What’s in a Testimony?
Is it sharing our story for the sake of sharing our story? Or, is it sharing our story (or stories within our main story) to serve another purpose?
The first verse that comes to mind is from the Book of Revelation. We like to quote solely from Chapter 12 verse 11, but I believe we need to see it in context:
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Revelation 12:7-9
I’m looking at all this right now, and I feel as if we ought to consider looking at the entire book of Revelations, just as we’re taking on the book of Romans, right now. And speaking of, I believe that form of developing study and sermon series will not go away any time soon – that is, our going through one of the 66 books of the Bible, a chapter each week.
Anyway, we need to go through the entirety of Revelations to see the overall context of the book, sure – but it’s not as if we could derive what we sought out to derive, from one verse; and, more importantly, from context.
What IS the context of this set of verses we’ve laid aside today? Well, going from the top to the bottom, we read of war in in heaven; Michael and his angels against ‘the dragon’ (‘that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world’) and his angels, with the former winning, much so that ‘there was no longer any place for them in heaven’.
The final verses of Revelations 11, the chapter preceding this one, speak of the Seventh Trumpet, and I’m led to believe that, if we’re to take all of this from a linear approach, this ‘war’ we read of here happened after these Trumpets were blown.
After the war and the consequent defeat of Satan and his angels, and their being thrown down to the earth, we finally get to the verse in question:
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers (and sisters) has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Revelation 12:10-12
Going straight to Revelations 12:11, we can now say that ‘they’ refers to us, and he who we conquer is Satan – the accuser of our brothers and sisters, thrown down to earth, accusing us day and night before God.
In other words, we conquer Satan, the accuser, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of our testimony.
With all this said, we can say the following OF our testimony:
First, it comes with the blood of the Lamb – or, in other words, our testimonies are not without our testifying to the blood of the Lamb, or the finished work of Christ.
Second, by the blood of the Lamb and our testimony, we conquer an already defeated accuser, acknowledging that, in his defeat, there was no longer any place for them in heaven, and that they were thrown down into the earth – In other words, our testimonies proclaim the crushing defeat of our conquered enemy, just as much as they proclaim the glorious victory of Christ.
Third, some may emphasize the latter phrase, ‘for they loved not their lives even unto death’, saying that this is a sort of ‘prerequisite’ for us to ‘conquer’ the accuser with the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. I’d like to take a little time here.
Even the ESV points to ‘related’ verses – Luke 14:26, John 12:25 – which imply from Christ’s words that we shouldn’t just not love / hate our lives, but our ‘own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters’ so we ‘will keep it for eternal life.’
I submit for our consideration today, that these verses, these words spoken by Christ were (1) spoken before His crucifixion and our reconciliation, and (2) more importantly, they speak of anyone who wants to be His ‘disciples’ (Luke 14:26), or wants to ‘serve’ Him (John 12:26).
Luke and John speak of Christ’s rigid, impossible requirements for anyone who wishes to serve Him… while Matthew and Mark’s accounts further clarify His real purpose:
“…For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”Mark 10:45, also Matthew 20:28
When we look at Christ’s finished work on top of our own works, I believe that what follows is not necessarily a ‘hatred’ of our own lives. No, our response is one more natural, one that recognizes the infinite superiority of eternal life (aiōnios zōē – aiōnios / ahee-o’-nee-os / From G165; perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well): – eternal, for ever, everlasting, world (began), zōē / dzo-ay’ / From G2198; life (literally or figuratively): – life (-time))…
…compared to mere breath (psuchē / psoo-khay’ / From G5594; breath, that is, (by implication) spirit, abstractly or concretely (the animal sentient principle only; thus distinguished on the one hand from G4151, which is the rational and immortal soul; and on the other from G2222, which is mere vitality, even of plants: these terms thus exactly correspond respectively to the Hebrew [H5315], [H7307] and [H2416]: – heart (+ -ily), life, mind, soul, + us, + you).
So, sure, we do not love our breath, even unto death… because we have eternal life in and through Christ.
Doesn’t that sound like a testimony already? One that acknowledges the blood of Christ, which has wiped us clean, proclaimed us righteous, and, consequently, proclaimed the defeat and conquest of Satan?
In conclusion, our testimony is apparently packed with so much. You can call it our ‘narrative’, complete with our Protagonist, Antagonist, Climax, and Resolution: Christ the Lamb, Satan the accuser, the blood of the Lamb, the defeat and conquest of the accuser, and our passion for and from eternal Life, superior to our earthly existence.
If I was to suggest an edit or update to the ESV, I would include a reference to Acts 20:24, where Paul says:
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24
And see here, we’re only talking about one instance of testimonies mentioned in the Scripture. I wanted to write this to see if we could come up with a list of things to think about when we ‘testify’ in Church, but see here – there’s so much we could actually pull up from just Revelations 12!
If I have enough time I MAY keep on going, looking for other verses to encourage us to testify… but there’s already so much here to share, don’t you think?
Let us testify, therefore, to Christ and His finished work in our own lives: And, in so doing, may our mouths proclaim the blood of the Lamb, the defeat of the accuser, and the goodness of God, seen through our eternal Life, beyond existence and death! Halleluyah!
Until the next post, may our good Father continue to bless us, by His grace, through Christ and His finished work, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay strong and vigilant!
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