“…Be My Witness…!”

“…Be My Witness…!”(Acts 1:3-11).
“They were looking intently up in the sky as he was going. When suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee they said, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky? 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.”‘”
Forty days of showing himself and mingling with others was time enough to prove that he was actually alive again. It was also a time of further teachings.
His last words were about “empowerment and commissioning.” They were to wait a further ten days to be “baptized by the Holy Spirit.” Having been empowered they were to go out and be his witnesses, beginning from nearby “and to the ends of the earth.”
In this text is given, waiting for empowerment from the Holy Spirit, the scope of ministry and the expectation of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The disciples were mesmerised and stood transfixed as they watched Jesus going up to heaven. They may have gotten used to the resurrection by now, after many appearances where Jesus ate with them and continued teaching them.
A few moments before his ascension, as he taught further about the kingdom, they still did not get it that his presence was temporary. They asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?”
The apostles like other generations were interested in the political liberation of Israel from foreign domination.
In the midst of political upheavals we are often prone to ask, “God where are you?” God is always here. He is interested in our spiritual liberation, because underneath any kind of crisis is a spiritual crisis! When we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all other things will become ours. The kingdom of God and his righteousness is about a right relationship with God and living by the golden rule with one another. It starts from our own families, then the next door, extends to the neighbourhood before extending to the world. “The world we all want to transform is represented in our backyard.”
May the Holy Spirit baptize us and equip us to be witnesses of Christ for saner societies so that when Christ comes again he is going to take us along with him.
Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, baptise me anew with the Holy Spirit for greater witnessing through actionable love. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.