You will be my witnesses
Jesus gives a promise before He gives a task: you will receive power. The Spirit comes first, and then the witnessing. We are never asked to do this in our own strength.
Notice the order of the places too: Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth. It begins at home and keeps widening. Today’s witness may be as close as your own street or household.
Holy Spirit, fill me with Your power today. Make me a faithful witness to Jesus where I live, and keep my heart open to the ends of the earth. Amen.
μάρτυς (martys (MAR-toos)). “Witness.” In a court the martys is someone who tells what he has seen and heard. Because many early witnesses were killed for their testimony, the word later gave us “martyr.”
These are Jesus’ last words before He ascends in Luke’s account. The book of Acts then follows this outline: Jerusalem first, then Judea and Samaria, and then outward to Antioch, Asia Minor, Greece and Rome.
The brig Thaddeus sailed from Boston carrying the first company of American missionaries to Hawaii. After a voyage of about five months they reached the islands in April 1820.