LUKES GREAT COMMISSION

THE WITNESSES

"Ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high."—LUKE 24:48-49

            The third Gospel was written by a Greek to a Greek. Luke, the beloved physi­cian, a man of culture, with the genius of the artist, wrote for his friend Theophilus a treatise "concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach." Greece, in the brief and bril­liant days of its greatness, gave to the world for so small a country, and so brief a history, more men of outstanding personal greatness than any other people has produced. She never came to anything like national influence of a lasting nature. While Greek influence has permeated history, and obtains today, it was created by the strength of her individual sons, rather than by her realization of the inter-relationships be­tween men as they result in a Nation. The dominant factor in Greek greatness and in­fluence was that of her passion for the perfection of the individual.

            The writer of this Gospel was under the in­fluence of that passion, and he found in Jesus the One Who both filled and destroyed the Greek ideal. With inimitable skill Luke, in the earlier parts of his treatise, portrayed the perfection of his Master. This portrayal proceeds along the natural line of development, as it presents first the physical in the account of the birth; and then proceeds to record what no other evangelist refers to, the mental development as manifest in what today we should describe as the period of adoles­cence; finally telling of how, in the fullness of manhood, the essential spiritual life came to its perfection for service by the mystic anointing of the Holy Spirit.

            Beyond that, he shows how that perfect Per­sonality was vocationally perfected through proc­esses of temptation, and teaching, until it reached the crowning glory of the transfiguration mount. The vision of Jesus on the mount of transfigura­tion is that of the fulfillment of the highest and richest conceptions of Greek idealism.

            The account, however, is not finished. Luke has now to tell how, to the amazement of lovers and friends, He turned His back upon that mountain height, and passing through the valley of suffer­ing, set His face towards the Cross which, as Paul the friend of Luke declared, was to the Greek foolishness. To the Greek it must indeed have been unutterable foolishness, for the Cross spoiled the individual perfection, and broke as into a thousand fragments the great ideal.            As imagi­natively I watch Luke at his work, I seem to see him with growing wonder setting forth the developing perfection of this Man, until all the highest and best of that system of philosophy in which he had been trained was fulfilled before his eyes in the radiant splendor of the crowned humanity on the holy mount. Then I seem to see him amazed and perplexed as he follows the history until he sees the beauty marred by the disfigurement of the brutal Cross.

            If that had been all the account, perhaps Luke had never written it, for so far it is the account of an unutterable disaster. The utmost and over­whelming marvel was that of the resurrection, wherein this Man returned, out of the mystery of shameful death, in a glory more radiant than that in which He had stood upon the mountain height; the very wounds of His disfigurement having become the ultimate unveilings of the hitherto unrevealed glory. The mold of Greek idealism was shattered into a thousand fragments by the perfection of Jesus. It could not contain Him.

            Beyond the foolishness of the Cross, He stood ar­rayed in garments of light and glory, Himself ef­fulgent with a beauty which had never entered into the conception of Greek philosophy. Luke saw this Man bringing out of death a mystic power, enabling Him to communicate the dynamic of His own human perfection to the bruised and battered sons of men. Those whom Greek ideal­ism would treat with contempt by reason of their failure, were healed and remade, and themselves came into conformity to the likeness of His glory.

            The resurrection stories as told by Luke em­phasize the identity of the Person Whom the dis­ciples met after the Cross with Him Whom they had known before it; and indicate the fact that He had entered into another life, in which all the limitations of the days of His flesh had passed away forever.

            He tells of how He walked to Emmaus, un­known by men who had been familiar with Him; and then of how He revealed Himself to them in the breaking of the bread, so that no doubt re­mained that it was indeed their own Lord and Master.

            When they were gathered in the upper room, and all the doors were locked, He presented Him­self amongst them, without the opening of a door, and so amazed them that they could not believe for very joy and wonder. Then in order to allay their fears, and demonstrate His identity, He showed them His hands and His feet, and asking for food, partook of the broiled fish which they provided. He continued to teach them.

