THE POWER FOR WIT ESS: THE SPIRIT OF CRIST

ACTS 1:8 - REv. JOE MORECRAFT

Introduction

Evangelism is difficult because unbelievers do not want to be evangelized. They do not want to believe our gospel message and so they suppress the truth in unrighteousness being dead in their trespasses and sins.

Becoming a Christian is difficult. In fact it is impossible for us to turn ourselves into Christians. Only God can do it. Living the Christian life is difficult, because pockets of resistance to God still remain within us, which we call indwelling sin.

So then where do we find the power to become Christians, to live like Christians, and to make our witness effective in the hearts and lives of those who are still lost in their unbelief? In Acts 1:8 Jesus promises us such power: ... but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

Exposition

1. The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen, Acts 1: 1-2.

What Jesus began to do and teach before His resurrection, He now continues to do and teach. And the ministry of the risen

Christ is by the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts the Holy Spirit is not dissociated from Jesus. He is the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the exalted Jesus Christ at work in His church and in His world carrying out His min istry, ad ministering a nd a pplyi ng the promises of God's covenant and the salvation from evil that Christ died to purchase for us.

The work of the Holy Spirit in the history of the church is to be understood in the light of the first sentence of the book of Acts. "The work of the Holy Spirit is the extension of the ministry begun and now continued by Jesus Christ Himself, and the deeds of the church-the acts of the apostles-are the fruit and expression of that ministry."- Bruner, p. 156.

Believing this can save the church from any recurring deism that says that although God created the world and saved His people in Christ, His personal involvement in the life of that world has ended-He has left man to live out his life within His created order of things accord i ng to the laws of nature without the uncomfortable meddling of a God who intervenes in history. The risen and exalted Jesus Christ by the work of His Holy Spirit still involves Himself in the life of His world to do in us today what He did in the lives of human beings before His resurrection. As He told His disciples just before His death: I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you, John 14: 18, and this promise was directly related to His other promise that He would send His Holy Spirit into the world to bring His presence near to us and to bring us into vital union with Him.

A. Jesus continues to choose leaders for His church. He is in charge of the church for which He shed His precious blood. God has made this

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Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ, 2:36. (IIIus. Paul, elders, deacons, etc.) B. Jesus continues to teach us by His Word and Spirit, Romans 10: 14. He empowers His messengers and illumines their listeners. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord, 11: 21. God's hand symbolizes mighty divine intervention. When Paul preached to Lydia the seller of purple fabric, it says that the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message with the result that she became a believer in the Lord Jesus, 15:14-15.

C. Jesus continues to do and act in our behalf to save us from our sins and their consequences. This point is made throughout Acts in the frequent references to "the name of Jesus"-there is no other name under heaven given among human beings by which we must be saved, 4:12. Luke's phrase that epitomizes the prayer of dependence upon God in Christ for salvation is And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, 2:21. However Acts makes clear that the name of Jesus brings salvation only when it is invoked in faith. Some exorcists tried to manipulate power to exorcize demons by a magical use of Jesus' name but failed in their efforts and were brought to deserved shame and pain because they had no faith in Him whose name is Jesus, and so the man in whom the evil spirit was overpowered them so that, naked and traumatized, they fled out of the house, 19: 16. Why is faith so crucial in using Jesus' name? Because His name, like the name of the Lord in the OT represents the person Himself, demonstrating His presence in power and glory through His name. "So also in Acts, Jesus' name wields power to save, for it speaks of the presence of Jesus among people in need, calling the desperate and the weak to rest their faith in His strength and grace."- Dennis Johnson, THE MESSAGE OF ACTS, p. 27.

Jesus is here tonight, teaching, acting, saving, preaching, intervening in your life through His Holy Spirit whom He has given His church.

How will this truth affect what we expect preaching to accomplish, what we expect Sunday school classes, (and) Bible studies ... to accomplish? How will it affect our hopes for the resolution of conflict in the church, our hopes for the fruit of sharing our faith with others, our hope for the discipling of the world's peoples

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through missions? Because our King is not an aloof designer or absentee landlord, but a living Shepherd walking among His sheep, there is hope for change in the church beyond anything human ingenuity can invent. Our King is intimately present and powerfully active as the champion and chastener of His church.- Johnson, p.28.

