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WEEKLY
Volume 1 Number 5
2 July 2006
Ye Shall Be Witnesses unto
Me
(Message delivered by Pr Hien
Nguyen at the Sunday Worship Service, 2 pm, June 25, 06)
Text:
Acts 1:8
Like the salt of the earth and the light of the world, we are expected
to be faithful and true witnesses unto the Lord as He says, “Ye shall be
witnesses unto Me.”
A witness is expected to tell exactly the truth of what he has seen,
heard and known, is accountable for
what he may say, and is not to bear false witness (Deut 5:20; 19:15-21;
Matt 19:18). He is not to misrepresent or distort the truth by only
telling half-truths or adding what he may think, interpret, guess, doubt
or suspect to the truth.
When we do some legal documents, we are usually expected to have
two witnesses, and we really want to find good, faithful and reliable
witnesses who have known us well. And these witnesses are to solemnly
declare that the information they provided is complete, true, correct,
and up to date in every detail, and they are accountable to the Court
for any false statement.
The word martyr, which came from the same original term of
witness, means the one who witnessed unto death, a martyr (Acts
22:20; Rev 2:13). Then our Lord does expect you and me to be witnesses
unto Him and His Truth faithfully unto death. My dear friends, how can
we be His faithful and true witnesses?
1. A True Witness with the Power of the Holy Spirit
The disciples were so happy to see the Lord Jesus appear to them at
least ten times after His resurrection from the dead, and they expected
the Lord to restore again the kingdom of Israel on earth. Truly the
kingdom of Israel will be restored at the second coming of the Lord
Jesus according to His Father’s timing, but the Lord Jesus
wanted them to focus on the Great Commission, “But
ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and
ye shall be witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of
the earth”.
The Words of our Lord Jesus in Acts 1:8, the key verse of the Book of
Acts were fulfilled exactly to jot and tittle or to the very small
details: the disciples received power of the Holy Spirit when He came
upon them in Acts 2 and then they were witnesses unto the Lord Jesus
Christ in Jerusalem (Chaps 2-7), in Judea and Samaria (8:1-9:31), and to
the uttermost part of the world (9:32-28:31).
We see that our Lord called and trained His disciples to be His
witnesses. They were with Jesus, heard what He said and taught, saw what
He did, and were eye witnesses to His life, His works, His death and His
resurrection. Our Lord Jesus was ascending to heaven soon, and He
expected them to be His witnesses. It seems that the whole world was
waiting for their ministry and testimony and that they were to go out
and preach the Gospel to the lost right away as soon as possible.
However, our Lord Jesus asked them to tarry or wait in Jerusalem until
they were endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49) or the power of
the Holy Spirit. Why did our Lord asked His disciples to wait for the
power of the Holy Spirit while the whole world needed to hear the Gospel
through them? Although they were given power to heal the sick and cast
out demons, yes, even the demons were subjected unto them through the
Name of the Lord Jesus (Luke 10:17), they were still not qualified for
this great Mission without the power of the Holy Spirit. Judas Iscariot
betrayed the Lord Jesus, Peter denied the Lord three times, and other
disciples ran away for life when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of
Gethsemane.
Our Lord Jesus knew that they were to fight
against Satan and the power of darkness and that the people of the world
were blinded by him. Without the Holy Spirit and His power, how could
the disciples open the eyes of these people and turn them from darkness
unto light and from the power of Satan unto God (Acts 26:18)? How could
they be strong and brave enough to encounter all the enemies of the
truth and to preach the pure Gospel without fear or compromise? How
could they be able to endure all sufferings, rejection, persecutions,
and oppositions for the sake of the Lord Jesus until death? Our Lord
Jesus knew that they did need the Holy Spirit and His power for their
lives and ministry. Truly, after the Holy Spirit came upon the
disciples, they received power to preach the Gospel, to stand firm
before the leaders of the Jews saying, “We ought to obey God rather than
men” (Acts 5:29), to rejoice even in their sufferings and in
persecutions for Jesus’ Name and to press on with their teaching
and preaching ministry (Acts 5:41-42).
My dear friends, without the Holy Spirit and His power, we are not
qualified to be faithful and true witnesses unto our Lord until death.
Then do we now need to pray and wait until the Holy Spirit descends upon
us as the disciples of the Lord did? We do not need to do that as the
Holy Spirit did come already, but we do need to submit ourselves to His
control and guidance. The Holy Spirit guides us through God’s Word, the
Holy Bible, so we do need to read, study, and submit to God’s Word every
day. He knows how and what is best to guide us according to His will,
way and timing. He may guide us through the timely preaching and advice
of His godly servants or through the encouragement of His godly children
or through His sovereignty and providence over our lives and our
situations. Surely, He is our faithful Guide.
Thank God so much for the ministry of the
Holy Spirit, the living and true God of the Trinity. Through the Bible,
we know that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are
one and equal in glory, power, and wisdom and have always worked
together, both in creation and in salvation for men. However, we also
see the prominent ministry of God the Father in the Old Testament while
the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit were still cooperating, and that of
the Lord Jesus in the New Testament while God the Father and the Holy
Spirit were still cooperating, and that of the Holy Spirit since our
Lord ascended into heaven until the Church is taken up in the air to
meet the Lord Jesus (1 Thes 4:16-17; 2 Thes 3:6-7) while God the Father
and the Lord Jesus are still cooperating. Like the Lord Jesus, the Holy
Spirit is another Comforter or Helper standing along by our side to help
us, comfort us, teach us, guide us, and empower us for our godly lives
and the ministry. We are to respect, honour,
love, worship, trust and obey
the Holy Spirit as we do to our God the Father and our Saviour Jesus
Christ. The Holy Spirit must guide us and have full control over our
lives and ministry according to His will and timing. We can never abuse
the power of the Holy Spirit to do what we
like according to our will and our timing.
Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor
6:19) and we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit all the
time (Eph 5:18). It means we are to be fully submissive to the Holy
Spirit, to His control and His guidance. The world teaches men to
promote self-esteem and self-confidence, but we are to be hopeless about
ourselves and put our confidence in the Holy Spirit alone (Phil 3:3).
Truly, only the Holy Spirit gives life and the flesh profits nothing
(John 6:63). Without the Holy Spirit, my ability, even my preaching will
profit nothing. This truly humbles me and turns my eyes to the Lord,
trust in Him and glorify Him alone. My dear friends, do you and I truly
realise that we do need the Holy Spirit and His power to live a holy
life, a victorious life and to serve the Lord faithfully as His true
witnesses until the end?
2. A True Witness unto the Lord Jesus Christ and His Truth
Our Lord says, “ye shall be witnesses unto Me.”
That means we are expected to testify of our Lord Himself through our
lives.
Be true witnesses unto our Lord Jesus
Himself, not anyone else,
nor anything else nor any denomination (We do thank God for our Bible
Presbyterian faith as our doctrines, worship and service are Christ-centred
and Bible-centred). What does it mean to be Jesus’ witnesses? We cannot
witness for someone we do not know nor give others what we do not have.
We must truly know in our heart (not in our head), believe and receive
the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour: His death for
our sins, His resurrection for our justification and intercession, and
His second coming for our full redemption. It is the Holy Spirit that
testifies (bears witness) of the Lord Jesus and glorifies Him (John
15:26; 16:14); and it is the Holy Spirit that bears witness with our
spirit (Rom 8:16). Then with the witness and power of the Holy Spirit,
we are able to witness of our Lord Jesus with so strong convictions that
we would rather stand alone with Him and press on faithfully until death
despite the rejection or opposition of the majority.
Next, we are to testify of our Lord Jesus Christ, not only in our
sharing or preaching but also in our lives. It is not difficult to tell
others about the death, the resurrection and the second coming of our
Lord, but only with the power of the Holy Spirit can we testify of the
death of our Lord Jesus by our lives when we also died with Him to our
“self”, to sins and to the world (Gal 2:20; 5:24; 6:14). My dear
friends, do others see the death of our Lord Jesus in our lives? If we
still love our “self” more than God and His will, still live in sins,
or still love the world and are conformed to this world, we may be the
enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil 3:18-19). Every time we partake of
our Lord’s Supper, we are to show (or proclaim by celebrating) the
Lord’s death till He comes (1 Cor 11:26) not only through our speech but
also through our lives. My dear friends, when others may see that in all
things we only want to do God’s will, stop living in sins, and are not
of the world, we may be living witnesses unto our Lord and His death.
When others may see a new life in us – a holy, godly, humble but
victorious life, then we may be living witnesses unto our Lord and His
resurrection. When others may see that we are not building our home in
this world but only living here as strangers, visitors and pilgrims and
looking forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we may be living
witnesses unto our Lord and His soon coming. My dear friends, are you
and I living witnesses unto our Lord now and always?
Be true witnesses unto God’s Truth or God’s Word. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is the faithful and true Witness (Rev 1:5; 3:14). He came
into the world to bear witness of the truth (John 18:37). His Father’s
Word is truth (John 17:17), and He Himself is the truth (John 14:6), and
no lie is of the truth (1 John 2:21). John the Baptizer also bare
witness unto the Lord Jesus and unto the truth (John 1:7, 8, 15; 5:33).
Then we are to be faithful and true witnesses
unto the Lord and unto His Truth (God’s Word) as the Bible tells about
those who are martyred for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God
(Rev 20:4). That means we are to know the truth in our heart (not in our
mind), believe it, receive it and submit to it and then tell it, teach
and preach it correctly, faithfully and reverently. Many professing
Christians or leaders can preach God’s Word eloquently but their hearts
and lives may not be submissive to God’s Word. Many are even so arrogant
that they dare criticize, cast doubt, twist, misinterpret, add to,
subtract from, or distort God’s Word to serve their aims or mindset. How
can they be living witnesses unto God’s Word due to their lack of faith,
humility and submission? Our Lord Jesus Christ and His faithful apostles
did nothing against the truth but for the truth (2 Cor 13:8), so do we.
Moreover, only with the witness and power of the Holy Spirit can we have
strong convictions to stand for the truth and contend for the truth
faithfully unto death. My dear friends, do others hear the pure truth of
God and His Word in mouth and see it in our lives and then also
put their trust in His Word wholeheartedly?
Our Lord Jesus Christ wants us to be His witnesses wherever we are,
starting at our family first, then in our neighbourhood, our city, our
country and unto the uttermost part of the world. It is not a good
testimony for a Christian to be godly at the church on Sunday but
ungodly at home, at school, at play or at work on weekdays. Are we the
Lord’s witnesses wherever we are all days?
Conclusion
My dear friends, today many bear false witness against our Lord Jesus
and His Truth as they did to Him in His days (Mk 14:56). Many twist
God’s Word to serve their own purposes. The Da Vinci Code is a
false witness and blasphemy against our Lord and His Truth. In these
last days of sins and apostasy, with the Holy Spirit and His power, may
God help us to be living and true witnesses unto our Lord Himself and
His Truth faithfully unto death wherever we are and in all our days.
Amen.
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