Articles
You Are My Witnesses - Acts 1
You Are My Witnesses
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
They were to be witnesses for Jesus. The use of the word witness has the idea of testifying to what one has seen, heard, or experienced. The apostles were to testify concerning what they had seen, heard, and experienced of Jesus.
John begins his first letter: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1–3).
Peter wrote: “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16).
Especially included in this testimony was that Jesus was raised from the dead, they were witnesses TO HIS RESURRECTION (Acts 1:22). He appeared unto them not once but many times over a period of 40 days (Acts 1:3). They ate with Him, observed Him, talked with Him, and were even invited to touch Him (cp. John 20:27). Such ‘witness testimony’ was at the heart of judicial decisions in the Old Testament: "in order that everything may be confirmed on the basis of what two or three witnesses say’ (Matt. 18:16).
To replace Judas, who would have been such a witness but now was dead, the replacement then had to be one who had "accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21-22).
Their theology didn’t cause their memories but rather their experiences with Jesus and the resurrection became the bedrock of their teaching. That is, "He was raised, we KNOW it because we saw, heard, physically shared life together". They preached this testimony of the resurrection in every sermon. Later Paul would proclaim that “we preach Jesus the Christ, and Him crucified”.
Another aspect is that this word is the word from which we get ‘martyr’. These men testified of having seen the resurrected Jesus so strongly and unwaveringly that it brought their death. They were PUT to death for this testimony.
Obviously WE are not witnesses in this sense. We may have witnessed the changes in our lives that faith in the message has caused, but that is a completely different matter. We can repeat and retell THEIR witness testimony, but that doesn’t make us witnesses of the resurrection.
I believe because I believe their witness. Hugh DeLong
