Acts 1:8

Act_1:8

But ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

The gift of power

At first sight this promise seems to be Christs response to a universal craving. There is nothing which so awakens mans ambition as power. It is sweeter to him than bread to the hungry, or home to the wanderer, or sunrise to the benighted; of all the Divine attributes this is the one he most intensely and incessantly covets. The old classic fable of Prometheus, who made a figure and shaped it after the beauty of a man, and then animated it with fire which he had dared to steal from heaven, is only the thinly-veiled record of mans fierce ambition to create. Powerless to create, he seeks control. He has summoned almost every known element and force in nature to his service, and compelled them to do for him what he cannot do for himself. He has blasted the rock unshaken by the ages, and hurled its ponderous masses into the air as easily as a child throws up its tennis ball. He has tunnelled the mountain and bridged the river to make way for his flying locomotive. He has engirdled the earth with a belt of wire, and through it swifter than thought flashed his messages from pole to pole. From the masterful schoolboy to the statesman on the topmost ladder, and the monarch of a hundred isles, this passion for power is all pervading. The very apostles, to whom these words were addressed, were in this, as in other respects, men of like passions with ourselves. Observe, this love of power may be as legitimate as it is natural. Its quality is determined by its motive. Still power may be beneficent as well as baneful. Now, mark the power with which Christ promises to endow His disciples.

1. Not physical power. Not like that possessed by Samson when he carried upon his back the gates of Gaza, or with the jaw-bone of an ass slew the Philistines heaps upon heaps. It had nothing at all to do with bone, and muscle, and sinew. Men have sometimes forgotten this. They once thought that they could resist the spread of the gospel by physical means. The very efforts which men have employed to suppress the truth have been made the means of exalting it to supremacy. Just as the blast which rocks the giant oak makes it strike its roots deeper and wider in the earth; or, just as the tempest which beats down the tree carries its winged seeds over land and sea to distant continents, there to take root and become trees themselves, so persecution has this twofold tendency--it makes the persecuted cling closer than ever to the truth for which they are assailed, and prompts them to spread it more widely abroad than ever. On the other hand, brute force can no more help the gospel than hinder it. Persecution never made saints ver. If you want to infuse new life into a tree you do not smite it with an axe, but expose it to the genial breath of spring. The weapons of their warfare were not to be carnal.

2. Nor was it the power of logic. The disciples were to convert souls, and mere argument cannot do this. You have all seen sheet lightnings; they flash, they dazzle, but they do not kill. And arguments, after all, are only sheet lightnings, dazzling, enlightening, but seldom or never killing in the sense in which Paul says he was killed.

3. Nor was it the power of eloquence, though that is not to be despised. Oh, yes! there is a tremendous power in words. They breathe, they burn, they fly about the world charged with electric fire and force; but there is one thing they cannot do--they cannot regenerate a soul. You may electrify a corpse. By bringing it into contact with a battery you may make it imitate the living; but it is after all only the semblance, not the reality of life.

4. It was spiritual power--the power of the Holy Ghost. We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. In other words, it was the power of a living union with a living God. Need I say that this promise of Christ is as much ours as it was the apostles? It has been fulfilled, but not exhausted. There is an essential difference between the two. A postage stamp once used can be used no longer; but it is not so with a bank note. The note may be old and torn, stained and soiled; it may have been cut in halves and pasted together again. It does not matter; whoever holds it can present it and demand its equivalent in sterling gold. So is it with a Divine promise. It may pass from lip to lip, and from age to age, and be fulfilled a thousand times; still you may present it and plead it before God in the assurance of success. The light of the sun may fail, the waters of the ocean may be dried up, but the riches of Christs fulness are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. And we need this promised power as much as the apostles did. Nothing else can supply its place. It is to the Church what steam is to the machinery. Suppose you are examining the propelling powers of the Majestic or the Teutonic--the two most magnificent specimens of naval architecture the world has ever seen. You look down into the engine-room on the polished levers, and cranks, and shafts, and the innumerable wheels made to revolve there; and you go home amazed at the inventive power which they represent. And yet in reality you have seen no power. There must be put into that machinery a power, a hidden power, and then, and not till then, will those wheels revolve majestically, and the vessel speed over the water lightly and swiftly as a bird with outspread wings. Who amongst us dare assert that the Churchs successes are equal to her opportunities? Why, then, is it we are making so little impression on the world? Is it not because we are too much under its influence? The fabled giant Animus was invincible so long as he was in direct communication with his mother earth. Overthrown by the wrestler, the moment he touched the ground out of which he was born his strength revived. Hercules discovered the secret of his invigoration, and, lifting him from the earth, crushed him in the air. We are in the same danger from the world, and to escape it we must get nearer to the source of our spiritual strength. Away from Christ she is like an army without ammunition and cut off from its base of operations. Near to Him she will breathe the air, and walk in the light, and wield the might of heaven. She shall receive power--power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. And does not the Church need more power to deal with the manifold evils and enemies by which she is surrounded? There is scepticism. We live in an age of doubt--doubt all the more dangerous because it is courteous rather than coarse. Well, then, another evil with which, as Churches, we have to contend is indifference to spiritual truth. Men are absorbed in material pursuits and enjoyments. It is sometimes argued that the Church is trying to do too much; that she is unequal to the work she is undertaking; that Christian service is already so overgrown that, like a man with a large frame and a feeble heart, we are staggering under the weight of the tasks we have undertaken; that the spiritual power of the Church is unequal to the vast and varied machinery it has to keep in motion. This is, doubtless, true when the resources which the Church possess in itself are alone considered; but add Christ to them, and then the disproportion is turned the other way. All power--power of every kind and without limit--is given unto Him, There cannot be too much work when there is so much Divine power to sustain it. When the tide is out the estuary seems far too wide for the tiny stream which crawls through the centre; but when the tide comes in the whole expanse is covered and the water rushes right up to the greensward. Brethren, do we desire this power? Then let us ask for it. Remember that it has its source outside the Church and human life altogether. Ye shall receive power--receive it as a gift; not generate it from within; not attain it by straining present powers or enlarging present capacity. Sometimes we forget this, and talk about getting up a revival. You might as well talk about getting up a thunder shower. Having this power, let us use it. The disciples received it that they might be witnesses unto Christ. Divinely bestowed power always brings responsibility; it is always given for use. Keep any of Gods gifts for your own selfish purposes, and they will speedily get the canker and the rot. (J. Le Huray.)

The Lords last promise to the apostles

Christs last words are a promise and declare the vocation of all Christians of every station and class. They are all called to testify to Christ, but they are not all equally qualified for the duty. The text shows--

I. That there is a condition of attachment to Christ in which due fitness for this vocation does not exist. The apostles were in this condition. They had personal acquaintance with Christ, believed in Him, had knowledge of the facts, and had natural ability. Still these did not confer the testifying power. So with many Christians now. They know, believe, desire, are eloquent, etc., but lack the mystic energy in the absence of which sermons fail to convert.

II. That due fitness for the great vocation comes by a Divine bestowal. After that the Holy Ghost is come. The bestowal came in a miraculous manner but in answer to prayer. Thereupon the apostles were constrained to de what the Lord had commanded. So nowadays. When God has given special ability, and adds an influence which constrains to its exercise, no wonder that striking results follow.

III. That this power should be exercised when and where it is received. They were to wait at Jerusalem until they received a Divine gift, and there employ it. Had they been permitted to seek their own pleasure they would have chosen another place. So we must begin where and when God blesses us, however disagreeable the effort may be.

IV. The manner of spreading the gospel. Here we have a plan of the acts of the apostles.

1. Jerusalem (Act_3:1-26; Act_4:1-37; Act_5:1-42; Act_6:1-7).

2. All Judaea (Act_6:8-15; Act_7:1-60; Act_8:1-3).

3. Samaria, which had long been White unto harvest (Act_8:4-40).

4. The uttermost part of the earth (9 to close).

This view suggests the importance of evangelising cities. If Paris were made Christian how great would be the blessing to Europe; if London how easy the conversion of the world. (W. Hudson.)

The call to apostleship

This verse is of interest as involving the condition of all success, which in every line of occupation is made out of power converged upon an object. Means in our hand, an end in our eye, resources and purposes, are the alpha and omega of success. Our failures, therefore, are due sometimes to our attempting too much, but our saddest failures are due to the indecision of our aim. Men, especially in the higher relations of life, are unproductive, not because they are feeble, but because they are purposeless. A purpose lying athwart the track of a mans energies is what a burning glass is lying across the path of the sunbeam, a means of tension and the pledge of result. At this solemn moment, then, in which Christ turns over mankind into the hands of the eleven, His last service is to tell them of the power which shall be wrought in them by the Holy Ghost, and what they shall do with it. Christ had spent three years and a half in making Himself the most real of all real things, and now as He ascends He says, What is real to you, go out into the midst of men and make real to them; and so soon as the power of the Holy Ghost is come upon you, ye shall be witnesses unto Me, etc. On this basis there are some things proper to be addressed to--

I. Christians as individuals. The science of mechanics is reducible to statics which concerns itself with forces in equilibrium, and dynamics which treats of forces in motion. One gives us physical condition; the other physical agency. The New Testament is an inspired treatise on spiritual mechanics, and expounds the doctrines of spiritual statics and dynamics, and exhibits to us Christianity as a splendid equilibrium of the soul, and as an energy that upsets equilibrium. The trouble with a great many of our Christians is that they never get beyond the statics. They stop with Christianity as an inward composure. They do not reach the point of seizing Christ s peace, and hurling it in all its holy equipoise into the midst of unholy men to their unutterable discomposure. They stop with reading the Four Gospels of condition without going on to read the fifth Gospel of Acts. And if we have not the serenity of spirit which the apostles had, and the same passionate ambition to make Christ a reality in the minds and hearts of those about us, it is not because we are not their equals, but because we have not let Christ become as real to us. If they had stopped with being disciples, then we should have said that Christianity meant nothing but discipleship. But inasmuch as they went on from being absorbent disciples to radiant apostles, then Christianity means purpose as much as power; making others Christians as much as being Christians ourselves. These things when prayerfully considered will create a deep sense of individual responsibility. The anointing of the Holy Ghost sets each one of us in the line of the true apostolic succession; and, as after the ascension of Christ mankind lay in the hands of the original apostles for them to convert, so to-day the conversion of the world pertains to us as their spiritual successors. If each Christian were to make one convert each year, within eight years the whole population of the globe would be at the foot of the Cross!

II. Christians in the associate relation of a Church. Individual Christianity means individual apostleship. What advantage does Christianity gain by being organised?

1. Negatively. A church does not exist, properly--

(1) for the sake of its sanctuary ministrations. Supposing that after the ascension the apostles had made the Church to consist as a permanency, in praying and singing and preaching to each other once a week. But there are churches where spiritual laziness is induced by excess of sanctuary nourishment, and who do not bestir themselves sufficiently to prevent even the bread of life from working within them as a slow and subtle poison. There are churches that have had the gospel preached to them for fifty years, and yet have not begun to produce such a flame as was kindled within fifteen days after the Lords ascension.

(2) For the sake of sustaining its weaker members. Of course there is a great deal that it ought to do in that direction. Christ said to Peter, When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. But a large number of those who now apply for admission to the Church want, not to strengthen the brethren, but to have the brethren strengthen them. When an army is quartered in the enemys country, the safest place is inside of the camp; but a regiment recruited for the purpose of having its members protect each other is a poor addendum to the fighting resources of the brigade. We learn heroism in the face of danger; children learn to swim by being thrown into the water; and the original Church never flinched after once it had taken up its position in the open field.

(3) For the sake of its denomination. Denomination is harness worn by us for the purpose of dragging the chariot of the gospel. It may chafe some--all harness is liable to--but it is a necessity. Still the harness exists for the sake of the chariot, and not the chariot for the sake of the harness; and he serves his denomination best who serves the Church of Christ best.

2. Positively. By indicating what the Church does not exist for, we have already implied the object for which it does exist. A Church, as an efficiency of God for the conversion of men, is the interweaving of the individual strands of strength fused into a solid bolt of force and hurled at the adversaries of the Lord; and no desultory skirmishing of individual Christians will begin to take the place of the grand concentrated bombardment of a confederate Church. We regularly proceed upon that principle in the achievement of large secular results. We organise for purposes of government, warfare, improvement, revolution, and discovery. Why not for Christ? (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)

Power

I. The preparation for power (verses 1-3).

1. The training which they had received. They were with Jesus when He began both to do and to teach.

2. The facts that made their faith in Him unwavering, courageous, conquering--He also showed Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, etc. Faith in a risen Christ gave to their preaching a tremendous power.

3. Special instruction speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God. Samples of this speaking may be found in Luk_24:25-28; Luk_24:45-49.

II. The baptism of power (verses 4,5).

1. This was the baptism that long had been promised. It was the promise of the Father (Isa_44:5; Joe_2:28, etc.)

2. This was that which had been promised by Christ, when He said it was expedient that He should go away (Joh_14:16; Joh_14:26; Joh_15:26; Joh_16:7-15).

3. This was to be unlike the baptism of John. Water was the symbol--this the reality.

4. For this baptism the apostles were to wait. The ship can afford to wait for its sails, the army for its general, the traveller for his compass. Why at Jerusalem? (Isa_2:1-4; Mic_4:1-3).

III. The source of power (verses 6-8).

1. The false idea. Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? The old thought of a temporal kingdom still uppermost!

2. The true idea. But ye shall receive power, not temporal such as they had coveted, but spiritual and supernatural. That power is worth coveting and waiting for.

IV. The result of power (verse 8). Ye shall be My witnesses. There is no successful witnessing for Christ without this power. Christs disciples are all-powerful with it.

V. Ascending to power (verses 9-11).

1. The ascension. The reception of power by the disciples depended upon His ascension (Luk_24:49; see also Act_2:33; Joh_16:7).

2. The return. Shall so come, etc. No need, however, to stand idly gazing into heaven. Before He went, Christ gave to each one his work (Mar_13:34). Three watchwords He has given--watch, pray, work. The harvest is hastened by cultivation--not by counting the days from the time the seed was sown.

VI. Praying for power (verses 12-14). The disciples had the promise of power, not many days hence, but they did not wait in idleness for it to be fulfilled. The promise is ours to-day as much as then it was the disciples. Praying, as they did, a Pentecost may come to us as certainly and as bounteously as it came to them. (S. S. Times.)

Power

The Church to-day has many things, but she lacks one thing--power. Peter bade the lame man rise and walk. To-day, Christian men say, Gold and silver have I; such as I have give I thee. We buy crutches for cripples, and write apologetics for Christianity. Peter gave strength, and the man was an argument no one could answer.

