Sunday: Silent Sermons
How would you have recognized the followers of Jesus back in the first century? You could recognize the priests and the Pharisees by the way they dressed. Likewise, you would recognize a fisherman, a peasant, or a Roman soldier by their clothes. But, again, how would you recognize a Christian?1
Read John 13:35. According to Jesus, what is one special way His followers are identified? What does that mean in practical terms?
Jesus said that if we love one another, others will know that we are His disciples. How will they know? Because love in action will convince them. The love we have for Jesus and for fellow believers will determine how we respond to God’s will and, in turn, how we treat one another. Furthermore, the love and concern that we have for those outside of God’s fold will determine how we treat them too. This is the sermon that they will see and observe, and it speaks louder than anything you could ever say. Many parents have noticed that very early in life their children develop an internal “hypocrisy detector” that becomes enhanced and fine-tuned as they grow older. We must be aware, therefore, that many of the people we associate with, and witness to, also have a highly developed ability to recognize the difference between a genuine spiritual experience and a mere profession of spirituality.
Read 2 Corinthians 3:2, 3. What is Paul saying about the way in which God wants to use His people to influence the lives of others?
We must not underestimate both our intentional and unintentional influences on those around us. The Christian’s life is to be like a letter sent from Jesus Christ to the world. From a heart that is renewed by divine grace, this letter will demonstrate the power of the gospel to transform lives and thereby will witness for the Lord.
How have you been affected by those whose actions matched their profession? How have you been affected by those whose actions didn’t match their profession? How can you always remember that your actions will influence others, one way or another?
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Sometimes we preach, go to church and sign, do door witnessing, etc; but when we go to work, and associate with those in our neighbourhood, two different lives we live. This is embarrassing to me as a Seventh day Adventist, since sometimes the comments are made about people "and she say she is a Christian" or "she can't be telling me nuttin bout the bible, she is not any better than me". Let us try to be consistent in our lives wherever we may go and in whatever we do. Our lives are books, written by ourselves and all the world should see Jesus in us.
Amen... This is awesome...
Sometimes what makes things go wrong is that we don't want to be ourselves, we keep on looking at others & wish we were them which makes us forget who we are as Christians...
Amen
This is truly such an important lesson.The silent sermon is very important especially now as these are the last days.We are called to bring souls to Christ and we have been given so many gifts in order to achieve this objective.Let us not confuse the world but let us be an open letter, sharing the love and mercies which we get from the Lord unconditionally...
The way we conduct ourselves as christians should tell about christ. Without us opening our mouths to preach, people should be able to see christ in us. Our daily activities should portray/witness Christ. The way we dress, recieve visitors, and even our utterances and how we go about our activities should make others confess that indeed, Christ is in us. By so doing we evangelize to the world.
Thanks for your comments all of you. People would rather see a sermon than hear one. Breathren, people who hear we are Christians need to see a difference in us. Not only that, we have to seek that difference in ourselves.
If we have met Jesus, then our silent sermons and all other sermons will come automatically. Evangelism and witnessing is part and parcel of salvation. Remember we are daily growing in our Christianity, we can't sit and wait to mature in order to go out. Isaiah when touched by live coal and his sins forgiven, never waited to see whether he has changed his character, he was ready for the commission. The Samaritan woman (John 4) had no silent sermon to give, she had five husbands and the one she was staying with was not hers. But look at her sermon, "come see a man who told me everything I ever did" and the result! many Samaritans believed. The invalid for 38 years (John 5) never knew it was Jesus who had healed him, but look at his sermon "the MAN who made me well said to me pick up your mat and walk. What about the blind man of John 9? He knew not much about Jesus but what he knew is what he sermoned them "I was blind but now I see" Im not saying that we continue in our bad characters, but that if we have met with Jesus we should never remain the same. May God bless you. I stand to be corrected.