The significance of
Acts 1:8 is expressed twofold (1) power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, (2)
witness Jesus to the end of the earth. Power from, or associated with, the Holy
Spirit here refers to “being empowered to speak boldly by testifying to the
message of God’s work through Jesus” (δύναμιν, dynamin)[1].
Believers in the book of Acts will find themselves against great opposition,
such that their very lives were at stake, some of whom lost it. Boldness was a
mighty commodity, for without the Holy Spirit providing it, the word would not
have gone out. Remember that the great commission was to “go therefore and make
disciples…” Matt 28:19, the Holy Spirit helps make this happen.
Witnessing Jesus unto
the end of the earth has been a topic of debate as many scholars have varying
opinions regarding its meaning. Is it Rome? Is it all over the world, even unto
the remotest parts? Matthew 24:14 says, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole inhabited earth as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Scholars can debate all they want; I believe the witness of Jesus Christ is to
go to the entire world, literally. Paul would have loved that mission
adventure. Bertram L. Melbourne, in expressing his position on what “to the end of the earth” means,
concludes that, “The argument presented here shows that Luke may have
understood the phrase from both the Greek and Jewish perspectives. The Gospel
was to be preached to the whole world, including the most distant lands…”[2]
[1]
Darrell L. Bock, Acts: Baker Exegetical
Commentary On The New Testament (Michigan: Baker Academic, 2007), 63
[2]
Melbourne, Bertram L. "Acts 1:8
Re-Examined: Is Acts 8 its Fulfillment?" Journal
of Religious Thought57/58, no. 1-2 (2001): 1-III,
http://search.proquest.com/docview/222075053?accountid=12085.
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