"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."
We looked at this verse yesterday but I want to come back to it again because there is so much in here. If you want one verse that encapsulates the book of Acts this is it. This is what Luke records in his account of the Acts of Jesus through the Apostles by the Spirit. Their witness in Jerusalem (ch1-7), their witness to Judea and Samaria (ch8-12) and their witness to the ends of the earth (ch 13-28). A witness which was not the result of their personality types or their being gifted evangelists but which was the result of the Spirit empowering them to witness to Jesus.
Acts 1v8 makes it sound quite straightforward. The apostles will start off in Jerusalem and then move on to evangelise Judea and then Samaria and then the ends of the earth. Yet as we read through Acts we discover that this is a bumpy road, it is not straightforward, it's not programmatic, it's not mapped out on the board in the upper room with a timescale and training budget. The apostles don't seem to have this as their mission statement in such a clear way. But God does.
So in chapter 8 God uses the persecution their enemies think will destroy the church to drive the church out to Judea and Samaria. It's not an apostolic strategy, it's not their preplanned timing. God drives them out to carry the good news about Jesus and Samaria and Judea hear the good news and some respond and churches are established. Even after that there is significant struggle. In Acts 10, even as the servants from Cornelius set out to get Peter, God is teaching Peter that he shouldn't call anyone impure or unclean. A lesson he then shares with the church in chapter 11 who exclaim almost in amazement "So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life."
This is God's mission, the purpose of Father, Son and Spirit, and God's people must respond and follow where he leads. It's worth pausing at this point because our world is as divided as the apostles and just like them we will have places and people where we will naturally go and witness to Jesus and places where we are more reticent to go and maybe even places where it would take a work of God to get us to go.
Sometimes it can be geographic, think for example of the north south divide in the UK. Do we have a heart for the unreached parts of our country in the North? Or think of the class divides, in the UK the majority of believers are middle class which means the majority of churches are middle class and the majority of witnessing is done to middle class people. But God calls us to take the gospel to all, that includes the working class and deprived and those at the other end of the spectrum, the ultra wealthy. I've spotted a bit of a trend in ministers saying that it takes someone of the same class to reach the working class but I think Acts 1v8 gives the lie to that. What it takes is a believer in Jesus filled with the Spirit willing to go where God directs with the good news he or she just can't keep to themselves.
Believing in the sovereignty of God means even as we think about where God might take us, and be open to that, he has placed me, for now, where I am and the standing order is to witness to Jesus. He has given us the Spirit so that we make him known, here and now, where we are. It's not a chore, it's what flows naturally when we contemplate the amazing nature of our rescue, and the wonder of being called to know God, become one of God's children knowing the joy of sins forgiven and life lived to the full.
No comments:
Post a Comment