Commissioned to Witness Everywhere

Acts 1:1–11
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Luke starts by connecting Luke and Acts (vv. 1-2). At the close of Luke’s Gospel, the believers were in the temple praising God. Acts is the story of what came next. Luke tells what Jesus did and said in His human body; Acts tells what He did and said through His spiritual body, the church. We don’t know much about Theophilus. He may have been an important Roman official. It seems he was a seeker of truth who was carefully studying (and considering) the Christian faith. “Witness” is a key word in this book, used 29 times. A witness tells what he has seen and heard. Every Christian is expected to be a witness, telling the lost about the Savior. 

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared (and disappeared) to His disciples and the other believers over a forty-day period. He gave them “many infallible proofs” of His resur­rection (v. 3). Christ’s death scattered and disillusioned the disciples, but His resurrected made them fearless, ready to risked everything for the spread of the Gospel around the world. Jesus cautioned them to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit before they started serving Him (vv. 4-5).  

Still thinking in physical terms, the disciples wanted to know when the kingdom would be restored to Israel (v. 6). Jesus would not answer their question (v. 7). Instead, He gave them his final Great Commission. They would receive power once the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they would be Christ’s witnesses starting in Jerusalem, spreading to Judea and Samaria, and reaching to the end of the earth (v. 8). Jesus is focused on is a spiritual kingdom. Jesus then ascended to heaven (v. 9), and the disciples watched until He was out of view. God sent two witnesses who assured the disciples that Jesus would come back in the same way that they had seen him go (vv. 10-11). 

Application

Am I using the power that is available to me in my witnessing? I pass up so many opportunities, and I am sure it is because I am trying to work in my own strength, not let God work through me.