Faith moves a believer to speak on the Lord’s behalf. If an individual believed a building would burn to the ground, he would naturally desire to warn those in danger. Believers in like manner desire to tell the lost of the judgment to come. Those who truly believe God’s impending judgment to be real and the way of salvation to be unquestionably necessary will naturally desire for their loved ones to learn these truths before eternally too late. If a person claims to have trusted the gospel for salvation but lacks a desire to tell others, that person should examine his conversion to confirm its genuineness.
The question of an appropriate audience to receive witness of the resurrection may seem quite simple at first. However, the issue is somewhat controversial. Some erroneously teach that believers should only witness to Jews, while others teach that believers should witness to all except for Jews. Others might suggest that believers should not witness to any of the lost because God has chosen some to die and go to hell. These teachings exist for many reasons, none of which are scriptural. The biblical pattern for the New Testament church is that believers should “witness unto all men.” Everyone needs the opportunity to hear the gospel, despite his or her background or current living conditions. The whole world needs to hear that Christ has risen!
A witness is one who testifies to the certainty of an event. As such, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so, they were declaring the resurrection to be an absolute truth. The disciples physically witnessed the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ had been put to death, but was alive and well. Although no believer today physically saw the birth, life, death, burial, or resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can and should still testify to its truthfulness. In order to offer an adequate witness of the Lord’s saving grace, an individual must first have experienced the new birth combined with the witness of God’s indwelling Spirit (1 John 5:10).
