Deeper Reflection
Verse 8 “sets out clearly what the church is to be doing until Jesus returns.”²⁹ The disciples are to be empowered by the Holy Spirit and serve as witnesses for the Lord Jesus, beginning with “Jerusalem”³⁰ , then to “all Judea and Samaria”³¹ and finally to “the end of the earth”. For Jesus’ followers, “the mission begins locally. It is to be launched in Jerusalem, where they are.”³² So let us bear witness for Jesus in our “Jerusalem”, which can represent our homes, neighbourhoods, workplaces, schools and army camps.The Lord has also called us to be His witnesses in “all Judea and Samaria” and to “the end of the earth”. We recognise that God has brought into our country around one million people from other nations both near and far, such as migrant construction workers, foreign domestic workers, foreign professionals and international students. Let us share the Gospel with these sojourners whom God has called us to love and serve.³³As one Christian missiologist observed: “Most of us can’t avoid the nations even where we presently live. God is moving people into our cities… God is moving people and groups into our cities and our neighbourhoods… The nations are waiting, sometimes next door.”³⁴ On weekends, the nations are waiting in our shopping malls and recreation parks. On workdays, in our offices, our HDB estates and the construction sites next to our blocks. Oftentimes, in our very own homes. How will we be witnesses to them for Jesus, who has called us to tell them who He is and what He has done for them?

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²⁹ William J. Larkin Jr, Acts: The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, Vol.5 (IVP Academic, 2011), 41. ³⁰ Cf. Acts 2:42-8:3 ³¹ Cf. Acts 8:4-12:25. ³² Bruce Milne, Acts: Witnesses to Him (Christian Focus, 2010), 39. ³³ Leviticus 19:34. ³⁴ Ed Stetzer, “To Our Neighbours and the Nations” in Finish the Mission: Bringing the Gospel to the Unreached and Unengaged, Editors John Piper and David Mathis (Crossway, 2012), 84