            When Luke writes for his friend Theophilus the words of the final commission, he records those which, in harmony with his Gospel, em­phasize the fact that the responsibility of the Church is that of revealing to the world the per­fections of Jesus as fulfilling in Himself the high­est ideals of individual life, and as accomplish­ing through the mystery of His Cross that which makes possible the remaking of those who have failed. "Ye are witnesses of these things."

So that, as in the Gospel of the Kingship, the commission charges us to proclaim the royalty of Jesus; and in the Gospel of the perfect Servant, the commission charges us to share in His suffering and saving service; in the Gospel of the per­fections of the Son of God, the commission charges us that we are to reveal these perfections to the world as witnesses, representing by repro­duction. Here, so far as our responsibility is concerned, we reach the most stupendous note in the great missionary commission. We shall follow the same lines of consideration as those adopted in the previous articles—those namely, of the de­posit of truth, the debt of responsibility, and the dynamic of accomplishment.

            These divisions are perfectly obvious, and may thus be summarized. The deposit is indicated in the phrase "these things"; the debt is re­vealed in the declaration, "ye are witnesses"; and the dynamic is indicated in the promise and the charge, "I send forth the promise of My Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high."

            First, then, as to the deposit. "These things." What things? The answer to that question must be discovered in the context. The text in itself is incomplete, and to consider it alone might be to misinterpret the meaning of the Master. It is best, therefore, that we should read again the words of Jesus immediately preceding:--‑

"These are My words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, how that all things

must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms, concerning Me."

"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suf­fer, and rise again from the dead the third day."

"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the na­tions, beginning from Jerusalem."

"Ye are witnesses of these things."

            It is evident that the meaning of the Master's phrase, "these things," must be discovered by a consideration of these words. The things referred to fall into three divisions. In the first He claimed that in His ministry there was fulfillment of the economy of the past: "All things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms." He claimed in the second place that the way of ful­fillment was that of His own suffering and resurrection: "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day." He claimed finally that the issue of His suffering and resurrection was the initiation of a new method of moral and spiritual recon­struction for men: "That repentance and re­mission of sins should be preached in His name."

            Of "these things "—the fulfillment of the ancient economy; the suffering and glory of Christ; the reconstruction of human nature—we are to be witnesses.

            First as to the fulfillment of the past. The Hebrew dispensation had been one of hope and of expectation, of type and shadow and suggestion; and its three outstanding qualities are indicated by the threefold content of the Old Testament Scriptures, to which our Lord referred in the language perfectly familiar to the men of His day, as "the law, the prophets, and the Psalms."

            In the law of Moses was contained the revela­tion of the will of God for man. It may be spoken of as the presentation of the ideal.

            The history of the people was that of failure to realize the ideal, and in that section of the Scriptures described as "the prophets" which con­tained in the Hebrew Bible not only the books which we describe as prophetic but the books of history, we have the teaching which corrects the failure and recalls to the original ideal.

            In the Psalms, which contain the songs of men in all conditions and under all circumstances, and reveal their aspirations, we have the prayers of desire, the longings of the human heart after the realization of that ideal presented in the law, and defended in the prophets.

The initial economy, therefore, had been that of the presentation of the ideal, the ministry of correction, and the experience of hope.

            The claim of Christ was that all these things were fulfilled in Him; that He had fulfilled the ideal; that in life and teaching He had vindicated the prophetic utterances; that in His ministry He fulfilled all the hopes and aspirations of the past. As the law had been the expression of the master-principle of individual and social life, that namely of the government of God, He ful­filled the ideal in personal experience and in authoritative exposition. The corrections of the Divine patience, in the march of history, in the thunder of the prophet against sin, and in his sorrow over failure, were all repeated and finally stated in His own ministry, insisting as it did upon the holiness of God and the compassion of His heart. The aspirations of the human heart as revealed in that most wonderful collection of devotional utterances, wherein, under the guid­ance of the Spirit of God, humanity sang out all its emotion, were all answered in Him, and through Him, in the experience of such as were brought into living association with Him.

            The stupendous and magnificent claim of Christ was that all these things of the past found fulfill­ment in Him; and the charge He laid upon His disciples was that they were to be witnesses of these things.

