Love our watchtower study last Saturday!!! “You Will Be Witnesses of Me” “[Jesus] said to them: ‘. . . You will be witnesses of me . . . to the most distant part of the earth.’”—ACTS 1:7, 8. “FOR this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.” (Read John 18:33-37.) When on trial for his life, Jesus Christ said those words to the Roman governor of Judea. Years later, the apostle Paul referred to this courageous example of Jesus, “who as a witness made the fine public declaration before Pontius Pilate.” (1 Tim. 6:13) We live in a world that is controlled by Satan and is filled with hatred. To keep witnessing, we need to have great courage like that of Jesus, “the faithful and true witness.”—Revelation 3:14. Bible scholars in general agree that the name Jesus comes from a Hebrew name, Jeshua, and contains a shortened form of the divine name; it means “Jehovah Is Salvation.” Jehovah was going to use Jesus to save mankind from sin and death. Jesus told the Jews that they needed to repent of their sins in order to regain Jehovah’s approval. (Matthew 10:6; 15:24; Luke 19:10) He preached about God’s Kingdom. Mark wrote: “Jesus went into Galilee, preaching the good news of God and saying: ‘The appointed time has been fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent, and have faith in the good news.’” (Mark 1:14, 15) “THE MAGNIFICENT THINGS OFGOD” But wonder of wonders! On the third day after Jesus’ cruel death, Jehovah resurrected him, not as a human, but as an immortal spirit creature. (1 Pet. 3:18) In proof of this, the Lord Jesus materialized in human form and gave evidence that he had come back to life. On the very day of his resurrection, he made at least five appearances to different disciples.—Matt. 28:8-10; Luke 24:13-16, 30-36; John 20:11-18. When Jesus appeared for the fifth time, his apostles and others were gathered together. Then he helped them understand that his death and resurrection were foretold in the Scriptures. At the end of that important meeting, Jesus told his disciples what they had to do. He said that “on the basis of his name, repentance for forgiveness of sins would be preached in all the nations—starting out from Jerusalem.” Then Jesus commanded them: “You are to be witnesses of these things.”—Luke 24:44-48. So 40 days later, when Jesus appeared for the last time, the apostles would clearly have understood his next command. He said: “You will be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the most distant part of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) Why did Jesus say: “You will be witnesses of me,” not of Jehovah? The disciples were Israelites who were already witnesses of Jehovah. Now they were going to be witnesses of Jesus too. What did that mean? They would begin to make known that Jehovah was now using Jesus to save mankind. This way of salvation was far greater than the way Jehovah had saved the Israelites in the past. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ made it possible for people to be freed from sin and death. When Jesus’ disciples were anointed with holy spirit at Pentecost in the year 33, they began to witness about “the magnificent things of God.” WE BOLDLY PREACH THE GOODNEWS It is a great honor to witness to others about “the magnificent things” that Jehovah has done and about his promises for the future. True, it is not always easy to continue doing this work. People may reject our message or even persecute us. We must keep the promise we made at our dedication. We want to remain loyal to Jehovah during the time when Satan’s world will “crash in ruins.” (Isaiah 6:11) We cannot do this in our own strength. Like Christians in the first century, we must ask Jehovah for his holy spirit so that we can have “the power beyond what is normal.”—Read 2 Corinthians 4:1, 7; Luke 11:13. Whether we are already baptized or not, we should be thankful for the honor of gathering together with Jehovah’s Witnesses. So continue to give a thorough witness together with his people worldwide, and keep yourself clean from Satan’s world. If you do so, you will bring honor to the one whom we represent, our loving heavenly Father, Jehovah. m.wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/402014527
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 07:24:56 +0000
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