Witnesses To Me

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. 

Acts 1:8 

Christ left His disciples with a mission that would last them the rest of their life. Our text summarizes it. He sets forth what they were to do, where they were to do it, and how they would succeed at it. Today, we are going to consider what they were to do. He says, ‘You shall be witnesses to Me.’ Thus, Christ is the Message. The disciples understood it. When Peter stood up on the Day of Pentecost, he preached Christ. In the face of all opposition, the Scripture records of the disciples, ‘and daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.’ When the Apostle Paul spoke of his ministry, he testified to the Corinthians, ‘For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.’ When he bid farewell to the Ephesian elders, he referred to his ministry by saying he had been, ‘testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.’ The message of the New Testament was Christ. That has not changed. Christ is still the Message, that no other message supersedes. If we are going to follow the example of the New Testament, then we must preach Christ. Every other message runs a dim and distant second. Therefore, we point to Christ today and every day, until He comes again.  

Our Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that we have the privilege 
to be witnesses of You. 
We praise You that Your message 
still goes forth into all the world. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning