Contagious Testimony

Question for you. Let's start off with a question. So at least you stay awake for this first part of it.

Who likes a good story? Whether you're telling it or you're listening to it, who likes a good story? Who likes a good story? Almost everybody. Now this one's a little tougher. Who in your household or around you is the bigger storyteller? Raise your hand or point to them if you are the bigger storyteller.

That was from across the room. And raise your hand if you are more of the listener a lot of times to the stories. All right.

Now in our house I can tell you what Holly would say. She would say Eric is really quiet and he doesn't know. Okay.

She would say okay, he's the storyteller. And Colin would say Christopher give me a chance to talk too. Is that true? Yeah.

So we all, whether you are the one who doesn't tell the most stories or you are the one who tells the most stories, we all have a story to tell. In Christ, we all have a story to tell. As we are continuing with this sermon series on the good contagion, saying there are so many things about following Jesus, having the Holy Spirit in you that are contagious.

It's not a charismatic personality that's contagious. It's the power of God within you that is contagious. And that we are called to share that contagion with the world and the world looks at it like we're giving them the flu.

They think of Christianity oftentimes as something that needs to stay in the church, or needs to stay in your home, or needs to stay quiet. But don't bring that into my realm. But what they cannot take away from any of us is our story.

In John 3, Bill read about Jesus had just talked to, who did Jesus talk to in John 3? Do you remember? Nicodemus. You read the whole context. That's cheating.

He had talked to Nicodemus and he told him, you know, I know that you are a Pharisee. I know that you are a rabbi. In fact, you're a great teacher, but you must be born again.

And then John follows up talking about Jesus' testimony. Saying Jesus has a testimony. Saying Jesus has a history before he was even here, that he knows what's going on in heaven and he knows what's going on on earth.

And he knows that if we receive and believe in the testimony, then we've got a shot. In fact, I loved, you know, it makes a difference even though I read it. But when you read it and it said, unless you obey.

But it's not like saying, yeah, I get it. I get it. I get it.

Do you live it? Do you obey it? And that is what we have is our testimony too. That is a contagion that the world needs. Last week we talked about sharing the gospel and the importance of sharing the gospel.

And sometimes that is intimidating because we say, well, I'm going to share about Jesus, but I don't know enough or I'm not good enough or whatever else. And you still need to do that, but what is a great opener? Sharing your testimony. Will you stand as you are able? We're going to look at the book of Revelation chapter 12 verses 7 through 12.

Now war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

And the great dragon was thrown down, the ancient serpent who is called devil and Satan, the deceiver of the world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power of the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come.

For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. For they love not their lives even unto death.

Therefore rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. The word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God, thanks be to God.

Amen. Now really when I preach out a revelation, all you got to do is just read revelation and it's self-explanatory. What? Nobody interprets revelation in many different ways.

Or wait, almost everybody does. But in here we have something that is pretty powerful to give us insight that John had when he had this revelation and seeing what was going on in heaven. And he says that there was a war.

There was a war between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels. And the good guys won. And they fought hard.

And in verses 7 and 8 you see that basically what happened was the battleground was heaven. And then it says there was no room for the dragon and his followers anymore. So they threw him down to the earth.

And my first thought when I read that was, thanks Michael. Really. The dragon came down to the earth and then everybody on earth has to deal with the dragon.

But they no longer have to deal with him in heaven. It wasn't an overpopulation thing when it says there was no room for him. There was no room for who he was as originally as an angel of light and then becoming someone who opposed God.

Okay? He had a history of opposing people. Remember in the book of Job, the book you read that keeps you up at night because everything falls apart for Job. And it says at the beginning of Job that Satan came before God to accuse people.

To say, I can make anybody trip up. And then again God says, well have you considered my servant Job? And Job's down there going, really God? That God had faith in his servant Job. But Satan's job, Satan means the accuser.

He would go before God day and night and do this. And I'm saying this and as we look and we look at this battleground and as it moves to the earth it reminds me of Ephesians 6 where it talks about putting on the armor of God. And it says, for we do not wrestle with flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

That what we have to remember is we are fighting a spiritual battle. And there's a battle going on around us. A battle coming at us.

A battle coming against the world. A battle where Satan just can't get over losing to God. So he takes it out on us and he is angry is what this says.

And one of the easiest ways for Satan to lose the battle is for us as 21st century human beings to say, hey he doesn't even exist. Hell doesn't exist. We don't need to worry about any of that stuff because we're all going to heaven.

That's not what Jesus said. But that means he's already won the battle if you don't believe that there are evil forces that come against us. The evil forces that work through us.

So think of this as Satan being expelled from heaven. He was kicked out. And in verse 9, verse 9 is a great verse for clarification.

It's and John says, and the great dragon was thrown down. That ancient serpent. Where's the ancient serpent come from? Garden of Eden.

Who is called the devil and Satan. The deceiver of the world. He was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him.