I. We feel this want of power in our own lives; we lack grip when we seize a great subject, or a sinning soul. This consciousness of weakness palsies action, compels compromise, cautions delay. Paul lived, yet no longer he but Christ in him. We live, but not Christ. When the heart is weak in its action, the members suffer, lack warmth and vigour; all we come in contact with, home, business, city, nation, feel our lack of power; children grow up uncontrolled, business leans to the side of dishonesty, government is corrupt. The type of Christianity of to-day is that of the disciples before Pentecost--in the temple praising and blessing God, and intellectually busy about times and seasons. In the business world everything is quiet; men say manufacturing has been overdone; the mills have glutted the markets. So in the religious world, some tell us the market is overstocked with creeds and denominations; there is no call for religion. That is not true; the needs are as many and as real as ever. The Church is like a great mill by the river side--machinery, raw material, market all right, but the water-courses are dry--the power is wanting. On the other hand, it is the business of Christianity to make a market, not wait for one. The Shepherd sought the lost sheep. Salt and light are to be aggressive, making a market. Plant a post; you wouldnt suppose there is anything in the soil to furnish a market, a mass-meeting of posts would decide there is no call for us here. Take up the post and plant a tree; what a commotion there is below the surface; the rootlets push out in every direction and lay hold of the properties of the soil; above the soil buds broaden into leaves, the air is broken into currents and eddies, beasts of the field gather under the helpful shadows, birds are able to find building sites. The tree finds a market in earth and air and animals. A measure of meal finds no market; a handful of leaven makes one. We are not simply to be stirred up and mixed with the world, as lifeless and dry as others, but are to carry leavening power with us. An iron post placed in a public park does not disperse darkness. String the electric wire across it, fix the carbon points, now it is a fountain of light. Ye are the light of the world. Light compels recognition, all hail, it, it meets need. The first sign of power in the tree is life in itself, in the posts of light on itself; the first proof of power in a disciple is power over himself. From this nerve-centre of self the power thrills along the family, and business and body politic. The word power, dunamis, carries the thought; from the word comes dynamics, the science of moving forces. Another word comes in here too--dynamite. A glance at the family of words will show us what is bound up in the promise. In a Wesleyan chapel a mighty revival was in progress. A visitor scandalised by the excitement rebuked the zealous Wesleyans, saying, This is all wrong. When Solomon built his temple there was heard neither the sound of hammer, nor saw, nor chisel. You make too much noise here. The preacher made reply, Oh, but we aint building, we are blasting. The preacher was right; he was using dynamite, destroying the kingdom of darkness. Oh for the promised dynamite of the Holy Spirit!

II. This power has its source outside the Church and human life. Ye shall receive power; not generate it, nor attain to it by straining present powers, or enlarging present capacities. We cannot whip ourselves into a state of power, as though we were eggs, strike the fire from ourselves by any flint and steel arrangement, lift ourselves into it by force of will, educate ourselves into it by culture of heart or head.

III. The conditions of realising the power. The great discovery of modern science is law. By the study of phenomena we learn the law, by obeying the law we control phenomena. Studying the appearance of the Spirit, the conditions of the appearance, we can learn the law of His appearing; conforming to the law thus learned we can receive the power. There are two instances of His appearing of special interest;

1. When Christ received the Holy Ghost. Christ stands unique in His power. His thoughts give life to every language embodying them; His teachings transform every character embracing them. All this is true of Him after the Spirit came upon Him, not before. John Baptist knew Him not until he saw the Spirit descending. Two simple facts give us the key: Obedience and prayer. When John rebuked Him, He replied, Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Jesus also being baptised and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended.

2. In the case of the disciples we read that Christ commanded, Tarry ye in Jerusalem, and they obeyed; and all continued in prayer and supplication. Then when Pentecost came they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Here we touch a law of nature as well as of spiritual power. He who obeys known law and communes with nature, masters her secrets. In the home the obedient, sympathetic child has power given it by the parents. In your stores the clerk who obeys and communes with you is the one to whom you give power. To the obedient and prayerful now as truly as then, will the Holy Ghost be given, and after that power will come.

IV. When the power comes it must use us. Christ is driven into the desert, and the disciples are scattered, sown broadcast in the waiting world-field of thought and action. Simon Magus offered money for Peters power. We cannot control this power; it must control us. (O. P. Gifford.)

The might of the gospel

The gospel is a mighty engine, but only mighty when God has the working of it. (T. Adams.)

Christianity diffused by the apostles

How wonderful is God, in that He can accomplish great ends by insignificant means! Christianity, for example, diffused through the instrumentality of twelve legion of angels, would have been immeasurably inferior as a trophy of omnipotence, to Christianity diffused through the instrumentality of twelve apostles. When l: survey the heavens, with their glorious troop of stars, and am told that the Almighty employs to His own majestic ends the glittering hosts, as they pursue their everlasting march, I experience no surprise; I seem to feel as though the spangled firmament were worthy of being employed by the Creator; and I expect a magnificent consummation from so magnificent an instrumentality. But show me a tiny insect, just floating in the breeze, and tell me that, by and through that insect, God will carry forward the largest and most stupendous of His purposes, and I am indeed filled with amazement; I cannot sufficiently admire a Being who, through that which I could crush with a breath, advances what I cannot measure with thought. (H. Melvill.)

Power indescribable but appreciable

All power is indescribable, but at the same time appreciable. What it is, where it is, how it came, where it goes, its measure, movement, nature, form, or essence, no human skill can discover. We may ask the sunbeam which has such power to fly and to illuminate, the lightning which has such power to scathe, the dew-drop that has power to refresh, the magnet, the fire, the steam, the eye that can see, the ear that can hear, the nerve that can convey the messages of will, we may ask all the agents we see exerting power to render us an account each of its own power, and all will be dumb. Not the cannon ball on its flight, or the lion in his triumph, not the tempest or the sea, not even pestilence itself, can tell us what is power. If we ask Death who has put all things under his feet, even he has no re.ply; and after we have passed the question, What is power? round a mute universe, we mast say, God has spoken once, yea, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God. Yet power, in itself so hidden and indescribable, is ever manifest by its effects. An effect demonstrates the presence of a power. Where gunpowder explodes, there must have been fire; where water shoots up through the atmosphere in steam, there must have been heat; where iron moves without mechanical force, a magnet must be; and the absence of the effect is conclusive evidence of the absence of the power from which the effect would have followed. The intellect at once recognises the presence of intellectual power. The feelings, also, faithfully tell whenever an emotional power is brought to bear upon them; and no less surely does the conscience of a man feel when a moral power comes acting upon it. (W. Arthur, M. A.)

Power not in mechanism but in fire

Suppose we saw an army sitting down before a granite fort, and they told us that they intended to batter it down: we might ask them, How? They point to a cannon-ball. Well, but there is no power in that; it is heavy, but not more than perhaps a hundred weight: if all the men in the army hurled it against the fort, they would make no impression. They say, No; but look at the cannon. Well, there is no power in that. A boy may ride upon it, a bird may perch in its mouth; is is a machine and nothing more. But look at the powder. Well, there is no power in that; a child may spill it, a sparrow may peck it. Yet this powerless powder, and powerless ball, are put into the powerless cannon; one spark of fire enters; and then, in the twinkling of an eye, that powder is a flash of lightning, and that ball a thunderbolt. (W. Arthur, M. A.)

Prayer the means of obtaining spiritual power

When John in the Apocalypse saw the Lamb on the throne, before that throne were the seven lamps of fire burning, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth; and it is only by waiting before that throne of grace that we become imbued with the holy fire. When a lecturer on electricity wants to show an example of a human body surcharged with his fire, he places a person on a stool with glass legs. The glass serves to isolate him from the earth, because it will not conduct the electric fluid; were it not for this, however much might be poured into his frame, it would be carried away by the earth; but, when thus isolated from it, he retains all that enters him. You see no fire, you hear no fire; but you are told that it is pouring into him. Presently you are challenged to the proof--asked to come near, and hold your hand close to his person; when you do so, a spark of fire shoots out towards you. If thou, then, wouldst have thy soul surcharged with the fire of God, so that those who come nigh to thee shall feel some mysterious influence out from thee, thou must draw nigh to the source of that fire, to the throne of God and of the Lamb, and shut thyself out from the world. As this is the only way for an individual to obtain spiritual power, so is it the only way for churches. (W. Arthur, M. A.)

Spiritual power recognised

Often when I have had doubts suggested by the infidel I have been able to fling them to the winds with utter scorn because I am distinctly conscious of a power working upon me when I am speaking in the name of the Lord, infinitely transcending any personal power of fluency, and far surpassing any energy derived from excitement such as I have felt when delivering a secular lecture or making a speech--so utterly distinct from such power that I am quite certain it is not of the same order or class as the enthusiasm of the politician or the glow of the orator. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Natural gift no substitute for spiritual power

No natural gift can suffice, and when any men have the power of God, failure is impossible. Yet do not let us suppose there is no room for gifts. If some people make the Cross of Christ of none effect through wisdom of words, others make it of none effect through lack of wisdom. There are some persons who put dulness for piety. Of the wise man we read that he sought to find out acceptable words--words of delight, as it is literally. And of a greater than Solomon it is recorded that the people heard him gladly. Christianity invites and consecrates every gift of God and every grace and art of which man is capable. There is room for money, enterprise, methods, learning, and genius. All gifts are good when they are lost in the great purpose of the gospel; but any gifts are perilous, just in proportion as preacher or people are conscious of them. In a sham fight everybody admires the uniforms, the music, the horses, the precision of the march. But in a real fight there is a desperate earnestness that cannot stay to admire anything--that just girds itself up for death or victory. If there be the intensity, the downright earnestness, the baptism of fire, which longs to make Christ the conqueror, then the more gifts the better. But if that baptism be lacking, gifts are a peril and a snare. (M. G. Pearse.)

The reception of spiritual power

I was in the train some time ago, and was thinking of this higher life, and it seemed so bright and beautiful--like a star far above me--and my eye fell on the word receive, and I saw it was not my climbing up but the Lord coming down. It was early spring, and as we stopped at a station it was raining, and I noticed a little cottage where an old woman had put out a pitcher to catch the water, and it was filled to the brim; I said to myself, My poor heart can never make a garden for my Lord, but at least He can take my broken pitcher of a heart and fill it abundantly. Ye shall receive power. Do you see that this is His purpose? Then surrender yourself. (M. G. Pearse.)

The pleasure of realised power

There are few things more pleasant than to work with power. A little child balancing itself upon its tiny feet and running alone, a schoolboy making the treasures of knowledge his own, a lad learning a trade easily and yet accurately, a tradesman conducting an extensive concern with complete system and perfect order, an artist colouring canvas or chiselling marble, a man of letters writing books that shall never die, a man of science unlocking the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, an orator taking captive by his words the eyes, ears, thoughts, and souls of a multitude of hearers, diplomatists and politicians arousing and hushing the voice of the people and turning the hearts of princes whither they will, the commander leading a fleet or an army to victory, are illustrations of working power, upon which we cannot look without interest, and of which we cannot speak without excitement. And as more power is needed to deliver than to direct, to redeem than to sustain, we look with greater interest upon the physician healing sickness, and upon the surgeon removing diseased flesh or bone. It is a glorious sight, power employed to save! A fireman entering a burning dwelling and plucking the sleeping inmates from the flames, even the water-dog snatching a child from a watery grave, are great and glorious illustrations of power put forth for salvation--but a greater than these, a greater than all, is here. (S. Martin.)

Power from on high

Let us look upon the subject--

I. On its negative side. It is not--

1. Physical power. Current literature speaks of muscular Christianity; but that is not the Christianity of the New Testament. Subsequently, men thought they could assist the gospel by bringing it into alliance with political organisations. But no. Persecutions never made saints yet. The axe can never infuse new life into the tree. But the spring can.

2. Miraculous power. They were already endued with this. But this cannot save men. Men saw Jesus performing miracles, and still remained in their unbelief.

3. The power of eloquence. I have seen, under powerful sermons, stout-hearted sinners weep and pray, but when the electric current which flowed from the preacher subsided, they fell back to their former torpor. Many so-called revivals are but electric shocks disturbing the dead, but leaving them dead notwithstanding. Eloquence, like the wind, moves the sea from without, but that which saves must move it from its own depths. Eloquence works upon the soul; that which saves must work in the soul. One can compose a sermon in which the most critical hearer cannot detect a flaw: but he will-forget it in half an hour. It is so refined that it shoots right through the soul instead of entering into it and remaining there. Polish is commendable up to the point of showing instead of concealing the material underneath. I never like to see an article of furniture so highly polished that I cannot say of what timber it is made.

4. The power of logic. Conquer a man in argument, and, as a rule, you only confirm him in his error. I saw a picture entitled, Conquered but not Subdued. The young lad was evidently conquered by his mother. There he stood, with his face half-turned towards the wall: but there was determination in the mouth, defiance in the eye, anger in the nostrils. Drive a sinner in argument to a corner, so that he cannot move, yet he can sink, and sink he will to his own hell. Sheet-lightnings dazzle, but never kill. And arguments after all are only sheet-lightnings.

5. The power of thought. The Bible does not claim superiority on account of its ideas, although it contains the sublimest. You may be the best Biblical scholar in the land, and be at last a castaway. The history of preaching abundantly proves this. Read the sermon by Peter on the day of Pentecost, and it will not astonish you with the profundity of its thoughts. The sermons on the Mount and on Mars hill stand higher on the intellectual side; and yet they made but few converts. Look again from the pulpit to books. Take the Analogy by Butler; no book perhaps displays more intellectual power; yet who can point to it as the means of bringing him to Jesus? But read the Dairymans Daughter, or the Anxious Inquirer, without a millionth part of its mental power; but there are thousands who trace their conversion to these books. I do not wish to cast discredit on any of these excellences. They are very valuable in their own places. If a man is possessed of them he can do nothing better than consecrate them on the altar of Christianity. But if man is to be saved, a new power must come to the field.

