You Will Be My Witnesses!
Luke 24:44-49
Acts 1:8
1. God did a new thing
Last week we learned that God’s people bear witness to the living God. God called Israel, and told them, “You are my witnesses!” God tells us today, “You are my witnesses!” “You are my servant!” God calls us to be witnessing servants. But how can this be? How can a disobedient, sinful people be God’s witnesses and servants? Only God can do this! Only God’s miraculous love, grace, and saving power can change blind, deaf, and lying people into witnessing servants. God promised that he will do that. He will do a new thing. He will change his people into a new people. “I am doing a new thing … I will make a new covenant … I will give you a new heart. I will put my Spirit in you” (Is 43:19; 62:2; Jer 31:22; Ezek 11:19-20; 36:26-27)
And that is what God did in Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. That is what God did on the day of Pentecost when He poured out his Holy Spirit on his people. “… if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come… And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Cor 5:17-19) We are new creations; God’s new people in Christ. And by the power of the Holy Spirit we are now witnesses of Jesus Christ. Isn’t this amazing! God promised. God acted and fulfilled his promise. Only the true living, sovereign Lord and God can do that. This is evidence that He is God. And we are witnesses of these things!
2. You are witnesses of these things
Read Luke 24:44-49. “You are witnesses of these things.” The first believers were the original eyewitnesses of the historical Jesus. They knew Jesus of Nazareth. They lived with him. They saw everything He did. They saw him die. They saw him raised from the dead. They saw him, heard him, touched him (1 Jn 1:1-3). They were witnesses of these things.
But what about us? We cannot say this. True, but where are all these eyewitness testimonies about Jesus? In the Bible! We are also witnesses of these things because we encounter and experience them through the Bible. Our witness of the Lord Jesus Christ comes from the Bible. We can have confidence in our witness.The Bible is trustworthy, is true, and has authority as the Word of God. Therefore, we are witnesses of these things.
3. You will be my witnesses!
Read Acts 1:8. The resurrected Jesus told his disciples — You will be my witnesses! He said this to a group of people who were equally unpromising and imperfect like Israel was. They had many flaws and failings. They did not understand what Jesus taught them. They sometimes failed in their ministry. They were selfishly striving for position and status. On that night when Jesus was betrayed and arrested — they all ran for cover. One tried to get away so quickly that he lost his clothes in the process. One denied any knowledge of Jesus. They thought the resurrected Jesus was a ghost. And one said I will not believe until I touched his wounds. Yet, it is this group of unschooled fishermen and a hated tax collector, that Jesus chose and called to be his witnessing servants. How did this band of scared, flawed people became powerful witnesses, who began a movement of God’s people that would take the gospel to the ends of the earth? By the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”
Today Jesus is telling us, you will be my witnesses. And we are his witnesses by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord who has all the authority and power is with us through the Holy Spirit. He enables, equips, empowers us to be his witnesses.
4. Living witnesses
How then shall we bear witness to the living God? We witness with our heads, hearts, mouths, hands and feet. We witness with our heads, that is our minds and intellect. If we don’t know God, how can we speak about Him and live for Him? How can we know Jesus? How can we know his heart and words? Through his Word. That is why daily reading, studying, meditating on, knowing God’s Word is so important. That is why Sunday School is so important. That is why Bible study groups, the men’s fellowship, and other small groups are so important. We cannot grow and become fully mature in Christ by coming to church only once a week.
We witness with our hearts. When you love the Lord with your whole heart, then you will tell others about Him. You will live for his glory. We must make sure that we keep the fire of our first love burning. We do that by practicing the spiritual disciplines, being actively involved in church, and by witnessing.
We witness with our mouths — speaking, telling, teaching, preaching the gospel. Next week we focus on God’s people as a people who proclaim the gospel of Christ. So I will skip this for now.
We witness with our hands, with our actions, with our lives. To bear witness to the Lord is to obey Jesus, to live a kingdom lifestyle. This is very important because our verbal testimony will mean nothing, and have no credibility, if we do not live the gospel we are proclaiming. We are living witnesses.
I believe we are at a critical point and time in history where our witness is absolutely important, required, crucial. The world is changing drastically, becoming increasingly anti-Christian. Later in this series I will talk more about these changes, the challenges they pose to God’s people, and how we should respond. For now let me say this. This is the time for us to stand up. To be revolutionary, radically different, counter-cultural, to be God’s kingdom people. We must not participate in the ways of the world, in the hate, anger, fear, divisions, conflict, greed, lust, and immorality that are going on all around us. We must rise above these. All believers must stand together and show unity in love. We must reach across the aisle. Republican Christians and Democrat Christians, tree-hugging Christians and Christian loggers, conservative Christians and liberal Christians, American Christians and Christians from other nations. All need to reach out to one another, and show the world that there is a better way. The way of love, the way of Jesus Christ. The way of self-giving, self-sacrificing love. The way of loving, honoring and respecting others above myself. The way of loving my enemies. The way of grace and forgiveness.
