Are witnesses of these things – Of my life, my sufferings, my death, and my resurrection. How solemn was their office – to testify these things to the world, and, in the face of suffering and death, to go and proclaim them to all nations! In like manner, all Christians are witnesses for Christ. They are the evidences of his mercy and his love, and they should so live that others may be brought to see and love the Saviour.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 48. Ye are witnesses of these things.] He gave them a full commission to proclaim these glad tidings of peace and salvation to a lost world. The disciples were witnesses not only that Christ had suffered and rose again from the dead; but also that he opens the understanding by the inspiration of his Spirit, that he gives repentance, that he pardons sin, and purifies from all unrighteousness, and that he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come unto the knowledge of the truth and be saved. And these are the things of which their successors in the Gospel ministry must bear witness. As far as a man steadily and affectionately proclaims these doctrines, so far God will bless his labour to the salvation of those who hear him. But no man can with any propriety bear witness of that grace that saves the soul, whose own soul is not saved by that grace.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

48. witnesses(Compare Act 1:8;Act 1:22).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And ye are witnesses of these things. As they were witnesses of the truth of his humanity, having seen, and heard, and handled him, both before, and after his resurrection from the dead, and of all that he did, of all the miracles that he wrought in Jerusalem, Judea, and Galilee, and of his transfiguration on the mount; so likewise of his sorrows in the garden, and of his sufferings in the palace of the high priest, and in Pilate’s hall, and on the cross; and of his death, which was the death of the cross; and also of his resurrection from the dead, in the same body, to whom he showed himself alive by many infallible proofs; by showing them the print of the nails in his hands and feet; by being handled by them; by eating and drinking in their presence; and by conversing with them for the space of forty days: and their business was also to testify the doctrine of repentance, and remission of sins, in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, which they accordingly did; see Ac 1:8.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

1) “And ye are witnesses” (humeis martures) “And you all are witnesses,” as my chosen church-company who have been with me from the beginning, Joh 15:16; Joh 15:27; Act 1:21-22; Act 2:32; 1Co 15:4-9. He called them from among the Gentiles beginning in Galilee, as a people for His name’s sake, Act 15:14; Eph 3:21.

2) “Of these things.” (touton) “Of these things,” of these prophetic fulfillments you have witnessed and I have explained to you as fulfillments of the Law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalms; You, as my sent ones, who have companied with me as a new covenant fellowship,’ are to start your world-wide mission journey from Jerusalem, after I empower you to do so, Mat 28:18-20; Mar 16:15.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

48. And you are witnesses of those things. He does not yet commission them to preach the gospel, but only reminds them to what service he has appointed them, that they may prepare themselves for it in due time. He holds out this, partly as a consolation to soothe their grief, and partly as a spur to correct their sloth. Conscious of their recent departure from their Master, they must have been in a state of dejection and here, contrary to all expectation, Christ bestows on them incredible honor, enjoining them to publish to the whole world the message of eternal salvation. In this manner he not only restores them to their former condition, but by the extent of this new favor he utterly obliterates the recollection of their heinous crimes; but at the same time, as I have said, he stimulates them, that they may not be so slow and dilatory in reference to the faith of which they were appointed to be preachers.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(48) Ye are witnesses of these things.Here again we have a link connecting the Gospel with the Acts, the key-note of which, especially in the earlier chapters, is that the disciples are to be witnesses of their Lords work and teaching, and above all of His resurrection (Act. 1:8; Act. 1:22; Act. 2:32; Act. 3:15; Act. 5:32).

Behold, I send the promise of my Father . . .As far as St. Lukes Gospel is concerned, the promise thus referred to would seem to be that of Luk. 11:13. The discourses preserved by St. John show, however, that there had been the more recent and more definite promise of the Comforter (Joh. 14:16; Joh. 15:26), and so far St. Lukes report, vague as it is, presents an undesigned coincidence.

Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem.Again we have a parallelism with Act. 1:4. The omission of all reference to the return of the disciples to Galilee is at first startling, but it, at least, proves the entire independence of St. Lukes Gospel, and it may be explained on the very natural supposition that he had no knowledge of further details at this stage of his history, and would not construct a narrative with invented ones.