            By this great commission, then, we are sent into the world in order that by what we are the world may know that the highest ideals are fulfilled in Christ, and in those in whom the Christ life dwells that the corrections of all prophetic ut­terance may be obeyed through the Christ; that the aspirations of the past find their answer in such as share His life.

            We pass reverently to the second phase of responsibility, that namely of being witnesses to the fact of the suffering and glory of Christ. In that is contained the whole account of the mission of Christ, that mission whereby He does not only fulfill the past, but initiates the new. The thought of fulfillment necessarily involves that of transition. From the old which presented ideals, corrected failures, and inspired hope, we come immediately to the new, that which bestows repentance and remission of sins, so that there may be realization. Between these lay the actual work of the Christ, His suffering and His glory, His travail and His triumph, His death and His resurrection. He is seen standing be­tween the two, fulfilling the expectation of the old, creating the energy for the new, and He does so by the way of death and resurrection. Through His witnesses these things are to be unfolded to the world. Through them the world is to see the suffering Christ. Through them the world is to see the risen Christ.

            At this point it is of utmost importance that we remind ourselves of that to be considered more fully later, that witnessing is infinitely more than preaching. The doctrine of the Cross becomes dynamic in crucified lives. The truth of the resurrection becomes triumphant through lives transfigured by resurrection.

            The final phase of witness is that of the result produced by the death and resurrection of Christ. Moral reconstruction is both demonstration of the resurrection and exposition of the Cross. The process of moral reconstruction is here indicated in the suggestive words, "repentance and remis­sion of sins," repentance being the human atti­tude and remission of sins the Divine answer.

            Moral reconstruction always begins in human re­pentance, but it is never completed except in Divine remission of sins. Repentance is the de­sire in man for renewal and reconstruction. Apart from it no man is ever regenerated or re­newed. Remission of sins is the answer of God to that repentance. Where there is no repent­ance there can be no remission. Genuine repent­ance based on faith, and expressing itself in faith, is always answered by remission of sins. The importance of the inter-relation between these cannot be overstated. The only hope of moral reconstruction is that of repentance.

            The wonder of the work of Christ is that He gives that repentance, and the responsibility of the Church is that it witnesses to that fact. To stand in the presence of the awful purity of Christ is to come into the place of repentance. For the moment we are not discussing the ulti­mate issue. It is true that a man may repent, and yet go back upon his repentance. But repentance itself is in this sense the gift of Christ. It comes by the way of His illumina­tion. It is generated by the flashing of the light of His life upon the life of a man. It is the changed mind in regard to God, and with regard to sin. The Church's responsibility is that of bearing such witness to the purity of Christ, and the glory of that purity, as to produce such re­pentance in the lives of sinning men. Wherever that repentance is yielded to, there immediately follows the remission of sins. That is infinitely more than forgiveness. It is that of the loosing of the soul from sin, the breaking of the chain, the quenching of the fire, the negation of the poison. It is the act of God. He is able to remit sins, because of the death and resurrection of Christ. These are the foundations upon which, and upon which alone, He remits sins. The Church's responsibility is that of witnessing to the fact of remission by lives in which sin has lost its power.

            We are therefore witnesses to the world of the fact of the fulfillment of the initial economy in Christ; of the way by which He fulfilled that economy through His own death and resurrec­tion; and of the results issuing from such fulfill­ment, repentance in man, and remission of sins as the act of God.

            An experimental illustration of that contex­tual interpretation is found in one of the most fascinating pictures in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Peter and the apostles had been arrested, and stood before the Sadducean high priest, and those associated with him; charged with having filled Jerusalem with their teaching, and with intending to bring the blood of Jesus upon these men. Peter replied in words charac­terized by directness and finality, "We must obey God rather than men." Then in a few sentences he stated the whole burden of the apos­tolic message, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, Whom ye slew, hanging Him on a tree. Him did God exalt with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins."

            This statement was immediately followed by the significant claim, "And we are witnesses of these things." The relation of the commission to this incident of obedience is obvious. Jesus had said, "Ye are witnesses of these things." Peter affirmed, "We are witnesses of these things." According to Jesus "these things" were those of His fulfillment of the initial econ­omy, of His death and resurrection, of His ability to bestow repentance and remission of sins upon man.        According to Peter "these things" in­cluded the recognition of the relation of the mission of Jesus to the ancient economy, for he spoke of "the God of our fathers"; of the death and resurrection of Jesus, for he declared "God raised up Jesus, Whom ye slew"; of the result of the exaltation of Jesus, for he affirmed "Him did God exalt with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins."

