To the ends of the earth

Acts 1:1-11

Key Verse 1:8

“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."

Last night I had a short dream. I visited a certain place. It was a bridge developed over a river. The bridge was so beautiful that I wanted to cross over it. But soon the cloud covered the bridge. But expecting that the weather would clear up, I started walking over the bridge. Then lo and behold, he weather started clearing up. The sun came out, and I was at the end of the bridge. Then, being afraid of the sun disappearing, I immediately took out from my pocket my digital camera, grabbed a mother holding a baby passing by, gave the camera to her, and asked her to take a picture of me with the beautiful bridge as a background. But as she tried to take a picture, the sun disappeared. Thick clouds covered the whole bridge. And I woke up. It was a dream. Still I felt sorry. This reminded me of our trip to Ecuador. Several months ago, armed with a digital camera, Shep. Jay and I visited Ecuador. With the “go-and-kill” spirit we visited Guayaquil. With the digital camera we took a lot of pictures particularly of the University of Guayaquil. But alas! In Quito, I got pick pocketed of the camera. So I wrote a poem entitled, “I left my memory in Quito” and then comforted myself. Still the reality is that none of us here are able to see the beautiful pictures we took. 

In many ways the disciples of Jesus in the passage are like the digital camera I left in Quito. Upon leaving this mundane world for God’s kingdom, Jesus left the disciples behind in this world. He left his memory here on earth, so to speak. Just as the memory card of my digital camera contained all the good memories of our trip to Ecuador, so also the brains, minds, and hearts of the disciples held the memories of all the good things our Lord Jesus Christ did while on earth. I was robbed of my digital camera. But Jesus was not stolen of any of his disciples except for the one who was doomed from the beginning. After showing his beloved disciples all Jesus needed to reveal about himself, the Risen Jesus gave them the command to go into the whole world and live as witnesses of Jesus Christ! Today we would like to think about this blessed command. First we are going to think about what we are to testify to regarding Jesus; second, how we can be better witnesses; and third, what will happen when we fully obey His blessed command. 

First, you will be my witnesses (1-8)

The first thing we need to know in our endeavor to witness about Jesus Christ is to know exactly what we are to testify to about Jesus. This is very important because anyone who does not know the exact contents of the testimony is condemned to misrepresent Jesus.  

The other day I saw two Caucasian ladies in their early twenties walking down Loma Street, knocking on each door to witness about “Jesus Christ.” As they passed by they also handed me a card containing a picture of Jesus knocking on a door. On the other side of the card, I saw the words: The Latter Day Saints. They were Mormons. The Mormons made up all kinds of crazy stories about Jesus Christ, which are all unfounded. The same goes with the Jehovah’s witnesses, so they say, “We need witnesses to witness to witnesses.” But these things are just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many people who are dedicated to witnessing to what they are not supposed to be witnessing about. 

And the problem exists not only outside of the so-called orthodox Christian community but also inside, and perhaps the problems on the inside pose more risks and dangers to souls, because they are harder to recognize and remove than the problems that exist on the outside. Missionaries in Papua New Guinea for example are struggling hard to overcome the wrong concept of Christianity planted in the hearts of the local people. PNG has about 8 million in population. About 90% claim to be Christians. But to most of them, Christianity means “getting showered with blessings”. So when they see foreigners passing by they expect them to give them “something” (to eat or to wear). Actually, that was what Dr. Joseph Shafer went through. About two years ago when he visited PNG, as he passed by, kids saw him, and said, “White man, what can you give me? What can you give me?” He really wanted to take pictures of local scenes but although he went out with his digital camera, he was not able to take any pictures, for fear of either getting robbed or pick pocketed. 

The same problem exists inside of the church. In the church, preachers preach their congregation what they are not supposed to be preaching. Rather they preach messages which people want to hear, rather than what the Risen Jesus Christ commanded them to preach. And most of the messages are designed to “keep” their congregation attached to their church. Actually this is what one pastor I met three weeks ago told me. He said to me, “Do you want to know the secret to make your church congregation really “big””? I said, “Oh, yes.” Then he said, “Don’t preach sound doctrine. Preach what people want to hear.” Then he quoted 2Ti 3:4 which reads, “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” 

What then will be the end result of church leaders preaching what they are not supposed to be preaching? The answer is obvious: instead of producing true witnesses of Jesus Christ they end up producing Christians who should not be called “Christians” at all. 

How then can we overcome these problems? The passage for today provides us with a powerful clue, for in the passage for today we find expressions like: “All that Jesus began to do and to teach (1); His suffering (3a); Convincing proofs that he was alive (3b); He spoke about the kingdom of God (3c); you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit (5); you will be my witnesses (8); He was taken up into heaven before their very eyes (9); The same Jesus will come back (11).” These expressions represent the totality of the testimony we are to testify to about Jesus. We should not compromise or deviate from all the points of these Christian testimonies. 