II. THE ROOTS OF THE PROMISE OF ACTS 1: 8

A. THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now," Acts 1 :4-5.

What took place on the Pay of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2 when the resurrected Christ empowered His church for mission by the Holy Spirit was the fulfillment of a promise He had made to His disciples three years earlier through John the Baptist-As for me, I baptize you with water; but He who is mightier than I is coming, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, Luke 3:16. At Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus without measure not only to equip Him in His humanity to be our Savior but also that He might bestow His Spirit on His disciples: (1). That Christ might be personally known and glorified in the lives of His disciples-He shall glorify Me ... He shall receive of mine and show it to you. He shall testify of Me, John 16:14, 15:26; (2). That He might bring His people to faith in and obedience to Christ the Lord-No man can confess that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit, I Corinthians 12:3.

B. THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER At the end of the Gospel of Luke and again at the beginning of the book of Acts we find two versions of a promise by Jesus:

I am sending the promise of My Father upon

. ; .. --

Rev. Joe Morecraft you .. , Luke 24:49 .... but wait for the promise of the Father, about which you heard from Me, Acts 1:4.

These promises have specific reference to Acts 1:8. In these words Jesus designates the Holy Spirit as a gift promised by God the Father, who would come upon God's people with power enabling them to be My witnesses from Jerusalem through all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Now, the question is this: when did God the Father promise to empower Christ's church by the Holy Spirit for effective global mission? Answer: in the prophecies of Isaiah.

A comparison of Acts 1: 8 with several prophecies in Isaiah reveals that Acts 1: 8 is a composite of words and ideas from the book of Isaiah (Septuagint).

Isaiah 32: lS-until the Spirit comes upon you from on high

Isaiah 43: 10-Become witness for me ... says the LORD God

Isaiah 43: 12-You are witnesses for me ... says the LORD God

Isaiah 44:8----You are witnesses, whether there is any god besides me

Isaiah 49: 6----I will appoint you for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be for salvation to the ends of the earth

Isaiah 45: 22-Turn to Me and be saved, you who are from the ends of the earth; for I myself am God, and there is no other

In other words, Acts 1: 8 brings together three themes from Isaiah's prophecies concerning the Servant of the Lord:

1. "The Spirit of God is poured out upon God's people. 2. "God's people are His witnesses, testifying on the basis of the saving acts that they have seen that He alone is God and Savior. 3. "Their witness extends to the ends of the earth, calling pagan nations to abandon their idols and turn to the Lord for salvation."-Johnson, p. 36.

These witness/servants of the LORD are witnesses in the lawsuit the LORD has against all idols and idolators inside and

outside Israel. He is suing these idols for false advertising. Their worshipers claim that they can hear prayer and rescue them from danger and death. But it is all a lie. They are nothing but dead, blind, deaf stone and wood. In this case of The LORD vs. The Idols both sides have the opportunity to call witnesses to substantiate their claims. The Idols have no witnesses. The LORD has many witnesses who can testify to His saving power and to the fact that the LORD does what He promises. They can support His claim to be the only living God and only Savior.

The LORD's witnesses, however, are blind, 42: 18-19, not physically, but spiritually-You have seen many things, but have not kept them; your ears are opened, but you have not heard, 42:20. They are guilty of spiritual inattention, their deliberate ignorance of God's mighty faithful deeds. So then, how can these blind eyewitnesses be of any use in the LORD's lawsuit against idols? The LORD Himself heals their spiritual blindness and deafness, 42:6-7. "Healed of their own blindness, they in turn will guide the idol-blinded Gentiles out of darkness into light, 42:18-20,43:8-10.

How will the LORD heal the blind and deaf? This question is answered by an agricultural metaphor, in Isaiah 44: 1-11, of life-giving rain, the Israelite farmer's hope and delight, as an image of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the great hope of the people of God inverses 3-5.

For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants; and they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water. This one will say, "I am the LORD's ... and another will write on His hand, "Belong to the LORD," and will name Israel's name with honor.

