Thursday - November 3, 2016

Woodlawn Family Bible Study
THURSDAY

BIBLE READING:  Luke 9: 23-27

 Imagine that you are one of the disciples and you have just spent the last few hours with the risen Savior, trying to wrap your mind around what has just happened. As you gaze at Him, you watch in amazement as He begins to levitate into the air, and up into the clouds. As you gaze, mystified, at what you are witnessing, you near the two men in white who tell you that He will return the same way you watched Him leave. You can’t fathom what has just happened, still able to see Him floating away life a balloon. Now that He is gone, what are you supposed to do? You know He will return, as the men said, but you don’t know when; so what are you to do in the meantime? 

 Exactly what He said to do, of course! The last words of Jesus are His final instruction to His disciples then, as well as, His disciples today: ”..be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The word “witness” may call to mind images of your local news station and their “eyewitness” news. The word, however, has a deeper meaning. It means “a record” (Vines). What Jesus is asking them and us is to provide a record of what you have seen and heard concerning Him so that others might come to know and understand. The word also implies “martyrdom” (Vines), meaning this “record” they were to provide of Jesus could possibly result in their death. In fact, it did result in death for some of those men, but it also results in a death for us as well. The “record” of Jesus tells us that we must “deny ourselves” (Luke 9:23) and “crucify our old self “(Romans 6:6). Jesus will return to this earth in the same way He left, and when He does, He will bring His heavenly host of angels to take vengeance on those who do not know God, and those who have not obeyed (2 Thessalonians 1). 

 Application: So what are we suppose to do in the meantime? Just what He said to do: be His witness by living a record of the events that took place, and by living a life that shows our old self is dead and the new is alive and well. Today, make sure you are a witness for Him!

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