What is a witness, and who can fulfill the task of witnessing? This article looks at Acts 1:8.

Source: The Outlook, 1986. 3 pages.

Acts 1:8 - Witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses.

Acts 1:8

Pentecost is the most important special day in the life of the New Testament church. We often make Christmas the outstanding one, with Easter perhaps a distant second. Pentecost is usually almost forgot­ten, and likely would be completely overlooked by most Christians, were it not for the fact that usually the pastors preach a Pentecost sermon on that day.

What the harvest is to the farmer, the pay check to the laboring man, and profits to the business man, Pentecost is for the church.

Jesus had come to earth to do the work He had to do here, as prophet, priest and king. When that was finished He ascended into heaven. Ten days later came, on Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This marked the beginning of the "harvest" of the work of the Son of God on earth. The Spirit would apply all the work of Jesus Christ to the hearts of God's people. By the Spirit we are born again and become spiritually-minded people of God. The fruits of this Spirit are named in Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. By the Spirit through the Word, the risen Lord begins His whole program of the new kingdom, which will culminate in His final return and the new heaven and earth.

Here in vs. 8 Jesus tells the disciples (the church) what they will do when they receive the Holy Spirit. They will witness, the church through preaching and the members with personal testimony. Luke, the author, makes this emphatic. He doesn't say that they should do this; they will do this. The implication is that if one has the Holy Spirit he will do this.

We live today in what is called the great missionary age. With the modern means of communication, radio, the press and T.V. (Christian programs even bounc­ing off satellites) and the modern transportation ex­plosion, more mission has already been done in the twentieth century than in the nineteen preceding ones. (I speak, of course, of all nominal mission work.)

For this we want to be thankful. Someone once said that if Paul were living today he'd use the best means available to preach the Gospel. Much of this, however, is done formally, at least as far as many of the church members are concerned. Many church members don't even know the names of the missionaries their church is supporting or where they are working. Many peo­ple also are willing to pay the quotas, but are not liv­ing members of the church themselves. They may also give liberally for all mission programs, miles away, but have never once gone to speak to their unbelieving neighbor across the street.

Remember, the Pharisees also were mission-minded people. Doesn't Jesus say that they "compass land and sea to make one proselyte," but that they made him "two-fold more, the children of hell" than themselves (Matthew 23:15)?

The work of many missionaries is not supported by the necessary zeal and mission-mindedness of the church at home.

We ask, "What is a good mission minded church?" and "Where does all true mission work begin?"

The Bible's answers are plain: All healthy mission work must begin with church members; they themselves are to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. "You are my witnesses," says the prophet Isaiah, speaking to the Israelites (Isaiah 43:10, 13). The prophet is not speaking here to the leaders of the church and fellow-prophets, but addressing the Israelites as a whole, the common members of the nation. Here in Acts 1:8 Jesus is speaking first of all to the apostles, but through them to all believers.

Jesus says here in vs. 8, not that His people should be witnesses, but that they will be such, by the power of the Holy Spirit that is poured out on Pentecost.

The basic idea is that faithful Christians are witnesses in their own lives and communities. They also want to reach people across the oceans. Since they themselves cannot reach those people, they call others to represent them in doing it.

What is a Witness?🔗

A witness is one who affirms or gives testimony of a certain fact or event. The testimony is given to peo­ple who do not have that knowledge. Suppose you were involved in a car accident out of which followed a court case, and you are called upon to be a witness. You must give testimony of what you saw or ex­perienced, something about which the judge and jury may know little or nothing.

Christians are to speak of Jesus Christ, who arose from the grave. He is alive, He is real. How do we know? From those who saw Him and gave testimony of his resurrection. Through the testimony of the Word we all know that He is alive. By the Spirit in our hearts, we have fellowship with Him through faith. Knowing this Christ we are to tell others about Him.

In this connection let me mention two interesting and significant passages in the Bible about witness­ing. Of the prophet Jeremiah, we read that he suffered much because of his testimonies and preaching. When further threatened, he decided to quit preaching and be silent. Then we read, "But his word was within my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones and I was weary with holding it in. Indeed I could not" (Ch. 20:9). He could not keep still.

Of the disciples, Peter and John, we read after they had been threatened by the Sanhedrin:

We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.Acts 4:20

They were irrepressible witnesses, for they had seen and heard the Lord Jesus.

True witnessing has to be personal. Witnessing for the Lord does not mean that we just talk a little about religion, the church or even some doctrines of the church or something that has happened in the church or been decided by a synod of the church. We must have a personal knowledge, first of all of our own sin, and then of trusting in and knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. We must love Him and want to live according to His Word. He must live by His Spirit in our hearts.

The book of Acts often speaks of Paul's personal testimonies given in his great mission work. He related what Christ had done for Him. Jesus and His salvation were the realities of his own life.

The simple truth, however, is that many church people know nothing or very little of this. It also has to be admitted, that with all of our traditional love for the Reformed faith and indoctrination in the truths of the Bible, we generally were not taught much about how to be good witnesses for Jesus Christ. Many church people have never once given a personal testimony of what they believe and of their personal knowledge of the Lord. And aren't there just too many people in the church with whom the elders and pastors can't even carry on a good conversation about personal salvation and knowledge of the Lord?

The Lord's words in Acts 1 remain true. "You will be my witnesses." That was going to be a fact. True Christians do witness, at least in some measure.

Who can do this? What fills the hearts of saved sin­ners to enable them to testify and witness?

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit is given you," we read in vs. 8. This power comes from Christ. The Holy Spirit was given to Christ, and Christ poured Him into the church. The entire book of Acts speaks about this power of the Spirit in the hearts and lives of the apostles. The recorded events are really the acts of Jesus Christ working in and through the witness of the apostles by the power of the Spirit.

We read here of the power of the Holy Spirit. What a "loaded" expression! Literally, we read, the "dynamite" of the Holy Spirit. Most of us know something about the power of dynamite, or TNT.

It is the "dynamite" of the Holy Spirit that enables saved sinners to testify about Christ and His marvelous work for and within them. By the power of the Spirit thousands of saints have had the courage of a Daniel to testify even in the face of death, without fear. Even the wicked rulers in Acts 4 were struck by the effect of this power in Peter and John. The boldness of Peter and John, uneducated men, caused them to marvel. We read that they took knowledge of the fact that Peter and John had been with Jesus. Even the Sanhedrists perceived that a special power was enabling these men to do what they did.

May we be filled with this Spirit, so that we ex­perience such certainty and joy of salvation within our hearts. And become Christ's witnesses as individuals and churches.

Another question has to follow. How can we ac­quire this dynamic power? The answer is plain. He was promised in answer to prayer (Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit was given to the church. The one hun­dred and twenty in Acts 2 who received the Spirit as He was poured out were essentially the first New Testament church. Throughout the New Testament the church received the gifts of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we as individuals receive these gifts as real members in the church. Through the preaching of the Word, first of all, we receive the Spirit. With the gospel preaching we need the important spiritual ex­ercise of family and personal reading of the Word. The heart of that word, of course, is Jesus Christ.

Living with His Word in this way, we learn and ex­perience that He as our Savior is "full of grace and truth." He is the "Fountain of life," from whom all blessings flow.

He gives grace upon grace. What our hearts are full of, we must and will tell and show to others.

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