Until ye be endued with power from on high.The Greek word is probably to be taken with more of its original meaning than is conveyed by the English. The disciples were to be investedi.e., clothed uponwith a new power, which was to be as the new garb in which their old nature and its gifts were to manifest themselves, purified and strengthened, but not losing their identity. It is noticeable that this is a very favourite thought with St. Paul. Men put on Christ (Gal. 3:27), the new man (Eph. 4:24). In the risen life they are clothed with, and put on, incorruption (1Co. 15:53-54; 2Co. 5:2-4). The word is not used, in its figurative spiritual sense, by any other New Testament writer.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

48. Witnesses See notes on Luk 1:2.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“You are witnesses of these things.”

And the message that has just been described is the message to which they are to be witnesses. That is why they have been called. It is in order to bear witness to the One Who has suffered and risen again so that He might bring them under the Kingly Rule of God.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Luk 24:48. And ye are witnesses of these things. That this was the grand business of the apostles, is evident; and the ingenious author of Miscellanea Sacra has taken great pains to shew how the title of witnesses, and the office of testifying, are, in the sacred writings, appropriated to the apostles. But after all, though it was indeed essential to the apostolical office, that they who bore it should be able to testify the facts as of their own personal knowledge, yet it is certain that a great many others, who were not apostles, were to testify the same; and it was their duty, and no doubt their care to do it, as the providence of God gave them opportunity. The apostles had many other duties incumbent upon them for the edification of the church; and, in order to the performance of them, were furnished with extraordinary gifts and powe

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Luk 24:48 . ] indicative.

] is arbitrarily referred only to the sufferings and the resurrection (so also Kuinoel and de Wette). It must belong to all the three points previously mentioned. Hence: “But it is your business to testify that according to the prophecies of Scripture the Messiah actually suffered, and is risen again, and repentance and forgiveness are announced on the ground of His name,” etc. Of the former two points the apostles were eye-witnesses; of the last, they were themselves the first executors, and could therefore in their office, testify of their experience that according to the prophecies of Scripture is announced, etc.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

48 And ye are witnesses of these things.

Ver. 48. And ye are witnesses ] Therefore prepare to preach the Gospel to every creature. And take it for a singular seal of my love, that notwithstanding your late shameful defection and deserting of me, I shall yet employ you as my witnesses, and make use of your ministry.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

48. ] From what follows, Act 1:22 , if these words are to be taken in their strict sense, they must have been spoken only to the Apostles; they may however have been more general, and said to all present.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 24:48 . ., the witnessing function refers mainly to the resurrection, not exclusively as Luk 1:2 shows.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Luke

THE TRIUMPHANT END

CHRIST’S WITNESSES

Luk 24:48 – Luk 24:49 .

Luke’s account of the Resurrection and subsequent forty days is so constructed as to culminate in this appointment of the disciples to their high functions and equipment for it, by the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Evangelist has evidently in view his second ‘treatise,’ and is here preparing the link of connection between it and the Gospel. Hence this very condensed summary of many conversations lays stress upon these points-the fulfilment of prophecy in Christ’s life and death; the world-wide destination of the blessings to be proclaimed in His name; and the appointment and equipment of the disciples.

The same notes are again struck in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles. The same charge to the disciples, when viewed in connection with Christ’s life on earth, may be considered as its end and aim; and when viewed in connection with the history of the Church, as its foundation and beginning. So that we are following in the line plainly marked out for us by the Evangelist himself, when we take these words as containing a charge and a gift as really belonging to all Christians in this day as to the little group on the road to Bethany, to whom they were first addressed on the Ascension morning. There are, then, but two points to be looked at in the words before us; the one the function of the Church, and the other its equipment for it.

I. The task of the Church.

Now, of course, I need not remind you that there is a special sense in which the office of witness-bearing belonged only to those who had seen Christ in the flesh, and could testify to the fact of His Resurrection. I need not dwell upon that further than to remark that the fact that the designation of the first preachers of the Gospels was ‘witnesses’ is significant of a great deal. For witness implies fact, and the nature of their message, as being the simple attestation to the occurrence of things that truly happened in the earth, is wrapped up in that name. They were not speculators, philosophers, moralists, legislators. They had neither to argue nor to dissertate, nor to lay down rules for conduct, nor to ventilate their own fancies. They were witnesses, and their business was to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. All doctrine and all morality will come second. The first form of the Gospel is, ‘How that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised again the third day, according to the Scriptures.’ First, a history; then a religion; then a morality; and morality and religion because it is a history of redemption.

