Acts 1:6-8
6 So, when they had come together, they began asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 But He said to them, “It is not for you to know periods of time or appointed times which the Father has set by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”
This scripture makes one thing quite clear to us, and that is that if God's Spirit is in us, we have a commission to go and to tell the world. But what if we do not live in Israel? Do we need to go to Jerusalem? Does this mean that we need to go witness to the Jewish people first?
No, it is a principle which says that you do not have to go anywhere to begin, but as you are going, to be about the Lord's work.
Too often Christians make this scripture esoteric and say that it does not apply to them because they obviously cannot fulfill it, but to take it literally is to throw out thousands of years of understanding in order to keep from feeling like you need to do something you do not want to.
Here's the best way to understand it:
Jerusalem: Near you. Your home town, your county, your area.
Judea: Your state, region, county, province, et al.
Samaria: Your country, geographic area, continent
The Ends of the Earth: Everywhere else
Now, you may not live in Jerusalem, but you do live somewhere. You may not be from Judea, but your city does belong to some kind of greater whole. Your country may not be in the middle east like Samaria was, but you do have one. So yes, this scripture applies to you just as much as it did to those to whom it was first given.
The bigger question is not IF this scripture applies to you, but rather WHAT you are doing with it since you now know that it does?
Are you a witness?
Do you share the Gospel as you are going?
Is His truth always on your lips ready to share?
If the answer is no, I would ask you why not, after all, this scripture was just as much for you as it was for the disciples so long ago.
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