Left Here to Witness

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning the 17th of May, 2020 at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  This was an abbreviated service, also streamed live, due to constraints put in place from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Have you ever heard someone ask, “Why am I here?  What’s the point in all this?”  Maybe you’ve wondered that yourself.  I think we all probably have doubts and questions like these at some point in our life.  I know I sure have.  It is a question asked so often that Pastor Rick Warren wrote a book trying to answer it.  It is a tough question, but one I think we can find an answer to in our Bible, by looking at and studying our scripture.  So let’s look at one example that I think can help.

Please listen and follow along to an incident recorded for us by the Apostle Mark in his Gospel account, from chapter 5 verses 1 through 20, and I’ll be reading from the Modern English Version of our Holy Bible…

1 They went to the other side of the sea to the region of the Gadarenes. 2 When He had come out of the boat, immediately a man with an unclean spirit came out of the tombs and met Him. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could constrain him, not even with chains, 4 because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. But he had pulled the chains apart and broken the shackles to pieces. And no one could subdue him. 5 Always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.

6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran up and kneeled before Him, 7 and cried out with a loud voice, “What have You to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure You by God, do not torment me.” 8 For Jesus said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”

9 Then He asked him, “What is your name?”

He answered, “My name is Legion. For we are many.” 10 And he begged Him repeatedly not to send them away out of the country.

11 Now there was a great herd of swine feeding near the mountains. 12 All the demons pleaded with Him, asking, “Send us to the swine, so that we may enter them.” 13 At once, Jesus gave them leave. Then the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. And the herd, numbering about two thousand, ran wildly down a steep hill into the sea and were drowned in the sea.

14 Those who fed the swine fled and reported it in the city and in the country. And people went out to see what it was that had happened. 15 They came to Jesus and saw him who had been possessed with the legion of demons sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 16 Those who saw it told them how it befell him who had been possessed with the demons and also concerning the swine. 17 Then they began to plead with Him to depart out of their region.

18 When He entered the boat, he who had been possessed with the demons prayed Him that he might be with Him. 19 Jesus did not let him, but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how He has had compassion on you.” 20 So he departed and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed.

--Mark 5:1-20 (MEV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You so very much for our Bible.  It is Your word, brought to us by the hands of men and women who You inspired, who You spoke to and through.  If we read and study it, using references and resources from others who have studied it at length and have received insight and inspiration from You, we can find answers to anything we may encounter, to any question we may ask.  Thank You, Father, for such a great guide.  Please help us make better use of our Bible.  Remind us to refer to it, and to come to You in prayer, before we make any decision.  And please help us remember that You love us and that You put us here for a reason: to serve You.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us in these trying times.  Speak to us of how important it is that we listen to Jesus and obey His voice.  Speak to us of how we can best serve You and Your Son.  This we pray under the blood and in the name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.


George Sweeting, in his book The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who, in 1949, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison.  Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.

In 1968, 19 years after being found guilty, John's sentence was terminated and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him.  But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it.  Life on that farm was hard and with no promise for the future.  Yet John kept doing what he was told, even after the farmer for whom he worked had died.

Ten more years passed by.  Then a state parole officer learned about John's plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated.  He was a free man.

Sweeting concluded that story by asking, "Would it matter to you if someone sent you an important message - the most important in your life - and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?"

We who have heard the good news and experienced freedom through Christ are responsible to proclaim it to others still enslaved by sin.  Are we doing all we can to make sure that people get the message?


When Jesus walked this earth, people would throng to Him, coming from miles around, from distant villages.  They would come to Him no matter where He was.  In an age with no internet or radio or TV, no instant communications, how did people get word of Jesus, or where He might be?  How did His message get out, how was it received, how did the people get it?  Simply by word of mouth, by people sharing the information and news with each other.  Jesus was a healer, and people would tell each other of how He healed them.  Just like the man in our scripture was healed of being possessed by Satan’s minions.

Well, Jesus is still a healer.  He heals us of our sins.  He heals our broken hearts and spirits.  He makes things right again.  Are we telling others how He has healed us?  Are we spreading the word?


Jesus had been teaching along the Sea of Galilee when evening came and He decided to head to the other side of the lake.  This was the same night when a great windstorm arose and blew across the waters, threatening to fill and sink their boat.  Yet all the while, Jesus slept in the stern.  His disciples awoke Him, fearing for their lives.  He stood and told the wind to be still, and the wind died down and the waves calmed.

