You know, it could be a conversation that they overheard someone planning a disastrous crime, you know, immersed somebody you maybe you heard at overheard but you heard or saw with your own senses. eye witnesses are very crucial in the and I didn’t find the person or persons responsible for crimes or accidents. And I witness testimony needs to be reliable because a person’s innocent or guilt could rely on that testimony. Right. Live observers of events are very crucial to establishing, reliable, accurate histories of these events that have taken place in many years ago. My wife, karen and I, we were traveling home from friends house. I believe it was probably the old town visiting with the saint myers is. Were coming up the industrial boulevard, heading north and dusty boulevard towards virginia avenue. A car in front of us were swerving back and forth on the road. course when you see someone swerving naturally what’s the 1st thing you’re going to think? Was there a neighborhood right there drunk or are there phone asleep, you know, given the benefit of doubt. So I stayed a safe distance behind his car. But sure enough, when he got to the intersection of Virginia avenue red like he didn’t see a red light roll right through the red light. And there was a car coming. Now as the timing happened to be, he didn’t crash into the car, but the car had to swerve take quick maneuvers to avoid hitting the guy. He said he didn’t t boning, but he went up over the curve into the sign in sheet. So we stop, of course, and the police officer there, you know, you’re an eye witness. You saw this. What happened? We explained to him, what happened? Ok, then you’re going to be called to come to the hearing if they have a hearing, this goes to trial. So I have to miss work, go to this trial course, you have to set through our, you know, a couple of hours of all this other call. I can record the crazy some of the crazy things. And then when the case finally comes, the police officer did not show up. So was just dismissed. So I miss work and the police officer came, didn’t have the time to come, you know, who knows, maybe had an emergency. But we was an eye witness to what we saw, but as we said this morning, there could have been others. The soul, this event maybe had a different account. But what we saw, the guy was drunk, right through the red light cause the other guy have to crash the car into the sun sheets. We was eye witnesses. My friends, how wonderful that the apostles were. eye witnesses of the manifest presence of god in the flesh? Jesus christ. This is that awesome. They saw with their own eyes god in the flesh. But it was more than just seen him. They heard him speak, they heard his teachings, they heard him speak to the thousands. And oftentimes he would explain to them the parables that the people didn’t get. The explanations, but he had they heard that heard him proclaimed the kingdom of god and the love of god with their own ears. They touched him with their own hands, touched the manifest god, god in the flesh with the road hands. We have the senses, but more burly, his touch upon them. Could you imagine christ breast and his hand upon your shoulders? Putting his arm around you, encouraging you. It’s going to be ok. They even good smelling. Now come on, we all know we all have our own distinct smell, right. I know what my wife smells like. She smells pretty good. She knows what I smell like sometimes it’s not so good. Yeah. They knew the smell of god in the flesh and don’t glorify that and think at all. He always smells like roses. He came in the nurse, they lived in a hard climate. I’m telling you God in the flesh sometimes stay Because he did hard work. He helped his father in the wood shop, but also the work of ministering. We know that oftentimes he had to go by himself to be with the father to be refilled. I am sure he was exhausted. I don’t know if anyone has seen the series, the chosen. We haven’t watched all of the 2nd series yet, but I think they do a wonderful job displaying christ humanity. I mean it’s showing the one day that he, that they just kept coming to and kept coming in for healing baton. He comes back to the the tent where the disciples, where he was just like if so exhausted cases i’m going to go lay down. I think they did a wonderful job display net. He was human, they reveals his humanity. God in the flesh. They got eye witness this, the disciples, the apostles. You know, when we I witness something. We have to give a reasonable, accurate account the best we can. It has to be reasonably reasonable, accurate history, this count. But I’m going to say what they gave is better than a reasonably accurate account because they were led by the holy spirit. Yes, as we spoke this morning read the 4 guys will sometimes a lot different Because they are different. They revealed they were, they saw different but it doesn’t discredit. The bible is still true is still faithful, But they were very sure of what they saw warranty. But you know, they didn’t always have the same confidence Of who jesus was at the beginning. They didn’t have the competence of who he was. It developed after spending much time with him. Like we need to spend much time with him and being filled with the holy spirit. Matthew, a 23 through 27. It says now when he got into a boat, his disciples followed him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with a ways, but he was asleep. That he was probably exhausted. As I just spoke of, he was asleep. There is disciples came