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” Acts 1:8.One of the clearest evidences that Jesus was under no illusion that His mission was to spread the message of God’s love for a broken, bleeding, desperate and dying world was the selection, training and commissioning of disciples to carry on the work He started. Here in Acts He stated the scope of the work that was expected of His followers and the power that would be at their disposal in order to accomplish the task.
All the writings of the New Testament are post-resurrection documents and there are plausible suggestions that, at least in one case, sections were added after the book was written (see Mark 16: 9-20). However, the consistency in the written documents (see Matt. 28: 19-20, Luke 24: 46-48. Mark 16:15, John 20:21, and Acts 1:8) and activities of the early disciples as recorded in Acts of the Apostles supports the argument that the disciples and early believers were convinced that they were responsible for the spreading of the news of God’s unconditional love for all and the possibility of transformation.
Yes! Jesus made it quite clear that His mission and ministry was to bear witness to the love of God and God’s acts in delivering human beings from the shackles of oppression and domination. The early church grew because of the faithful and deliberate witness of those who were converted. During the last quarter of the 18th century and for most of the 19th century the Methodist Movement leapt and pranced throughout England, America and the Caribbean. A major factor was that those who were regenerated were willing to bear witness to the transforming power of God in their lives. The cemeteries in the Caribbean bears the evidence of the flood of missionaries who came, some died months after arriving in the station yet they kept on coming. The love of God constrained them. What about us today?
Every January many believers say “let me be employed for you or laid aside for you….let me have all things, let me have nothing….put me to doing, put me to suffering….but are we really willing to be a living sacrifice for Jesus and the cause of Christ? We need to get back to the basics of being witnesses for Jesus. Every person who has been regenerated is duty bound be a witness for Jesus.
We need to constantly see ourselves as a Missional people, reaching out beyond the walls of our church buildings and caring for others, standing up for social justice, speaking out and fighting against stigma and discrimination while declaring the love and saving grace of God and promoting holiness and purity. This is not optional. We do not witness if we feel like it or it is comfortable. We must be a witness for Jesus wherever man or woman is found. Is it not our bounden duty as members of the body of Christ and ambassadors of the Kingdom of God? As Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915) wrote: “Rescue the perishing, Duty demands it”. It is a duty. Are you on duty?
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