This promise of God the Father is the root of Christ's promise in Acts 1 :8, which verse must be understood in the light of the prophecies of Isaiah of which it is made.

1. The one who makes the promise of Acts 1: 8 is none other than Jehovah incarnate, the Servant of the Lord, Mark 10:48, who is also

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the Lord of the church and the world. He is the only Lord and Savior in contrast to all false gods. Those whom He empowers by His Spirit are the New Israel. "Those who worship Jesus as Lord, who pray to Him and serve Him, bear witness that He, not the idols, is the only God and Savior."- Johnson, p. 44.

2. Being a witness for the LORD is not simply recounting your emotional feelings and personal experience in your life of faith. It is those who have experienced subjective healing of blindness and deafness by the power of God bearing authoritative testimony to and declaring the truth of the objective and historical events of God's plan of redemption in Christ. God calls upon us to bear witness to the ways in which He has displayed His lordship and saviorhood in the mighty acts of the gospel.

3. These Spirit-healed witnesses of the LORD must carry their witness to the gospel worldwide ... to the ends of the earth. Christ the Lord is gathering His church as an international family. He wanted His disciples to look beyond their own ethnic group to the whole world. God had chosen Israel to bring the blessings of salvation to all the families of the world, Genesis 12:3.

4. The LORD's witnesses are to challenge the gods in which people trust revealing all their emptiness and impotence. "To bring God's salvation to the ends of the earth, Jesus' witnesses must unmask treasured idols, encountering hostility from those whose security is shaken by God's truth. -- Although the community of the Lord's servant-witnesses is characterized by a tangible love that is attractive to outsiders, their testimony makes no peace with any alternative to faith in Jesus. Religious 'solutions' apart from Jesus the Savior are dangerous frauds with which there can be no compromise or polite toleration. Jesus' witnesses set out to conquer the world ... through the word of the Lord."- .Johnson, p.49.

III. THE CORRECTION OF A MISUNDERSTANDING BY ACTS 1:8

And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said

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to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority"," Acts 1:6-7.

With all of the awesome drama of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His climactic promise of the Spirit, the disciples began thinking of the end of time, the consummation of God's kingdom and the restoration of Israel. This frequently came to their minds as they heard Jesus preach. Jesus did not discourage this kind of talk, rather "He puts it into a new kind of power context. The full restoration of kingdom power still waits for the day when heaven gives up Jesus, when He will be sent again by the Father. But here and now the restoration power begins: not in a body politic called Israel, but in a body spiritual called the new Israel; not in government chambers of ambition, but in the church baptized in the Holy Spirit. -- This dynamic means the beginning of the end of history, the beginning of the end of the age while this age is still going on ."-Harvey Conn, A WORLD TO WIN, pp. 93,92.

IV. THE CONTENT OF THE PROMISE OF ACTS 1: 8

" ... but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

A. THE NATURE OF A PROMISE We must not go lightly over the point of Acts 1 that the gift of the Spirit is the prom ise of the Father. The bestowal of the Holy Spirit on the Church on the Day of Pentecost is not described as "the opportunity" or "the responsibility" or even "the privilege" of the believer in Jesus, but THE PROMISE OF THE FATHER. "The baptism of the Holy Spirit thus comes in the name of promise not law, hence as gift not challenge. The name of the Spirit here also teaches us that the source of the baptism in the Spirit is not human, it is divine: the Spirit is 'the promise of the FATHER."'- Bruner, p. 157. A promise is something that is made and given freely,

Rev, Joe Morecraft without price, cost or cond ition. It is not based or dependent upon human activity or merit. It is "a gift graciously bestowed and not a pledge obtained by negotiation."-Bruner, p. 157. It is a free gift that God Himself promises to give, and since the God who promises it is almighty and faithful, there can be no doubt that all His promises will be fulfilled to the fullest extent and nothing in heaven, earth or hell can stop God from doing what He has promised.

B. THE PROMISE OF POWER The promise of Christ is that He will give His church supernatural power from on High-the power of His resurrection, so that every believer can say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, Philippians 4: 13. He gives us all the spiritual equipment we need and moment by moment clothes us with His divine strength to enable us to be effective in the mission to which He has called us.

