[My] witnesses…unto the uttermost part of the earth.
—Acts 1:8
Here we have the fifth mark of Christ’s church: reaching the whole world. These must have seemed remarkable words from the Man who, in what appeared to be absolute powerlessness, had been crucified by His enemies. How could He speak of the ends of the earth as His dominion? How could it have entered the mind of any writer to venture the prophecy that a Jew who had been crucified— whose whole life had seemingly been proved by that cross to be an utter failure and whose disciples had utterly forsaken Him in the end—would conquer the world through the very disciples who had abandoned Him?
But what foolishness it is on the part of those who speak of Christ as being nothing but a man! No human mind could have formed such an idea. It is the thought of God; He alone could plan and execute such a purpose.
The words that Jesus spoke to His disciples, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (Acts 1:8), gave them the assurance that the Holy Spirit would maintain Christ’s divine power in them. As Christ did His works only because the Father worked in Him, so Christ assured His disciples that He Himself from the throne of heaven would work all their works in them. They might ask what they desired and it would be done for them. (See John 15:7.) In the strength of that promise, the church of Christ can make the ends of the earth its one aim.
Oh, that Christian people might understand that the extension of God’s kingdom can only be brought about by the united, continued prayer of men and women who give their hearts wholly to wait on Christ in the assurance that what they desire He will do for them!
Oh, that God would grant that His children prove their faith in Christ by making His aim their aim, and by yielding themselves to be His witnesses in united, persevering prayer, waiting upon Him in the full assurance that He will most surely and most gloriously give all that they can ask.
My reader, become one of those intercessors who really believes that in answer to their prayers the crucified Jesus will do far more than they can ask or think. (See Ephesians 3:20.)