Mark, in his usual brevity, doesn’t tell us whether it was morning yet or still dark, but when they reached the far shore, a madman came rushing out of the tombs toward Jesus and His followers.  Jesus recognized what was going on and ordered the demons to leave the man.  The demons, named Legion because they were many, asked to be allowed to enter some nearby swine.  Jesus granted the request, whereupon the swine promptly ran down a hill into the sea and drowned.  I think this a fitting fate for the demons, one which should serve as a stark warning to all those who would serve Satan.

The man, now freed of his demons, asked if he could stay with Jesus and follow Him, to always be with Him.  But Jesus had another purpose for this man, a different job for him to do.  He was to stay behind and bear witness of what Jesus had done for him.  He was to remain there in his home region of the ten cities – that’s what Decapolis literally means.  He was left there to give testimony of the mighty works of Jesus to all his friends and family.

This is how he was to serve our Lord.  This is why he was here.


Giving testimony and witnessing for Jesus can be seen even while Jesus performed His mighty acts.  There are a number of incidents in our New Testament where we can read of the witness of certain people while Jesus was still a youth.

One testimony I would like to share with you comes from just before Jesus began His ministry.  John, a kinsman of Jesus, was called by God into the wilderness to witness to Jesus and His works to come.  Hear what the Apostle John tells us in the 1st chapter of his Gospel account, verses 6 through 8, about a man called by God to witness to Jesus…

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

--John 1:6-8 (NKJV)

John, whom we call the Baptist, was sent from God to bear witness to the Light that is Jesus.  John himself was not the Light, but was sent for the sole purpose of bearing witness to the Light, of preparing the way for our Lord to begin His ministry.  That is why he was here.  John was left there, out in the middle of nowhere, to witness to Jesus.


When Jesus returned to heaven, He left us here, His church, His followers.  He left us here on earth to continue His work.  He left us here with orders to witness of Him.  We call those orders the Great Commission, and the Apostle Matthew recorded it for us in chapter 28 verses 18 through 20 of his Gospel account.  You’ve heard me read this before, and you’ll hear it many times again…

18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

--Matthew 28:18-20 (NKJV)

Jesus was given all authority in heaven and on earth by the One who created heaven and earth – God Almighty!  What should we do as regards those in positions of authority over us?  We should obey them, right?  We should obey them so as to avoid possible retribution or punishment.

Well, Jesus is the ultimate authority.  We can’t hide from Him, we can’t fool Him, we can’t do something and hope He doesn’t find out about it because He already knows what we are about to do!  When He commands us to go out and make disciples of all people, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe and follow all that He has commanded, then family we should do just that!

This is why He left us here.  Just as the healed man was left there in his home land to witness to Jesus and what He had done, we have been left here in our land - on this earth - to witness to Jesus and all the great things He has done for us.  We have been left here to witness.  Let’s do the very best job of it we can.

Blessed be Jesus our Christ, the One we proclaim as our Master!  In the glorious name of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for all the love and mercy You show us, lowly sinners that we are.  You sent Your own Son to save us from ourselves, to wash us clean with His own precious blood.  Thank You, Father, for such love.  Please help us grasp the full impact of what Jesus did for us.  Help us understand that to truly believe in Him as Lord is to obey His every command.  And help us follow Him always, even when we are unsure of where His path might lead us in this life on earth.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You straight from our hearts, promising to repent of our sinful ways, seeking Your forgiveness and Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You rid a man of the many demons that possessed him, then left him there in his homeland to witness to You, to tell everyone what You had done for him.  God put John the Baptist in the wilderness alongside the Jordan River, there to witness to You and to call others to repentance.  And Lord, You command us, who You left behind here on earth when You returned to Your Father, to also bear witness to You and to tell others of all You’ve done for us.  Thank You, Jesus, for the sacrifice You made on our behalf, for offering us redemption of our sin.  Please help us obey Your voice, Your command.  Help us teach others what You have taught us.  Help us love them as You love us.  Help us lead them to You so that they too might gain eternal life in heaven.  And please, Lord, see us through these times of trial and tribulation, that we may grow ever stronger in our faith and love.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.