I remember when I was a young child, my parents did some remodeling to our house and it involved purchasing paint, which they did from Sherwin-Williams.  That was my introduction to Sherwin-Williams and I have always associated the name with high quality paint and beautiful colors.

Recently, those memories were revitalized when we were driving down the interstate and I saw a Sherwin-Williams truck on the highway.  I don’t know why, but I did a double take on the logo that was prominent on the vehicle.  Actually, it is also on the company’s retail stores as well and, I discovered after a quick Google search, it has been the company’s logo for a v-e-r-y long time. 

Sherwin-Williams celebrated its 150 year birthday in 2016 and I learned the company has had its current logo for over 100 years.

According to the collective mindset at Google, apparently some have opined that the time for a new logo has long past, but the logo remains.  I personally think it conveys exactly what the company wants to say – use our product and color the world.  If the logo works, and says what the company wants it to say, I really don’t find changing it to a more “trendy” something is necessary.  But, I digress.   

My point here is that when I saw the truck pass by, I thought of its application to the Church.  The logo might be something we want to remember as we seek to do the will of our Lord Jesus Christ as we obey the command to “go into all the world” with His gospel. 

Scripture tells us that after His resurrection and immediately before Jesus ascended into heaven, he said these words to His followers:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”

Acts 1:8-9 ESV

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to cover our world with His gospel of grace and forgiveness through God’s grace and belief in Jesus’ atoning death on the cross.  We are not just to talk about our faith with our friends who believe as we do; we are to be witnesses in our home, in our city, in our state and throughout our world.

In this respect, some people think that being a witness means giving a testimony of prepared words, written by someone else and memorized so that you will go out and say those “magic” words: that is not  a definition of “witness” however.   Webster’s dictionary has many subparts of the definition of “witness” but they all require personal involvement, personal information, personal observation … you are a witness if you have seen something, not if you have simply heard of it secondhand.

Therefore, Jesus’ command that we are to be witnesses implies that we are to tell others that which we have seen or experienced, telling them of our own personal experiences with the Lord Jesus Christ.  In this way, your witness becomes forceful because you know what you have experienced so your words come from your heart.

This kind of retelling your experience with the Living God is not new … it is even older than 2000 years ago when Jesus walked this earth.  The concept goes farther back by millennia.

In Exodus, the LORD is instructing Moses to tell the people about the Passover and of the importance of remembering God’s miraculous works in their lives:

“You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'”

Exodus 13:8 ESV

Jacob understood the importance of telling others what God had done for him:

“Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.”

Genesis 35:3 ESV

In the Song of Deborah, she says:

“To the sound of musicians at the watering places, there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the LORD, the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel. Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD.”

Judges 5:11 ESV

In the New Testament, Paul sends Tychicus to the church at Ephesus so that he can be a witness to that which is confronting Paul:

“So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything.”

Ephesians 6:21 ESV

Cover the world with our Lord’s gospel.  What an incredible thought, that we could cover the world with the Gospel of Peace.  I recognize that we all can’t be missionaries to some far off land, but we can be witnesses to our family.   We can be witnesses to the neighbor next door or across the street.  We can be witnesses to our business associates or customers.  What if, just what if, we painted our little spot on the earth with the Gospel of Christ, and the next nearest Christian painted their little spot on the earth with the Gospel of Christ, and what if our spots overlapped just a little … what if …

 

Father, help me to be a witness in my home, neighborhood and to all I meet.  Give me that winsome personality that would draw people to You by the Holy Spirit as I greet them through Your grace. Let my words be infused with Your love, and let my actions reflect that I am Your child so my witness will be sincere and true. And give me courage to testify to others of Your mighty works in my life.