In the OT the LORD is the source of all power. His power is unlimited, and by it He is able to accomplish all His holy will. The supreme display of His power in the OT is in Exodus-Thy right hand, 0 LORD, is majestic in power, Thy right hand, 0 LORD, shatters the enemy, Exodus 15:6. In the NT Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the almighty power of God. He is the bearer of the power of the Holy Spirit and He endows His people with this divine power by giving them His Holy Spirit, and with that power, He clothes them with the authority to use it in His name and for His glory. The greatest display of the power of Christ is in His resurrection from the grave by which He broke the power of sin, death and Satan. And now He lives an eternal, indestructible life, and by His power and authority He rules the world.

The power with which Jesus clothes His disciples is superior to demonic power-You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world, I John 4:4. It is greater than the power of sin. He makes believers strong in the Lord to resist and overcome the powers of evil in their lives. It enables them to

be patient in persecution for Christ's sake and to persevere in well-doing. He gives them victory over sin along with a new capacity to love others. He enables them to minister effectively to each other and He empowers their witness to the lost by which He draws them to Himself and gives them new life in Him.

Christ gives His disciples power because His disciples in themselves are weak. Weakness, and confession of weakness, are the presuppositions of the working of the power of Christ in us. When we are weak, and we admit to it, then God makes us strong as we d"epend entirely upon Him, walking not in the flesh but in the Spirit's all-sufficient and almighty grace.

C. THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

1. THE IDENTITY OF THE SPIRIT The Holy Spirit of Acts 1: 8 is God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person in the Godhead, not an impersonal force, but a living, personal, divine being. He is the Spirit of Christ. Although their Persons are distinct, their Presence is the Same, II Corinthians 3: 18. He empowers Christ's disciples with the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of holiness, Romans 1 :4. He separates God's people from the lost world and consecrates them to the service of God, enabling them to turn from idols to worshipping the living God in Christ. He separates them from the world, He gives them a new heart and new life in Christ along with the gift of faith by which they receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. He indwells their lives and works in them to will and to do the good pleasure of God, conforming them more and more into the image of Christ.

It is only as they have holy characters that believers can be effective witnesses, for by their fruit you shall know them. Hence the Spirit empowers believers for mission as the Holy Spirit who qualifies them for mission by transforming their characters and enabling them to produce the fruit of the Spirit in their lives-love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, Galatians 5: 22-23, qualities essential in a witness of Christ.

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The Power In His High Priestly Prayer of John 17, Jesus linked mission and sanctification. He prayed to His Father in behalf of His disciples asking that God would sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth. As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth, vss. 17-19. Just as He relates His sanctification (in His humanity) by the Spirit and Word with His saving mission in the world, so He relates the sanctification of His disciples by the Spirit and Word with their evangelistic mission to the world. Sanctification is not for sanctification's sake, but for mission's sake. Without the Spirit's sanctification, there is no church, only the world.

2. THE COMING DOWN OF THE SPIRIT When we become Christians we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, 1: 5. Notice the passive voice of the verb. It denotes that this baptism is not the result of our activity or effort, rather it is the action of the Promiser and according to His will. It is His free gift to us, 2:38-39. We are said to be clothed with power from on High, Luke 24:49. This is not a human achievement, it is a divine gift that originates from above, out of man's reach.

In 1:8, we learn that this supernatural power is ours when the Holy Spirit has come upon us. The Greek preposition, epi, is prominent in Peter's Pentecost sermon,2:17,18,19. It pOints to the sovereign, gracious Giver and away from the recipients. The Spirit comes upon (epelthontos ... eph) us, He "comes from above." He does not come from within a human being, He comes from on high. "That is, the Spirit does not arise from within the emotional or spiritual life of the recipient, He is not dependent upon or subject to one's inner state. The Spirit comes from above and upon, i.e., from God."- Frederick Dale Bruner, A THEOLOGY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, p. 160.

