THE ACTS: BE MY
WITNESSES
When you experience a life-changing event in your life
everyone will know about it. How could they not?
Imagine
winning the Lotto 6-49; the experience of being suddenly wealthy would
certainly show in your decisions and lifestyle, even if you didn’t tell anyone.
Imagine being a survivor of 9-11 when the Trade Towers fell; our traumatic
experiences become a huge part of our life-story. But let’s tone it down to a realistic level: We have had three
weddings in our church in the last week. Everyone knows about them for various
reasons; bulletin announcements, wedding guests (witnesses), and the couples
themselves. If the couples kept it quiet you would wonder what they are ashamed
of or trying to hide. We proclaim that which we experience, either by word, by
action, or by being.
If you
have experienced the life-changing forgiveness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
how do you keep from being a billboard (or witness) of this powerful event?
For the
next few months we will be studying the book of Acts as our text. The book of
Acts is the action book of the NT; it is the story of the Early Church and her
witness of Jesus to the world. Its full name is sometimes known as “The Acts of
the Apostles” even though only four apostles are really highlighted. So we
might call it the Acts of the Early
Church. But that focuses too much on what people do in the story. We could call
it the Acts of the Holy Spirit, but
that leaves out the disciples entirely.
It would
be impossible to explain the progress of the gospel apart from the work of the
Holy Spirit. But it would be erroneous to overlook the apostles through whom
the Spirit worked. And where is Jesus in this focus? To truly understand the
message of Acts and what we want to take to heart as we study this book, the
truest title might be “The Continuing
Words and Deeds of Jesus by his Spirit through his Apostles.”[i]
With this title we begin to understand that the Acts center on Jesus’
continuing ministry and the power of his Spirit to enable believers to witness,
that is, to proclaim what Jesus has done and is doing.
1. Preparing the Disciples to be Witnesses
From the first words of Acts, we are clued in that the
person who wrote Acts also wrote the Gospel according to Luke. This companion
of Paul was a careful chronicler of the life of Jesus and the birth and growth
of the Early Church. It is said that while Paul was imprisoned in Judea for two
years that Luke spent his time interviewing eyewitnesses of Jesus for his
gospel.
Both
books, Luke and Acts, are addressed to a person named Theophilus. The name means
“loved of God” or “lover of God.” He was a real person but his name may have
been a pseudonym (some suspect he was a cousin of Caesar). In any case,
Theophilus seems to have become a believer, and Luke instructs Theo in the way
of Christianity.
This
book begins where Luke ends – with Jesus’ ascension. We will talk about the
ascension at the end, but for now it marks the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry
and the beginning of his heavenly ministry.
The
first few verses of Acts (1:1-5) reveal the amazing 40 days from the
resurrection of Christ until his departure. In those 40 days, Jesus was
preparing his disciples to be his witnesses.
If you
watch courtroom dramas, you know that lawyers will prep their witnesses before
a trial to make sure they have their story straight. Good lawyers will not
alter the story but will point out discrepancies and help them sound credible.
Jesus did this and more.
To
prepare them as witnesses Jesus did four things:
a) Jesus chose
them – They were a chosen group. Luke said, “after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he
had chosen” (2b). This is a reaffirmation of Jesus’ original calling to
each of these men. They were not self-appointed; they were not selected by mere
human choice, or a committee, a conference, or a church, but directly and
personally chosen and appointed by Jesus Christ to be his witnesses.
b) Jesus showed
himself – Witnesses of what? Of the truth that he was not some ghost or
legend or figment of someone’s imagination. Look at the words Luke uses: “he
presented himself to them,” “gave many convincing proofs that he was a alive,”
“appeared to them over a period of forty days,” “while he was eating with
them.”
The
first witnesses had to be eyewitnesses. They had to see the resurrected Jesus.
The word used here for “appeared” gives the sense of “eyeballing” Jesus. They
saw him again and again and he looked exactly the same. And just for good
measure, Jesus ate with them. This was no hallucination. Living, flesh and
blood, breathing people eat. They knew he was alive.
c) Jesus
instructed them – Showing them himself, Jesus explained to them again what
his death and resurrection were all about. Back in Luke 24, Jesus said that the
effect of his crucifixion and resurrection was worldwide preaching. He said, “…and repentance and forgiveness of sins
will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”
(24:47).
d) Jesus promised
the Holy Spirit – Finally, Jesus tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit. We
saw repeatedly in Luke how the disciples failed to understand the things of
Christ until the Holy Spirit came upon them. Jesus now tells them that they
need to wait for that precise moment when the Spirit would be poured out on
them, they will understand Jesus more clearly, and they will be his witnesses.
The
power and the outflow of this in the lives of the apostles can be seen in the
testimony of John (1 John 1:1-3). Experiencing Jesus in this way made
proclaimers of them all.
2. Empowering the Disciples to be Witnesses
Forty days with Jesus would be so awesome – life
changing. Walking with him, eating with him, asking questions, Jesus explaining
the kingdom of God.
But the
eleven apostles were still confused, still without the Holy Spirit. They asked
Jesus, “Lord, are you at this time going
to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (1:6). The question is dull, but Jesus
uses it to reveal his purpose for them. Let’s consider the question:
Restore – they
were still expecting a political, territorial kingdom. When Jesus spoke of the
kingdom of God, they could not help think of geography and politics.
Israel – more
specifically, they were expecting a national kingdom, the glory of the Davidic
Israel come again.
