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YOU WILL RECEIVE POWER AND BE MY WITNESSES

(Acts 1:1-14) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (8)

I was asked to serve this opening message from last year’s key verse, Acts 1:8, so that we may start with a review of the past year. The biggest event of the last year was ISBC 2018. As we began to prepare for the ISBC, I reflected on and prayed for what God would want most from our UBF community. I was reminded of the work of the Holy Spirit in the 1970s through 1990s that made UBF a world campus mission movement by sending out 1,700 lay missionaries. Now shepherds and missionaries in Korea, North America, and Europe began to retire from work, and a new generation has become the main force of UBF. I strongly felt that God wants us to renew his kingdom vision and pray for another powerful work of the Holy Spirit for world missions. This led me to receive Acts 1:1-14 for the 2018 New Year’s message.

During the preparation of the ISBC 2018, prayers were offered around the world. Some of our emerging senior staff who are here had weekly prayer vigil together online. In Chicago headquarters church, early morning prayers were offered throughout the year, and evening prayer meetings were held for months. While we were praying, wonderful works of the Holy Spirit were manifested. I was deeply moved and thanked God as I saw many young and seasoned leaders from North America and other continents step forward to serve various parts of the ISBC program and supporting work with all their hearts. The outcome of this united prayer and devotion was a joyful and Spirit-filled ISBC that renewed our kingdom vision. I thank God for giving UBF these beautiful unity and strength, and I thank all of you for your prayers and support for ISBC, and your warm welcome and hospitality for international delegates. An encouraging statistic is that, among the 2,604 participants to ISBC 2018, 1,306 (50%) were under the age of 35, including 977 (38%) students. UBF is not getting old! May God bless this new generation to carry on the beauty and strength of UBF for God’s greater purpose and glory.  

Let’s read Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and

Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” This is equivalent to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20. In this commission and promise, King Jesus announced the advent of the age of salvation for all peoples on earth through his church. With all authority in heaven and on earth, he would carry out God’s grand salvation work through his witnesses by the power of the Holy Spirit. He assures his people of the fruit of their ministry and calls them to absolutely depend on the Holy Spirit.

In order to understand the Lord’s commission better, I looked up the word “witness” in the Scriptures. In Isaiah 43-44, God said to the Israelites, “You are my witnesses,” three times (Isa 43:10, 12; 44:8). God said, “I created and redeemed you for my glory” (Isa 43:1,7). God said that he called Israel to be his witnesses for all nations that the LORD is the true God and Savior. In light of the Bible history, we learn that the Lord’s words, “You will be my witnesses,” is God’s calling and commission to each of us personally and as a community. We should think about what the Lord meant by saying, “be my witness.” We can think of many things. I was reminded of mainly two things:

First, “Be my witness” is God’s calling to share his broken heart for the lost. Matthew 9:36-37 tell us about the Lord Jesus’ heart and deep motivation that finally led him to give his life on the cross as a ransom sacrifice for the sin of the world; “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.’” These days, we see a rapid rise of relativism and ensuing moral perils. This may be a sign of the end times. People who are disillusioned and despaired with the past centuries’ humanistic ideals and value system try to find meanings in various experiences. In the loss of the foundation in life, many are seeking genuine relationships and true spirituality. The Lord said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Mt 24:14). The Lord’s words open our eyes to see the world ripe for harvest and is looking for Jesus’ witnesses who would serve them with his love, his truth and his sacrifice. The church will have wide opportunities for outreach, and there will be powerful works of the Holy Spirit.

Second, “Be my witness” is the Lord’s calling to be faithful. In Revelation 3:14, Apostle John calls Jesus Christ “the faithful and true witness.” Lord Jesus was faithful to the Father to the point of taking the very nature of a servant and

becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross (Php 2:7-8). Jesus said in Revelation 2:10, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” In Revelation 20:4, the martyrs and faithful witnesses are the blessed and holy ones who participate in the first resurrection and rule with the Lord for a thousand years. As a faithful witness himself, Lord Jesus will surely honor his faithful witnesses with eternal glory.

