WITNESSES OF THE RESURRECTION
Acts 4:33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
The resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone of what you and I must believe to be saved. Romans 10:9 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” What keeps Christianity from being a religion is this one point: Jesus is alive. He was raised from the dead. If that is not true, then all we have is a dead religion with no ability to change anyone. We must get back to preaching the resurrection of Jesus and not just once a year.
With that being said, what does it mean to be a witness of the resurrection?
When you are called to testify in court, there are protocols for being a reliable witness. First, you must tell the truth, nothing but the truth, so help you God. I think that applies here. If we, as the Body of Christ, would do nothing but tell the truth, which is the Word of God, and nothing but the truth, then and only then can we expect the help or the manifestation of God.
Second, a witness can only tell what they have seen or heard firsthand. In other words, if they repeat what someone told them without seeing or hearing it for themselves, it is called hearsay. That is the problem in the Body of Christ today. So many people have heard the Word and attend church but never get the personal relationship that it takes to truly be a Christian. They got hearsay, and then they repeat hearsay. We all must have an encounter with God like Peter did. He experienced personal forgiveness for the three denials. He got three, “Do you love Me’s?” from Jesus.
Third, a good witness cannot be rattled by a shifty cross-examiner. The devil, the deceiver, is doing everything in his power right now to conform the Body of Christ into the way he has manipulated those who are not born again. They freely call evil good and good evil. We cannot waver. Like the Apostle Paul, we must be able to say that none of these things move me. We must stand strong in our witness and tell the truth and not waver; and there is no changing our personal account of how Jesus changed our lives.
When we do these things, then the same thing will happen to us as it happened to the apostles. Great grace came on them, and great grace will come on us. There are all kinds of grace, but I believe this grace has to do directly with provision, the grace to be rich or abundantly supplied. But there is also a grace to be saved, a grace to stand against the devil, a grace to serve, and a grace to walk in the administrations of the Holy Ghost. Let’s walk in all the graces, and we do this by being a credible witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.