Witness

Pentecost Sunday was just a few days ago. What a fascinating story of the out pouring of the Holy Spirit. As the disciples gathered together they were probably still trying to figure out exactly what Jesus meant when He said His departing words: “You will be my witnesses,” He told them (Acts 1:8), and gave them the commission to “Go into all the world” (Mt 28:19), words that are so familiar to us we have perhaps forgotten the ambiguity the disciples would have been living in. What would it mean to go into all the world and make disciples? To be a witness?  

From our vantage point, we can look back over two thousand years of history to see what this commission has meant to the Church. Yet the disciples – after three years of following Christ – didn’t have complete clarity on how it would all play out. We see this in the first chapter of Acts.

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  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.”

Acts 1:6-8

Even after hearing Jesus’ teaching, following Him, watching His every move, seeing Him die to atone for the world’s sins, they ask a question they’ve been dying to know all this time: “Is it time? Are you finally going to restore this nation to its place?” Their question is oriented around a sense of political security. Would their nation finally be freed from Roman occupation, restored to their control? As was characteristic of Jesus’ communication, He didn’t give a direct response (“No, it’s not time” or “Yes, it’s time”). He turned the focus to the disciples and their mission.

These verses were part of required memorization during my last year of Bible school. I had just made a three-year commitment to work as church secretary with my heart beating for overseas work. As I thought about this passage I was memorizing, I heard echoes of my own conversations with the Lord. “When will I get to go overseas? In three years? In ten? What will Your timing be?” and He gently responded through the words of this passage. It wasn’t for me to know the times and dates. By the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, I was to be a witness now. 

We are living in unknown times. Is this virus going to be over next month? Next year? Will life ever be “normal” again?  Who will be our next political leaders? As believers, we have eternal security and the confidence that one day we will be with Jesus face to face. I find myself longing for that day more and more, and asking with the Psalmist (Ps 13) and the martyrs (Rev 6:10), “How long, Oh Lord?” 

The Father has the authority to control the times and dates and seasons. It is easy for us to get so absorbed into the world’s system that we forget our commission: to be witnesses. Luke, the writer of the book of Acts, uses that word “witness” twelve more times throughout the book – as if to remind us that the disciples were living out that calling each day. We, too, are called. We may not know the times and dates of all God is up to, but we can confidently walk out the commission He’s given us.

Let us long for eternity and live in our mission. Let us trust His timing while being obedient to what He has called us to do. Let us live fully in the empowerment of the Holy Spirit as He teaches us what it means to be His witnesses.