A new enablement for ministry

Notice that this is an absolute statement of fact. There is no “maybe” about it. You will receive power.

Not you “might” receive power.

Not “some of you” will receive power.

Not you will receive power “if you do such and such”.

This is a promise that Jesus made to His disciples and there is no condition on this promise. You will receive power.

But they didn’t have that power yet, did they? Far from it. Remember these were the guys who deserted Jesus in his hour of greatest need. These were the men who slept when they should have prayed. These were the men who lied when they should have told the truth. These were the men who ran away in fear when they should have followed Jesus to the cross. They didn’t have power.

But Jesus said they were going to get power when… ?

“When the Holy Spirit comes on you.” When there was no Holy Spirit on them, there was no power in them. But they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came on them.

When God gives us His Spirit, he gives us the power to do what He wants us to do. He never gives us a job to do without giving us the power to do it.

Now what did he want His disciples to do? He gave them power for proclamation.

“you will be my witnesses”

What is a witness? Well, in legal terms, a witness is somebody who can tell the truth about something because they saw it firsthand. If a man robs a grocery store, the people in the store are witnesses to what happened, because they were there when it happened. They saw what the robber did. They heard what he said. They know what he looked like. And if he is arrested and brought to trial, they can serve as witnesses to tell the truth of the matter. Your own personal involvement in the event is the key. That is what makes you a witness.

This is how the word is used in the Bible. A witness of Christ is someone who knows Him. Someone who has seen what He has done. Someone who has a personal relationship with him.

Notice, in Acts 1:8, that Jesus said you will be my witnesses, not you will “do witnessing”. Christians today sometimes talk about doing witnessing, as though it were something that you can do or not do. But Jesus said that a witness is something you are, not something you simply do. Being a witness derives as much from your lifestyle,

as much from your values, as much from your priorities, as much from how you spend your time and your money, as much from your goals and dreams, as it does from anything you say. If you have met Jesus Christ and have experienced the change that He has made in your life, then you are a witness.

Doesn’t matter how much of the Bible you know or don’t know. Doesn’t matter if you have never taken a course in witnessing. Doesn’t matter if you are not a pastor or a missionary, or if you have never been to seminary. If you know Jesus Christ as Savior, then the Holy Spirit is in your life. And if the Holy Spirit is in your life, then you have the power to be a witness.

We’ve been given power for proclamation. What is our platform? Our platform is the world in which we live.

The story is told of how Jesus returned to heaven after he had finished his earthly ministry. When he arrived in heaven, he was approached by a group of angels. They had been watching his ministry with interest. They knew that he intended to spread the gospel all over the world. But they weren’t quite clear on how he planned to do that. So they asked him, “Now that you are back in heaven, how are you going to spread the gospel all over the world?”

Jesus replied simply “I have left the message with my disciples. They will do it.” The angels looked at one another with concern. Finally, after an awkward silence, one of them asked “What is your Plan B?” To which Jesus replied “There is no Plan B.”

Jesus told us where we would be His witnesses. It starts right at home. In Jerusalem. For the disciples, that was probably the hardest place to be witnesses. That’s where they ran into the most opposition. Got the most flak. Right at home in Jerusalem. The proof is that most of them eventually got kicked out of Jerusalem. Home is the part of your world where you may run into the most resistance to your witness. Just be patient, and let the Holy Spirit do His work.

Then Judea. That’s the part of your world you might call your neighborhood. The people you work with, the people you commute with. You don’t see them every day, but your with them alot. And then Samaria. The Jews hated the Samaritans even though they lived right next door. They hated them because they were different. So they avoided them at all costs. They stayed out of their neighborhoods, and God forbid if a Samaritan should ever move in close to them. Samaria is the part of your world that you might label “the other side of the tracks”. People who are close enough to be called neighbors, but people who live in a different culture, people who are of a different ethnic group. Maybe, here in New York, we have a lot of Samaritans. Sometimes the hardest people to be a witness to are people who are not “your kind of people.” But Jesus said “you will be my witnesses in Samaria.”

And to the ends of the earth.

The disciples were facing a new environment. So are we. The world of the 90’s is a different world.

Jesus gave them a new enablement. He gave them the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gave them power for proclamation. We have the same Holy Spirit today. We have the same power today. The message is the same today. The only thing that’s different is the world. But the world was different for the disciples, too. Can we trust the Holy Spirit to help us to reach a world that is different today?

As the disciples used the power to proclaim the message of Jesus, they experienced a new effectiveness. The book of Acts is the story of that.

We need a new effectiveness in ministry today. If we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, we’ll become effective in touching people, just as the disciples in the book of Acts were.