            What, then, is the debt resulting from the pos­session of the deposit? The question is answered as we understand the meaning of the word "wit­nesses." The term suggests three ideas, which may be indicated by the words "realization," “manifestation," and "proclamation." A witness is one who has realized the ideals of Jesus by appropriation of His grace. He is one, therefore, through whom the perfection of the ideals and the power of grace are manifested to the

world. He is, moreover, one who is called upon to proclaim to men that evangel which discovers to them the secret of how he has realized that which he manifests. This is the thought of witnessing as interpreted by all the writings of the New Testament.

            In order to witness bearing there must first be realization. It is necessary, moreover, that we understand that realization means making real in experience, which is infinitely more than ap­prehending intellectually. No man or woman or child can witness for Christ who has not realized "these things" in personal experience. In a previous article we summarized the ideals of Jesus as those of the supremacy of the spiritual, and the inwardness of morality. To witness for Christ, then, is to live the life which at all times and under all circumstances recognizes the supremacy of the spiritual; which constantly recognizes that the material is none other than the carbon upon which the essential light of the spiritual is revealed. A witness also is one who makes no boast in the accidentals of an external morality, but who is pure in heart. He is, moreover, one to whom there has come the vision of the glory of the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God, and for whom the realization of that vision becomes the master-passion and purpose of life.

            Or we may state this truth concerning the realization in the terms of the contextual interpretation, which we have considered. A witness is one in whom the ideals of the past are fulfilled by the power of Christ; one in whom the Cross and the resurrection accomplish their respective missions; one who experiences the abiding con­sciousness of repentance, with the constant triumph of the remission of sins.

            Wherever this realization is found, manifesta­tion ensues. The whole fact may be briefly stated by the declaration that witnesses are those who at all times, and in all places, and under all circumstances, reveal Christ. It is impossible to make this statement without a consciousness of shame filling the spirit. Here we have so grievously failed. Let us speak, therefore, only in the language which is possible to us, as we affirm that the measure in which we are witnesses for Christ is the measure in which we manifest Him, as the result of experimental realization. If manifestation fail, it is because realization has failed.

            Following realization and manifestation, there must be proclamation. The witnesses must tell the secret of how their own lives have been trans­formed. There is certainly need for a new emphasis of this last phase of responsibility. It is perfectly true that proclamation apart from manifestation is of no value, and that the testi­mony of life is the most powerful in fulfillment of responsibility. It is equally true, however, that so surely as there is manifestation there will be inquiry. Seeing the glory of Christ and the revelation of His power in the lives of men, others will desire to know the secrets of realiza­tion. The witness must be ready to answer all such inquiry. The symbol of the Church's serv­ice is the tongue of fire. The tongue apart from the fire is useless, but the fire demands the tongue in order that it may give expression to the laws which govern its purifying and energizing force. If in the lives of His people Christ is victorious, and through them is manifest, then they must be ready to speak to those in their own home, to those they meet in social life, to those with whom they come in contact in all the ways of life, of Him Who has given them repentance and re­mission of sins, declaring that their deliverance has come by His Cross, and their realization by His resurrection. For this testimony the world is waiting, and the Church is responsible to her Lord, and in debt to the whole race to realize, to manifest, to proclaim "these things."

