Chapter 5 describes in detail the two main purposes of the power. Jesus made clear His primary purpose:
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 (Acts 1:8).
We must always remember that the power is not for our own selfish purposes. However, it does serve our purposes if our purposes are aligned with Christ's purposes, which are always good.
And what are Christ's purposes? He said it:
The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10).
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10).
With the thief, Jesus was referring to Satan, to whom man's sin gave rights in the earth, the reason for sickness, death, wars, crime, immorality, and other evils, all operating through man’s fallen, selfish nature and wrong choices. God, of course, is not the author of these things. But Jesus came to save that which was lost through Satan's activities, and He came to give life, not death. His message is the message of life.
"You will be my witnesses... " The Greek word for witnesses here is martus, where we get the word for martyr. All but one of the original disciples in the first century were killed as martyrs for their testimony about Christ. This is proof that they had witnessed the resurrection and had not been involved with some cooked-up, self-serving conspiracy. Millions have been martyred since, including many in our day.
But whether or not we are physically killed, we are called to put to death our old selfish natures and let His life be witnessed in ours. Our old nature must be martyred.
The television miniseries, Band of Brothers, was a dramatic and vivid account of the combat actions of the famed 101st Airborne Division during World War II in Europe. At the height of one bloody battle, an older American soldier counseled a young private who was petrified with fear as he witnessed the carnage of dead and mangled Germans and fellow Americans strewn all around him. The young man feared an almost certain, similar fate for himself in the days ahead of sometimes building-to-building fighting, bullets flying and grenades and artillery shells exploding everywhere.
The older soldier's counsel was chilling but poignant: "Accept the fact that you are already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function... All war depends upon it."
Oh, what a biblical truism in the life and spiritual war in which we find ourselves as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ! Truth in the natural often portrays truth in the spiritual. The apostle Paul used similar words:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20, NIV) - "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3) - "If Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10).
What is "being a witness"? Essentially, it is allowing the life and reality of Christ to be seen in us. The operative word is "being," not necessarily speaking. St. Francis of Assisi said, "Preach often, and if necessary, use words."
Do you want the power?
Are you ready for your life to become one exciting adventure for God, an adventure unimagined by others?
First, I will describe how the power first exploded on the earth to large numbers of people close to 2,000 years ago, a pattern for us today.