The Witnesses

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

THE WITNESSES

Acts 13:26-31

26 "Brothers, children of Abraham, and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.

NIV

Paul is laying out the complete plan of salvation for these people of Pisidian Antioch. He was in the synagogue and asked if he had any encouraging words. What more encouragement can there be than about Jesus taking our sins to the cross, then being raised from the dead? It has also seemed strange to us that the religious men of Israel who read the scriptures every Sabbath,  especially the prophets who spoke of the Anointed One, did not see Jesus for who he was. Their own quest for power over the people and their position in the community overshadowed their ability to see the truth. Their traditional thinking blinded them from seeing Jesus as the Son of David, the long-awaited Messiah, the Christ. Paul is making it clear to both the sons of Abraham, the Jews, and the Gentiles who are God-revering. Times have not changed; we have so many people today who are blinded by their own thinking and by a desire for power or influence over others. There are so many different organizations or movements with their agenda for a better way, their way. Many stand in protest against anything that does not agree with their thinking, wanting to influence others to follow their agenda. We were once blinded by our own desires, but the scales have been removed from our eyes, more importantly, from our hearts. After Jesus was raised from the dead, we have the testimony of many witnesses to his resurrection. Can there be anything better than to be assured that Jesus was raised from the dead? Because he was resurrected, we can be confident that we who live in him and believe in Jesus will also be resurrected to eternal life, to live forever with Jesus. We cannot listen to the voices of decent, or those false prophets, teachers, with their silver-tongued deceit. There is only one truth, and his name is Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other way to attain salvation and eternal life. As those who physically saw the resurrected Jesus were witnesses to others, and we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within, being a witness to us of the truth about Jesus, we too should be witnesses to others. The question is, what constitutes being a witness? In a court of law, we can only testify to what we have heard, seen, or experienced. We are sworn to tell the truth and only the truth. We do not need to be an evangelist, a preacher, or a great public speaker to tell someone what happened to us. We can tell how Jesus saved us; that would be the truth. We are just the witnesses.