Witness (4 of 4)
Series: The Foundation of the Church God Builds
Richard A. Bradley
Acts 1:4-8
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ''which,'' He said, ''you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'' 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ''Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'' 7 And He said to them, ''It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.''
NKJV
What is a witness? The dictionary defines a witness as someone who ''bears witness to; testifies to or gives evidence of.'' That's seems to be a fair if somewhat sterile definition of the word. However, the biblical definition is a little different. In Acts 1:8 the word translated as ''to witness'' describes those who, because of their faith in Christ, present themselves to be martyred. Let that sink in for a moment. If you open your mouth and witness to the saving grace of Christ in our world you might be thought of as being more religious than you should be or perhaps just a little bit off. In the first century world telling people that Jesus and not Caesar was Lord could get you killed.
And yet Jesus told His followers to go and be witnesses to Him. Why would this loving Savior send his followers off to do something that would almost certainly cause them to be ''martyred'' for His cause? As our vets understand, sometimes the mission is more important than the life of the man that carries it out. The members of the 101st Airborne who parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day had already take that fact for granted.
Jesus understood the importance of t ...
Series: The Foundation of the Church God Builds
Richard A. Bradley
Acts 1:4-8
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ''which,'' He said, ''you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'' 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ''Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?'' 7 And He said to them, ''It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.''
NKJV
What is a witness? The dictionary defines a witness as someone who ''bears witness to; testifies to or gives evidence of.'' That's seems to be a fair if somewhat sterile definition of the word. However, the biblical definition is a little different. In Acts 1:8 the word translated as ''to witness'' describes those who, because of their faith in Christ, present themselves to be martyred. Let that sink in for a moment. If you open your mouth and witness to the saving grace of Christ in our world you might be thought of as being more religious than you should be or perhaps just a little bit off. In the first century world telling people that Jesus and not Caesar was Lord could get you killed.
And yet Jesus told His followers to go and be witnesses to Him. Why would this loving Savior send his followers off to do something that would almost certainly cause them to be ''martyred'' for His cause? As our vets understand, sometimes the mission is more important than the life of the man that carries it out. The members of the 101st Airborne who parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day had already take that fact for granted.
Jesus understood the importance of t ...
There are 6195 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