So if you didn't know who the dragon is, you know who the dragon is now. The dragon is the serpent from the garden and the dragon is the devil and the dragon is the one whom we call Satan. Now what scholars debate about, which is probably not the only thing they debate about the book of Revelation, but they debate about whether this was some future thing.

Like everything in Revelation is future. Or if it goes back to Isaiah 14, where Isaiah says, how are you fallen from heaven O Daystar? That is often interpreted in Latin as Lucifer. Son of dawn, how can you cut down to the ground you who are laid the nation so low? It was also a backhanded reference to the king of Babylon falling.

But people look at that and say, well that's when it happened. It happened at that point in time in history. But it's hard to say.

When you read this, it doesn't really give a timeline. It looks like it could be recollecting something that already happened. Something that happened at the beginning of time.

Something when the war broke out at heaven. It was before we were born. But it doesn't say exactly when that happened.

But the point is that John is saying it happened. And another place where it points to in the Bible is in Luke 10, 17 through 19. When Jesus had sent out the 72 that went out.

Remember they went out to preach the word. They went out to heal the sick. They went out to drive demons out of people.

And they came back and they were celebrating. And it says, Luke says, the 72 returned with joy saying, Lord even the demons are subject to your name. And he and Jesus said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

And then he says, behold I have given you authority to tread on the serpents and scorpions and all the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. In Jesus Christ, can the power of the fallen angel of the demons hurt us? Jesus says, no. But wherever we have, you know, then Paul goes on.

If we look at Ephesians 6, we got to remember the context of that. Paul goes on and says, put the full armor of God anywhere where you don't have the full armor of God in. What would that be? That would be where Satan attacks.

And so we want to fully be in Christ so that we can do that. But when Jesus says, I saw him fall like lightning from heaven, was he given a memory from what he saw before he came down? Was he given a vision of what had happened? And he's comparing that to when disciples have the power of the Holy Spirit in them, that they can overpower the ways of the devil. James says, resist the devil and he will free you.

So how do we have, what is our power to resist the devil? What is our power to overcome the cosmic forces of this world? Verse 10, and I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and power of the kingdom of God and the authority of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night. And then it says in 11, and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.

For they loved not their lives even unto death. In the midst of this, John is showing us that there is salvation. Who does salvation come from? Jesus.

There is power. Who does power come from? God, Jesus. I will accept both answers today.

And then he says, and the kingdom of our God, who brought down the kingdom? Jesus. Power, kingdom, salvation. Those have all been overcome and those all come from God.

And the authority of Christ have already come for the accusers of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night. The accuser is like a prosecuting attorney before God. That Satan wants to prosecute us.

Would he have anything on you? Do you think he could pick anything up on any of us? Anything he could accuse you of before God, or us of? Yes. And so his goal, as he did with Job, is for him to come before God and say, God, this person isn't perfect. This person isn't like you.

Look what they've done. And he can list off, he can list off all the things. He can bring up witnesses that say, man, they really messed up.

Look at what they, look how they denied you here. Look how they actually live like they're their own God. And then what Jesus gives us, it says, by the blood of the Lamb, that when we stand before God cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, that Jesus, the Lamb was a sacrifice in the old system.

And when that Lamb was sacrificed, once the blood was spilled, it meant life and it could mean forgiveness for all of us. And then when the perfect Lamb gave the perfect sacrifice, then we were forgiven. And we stand before God innocent as doves when we are washed by the blood of the Lamb, when Jesus has come into our hearts, when he has changed our lives, where he has taken all that junk, nailed it to the cross, and says, you are set free.

And when we let that blood cover every part of our lives, everything, then we're free. We talked about that just a couple of weeks ago. Now when we stand before God, now if you stand in a courtroom, there's someone who can help the case of either side.

And when a witness comes forward, they have a testimony about what happens. Now there are, there have to be at least two witnesses in a Jewish court for the testimony to be agreed upon. And John tells us later that we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit, we have the testimony of the water, which is most likely from baptism, and we have the testimony of the Messiah in our hearts.

So we're pretty covered with all the witnesses. But one thing a witness cannot use is hearsay. Testimony that is hearsay doesn't count.

And it's the same today that it doesn't count. Hearsay is what? Say that again? An out-of-court statement. It's going up there sitting on the stand and I, I heard that this person was horrible.

Get out of here. That doesn't count. That is not a testimony.

It's also not a testimony that says this. I was raised by Christians, so I'm good to go. Testimony has to be about what you have experienced.

Your testimony is personal. Your testimony isn't slapped onto you by someone else. Your testimony happens when we as believers receive Christ into our lives.

Paige Patterson says that the word of their testimony is like when they, they're confessing Jesus. Yep, I'm guilty as charged. But Jesus washed me clean.

And then when we stand before God, God sees the blood of Jesus cleansing us. And it's a whole different ballgame. And part three on what did our brothers overcome? The blood of the Lamb of Jesus, the word of their testimony, how did they overcome? And they loved God more than their own lives, even when things look grim, even when they're facing death, even when they were embarrassed to talk about it.

