The Simple Task of a Witness
John 9:25: "He answered and said, 'Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.'"
Acts 4:20: "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
Sometimes evangelizing is difficult—the critical unbeliever asks difficult questions or brings arguments against the faith that are not so easy to refute. This danger can be an obstacle for some brothers and sisters to witness for the Lord Jesus.
But at this point, the Bible has a great example for us: the man born blind in John 9. He is probably a man with little education who cannot really answer the many questions of the critical observers. At some point, he breaks off the “cross-examination” with an admirable statement, saying: “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; but one thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see” (John 9:25).
He does not yet understand many details, but one thing is clear to him beyond doubt: He was once blind and is no longer blind!
In court, a witness has a very simple task: to describe what he has seen or heard. No complex analysis, no solution to the case, just a simple report.
That is also our task as witnesses: to describe what we have experienced! To tell people quite simply that we were once blind and now we see.
So if a Muslim comes with a difficult question about the Trinity—simply bear witness to how the Lord has saved us. If an atheist denies the existence of God with the suffering argument—simply bear witness to the meaning we have gained in life through conversion. When a skeptic makes a seemingly irrefutable argument for evolution—simply bear witness to the joy the Lord gives you.
The disciples who once said to the PhariseesThe Pharisees were a small but influential religious group at the time of the New Testament. They demanded a strict separation from the lifestyle and practices of the gentiles and... More: “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20) also fit in with this. These were “uneducated and untrained men” (Acts 4:13) who simply gave testimony of what they had experienced with the Lord.
Our attempts at evangelization do not have to be elaborate demonstrations—it is enough to simply pass on the one thing: that we were blind and now see!
By the way: The evangelist Wilhelm Busch once made this clear with the following story. In church, a children's choir sang the well-known children's song: “Because I am Jesus' little sheep, I am only happy about my good shepherd, who knows how to feed me.” A businessman stood at the back of the church and, visibly struck, realized: “I don't have what the children are singing about.” God had used a simple testimony from the mouths of children to save this man!
