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w itnesses to H is life. They had lived w ith Him for th re e and a half years. They were w itnesses to H is works. They had seen th e m iracles which He did. There are four lines of testimony of special value in w itnessing for our Lord: 1. To His death. And to these every believer should be prepared to give a definite, experimental testimony. The need of the world is a knowledge of Jesu s Christ, God’s Son, sen t from Heaven to be th e Saviour of a lost world. This is th e most im po rtan t of all the thèmes in th e m ind of God. The whole of th e Old Testam ent is a finger which points to th e cross of Christ, and all tru th centers- there. And all prophecy concerning th e fu tu re, from th e tim e of th e cross, em anates from th a t same cen ter. In other words, Jesu s Christ is the theme of th e whole Bible. There are many things th a t will be resu ltan t from real service, b u t they are all secondary to th e one g reat business given to the church by Jesus in His farewell mes sage: “ Go ye into all th e world and preach th e Gospel.” This seems so often to be th e last th ing in th e m inds of God’s people. They m istake th eir mission. They have conceived th e idea th a t th e ir mission is to make th e world b etter; to 'lift hum an ity ; to engage in social service; to edu cate and en tertain th e people. There fore they introduce jazz music, moving pictures, cards, th e dance and many other things, some of which are good in themselves, some of them wretchedly evil, and all of which may be carried on w ithout a single testim ony to th e real message which was given to th e church to deliver. T h at message involves a w itness to th e fact th a t all men, out of Christ, are lost sinners. This is fundam ental, for if men were no t lost th ere would be no 2. To His resurrection. 3; To H is intercession. 4. To His coming again.
(X) THE PRESENT MISSION OF THE CHURCH, Acts 1:6-9. The first eleven verses of th e first chapter of Acts are in troductory to th e whole of th e book. Verses 1 to 3 give us th e proof of our Lord’s resurrection; verses 4 and 5 te ll of th e prom ise of the Spirit, which prom ise was fulfilled in 2:1-4 and in 10:45; verses 6 and 7 give us th e postponement of th e m illen nial reign: “ It is no t for you to know th e tim es and th e seasons.” The “ times and seasons” are in His hands. We need no t be occupied w ith th a t phase of th e subject, though we can be occupied w ith th e prophecies which inform us concerning th e end days as given by our Lord, and recorded in th e Epistles, and we may know some of th e things th a t will come to pass before He sets up His m illennial reign as th e K ing of kings. In th e eighth verse of th is chapter we have Christ proclaim ing th e ir call ing: “ Ye shall be w itnesses,” and th is is splendidly exemplified in Stephen (Acts 6 : 8 ). In th e n in th verse we have th e passing of Jesus from earth to heaven as re corded also in Luke 24:50, 51, and in th e ten th verse, we have th e prophecy of His coming again as recorded in Luke 21:27: “A nd then sh all th e y see the Son of Man com ing in a clond w ith power and gre a t glo ry.” There are six g reat themes here, any one of which would be sufficient for a lesson, bu t in th e exposition of th e les son we propose to confine ourselves to “The P resen t Mission of th e Church.” The disciples were to be witnesses. This is th e character of th e Christian m inistry. A w itness m u st testify to th a t which he knows. (1 John 1 :1 ): “T h a t w hich w as from the beginning, w hich w e have heard, w hich w e h ave seen w ith our eyes, w hich w e h ave looked upon, and our hands h ave handled, of the W ord of llfe i” These disciples were eye-witnesses (Acts 2 :2 2 ). They were experimental Witnesses. (Acts 4 :2 0 ). They were
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