to him and awoke and said, roared save us, we are perishing. But he said to them, why are you fearful? O you of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled saying, who can this be? But even the winds and the sea obey him. Who can this be the same ones that are saying we saw and this is the christ, this is the Lord. Back then they were saying, wow, who can this be calm, the storm. israel was god’s witnesses in the old testament. isaiah 4310 through 12 says you are my witnesses says the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he before me. There was no god form, nor shall there be after me. I even I and the Lord and besides me, there is no savior. I declared and said I have proclaim and there was no foreign god among you. Therefore you are. My witnesses says the Lord that I am god, that I am god, my friends, we are his witnesses today. The church is his witness today. luke 12, a 9 says also I say to you. And this is god in the flesh speaking. Jesus speaking is his words, look it up. If you have a read letter bible, jesus says, I also say to you, whoever confesses may be for men. him, the son of man will also confess before the angels of god. But you denied me before men will be denied before the angels of god. My friends, if we confess him, we bear witness of him give testimony of him. He will confess us before the angels of god. Are we very witness of him? I believe the verse 3 are passages, a key verse. That answer is one of the reasons why we are the wit to witness why we are to bear testimony of christ. And the kingdom of god says that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ. Before I get into the fellowship part, The disciples in proclaiming this, the reclaiming that we have seen we have heard with our own eyes, we have touched their saying, we are delivering nothing to you by here. Say Nothing by tradition. We’re not conjuring these things up in our own minds, but we have actually witnessed them. We were actually part of them. It’s not here say I did not so and so said and so and so said and so, and so I said, but we saw it. But now we believe what they wrote, we believe what they have given to us what they have witnessed. We believe it to be true. I know it to be true. So why did they bear witness so that those who hear and believe in christ was of have that same fellowship The greek word for fellowship. And I know if papa t pastor gary was sitting here, he be saying the word before I spoken. And if he’s watching online, he probably is because he says he watch almost every sabbath gary saying coin and ian. The greek word for fellowship is coin a near. And it means partnership. It means participation. It means been a faction. It means communion. So what is a partnership in a partnership? What is it we enter into a covenant agreement, right? We into a covenant partnership. So they want those who here to enter into that same covenant agreement with god. Enter into that partnership with god. To be one with him, participation to be active members and they took the act to actively participate in the witnessing of jesus christ to be participants in the god for the kingdom of god. Right. Not sitting on the sidelines, but to participate in be a active member of god’s family participation benefactors to receive that gift the Salvation the gods of really gives. He wants those are here. They want those who here to be benefactors of what they’re telling them. That they can be part of it. Do we not want others to have the same thing that we have a man? Yes. Yes. To have that common belief to have faith in jesus christ. That is why we bear testimony of jesus christ. That those who hear may have the same hope, the same faith that we have There cannot be fellowship without partnership. We have to have partnership. There is a wonderful example of christian fellowship in acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47. And they continued steadfastly, and the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul in many wonders and signs were done through the apostles now all who believe were together in all and had all things in common. And they sold her possessions and goods and delivered them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladys and simplicity of heart praising god and had the favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily. Those who were being saved They did what the church is called to do. But today the churches allow the government to do what the church is called to do. They took care of one of the any that had need they took care of friends. That’s what the church should be doing, taking care of those that have need, as we also said this morning, if you have to tunics and usually a Brother need giving one. Right? If you have food in the cupboard and your Brother, your neighbor has none. Take some of that food out and give it to me. The church should be doing what the government is doing. It’s right there an extra after 2. John wanted them to share in the peace and happiness which resulted from the fact that the son of god had appeared in human flesh on behalf of all mankind to redeem mankind. John, one of those who here have that same joy. I know that John didn’t use the word peace and happiness. He used the phrase that your joy may be full. If someone is for joy, how that joy going to express themselves? express itself rather. It’s going to express themselves in a piece that is evident, that person’s life a piece of past. Well, how the world do they have peace and what they’ve