Be My Witnesses

Acts 1:1-11
Last week we met up in Kabangwe for the Holy Spirit Encounter. Pastor Blake worked hard to help you understand that the Holy Spirit is calling Christians to lead in ministry, to take the Good News of Jesus Christ to this church, to your neighborhood, through Matero, throughout Lusaka, all over Zambia, and to the world. Some of you stood up and accepted the challenge and the mandate; you are going to be God’s witnesses.

This is what is happening in the first part of the book of Acts. Just a little background before we get into the message today. I did not know this until I was in seminary, but the book of Acts isn’t its own book. It’s the second volume of a two-volume work. Does anyone know what the first volume is? We know it as the Gospel according to Luke. Each is the size of a standard scroll, but together they make up a whole. So when scholars talk about these two books of the Bible, they regularly call them together Luke-Acts.

Anyway, in the second scroll, starting at Acts 1, Luke, the author, reminds his readers what happened in the first scroll. It included all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

He told his apostles to wait until they had received the Holy Spirit. They still didn’t understand what was going to happen; they still had two major questions. The questions were: are you going to restore Israel’s power, and when are you going to do it? They still did not understand what it was that Jesus was doing. They wanted a physical kingdom with Jesus as King. But they got something else. Many Christians want to live in a Christian nation, ruled by Christ himself. But think about it. Does living in a Christian nation make the citizens Christians? No. It doesn’t. Sometimes it forces citizens to behave like Christians, but forcing someone does not make them Christian. Becoming a Christian has to come from a true desire for Christ. So their desire was short-sighted. Jesus had a far bigger plan.

Some of you stood in front of the congregation last week in Kabangwe and promised to God and in front of all of us that you would be God’s End Times Messengers, or, as Jesus put it, his witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth. How have you borne witness to Jesus Christ this week?

Here’s the thing: there were several who stood up on Friday to volunteer to be End Times Messengers. But Jesus calls all of his followers to be his witnesses, in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. It means we all have a mission field. Every Christian is called to a mission field. Your mission field absolutely includes your family. It absolutely includes the people who live around you, who work with you or play with you or go to school with you. If the people who you interact with daily do not know you are a Christian, by your actions and your words, then you aren’t living it.

There are lots of mission fields. You might think a Jerusalem mission field or a Judea mission field might be easiest. But the fact is, sometimes they are so familiar with you that they won’t even listen. This isn’t anything new; they even said of Jesus, “Isn’t this the son of the carpenter?” and refused to listen to him. The saying that a prophet is without honor in his hometown makes a mission to Jerusalem or Judea difficult. You have such good things to say but you find nobody listening.

A mission to Samaria, on the other hand, is a mission to the enemy. Samaritans and Jews didn’t get along. So this is a difficult mission field. As is a mission “to the ends of the earth.” This is a mission where you leave everything you know and follow God wherever he leads. It will be difficult.

Did you notice that I said the same thing about all of the mission fields? It will be difficult. Sharing Christ is difficult because that’s the one thing Satan opposes the most. Satan does not want you to share your faith. So he will oppose you on every front. But the fact is, when Jesus says that his followers will be his witnesses everywhere, that’s not the first thing he says about it. He says that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Did you get that? The Holy Spirit comes with power. It drives me crazy seeing Christians who don’t even try to share their faith because they don’t think they can or because they don’t think anyone will listen. I know it is a challenge to invite someone to church when your church meets in a classroom. Do you think God is somehow limited by this? That God says, “I was going to move in this person’s heart, but I can’t because this church meets in a classroom” – how silly is this? I remember starting a Bible study in a fraternity house in college. Fraternities were known for wild parties and alcohol. But we had several Bible studies going on there, in such an unlikely place. And God did great things with those Bible studies. Sometimes we look at the obstacles instead of looking at God. We think about how great the barriers are, and when we do that, we forget how great God is, that with God, nothing is impossible.

Jesus made this command immediately before he ascended into heaven. He didn’t say anything else – why not? Because he wanted his followers to remember it. When they received the Holy Spirit, they were to get to work. We have the same mandate. The command is the same. If the Holy Spirit has come upon you, what are you waiting for?