Broadening Your Witness X: The Big Picture

Acts 1:8

In this single verse, Jesus offers the scope of our witness for Him and the Kingdom of God. It begins where they are (Jerusalem), spreads to the region (Judea), moves into the neighboring multi-cultural and multi-religious area of great need (Samaria), and finally to the whole world. No generation has had the ability to fulfill this vision of Christ like ours.

But we don't make this kind of local, regional, cross-cultural, global impact on our own. It is a work of the Holy Spirit in and through us. In verses 4-5 of Acts 1, Jesus told the disciples to wait for that gift. For us, the gift is in its 20th century of being available (if Pentecost happened in 29 CE, it's been 1980 years). So there's a sense in which we don't need to wait, we just need to be the witnesses we are called to be. Yet, it has always been true, in both the Old and New Testaments, that the people of God needed to have God's "go ahead" before moving out. I find that waiting on God is still a good practice (even though painfully difficult at times), both as individuals and the Church.

What are some "wait" signals? 1) When we are not equipped or ready. The idea or vision we may be of God, but we must allow for preparation time: spiritual, skill development and often personnel and finance development. 2) When we do not have the prompting of the Spirit. When it's just our own desire to do a certain thing, we can get ahead of God, which is counter-productive most of the time. 3) When the time is not right. The Bible has this wonderful phrase, "in the fullness of time," that is applied to the birth of Christ. Sometimes we need to wait for circumstances, funding, and buy in of people involved before moving ahead. While we wait, we can do as they did in Acts. They gathered together in fellowship, worship and prayer.

What are the "move out" signals, then? First, there must be the prompting of the Spirit - our sense that "the fields are ripe for the harvest" and our spirits are unified with the sense that is time to do what God has led us to do. This trumps all others. After all, this is God's "gig" that requires our faith and trust in his power and timing. Second, we sense that we and the circumstances are ready. We understand the mission and have made the necessary preparations. The truth is, we will never be fully ready, which leaves just enough room for God to stretch us, use us and empower us. In my personal life as well as in my churches, we have both failed to wait on God at times and failed to move out (stuck in the paralysis of analysis and our own sea of doubts and accumulated busy-ness and distractions).

Acts 8:4-40

The Jerusalem phase took place in Acts 1-7. Persecution started the scattering of Christians and the expansion of their witness in the region of Judea and beyond. The opposition closed doors and God opened lots of windows (a life principle for us all). In Acts 8, Luke tells the story of the ministry of Phillip, an early example of what the spread of the gospel would look like. Verses 4-25 describe the Samaritan campaign and verses 26-40 tell his encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch.

The Samaritan campaign is wild and crazy, like Samaria itself (multi-cultural, multi-religious, socially conflicted, massively needy. The ministry there is loud and visible. If you have ever done ministry in poverty-stricken areas where there is low income, lower education and greatly responsive people, ministry is usually louder and more visible. Affluence and self-oriented thinking have not yet dulled them! The encounter with Simon the magician is just plain fun. He does his magic and finds in Jesus something greater than his magic. Then when Peter and John come and pray for the people to be filled with the Holy Spirit (with speaking in tongues and miracles), he offers to pay to get that ability (the conversion of the magician isn't totally complete yet). Then he repents. When I was on tour in the remote areas of Switzerland, there were communities of witches that came to hear our concerts. Several came to know Christ - a modern day version of the conversion of Simon the magician. But one concert we did had a very strange atmosphere. We thought the concert had been a failure. Afterwards, our German-speaking guide told us that out of that crowd of witches, more than 250 cards had been filled out wanting to know more about Jesus.

The encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch is interesting on several fronts. First, he is indeed obedient to the promptings of the Spirit. His sensitivity to the urgings and leading of God's Spirit is good. Second, the man is not the typical disciple. He is a government official from a foreign land who is also a "god-fearer," a group of people who were seeking God but not fully Jewish. Many of these formed the base of the early Christian community. Third, he meets the eunuch at the point of his questions and where he is on his spiritual journey and provides the answer in Jesus Christ. Phillip is known as one of the great early evangelists and his method still teaches us today.

Acts 16:6-10

Once the gospel met success in Asia, Paul thought he would be going back to the churches he had already established. Following a breakup in ministry with Barnabas over John Mark, Paul partners with Silas and finds a son in the faith, Timothy. Then Paul has a vision that would change the shape of the rest of his life. He would be taking the gospel further west, into Greece. We would be hard pressed to think of the New Testament without the letters to the Corinthians, the Philippians, or the Thessalonians. Paul would eventually sent his sights further west - to Spain and to Rome. Paul never made it to those places for ministry (yes he was executed in Rome, but he didn't start any churches there), but those who followed him did. Isn't it interesting that some of his most important ministry happened in places he never planned to go, with people he never planned to meet? The people he most wanted to bring to Christ were in the places where he met the most resistance. Jesus had similar results. What might that say about your ministry and mine?

Reflection Questions: What is our "Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermosts parts of the earth?" What is your role in making that witness happen? Have a great day.