Over twenty five years ago there was a wonderful movie released called “Witness.” Many of you have probably seen it at some time. It starred Harrison Ford as a Philadelphia police officer hiding out in an Amish community because corrupt cops were out to get him. The movie offered a wonderful depiction of life in an Amish community, but for my purposes today it also provided a look at both the importance of being a witness and the possible challenges of being a witness. Harrison Ford may have been the star of “Witness,” but the movie revolved around a young Amish boy named Jacob, who on his first trip to the big city witnessed a murder in the bathroom of a Philadelphia train station. Jacob then became the target of those responsible for the murder because he was the witness who could identify them. So as a witness, Jacob both provided a valuable service and took a big risk. In today's reading from the Book of Acts – in what is the first recorded sermon preached after the resurrection of Jesus – Peter bears witness and challenges all those who hear his words to do the same: “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.” So the testimony of the witness is “God has raised this Jesus to life” and the challenge to believers is “we are all witnesses of it.” Both the testimony and the challenge remain for us today. We exist as a church to proclaim that “God has raised this Jesus to life” - because if that hasn't really happened then there's little point to our gathering today or any day. As Paul wrote “if Christ has not been raised from the dead then our preaching is useless and so is your faith.” But the challenge of being witnesses to that truth is there as well – a lot of people will reject our testimony, they'll dismiss us as irrelevant, they'll condemn us as dishonest. There's the testimony and there's the challenge we face from offering the testimony. But we can't escape it. Peter himself told all the followers of Jesus that “we are all witnesses,” after all.

 

     The role of a witness is pretty easy to understand. A witness tells people what they've seen, what they've heard, what they've experienced and what they know as a result of all that. Christians are called to do that for Jesus – to share with the world what we've seen, what we've heard, what we've experienced and what we know about Him. We're called to somehow explain to the world what it is that convinces us that Jesus is somehow alive and a part of our lives. Maybe the way to approach that is to ask whether what we've seen, heard, experienced and know is consistent with what Peter seemed to suggest we should be expecting. In his sermon preached on that long ago day not long after the resurrection Peter found himself drawn to words written by David centuries before. David didn't know Jesus, of course. Jesus – or the Messiah - was still a future hope for David and the people he served as king. But if David hadn't encountered Jesus, David had encountered God, and he had written about that encounter and Peter saw in David's words an example of the sort of impact Jesus should have on those who knew and followed Him. This impact and what it does for us in many ways becomes our testimony as witnesses to the risen Jesus. David's words came from what we today call the 16th Psalm: “I saw the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, You will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence.” Those words are a wonderful testimony still today to the impact we as Christians have felt from Jesus.

 

     David's experience filled him with faith. “I will not be shaken.” David was a man who faced great adversity over his life, up to and including a rebellion against him by his own son. He was a man who committed great sins during his life – arranging for the murder of Bathsheba's husband so that he could take Bathsheba for himself. And yet for all that – well aware of both the hardships he had faced and the sins he had committed – still, he would “not be shaken.” Faith is a gift of God. Faith in Christ perseveres and sees us through even the hardest times we face. As I pointed out last week, it's often in the hardest circumstances that faith shines through the most powerfully, and it's often those who seem to have the least reason to be thankful who are nevertheless the most thankful. True faith will never 'be shaken.”

 

     David's experience filled him with joy. “...  my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices.” Someone I engage with from time to time online wrote this about their experience last Sunday: “I went to church on easter Sunday. … I found no joy. Instead it sounded more like a dirge not jubilation. Songs full of thorns. The hallelujahs hollow. The tomb was empty but nothing [was] offered to fill the void.” That wasn't written about our experience, and I hope it wasn't anyone's experience of our Easter Sunday here at Central, but it's a reminder to us that as followers of Jesus we need to have joy in our lives and in our worship. Smile when you enter, raise your hands when you sing, laugh and applaud when the Spirit hits you and even dance in the aisles if you feel like it – and don't listen to those who tell you that “we don't do that here.” We should – because we're Christians! Our hearts should be glad (we should feel joy within” and our tongues should rejoice (we should share that joy with others.)

 

     David's experience gave him hope – hope that nothing could defeat him or hold him down. “my body also will rest in hope, because You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, You will not let your holy one see decay.” David understood human life and his own life and its inevitable outcome. He understood that his life – this life – was time limited, but he also knew that there was more. Death would not be his end. The end of this life would not be the end of all life. He would continue; he would not be abandoned by God; he would go on. “... neither life nor death … nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Those were Paul's great words of hope in his letter to the Romans. Death does not win. Nothing overcomes Christ – He rose from the dead and we belong to Him. There is to be no despair in our lives; there is to be always hope.

 

     David's experience gave him life by assuring him of God's presence. “You have made known to me the paths of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence.” Surely this life that David found in God's ongoing presence is the “abundant life” that Jesus would speak of centuries later. Surely it's what Jesus was offering to His disciples in His last words recorded by the Gospel of Matthew: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The Christian life is to live abundantly with the knowledge and assurance of God's presence with us – a presence that binds us together not only with God but also with one another. The path of abundant life that David discovered and that Jesus offered is to live in faith and in joy and in hope – and always with love. In these things are life, and this is what God offers.

 

     “We are all witnesses, ” Peter said. I've shared with you David's experiences to which he gave witness in Psalm 16 and which Peter shared. Those things that David spoke of are still true and still available. The list isn't exhaustive. You or I may have had other experiences of Christ. They need to be shared too. David is our role model – one who experienced God and shared what he had found; Peter is our encourager to do as David did. But we are the witnesses – all of us! We are called to share what Jesus does for us – and what Jesus can do for the world!