II. On its positive side. In the Gospel it is called power from on high.

1. The great want of the world was a power to uplift it out of its state of degradation and sin. Previous to Pentecost the world was sinking lower and lower in the scale of morals. But since humanity has been gradually ascending. Physically we know that this earth is subject to the attraction of other planets. The same fact holds true spiritually. There is a power working mightily in the children of disobedience, and the source of it is in darker regions than our own. But another power has come to the field, a power from on high; the contest must be long and terrible; but the higher power is gradually winning, and will deliver the world from the grasp of evil. Here it is called the power of the Holy Ghost. We often picture God as looking down pitifully upon us from His heaven. But we are also taught that the great God has descended upon men, and thrown into their hearts the infinite impulse of His own eternal nature. The disciples, as we see them in the Gospel, are cowards; in the Acts they are heroes. The Christian life is Divine. Christianity is not a remembrance of the supernatural in the past, but its perpetuation throughout all ages. Every true ministry is heavy with supernatural influences. We do not perform miracles, but if our ministry is not a continuation of the supernatural in the realm of matter, it is a continuation of it in the realm of mind; and of the two, the latter is the higher kind. Luke tells us that in his Gospel he narrated what Jesus began both to do and to teach; here he goes on to tell what Jesus continued to do and to teach through men; and Church history continues the tale. The works that I do ye also shall do, etc.

2. What was the effect of this Divine baptism on the disciples?

(1) It made them pre-eminently spiritual. Spirituality should be the distinctive badge of every Christian, and especially of the ambassadors of Christ. A bishop must be blameless. All well and good if he is learned and eloquent, but he must be blameless.

(2) It filled them with Divine enthusiasm, with fire. The Bible speaks much about this fire. Jeremiah had a message, but having been insulted and incarcerated, he made up his mind not to open his mouth again. I said I will not make mention of Him, or speak any more in His name. Well, how did he fare? His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forebearing, and could not stay. It was hard to speak--it was harder to be silent. It is difficult enough to stand up here and preach; it would be more difficult to sit down there and be mute. The apostles evinced such fervour that many supposed they were under the power of strong drink. No, says Peter, it is the Holy Ghost working in us. The love of Christ constraineth us, says St. Paul. Some dared to brand him as a fanatic. Whether we be beside ourselves, said he, it is to God, or whether we be sober it is for your cause. The secret of Baxters power was his unbounded enthusiasm. His biographer says he would have set the world on fire while another was lighting a match. It is the fire of the Holy Ghost that will make men eloquent. A preacher in his study ought to gather his thoughts, to collect his materials; and ascending the pulpit, he ought to set them all ablaze with fire from off the altar. Having built the altar, dinged the trenches, slain the sacrifice, he should join Elijah and cry, O God, send the fire, send the fire!

3. What is the effect upon the congregation? Many are turned to God. On the consecration of the Temple of Solomon, the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; much less could the people stand to criticise the work of art, or to admire the amount and richness of the gold. In the same manner the power from on high hides everything but itself. Many a critic went to hear Whitefield with hostile intentions; but in less than five minutes they had totally forgotten their sinister art. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)

Power from on high

I. The being to be manifested.

1. The Holy Spirit is represented as having all the attributes of Deity, distinct from, yet united with, the Father and the Son. This is not sufficiently dwelt upon. In the apostolic age there were those who did not so much as know whether there were any Holy Ghost. This is not your case, but it is needful to remind you lest you should withhold from Him His proper homage. That He is God is matter of explicit revelation--not in the Arian or Sabellian sense--not an illumination but an essence, not an influence but a Person. And to the blasphemers who deny His Divinity we hurl the thunderbolt, Ananias, why hath Satan put it into thy heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost? Thou hast not lied, etc.

2. It is to the Spirit, thus Divine, that belongs the right of induction to the holy ministry; and however men may place their pretentions or trace their geneaology they are intruders without the call and unction of the Spirit.

3. As the Spirit is thus the originating source, so is His perpetuating grace the means of success in the ministry. This is everywhere asserted in the prophets. Not by might, etc.

II. The result of his manifestation. Ye shall receive power.

1. The power of God is the attribute which is earliest to impress the mind. It is impossible to send the thought out into the universe without discovering its manifestations. It lurks in the minutest and is exhibited in the mightiest phenomena.

2. And as it is the earliest, so it is the attribute of which men are most keenly coveteous. The fable of Prometheus, who made the figure of a man, and then animated it with the fire which he had dared to steal from heaven, is only a thinly veiled record of mans fierce ambition to create. Man, the master-mind, would stand in the midst of the elements and say, Ye are vassals: work for me. And if from the world of nature you pass up into the world of mind you find the same coveteousness from the child-dictator of the nursery to the monarch of a hundred isles. Now as the apostles were men of like passions with ourselves they were under the influence of this desire. There was an effort |o reserve seats on either side of the Redeemer in His kingdom for the sons of Zebedee. And here was asked, Lord, wilt Thou, etc. Now this love of power, as it is an instinct, is not criminal. The God who implanted it had wise purposes in view. The gospel does not annihilate a solitary passion, only it directs those which were vehicles of rebellion into instruments of blessing. The Saviour therefore here rebukes unhallowed curiosity, but answers prayer. Ye shall receive power, that is what you want and ye shall have it. When Pentecost came they saw how infinitely superior to all royalties was the kingdom they were to establish. Without this power the most perfect organisation and the most exquisite appliances are valueless. But give us this and the stammerer shall be an Apollos, and the stripling with the sling and stone shall be as an angel of the Lord.

III. The design of this manifestation.

1. That the Church may testify to the world. Power Divinely given is to be used for Divine ends. God imprisons no force in aimless bondage. There is power in the lightning, but it is not to dazzle but to purify. There is power in the frantic breaker, and in the careering cloud; but they are all true and loyal servants in the vast palace in which the King of the universe has lodged His favourite creature man. And as in the physical so in the moral sphere. Gods gifts are not given to be hoarded, despised, or abused. Every endowment of mind--the athletic reason, the lordly will, the creative fancy, the eloquent utterance, every communication of grace, and every attainment of privilege are all conferred upon as individually to minister as the rest of the universe ministers.

2. We are witnesses for Jesus. A crucified, risen, and exalted Christ will charm the heart of the nineteenth as it charmed the heart of the first century; and though scoffers deride it, cowards hesitate about it, and traitors betray it; it is the only testimony which the Holy Ghost will endorse with power. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.)

Power from on high

I. The characteristics of the Holy Spirit in His descent on the apostles and the Church. He was given as a Spirit of--

1. Knowledge and understanding. Witness the change in the apostles views of Christs Messiahship and death before and after. So now truth like a transparent dial becomes illuminated. The eunuch was perplexed till Philip joined him. Compare one frequent expression, I see.

2. Faith. A great difference between knowing and believing. A man may come and see, but go away without faith. Not so at Pentecost. Noah did not stand outside to admire the ark. He entered in and was safe.

3. Holiness and prayer. Holiness is separateness from the world to God. More than ever at Pentecost the disciples proved this. So now men are holy in proportion as they are endured with the Holy Spirit; and in proportion to their holiness will be their power in prayer.

4. Courage. The boldness of Peter was conspicuous. And now the Spirit works such conviction that the most timid become the most brave.

II. The experiences of power answering to their characteristics. The power of--

1. Witness for the truth. A sense of their sincerity was inspired in the hearers. We believe and therefore speak.

2. Steadfastness in Christian life notwithstanding human or Satanic opposition. They were proof against tempting bribes, seductive philosophy, fierce persecution.

3. Great example. Men could hate, but could not charge them with inconsistencies. On them was imprinted the likeness of their Master.

4. Untiring zeal. (G. McMichael, B. A.)

Spiritual power for missionary work

The Holy Ghost is the source of all--

I. Spiritual illumination. The Bible, written by holy men moved by the Holy Ghost, is our only standard of revealed truth; but even the Bible is not enough. The spirit of scepticism is abroad, and men hardly know what or what not to believe. Hence the feeble faith and the shallow conviction and extreme worldliness of the Church. But the missionary, as a teacher of a religion Divine in it origin, requires absolutely the power of clear vision and deep conviction. Doubt to him is paralysis, so it is to every teacher, or work becomes a fruitless, burdensome task. Nor can there be any development of a noble, manly Christian character without Divinely illumined, soul-transforming apprehension of truth. How, then, is the Church to protect herself against a noxious intellectual atmosphere, and obtain a clear vision of Divine things? There can be but one answer. The Spirit that guided holy men of old in recording Divine truths is the same Spirit that reveals to the reader their deep significance. The fully illuminated soul is beyond the reach of doubt, for the Spirit so shows the things of Christ that the inward eye beholds them with open vision.

II. Holiness. This is a mighty and indispensable power. The ideal Christian of the New Testament is a saint, and so long as that ideal is not embodied in the lives of Christians, the progress of the gospel must be slow and unsatisfactory. The world must be convinced that Christianity is a practical reality, and not a mere system of belief before it will bow to its authority. Books on evidences are useful in their way. But few will read them or be convinced by them. The one argument that will command attention is the holy life, not of ancient, but of modern saints (Isa_62:1-3). How long are we to wait for this? There is no reason why we should wait at all. The Holy Spirit is the Author of all holiness.

III. Spiritual unity. This also is indispensable to evangelisation--not uniformity, but such unity in variety that we see in the works of God. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. What does it matter to the Chinese whether I am an Independent and my brother is an Episcopalian, if we manifest the same Christ-like spirit? But this is only produced by the Holy Spirit. There is nothing more disastrous to missionary and every form of Christian work than the want of unity. Before Pentecost the apostles had their childish rivalries and jealousies; but the baptism of fire burned all that out of them.

IV. Spiritual joy. There are different kinds of joy.

1. Natural. It may be ethical, inspired by an approving conscience; or intellectual, springing from the consciousness of superior gifts and culture; or animal, flowing from a fulness of bodily health or animal spirits; or the joy of harvest, the result of success in worldly pursuits.

2. The unnatural, which consists in the exhilaration produced by stimulants.

3. The spiritual--the joy of conscious pardon, deliverance from sin, fulness of spiritual life, which flows from the Holy Ghost. Without this work is a burden. An unspiritual missionary must be a joyless missionary, and a joyless missionary is a pitiable object.

V. The power of dealing with souls. Some men are richly endowed with this. They may or may not be profound thinkers or eloquent speakers, but when they speak their hearers feel a supernatural power grappling with them.

VI. Prayer. (Griffith John.)

The old gospel preached with new spiritual power

When I was preaching at Farwell Hall, Chicago, I never worked harder to prepare my sermons than I did then. I preached and preached; but it was beating against the air. A good woman used to say, Mr. Moody, you dont seem to have power in your preaching. Oh, my desire was that I might have a fresh anointing! I requested this woman and a few others to come and pray with me every Friday at four oclock. Oh, how piteously I prayed that God might fill the empty vessel! After the fire in Chicago, I was in New York, and going into the Bank on Wall Street, it seemed as if I felt a strange and mighty power coming over me. I went up to the hotel, and there in my room I wept before God, and cried, Oh, my God, stay Thy hand! He gave me such fulness that it seemed more than I could contain. May God forgive me if I should seem to speak in a boastful way; but I do not know that I have preached a sermon since but God has given me some soul. I seem a wonder to you, but I am a greater wonder to myself. These are the same sermons I preached in Chicago word for word. They are not new sermons; it is not a new gospel; but the old gospel with the Holy Ghost of power. (D. L. Moody.)

The Holy Ghost awakens ability as well as communicates a power

The gifts of the Holy Ghost are powers, the fellowship of the Holy Ghost is a source of power. I see a man hungry, and I give him money: that money is a power to buy bread; but the hungry man is destitude through lack of ability to earn his bread. I devote myself to that man, awaken a spirit of self-dependence and self-respect, arouse his dormant energies, quicken his whole nature, and lead him into a path of honest industry, and now I have given him not a power, but power. An ignorant man applies to me for enlightenment on some particular subject; I answer his questions, and the knowledge I have given him is a power, but I awaken a thirst for all knowledge in that man, and I lead him to fountains of information, and now I have endowed him not with a power, but with power. I see a man timid and feeble in his whole nature, I draw near to him, I quiet his fears, awaken hope and inspire him with courage, and he becomes, under my influence, sanguine and brave. To this man I give no powers or a power, but power. And thus, while the Holy Ghost, by endowing men with knowledge, wisdom, ability to work miracles and to speak with tongues, bestows particular powers, by entering into fellowship with them He communicates vital energy and general ability. Hitherto the Holy Spirit had not entered into full fellowship with the spirits of men, but now He is to dwell with all Christs disciples. Now if he who walketh with wise men shall be wise, if as iron sharpeneth iron so doth the countenance of a man his friend, what must be the effects to Christs witnesses of communion with the Holy Ghost! (S. Martin.)

Divine power to be carefully transmitted

Here at one end is the great fountain ever brimming. Draw from it ever so much, it sinks not one hairs-breadth in its pure basin. Here, on the other side, is an intermittent flow, sometimes in scanty driblets, sometimes in painful drops, sometimes more full and free, on the pastures of the wilderness. Wherefore these jerks and spasms? It must be something stopping the pipe. Yes, of course. Gods might is ever the same, but our capacity of receiving and transmitting that might varies, and with it varies the energy with which that unchanging power is exerted in the world. (A. Maclaren, D. D)

Power in excess of organisation

Machinery saves manual toil, and multiplies force. But we may have too heavy machinery for what engineers call the boiler power--too many wheels and shafts for the steam we have to drive them with. What we want is not less organisation or other sorts of it, but more force.

Latent power in the Church

It is impossible to overestimate, or rather to estimate, the power that lies latent in our Churches. We talk of the power latent in steam--latent till Watt evoked its spirit from the waters, and set the giant to turn the iron arms of machinery. We talk of the power that was latent in the skies till science climbed their heights, and seizing the spirit of the thunder, chained it to our service--abolishing distance, outstripping the wings of time, and flashing our thoughts across rolling seas to distant continents. Yet what are these to the moral power that lies asleep in the congregations of our country and of the Christian world? And why latent? Because men and women neither appreciate their individual influence, nor estimate aright their own individual responsibilities. They cannot do everything; therefore they do nothing. They cannot blaze like a star, and, therefore, they wont shine like a glow-worm; and so they are content that the few work, and that the many look on. Not thus the woods are clothed in green, but by every little leaf expanding its own form. Not thus are fields covered with golden corn, but by every stalk of grain ripening its own head. Not thus does the coral reef rise from the depths of ocean, but by every little insect building its own rocky cell. (T. Guthrie.)

And ye shall be witnesses unto Me.--

Witnesses

Our Lord did not cut short the apostles speculations to stop there; he gathered up the broken ends of their energy and fastened them to our immediate work. If the planets were to stand still, they would be drawn into the central fire and consumed. It is necessary to their well-being that they should be flung with all their force on a path of activity. So, unless Christians are thrown out into a course of vigorous action, they will be drawn into an orbit so narrow that action will be no longer possible.