3. THE RECIPIENTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

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It should be pOinted out that this gift of the Holy Spirit which Christ promises His disciples on the Day of Pentecost is given to EVERY believer present without exception or qualification-from one hundred and twenty at Pentecost to the twelve at Ephesus, 19: 1-7. "There is no record in Acts of any believer in a group of believers failing to receive (or partly receiving) the promised Holy Spirit when He descended. The Holy Spirit comes as inclusively as He does unconditionally."-Bruner, p. 159. Therefore, Paul can say that since the Holy Spirit indwells all believers, if anyone does "not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him, Romans 8: 9.

D. THE RESULTS OF THE SPIRIT'S COMING WITH POWER

The bestowa I of the Holy Spirit on the Church and its true members has a fourfold effect: (1). It brings them into vital union with the risen and exalted Jesus Christ; (2). It brings them into the organic unity of the Body of Christ; (3). It empowers them to be effective witnesses of Christ in this world; and (4). It makes them bold in their witness for Christ.

1. THE BRINGING OF THE RECIPIENTS OF THE SPIRIT INTO VITAL UNION WITH THE RISEN AND EXALTED JESUS CHRIST

The position of the (genitive possessive) pronoun My in the original Greek sentence, translated you shall be MY witnesses accentuates that pronoun, emphasizing that by the Holy Spirit the witness belongs to Christ and is in His personal possession. The bestowal or baptism of the Holy Spirit is first and foremost a power which unites that human being with the living and exalted Christ, making him one with Him, bringing him into vital and intimate union and communion with the risen Christ, so that he can be said to be in Christ and have Christ in him. This vital union is so real and so intimate that whatever is true of Christ is true of the believer; whatever happened to Christ, happens to the believer; whatever Christ did in His humanity on the earth, the

&~. Joe Morecraft believer experiences the consequences of-Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection ... Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God, Romans 6:4-10.

So then, the result of the power of the baptism of the Holy Spirit according to Acts 1: 8 is first of all not what we do but what we become. The greatness of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is that it is precisely the event joining a person to the ascended Christ forever, and in such a way that the recipients become HIS, i.e., true Christians. "The power of the Holy Spirit is His ability to join men to the risen Christ so that they are able to represent Him. There is no higher blessing."- Bruner, pp. 160-161.

Being brought into vital union with Christ and possessed by Him is a prerequisite for our being His effective witnesses in this world. Why? Paul answers in Romans 7: 4-you were made to die .to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to Another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God. Without Christ we can do nothing. Unless we are abiding in Him, as a branch to the trunk of a tree, in vital union with Him, we can bear no fruit for God, we cannot live the Christian life, we cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit, we cannot be effective in harvesting fruit for God from this world through evangelism and world mission.

2. THE BRINGING OF THE RECIPIENTS OF THE SPIRIT INTO THE ORGANIC UNITY OF THE BODY OF CHRIST

Those baptized with the Holy Spirit are not only in union with Christ, they are organic members of His Body, the Church.

For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many, I Corinthians 12: 12-14.

Ch rist is the Head of the Ch urch. The Church is the Body of Christ. And the Holy Spirit is the source of this organic unity, so that the church can be called the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, II Corinthians 13:13. From Christ the Head, the Spirit brings into our lives spiritual life and power which flows from one member into the life of another member as each member recognizes his or her place in the Body and seeks to build up each other in love-speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love, Ephesians 4: 15-16.

It is not as solitary individuals detached from each other that Christians enter the world with the gospel, it is as a covenant community, a unified Body, a loving family, a city of God, a triumphant kingdom, a Divinely-chosen, Blood-bought, Spirit-filled Church that we prove ourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom (we) appear as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of life .. , Philippians 2: 15-16. And, as Jesus promised, the gates of hell will not be able to resist the advance of the Church.

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:-._ -1

The Power of WitneJJ 3. THE EMPOWERING OF BELIEVERS

TO BE EFFECTIVE WITNESSES OF CHRIST IN THIS WORLD

As those who belong to Christ and His Church, Christ empowers us by His Spirit to be His effective witnesses in this world. With the baptism of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was begun the global expansion of Christianity in the power of and effected by the Holy Spirit through the witness of the Church and the preached Word.

