There’s a semi funny movie that came out a number of years ago titled, “Oscar.” It stars Sylvester Stalone as a crime boss named Snaps Provalone. At the start of the movie, Snaps’ father is dying. As he dies he makes Snaps promise he will leave the life of the mafia and become a legitimate business man. It’s going to be a huge stretch for Snaps. He’s never done anything legitimately his whole life.
At one point in the movie Snaps finds out a housekeeper stole some money from him. His friend tells Snaps, “If I had an employee do that, I would have terminated her permanently.”
Snaps replies, “I can’t do that anymore; the best I could do is fire her.”
When I was in Bakersfield, a friend of mine was a therapist. She was Jewish. But she hadn’t always been so. She was, at one time, in fact a member at the Presbyterian church where I served. Her father was Jewish. When he was dying, and gathered all his adult children around his bedside, he said, “I hope at least one of you will return to the Jewish religion.” And then he died.
My friend, in honor of her father’s request, began re-exploring the Jewish religion, and later honored her dying father’s request, and became Jewish. It was a tough journey for her. One with hard decisions along the way, that affected not only her, but her relationship with her husband and children, who kept coming to the Presbyterian church. It took her a while to figure out how to get from here to there with her father’s final request.
Jesus is standing on the Mount of Olives with his disciples. It’s a beautiful view looking over to the city of Jerusalem which sits on the opposite mount. It’s the last time Jesus will be together with the disciples. It’s their last conversation. Jesus is about to ascend to heaven. The disciples don’t know that. In that last conversation, Jesus will make a final request that will leave the disciples scratching their heads, wondering how they will be able to honor it; how they will get from here to there.
Luke doesn’t give us much detail about the conversation. At first Luke simply writes that Jesus talked with his disciples about the kingdom of God (1:3). Then one of the disciples asks Jesus if the “kingdom” was going to be given back to Israel at that time.
Jesus’ response should have been paid attention to by Harold Camping and all the people who listen to his radio broadcasts in our day: “The times and occasions are set by my Father’s own authority, and it is not for you to know when they will be.” That’s pretty straightforward. Hello, Harold, and all the people who got sucked in by him: do you read the Bible?”
Anyway. Jesus gives the disciples a different answer than they expected to their question. Basically, Jesus says, we’re not talking about Israel here. We’re talking about you disciples. We’re not talking about what will happen with Israel in the future, but what you need to do right now. I need you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Then Jesus says, “Bye, bye.” He was taken up to heaven. Gone. Here’s what you need to do. See ‘ya. Gone. No discussion. No clarification. No explanation. No details of how they’re supposed to get that last request accomplished. Just a bunch of disciples standing around looking at each other, wondering if everyone else just heard what Jesus said, knowing full well they did.
If Jesus was going to restore the kingdom (whatever that meant in the disciples minds) to Israel, then being the inside 12 with Jesus meant they were set up for some fairly influential positions of leadership. If Jesus was going to restore the kingdom to Israel, then the disciples would be the new go-to guys.
But that’s not quite how it turned out. The disciples vision about who Jesus is and what Jesus’ message is about is very provincial. Their question only concentrated on a small part of God’s world: Israel. Jesus’ parting request has to do with the ever widening, concentric circles of influence of the gospel. Like a rock thrown in a pond, and how the ripples keep enlarging and extending to all the boundaries of the pond. That’s the vision Jesus has for what the disciples are to be about.
It would be like if Jesus appeared quickly in the sanctuary here, and said, “I want you to take the gospel to all of Pratt, then Pratt County, then Kansas, and to the ends of the earth.” And then disappears as quickly as he appeared. We would all be sitting around wondering, “OK; How do we get from here to there?”
That’s what the disciples were standing there, on the Mount of Olives, pondering, as Jesus disappears. Jerusalem, OK. Judea, Cool; we could probably pull that off. Samaria, Huh? Ends of the earth, Double Huh? Jesus’ final request actually becomes the outline for the book of Acts. That’s exactly what happens in the outreach of the gospel. It starts in Jerusalem, and by the end of the book, Paul has taken the gospel to the ends of the earth.
Let’s take a look at Jesus’ last request, and see what it’s going to mean for the disciples, as well as ourselves.
First, Jesus says, “...you will be witnesses for me...” You may think that’s all well and good. A witness. You can do that. Just like at a trial. But the word in Greek for our English word witness is “martys.” It where we get our word, martyr. Jesus is saying, “You will be martys/martyrs for me. Bye. Bye.”
There are two different dimensions to this word. First, and basically, a martys is a person who has seen. Martys people are people who have first hand knowledge of the facts, or whatever it is that is at issue. They don’t speak out of here-say. They aren’t just giving their ideas about something. They aren’t talking out of ignorance.
One church had been given a large bequest when a member died. At the meeting of the church board, they were trying to decide what to do with the money. The church organist said it would be nice to have a chandelier in the sanctuary.
Another elder huffily retorted, “That sounds like a stupid idea to me. We certainly don’t need no chan-dee-o-leer in the church. Who knows if we have anyone in the congregation that could even play a chan-dee-o-leer. It’s clear to everyone who comes in that sanctuary that what we really need is more lighting.” If we are bearing witness out of ignorance, then we quickly disqualify ourselves as well as what we are witnessing about.
John Naisbitt, in his wildly popular book, Megatrends, wrote: “We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.” And that was back in 1988. How much more so is that true in 2011? But that’s what being a witness is--someone who can speak knowledge in truth. A martys is someone who just doesn’t memorize what others believe and repeat it like parrots. A martys is someone who knows how to give an answer with authenticity, because they know.
