70. The Ascension (Acts 1:1-11).

by Wesley Blackburn

Last words say a lot about a person.

Maybe you've experienced that firsthand, watching a family member or a loved one die. Perhaps you got to hear some last words from that person that you still hold near and dear to your heart today. Recently, there was a huge buzz over this book (I believe featured on Oprah) called The Last Lecture, where a college professor who knew he would die soon of cancer gave his final lecture ever, talking about life and what really mattered.

Whatever the case, people have a tendency to get real very quickly when it comes to their famous last words. What is at our core; at our heart, comes out. Jesus' last words before ascending back into heaven are probably pretty familiar to you by this point if you're a part of Suncrest:

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Yep, that's the infamous (can you call a Bible verse "infamous?") Acts 1:8 of Suncrest Jesus Mission fame. But these are also, interestingly enough, the last words of Jesus while on this earth. And what does Jesus do? He commissions His followers. He tells them to go. He asks them to be His witnesses.

I've got to think that that command applies just as much to us today. Just like the apostles 2,000 years ago, Jesus is commissioning us to go and be His witnesses in our part of the world. As a church, we've tried to capture this by launching campuses in Highland and Walkerton, as well as stepping up our involvement in Liberia with churches there. But I believe we also need to think personally; what's the mission field God has placed each of us in? Where is he calling us to be His witnesses? Maybe it's your "one" that we've been talking about over the past couple weeks of our Journey series at Suncrest. Maybe you get this sense or longing from the Holy Spirit that God wants you to lead the way in a relationship or at work. Whatever it is, go and do it! Christ has commissioned us all... let's be His witnesses.