TOPIC:"Empowered Christian Witnesses"
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Acts 1:4-11
"But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me" (Acts 1:8)
Paul S. Rees writing an article entitled, Empowered Witnesses, in World Vision Magazine many years ago, made this comment: "For every ordained minister the Church needs a hundred, and for every theological professor a thousand, lay witnesses who will communicate the Good News and back it with their committed lives."
And then Dr. Rees went on to describe 20th century church members this way: "The complacent, sterile, nonproductive church member of today is a long sea mile from the witnessing fellowship that was looked upon as such a revolutionary thing almost 20 centuries ago." And I might add: That terrible plight has not changed here in the 21st century.
We as Christians must not keep the good news of Jesus Christ all bottled up in our comfortable hearts without giving it out to others. As someone has put it: "Our Lord put both the GO and the GLOBE in the Great Commission." Hear the words of our Commander-In-Chief: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations" (Matthew 28:19). Again: "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).
And in taking those words of the risen Christ seriously, later it was said of those early disciples that they "have turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). Precisely this should be the mission of every Christian - disciple winning and changing individuals through the power of God's Holy Spirit.
From our text I want us to think about three truths regarding empowered witnessing: the source of it, the strength of it, and the scope of it. Let's begin our study!
I.
Consider, to begin with, the SOURCE of our witnessing impulse as we have it in our text: "The Holy Spirit is come upon you" (v. 8). Let us realize that the giving of the Great Commission by the crusading Christ is directly associated with the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
Let me show you what I mean. In the same context where we find the Great Commission we read these words of Jesus to His disciples: "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49). Now cast your eye on verse 5 before our text: "For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with . . .