So let us stop for a moment and think about these points a little bit. We can divide these expressions in different ways. For example, the expression “All that Jesus began to do and to teach” refers to the general, catch-all category, whereas the rest of the expressions (such as his suffering, resurrection, second-coming etc.) can be seen as “specific categories.” In addition, we can call these categories as “the message of salvation” and “the message of judgment.” For example, after his birth until Jesus ascended into heaven, Jesus preached the message of salvation. He opened the way of salvation and then left the example of the life that is likely to save man into His kingdom. Then, the promise for him to come back is still standing. And as he comes back, he will not come as the Savior but as the Judge! He is going to judge the dead and the living. At that time all the secret things men did while in the body will come to light. Nowadays I am increasingly afraid that whatever I say either in public or in private is all going to be recorded in a powerful information system maintained by God in the heavenly realms. Several days ago, I called Missionary Stephen Kim of Moscow on my cell phone. His voice was so clear that it was like me talking to a man standing right next to me. The sound waves hit back and forth on the two pieces of phone equipment one in Downey the other in Moscow perhaps through the satellites orbiting up in space above the two continents. The question was, “Did God eavesdropped this conversation and have it recorded on God’s recording machine?” Probably yes. (Mal 3:16) And the same is going to be true with all the bad words you are saying against your neighbor, either in their presence or behind their back. And when Jesus comes again he will judge everyone all “according to what they have done while in the body.” (Psalm 62:12; Pro 24:12;Mt 16:27; Rom 2:6; Rev 20:12-13; 22:12)

Certainly as a witness of Jesus Christ living today, we are to study the Scriptures fully and testify about Jesus in regard to the “totality” of the Scriptures, remembering that all the scriptures are about Jesus Christ – his doings, his teachings, his sufferings, his resurrection, his kingdom, his second coming and beyond. This observation indicates that it is so easy to produce “cheap” Christians, not “quality” Christians. But we know that Jesus produced “real” Christians, like the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, all of whom suffered martyrdom except for the apostle John. 

How was Jesus able to produce such high quality witnesses? We know the answer – he made “disciples” out of the selected few. 

Let us then pause for a while and talk a little more about what Jesus did and taught while on earth, for Luke says in verse 1, “In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach…” Notice the expression “all that Jesus began to do and to teach”, especially the word “all”. What does “all” mean? “All” means all. Let us also think about the distinction between the words “do” and “teach”. Do (or doing) has to do with action. It talks about practice. Teach has to do with principles and doctrines. This practically tells us that in order to produce good, spiritual, quality witnesses, we need to teach our Bible students the Bible per se, particularly the four gospels. How many gospels? Yes. Four: 1,2,3,4. We need to study the Bible and teach, not superficially but thoroughly, not just as a matter of head knowledge, but as a matter of “heart” knowledge, so that what Jesus teaches in the Bible would be ingrained in the bones and blood of our Bible students. 

We say this and reemphasize it again and again, because not all Christians are good witnesses. The messages they are getting across to, and the influences they are impress upon, the people of this world (either their words of mouth or examples of life) are not Biblical. Just think about a Christian employee showing up to work late all the time, or a Christian student cheating on his final exam, a member of church a Choir addicted to pornography, or a youth pastor having extra marital affairs with a teenage girl, one of his bible students, or a church elder making a business trip and cheating on his wife in Las Vegas, or a pastor suffering from the problem of chain-smoking or a church going business man running a liquor store selling pornography? 

The only way to overcome these problems is to go by what the Risen Jesus says to his disciples in the passage: train people to know Jesus better and testify about Jesus fully and correctly.  

Second, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you… (2,5, 8)

The second thing we need to secure in our endeavor to live as Jesus’ witnesses is to not just equip people with the correct knowledge of Jesus’ person and his work but also to actually “empower” people with the power to live as his witnesses. 

One day as I was listening to a Christian radio program, and I was surprised to hear a pastor saying that although this nation is called a Christian nation, still about 97% of the Christians have never tried to witness about Jesus to anyone.

Several years ago, I also ran into another surprise, because Billy Graham said on a TV program that one of the great problems, which the Christian community of this nation suffers from, is that “a disciple does not make a disciple.” So he expressed his desire that if he was allowed to live the life of a Christian all over again, he would focus more on the disciple-making ministry than on mass evangelism. 

