title witness
I think this text is very familiar to those who believe in Jesus. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
As long as all believers believe in Jesus and claim to be Christians, they have the highest responsibility and mission to be this witness, and it is true that we search the Bible and want to be more like the Lord in our lives.
But the text doesn't seem to be presenting just for what we think it is. Because the reason the Lord spoke these 8 verses to his disciples was because he gave them as answers to their questions. It is the answer to the question, “For at this time the Lord is restoring the kingdom of Israel!” as in verse 6. ‘Now, the kingdom of heaven is coming, and will the history of this world come to an end?’ The Lord answered, “The times and deadlines belong to the Father, and you do not know about them, but you must become my witnesses to the ends of the earth.
So, it is natural to know the story of being a witness as a mission and responsibility, but to think in such a one-way way, you need to know that the content was given as an answer to the disciples' questions. ‘What do you want to do if you want to believe in Jesus? It is not easy to say, “It is evangelism, and it is to lead the dying souls to give.” It's not that the words are wrong, it's that the meaning is too narrow compared to the intended content of the text.
The breadth and depth of the words of Acts 1:8, “You shall be my witnesses to the ends of the earth,” are not just the primary and simplest story that leads unbelievers to the Lord and leads them to believe in Jesus, as we easily think, but has much deeper content includes. By examining this in-depth content, I think we need to focus our faith more as the Bible requires us to.
First, you need to understand the question well. “When they were assembled, they inquired of Jesus, saying, Is it at this time that you restore the kingdom of Israel?”
What the Israelites typically think is different from what we think is that they are people who do not think that they need certain conditions to be saved. They are the chosen people. They believe that they are the only objects of salvation from God. What they are waiting for is the same feeling we are waiting for the second coming of Jesus. They are not in need of salvation, but are those who have been saved and are God's people, so they are waiting for God to give them what they think, historically and realistically.
That is why they are waiting for the Lord to quickly bring His kingdom to come, to confirm their blessings and righteousness, and to quickly destroy their enemies who are not. The Lord's answer to that is that the times and seasons are set by the Father's authority, so it is not for you to know, but what you need is to be witnesses.
If you do not understand what is the most important point of the question, “It is at this time that the kingdom of the Lord comes”, and why the answer to that question appears with the word “witness”, then you cannot understand the question and the answer.
It's just like this one. Please take a moment to think back to when you were in school. Just like now and then, we grew up in a competitive society, and we have always lived our lives with problems such as ranking, passing, failing, and winning. Do you remember having your favorite students when you were taking an exam? Who are your favorite students when taking an exam? They are good students. In this way, they are the people sitting in the front row. So in any school, the short students did well, and tall people like Lincoln and me always didn't. Sitting in the back seat would also distract my attention, and there were many instances where I couldn't study while figuring out the deep meaning of life.
The question that the disciples say is the coming of the Lord's kingdom now? is such a nuance. Are you now? When will successful applicants be announced? This is what it means. What these disciples now have and the greatest concern of the Jews is, ‘I am right and you are wrong, but when is the right thing turned out to be right and the wrong turned out to be wrong? This is the biggest concern. And, unfortunately, this is the only religious instinct of all humans.
I am right and you are wrong I don't think this is the human instinct of all people of faith. To have faith is to be right. If you look at this reference book, there are too many examples of the idea that if you believe in Christianity, you will become a more right person if you believe in Christianity in the way that you can study better. The answer to that is “witnesses”.
So what does this mean? The question is ‘Who is right? When is the right thing confirmed? When is it revealed and when are you punished for doing something wrong?’ The answer to that is not when, but rather, that you don’t need to know and should be a witness. So we're going to trace this issue a little bit further and try to get a clear picture of what this text is all about.
He judges later, saying to one, 'You have done well for me' and to the other, 'You have done something wrong to me'. However, what surprised both of them was that they were both judged as good or wrong, saying, “When did we do that?” and “When did we not do that?”
The Lord's answer to this is that what you did for the least of your brothers, you did for me, and what you didn't do for the least of your brothers, you did not do for me. In other words, you should know that you are more interested in the subject of good works, relief, service, dedication, and caring, rather than just saying that I did something good. Did you not look back when you saw the Lord in prison? When did we see that the Lord was thirsty and we stopped giving him something to drink? This is the story of what we did when we saw that the Lord was thirsty. The Lord's answer is that it is a matter of what you did not do to the least of your brothers.
This is not just a story about salvation.