Monday, November 27, 2017
Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
YOU ARE MY WITNESSES
The first chapter of Acts records our Savior's promise of the Holy Spirit, His Ascension, another encouragement to His disciples be His witnesses to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and the selection of Matthias as the replacement for Judas.
Just before His physical departure from the earth as He was about to ascend to the right hand of God, Jesus again reminded His disciples about the privilege they would have as His witnesses. He said: "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8 NKJV).
We understand that while these words were spoken to a specific group of His disciples, these same words have application to each and every follower of Jesus. No, we were not eye witnesses to our Savior's life, death, and resurrection. And no, we were not there on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon those first disciples in such a dramatic way. But nonetheless, we are His witnesses. What those early disciples were privileged to witness, we have been privileged to know, believe, and confess through the faith worked in our hearts by the same Holy Spirit working through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament.
There may be times when we feel like we are all alone in our attempts to be our Savior's witnesses. I am sure the same could be said of those early disciples. We get a glimpse of that on the day of His Ascension. We're told that they just stood there gazing up into heaven. The angel asked them "... why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven" (Acts 1:10-11 NKJV).
With these words the disciples were sent on their way. There was no time for standing around wondering about how they were to be His witnesses. They were His witnesses and Jesus had equipped them with everything they needed. It was time to get to work, He had ascended and He was coming back.
And so likewise, there is no time for us to be standing around wondering. Jesus has ascended and He is coming back. He has equipped us with everything needed to be His witnesses. He has revealed Himself as our Lord and Savior in the pages of Scripture. What a privilege to be His witnesses!