When you think about it, however, this kind of problem is not confined to present day America alone. It has been the case first with the so-called “chosen people” Israel. By their own self-seeking nature (and certainly like all other nations), the Israelites in the Old Testament history remained largely self-seeking. Like a man with a shriveled hand their hands of “giving” got all shriveled up. As the Book of Exodus shows the Lord God saved the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage to the worship of God, not just for their own sake, but for the sake of all peoples on earth. We see God’s purpose of calling the Israelites, namely, the world mission purpose, in Genesis 12:2-3 where the Lord God said to Abraham, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Then in Exodus 19:5-6, the Lord God expressed the same purpose, “You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Here, the title “A kingdom of priests” especially the word “priests” refer to God’s will to use them as shepherds for all peoples on earth, so the Israelites would come to know God in true worship of him, and thereby live as a shepherd nation teaching the Bible to all peoples on earth. But eventually they wanted to build their own kingdoms. They failed to serve God’s purpose of calling them. 

Did God give up on them? No. God is still committed to the original purpose of his calling for them. When Jesus came, he adhered to the same purpose of God. Then, upon his departure from this mundane world, Jesus called the disciples to serve the Lord’s world mission purpose. With this glorious purpose in mind, let us all read Acts 1:3-8 responsively. 

This passage teaches us that the Lord God never asks his children to do anything without first providing them with the means to do what they are asked to do. In the passage we see the same truth, that is, by sending the Holy Spirit, the Lord God empowers his children to live as powerful witnesses of Jesus Christ. 

In order for one to be filled with the full power of the Holy Spirit, then, there are several repentance topics that must be repented of on our part. They are: (1) Lack of Commitment (no Spirit); (2) Selfish Motives (self-promoting); (3) Narrow Mindedness (no reaching out); and (4) Holding onto Human dreams (losing motives to serve God’s purpose). 

In verse 2 Luke says that the Risen Jesus gave instructions to his disciples through the Holy Spirit. As verse 5 (and other Bible passages) states, when one repents of all of his evil ways of life, believes in God’s sin-forgiving love, and turns his life to serving God, God baptizes him with the Holy Spirit, and thereby makes him a new creation. Verse 8 then says that the Holy Spirit empowers them to be powerful witnesses of Jesus Christ. These passages say that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that one can live as a witness of Jesus. One’s ability to talk, one’s intelligence, human wisdom, will not do the job. It is uniquely the work of the Holy Spirit by which one becomes a powerful witness of Jesus Christ. 

But, here is the wrinkle we need to iron out, that is, the Holy Spirit never works (as powerfully as He desires) without each person remaining fully committed to Him daily (I mean continually). The Holy Spirit is the gentlest person of all who are gentle. And he never forces his way into the heart where He is not welcome.  

Here is another wrinkle. That is, the Holy Spirit never works as powerfully as he desires in the life of anyone who is narrow minded, or selfishly motivated. In case of the disciples, they were mainly concerned about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, not to all peoples on earth. This kind of problem persists in different forms among each church going individual or in the fellowship, or within a church organization. The Holy Spirit is God. He is all compassionate. He loves all peoples on earth. But if we are narrow minded, self-centered, and selfishly motivated in all we do in the Lord, we end up not experiencing the Holy Spirit working as powerfully as he desires. So let us all repent of our self-seeking tendency. Let us pray to rise to God’s level, consider God’s world mission purpose, and do all we do with this world mission purpose in mind. Then, the Lord will powerfully use us as his powerful witnesses. 

Third, he will come back (9-11)

The third thing we need to remember is that the real reward for serving the Lord’s world mission purpose ever so sacrificially will be only at the time of Jesus coming back. 

Let us read verses 9-11. Here the two men in white rebuked the disciples calling them, “Men of Galilee!” They could call them, “Hey, you apostles of Jesus!” Or “Hey, you disciples of Jesus!” But they did not call the disciples that way. Why did they call them “Men of Galilee?” When we think about the connotation the word “Galilee” carries, we can easily find an answer, for due to the dark moments of the history of Israel that involved the land of Galilee, this territory came to pick up a stigma, that is, “Galilee of the Gentiles.” Isaiah 9:1 In modern terminology, people of this land, the Galilee of the Gentiles, are so to speak, a bunch of nobodies. But the fact that the disciples were a bunch of nobodies does not mean that they did not have any human dreams. The four gospels include plenty of records showing the disciples were very much earthbound, filled with all kinds of worldly dreams. Like many of us even most of them followed Jesus to fulfill their own human dreams to succeed in this dog eat dog world. 

But after chasing after Jesus for a while what did they get? They ended up with nothing but maybe a lot of credit card debt. Yes. Jesus rose again. Yes. Jesus was taken into heaven. But it was all good “to Jesus”, not to the disciples, for they were all “left” with nothing but “empty pockets.” 

Does this mean that the disciples were in a losing business? No. They were the richest persons of all, first because they’ve got the most blessed mission, that is, the mission to live as Jesus’ witnesses. Plus, they had the promise of Jesus’ 2^nd coming. And when Jesus comes back, it will be conclusively proven that they were the most blessed persons of all.

One word: To the ends of the earth

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