I. The qualification for this service.

1. Although the apostles were saved, they were not fit to work any deliverance in the earth by their own wisdom or strength. Their demand for fire might have consumed the adversaries, but it could not have converted them. Wanting the Spirit even they were inclined to persecute, and for the same reason their self-styled successors have persecuted in all subsequent times.

2. The Spirit is like the air. We could not live without air--the sun would not warm us but for it. The suns heat sustains life; but the atmosphere communicates that heat. The earth, again, is dependent for its supply of water on the air, which obtains it from the ocean and pours it on the land. So the disciples in every age obtain grace from the Lord through the ministry of the Spirit.

II. The nature of this service.

1. Whom Christ saves from sin He employs in the world. The liberated captive is sent to fight against his former master. Christians have need of Christ and Christ has need of them. The simple fact that they are on earth not in heaven is proof that there is something for them to do here, and if they are not doing it they are either no Christians, or Christians that grieve Christ. A broken limb hurts more than a severed one, and Christ is hurt by those members of His who do not witness for Him.

2. This is an honourable but difficult function. In the case of a witness the real strain comes in cross-examination. You are set down in the market-place having lately worshipped in the house of prayer. Those whom you meet know this, so that there is no need for you to preach. The cross-examination takes place here. It is not now, what do you believe? but is your life consistent? The cross-examiner generally begins on some apparently indifferent theme, but the questions are so linked to the main subject that if, in answering them, anything escapes which clashes with the original evidence the good confession of the witness is thereby destroyed. Over-reaching, unfairness, unkindness to dependents, untruth, evil-speaking, expose the Christian profession to scorn.

III. The sphere. Beginning at Jerusalem.

1. The charity that will convert is one that begins at home, but does not end there. If it essay to reach the heathen by leaping over many ranks of unslain enemies in our own hearts, and of blasphemers in our own streets, it will never reach its mark, or reach it with a force already spent. The gospel is like a fire; it must be out; but like light and heat it cannot reach the distant circumference without passing through the intermediate space and kindling all that it touches on its way. Unless our love greatly disturb a godless neighbourhood at home, it will not set on fire a distant continent.

2. Besides, while a great mass of our home community remain unchristian, specimens of our population, cast up in foreign lands like drift-wood, will counteract missionary effort. A preacher with the pure gospel will not influence much the native mind if followed by a fellow-countryman with poisoned rum. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Necessary variety among the apostles

Because Christ Himself was so truly and deeply the Wonderful, it was necessary that His witnesses, who were also to be the future organs of His Spirit, should be men of broadly varied nature--not copies one of another, like images of clay cast in kindred mould, but differing in mental constitution, experience, spiritual affinities, and faculty of vision. No single man could take in His whole image, or apprehend, in its completeness, unity, and infinite reaches of application, the truth revealed in Him; and therefore the chosen witnesses were many and many-natured. And further, as no single flower can show forth all that is in the sun--as it takes the whole bloom of the year to do so, from the first snowdrop that pierces the dark earth to the latest flower of autumn--so He needed them all for the adequate forthtelling of His holy personality. (J. Culross.)

Witnesses for Christ

I. All Christians are appointed to be Christs witnesses. These words were spoken to the Church, not merely to eleven members of it. You are all subpoenaed to appear, and must all be ready when you are wanted to depose.

II. Christians are made Christs witnesses by the power of the Holy Ghost. Any poor weakling might say, I a witness! I cannot speak, I am a child! or like the poor woman, I could die for Christ, but I cannot speak for Him. He might say, I shall be puzzled, contradict myself, not hold out all through the cruel cross-examination; besides, I am nobody, who will take notice what I say? But our loving Master, to still this trepidation, has left to each witness, the promise of necessary power. But power is of various kinds, and this is not of the kind that you, perhaps, think necessary. There is physical power, the power of knowledge, and the power of wealth, and rank; these would, you think, help to make you influential witnesses. But its most influential witnesses have been totally without these. Instead, He gives the power of faith, love, prayer, courage, all powers in one, in the gift of the Holy Ghost. Let me but have the Holy Ghost helping me to realise the life of Christ in my life, and I am unconquerable, for who can resist God?

III. All Christians are Christs witnesses to tell what they personally know about Him. Your mission is to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If you only tell what another man knows, and so merely circulate second-hand impressions, you may stand down, for these things are not evidence. Not as echoes, reflectors, copying machines, are you worth anything, but simply as yourselves. The first disciples had to give out from their own personal knowledge information of those facts respecting Christ on which all the saving value of the Cross depends, and the truth of their testimony has passed successfully through the test of the most subtle and searching cross-examination. No more evidence is wanted as to these facts; but we, the successors of these same witnesses, being under the same law, have, on the same principle, to tell all the truth that we personally know of this same Jesus. The world says in a thousand ways to each one of us: What has He done for you? Do you know Him? Yes. Is He real? Yes. Where does He live? With me. When did you speak to Him last? Just now. When did you meet Him first? Many a long year ago. Oh! I know whom I have believed, and He knows me. One of the later Puritans was one day catechising a row of young disciples. When they had answered the question on Effectual Calling, he said, Stop; can any one say this, using the personal pronoun all through? Then with sobbing, broken breath, a man stood up and said: Effectual calling is the work of Gods own Spirit, whereby convincing me of my sin and misery, enlightening my mind in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing my will, He doth enable and persuade me to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to me in the gospel. Let but each Christian personally, and from his heart say the same, then One will chase a thousand, and two will put ten thousand to flight, and one single congregation would have in it the life to shake London.

IV. We are witnesses for the purpose of repeating the words which we believe Christ has spoken. The witness does not make the message any more than the telegraphic wire makes the telegram; all he has to do is to transmit it in its integrity.

V. We are to be Christs witnesses, not only by what we say, but by what we are. What are you? If you are only a ceremony, or an insipid imitation, or a manufactured article; if some man of the world with whom you do business can show some excuse for saying of you, That a Christian! it needs no Christ to make a Christian like that,--I could make as good a Christian myself, any day! then, whatever you are, you are of no use to a Christian Evidence Society. A good farm is the best witness to a farmer; a good painting to an artist; a good book to the author; cures are the best witnesses to doctors; and Christs cures, His miracles wrought in souls, are His most effective witnesses. It is but fair and reasonable to expect that His people should bear this kind of witness.

VI. Christians are to witness by verbally preaching the gospel. Preach in the house, in the nursery, in the schoolroom: all who can. Preach as Brownlow North was said to preach, like one who had just escaped from a sacked and burning city, his ear still stung with the yell of the dying and the roar of the flame; his heart full of gratitude at the thought of his own wonderful escape. (C. Stanford, D. D.)

The Churchs work and power

I. The work of the church. Ye shall be My witnesses. A witness is one who knows, and who is summoned to tell what he knows. The first preachers of the gospel had personal knowledge of all the facts to which they were called to bear witness. They had been with Christ from the beginning, and so could witness to His life, His death. His resurrection and ascension. That was their business, and, with certain modifications in form, it is ours to-day. All the truth that we personally know of this same Jesus we are under an obligation to tell.

1. What, then, is the manner of testimony that devolves upon us? In the first place, we are to witness by our lives. On this living witness Christ depends in a very serious and important way. Professing Christians are, in fact, the only Bible that the majority of unconverted people read. You see, then, how much depends upon the testimony of our lives. Let Christ Himself be seen in them--let them exhibit the magnetic power of the Cross--let them manifest His spirit, His love, His deep compassion for men in their misery, and His readiness to help and save them, and through them, without word or deed, prejudice will be melted down, hatred will be subdued, and men and women will be won to light and love.

2. Let me now call attention to another department of testimony which belongs to every one of us--the witness of personal experience. You call yourself a Christian. What is Christ to you? Is He to you a real Saviour, Brother, Helper, and Comforter? You need no eloquence, no genius, no intellectual grasp of the doctrinal side of Christian truth, to go to a brother and say, I have found Christ to be the Bread of Life to my soul, will you not help yourself? You need nothing, except honesty and experience. If you have these, go and bear witness. And then, still further, let me remind you that if, having the facts to attest, you can go, you ought to go. You are under an obligation to make known to others what Christ has done for your soul. You have received His grace that you may share it with others, and not that you may go by yourselves into a solitary heaven.

II. The power which the witnesses need for their work. They need such power as is received in splendid measure, when the heart is opened widely to receive the Holy Spirit, when His presence is prized and enjoyed, and dutys commands are joyfully fulfilled. The apostles needed this power. No doubt they were new creatures in Christ. They loved and served Him. But if you consider the mistakes that they made regarding Christs kingdom, their prejudices, their fears, the shock which they had received, and the panic into which they had been thrown by Christs death, you will admit that they were not fit, as they afterwards were, to found the Church. Ye shall receive power, and power did they receive. For, mark that strong unwavering faith which lifted them out of the dark valley of speculation and doubt, and so laid hold of the truth to which they were testifying that it possessed their souls and controlled their lives. Mark that growing love to Christ which kindled the flame of holy devotion in their hearts, and made them forget themselves in their daily efforts to exalt and honour Him. Mark their enthusiasm for Him and His cause, their splendid courage, their loyalty to truth, and that singleness of purpose which governed all their thoughts and actions. The power which the first witnesses needed is just the power we need today. Is it possible to deny this? Many hard things are said against the Christianity of the present day, with which I have no sympathy, but I fear this much must be granted, that it is sadly lacking in power. Its vital truths are accepted by many who do not practise what they profess to believe. Men go over the points of their faith, and having assured themselves that they are sound, they never trouble themselves with the question, What does it all come to in the matter of character? They believe only in a kind of way, for men believe truly only what they practise. Is it not a sad fact that there is so much of that Christianity among us that does not shine with the beauty of holiness--that never attempts a great achievement, that has no emotions to express, and that allows men and women to live without caring a broken straw for the soul of anybody? If it is--and you know it it--do we not need a baptism of the Holy Spirit? Let Him enter our hearts as the Spirit of power, and then shall we not only bear witness for our exalted Lord, but be His witnesses. We shall be what every Christian is meant to be--the strongest argument for Christ that exists. By being what Christ was, and by doing what Christ did, we shall bear witness to the fact that He lives and reigns in the hearts of men and women whom He has redeemed by His blood. (James Cameron, M. A.)

Witnesses for Christ

I. Our Lord Himself is the glorious reality to which His servants are to bear their witness. Witnesses unto Me! Others might witness to My miracles, they were wrought in the face of day; others might repeat My discourses, spoken in the temple, and you, in witnessing to Me, will witness to them likewise; but they are but the rays which proceed from Myself, and it is to this and to all that this implies, that I bid you witness. Contrast this with what we should expect from a great man. We should expect him to tell us that his endowments or achievements were the unmerited gift of heaven. If he should claim honour for himself, then our good opinion would be outraged, and we should proclaim him unworthy of His greatness. Our Lord defies this rule and the conscience of mankind justifies Him in defying it. He who could say, Which of you convinceth Me of sin? I and the Father are one, could truly feel that it was impossible for Him to eclipse any higher greatness by drawing attention to Himself. His words and works were His own. As God, He was the author of the gifts which He received as Man. And therefore He thought it not robbery to draw the eyes of men away from the miracles and words to Himself, who gave their greatness to both.

II. How can we bear witness to a person? We can witness to that which we know, a miracle or sermon; but how can we know so impalpable a thing as a person? especially how can we witness to a superhuman person?

1. But let me ask, can we be witnesses to each other? Yes, for we can know each other. Not merely the form and colour of the body or features, but that which gives to features and to form their interest, the soul. We cannot, indeed, see the soul with the eye of the body. But with the eye of the mind we can see it, and form a very clear conception of it, which we call character.

(1) When a man speaks, we read in his language, in its very accent, the movement of an undying spirit, the strength or weakness of an understanding, the warmth of a heart, the vigour or feebleness of a will.

(2) And as through language the soul speaks to the ear of man, so by action the soul addresses itself to the eye of man. When a man acts, specially under circumstances of responsibility or of difficulty, then his true passions, capacities, littlenesses, greatness, come to the surface.

(3) Once more, the soul is too active and imperious a tenant not to leave its mark upon the texture of the body, which it has inhabited for a term of years. Every human face, not less by its reserves than by its disclosures, records the play of thought and passion within a subtle immaterial spirit. Fear, joy, pride, lust, rage, sadness, shame, love, patience, each by reiterated throbs leaves its mark upon the flesh, till at length the soul has moulded the ductile matter, so that it shall truly portray its tale of baseness or of beauty.

2. Now in Jesus Christ, God made use of this provision to enter into communion with His creatures. Reason may discover Gods existence and attributes, and under favourable conditions may attain to a cold and partial appreciation of His glory. But to reason, unaided by Revelation outside the soul, and by grace within it, God must ever seem abstract and remote. Therefore, that He might embrace His fallen creatures with a revelation of His beauty, the Most High robed Himself in a human body and a human soul. The thoughtful Gentile might have learnt something concerning Him in the natural world; the devout Jew might have read more of His true character in the Mosaic law; but a living personal revelation of what He is was reserved for the faith of Christendom. There are strangers, alas! to our faith, who yet confess that in the Gospels they encounter a form of unapproached grace and power. In the last age infidel writers like Diderot and Rousseau challenged the sceptics of the time, in language which has since become classical, to match, if they could, the moral beauty of the gospel. For in the gospel we meet with one who in His pre-eminent humanity is perfectly one with us, yet also most mysteriously distinct. So rare and refined is His type of manhood, He escapes the peculiarities of either sex. He is tied to no one form of human existence, yet adapt that Himself to all. He is born in extreme poverty, yet He has no grudge against wealth: He is claimed as their representative, by Geeek and Roman, and African and Teuton, no less truly than by the children of His people. No class professional, or national prejudice has lelt its taint upon that ideal Form, so as to make it less than representative of pure humanity. Yet, so far is He from being a cold, passionless statue, divested of all interests, strictly human, that there is a warmth and vividness in His character which none who have truly love or wept can fail to understand and to embrace. He hates evil, and denounces it; but He is never betrayed into an unbalanced statement; Herod does not make Him a revolutionist, nor the Pharisees an Antinomian. His triumphs cannot disturb, and His humiliations do but enhance the serene, self-possession of His soul. Well might we surmise that such a character as this was more than human. We know ourselves too well to suppose that human nature would conceive the full idea, much less that it could create the reality. Even to the Roman officer the truth revealed itself. Truly this was the Son of God. Nay, Jesus Himself used language which no intimacy between God and holy souls would warrant if it were not literally true. Either we must resign that vision of beauty which we meet in the character of Jesus as an untrustworthy phantom, since it is dashed with a pretension involving at once falsehood and blasphemy, or we must confess that Jesus is Divine. Jesus is God; and in His acts, words, and very physiognomy the Apostles came face to face with the Perfect Being of beings. He had taken our nature as an instrument through which to act upon us, but also as an interpreter who should translate His own matchless perfections into audible words and visible actions (1Jn_1:1-3). An enthusiasm, of which the object is merely human, must pass away, since its object is necessarily transient and imperfect. As you sit with the ashes of Wellington beneath your feet, you little dream of the warmth with which Englishmen named their great general on the morrow of Waterloo. One only has succeeded in creating an impression, which is as fresh in the hearts and thoughts of His true disciples at this moment as it was eighteen centuries ago; and as we listen to His words, and watch His actions, and almost seem to gaze on His face, irradiated with superhuman beauty in the pages of the Gospels we feel that He, as none other, had a right to say to unborn generations, Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.