These early Christians were witnesses in another sense. The very existence of the Church at all was a testimony to that supernatural fact without which it could not have been. We are often told in recent years that the belief in the Resurrection grew slowly up amongst the early Christians. What became of the Church whilst it was growing? What held it together? How comes it that the fate of Christ’s followers was not the fate of the followers of Theudas and other people that rose up, ‘boasting themselves to be somebody,’ whose followers as a matter of course, ‘came to nought’ when the leader was slain? There is only one answer. ‘He rose again from the dead.’ Else there is no possibility of accounting for the fact that the Church as a distinct organisation survived Calvary. The Resurrection was no gradually evolved hardening of desire and fancy into fact, but it was the foundation upon which the Church was built. ‘Ye’-by your words and by your existence as a community-’are the witnesses of these things.’

But that is somewhat apart from the main purpose of my remarks now. I desire rather to emphasise the thought that, with modifications in form, the substance of the functions of these early believers remains still the office and dignity of all Christian men. ‘Ye are the witnesses of these things.’

And what is the manner of testimony that devolves upon you and me, Christian friends? Witness by your lives. Most men take their notions of what Christianity is from the average of the Christians round about them. And, if we profess to be Christ’s followers, we shall be taken as tests and specimen cases of the worth of the religion that we profess. ‘Ye are the Epistles of Christ,’ and if the writing be blurred and blotted and often half unintelligible, the blame will be laid largely at His door. And men will say, and say rightly, ‘If that is all that Christianity can do, we are just as well without it.’ It is our task to ‘adorn the doctrine of Christ,’ marvellous as it may seem that anything in our poor lives can commend that fairest of all beautiful things-and to commend it to some hearts. Just as some poor black-and-white engraving of a masterpiece of the painter’s brush may, to an eye untrained in the harmony of colour, be a better interpretation of the artist’s meaning than his own proper work, so our feeble copies of the transcendent splendour and beauty may suit some purblind and untrained eyes better than the serener and loftier perfection which we humbly copy. ‘We are the witnesses of these things.’ And depend upon it, mightier than all direct effort, and more unusual than all utterances of lip, is the witness of the life of all professing Christians to the reality of the facts upon which they say they base their faith.

But beyond that, there is yet another department of testimony which belongs to each of us, and that is the attestation of personal experience. That is a form of Christian service which any and every Christian can put forth. You cannot all be preachers, in the technical sense. You cannot all be thinkers and strong champions, argumentative or otherwise, for God’s truth. But I will tell you what you all can be. You can all say, ‘Come and hear all ye; and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.’ It does not take eloquence, gifts, learning, intellectual grasp of the doctrinal side of Christian truth for a man to say, as the first preacher of Christ upon earth said, ‘Brother! we have found the Messias.’ That was all, and that was enough. That you can say, if you have found Him, and after all, the witness of personal experience of what faith in Jesus Christ can make of a man, and do for a man, is the strongest and most universal weapon placed in the hands of Christian men and women. There is nothing that goes so far as that, if it be backed up by a life corresponding, which, like a sounding-board behind a man, flings his words out into the world’; ‘Whether this man be a sinner or no I know not’; ‘I leave all that talk about heights and depths of argument and controversy to other people, but this one thing I know’-not I think, not I believe, not I am disposed to come to the conclusion that-but ‘this one thing I know , that whereas I was blind now I see.’ There is no getting over that! ‘Ye are the witnesses of these things.’ And do not be ashamed of your function, nor slothful nor cowardly in its discharge.

May I say a word here about the grounds on which this obligation to witness rests for us? If Jesus Christ had never said, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,’ it would not have made a bit of difference as to the imperative duty that is laid upon all Christian men; for that arises, not from that command, which only gives voice to a previous obligation, but it flows, from the very nature of things, from the message that we receive from our links with other men and from the constitution and make of our own natures.

