Born To Boldly Witness
To the ends of the earth - acts 2:1-13 (esv) - Pastor Tim Kroeker
Psalm 96:3:
“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!”
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You’ve probably seen a business sign or logo with the abbreviation “Est.” followed by a date, indicating the year a business, organization, or location officially began operations. The date of establishment is often used to convey a sense of history, tradition, stability, and experience.
These same signs are often hung in homes, indicating the year of a couple’s marriage, when the family was established. On Etsy, you can even order t-shirts with your birth year. Est. 1976.
But when was the church established? When did operations begin?
Before ascending into heaven, we read in Acts 1 that Jesus told his disciples they would be his witnesses, taking the salvation story to the ends of the earth. But first, they were to go back to Jerusalem and wait to be baptized by the Holy Spirit.
In Acts 2, we now read that the Spirit came with great power just as Jesus had said, marking a new phase in God’s redemptive plan. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the church was born.
Not only were the believers baptized by the Spirit into this new entity, the body of Christ. They were also filled with the Holy Spirit, who powerfully enabled them to tell everyone around in their own language about the mighty works of God.
This new people would look and act in novel ways as Luke emphasizes the international flavor of the gathering crowd. Established on the day of Pentecost, we see that the church was born to boldly witness.