At this time –
with the triumph of Jesus over the grave, they were expecting an immediate
establishment of the kingdom of God.
The Jews
were “obsessed” with the restoration of the kingdom of God. The Pharisees asked
Jesus one time about when it would come. Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come visibly, nor will people say, ‘Here
it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke
17:20-21).
But
Jesus replies that this is not a prophecy conference, he is holding a missions
conference. This is not why I called you to myself, he says. This is not your
work. You are not sent into the world to be foretellers of apocalyptic doom,
but to be witnesses of the risen Christ. You are to pray “Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You keep watch for the coming
of Christ, live in expectation of it, but all the while obeying the command to
be a witness.
Jesus
says “never mind that” and instead says, “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” (1:8).
That
power is a mystery to some. I must admit I find the presence and power of the
Holy Spirit to be an ongoing quest. If we are waiting for an ecstatic feeling,
some out-of-this-world experience, we may miss what God is actually doing. Time
and time again in Acts we find that the Holy Spirit cannot be manipulated or
bought or conjured. But when faithful witnesses open their mouths to speak, the
Holy Spirit fills them with words to speak. Not before, but while they are
speaking.
The
important thing is to go. The OT mindset easily slips into that default gear in
us and in the church. In the OT, Israel was to be a witness as a nation, a
kingdom devoted to God. People would come,
nations would see Jerusalem and behold the glory of Yahweh. But in the NT, with
the death and resurrection of Jesus, the paradigm shifted. Now Jesus says that
we are to go to the nations with
this good news.
For the
disciples, and indeed for us, the mission begins at home. Now a witness must
first know what he or she speaks of. Those who witness for Christ must know
Christ. They must know Christ so well that no amount of cross-examination can
make them stumble. We must be consistent in our testimony because the world is
watching. The world sees us in our work, in our trades, in our buying and
selling, in our homes, in our worship, in our prayers, in all our ways of
living. If our witness breaks down in any part it can lose its effectiveness.
“The disciples were to be witnesses first in Jerusalem, or at home. The
warm-hearted disciple of Christ today will begin to witness wherever he is, he
will not wait for a golden opportunity, he will make one. It may not be easy to
witness at home, nor is it easy to witness away from home. The witness should
make up his mind from the very outset that he (or she) will have to bear his
(or her) cross.”[ii]
Knowing
Christ, being a witness to his person as the Son of God, the man who died and
rose again, and empowered by the Holy Spirit is our calling. People may say of
us what they said of Peter and John. “When
they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled
ordinary men, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with
Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Wouldn’t you just love to be described that way?
3. Sending the Disciples out as Witnesses
At the end of the 40 days, Jesus was taken up before the
disciples into a cloud. The disciples stood there staring into the sky. Two
questions arise out of this event we call the ascension. 1) Did Jesus actually
ascend, and 2) Why does it matter?
First,
the language Luke used suggests an historic event. Five times he repeats the
fact that the disciples saw Jesus rise and disappear in a cloud. Note the
expressions used (“very eyes” “from their sight” “looking intently” etc). This
is something that they saw and testify to. The language of “rising” is what we
call pre-scientific – meaning that the ancients thought of heaven as “up.” What
really happened to Jesus? Did he enter a different dimension? We don’t know.
But the reason he left in such a visible way was to emphasize that he had
really left for good. During those 40 days he kept reappearing; now he was
gone, and they were to wait for somebody else to come, the Holy Spirit.
Second, as
they stood there staring into the sky, two angels appeared and said to the
disciples that they were wasting their time looking into the sky. They could
not bring Jesus back by gawking into space. But his leaving meant that he would
come back again someday. In fact, he will come back the way he went away, on
clouds of glory. Plus, staring into the sky does not help get the mission done.
I wanted
to call this point “Stop gawk(ing) and roll” but decided against it. Staring
into the sky (star-gazing) was in direct contradiction to what Jesus told them
to do – go into all the world and preach repentance and forgiveness of sins.
There is an order to the events of the divine program: Jesus returns to heaven (ascension),
the Holy Spirit comes (Pentecost), the church goes out to witness (mission),
and then Jesus comes back (Parousia). When we forget one of these events or
rearrange the order confusion reigns.
The
witness has been passed on to us, so we need to hear the angels’ message as
being for us: You have seen him go. You will see him come. But between the
going and coming there must be another. The Spirit must come, and you must go –
go into the world for Christ.[iii]
Be my witnesses.
When you have accepted Jesus, the Son of God, as the One
who died for your sins and rose again, there is a reasonable and logical result
of this experience – being a witness for him.
Did you
know that after a little more than 100 years, surveys show that 97% of the
world has heard of Coca-Cola? 72% of the world has seen a can of coca-cola. 51%
of the world has tasted a can of coca-cola. All due to the fact that the
company made a commitment years ago that everyone on the planet would have a
taste of their soft drink.
We
should stand up and take note here...97% of the world has heard of this sugar
and water concoction while 1.7 billion people world-wide have no access to the
good news of Jesus Christ! It is estimated that 17 million people die every
year without having heard the name of Jesus!
I say
this not to shame us, but to challenge us all.
We are
beginning a series on Acts. Yet if you look at the last chapter you will note
that of all the books of the Bible, this is the only one that doesn’t actually
end. The Holy Spirit is still writing these chapters. Will you and I be Acts
29?
AMEN
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