III. Is there anything in our conduct, or our words, that really bears witness to the Saviour? Or are we living, speaking, feeling, acting, thinking, much as we might have done if He had never brightened our existence. Or are we bearing Him what our conscience tells us is a partial witness; a witness of language but not of conduct; a witness which attests those features of His work and doctrine which we prefer, rather than all that we know or might know about Him? This witness is the debt which all Christians owe to Christ. No class, or sex, or disposition, or age, or race can claim exemption. We cannot delegate it to our clergy. It is not merely that we are bound to witness to Him. If we are living Christian lives, we cannot help doing so. Be Christians indeed, and you will forthwith witness for Jesus--you who are at the summits of society, and you who are at its base; you who teach, and you who learn; you who command, and you who obey. In the lower and feeble sense they who practise the natural virtues, witness to Him, who is the source of all goodness. And thus courage under difficulties, and temperance amid self-indulgent livers, and justice truly observed between man and man, are forms of witness. They bear this witness who are in power, and who, renouncing selfish purposes, aim at the good of others. They too bear it, who have wealth, and who spend it not in perishing baubles, but in relieving bodily or spiritual suffering. Rut they, especially, who know our Lord in His pardoning mercy will hardly be content with a silent witness. For the disease which He heals is universal, and the efficacy of His cure is undoubted. The redemptive love of Jesus, like the sun in the heavens, is the inheritance of all who will come to have a share in it, and, as with the heart that love is believed in unto righteousness, so with the mouth confession of it is made unto salvation. (Canon Liddon.)

Christs witnesses

I. Our function as witnesses for Christ. In our courts of law a witness is pledged under oath to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and in our capacity of witnesses a similar obligation rests upon us. Our duty is to bear witness to what we know, and to all that we know of the facts of the gospel, as contained in Gods Word, and which we have verified by such means of verification as the nature of the case admits of--objective or subjective, as the case may be, external or internal evidence, which observation or experience supplies. With fancies, conjectures, speculations, or even matters of hearsay which we have not verified, we have as witnesses nothing to do. Our duty is to speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen. The effect of our testimony depends greatly on the certainty with which it is borne. We must speak with the accent of conviction if men are to be convinced and converted and saved.

II. The sphere in which we are to perform our functions: both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. According to this it is manifest that whatever may be our testimony, there is no country, or province, or city, or locality in which it can possibly be borne, from which it can be intentionally withheld, or by arrangement, or compact, even temporarily suppressed. We may, of course, use discretion as to the localities in which it should first be borne. Being unable to enter every field at once, we may, as wise men, give our first and chief attention to that in which as a whole it is most required. But we cannot, in loyalty to our Lord, consent that men, in any locality, should either arbitrarily or to suit the convenience of parties be left in ignorance of it.

III. The testimony we have to bear. This consists of all that the Lord hath made known to us--the things we have seen and heard and verified. The most important part of our testimony is not that on which we differ from our fellow-Christians, but that which relates to the Divine feelings towards sinful men; and to that we ought to give the first and most prominent place. There is a fulness of meaning in the gospel which we have not unfolded yet--a note of music in it more capable of charming the ear than has ever yet been heard--a power to thrill the hearts of men such as has never yet been felt.

IV. The endowment which fits us for our work. Ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is come upon you. It is by the light the Divine Spirit supplies that we know what part of our testimony is most required. It is the firm conviction He imparts that gives authority and persuasiveness to our word. The whirlwind spreads devastation, the thunder shakes the sphere, the earthquake convulses and overthrows; but it is through the still small voice that the power of God enters the soul of the derelict prophet, and produces a mighty and beneficent revolution. (W. Landels, D. D.)

The witness-bearing injured by inconsistencies

A train is said to have been stopped by flies in the grease-boxes of the carriage-wheels. The analogy is perfect; a man, in all other respects fitted to be useful, may by some small defect be exceedingly hindered, or even rendered utterly useless. It is a terrible thing when the healing balm loses its efficacy through the blunderer who administers it. You all know the injurious effects frequently produced upon water flowing along leaden pipes; even so the gospel itself, in flowing through men who are spiritually unhealthy, may be debased until it grows injurious to their hearers. We may be great quoters of elegant poetry, and mighty retailers of second-hand wind-bags; but we shall be like Nero of old, fiddling while Rome was burning, and sending vessels to Alexandria to fetch sand for the arena while the populace starved for want of corn. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Noble witnesses for Christ

Two brave boys in Armenia, at Hoghe, near the supposed site of the old Garden of Eden, attended the Mission School there, and became Christians. Being anxious for the conversion of others, they organised with other converts what they called a Home Missionary Society. All who were members went from house to house to read the Bible to the people, and tell them of the way of salvation. These two boys, though only fourteen years old, said Why should we labour in our own village merely? Why not go on a foreign mission? So taking their Testaments, they started one Sabbath morning for the village of Ghoorbet Mezereh, about two miles distant, to preach. On entering the village they met a company of Mohammedan Turks, who decided to try the courage of these Christians, and said to them, Well, boys, who is Jesus? He is a prophet of God, they replied. But when they were returning home, they were both troubled because they felt they should have confessed Him to be the Son of God. So kneeling down, they asked the Lord Jesus for courage to confess Him, and they went back to do so. On re-entering the village they found the Turks still assembled, and they asked, Boys, why have you come back? We have come back, they replied, to confess our Saviour. We told you He is a prophet of God. He is so, and more; He is the Son of God, and the only Saviour of men. The followers of the false prophet respected their courage, and were not displeased; and the boys returned home with light hearts.

Christianity a living witness

Christianity in the books is like seed in the granary, dry and all but dead. It is not written but living characters that are to convert the infidel. (D. Thomas.)

Religion an effective witness

Lord Peterborough, speaking on one occasion of the celebrated Fenelon, observed: He is a delicate creature. I was forced to get away from him as fast as I could, else he would have made me pious. Would to God that all of us had such an influence over godless men! Some one has said that it is not so much the words as it is the Acts of the Apostles that convince us of the truth of the gospel.

The life the best sermon

I would not give much for your religion unless it can be seen. Lamps do not talk, but they shine. A lighthouse sounds no drums; it beats no gong; and yet far over the waters its friendly spark is seen by the mariner. So let your actions shine out your religion. Let the main sermon of your life be illustrated by all your conduct, and it shall not fail to be illustrious. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Experimental witness-bearing

A report of a report is a cold thing and of small value; but a report of what we have witnessed and experience d ourselves comes warmly upon mens hearts. So a mere formal description of faith and its blessings falls flat on the ear; but when a sincere believer tells of his own experience of the Lords faithfulness, it has a great charm about it. We like to hear the narrative of a journey from the traveller himself. In a court of law they will have no hearsay evidence. Tell us, says the judge, not what your neighbour said, but what you saw yourself. Personal evidence of the power of grace has a wonderfully convincing force upon the conscience. I sought the Lord, and He heard me, is better argument than all the Butlers Analogies that will ever be written, good as they are in their place.

The witness of a good life

Faith that is lived is what gives efficacy to faith professed. Rev. Dr. Deems is accustomed to relate some feeling incident before the first hymn in church, on Sunday morning. Recently he told this: A Christian man one day said to a friend, Under whose preaching were you converted? Nobodys, was the answer; it was under my aunts practising. He then made an earnest appeal to aunts to examine their characters and lives, to see if these contained converting power.

Witnessing for Christ

Witness Christ, means nothing if it be not a witness to righteousness of life. It was the glorious function of ancient Israel to be a witness to righteousness. She was incomparably less brilliant than Greece; she was feebleness itself compared with Rome; she was a lamb in the midst of wolves compared with the fierce nations of Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt, pressing round her on every side. Why was she nevertheless greater and more enduring than the mightiest of them? It was by virtue of her conduct. And the Church has borne this witness for righteousness before kings and not been ashamed. As Nathan witnessed before David, and John before Herod, so did Paul before Felix, and Athanasius before Constantine, and Ambrose when he drove Theodosius back from the Cathedral-gates of Milan because he came with his hand red from the massacre of Thessalonica. So did Savonarola when he refused to absolve Lorenzo de Medici on his death-bed unless he set Florence free; so did John Hues when he called up the burning hue of shame upon the cheek of the perjured Sigismund; so did Luther when he faced kings and cardinals at Worms; so did Massillon when he made Louis XIV. wince before his warnings; so did Kerr when he rejected the command of Charles II. to receive Nell Gwynne at Winchester; so did the London clergy when they refused to read in their churches the treacherous edict of James II.; so did the Court chaplain when he openly rebuked Frederick William I. on his death-bed. No age can do without the Churchs witness for righteousness; certainly not in ours, and the Church will fail of her duty in her witness for Christ if she do not rebuke the startling inadequacy of charity, the selfish accumulation of wealth, the ostentatious luxury of fashion, the heartless indifference of middle-class prosperity, the fulsome development Of puffery, the widespread of gambling, the adulterations of manufacturers, the scandal mongering of society, the intrigues of religious parties, the curse of drink. Oh, let the Church denounce these works of the world, the flesh, and the devil in no timid half utterance: let her not fight with graceful sham blows which only beat the air! are there no owners of rotting houses to be branded with the infamy they deserve? Are there no sweaters dens to be purified, and the owners of them taught what a curse are ill-gotten riches? Are there no reeking hells of vice to be torn out of the greedy hands of rich oppressors? Salt is good; but if the salt hath lost its savour, etc. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Witnessing for Christ

While Colonel Wilayat, an English officer who used to preach at Delhi, was speaking, a number of Sepoys on horseback rode up to his house, and knowing him to be a Christian, said, Repeat the Mohammedan creed, or we will shoot you. But he would not deny his Lord. Tell us what you are said one. I am a Christian, and a Christian I will live and die. They dragged him along the ground, beating him about the head and face with their shoes. Not being soldiers, they had no swords. Now preach Christ to us, some one cried out in mocking tones. Others said, Turn to Mohammed, and we will let you go. No, I never never will! the faithful martyr cried; my Saviour took up His Cross and went to God, and I will lay down my life and go to Him. The scorching rays of the sun were beating on the poor sufferers head. With a laugh one of the wretches exclaimed, I suppose you would like some water. I do not want water, replied the martyr. When my Saviour was dying He had nothing but vinegar mingled with gall. But do not keep me in this pain. If you mean to kill me, do so at once. Another Sepoy coming up, lifted his sword; the martyr called aloud, Jesus, receive my spirit! and with one stroke his head was nearly cut off.

Witnessing for Christ

It became the most sacred duty of a new convert (among the early Christians)to diffuse among his friends and relations the inestimable blessing which he had received, and to warn them against a refusal that would be severely punished as a criminal disobedience to the will of a benevolent but all- powerful Deity. (T. Gibbon.)

Christian witness

The sweet gospel singer, Mr. Peter Bilhorn, of Chicago, who was at one time a well-known saloon concert singer, was passing by a gospel service a few years ago. When he came opposite to the gathering of Christians, the testimony of a young man, Christ saves the worst of sinners, fastened itself on his heart, and led him to Christ. He never saw the young man afterward--never has been able to find him, but his words so came home to him that he changed his course, and is now devoting his life to Gods service. Oh! the power of a life that is not ashamed to make Christ known to the world! How beautiful the feet of them that never tire of witnessing before the world the riches of eternal life in Christ Jesus! What glory awaits the soul that daily walks so near to Christ that others see Christ through him!

The witness of the Church, its importance

Christ was about to be seen no more among men. What memorial had He left? The kings of Egypt built mighty pyramids to immortalise their fame. Those of Assyria have left on chiselled column and even on the bold sides of their native cliffs the hieroglyphics that should commemorate their wonderful deeds. The Roman emperors have bequeathed to us triumphal arches which even now bring before us the splendour of their victories. But Christ left no such memorial. He did not commit a single line to writing. His only record in Scripture is the one He traced with His finger upon the sand. He left no parchment, pillar, pyramid, arch, or temple. On that farewell day He was without the slightest trace of a record, except that written on the heart of His disciples. Whatever impression therefore He was to make upon the world depended on the courage and fidelity of these men. If they had given one uncertain sound, oblivion would have settled like a pall upon Gethsemane, Calvary, and Olivet. They were the one living link between Christ and the world He came to save. And it is so still. Christ is not here. We have, it is true, the printed witness of the apostles; but the world does not get its ideas of Christ and Christianity from that, but from the living testimony of professing Christians. How important then the function of the humblest! He is Christs representative and memorial before men. (H. Pedley, M. A.)

Our vocation

I. With its glory--Witnesses of the exalted King.

II. With its lowliness--Witnesses nothing of and for ourselves.

III. With its sufferings--Witnesses of the Lord in a hostile world.

IV. With its promises--Strength from above. (J. P. Lunge, D. D.)

Both in Jerusalem.--

Witnessing in Jerusalem

A difficult service was to be performed in Jerusalem that day. Had it been desired to find a man in London who would go down to Whitehall a few weeks after Charles was beheaded, and, addressing Cromwells soldiers, endeavour to persuade them that he whom they had executed was not only a king and a good one, but a prophet of God, and that, therefore, they had been guilty of more than regicide--of sacrilege: although England had brave men then, it may be questioned whether any one could have been found to bear such a message to that audience. The service which had then to be performed in Jerusalem was similar to this. (W. Arthur, M. A.)

Our sphere

There is also for us a Jerusalem, a Judaea, a Samaria, if not an uttermost part of the earth--some well-dressed city with its ragged fringe of want and wickedness, some country district with its neglected families, some sophisticated brain that has gone astray from the old standards at home of the faith and set up its Gerizim rivalry--some that you can minister to by your charity, and win back by your witnessing, if that witnessing is only as zealous as Peters and as patient as Pauls, and as loving as Johns. (Bp. Huntington.)