We all must repent, and relearn the way of being true followers of Jesus, the way of taking up our crosses daily and dying to ourselves. “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” (Lk 9:23-25).
What does it help, what good is it, when, in order to maintain or defend my political or personal views, I engage in unbiblical, unChristianly attitudes, behaviors, and actions. For the sake of my political views, for the sake of gaining power, for the sake of gaining money, I disobey my Lord. I do not live a kingdom life. I do not love others as I love myself. Thus, my politics, my nation, my ideology, my philosophy, my money, my power, my desires have become my idol. I have prioritized my comforts over my Lord’s commands. And so I have lost my soul, my life.
Is Jesus our Lord? Do we love Jesus? Then obey Him! Stop putting ourselves first. Put Jesus first! Stop putting America first! Put his Kingdom first! Our Lord said, forgive others, love your enemies. Stop making excuses. We love the Lord. We follow Jesus, and we are countercultural.
Love the other. Be humble. Be gracious. Listen, try to understand the other, while sharing your beliefs and views in love, with gentleness, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, and humility. We witness with our hands, our lives, and this is a very powerful witness because the world is watching us.
We witness with our feet. Jesus said, go and make disciples. We need to go to others to witness. We must be intentional about going, reaching out to others, building relationships with them, loving others, and tell them about Jesus. Obey Jesus. Get up, go and do!
Know and love Jesus. Obey and serve Jesus in this world. That’s how we roll. That’s how we witness. We are witnessing servants!
5. Be courageous!
But, Jesus warned us. We will suffer persecution. Everyone will hate us because of Him. (see Mt 5:11; 10:16-20; Mk 13:9-11; Lk 21:12-15) How will we react when faced with the opposition of the world? We will not cower down in fear. We will not retaliate. We will not lick our wounds in self-pity. We will not withdraw into safe and sheltered seclusion away from the disagreeable hostility of the world. (Stott) No, in the power of the Holy Spirit we will boldly and courageously bear witness to Jesus Christ before the world.
Be courageous! God tells us in Is 43:4,5 — “Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you … Do not be afraid for I am with you.” Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit will speak through us. He will give us and teach us what to say. (Mt 10:20; Mk 13:11) Jesus said, “Not a hair of your head will perish. Stand firm, and you will win life” (Lk 21:15). Jesus promised in Mt 16:18, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.”
Be courageous! Our God is the most powerful force in the universe. He is faithful and good. God will sustain and strengthen us, not only to survive, but also to thrive in serving Him and others during this unique moment in history (Dickerson). Things will get worse, but all things will ultimately lead to His return. Our Lord Jesus Christ will prevail.
Be courageous! Because this is not the first nor the last persecution of the church. Nero impaled Christians in his gardens and lit them as torches for evening parties. Romans placed bets as they fed Christians to lions. Adolf Hitler sent true Christian activists to the concentration camps. Joseph Stalin sentenced Christians to freeze in the Siberian Gulags. Mao Tse-tung had Christians murdered in the fields. Dictators have vowed to eradicate Christians from the planet. Some followers of Islam have beheaded thousands of Christians for 1,400 years. (Dickerson) Even now churches are being closed and burnt down; Christians are imprisoned and killed.
And what happened? The Church grew and has spread to the ends of the earth just as Jesus promised. Today there are 2.4 billion Christians across the globe. “No army of millions, no Roman legion, no band of sword-wielding terrorists, no military power with nuclear warheads, has been able to stop the gentle Shepherd who welcomed children onto His knee.” (Dickerson) These forces or powers may kill our physical bodies, but they cannot kill a single Christian soul. Christ has already won. His final victory is sure. (Dickerson)
Let us be courageous and witness boldly. Let us follow Jesus and take the risk to be counter-cultural. Let us live fearlessly in Christ’s way of life, the kingdom life. We will not be intimidated. We will not fear. We will not worry. We will not be anxious. God’s kingdom has come in Jesus Christ. We will face the world with fearless faith. We will be full of hope, unshakable in our confidence and knowledge that our Lord will have the final victory. Nations may tremble and rage. Kingdoms may wage war. Mountains may fall into the seas. But God’s kingdom cannot be shaken. (Dickerson) The gates of hell will not prevail against his church and his kingdom. Jesus Christ is the only living God, Lord and Savior. We are his witnesses in this world.