This week we consider Witness & Testimony alongside Acts 2:37-42 as we move into week 2 of our worship series on practicing Christian disciplines to stay in love with God. We will also say farewell to two members of our community during worship this Sunday: Lori Ortiz who will be competing her year as Pastor-in-Training and Broghan Hunt who helped create and lead our youth Kitchen Table and is finishing her undergraduate degree at Sacramento State. Broghan has been accepted to seminary and will be re-locating to Southern California.
Matt continued his writing last week on Grace and will be turning in the coming week to write on two of the rules we use in our weekly Kitchen Tables: (1) do no harm and (2) do good. Matt feels excited about the progress he’s made thus far and I’m looking forward to spending some time with him on Thursday as we continue to pull the various pieces of this project together.
Outline for Staying in Love with God.
•May 15: Acts 2.1-21 (Public Worship)
•May 22: Acts 2:37-42 (Witness/Testimony)
•May 29: Psalm 92.1-4,12-15 (Prayer)
•June 5: 2 2 Timothy 3:14-17 (Searching Scripture)
•June 12: Matthew 26:26-28 (Communion)
•June 19: Matthew 16:16-18 (Fasting)
Read Acts 2:37-42.
One commentary on Acts 2:37-42 lifts up verse 37: “They were cut to the heart and asked, ‘What must we do?’ What should we make of this account of the crowd’s response to Peter’s speech? Peter never stumbles, his voice never breaks; the crowd never raises objections to his interpretation of Scripture, of his witness to the risen Jesus….The church’s response would not be to offer the gospel with apology but to do so with the confidence that we are presenting the words of eternal life” (Robert W. Wall, N. T. Wright, and J. Paul. Sampley. The New Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2002. p 69-70).
A witness is a person who simply “tells what they know.” In many ways this is what happens on Sunday morning in worship when Matt or I (or this week Lori) stands up to preach the message. But it also happens in other ways.
What comes to mind when you hear the words “Witness” and “Testimony.” What is one way you feel confident as Peter in sharing your faith and one ways you feel uncomfortable?