Apostolic missions: their order

Jerusalem, the place of the reception of the Spirit, was also to be the place where the witness of the Spirit commences; and in the land of promise was the promise, the fulness of spiritual blessing to find its first native soil. Samaria, the mission field white for harvest (Joh_4:35), our Lord mentions as the middle station between Judaea and the land of the Gentiles; and the end of the earth was Rome, for there all nations were united in the capital of the world. We shall find that the order of the history perfectly corresponds with the order of testimony. Jerusalem (chaps. 1.-7.); Judaea (9-12.); Samaria (8.); the world (13 to end). (R. Besser, D. D.)

Apostolic missions: their evidential value

How came these humble and hated persons, these slaves and artisans, these unlearned and ignorant men to get the start of the majestic world, and bear the palm alone? How came it that the:greatest, the most advanced, the splendid and prominent races of the whole world have, one after another, embraced Christianity? How comes it that at this very moment one out of every four of the one hundred thousand millions of human beings is a professing Christian? Securus judicat orbis terrarium. Is the world so silly, is all its best intellect so anile, is the genius of humanity so wretched a fool as to be duped by a mere fraud and illusion preached by wandering beggars, blindly to embrace with all its heart, to enshrine in its stateliest temples, to enrich with its most splendid offerings, to set forth in its most brilliant hues of imagination and intellect, a faith so intrinsically feeble that after nineteen centuries of beneficent victory it can only tumble down like a pack of cards at the touch of any smart declaimer who chooses to say it is a lie? Because it was a truth and no lie. We have been well reminded that the babes and striplings of the world prevailed over the serried army of emperors, aristocracies, statesmen, institutions. Is this solemn voice of the ages, is this cogent mass of human testimony to go for nothing? Is it nothing that Christianity has prevailed over the banded union of the powers of evil, and that even in spite of the corruptions which have gathered round it; in spite of the crimes, negligences, and ignorances of its own professing followers that it should still triumph and prevail. I say that if Christianity be a lie, then everything and all human life is a lie, and the pillared firmament is rottenness, and the earths base built on stubble. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Missionary work commanded

During the American war, a regiment received orders to plant some heavy guns on the top of a steep hill. The soldiers dragged them to the base of the hill, but were unable to get them farther. An officer, learning the state of affairs, cried, Men! it must be done! I have the orders in my pocket. So the Church has orders to disciple the world.

Love first to fall on objects near and then to diffuse itself

As radii in a circle are closest near the centre, and towards the circumference lie more widely apart, the affections of a human heart do and should fall thickest on those who are nearest. Expressly on this principle the Christian mission was instituted at first. Love in the heart of the first disciples was recognised, by Him who kindled it, to be of the nature of fire or light. He did not expect it to fall on distant places without first passing through intermediate space. From Jerusalem, at His command and under the Spirits ministry, it radiated through Judsea, and from Judsea to Samaria, and thence to the ends of the earth. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

The Church engaged in the renovation of the world

The Church must grope her way into the alleys and courts and purlieus of the city, and up the broken staircase, and into the bar-room, and beside the loathsome sufferer. She must go down into the pit with the miner; into the forecastle with the sailor; into the tent with the soldier; into the shop with the mechanic; into the factory with the operative; into the field with the farmer, into the counting-room with the merchant. Like the air, the Church must press equally ,on all surfaces of society; like the sea, flow into every nook of the shore-line of humanity, and like the sun, shine on things foul and low, as well as fair and high; for she was organised, commissioned, and equipped for the moral renovation of the world. (Bishop Simpson.)

Kingdom of Christ: more permanent than earthly kingdoms

I shall soon be in my grave. Such is the fate of great men. So it was with the Caesars and Alexander. And I, too, am forgotten; and the Marengo conqueror and emperor is a college theme. My exploits are tasks given to pupils by their tutor, who sit in judgment over me. I die before my time; and my dead body, too, must return to the earth, and become food for worms. Behold the destiny now at hand of him who has been called the great Napoleon! What an abyss between my great misery and the eternal reign of Christ, who is proclaimed, loved, and adored, and whose kingdom is extending over all the earth! (Napoleon I.)

Evangelism a law of self-preservation

Evangelism is not merely a work of love. It is the sheer law of self-preservation. The heathenism which is creeping along the fences of society is scattering its seeds on both sides. As we love our neighbour, we must try to do him good; but if we love only ourselves and our homes, we must be at work to make the world better. If Christians do not make the world better, the world will surely make the Church worse. (C. H. Fowler.)

The heathen may reach heaven without the gospel, but better with it

A man may make his way across the Atlantic in a skiff, for all I know, but if you are intending to cross the sea, take my advice, and secure passage in a first-class steamer, and you will be more likely to get there. So it is with these heathen millions. I do not know but some of them may drift, and we shall find them in the city of God. But I do know that by giving them the gospel, by building up and supporting among them a Christian Church, we shall greatly multiply their chances of heaven. (C. H. Fowler.)

A good man seeks to make others good

A good man is always seeking to make others good, as fire turneth all things about it into fire. You cannot make fire stay where it is; it will spread as opportunity serves it. It will subdue all its surroundings to itself. Carlyle says that man is emphatically a proselytising creature, and assuredly the new creature is such. Life grows, and so invades the regions of death, and spiritual life is most of all intense in its growing and spreading. Liberty to hold our opinions but not to spread them is no liberty: for one of our main opinions is, that we should bring all around us to Jesus and to obedience to the truth. Lord, help us ever to be doing this, subduing the earth for Thee by spreading OH all sides the name of Jesus! Let our life burn till the whole world is on a blaze.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:8 This key verse outlines the geographical extension of the Good News from its Jewish starting point in Jerusalem and Judea (1:6–8:1), out to Samaria (8:4-25), Antioch in Syria (11:19-30), and eventually throughout the Mediterranean world to Rome (13:1–28:31). Christ later gave a similar call to be his witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth to Saul of Tarsus (9:15), who had persecuted the Jewish Christians and then became the primary instrument for taking the Good News to the Gentiles. • The Holy Spirit was the source of power for all this evangelistic and missionary effort.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act 1:8. Ἀλλὰ, but) The antithesis is between that which was the part of the disciples, or was not: as also between that which was about to be at that time, and that which was reserved for farther off times.—μάρτυρες, witnesses) by your teaching, and by shedding your blood as martyrs: it is not said. Ye shall be kings of the world; although the kingdom of GOD shall be propagated by that very testimony.—Ἱερουσαλὴμ—γῆς, Jerusalem—the earth) A gradation or ascending climax. See, for instance, the successive steps, ch. Act 8:1; Act 8:4-5; Act 8:27.—Σαμαρείᾳ, Samaria) They had heretofore been hound [Mat 10:5-6] not to enter the cities of the Samaritans. Without a doubt this now seemed strange to the apostles.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 1:8 . ἔσεσθέ μου μάρτυρες , “my witnesses,” R.V., reading μου instead of μοι , not only witnesses to the facts of their Lord’s life, cf. Act 1:22 , Act 10:39 , but also His witnesses, His by a direct personal relationship; Luk 24:48 simply speaks of a testimony to the facts. ἔν τε Ἱερουσαλὴμ κ . τ . λ .: St. Luke on other occasions, as here, distinguishes Jerusalem as a district separate from all the rest of Judæa ( cf. Luk 5:17 , Act 10:39 ), a proof of intimate acquaintance with the Rabbinical phraseology of the time, according to Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life , pp. 17, 73. In this verse, see Introduction , the keynote is struck of the contents of the whole book, and the great divisions of the Acts are marked, see, e.g. , Blass, p. 12 in Prologue to Acts Jerusalem, 1 7; Judæa, Act 9:32 ; Act 12:19 ; Samaria, 8; and if it appears somewhat strained to see in St. Paul’s preaching in Rome a witness to “the utmost parts of the earth,” it is noteworthy that in Psalms of Solomon , Act 8:16 , we read of Pompey that he came ἀπʼ ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς , i.e. , Rome the same phrase as in Act 1:8 . This verse affords a good illustration of the subjective element which characterises the partition theories of Spitta, Jüngst, Clemen and others. Spitta would omit the whole verse from his sources A and , and considers it as an interpolation by the author of Acts; but, as Hilgenfeld points out, the verse is entirely in its place, and it forms the best answer to the “particularism” of the disciples, from which their question in Act 1:6 shows that they were not yet free. Feine would omit the words ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς because nothing in the conduct of the early Church, as it is described to us in the Jewish-Christian source, Acts 1-12, points to any knowledge of such a commission from the Risen Christ. Jüngst disagrees with both Spitta and Feine, and thinks that the hand of the redactor is visible in prominence given to the little Samaria.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

receive power--See Luk 24:49.

and ye shall be witnesses unto me . . . in Jerusalem . . . in all Judea . . . and unto the uttermost part of the earth--This order of apostolic preaching and success supplies the proper key to the plan of the Acts, which relates first the progress of the Gospel "in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria" (the first through ninth chapters), and then "unto the uttermost part of the earth" (the tenth through twenty-eighth chapters).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. But ye shall receive power] ληψεσθε δυναμιν. Translating different terms of the original by the same English word is a source of misapprehension and error. We must not understand δυναμις which we translate power in this verse, as we do εξουσια, translated by the same word in the preceding verse. In the one, God's infinite authority over all times and seasons, and his uncompellable liberty of acting or not acting in any given case, are particularly pointed out: in the other, the energy communicated by him to his disciples, through which they were enabled to work miracles, is particularly intended; and δυναμις, in general, signifies such power, and is sometimes put for that of which it is the cause, viz. a miracle. See Mt 7:22; Mt 11:20-23; Mt 13:54, Mt 13:58; Mr 6:5; Lu 10:13; and Ac 2:22. The disciples were to be made instruments in the establishment of the kingdom of Christ; but this must be by the energy of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; nevertheless, this energy would be given in such times and seasons, and in such measures, as should appear best to the infinite wisdom of God. Christ does not immediately answer the question of the disciples, as it was a point savouring too much of mere curiosity; but he gave them such information as was calculated to bring both their faith and hope into action. St. Chrysostom has well observed, "that it is the prerogative of an instructer to teach his disciple, not what he wishes to learn, but what his master sees best for him:" Διδασκαλου τουτο εστι μη ἁ βουλεται ὁ μαθητης, αλλ' ἁ συμφερει μαθειν, διδασκειν.

Ye shall be witnesses - in all Judea, c.] Though the word earth, η γη, is often used to denote Judea alone, yet here, it is probable, it is to be taken in its largest extent. All the inhabitants of the globe might at that period be considered divisible into three classes.

1. The JEWS, who adhered to the law of Moses, and the prophetic writings, worshipping the true God only, and keeping up the temple service, as prescribed in their law.

2. The SAMARITANS, a mongrel people, who worshipped the God of Israel in connection with other gods, 2Kg 17:5, &c., and who had no kind of religious connection with the Jews. See on Mt 10:5. And,

3. The GENTILES, the heathens through all other parts of the world, who were addicted to idolatry alone, and had no knowledge of the true God. By the terms in the text we may see the extent to which this commission of instruction and salvation was designed to reach: to the Jews to the Samaritans, and the uttermost part of the earth, i.e. to the Gentile nations, thus, to the whole human race the Gospel of the kingdom was to be proclaimed. When the twelve disciples were sent out to preach, Mt 10:5, their commission was very limited-they were not to go in the way of the Gentiles, nor enter into any city of the Samaritans, but preach the Gospel to the lost sheep of the house of Israel: but here their commission is enlarged, for they are to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. See Mt 28:18.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. You shall receive power. Our Savior Christ doth here call them back as well unto the promise of God as also unto his commandment, which was the readiest way to bridle their curiosity. Curiosity doth rise almost always either of idleness or else of distrust; distrust is cured by meditating upon the promises of God. And his commandments do tell us how we ought to occupy ourselves and employ our studies. Therefore, he commandeth his disciples to wait for the promise of God, and to be diligent in executing their office whereunto God had called them. And in the mean season he noteth their great hastiness, in that they did preposterously catch at those gifts which were proper unto the Holy Spirit, when as they were not as yet endued with the same. Neither did they take the right way herein, in that being called to go on warfare, they desire (omitting their labor) to lake their ease in their inn. Therefore, when he saith, you shall receive power, he admonisheth them of their imbecility, lest they follow before the time those things whereunto they cannot attain. It may be read very well either way, You shall receive the power of the Spirit; or, The Spirit coming upon you; yet the latter way seemeth to be the better, because it doth more fully declare their defect trod want, until such time as the Spirit should come upon them.

You shall be my witnesses He correcteth two errors of theirs in this one sentence. For, first, he showeth that they must fight before they can triumph; and, secondly, that the nature of Christ’s kingdom was of another sort than they judged it to have been. Therefore, saith he, You shall be my witnesses; that is, the husbandman must first work before he can reap his fruits. Hence, nay we learn that we must first study how we may come unto the kingdom of God, before we begin to dispute about the state of the life to come. Many there be which do curiously inquire what manner [of] blessedness that shall be which they shall enjoy after they shall be received into the everlasting kingdom of heaven, not having any care how they may come to enjoy the same. They reason concerning the quality of the life to come, which they shall have with Christ; but they never think that they must be partakers of his death, that they may live together with him, (2 Timothy 2:11.) Let every man, therefore, apply himself in his work which he hath in hand; let us fight stoutly under Christ’s banner; let us go forward manfully and courageously in our vocation, and God will give fruit in due time (and tide.) There followeth another correction, when he saith, that they must be his witnesses. For hereby he meant to drive out of his disciples’ minds that fond and false imagination which they had conceived of the terrestrial kingdom, because he showeth unto them briefly, that his kingdom consisteth in the preaching of the gospel. There was no cause, therefore, why they should dream of riches, of external principality, or any other earthly thing, whilst they heard that Christ did then reign when as he subdueth unto himself (all the whole) world by the preaching of the gospel. Whereupon it followeth that he doth reign spiritually, and not after any worldly manner. And that which the apostles had conceived of the carnal kingdom proceeded from the common error of their nation; neither was it marvel if they were deceived herein. For when we measure the same with our understanding, what else can we conceive but that which is gross and terrestrial? Hereupon it cometh, that, like brute beasts, we only desire that which is commodious for our flesh, and therefore we rather catch that which is present. Wherefore, we see that those which held opinion, that Christ should reign as a king in this world a thousand years fell into the like folly. Hereupon, also, they applied all such prophecies as did describe the kingdom of Christ figuratively by the similitude of earthly kingdoms unto the commodity of their flesh; whereas, notwithstanding, it was God’s purpose to lift up their minds higher. As for us, let us learn to apply our minds to hear the gospel preached, lest we be entangled in like errors, which prepareth a place in our hearts for the kingdom of Christ.

