Word of Salvation – Vol.33 No.20 - May 1988

 

And You Shall Be My Witnesses

 

Sermon by Rev. D.J. Van Garderen on Acts 1:8b

Reading: Acts 2:1-21; Acts 5:17-32

Singing:

489; 87; 95; 393; 404; 405

 

Dear Congregation,

The day of PENTECOST as recorded in Acts 2 marks the birth of a new age.  It is the beginning, or birthdate, of the CHURCH OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.  The CHURCH as a Spirit-inspired, Spirit-filled, Spirit-powered communion of believers called to witness to the love of God in Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son.

This birth or beginning of the new age of the Church was made particularly spectacular by means of some truly astonishing signs and wonders from heaven.  What an event it must have been when a sudden rushing of a violent wind, and what seemed to be tongues of fire separated and came to rest on those gathered in the upper room, and when all of them, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in other tongues!

I wish I could have been there to see and share in it myself!  I’d love to have been one of the 120 people to whom this happened!

The significance or meaning of these miraculous signs was plain enough to the people who witnessed this event.  Remember, they were Jews and converts to the Jewish faith who knew and loved the Scriptures and who were very, very familiar with the signs of the NEW AGE, the AGE OF THE LAST DAYS for which they prayed daily.  That was why they were in Jerusalem as pilgrims.  Yes, the signs pointed to the PRESENCE OF GOD, THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT!  A NEW AGE!  As Peter explained:

"...This (this outpouring of the Spirit made audible and visible by miraculous signs) is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy...’" (Acts 2:16-18)

What a spectacular start to the new age...  the age which continues even now, almost 2,000 years later.

On birthdays or anniversaries we usually take a few moments to think back and reflect.  For example, on wedding anniversaries we tend to think back on wedding days, WHY we got married, WHAT we expected and hoped for in marriage.  We also ask questions like, "How well are we continuing to live out and express the PURPOSE of marriage?  Is our marriage fulfilling its function and purpose?"

On the anniversary of the birth of the new age of the Church, the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, it is equally necessary and helpful for us to reflect a little too.  Questions which should be asked include:

- WHY was the Church established on Pentecost?

- WHY was the Spirit poured out on all of its members?

- WHAT was the Church to DO?

- Did it fulfil its purpose?

- Is the Church TODAY, OUR congregation, still conscious of and fulfilling its purpose or mandate?

- WHY has God in Christ gathered and called us together as a congregation?

- Are we being, doing and saying what we are charged to?

- IS our denomination indeed aware of WHY it exists?

- IS its reason for existence BIBLICAL?

- IS THIS congregation conscious of and consciously working and living out its reason for being established by the hand of the living God?

To my mind the reason for the Church's existence, the reason for Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit may be summarised in one word.  The word is WITNESS.  The Church was called into being, has been given all manner of diverse gifts; the Church exists to fulfil one central, abiding and unchanging function.  The Church has, from the beginning till now been created and maintained in order to WITNESS!

What I would like to do this morning is to think about this word and its meaning.  In the text chosen from Acts 1:8 Jesus announced to his disciples that theirs was the task of WITNESSING.  He said, "YOU WILL BE MY WITNESSES..." Let's see what this means.

1.  A WORD STUDY

We begin with a word study.  What, as the word is used in the Bible, was a "WITNESS" or "TO WITNESS"?

When you are a "witness" or when you are seen to be "witnessing" to something it means to look at it with a view to remembering it with special and careful intensity.  A witness will be asked to recall as many details as possible.  Witnessing is a special kind of testimony demanding much care, precision and deliberation.  When a policeman, newspaper or TV reporter goes to the scene of a crime, they will be expected to see and remember a lot more than a person who just happened to be passing by.  Such people tend to be very conscious of the difference between being a WITNESS to an event and being a curious sightseer.  Being a WITNESS is therefore a very serious, deliberate and careful business.

a)  Witnesses are usually associated with a COURT OF LAW.

Called before a judge, a witness is to give a careful and very accurate account of what he saw and/or heard.  He must give an account only of the FACTS, not of his conjectures or own (mental) reconstruction of the event.  Not OPINIONS but FACTS.  Remember that the accuracy of the account of the witness might mean the difference between life and death!  The burden and responsibility of a witness in Jewish law was regarded as so great that only when TWO or more witnesses saw something and gave the same testimony could a man be convicted of a charge against him.  (cf. Deut.17:6f)

Testimony to FACTS seen and heard!  Again and again you find that the task of the apostles was to give their eye and ear witness account.  On the night he was betrayed, whilst in the upper room Jesus charged his disciples:

"And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning." (John 15:27)

Some samples of Peter's preaching illustrate this vividly:

ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST:
"God has raised this Jesus to life...  and we are.  witnesses of this fact." (Acts 2:32)

ON THE TEMPLE STEPS AFTER HEALING THE CRIPPLE:
"You killed the author of life; but God raised him from the dead.  We are witnesses of this." (Acts 3:15)

BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN:
"We are witnesses of these things, so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him." (Acts 5:32)

IN THE HOME OF THE ROMAN CENTURION CORNELIUS:
"We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.  They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him...  He was not seen by all men, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen – by us who ate and drank with him." (Acts 10:39, 41)

It becomes clear that the APOSTLES who SAW and TALKED with and ATE and DRANK with Jesus were especially chosen and charged by God to WITNESS to the FACT of Jesus' life, His death, and above all His RESURRECTION!  That is why THEIR witness is so important.  That is why THEIR witness has been recorded, preserved and received as HOLY, INSPIRED TRUTH in the GOSPEL and the EPISTLES of the NEW TESTAMENT.

