Be a Witness

Famous last words. The great French philosopher, Voltaire, lay on his deathbed. After a life of ridicule directed against the Bible, Christianity, and the church, Voltaire’s day of reckoning had finally come. His doctor stood by his bedside to hear him say these words:

“I am abandoned by God and man. Doctor, I will give you half of what I am worth, if you will give me six months life.” The doctor replied, “Monsieur Voltaire, you cannot live six weeks.”

“Then I will go to hell.” Voltaire replied, “and you will go with me.” And soon after, he died.

Famous last words. Mahatma Ghandi, the noted Indian statesman, was a devout Hindu. He claimed to find more solace in the Veda and the Upanishads than in the Bible. Not long before he died, however, he was plunged in gloom and depression. He wrote these final words “All about me is darkness. I am praying for light.”

Famous last words. Thomas Huxley was a great British biologist in the 19th century. He championed the theory of evolution and became a bitter opponent of the teachings of the Bible. An agnostic, he lectured far and wide on the superiority of science to Scripture. But as he lay on his deathbed staring into eternity, with just moments to live, T.H. Huxley uttered these words “So. It is true after all.”

A man’s last words can be terribly significant. Like a verbal snapshot, they have a way of capturing the essence of a man’s life. And when that man is the most important man who ever lived, we had better pay close attention to his final remarks.

We come today to a passage of Scripture which gives us the famous last words of Jesus Christ. They were not whispered on a deathbed, but given by a risen, victorious Lord just before He ascended into heaven. They were His last words to us before He returned to His throne. The next time we hear His voice on this planet will be when He comes to set up His kingdom.

What did He say? What did He want us to know? The answers are in Acts 1. Jesus’ twelve disciples, that lovable gang of ruffians from Galilee, were still full of questions. They still hadn’t quite figured out what Jesus was up to. They heard Him say that He was soon going to send them His Spirit.

Acts 1:4-5 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

To the Jewish mind of that day, the coming of God’s Spirit meant the coming of the Kingdom. It meant that the glorious golden age of Israel spoken of by Isaiah and Micah and Zechariah was about to begin. The disciples thought that this is what Jesus meant when He told them that the Spirit was coming not many days hence.

Acts 1:6 So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

That’s an honest question. And Jesus gives them a very frank answer. He said, in essence, “Mind your own business. You guys are in sales, I’m in management. You do your job and I’ll do mine.”

Acts 1:7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”

The disciples would have loved it if Jesus had sat them down right then and there on the Mount of Olives for a prophecy conference. He could have got out his dispensational charts and shown them when the kingdom was going to be restored to Israel. But He didn’t do that. Because He had something far more important that He wanted them to know.

Acts 1:8 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.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

That’s it. Those were His final words to them. Not “Good-bye, guys” or “It’s been great knowing you” or “Have a nice day.” It is terribly important that we understand just what Jesus meant when He gave his final instructions to His disciples. Because those words were not just for them - they are for us today.

When you look closely at verse 8, you will see that there are two declarations that Jesus makes. Both are in the future tense.

1. you will receive power

2. you will be my witnesses

Now notice that both declarations are modified by an additional clause.

1. you will receive power… when the Holy Spirit comes on you

2. you will be my witnesses… in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Let’s look at each one of these statements closely.

1. you will receive power

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. The bigshot leader of them, Peter, went as far as to deny that he even knew Jesus. And even after the Resurrection, they were skulking around, hiding out in upper rooms for fear that the Jews and Romans were going to get them. So they sure didn’t have any power yet!

But Jesus said they were going to get it 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.

There is a passage in the OT in the book of Zechariah where God is speaking to a man named Zerubbabel. God had commissioned him to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem. It was an enormous task and Zerubbabel’s resources were very few. But the Lord assured him that the task would not be accomplished by human strength.

Zechariah 4:6 This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.

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

Now what did he want His disciples to do?

2. you will be my witnesses

What is a witness? Well, in legal terms, a witness is somebody who can attest to the truth of something because they experienced 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 attest to the truth of the matter. Their own personal involvement in the events is the key. That is what makes them witnesses.

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.

Luke 24:45ff Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

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 a Christian 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, your values, your priorities, and 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 power to be a witness.

People sometimes say to me “Boy, I’d really like to talk to so and so about my faith in Christ, but I just don’t know what to say.” You know what I tell them? “That’s good. Because then you’ll have to depend on the Holy Spirit to show you what to say. Just ask Him to give you the words. That’s his job. And it may not come out all polished like the words of a Billy Graham, but it’ll come out with the Holy Spirit’s power. And that’s all you need.”

I sometimes think that these canned presentations of the Gospel that we learn at evangelism training seminars can actually get in the way of us having to rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the words to say. Look at the Christians in the early church. They didn’t have the Four Laws, they didn’t have Evangelism Explosion, they didn’t have the Steps to Peace with God. do you realize that they didn’t even have a New Testament to show people verses from? All they had was the Holy Spirit and His power. And that was enough to cause them to turn the world upside down with the Gospel.

Now notice something else about that statement in Acts 1:8. Jesus said you will be MY witnesses. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we do not become the Holy Spirit’s witnesses. We do not become preoccupied with what the Holy Spirit has done for us. We do not go around talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s job is to give us the power to be Christ’s witnesses. So when our lives are filled with the Holy Spirit, people are going to see Jesus Christ living in us, not the Holy Spirit.

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. Eventually, most of them got kicked out of Jerusalem. Home is where you may run into the most resistance to your witness. Just be patient, and let the Holy Spirit do His work.

Then Judea. The neighborhood. And Samaria. The other side of the tracks. The Jews hated the Samaritans and vice versa. Sometimes the hardest people to be a witness to are people who are not “our kind of people.” Because those people see us as outsiders. They see us with all our faults. They are not as willing to gloss over our flaws and our inconsistencies like people in our own group are. But Jesus said “you will be my witnesses in Samaria.”

And to the ends of the earth. This phrase, by the way, is what proves that Jesus was talking to us and not just to the Twelve. Because there was no way humanly possible for those guys to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. They didn’t even know where the ends of the earth were in those days!

This is where it becomes important for a Christian and a church to develop a global concern. If we are not somehow involved in being a witness to the ends of the earth, then we are not being completely obedient to the Lord’s command. I thank God that he has given us opportunities, through our church’s missions program, of being a part of what He is doing is places like Japan, and Spain, and Zaire, and Italy. And I would challenge you to think in terms of making your witness a global witness by getting involved in the area of missions.

None of us are great missionary statesmen. None of us are dynamic evangelists. We’re just ordinary people. But we have met Jesus Christ, who has made us new people. He is in the process of changing us from the inside out. And we have the Holy Spirit who gives us the power to be Christ’s witnesses.

Let me close by reading you a significant little article that my wife Carolyn found. It is written from the unique perspective of a non-Christian talking to a Christian. It really says it all on the subject of being a witness. It’s called “I Need You.”