In all Judea Here he showeth, first, that they must not work for the space of one day only, while that he assigneth the whole world unto them, in which they must publish the doctrine of the gospel. Furthermore, he refuteth the opinion which they had conceived of Israel. They supposed those to be Israelites only which were of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh. Christ testifieth that they must gather thereunto all Samaria; which, although they were nigh in situation, yet were they far distant in mind and heart. He showeth that all other regions far distant, and also profane, must be united unto the holy people, that they may be all partakers of one and the same grace. It is evident (John 4:9) how greatly the Jews did detest the Samaritans. Christ commanded that (the wall of separation being broken down) they be both made one body, (Ephesians 2:14,) that his kingdom may be erected everywhere. By naming Judea and Jerusalem, which the apostles had tried to be full of most deadly enemies, he foretelleth them of the great business and trouble which was prepared for them, that he may cause them to cease to think upon this triumph which they hoped to have been so nigh at hand. Neither could they be a little afraid to come before so cruel enemies, more to inflame their rage and fury. And here we see how he giveth the former place unto the Jews, because they are, as it were, the first-begotten, (Exodus 4:22.) Notwithstanding, he calleth those Gentiles one with another, which were before strangers from the hope of salvation, (Ephesians 2:11.) Hereby we learn, that the gospel was preached everywhere by the manifest commandment of Christ, that it might also come unto us.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) But ye shall receive power.—The use of the same English noun for two different Greek words is misleading, but if “authority” be used in Act_1:7 then “power” is an adequate rendering here. The consciousness of a new faculty of thought and speech would be to them a proof that the promise of the Kingdom had not failed.

Ye shall be witnesses unto me.—The words, which are apparently identical with those of Luk_24:48, strike the key-note of the whole book. Those which follow correspond to the great divisions of the Acts—Jerusalem, Acts 1, 7; Judæa, 9:32, 12:19; Samaria, 8; and the rest of the book as opening the wider record of the witness borne “to the uttermost parts of the earth.” And this witness was two-fold: (1) of the works, the teachings, and, above all, of the Resurrection of Jesus; (2) of the purpose of the Father as revealed in the Son. The witness was to be, in language which, though technical, is yet the truest expression of the fact, at once historical and dogmatic.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. ye shall receive power] Something different from the profitless speculations to which they had just desired an answer, even “a mouth and wisdom which their adversaries could neither gainsay nor resist” (Luk_21:15). Thus would they be enabled to become Christ’s witnesses.

in Jerusalem, and in all Judea] To which district all the ministrations of the Apostles were confined till the death of Stephen.

and in Samaria] Whither the first who went with authority was Philip, one of the seven (Act_8:5), and afterwards Peter and John.

and unto the uttermost part of the earth] Commenced by the preaching of Paul, Barnabas, Mark, Silas and Timothy, and regarded as placed on a secure footing when St Paul was once brought into the capital city of the world.

The writer keeps before him from first to last the promise contained in this verse, and leaves out of his narrative all that does not tend to illustrate its fulfilment. The work of every agent is followed so far as he is used to bring about this result and no farther. This will be noticed at each stage as we proceed, and it will be seen that it explains why among “Acts of Apostles” some works are included which were not carried on by Apostles, and why the histories of the chief agents are left incomplete.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But ye shall receive power,.... From on high, with which they were to be endured, Luk 24:49 meaning the power of the Holy Ghost, strength from him to preach the Gospel, and work miracles in confirmation of it, and courage and greatness of mind, amidst all reproaches and persecutions, to face and oppose their enemies, profess the name of Christ, abide by his truths and ordinances, make their way through all opposition and difficulties, and spread the Gospel all over the world; for intend of enjoying worldly ease, honour, wealth, and riches, they were looking for, our Lord gives them to understand that they must expect labour, service, afflictions, and trials, which would require power and strength, and which they should have:

after that the Holy Ghost shall come upon you; from above, from heaven, as he did, and sat upon them in the form of cloven tongues, and of fire; upon which they were filled with knowledge and zeal, with strength and courage, and with all gifts and abilities necessary for their work:

and ye shall be witnesses unto me; of the person of Christ, of his deity and sonship, of his incarnation, his ministry, and his miracles, of his suffering and death, of his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension to heaven. This was to be their work, and what belong to them, and not to enquire about a temporal kingdom, and the setting up of that, and the times and seasons of it; their business was to testify of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that followed, and to preach a crucified Jesus, as the only Saviour of lost sinners: and this

both in Jerusalem, the "metropolis" of the nation, and there, in the first place, where such dwelt who had been concerned in the crucifixion of Christ, many of whom were to be called by grace, and converted through their ministry:

and in all Judea; that part of the land of Israel which was distinct from Samaria and Galilee, and from beyond Jordan; where churches were to be planted, as afterwards they were; see Act 9:31.

And in Samaria; where Christ had before forbid his disciples to go; but now their commission is enlarged, and they are sent there; and here Philip went upon the persecution raised against the church at Jerusalem, and preached Christ with great success, to the conversion of many; and hither Peter and John went to lay their hands on them, and confirm them; see Act 8:5.

and unto the uttermost part of the earth; throughout the whole world, whither the sound of the apostles, and their words went, Rom 10:18.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Ver. 8. After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you] Montanus the heresiarch wickedly affirmed that, next unto the apostles, this Scripture was fulfilled upon him and his courtesan Philumena. (Beza in loc.) Prodigious blasphemy! And eiusdem farinae, a loaf of the same leaven it is, that the Turks believe that when Christ said that "although he departed, he would send the Comforter," it was added in the text, "And that shall be Mahomet;" but that the Christians in malice toward them have razed it out. (Abbot’s Geog.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But ye shall receive power ... - Literally, as it is translated in the margin, “Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you.” This was said to them to console them. Though they could not know the times which God reserved in his own appointment, yet they should receive the promised Guide and Comforter. The word “power” here refers to the help or aid which the Holy Spirit would grant; the power of speaking with new tongues; of preaching the gospel with great effect; of enduring great trials, etc. See Mar 16:17-18. The apostles had impatiently asked him if he was then about to restore the kingdom to Israel. Jesus by this answer rebuked their impatience, taught them to repress their ill-timed ardor; and assured them again of the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Ye shall be witnesses - For this purpose they were appointed; and to prepare them for this they had been with him for more that three years. They had seen his manner of life, his miracles, his meekness, his sufferings; they had listened to his instructions, and had conversed and eaten with him as a friend; they had seen him after he was risen, and were about to see him ascend to heaven; and they were thus qualified to bear witness to these things in all parts of the earth. Their number was so great that it could not be pretended that they were deceived; they had been so intimate with him and his plans that they were qualified to state what his doctrines and purposes were; and there was no motive but conviction of the truth that could induce them to make the sacrifices which they would be required to make in communicating these things to the world. In every respect, therefore, they were qualified to be impartial and competent witnesses. The original word here is μάρτυρες martures, martyrs. From this word the name martyrs has been given to those who suffered in times of persecution. The reason why this name was given to them was that they bore witness to the life, instructions, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, even in the midst of persecution and death. It is commonly supposed that nearly all of the apostles bore witness as martyrs in this sense to the truths of the Christian religion, but of this there is not clear proof. See Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 55, 56. Still the word here does not necessarily mean that they to whom this was addressed would be martyrs, or would be put to death in bearing witness to the Lord Jesus; but that they were everywhere to testify to what they knew of him. The fact that this was the design of their appointment, and that they actually bore such testimony, is abundantly confirmed in the Acts of the Apostles, Act 1:22; Act 5:32; Act 10:39, Act 10:42; Act 22:15.

In Jerusalem - In the capital of the nation. See Acts 2. The great work of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost occurred there. Most of the disciples remained in Jerusalem until the persecution that arose about the death of Stephen, Act 8:1, Act 8:4. The apostles remained there until Herod put James to death. Compare Act 8:1, with Act 12:1-2. This was about eight years. During this time, however, Paul was called to the apostleship, and Peter had preached the gospel to Cornelius, Philip to the eunuch, etc.

In all Judea - Judea was the southern division of the Holy Land, and included Jerusalem as the capital. See the notes on Mat 2:22.

And in Samaria - This was the middle portion of Palestine. See the notes at Mat 2:22. This was fulfilled by the disciples. See Act 8:1, “And they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria”; compare Act 1:4-5, “They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.” See also Act 1:14; Act 9:31.

And unto the uttermost part of the earth - The word “earth,” or “land,” is sometimes taken to denote only the land of Palestine. But here there does not seem to be a necessity for limiting it thus. If Christ had intended that, he would have mentioned Galilee, as being the only remaining division of the country. But as he had expressly directed them to preach the gospel to all nations, the expression here is clearly to be considered as including the Gentile lands as well as the Jewish. The evidence that they did this is found in the subsequent parts of this book, and in the history of the church. It was in this way that Jesus replied to their question. Though he did not tell them the time when it was to be done, nor affirm that he would restore the kingdom to Israel, yet he gave them an answer that implied that the work should advance - should advance much further than the land of Israel; and that they would have much to do in promoting it. All the commands of God, and all his communications, are such as to call up our energy, and teach us that we have much to do. The uttermost parts of the earth have been given to the Saviour Psa 2:8, and the church should not rest until he whose right it is shall come and reign, Eze 21:27.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; not till then, not of their own strength, but of God’s grace, as appeared by Peter’s denying and the others leaving of our Saviour.

And ye shall be witnesses unto me, that I am indeed the promised Messiah; and of my doctrine, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, which ye shall testify to all the world by your preaching and holy living, working miracles.

Both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria; places where your testimony shall be most opposed. These words are both a command, to tell the apostles what they ought to do, and a prediction of what they should be enabled to do.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. But—Although the kingdom of your carnal hopes should be dismissed from mind, yet ye shall receive power which shall be the very essence of the true kingdom. This power should be first personal. As the coming of the Spirit of the Lord (Jdg_14:6) strengthened the lower faculties of Samson so as to make him mighty in bodily vigour, so this coming of the Spirit should empower their higher faculties so as to render them Samsons in soul. The power should, secondly, be organic, giving them the visible head-ship in the theocracy; placing them upon the twelve thrones of viceroyalty in the kingdom. Mat_19:28. Such was to be the compensation in place of their vanishing visions of national restoration.

Witnesses—(See note on Act_1:21-22.)

Jerusalem… Judea… Samaria… earth—Like the ever widening circles of water into which a stone has dropped, the Gospel should from its original center include the whole earth in its circumference. These names trace the enlarging advances in beautiful climax. And so Jesus at the beginning designed a universal religion. This was his last testimony before his ascension.

Uttermost part—Parts as yet unknown to that age, which future geography was to reveal, and the Gospel of Christ to cover.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When for after that, A.V; my witnesses for witnesses unto me, A.V. and T.R.; Samaria for in Samaria, A.V. Ye shall receive power (dunamin); a word sped-ally used of the power of the Holy Spirit (see Luk_4:14; see too Act_24:4-9) "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power"; (Act_10:38) "Through the power of the Holy Ghost"; (Rom_15:13) "The demonstration of the Spirit and of power"; (1Co_2:4) Strengthened with might (dunamei) by his Spirit"; (Eph_3:16) "The powers of the world to come". (Heb_6:6) My witnesses. This function of the apostles, to be witnesses of Christ, is one much insisted upon in Scripture. So we read in ver. 22, "Of these must one become "be ordained," A.V a witness with us of his resurrection." So again in Act_10:40-42, "God showed him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us.... And he commanded us to testify," etc. (see also Vers. 39 and 42 of the same chapter; (Act_13:31; Luk_24:48; Act_4:33 Act_13:31 Act_22:15, Act_22:18, 20 26:16; 1Pe_5:1 1Jo 1-3, etc.)

Witnessing for Christ.

"Ye shall be my witnesses.

I The world through its whole extent NEEDS SUCH A TESTIMONY. The facts which can be testified without the power of God"s Spirit cannot speak the whole of the Father"s mind concerning man.

II WITNESSING FOR CHRIST THE MISSION OF ALL CHRISTIANS. Apostles only first because nearest to Jesus himself; chosen by him, not because above others in merits. Witnessing must be as universal in the character and life as the work of the Spirit. All speaks of the same Divine fountain from which all flows. The hope of the Church and of the world is in the waking up of the witnessing spirit. Martyrs" we should all be in heart, if not in suffering. "Apostolic" in the best sensesent out.

III OUR LIFE-WORK SHOULD BE THE OUTCOME OF DIVINE GRACE. "Ye shall receive power." "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you;" then, being so endued from on high, "ye shall be my witnesses." Spiritual life the foundation of all other life. We should be able to know that the time is come for great work, for we should be conscious of the gifts of God. By no mere conventional forms let us be led away. Power" the great want of the Church spiritual power; not wealth, or organization, or external attractions, but that which comes upon us" from above. Are we working without it? Is our witnessing unto condemnation? R.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But ye shall receive power - and shall be witnesses to me - That is, ye shall be empowered to witness my Gospel, both by your preaching and suffering.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Acts

THE ASCENSION

Act 1:1 - Act 1:14.

The Ascension is twice narrated by Luke. The life begun by the supernatural birth ends with the supernatural Ascension, which sets the seal of Heaven on Christ’s claims and work. Therefore the Gospel ends with it. But it is also the starting-point of the Christ’s heavenly activity, of which the growth of His Church, as recorded in the Acts, is the issue. Therefore the Book of the Acts of the Apostles begins with it.

The keynote of the ‘treatise’ lies in the first words, which describe the Gospel as the record of what ‘Jesus began to do and teach,’ Luke would have gone on to say that this second book of his contained the story of what Jesus went on to do and teach after He was ‘taken up,’ if he had been strictly accurate, or had carried out his first intention, as shown by the mould of his introductory sentence; but he is swept on into the full stream of his narrative, and we have to infer the contrast between his two volumes from his statement of the contents of his first.

The book, then, is misnamed Acts of the Apostles, both because the greater number of the Apostles do nothing in it, and because, in accordance with the hint of the first verse, Christ Himself is the doer of all, as comes out distinctly in many places where the critical events of the Church’s progress and extension are attributed to ‘the Lord.’ In one aspect, Christ’s work on earth was finished on the Cross; in another, that finished work is but the beginning both of His doing and teaching. Therefore we are not to regard His teaching while on earth as the completion of Christian revelation. To set aside the Epistles on the plea that the Gospels contain Christ’s own teaching, while the Epistles are only Paul’s or John’s, is to misconceive the relation between the earthly and the heavenly activity of Jesus.

