The Power of a Witness
There’s a moment near the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End that never fails to stir something deep in me. The pirate fleet stands surrounded, outnumbered, and facing certain death. Then Elizabeth Swann steps forward. Amid the storm and chaos, she lifts her voice and calls the weary to courage:
“You will listen to me! The brethren will still be looking to us—to lead them. And what will they see? Frightened bilge rats aboard a derelict ship? No! They will see free men! And freedom! … What shall we die for?”
It’s a line that cuts straight to the heart.
Because whether you’re standing on a ship’s deck or living out your faith in an ordinary world, that question still echoes:
What shall we die for?
The Word That Changed Everything
The English word martyr comes from a word that’s much older — and much deeper — than we often realize.
- Greek: μάρτυς (martys) — witness.
- Early Christian Greek: μάρτυς — a witness through suffering.
- Latin: martyr — one who dies for their testimony.
- English: martyr — one who dies (or suffers) for a cause.
At its core, martyrdom isn’t about seeking death — it’s about telling the truth.
The word began simply as witness.
A witness tells what they’ve seen.
A Christian witness tells who they’ve met.
And when early followers of Jesus spoke about their faith, they weren’t repeating a philosophy or defending a religion — they were describing an encounter.
They had seen Jesus alive.
They had heard His voice.
They had experienced His forgiveness and love.
Their witness wasn’t theoretical. It was personal. And it changed everything.
“You Will Be My Witnesses” — Acts 1:8
Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gave His followers a mission that would define the rest of history:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” — Acts 1:8
That word witnesses is the same Greek word — martys.
Jesus was telling them, “You will be my martyrs. You will testify of Me.”
It was never just about preaching. It was about living — and sometimes dying — in a way that proved His resurrection was real.
To bear witness meant to tell the world: “Jesus lives, and I cannot deny it.”
The Movement Worth Dying For
When we read the stories of the early Church — of Stephen in Acts 7, of the apostles, of believers martyred in the Roman arenas — one thing becomes clear:
They didn’t die to make a point.
They died because they couldn’t stay silent.
To them, being part of the movement of God was more important than life itself.
Their loyalty wasn’t to survival, but to the truth of the resurrection.
Their lives were witnesses — living testimonies that Jesus was real, that His kingdom had come, and that His love was worth everything.
And even as one generation after another laid down their lives, the witness only grew stronger.
You can silence a voice, but you cannot silence a witness.
Every time a believer stood firm, the gospel advanced.
Every time someone refused to deny Christ, others came to believe.
That’s the paradox of our faith:
The blood of the martyrs didn’t stop the movement — it fueled it.
The Witness We’re Called to Today
Most of us won’t be asked to give our lives for Jesus — but all of us are called to live as witnesses.
To stand firm when it costs something.
To speak when silence feels safer.
To love when hate is easier.
To live in such a way that others can see Christ through us.
Because the mission hasn’t changed.
We witness so that others can meet Jesus — not as strangers, but as friends and family.
Everything else stops for that. Everything.
Hoist the Colors
Elizabeth Swann’s words echo beyond her fictional world.
They remind us that courage still matters, that conviction still matters — and that faith always calls for a response.
So when the storms rise, when fear whispers, and when faith feels costly, maybe we can borrow her line for our own hearts:
What shall we die for?
For Christians, the answer has never changed:
We live and die so that others may know Him.
We witness so the world can see what freedom truly looks like — not freedom from death, but freedom through it.
So today —
Hoist the colors.
Lift your voice.
Bear witness.
Let the world see what we can do.
A Prayer for Witnesses
Lord Jesus,
Thank You for those who have gone before us — the witnesses who loved You more than life itself.
Give us that same courage, that same conviction, and that same love.
Fill us with Your Spirit, just as You promised in Acts 1:8,
so that our lives — in words, in actions, and in suffering — would tell the truth about You.
Make us faithful witnesses, wherever You send us.(Cut from the Sermon – “The Mission” at Farmington Baptist Church on November 2nd, 2025. You can view it here – https://youtube.com/live/T0MNuBT78k4 )
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