To be faithful witnesses, we need power which we don’t have. So, the Lord promised that we would receive power from the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit is the power of the glorified King Jesus. The Lord Jesus is always with us through the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:20; Ga 2:20). Ephesians 5:18 says, “Be filled with the Spirit.” To receive power, we need the filling of the Spirit. How can we be filled with the Holy Spirit? We can learn the secret from the apostles.

After Jesus’ ascension, the apostles returned to Jerusalem and they all joined together constantly in prayer (14). They overcame fear and stayed in Jerusalem in obedience to the Lord. They laid down their dream of the restoration of Israel and entrusted their future, families and nation to God. Then they earnestly prayed together to receive the promised Holy Spirit. Their earnest prayer shows their faith in the Lord’s words and their total dependence on God. Then the Holy Spirit came to fill each of them, and, through their witness, the early church was born. As the early church began to face challenges, the apostles decided to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. (Ac 6:4-7)

To be filled with the Holy Spirit, as the apostles did, we should devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. All Scripture is God-breathed, and, through the words, the Holy Spirit thoroughly equips the servant of God for every good work (2Ti 3:16). When the early Christians received the power of the Holy Spirit, they could overcome fiery persecutions and finally evangelize the Roman empire. There have been always powerful works of the Holy Spirit when Christians believed God’s word and prayed. Though the Bible and church history testify about this, how often do we forget or neglect this simple secret of paramount importance in our life and ministry?

During the 2018 New Year’s continental directors’ conferences, there was a noticeable work of the Holy Spirit among missionaries and shepherds, especially in Europe. Mostly being one- or two-family house churches, they have struggled in

the midst of strong secular culture of Europe, seeing little visible fruit in ministry. Through the words of Acts, the Holy Spirit opened their eyes to see that the real problem was not the European society, but their lack of faith and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Many of them repented in tears and decided to newly devote themselves to deep Bible study and prayer to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. I believe there will be a revival of the European UBF.

Apostle Paul said, “Pray continually” (1Th 5:17). This doesn’t mean that we should pray 24/7, which we cannot do. We all pray. But the depth of our prayer is in proportion to how we humbly depend on God. Naturally, we tend to work based on our own judgment and experiences. While doing so, a moment comes when we behave according to our hidden old selves and we mess up. Satan never misses a chance to take advantage of our weakness. He doesn’t care how old we are. I had such an experience many times. You might have too. Through this kind of experiences, we learn how to depend on God and pray. The deeper we realize our need of the protection and help of the Holy Spirit, the more earnestly we pray.

God said in Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” As we pray continually, the Holy Spirit shows us many wonderful things. He opens our eyes to see people with God’s hope. He shows his life-giving and life-transforming work in people. He pours out God’s love into our hearts (Ro 5:5). And he makes us strong to have boldness and wisdom. Wow! Wouldn’t you pray continually and see what new things happen? Let’s pray continually this year, especially for the promised power of the Holy Spirit, and share what happens in our life and ministry at the next year’s staff conference.    

The world is moving fast toward the great and glorious day of King Jesus’ Second Coming. In this last time of the age of the Holy Spirit and of salvation, there is no greater calling than to receive the power of the Holy Spirit and be King Jesus’ witnesses. Men and women of US Marine Corps live proudly with a motto, “Once a marine, always a marine.” They are proud of their calling to fight first for their country and their hard training and mission. Our calling and mission are incomparably greater and glorious than that of the Marines. The Lord’s words, “You will be my witnesses,” always assure us of our identity as God’s chosen servants and his promise to make us his witnesses throughout our life on earth. So, let’s live proudly with this motto, “Once Jesus’ witness, his witness forever.” As time goes by, we change our roles in the ministry. But I think one thing should not change whatever we do—to be a witness of Jesus and raise his witnesses. Please pray for me to be the Lord’s faithful witness to the end. Our General Director has set the New Year’s spiritual direction for UBF community of “being one” based on the Lord’s high priestly prayer. May the Lord uphold all of us to devote ourselves together with our chapter leaders to prayer and the ministry of the word to receive power of the Holy Spirit and be his witnesses.