The statement of the theme of the book is followed by a brief summary of the events between the Resurrection and Ascension. Luke had spoken of these in the end of his Gospel, but given no note of time, and run together the events of the day of the Resurrection and of the following weeks, so that it might appear, as has been actually contended that he meant, that the Ascension took place on the very day of Resurrection. The fact that in this place he gives more detailed statements, and tells how long elapsed between the Resurrection Sunday and the Ascension, might have taught hasty critics that an author need not be ignorant of what he does not mention, and that a detailed account does not contradict a summary one,-truths which do not seem very recondite, but have often been forgotten by very learned commentators.

Three points are signalised as occupying the forty days: commandments were given, Christ’s actual living presence was demonstrated {by sight, touch, hearing, etc.}, and instructions concerning the kingdom were imparted. The old blessed closeness and continuity of companionship had ceased. Our Lord’s appearances were now occasional. He came to the disciples, they knew not whence; He withdrew from them, they knew not whither. Apparently a sacred awe restrained them from seeking to detain Him or to follow Him. Their hearts would be full of strangely mingled feelings, and they were being taught by gentle degrees to do without Him. Not only a divine decorum, but a most gracious tenderness, dictated the alternation of presence and absence during these days.

The instructions then given are again referred to in Luke’s Gospel, and are there represented as principally directed to opening their minds ‘that they might understand the Scriptures.’ The main thing about the kingdom which they had then to learn, was that it was founded on the death of Christ, who had fulfilled all the Old Testament predictions. Much remained untaught, which after years were to bring to clear knowledge; but from the illumination shed during these fruitful days flowed the remarkable vigour and confidence of the Apostolic appeal to the prophets, in the first conflicts of the Church with the rulers. Christ is the King of the kingdom, and His Cross is His throne,-these truths being grasped revolutionised the Apostles’ conceptions. They are as needful for us.

From Act 1:4 onwards the last interview seems to be narrated. Probably it began in the city, and ended on the slopes of Olivet. There was a solemn summoning together of the Eleven, which is twice referred to {Act 1:4, Act 1:6}. What awe of expectancy would rest on the group as they gathered round Him, perhaps half suspecting that it was for the last time! His words would change the suspicion into certainty, for He proceeded to tell them what they were not to do and to do, when left alone. The tone of leave-taking is unmistakable.

The prohibition against leaving Jerusalem implies that they would have done so if left to themselves; and it would have been small wonder if they had been eager to hurry back to quiet Galilee, their home, and to shake from their feet the dust of the city where their Lord had been slain. Truly they would feel like sheep in the midst of wolves when He had gone, and Pharisees and priests and Roman officers ringed them round. No wonder if, like a shepherdless flock, they had broken and scattered! But the theocratic importance of Jerusalem, and the fact that nowhere else could the Apostles secure such an audience for their witness, made their ‘beginning at Jerusalem’ necessary. So they were to crush their natural longing to get back to Galilee, and to stay in their dangerous position. We have all to ask, not where we should be most at ease, but where we shall be most efficient as witnesses for Christ, and to remember that very often the presence of adversaries makes the door ‘great and effectual.’

These eleven poor men were not left by their Master with a hard task and no help. He bade them ‘wait’ for the promised Holy Spirit, the coming of whom they had heard from Him when in the upper room He spoke to them of ‘the Comforter.’ They were too feeble to act alone, and silence and retirement were all that He enjoined till they had been plunged into the fiery baptism which should quicken, strengthen, and transform them.

The order in which promise and command occur here shows how graciously Jesus considered the Apostles’ weakness. Not a word does He say of their task of witnessing, till He has filled their hearts with the promise of the Spirit. He shows them the armour of power in which they are to be clothed, before He points them to the battlefield. Waiting times are not wasted times. Over-eagerness to rush into work, especially into conspicuous and perilous work, is sure to end in defeat. Till we feel the power coming into us, we had better be still.

The promise of this great gift, the nature of which they but dimly knew, set the Apostles’ expectations on tiptoe, and they seem to have thought that their reception of it was in some way the herald of the establishment of the Messianic kingdom. So it was, but in a very different fashion from their dream. They had not learned so much from the forty days’ instructions concerning the kingdom as to be free from their old Jewish notions, which colour their question, ‘Wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?’ They believed that Jesus could establish His kingdom when He would. They were right, and also wrong,-right, for He is King; wrong, for its establishment is not to be effected by a single act of power, but by the slow process of preaching the gospel.

Our Lord does not deal with their misconceptions which could only be cured by time and events; but He lays down great principles, which we need as much as the Eleven did. The ‘times and seasons,’ the long stretches of days, and the critical epoch-making moments, are known to God only; our business is, not to speculate curiously about these, but to do the plain duty which is incumbent on the Church at all times. The perpetual office of Christ’s people to be His witnesses, their equipment for that function {namely, the power of the Holy Spirit coming on them}, and the sphere of their work {namely, in ever-widening circles, Jerusalem, Samaria, and the whole world}, are laid down, not for the first hearers only, but for all ages and for each individual, in these last words of the Lord as He stood on Olivet, ready to depart.

The calm simplicity of the account of the Ascension is remarkable. So great an event told in such few, unimpassioned words! Luke’s Gospel gives the further detail that it was in the act of blessing with uplifted hands that our Lord was parted from the Eleven. Two expressions are here used to describe the Ascension, one of which {‘was taken up’} implies that He was passive, the other of which {‘He went’} implies that He was active. Both are true. As in the accounts of the Resurrection He is sometimes said to have been raised, and sometimes to have risen, so here. The Father took the Son back to the glory, the Son left the world and went to the Father. No chariot of fire, no whirlwind, was needed to lift Him to the throne. Elijah was carried by such agency into a sphere new to him; Jesus ascended up where He was before.

No other mode of departure from earth would have corresponded to His voluntary, supernatural birth. He carried manhood up to the throne of God. The cloud which received Him while yet He was well within sight of the gazers was probably that same bright cloud, the symbol of the Divine Presence, which of old dwelt between the cherubim. His entrance into it visibly symbolised the permanent participation, then begun, of His glorified manhood in the divine glory.

Most true to human nature is that continued gaze upwards after He had passed into the hiding brightness of the glory-cloud. How many of us know what it is to look long at the spot on the horizon where the last glint of sunshine struck the sails of the ship that bore dear ones away from us! It was fitting that angels, who had heralded His birth and watched His grave, should proclaim His Second Coming to earth.

It was gracious that, in the moment of keenest sense of desolation and loss, the great hope of reunion should be poured into the hearts of the Apostles. Nothing can be more distinct and assured than the terms of that angel message. It gives for the faith and hope of all ages the assurance that He will come; that He who comes will be the very Jesus who went; that His coming will be, like His departure, visible, corporeal, local. He will bring again all His tenderness, all His brother’s heart, all His divine power, and will gather His servants to Himself.

No wonder that, with such hopes flowing over the top of their sorrow, like oil on troubled waters, the little group went back to the upper room, hallowed by memories of the Last Supper, and there waited in prayer and supplication during the ten days which elapsed till Pentecost. So should we use the interval between any promise and its fulfilment. Patient expectation, believing prayer, harmonious association with our brethren, will prepare us for receiving the gift of the Spirit, and will help to equip us as witnesses for Jesus.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, How Christ, instead of gratifying his disciples curiosity, acquaints them with their own duty; he tells them, that although they had received his Spirit before, in some measure, yet very shortly the Spirit should be poured forth upon them in a plentiful manner, to confer the gift of tongues, prophecies, and miracles upon them, for rendering them fit to preach the gospel throughout all nations, and also to testify and bear witness unto the truth of what Christ did and said in Judea and Samaria, both to Jews and Gentiles, even to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Here note, What is the special work of the ministers of the gospel; namely, to bear witness unto Christ: Ye shall be witnesses unto me. This they do three ways, Christum praedicando; secundum Christum vivendo; propter Christum patiendo: "By the purity of their doctrine, by the piety of their lives, and by their patience under suffering, both for Christ, and from Christ."

Note, 2. What it was that enabled the apostles thus to bear witness unto Christ, namely, the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit upon them: The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me.

Thence learn, That some measure of ministerial gifts and sanctifying graces from the Holy Spirit, is absolutely necessary to enable the ministers of the gospel to bear their testimony unto Christ with faithfulness and success.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

THE HOLY GHOST HIMSELF, THE POWER

8. “But you shall receive power of the Holy Ghost having come on you.” The English version gives this very incorrectly, “you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you.” You find it beautifully corrected in the Revised version. I have heard and read many sermons from this text exhorting the people to seek power after the Holy Ghost had come on them. All this leads to superstition and fanaticism. The plain revelation is that the Holy Ghost Himself is the power, and there is no other. So never seek power, but seek the Holy Ghost Himself. When you have Him you have all the power you need to do anything that God wants you to do. So you have nothing to do but to get thoroughly sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost, abide in Him, obey, and be true. So long as you thus abide, responsive to the gentle voice of the indwelling Comforter, verifying His will revealed by His Spirit, Word and providence, you will have all the power you need to do your whole duty, because you have Omnipotence to check on at will. After we are filled with the Holy Ghost we grow with paradoxical rapidity, and thus, with spiritual enlargement, become more and more capacious of God. Consequently, we should be always reaching for a more copious enduement of the Holy Ghost, ever seeking Him and depending on Him alone to impart the needed power. The word translated “power” here is not identical with the word “power” in the preceding verse. There it is exousia, “authority”; here it is dunamis, “dynamite.” Hence, the literal reading: “You shall receive dynamite of the Holy Ghost having come on you”; i. e., if you will receive the Holy Ghost as a personal, indwelling Sanctifier and abiding Comforter, He will supply you with all the dynamite you need to blow all sin out of you and to qualify you to blow up the Devil’s kingdom wherever you go, and enjoy an everlasting victory in your heart and life.

TESTIMONY

“And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost of the earth.” Here we see the beautifully defined and ordinary phenomena of the indwelling Holy Ghost. Such people are saved from false modesty and tormenting cowardice, so they are always ready to testify anywhere and everywhere. They have faith in the Holy Ghost to give them words. So they do not wait to study up something to say, but are always ready to open their mouths and meekly witness to the mighty works of God in their souls. The fallen churches are dumb like graveyards. The Pentecostal churches are vocal like graveyards on the resurrection morn, when tombs are bursting and saints leaping into the air with roaring shouts of victory. Dumb religion is the devil’s counterfeit. God’s genuine opens the mouth and keeps it open.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes on verse 6

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. Ye shall receive power. Not temporal power, such as they dreamed of, but spiritual and moral power. Shall be witnesses unto me. Testify of him of their personal knowledge. They all knew personally of his life, his miracles, his death, his resurrection, and the Great Commission. There could be no mistake. Their witness is true, unless they were deceivers. In Jerusalem. First, in the headquarters of Judaism, the capital of their own country, the place where the Lord was crucified; then in an ever-widening circle from that center; in Judea, then in Samaria, then to the uttermost parts of the earth. This order was followed exactly. It should always be followed in our efforts to evangelize the world.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

8. μου. The Text. recept. is the result of a conformity to the more common construction.

8. δύναμιν. The Vulgate renders ‘virtutem,’ and makes it govern the words in the genitive which immediately follow, ‘Ye shall receive the influence of the Holy Spirit which shall come upon you.’ It is better, with A.V., to render the genitive as genitive absolute, because of the participle included in the expression. The phrases δύναμις τοῦ πνεύματος and δ. πνεύματος ἁγίου do occur (Luk 4:14; Rom 15:13; Rom 15:19), but not constructed as in this verse. The effect of this gift was to be something different from the profitless speculations to which they had just desired an answer, even ‘a mouth and wisdom which their adversaries could neither gainsay nor resist’ (Luk 21:15).

Ἱερουσαλὴμ κ.τ.λ. The order here appointed for the preaching of the Gospel was exactly observed. At Jerusalem (Acts 2-7), Judæa and Samaria (Act 8:1), and after the conversion of Saul, in all parts of Asia, Greece, and last of all at Rome.

ἕως ἐσχάτου τῆς γῆς. The precise expression occurs several times in the LXX. of Isaiah (Isa 48:20, Isa 49:6, Isa 62:11). See also Act 13:47.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8.] ‘Quod optimum frænandæ curiositati remedium erat, Christus eos revocat tam ad Dei promissionem, quam ad mandatum.’ Calvin.

ἀλλά, ‘antitheton inter id quod discipulorum erat, vel non erat; tum inter id quod illo tempore futurum erat, et inter id quod in ulteriora reservatum erat.’ Bengel.

δύνα̇μιν, that power, especially, spoken of ch. 4:33, connected with their office of witnessing to the resurrection; but also all other spiritual power. See Luk 24:49. μου, not emphatic, as Wordsw. here and often elsewhere: see note on Mat 16:18. The emphasis would be extremely out of place here: it was not their subordination to Him, but their office as witnesses, which was the contrast to their ambitious aspirings.

μάρτυρες] This was the peculiar work of the Apostles[: so they say of themselves, ch. 5:32, ἡμεῖς ἐσμὲν αὐτοῦ μάρτυρες τῶν ῥημάτων τούτων]. See on vv. 21, 22, and Prolegg. Vol. I. ch. i. § iii. 5.

ἔν τε Ἱερ …] By the extension of their testimony, from Jerusalem to Samaria, and then indefinitely over the world, He reproves, by implication, their carnal anticipation of the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel thus understood. The Kingdom was to be one founded on μαρτυρία, and therefore reigning in the convictions of men’s hearts; and not confined to Judæa, but coextensive with the world.

They understood this command only of Jews scattered through the world, see ch. 11:19.

De Wette observes, that these words contain the whole plan of the Acts: λήμψεσθε δύναμιν κ.τ.λ., ch. 2:1—end; ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ, ch. 3:1-6:7; then the martyrdom of Stephen dispersed them through Judæa, 6:8-8:3; they preach in Samaria, 8:4-40; and, from that point, the conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles, the vision of Peter, the preaching and journeys of Paul. In their former mission, Mat 10:5, Mat 10:6, they had been expressly forbidden from preaching either to Samaritans or Gentiles.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Unto me [μοι] . The best texts read mou, of me; or, as Rev., my witnesses.

Samaria. Formerly they had been commanded not to enter the cities of the Samaritans (Mt 10:5).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.