They still shared about Jesus. They still shared about what Jesus has done. So, as I said before, everyone in Christ has a story that the devil or the world cannot take away from you.

Everyone in Christ has a story of what Jesus has done to them, so they need to share that. And that testimony is what we find out here is a contagion that a lot of people don't want to hear, that a lot of people may mock and put down. But it can't be taken away from you because it is your word about what Christ has done.

It's not hearsay. It's not what someone else told you. It's not what someone else did to you.

So, when you go to share your testimony, sometimes that testimony someone shares, I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but sometimes people share testimonies and it doesn't make any sense. What did you just say? So, if you look at your testimony in a way that your testimony tells a direct story and something happens with this. First part of a testimony is B.C., before Christ.

Second part of a testimony is C.C., confessing Christ. And the third part is A.C., after living with Christ. Now, it's not because I'm Wesleyan or anything, but this ties really well to this thing this John guy did, John Wesley.

And prevenient grace is the grace of God that goes out before, that nudges us and guides us and tells us that we need, it tries to prevent us from sinning and brings us to a point of wanting to confess our sins. And we confess our sins and when we repent and ask for forgiveness and receive Jesus Christ, that's the C.C. And we are justified by his grace. And the A.C. is when we live after that with Christ, that it's the sanctifying grace that helps us grow up.

It says, if we say it like this in a way, before I knew Jesus, this is what, this was who was king of my life. And then I met Jesus and I realized that I couldn't do it on my own. That I was not in the control of everything in the world I thought I was, that I had messed up, I had fallen short and I needed Jesus.

So I confessed that I needed Jesus. And then it says, you could say, I'm still working, I'm still growing, I'm still letting more and more of Christ into my life as I grow up into my faith. So when you do that, you could have a, when you meet someone for the first time and you see an opening to talk about Jesus, do you throw out a half hour with everything you ever knew about Jesus into that moment? You know how long you have to capture someone's attention the first time they hear about Jesus? Probably a minute or two.

So if you can do the BCCC and AC and you have a vision, a version of that that's a minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, five minutes that can fit the different situations and you have an amazing thing. Now, in my life, I have met a lot of people who are on fire about their testimony. And they say something like, it was July 19, 1999, and they have a born on date and they share that born on date and they know that born on date and then they make others who don't know their, who knows their born on date.

And they sometimes will make others who don't know their born on date feel like it's not really real if you don't have that date down. But your testimony, and I've been in a lot of situations with people who have grown up in the church and spent their life in the church and they don't know exactly when that first time was they could say, I received Jesus as my Savior. Now, I don't know if any of you know a guy named Billy Graham.

Billy Graham was on a radio station and the person interviewing him said, oh, Reverend Graham, it's so glad to hear you here. I want to have you tell me the story about the first time you received Jesus. And Billy Graham said, oh, man, I accepted Christ in my heart this morning when I prayed.

And he goes, no, that's not my question. Go back, think about were you a child, were you a teenager, when did you receive Jesus in your heart for the first time? And he said, this morning when I prayed, I received Jesus as my Savior. And they kept going back and forth and Billy Graham said, I accept Jesus as my Savior every day.

Every day I need him for something. Every day something comes up and I need more of Jesus. Now, when you look at the BC, you could think of before Christ.

Maybe it wasn't the first time you gave your life to Christ, but it's when you discovered you have this habit or this thing you do that was hard to break and hard to stop or you didn't know you needed to stop. And even though you had received Jesus, you still had something else. So that when you realize something like, well, I realized I didn't know the Bible or I realized I was doing this and I was not acting like Jesus.

And then you say, well, here's what happened to me or I was struggling with this thing. I knew Jesus, but I had not given this thing over to Jesus. And I gave it over to Jesus.

And I asked for forgiveness for it. And now Jesus continues to help me with this every day. And I work through it.

Have you ever had to do that as an ongoing Christian? Nobody's confessing to be made perfect and you're good to go from the beginning. That means we all have a testimony, whatever it is, whatever there is something we have struggled with and we can share with others. That's our story.

No one can take it from us. And no, even if we don't believe we can answer every question someone has about the gospel, we can share our testimony that says something like, I once was blind, but now I see. I know that everyone in Christ has a testimony.

And when you share it, it's contagious. And when you share it, some people won't accept it, but you know it's true. You know it's your story.

It's you know how God invested in you and changed you and washed you with the blood of the lamb. Let's pray. Almighty God, we just pray.

We pray that we could be your witnesses in the world today because you have done so much. You have blessed us in so many ways. You have changed our hearts.

You have moved in our lives. You have taken mountains and moved them out of the way. You have been such an amazing God.

We love you and we trust in you and we pray that your Holy Spirit would open up doors and help us to see when and where we can share our testimony, that we can tell others about before Christ, confessing Christ and after living with Christ. We just thank you God. We pray that all of our lives, no matter what we face we can tell the world what Jesus has done to us. And they can’t take that away from us. We all have a story, God, and the world needs to hear our stories. In Jesus’ name, Amen.