Day 1: Begin with Love

I live in California. My ancestry is Scottish on one side and English on the other.

And yet: I follow a Jewish Rabbi who lived on the other side of the world, at another time in history, because I believe he was more than just a Rabbi.

How did I — a twenty-first century Californian — end up following a first-century Hebrew?

I am here because somebody told somebody, who told somebody, who told somebody the good news of Jesus. And you are too! All of us are here because someone was — in the language of Scripture — a witness.

In Luke’s gospel, we read this summary of Jesus’ life, in 8v1: “After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.”

Then in Acts chapter 1, which was also written by Luke, we read these words from Jesus to the early church: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses …” (Acts 1v8)

The word “witness” is martus in Greek; It can be translated “messenger” or “envoy” or “ambassador,” but the most straightforward meaning is just a witness, as in a court of law, where somebody who saw something important firsthand, is asked questions, and they tell people what they have seen, or heard, or know to be true.

Jesus envisions his followers as witnesses.

But look at the next line: “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1v8)

Jesus envisions the gospel continuing to spread from Jerusalem, then in concentric circles: to Judea (that’s the wider region), then to Samaria (crossing ethnic lines to new people groups), and then to the ends of the earth.

Not only did Jesus preach the good news of the Kingdom, but he also envisioned his followers — you and me — doing the same.

This is not a fringe practice for the extroverted “evangelists.” The Spirit of Jesus is working his impulse of love in all of us to reach out to others with the good news. And if we suppress it, if we block it in, we halt our spiritual growth.

The question is: How?

Do we go door to door? Or pass out tracts on the street? Or get a bullhorn and stand outside our local college campus?

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp spent years doing campus ministry with Intervarsity at UCLA, and watching firsthand the effect of secularization. They write about five thresholds that Western people need to cross in order to become followers of Jesus.

1. Trusting a Christian. From distrust to trust — just building a relationship with a follower of Jesus who isn’t crazy or a hypocrite, but is a good soul.

2. Becoming curious. Moving from complacency and not really caring about God or spirituality to curiosity, wanting to know more.

3. Opening up to change. From being closed to change, to being open to change in your life.

4. Seeking after God. From just kind of wandering to actively seeking God and truth.

5. Crossing the ultimate threshold into the Kingdom itself.

We err if we think of witness as only about leading people in a prayer to cross that final threshold; witness is about companioning people at every stage in their journey.

Our job is just to be a witness to people wherever they are with God.

To end, witness is ultimately an act of love.

The apostle Paul explains his motivation for, in his case, traveling all over the world to tell others about Jesus, by saying: “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all … that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (2 Corinthians 5v14-15)

This coming week, a good starting point is not to go door-to-door or stand on a street corner and preach a sermon; it’s to start praying for a few of your family members or friends.

Our first step is to let the Spirit of Jesus grow his compassion in our gut.

To just walk, and pray, and open up space in your heart to let the love of God fill you, and flow through you to the world.