A Testifying Church

Spirit Empowered Witness for Jesus Christ

The book of Acts begins with a reference to the Gospel of Luke. According to Luke, the Gospel of Luke was “about all that Jesus began to do and to teach…”¹ Of course, all of this doing and teaching was about proclaiming God’s kingdom and forming disciples who would follow Jesus as participants in the mission of God. In preparation for continuing as participants in God’s mission, the Gospel of Luke concludes with Jesus instructing his disciples to wait until they have been clothed with power from on high (Lk 24:49). Of course, Jesus was speaking of the Holy Spirit.

Now in Acts, the mention of the Holy Spirit is not a minor detail. By my count, the Holy Spirit is referred to 60 times throughout the book of Acts, serving to speak of God's empowerment.² In Acts, it is the Holy Spirit who serves as the agent that empowers the disciples to live as witnesses of Jesus.

Jesus tells his apostles that they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In other words, they will receive power from God to live as witnesses of Jesus. However, it becomes very apparent that it’s not just the apostles who receive the Holy Spirit but everyone who calls upon the Lord, submitting themselves to Jesus in baptism (cf. 2:38-39). This promise means that everyone who professes to be a Christian is called to live as witnesses of Jesus.

Unfortunately, the apostles are concerned with the question of when God will restore the kingdom to Israel. Their concern is a distraction from a matter that doesn’t matter, so Jesus redirects their attention to what does matter: The Holy Spirit empowering them to live as his witnesses. So, when it was time to ascend and return to the Father, Jesus says to his apostles, “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”(Acts 1:8).³ What mattered to Jesus was that those he called to follow him would receive the power of the Holy Spirit to live as witnesses.

Here is where we have a problem. In his book Christian Theology, Alister McGrath writes, “The Holy Spirit has long been the cinderella of the Trinity. The other two sisters may have gone to the theological ball; the Holy Spirit got left behind every time.”⁴ Any Christian who has been a part of the Churches of Christ for some time knows that our fellowship has left the Holy Spirit behind for far too long. In my opinion, such avoidance had much to do with the fact that our fellowship emerged in the modern age, steeped in Enlightenment concerns. This meant rational thinking and the need for control, neither of which seemed compatible with allowing the Spirit to lead.

As Churches of Christ face increasing decline and the questions that such decline raises, one thing we can do is what we know how to do well. That is, we can open the Bible and read. Not only do we need to (re)discover a missional reading of the Bible, one that is Christ-centered and Kingdom-oriented, but we need to give attention to the Holy Spirit in a manner that is open to the empowerment of the Spirit.⁵

What ought to be clear from the opening scene in Acts is that the reception of the Holy Spirit is not the end goal itself. Instead, receiving the Holy Spirit is how God will empower the apostles to live as witnesses of Jesus Christ. But this is not just a promise for the apostles. Since every disciple of Jesus receives the Holy Spirit, what Jesus says should matter to the Churches of Christ.

Receiving the power of the Spirit is about living as witnesses of Jesus.⁶ The business of every congregation of disciples is serving as a witness to Jesus Christ. Furthermore, a commitment to living as witnesses of Jesus Christ opens space for church renewal. However, this business can only be undertaken by allowing the Holy Spirit to lead, empowering every disciple to serve as the witness God calls them to be.

I don’t want to be misunderstood here. I know there are many issues, often complex, that have inhibited the Spirit-led witness of congregations. Overcoming these issues is not as simple as saying we will let the Spirit lead. Working through such issues requires understanding, time spent in prayer, and a lot of open-minded discernment.⁷ However, we can be sure that allowing the Holy Spirit to empower us will mean living in a manner that reflects the life of Jesus Christ, his beliefs, values, and behaviors. Since the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of our One Triune God, the Spirit empowers us to live in a manner that reflects the will of the Father, as revealed in the Son.

Although I am skeptical about some claims attributed to the Holy Spirit, I am also wary of cessationism. I just don’t think the cessationist view is supported by scripture. Furthermore, I don’t want to limit how God can work through the Spirit. However, getting rid of any box that we might use to limit God does not mean that God’s work through the Spirit is anything goes. The work of God through the Spirit is to empower disciples to live as congregations who faithfully and contextually embody the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. While there’s plenty of room for discussion about what constitutes a faithful and contextual embodiment of the gospel, we’re not talking about rocket science. We can recognize the power of the Holy Spirit because such power draws people to God, inviting them to follow Jesus Christ through faith expressed in repentance, baptism, and a lifetime of obedience. Anything else should raise suspicion as to what other unholy spirit is at work.

Ultimately, we know how we ought to live as disciples because Jesus Christ has shown us through his life and teaching. We have both Scripture and the great Christian Tradition to help us learn the life Jesus calls us to live. This life involves extending grace, speaking truth, having compassion, pursuing peace, showing mercy, doing justice, living a holy life, and above all, loving others as we love God. Never has Jesus taught us to hate anyone, not even our enemies or those who do evil, or to seek vengeance against anyone. This life Jesus has taught us to live is the life the Spirit empowers us to live. So let the Holy Spirit give us the courage and conviction to live as Jesus lived. Then we become witnesses of Jesus, a testifying church.

1. All scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

2. Luke Timothy Johnson, Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians(, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2011, 53.

3. _____, The Acts of the Apostles, Sacra Pagina, (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992, 28, notes that witness is one of Luke’s “most inclusive” terms for referencing the followers of Jesus (Acts 1:22; 2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 7:58; 10:39, 41; 13:31; 22:15, 22; 26:16).

4. Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1994, 240.

5. At the risk of self-promotion, see my book, K. Rex Butts, Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God, Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2022.

6. Justo L. González, Acts: The Gospel of the Spirit (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001), 22, writes “It is by the power of the Spirit that we have faith; it is by the power of the Spirit that we can live in hope even in the worst of circumstances; it is by the power of the Spirit that we know that we are loved children of God even while the world tramples us. But that power has been given to us, not just so that we may enjoy it in our own lives, but above all so that we may be witnesses to Jesus and to God’s reign.”

7. I also recommend reading Mark Love, It Seemed Good to the Spirit and to Us: Acts, Discernment, and the Mission of God, Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2023.