It flows directly from the gift that we have received. There are plenty of truths which, per se , carry with them no obligation to impart them. But any truth in which is wrapped up the possible happiness of another man, any truth which bears upon moral or spiritual subjects, carries with it the strongest obligation to impart it. We have such large insights into God and His love as the Gospel gives us, not that we may eat our morsel alone, or merely sun ourselves in the light, and expatiate in the warmth of the beams that come to us, but that we may share them with all around: ‘God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts,’ that we may ‘give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’

The obligation arises from the links that knit us all together. ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ Why, the question answers itself. If he is your ‘brother,’ you are certainly his ‘keeper.’ And you cannot shuffle off the obligation by any irrelevant pitting of one field of Christian work against another; still less by any criticism, hostile or friendly, as it may be, of the methods of Christian work, or of the parity and elevation of the character and motives of the workers. Humanity is one, linked by a mystic chain, and every link of it should thrill by a common impulse; and through all the members there should circulate a common life. That great thought is one of the gains that the Gospel has brought us, and in the presence of it and our indebtedness and obligation to every man, woman, and child that bears the form of man, all geographical limits to Christian witnessing seem supremely absurd and incongruous. You cannot get rid of your obligation by saying, ‘I do not care about foreign missions, I go in for home ones.’ And you cannot get rid of it by chiming in an ignorant second to the talk that has been going on lately, carping at or criticising methods of work. It would be a very strange thing if we had hit all at once, in the very beginning of an enterprise, upon the best of all possible methods; and it would be a very strange thing if the mission-field is the only one where there are no lazy workers and selfish motives and unworthy occupants of high places. All that is true about home as it is about other places. But grant it all, and back comes the obligation based upon the nature of the truth that we have received, upon our links with our brethren, and upon our loyalty to our Master, and it peals into the ears of every Christian man and woman: ‘Thou art a witness of these things’; and ‘to this end wert thou born again, that thou mightest bear witness to the truth.’

Ah, brethren! the issues of faithfulness to that high function are sweet and blessed and wonderful. A witnessing Christian will be a believing Christian; for there is no surer way to deepen my own convictions about any moral or spiritual truth than to constitute myself their humble servant to proclaim them. Whosoever is a believer should be an apostle, and if he is an apostle he will be tenfold a believer. There is nothing which will give a man a firmer grasp of the Gospel for his own soul than when he finds that, ministered by his humble efforts, it produces in other hearts the same effects which he finds it working upon himself. There is no page in the great book of the evidences of the truth of Christianity more conclusive than that which in the last century has been written by the experience of Christian missions. Let the objectors, Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses, let them do the same with their enchantments, and then we will discuss the questions of the truth of the Gospel with them.

Nor need I do more than remind you of the highest of all blessed issues which is yet to come. ‘Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.’ Alas! alas! how many of us professing Christians will have to stand at last without that ‘crown of rejoicing’ which they wear who, by their poor work and witness, have won some souls to the Master. Do you, Christian men, contemplate entering heaven alone, or bringing your sheaves with you? It will be sad to stand with hands empty then, because they were idle in the days of the seed-basket and the reaping-hook, whilst those that sowed and those that reaped shall rejoice together. ‘Ye are the witnesses of these things’: see to it that you do your work.

II. And now, secondly, and briefly, note the equipment of the witnesses for their task.

Our Lord here distinguishes two stages in the endowment. Then and there they receive the gift of the Divine Spirit, as is more fully recorded in John’s account of these last days, but that gift, rich and precious as it was, was not yet the full bestowment which they needed for their task. That came on the day of Pentecost. Mark the vivid and picturesque word which our Lord here employs: ‘Until ye be clothed with power from on high.’ That divine gift coming down as a vesture, wraps and covers and hides their own weakness, their own naked and poor personality.

I can only say a word or two about this matter. The same collocation of ideas-a witnessing Spirit by whose indwelling energy the Christian community becomes witnesses, is found and has been explained at length by me in former discourses in the farewell words of our Lord in the upper chamber. ‘The Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me, and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with Me from the beginning.’

I need only remark here that the only power by which Christians can discharge their work of witnessing in the world is the power which clothes them from above. The new life which Jesus Christ brings and gives to us is the only life which will avail for discharging this office. Our self-will, the old life of nature, with all its dependence upon ourselves, is nought in reference to this task. But when that divine spark enters into men’s hearts, then natural endowments are heightened into supernatural gifts, and new forces are developed, and new powers are bestowed and the earthen vessel is filled with new treasure. Without it-and there is a great deal of so-called Christian witnessing to-day without it-noise, advertising, skill in getting up externals, and all the other unworthy methods which Christian churches sometimes stoop to adopt, are powerless, as they ought to be. You may accomplish a great deal by fussy activity which calls itself Christian earnestness, and has not God’s Spirit in it. But it is no more growth than are what the children call ‘devil’s puff-balls’ which they find in the fields in these autumn mornings; and it will go up in poisonous, brown dust like these when it is pricked.

