"You shall be My witnesses"

Acts 1:1-14 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The first account Icomposed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, ² until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. ³ To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. ⁴ Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; ⁵ for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

⁶ So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; ⁸ but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

⁹ And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. ¹¹ They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”

¹² Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. ¹³ When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. ¹⁴ These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

In verses 6-8 in today’s text the resurrected Jesus says two very important things to the disciples and to us.    “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”  He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;  but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”     The first part is that Jesus says it is not for us to know the times or epochs, the Father has fixed. For us to focus on and go to great lengths in order to know when Jesus will return is not only futile, it actually goes against what Jesus says. It’s not for us to know. If it were important that we know He would have told us. Rather Jesus says:     “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father…  Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.  But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.  So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matthew 24:36-44)    All those who have thought they figured out when Jesus would return have failed and looked foolish. There is value in studying the scriptures and prophecy in order to better understand the events of our times, but to try to predict the future is vanity, it is not for us to know.

Rather, Jesus says we are to be His witnesses. As witnesses we are to go out “even to the remotest part of the earth”    The power of the Holy Spirit is given to us not simply for our own benefit. The power of the Holy Spirit is given not merely that we should love others, although the love we are to have for others, the love that Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 13, is a Holy Spirit given, a Holy Spirit empowered love. Without the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives we simply cannot love as we are called to love. But that love, is not our purpose, even to live like Jesus lived, which again is not possible without the Holy Spirit, is not our purpose. We are to be His witnesses. Witnesses testify about what they have seen and what they know.

Paul is perhaps one of the greatest and most faithful witnesses of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 he says:  And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.  For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.  I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,  and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.     Like Paul, our witness, our testimony should be of Jesus Christ, what we are witnesses of, even to the remotest parts of the earth, should be that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Lord and King, that He is the Son of God and that He is God.   Then also our witness to the world is that He, Jesus the Christ was crucified. He, the Savior, Redeemer, the Lord and King, the Son of God, God Himself dies for our sins.

Too often we focus on what we are to do. We believe the Holy Spirit power is given for us to do things. When in truth, first and foremost what the power of the Holy Spirit is given to us for is to be witnesses of Christ. In Mark 16:15-18 Jesus says:      “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.  He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.  These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues;  they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”    The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, that what we are to be witnesses of, that what we are to testify about to all the world. Jesus says the signs will follow those who believe. Too often we get the order wrong. We believe that if we display the signs, if we operate in the power of the Holy Spirit then they will believe. Paul does say that:  my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.  There was and should be a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, but that power comes from knowing Christ, and Him crucified. The signs and wonders follow those who believe as confirmation of the witness and testimony of Christ. Mark 16: 19-20 continues saying: So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.  And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.  Signs and wonders confirm the witness and the testimony. They are not themselves the witness.

It is not for us to know or to try to figure out the times or the timing of God. The Holy Spirit is given to us for more than for our own benefit. Jesus says we are to be His witnesses. All that we do and all that we say should be a testimony of Christ. There are two primary types of witnesses. There are eyewitnesses, those who testify about what they have seen. We are to be eyewitnesses for Christ, telling the world what we have seen Jesus do. There are also expert witnesses, those who testify about what they know. If we are to be expert witnesses of Christ, then we must determine to know Him well. We must ourselves, like Paul, determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. We must know irrefutably that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer, Savior, Lord and King, that He is the Son of God and He is God. Then we must irrefutably know that He was crucified, that He died for our sins. Irrefutably knowing that, we become qualified to be an expert witness of Christ. If we will be His witnesses, if we will testify of what we have seen and of what we know, the Lord will work with us. By the power of the Holy Spirit signs and wonders will follow to confirm our testimony. God will demonstrate His power as we are faithful witnesses.

Heavenly Father forgive me for the times I have focused on Your times rather than on being a witness of Christ. May I be faithful to testify, both of what I have seen and of what I irrefutably know, that Jesus is the Christ and He died for my sins and the sins of all mankind. As I become a faithful witness through the power of the Holy Spirit, may the power of the Spirit also follow my testimony, to confirm Your word.    Amen