September 27, 1900

We Are His Witnesses

Part 1.

EGW

For three years and a half the disciples of Christ were learning lessons from the greatest Teacher the world ever knew. As Christ's work of ministry drew to a close, and he knew that he would soon leave them to work without his personal presence, he sought to encourage and prepare them for this work. He knew also that they would meet with persecution and loss, and he would prepare them for these. “If the world hate you,” he said, “ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.... But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.”YI September 27, 1900, par. 1

Christ left a great work in the hands of his followers, but he left this promise with them: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” In his prayer to the Father for them, he said: “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.... Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.” The lesson that Christ wished to impress indelibly on the minds of his followers was the importance of the agency of the Holy Spirit, and the field of usefulness that would open before them through the influence of this gift.YI September 27, 1900, par. 2

The parting interview of Christ with his disciples was an occasion of deepest interest. Clustering around him, a lonely company, expecting they knew not what, they were saddened as they realized that their beloved Master and Friend was soon to be separated from them. During the three years he had been with them, they had looked to him for guidance in all their difficulties, and for comfort in all their sorrows and disappointments, and they were greatly oppressed at thought of parting from him. Forebodings of evil filled their hearts, but the words of Christ were full of hope: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Christ's only thought was to offer consolation to his followers. He knew that in their coming trials their faith would be terribly shaken, and he appealed to them to believe in God as they had believed in him.YI September 27, 1900, par. 3

For forty days after his resurrection, Christ remained on earth, comforting his disciples, and opening to them the Scriptures. “Thus it is written,” he said, “and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.”YI September 27, 1900, par. 4

“And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.” As he stood on the mount of Olives, his hands outstretched in blessing, a cloud descended, and received him out of their sight. As the disciples watched to catch the last glimpse of their ascending Lord, two angels stood by them, who inquired: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Thus the disciples were encouraged with the promise that their Master would come again. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy, not because they had lost the companionship of their Lord, but because of the promise that he would come again. This was a precious thought to them in the trying future.YI September 27, 1900, par. 5

Mrs. E. G. White