The one condition of Christian churches doing their Christian work is that they shall be clothed and filled with God’s Spirit. Do not let us rely on machinery; do not let us rely on externals; do not let us rely on advertising tricks which might do very well for a cheap shop, but are all out of harmony with the work that we have to do; but let us rely on this, and on this alone. Holding converse with God and Christ, we shall come out of the secret place of the Most High with our faces glowing with the communion, and our lips on fire to proclaim the sweetnesses that lie within the shrine.

One word more and I have done. This clothing with the Spirit, which is the only fitness of the Church for its witnessing work, is only to be won by much solitary waiting. ‘Tarry ye,’ or as in the original it stands even more vividly, ‘ Sit ye still in the city . . . till ye be clothed.’ It is because so many Christian workers are so seldom alone with Christ that so much of their work is nought, and comes to nought. To draw apart from outward activity into the solitary place, and sit with Him, is the only means by which we can keep up the freshness of our own spirits, and be fit for His service. Mary was being trained for Martha’s work when she sat at Christ’s feet; but Martha could not do hers without being ‘troubled and careful,’ because she was more accustomed to the work than to the communion that would have made it light.

So, Christian friends, behold your task and your equipment. I beseech you, who call yourselves Christ’s servants, to lay to heart your plain and unavoidable obligations. If you have found Jesus, you are as truly and as individually bound to proclaim Him as if a definite and direct divine command sounded in your ears. Your possession of the Gospel as the food of your own souls binds you to impart it to all the famished. The call to witness comes as straight to you as it did to the young Pharisee on the road to Damascus when he heard ‘Saul! Saul!’ called from the sky.

May you and I answer as he did, ‘Lord! what wilt Thou have me to do!’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

witnesses = witness-bearers. Compare Act 1:8; Act 2:32; Act 3:15; Act 4:33; Act 5:30-32, &c.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

48. ] From what follows, Act 1:22, if these words are to be taken in their strict sense, they must have been spoken only to the Apostles;-they may however have been more general, and said to all present.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 24:48-49. -, witnesses-the promise) Joh 15:27; Joh 15:26 [Ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning-When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me].

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Joh 15:27, Act 1:8, Act 1:22, Act 2:32, Act 3:15, Act 4:33, Act 5:32, Act 10:39, Act 10:41, Act 13:31, Act 22:15, Heb 2:3, Heb 2:4, 1Jo 1:2, 1Jo 1:3

Reciprocal: Eze 2:3 – I send Mat 28:19 – ye therefore Mar 16:15 – Go Luk 1:2 – which Act 10:42 – he commanded 1Pe 5:1 – and a Rev 11:3 – witnesses

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

8

This work of being witnesses for Jesus is stated more fully in Act 1:8. The territory of their operation was to include Jerusalem as the beginning place, then reach unto “the uttermost part of the earth.” According to Rom 10:18 and Col 1:23, that commission was finally carried out.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Luk 24:48. Ye. The Apostles, but others may have been present Act 1:22 hints that others saw Him ascend.

Witnesses. As such they were to proclaim the facts (Luk 24:46), and the repentance and remission based upon them; and thus be the fulfillers of the prophecies summed up in Luk 24:47.

These things. The Gospel facts respecting Christ, centering in His Death and Resurrection, and including His Ascension. The fulfilment of prophecy and the commission to preach remission and repentance, are not excluded.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Evangelism was a key motif in Luke’s Gospel, and it, too, continues in Acts. The phrase "these things" evidently refers to the messianic prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. The disciples were witnesses to the fact that Messiah had come as predicted. The Scriptures predicting that the evangelization of the nations could only attain fulfillment if the disciples bore witness. We see again the blending of divine sovereignty and human responsibility in Jesus’ explanation.

When God created man, He gave him a cultural mandate (Gen 1:28). Essentially this was to rule over the earth. This involves the advancement of civilization. This is the responsibility of every human being. When Jesus arose from the dead, He gave His disciples another mandate. Essentially this was to evangelize the world. This involves the advancement of Christianity. This is the responsibility of every Christian.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)