Witnesses

When we think about being eye witnesses to the works of Jesus Christ, many of us think too far back in time. We want to go all the way back to the time when Jesus walked on the earth. We think of the twelve who went everywhere with Jesus and saw all the miraculous things He did.

In Acts 4, Peter and John have been arrested and brought before the Council because they healed, in the name of Jesus, a man who had been lame from birth. This man was begging for money but Peter and John had none of that. They had something much better...the power to speak healing into this man's feeble legs and feet. And that annoyed the religious leaders.

When Peter and John came before them, the leaders saw that these were very ordinary, theologically uneducated men - just like us - but "they recognized that they had been with Jesus." (vs 13 ESV) They commanded Peter and John to stop talking about Jesus and particularly the the resurrection. "But Peter and John replied, 'Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than Him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard'." (vs 19 NLT)

We don't have to go all the way back there because the same should be true of us. If nothing else, we should tell everyone how Jesus raised us from the dead! "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins..." (Ephesians 2:1) Everyone of us - even if you never lived a life of debauchery - was DEAD before meeting Jesus. When we surrendered our lives to Christ, we were resurrected from the dead. "But God, being rich in mercy...made us alive together in Christ..." (Ephesians 2:4-5) That is something amazing that we witnessed and should tell people about.

I have seen the addicted set free from alcohol and drugs, homosexuals set free from same sex attractions, marriages and families restored, teenagers and unmarried adults living lives of sexual purity, and 1000's saying YES to Jesus as Savior and Lord! I MUST be a witness. I cannot stop talking about the amazing things I see Jesus doing in the lives of people I know and people I hear about.

Jesus is very much alive and still performing miracles! Tell everybody!!

"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He...I am the Lord, and besides Me there is no savior." (Isaiah 43:10-11 ESV)