There is an old story about Dr. Werner Von Braun while he was on the lecture circuit. He traveled by a chauffeur driven limousine. One day, while on the road, Von Braun’s chauffeur said, “Dr. Von Braun, I have heard you deliver that lecture so many times that I’ll be I could deliver it myself.”
Von Braun replied, “Very well, I’ll give you that opportunity tonight. The people at the University where I am going to lecture have never seen me. So before we get there, I’ll put on your cap and uniform and you will introduce me as your chauffeur and yourself as me. Then you will give the lecture.”
For a while everything went according to plan. The chauffeur delivered the lecture flawlessly. But as the lecture concluded, a professor in the audience rose, and asked a complex question involving a certain mathematical equation and formula. The quick thinking chauffeur replied, “Sir, the solution to that problem is so simple, I’m really surprised you have asked me to give it to you. Indeed, to prove to you just how simple it is, I am going to ask my chauffeur to step forward and answer your question.”
You can get by mimicking others, or parroting what looks like being a person of faith would look like. You can talk the talk. But at some point you have to speak of what you really know. You have to speak to the true reality of your experience and your relationship with Christ. That’s part of what it takes to be a witness as Jesus wants us to be. That’s what it takes to get from here to there.
It isn’t about being a theologian. It isn’t about even knowing the Bible from front to back. It isn’t about memorizing and reciting Bible verses. It isn’t about standing up here and giving nice little speeches we call sermons. It’s about being willing to be a witness about your own personal experience with Jesus Christ, and how Christ has made a difference in your life. That’s what being a witness is all about.
Jesus goes on to say the disciples will be witnesses for him in Jerusalem and Judea. In other words, you have to start somewhere, sometime. It may be difficult, but the point is to get started. Like the children’s letter to God: “Dear God, I’m taking violin lessons, but you shouldn’t listen yet, because I still squeak a lot. (signed) Russell.” You may squeak a lot, as you figure out where and how to start being the kind of witness to your Christian experience that Christ wants. Regardless, identify your starting point, and begin. What does that song “New York, New York” say, “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” That’s how you identify your Jerusalem. If you can make it here (wherever that is for you), you can branch out and make it anywhere. Start here, move out to there.
For Jesus, moving out to “there” meant first a stop at Samaria. Samaria was a rival religious center to the south and east of Judea. They had similar, but not identical religious beliefs to the Jews. Basically, there was a ton of mistrust between the two regions and peoples. The tension was caused by tribal and religious differences. Pretty much like it is today. Not much has changed.
So having Jesus tell the disciples that they needed to take their witness into hostile territory was going to pull the disciples up short. It would be like asking Gordon Soffer to go witness to the liberal democrats. It would be a tough sell. It definitely would not be fun, (even though it would be fun to watch).
Jesus’ point is fairly clear. We don’t get to be witnesses about out relationship with Christ only to people we like, and who we know will respond. We don’t witness only to people we know will listen. Being a witness is not going to be some great and fun adventure, all the time. It will put us face-to-face with people we’d rather not have anything to do with. But if our witness to the reality of our personal relationship with Christ is going to mean anything, then we need to be ready for tough audiences.
Finally, Jesus says to take your witness to the ends of the earth. Most people hear that and think, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to have to go into the Amazon River jungle and witness to headhunters!” Like the cartoon that showed two cannibals talking. The cannibals are holding spears with skulls attached to them. One of them is holding a sharp knife. The one with the knife is saying to the other as they look at the missionary, “He really said, ‘Take and eat; this is my body?’” Not very many want to take that kind of risk in terms of being a witness.
I want you to think of this differently. Not many people can go to the ends of the earth. But what if your ripple effects can? What if what you start--the ripples you cause--can have a far reaching effect?
Think of your kids. How many of you now have adult children? Where are they now, geographically? (Let people say where.) OK. Would you agree that you have had an influence on those kids? Would you agree that you still have an influence on your kids? Would you also agree that your now grown children are coming into contact with others? That they are having an influence on their peers? Might you agree that your children were your Jerusalem--your starting point? It’s not just a moral influence, but a spiritual influence for Christ, sharing your experience with them. They in turn move out from you, beyond you, and have spread that influence wherever they go.
How many of your grown children have children? Do you see where I’m going with this? And I haven’t even gotten started on the people you have had a witness-for-your-relationship-with-Christ in your vocation--with employees, clients, students, patients. Starting with you, starting with your Jerusalem, and moving out in diverse and countless directions. The ripple effects of your single witness, having started here, may have literally traveled to the ends of the earth.
In 1855, a Sunday School teacher named Kimball talked about his faith to a 19 year old shoe clerk. That shoe clerk became a Christian. He started out as a Sunday School teacher and later became a world known evangelist. His name: Dwight L. Moody. In one of Moody’s crusades, there was a man by the name of Frederick Meyer. He gave his life to Christ and became an evangelist. In one of Meyer’s preaching stops he led a discouraged soul named Wilbur Chapman to Christ. Chapman became a preacher. As his ministry grew, he needed an assistant, so he hired a former baseball player named Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday became an evangelist, and in 1924, led a religious revival through prayer meetings. At one of those meetings, Mordecai Ham responded. Later, when Ham became a preacher, during one of his worship services a 16 year old farm boy named Billy Graham gave his life to Christ, and felt called to become an evangelist. Ripple effects. Moving out from here to there. And it all started with a Sunday School teacher named Kimball.
“But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
The empowering Holy Spirit comes next week, as we celebrate Pentecost. Be ready.
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