In this sense the WITNESS of the apostles LIVES on and CONTINUES as the supreme, unchanging truth.  Truly we have an EYE-WITNESS testimony, a solemn WITNESS!

2.  There is another meaning and emphasis associated with the word "WITNESS" that is found in the Bible as well.

Thus far I have emphasised the idea of WITNESS as being WITNESS TO FACTS of HISTORY.  The other emphasis is on WITNESS as being WITNESS AS TRUTH.  Let me explain that.

Imagine that the disciples SAW and HEARD all of the historical facts about Jesus.  They saw his miracles; heard his sermons and parables; saw his death and burial and saw him alive again on the third day.  Now they could witness to the FACTS!  But, would they have known the MEANING, the IMPLICATIONS, the full MESSAGE by simply seeing and understanding the facts?  Of course not!  They needed MORE!  They needed AN EXPLANATION of these things.  Their minds needed to be opened.  TURN NOW TO Luke 24:45ff:

“Then he (JESUS) opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures.  He told them, ‘This is what was 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 in Jerusalem.’  YOU ARE WITNESSES TO THESE THINGS...!"

The disciples UNDERSTOOD THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS BECAUSE GOD HAD REVEALED IT TO THEM.  They were testifiers to God-revealed and God-given TRUTH.  They must WITNESS to what God had made known and revealed to them.

Therefore, as the Bible uses the word "witness", its basic meaning is clear.  It is witness in the most solemn manner to the FACTS of the life, death and above all resurrection of Jesus AND AT THE SAME time to the GOD-REVEALED MEANING and IMPLICATIONS of the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  How grand and glorious the CHARGE: "YOU WILL BE MY WITNESS".

2.  THE WITNESS OF THE CHURCH

As is well-known, the witness of the disciples was so powerful that the mandate to witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth was fulfilled literally in a very short time indeed.  The IMPACT of the Gospel was such that within a few short years it was known, heard and received in the most far-flung corners of the Roman world.  It "turned the world upside-down".

What was it that made the disciples, yes the entire New Testament, so full of evangelistic and missionary zeal?  What drove Peter, John and the others to go straight from gaol back into the temple courts to preach?  What made it possible for a Stephen to face death with a prayer on his lips and enabled generations of martyrs to redden the earth with their blood?

I would like to suggest three things.

1.  They witnessed because they had very obviously been CALLED to witness!

The command of Jesus never stopped ringing in their ears.  "You will be my witnesses!"  The consciousness of being under ORDERS, CALLED to witness, drove them.  Similarly it drove PAUL!  In his testimony to King AGRIPPA he tells of what Jesus had said to him.

"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting... Now get up and stand on your feet.  I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you...!" (Acts 26:15,16)

The consciousness of being CALLED... CHOSEN TO BE CHRIST'S WITNESSES!

Isn't that STILL the case?  In Matthew 28:18ff the command is to the Church of all ages... "Go and make disciples...!"  In 2Cor.5:20 we, ultimately ALL believers, are referred to as "Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through US."

And a PERSONAL calling too!  How many times hasn't your own conscience, yes the testimony of the Spirit within you, accused you of silence, of a failure to speak up?  Our generation is just as much CALLED to witness.  Maybe the problem, the great sin of this age is that we are trying to plug up our ears, to drown out our consciences!  The witnesses were...and still are...CALLED!

2.  They witnessed because they were QUALIFIED to do so!

As pointed out the testimony of the apostles was a WITNESS because (1) they had personally been chosen to SEE and HEAR Christ, and (2) they had been given UNDERSTANDING FROM JESUS HIMSELF as to the real meaning, the TRUTH of Christ's death and resurrection.  They had SEEN and they UNDERSTOOD its meaning.  I know that makes their witness UNIQUE.

At the same time, that unique witness of the Apostles has, under God's sovereign hand and control, been preserved for the Church of all ages.  : THEIR experiences, what THEY saw, heard and shared in, has been PRESERVED.  In fact it has been preserved PERFECTLY, FAULTLESSLY and in such a state that it is TOTALLY RELIABLE and TRUSTWORTHY.  Call it the BIBLE!  The witness of what they SAW as well as the witness to the truth of Jesus has been perfectly preserved for all generations.

Today every qualification of the first witnesses is available to us.  In every way we are no less qualified than they were...at least we NEED NOT and SHOULD NOT be less qualified.

3.  In the third place they witnessed because they were EQUIPPED for this task.

I speak of the HOLY SPIRIT enabling, driving, protecting and guiding them.  Yes, they were SPIRIT-FILLED...!  They had received the Holy Spirit.  It's true isn't it, that the difference between BEFORE and AFTER Pentecost in Acts 2 was the HOLY SPIRIT EQUIPPING them to preach!.

Has the Holy Spirit STOPPED equipping the CHURCH of this day and age?  I know that now, as in the New Testament itself, He equips different people for different tasks, and that not all are called to be evangelists, teachers, preachers etc... but hasn't the Holy Spirit equipped us as a BODY, as a CONGREGATION, as a DENOMINATION for the same tasks as found in the New Testament?  Are we any less EQUIPPED with power from on high today?

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

When the Church was first established God did so in order to make this the instrument by which the world would hear the TESTIMONY of the WITNESS to the cross.  That's how it all started at PENTECOST...  That's WHY it all started at Pentecost!

Jesus said: "You will be my witnesses...!" The church still exists for the same reason it was created!  So do we...!

AMEN.