just going through or what they’re going through. Well they have jesus christ in her heart, right? All round is can be chaos, but we can have that peace house who express itself. You’ll see that joy and her face and a smile. Right. You know, I’ve heard preacher say, I think a lot, many, a lot more people become christian to so many christians didn’t look so mad and grumpy. Come on. Are you full of joy to day for you? Do you have the joy of christ in your heart? Put a smile on your face. Right? Don’t look like the undertaker. I found in Australia called a smile. A smile cost nothing, but it gives much, it enriches those who receive it without making poor those who give it. It takes but a moment. But the memory of it sometimes last forever. None of us are rich or mighty, that they can get along without it. And none are so poor, but that they can be made rich by it. A smile creates happiness in the home, foster’s goodwill and business. It is the countersign of friendship. It brings rest to the weary cheer to the discouraged sunshine to the sad. And it is nature’s best. Enter though for trouble. yet it cannot be bought. beg borrow or stolen for it is something that is of no value to any one. A feeling is given away. Some people are too tired to give a smile. Give them one of yours. As none, neither smiles so much as the one who has no more to give. Give that smile. Okay, 6 worthy this week, right. Give that’s me when you’re standing in that line. That long line and getting grown bigger by the 2nd smile. Come on. smile. Give it press, i love alone, right. Want to go back to the apostles. How awesome that must have been to walk with jesus to learn directly from god in the flesh. To hear that voice smith speak those amazing words of life. That’s the here of the father here of the love to experience of what the see the miracles that they saw. How awesome that must have been my friends, it changed their lives. They were never the same. They were never the same because they were touched by jesus We of course, cannot proclaim as disciples did that we saw in face to face. Can we But my friends, he still changes lives. We can still bear witness of the amazing change that he has in our lives. And those that we know some might say will I was an abusive husband. But now I love and cherish my wife because jesus changed me. Some might say I was a no daughter, but I am no longer because jesus touched my heart. I can santa parent say that in my younger days, I drank. I like to drink. I like the feeling that I got when I drank. But I can also staying here and say the Lord took that from me all the way back in 1984. And I’ve had absolutely 0 desire to drink any longer. Because god took that from me. 0 desire to drink. I’m talking alcohol, not iced tea, And I had a pretty foul mouth for me. And my younger days at the railroad, falling one day, the Lord opened my ears and said, do you hear are bad? That sounds, if you don’t believe in holy spirit, well, I’ve got news for he’s real because he brought conviction upon my heart and he cleaned up that foul mouth. God can do, we can bear witness of what he can do in our lives. What he has done in our lives and what he can do in others lives. We may not have touched him, but we can share how he’s touched us and changed our lives. A man. Bear witness burst 5 and 6 said this is a message which we have heard from him and declare to you that god is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So if we say that we have fellowship, what is it partnership? If we say that we have partnership with god and we’re walking in darkness, we are lying because he is light and there’s no darkness in him whatsoever. So if we are in covenant agreement with in partnership with them, and we are living in darkness, walking in what is darkness shadowy if we are given a shadowy life than we were lying and not telling the truth. And we have not really allow god to changes and we need to get on our knees and repent and or ask him to help us forgive us and help us to walk in the light as he is in the light. They men give way ahead of myself, but we need to practice the truth according to god’s word. We need to walk in the light as he is in the light. We say yes, we’re only human, but yes, he’s given us a holy spirit. To help us do that, we need to walk into spirit and not in the flesh. And he can change your life. rosanna gave me a book that I’m not totally finished. It. It turn the world upside down. The 12 men to turn the world upside down. The apostles, turn the world upside down, my friends. It should still be going on today. Because we should be bearing witness of what god has done for us. We should be turning the road upside down for him. And we are able, with his help with the spheres, sharing the love of christ sharing what he has done for us. And I had a scripture this morning that I looked at just as I happened to be reading this morning As a 52 verse 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. Who proclaims pace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaim salvation. Who says the zion, your god reigns? How beautiful are the feet that brings good news? Are we bringing good news? Are we burying witness of the god who has saved us from our sins and the god can save all who confessed her sins and believe on him. less bear witness of god’s wonderful gift to those that he places in her pass. Let’s put a smile on her face and show them the peace and joy and hope that we have that they too may have it as possible. John said men.