            Such a responsibility must produce a sense of almost overwhelming shame in the presence of past failure, and of equally overwhelming fear in the consciousness of present inability. This is the great commission and without Him impossible. If there were no word in this phase of the com­mission clearly indicating the power in which it is possible to obey, we hardly dare venture upon the pathway of obedience. The first two phases of the commission with which we have dealt seem to be much easier to obey than this. To pro­claim His royalty even to go into the presence of all the suffering of creation in order to an­nounce His evangel these things may indeed be conceived of, and we might even venture to at­tempt them. But when we hear this declaration, which makes it obvious that neither the one nor the other can be done except as in our own lives, we realize, and through them manifest the Christ Himself, we are brought face to face with the utmost consciousness of our need of "power from on high" (Luke 24:49) and that is exactly what He promises. Let us hear His actual words, "Be­hold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city, until ye be clothed with power from on high." Thus as He reveals the deposit, and declares the debt, He promises the dynamic. It is only in the power of the full­ness of the Holy Spirit that it is possible to realize the deposit or discharge the debt. In that power both are possible. To be possessed by the Spirit is to have found the secret of realization, and consequently to possess the power of manifestation. We shall never realize the things of Christ by contemplation or by imi­tation. These can only be realized as we share His life, and that life can only be shared by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

            It is through such realization by the indwell­ing Spirit that manifestation becomes possible. Every victory which the Spirit wins for Christ in the believer, is a victory won for Christ through the believer.

            It is equally true that the secret of persuasive proclamation is neither human eloquence nor human argument. To refer again to the ex­perimental illustration of the Acts of the Apos­tles, Peter not only said, "we are witnesses of these things," he added, "and so also is the Holy Ghost, Whom God hath given to them that obey Him." In the power of that Spirit we realize, we manifest, we proclaim, the Christ.

            The final word, therefore, was necessarily that which the Lord uttered, "Tarry ye . . . until ye be clothed with power from on high." The principle of that injunction has abiding applica­tion, but the application is changed. The abi­ding principle is the recognition of the fact that witnessing is impossible, except in the power of the Holy Spirit. Human judgment and human en­ergy are alike insufficient. We may plan our work, and even work our plan, and yet no vic­tories be won. We may arrange our boards and our committees, and conduct our campaigns, and yet not discharge our debt. Until the breath of God pass over the valley, all these things are but dry bones. For all missionary endeavor, whether in the homeland or in the distant places of the world, the utmost necessity is that of the power of the Spirit, and except as that power is bestowed it is infinitely better than nothing should be attempted.

            But if the principle abides, the application is changed. The tarrying of the apostles was neces­sary. For fifty days between the resurrection and Pentecost they waited. For the last ten days they waited in absolute inability to witness. Their Lord had ascended, and the Spirit had not yet been given. There was no blame attached to them for tarrying. The only mistake they made, if indeed they made any, was that they attempted to fill the vacancy in their own num­ber, before the coming of the Spirit.

            Their tarrying was necessary, but our tarrying is unnecessary, because the power is immediately available. "Tarry . . . until ye be clothed with power from on high." Do not touch the work of God except in the fullness of the Spirit. But why do we lack the fullness of the Spirit? After ten days of waiting the day of Pentecost came, and with it the Holy Spirit. That Spirit has never been withdrawn, and so far as we may refer to His presence in the terms of time or space, we affirm that any building in which the saints of God assemble today is as full of the Holy Spirit as was the upper room on the day of Pentecost.

            If we are not filled with the Spirit, the blame is on us. If there be malice in the heart, rebellion in the life, impurity in the thinking; if there be willful persistence in disobedience, then let us tarry, let us resign all our offices, and in the in­terests of the Kingdom of God, stand outside the Church's fellowship.

            But let us clearly understand that we must not compare our tarryings with that of the apostles, and by so doing put the blame of our incompetence upon God. We live in the age of the Spirit.

            The laws of His operation are fully known, and the "power from on high" is immediately at the disposal of all such as are obedient to those laws.

            To wait for the sound of a rushing, mighty wind, for the sight of visible tongues of fire, for ability in ecstatic mood to utter speech that needs interpretation, is to forget that these are not the only, or the final, or the highest signs of the presence and power of the Spirit. Indeed, these were the simpler signs of a dawning age, and they passed as men came to fuller realization of the full mean­ing of the spiritual equipment.

            Our responsibility, therefore, in this particular is that we make no attempt to witness except in the power of the Spirit; and that we immediately, and at whatever cost, cease to resist, or grieve, or quench the Spirit; and by absolute abandon­ment of ourselves to the Lord, avail ourselves of the power placed at the disposal of the Church on the day of Pentecost, and never withdrawn.