Almost all the references to the Holy Spirit (in the book of Acts) are associated with the missionary witness of the church. The giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost launches the witness of the church and adds three thousands members to the rolls on that first day.- Harvey Conn, A WORLD TO WIN, p. 96.

The meaning of the Day of Pentecost is not the drama, miracles and excitement, it was the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit that led to the conversion and baptism of 3000 people from allover the world. The effect of the pouring out of the Spirit upon all flesh, as Joel prophesied, was the powerful preaching of the Word of God. When Peter and John were called on the carpet for healing a lame man in the name of Jesus, Luke notes that Peter boldly proclaimed the risen of Christ to his critics, being filled with the Holy Spirit, Acts 4:8. When Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit...immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, 9: 17,20.

The guide for evangelism is the wise hand of the Holy Spirit. The power for missions is the sovereign power of the Holy Spirit. The incentive for world evangelism is the driving force of the Spirit. .. - Harvey Conn, A WORLD TO WIN, p. 96.

4. THE MAKING OF BELIEVERS BOLD IN THEIR WITNESS FOR CHRIST IN THE WORLD

Holy boldness in witnessing for Christ is a distinctive feature of New Testament evangelism. This boldness, parrasia, is characterized by openness and plainness of proclamation with urgency and liberty of speech, not by insensitivity and

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abrasiveness, On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached his great sermon with obvious boldness, 2:29. Now as they observed the boldness of Peter and John, and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were marveling, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus, 4: 13. After praying, Lord take note of their threats, and grant that Thy bond-serva nts may spea k Thy word with all boldness ... they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness ... and with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resu rrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all, 4:29,31,32. (See also 9:27,28,13:46, 14:3,18:26,19:8,26:26,28:31.)

This holy boldness is a gift of the Holy Spirit which conforms us to the image of Christ, whose life and ministry was marked by this boldness. It has three central elements: (1). Its roots are in the witness's switching his trust from anything in himself to Christ's Spirit working through him; (2). It shows itself in the confrontation of lost people with their peril and establishes their need for the gospel with confidence in the authority of the risen Christ; (3). It has at its heart clarity in the proclamation of the cross and resurrection of Christ as good news for the lost.

What are the prerequisites for boldness in witness: (1). Openness to God in prayer, I John 3: 22, (2). Openness to God's Word, I Corinthians 3:21; (3). Faith in Christ; and (4). Love for human beings.

V. THE GLOBAL STRATEGY IN THE PROMISE OF ACTS 1:8 The Spirit of Christ empowers Christ's Church for a worldwide mission, stretching to the very ends of the earth. Our witness must be personal, local, regional, national, global, to friends and enemies, of all races, ethnic groups, nationalities and languages, to the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, the educated and the illiterate, the cultured and the uncultured, for Christ did purchase for God with (His) blood people from every tribe and tongue and

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&r. Joe Morecraft people and nation, Revelation 5:9. And we must not rest from our world mission until the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea, Isaiah 11:9; for God has promised us that all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before Thee. For the kingdom is the LORD's, and He rules over the nations, Psalm 22: 27-28. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, John 3: 16.

It would capture the essential geographical outlook of Luke to entitle the Gospel of Luke, "From Galilee to Jerusalem," and the Book of Acts, "From Jerusalem to Rome."- Floyd V. Filson, APOSTOLIC HISTORY AND THE GOSPEL.

The goal of the ministry of Jesus before His resurrection was Jerusalem; but the goal of the ministry of Jesus after His resurrection is Rome, i.e., the whole world, Acts 1: 8. "So when the Acts ends with Paul in Rome preaching the gospel, Luke must mean that now from the center of the world the gospel is beginning to go out in all directions to all parts of the Empire. For Luke, Paul's preaching in Rome is not just a local evangelistic programme; it is or at least symbolizes and sets in motion the broad Empire-wide fulfillment of Acts 1 :8. The gospel center has come from Jerusalem, (where redemption was accomplished), to Rome, (where redemption is applied), and is beginning to spread out from there in all directions."- Filson

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