“Can I Get a Witness?”
Acts 1:1-11
The two men dressed in white asked a strange question: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky?”
Think about it, if you saw Jesus rising into the clouds, wouldn’t you look up?
And then they added, “This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Again, what better reason to keep looking up?
Jesus is coming right back the way He left.
Let’s all stare at the clouds and wait.
Why look at the earth, where things are so bad, there are so many in need and we are forever tempted to do wrong?
Why can’t we stare into the sky and wait for Christ’s return?
The men dressed in white didn’t give an answer to this, but Jesus did.
(pause)
After the Resurrection, Jesus spent forty days with His disciples, speaking with them about the kingdom of God.
Then, after all this, the disciples asked, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus answered, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority…
…But…”
Now the word “but” is one of the biggest little words in the Bible.
“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.”
That little word “but” brings it all back down to earth again.
(pause)
After Jesus ascended back to heaven, we are told that the apostles did what Jesus asked them to do.
They went back to Jerusalem, and to the Upper Room, the same room where Jesus had shared the Last Supper with them, the same room where He had washed their feet and then told them, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.
I have set an example that you should do what I have done for you.”
I wonder if this incident and Jesus’ Words came to their minds as they entered that house again.
Earlier, they had asked Jesus if He was going to restore Israel to its former glory…
…if He was going to overthrow the Romans…
…if He was going to use the power that brought Him back from the dead to slay their enemies.
Instead, Jesus had talked to them about waiting for the Holy Spirit and being His witnesses to the world.
Perhaps, Jesus’ mission was, indeed, different than what they had first expected.
Maybe Jesus was now calling them to continue to do what He had done.
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.
Jesus said they were to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them.
Where had they heard this before?
(pause)
Back in Luke Chapter 4, at the beginning of His ministry, Jesus was in the synagogue and He read from the prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
This turned out to be Jesus’ mission statement.
And if He was calling His followers to continue the work He had started, would it mean that this would be their mission statement as well...
…when this same Spirit of the Lord was upon them too?
That’s a big undertaking.
That is a huge job.
Jesus had said they will “receive power when the Holy Spirit comes” on them.
And they were certainly going to need power in order to fulfill this calling.
But what kind of power is it?
Well, they had been witnesses to it.
Jesus’ power was found in His humility and ability to love even His enemies—even those who were putting Him to death.
Jesus’ power was to have compassion on the people He met because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus’ power motivated Him and enabled Him to feed the multitudes and to do it without a lot of resources, but to do it nonetheless.
Jesus’ power helped Him to see the sinners, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, the lepers, all the marginalized and outsiders—not as monsters to be avoided but as people beloved by God who deserved to be welcomed into fellowship, loved, and wooed into the kingdom by this love.
Jesus’ power enabled Him to refuse to use His abilities for selfish gain, political power and to use God as if He were a vehicle for profit and fame.
Jesus’ power enticed a ruler named Nicodemus to seek Him out and ask Him what it means to be born again.
Jesus’ power brought Him to a well in a forbidden land where He broke all the rules while speaking to a woman of
questionable character and offering her eternal life.
Jesus’ power enabled Him, when faced with the most horrifying and terrifying fate imaginable, to say to the Father, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
And Jesus’ power had caused these followers of Jesus--we are told later in the first Chapter of Acts that there were one hundred and twenty of them--to believe Him and wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them despite the fact that they did not understand Him nor what He was about.
That’s pretty awesome.
And that is what love does to people.
It causes them to trust you.
It causes them to rely on you.
It causes them to wait for you.
It causes them to want to be with you and to follow you.
What they had witnessed in Jesus’ life and Resurrection was that He was One Who could be believed, and He was One they didn’t want to live without.
And now, they would be tasked with being Christ to a world that was just as lost, harassed, corrupt, confused, messed up, and sinful as they had been when Jesus had found them and called them to follow Him.
Yes, they would need the power of the Holy Spirit to do this.
They would have to rely completely on the Holy Spirit in order to do this.
They could not even begin to do this on their own.
And you know what the most exciting part of all this is?
You and I are called to do the same thing as the first one hundred and twenty followers of Christ.
We are called to allow the Holy Spirit to come upon us and to be Jesus’ witnesses to the world.
We are called to love as He loves, to accept the marginalized and outcasts as He does, to forgive as He forgives, to be His arms and His legs on this earth, and thus offer hope to a world that so needs something, Someone to believe in.
We are living in a time when less people than ever believe in God.
Atheism is the fastest-growing religion in America.
A recent survey claims that there are 11% fewer Christians in this country than there were just a decade ago.
The majority of the younger generations are not coming to church, and this has been happening for quite a while.
And the main reason they give for staying away and forsaking the faith is that the church doesn’t act like Jesus.
Ever since I was young the church has been getting caught up in conspiracy theories, political movements, and a Pharisee-icalism that is nothing like Christ, and certainly does not come from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Instead, it comes from a spirit of fear.
And as we are told in 1st John fear has nothing to do with love it has nothing to do with God, but perfect love drives out fear.
“Those who fear have not been made perfect in love.”
And so, the key to it all?
We are to love.
The key to being witnesses of Jesus Christ, is unconditional love, non-judgemental, agape love.
And this doesn’t come naturally.
This is God love, not human love.
And so, if we are going to be the witnesses of Christ to a lost and dying world, we are going to need to rely upon the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit alone, not on ourselves.
And when we do this, we will experience a change in perspective, a freedom from the fear of others, and a desire to love that we have never known before.
But, when we allow ourselves to become distracted, when we stand and star at the clouds, so to speak, we become poor witnesses indeed.
And this happens to all of us.
I know I am a terrible witness.
Many of our early Christian fathers and mothers of the faith were often bumbling along as well.
But, somehow, someway when they waited on the Spirit to lead them rather than moving according to their own prejudices and inclinations, things changed, revivals took place, people were healed, the poor were fed, the captives were set free, the churches became full, people were saved.
And the same happens today.
This community, this world needs witnesses of Christ…
…witnesses who are filled with Holy Spirit power which enables them to humble themselves, spend time with the outcast, welcome the stranger, take care of the needy and be so radically different from the world around them that people take notice and want to know how they too can be born again.
Oh, how badly the world needs witnesses to the love and power of Jesus Christ.
Oh, how badly the world needs to have hope as suicide becomes the second leading cause of death for our young people.
Oh, how badly the world needs hope as incidents of mass shootings become a daily experience.
Oh, how badly the world needs hope as the marginalized are pushed further and further toward the edge.
Oh, how the world needs hope as the rich become richer and the poor become more neglected and forgotten.
Oh, how the world needs hope as the church becomes seen as an instrument of hate rather than the vehicle of unconditional love and healing.
This hope comes through believers waiting on the leading of the Holy Spirit to mark their moves, direct their words and thoughts, and lead them to loving action.
Oh, how the world needs witnesses of Jesus Christ.
I want to be a witness, how about you?
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
