Dear Ministry Partners & Friends :
Moments before Jesus ascended into Heaven, following His glorious resurrection from death, He shared His last words with the disciples that followed Jesus so closely for three and a half years. Those words are recorded in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 24, verses 46 through 49, and again in Acts 1:8. Let’s look at these all important last words in Acts.
Acts 1: 8 , “ But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and you shall bewitnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. ” Some New Testament translations use the phrase, “ you shall be My witnesses. ” Another phrase that is used is, “ you shall bear witness of Me. ” We know that a witness is one who furnishes credible evidence as to the truth of something. A witness is one who is capable of testifying to something he has seen or heard.
Those original 12 disciples that walked with Jesus saw His miracles, heard His preaching, and were eyewitnesses of His crucifixion and His glorious resurrection. They could credibly testify that they had seen Jesus nailed to a Roman cross. After all, they were there. They could witness to the fact that three days later, Jesus walked through a wall in the room where they were hiding out in fear. Now that Jesus had a glorified, spirit body, He didn’t have to open the door, He simply walked through the wall of that room to the disciples’ utter amazement. In fact, after Jesus’ resurrection, the Bible teaches that He was seen by over 500 people in Jerusalem.
I want you to think about something that I believe is very important for us to realize. The disciples were well aware of the facts concerning Jesus’ passion. They knew He suffered and died on that cruel, wooden cross. They knew His mangled body had been placed in a borrowed tomb. And they were aware that Jesus rose from the dead and stood in their midst three days later. Even though Jesus’ followers had knowledge of the events that had just taken place involving Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice, the Lord knew that it would take more than just these facts to convince and persuade people to turn from their sins and receive the gift of eternal life. It would take the enablement of nothing less than God’s very own power.
