In 2007, Nike began a campaign featuring a young basketball star, LeBron James. The tagline of the campaign was, “We are all witnesses.” The press release stated: “Nike announced the introduction of a new Witness integrated marketing campaign celebrating superstar LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and his rise to prominence as he makes the first NBA Finals appearance of his career. The expanded campaign includes digital, print and television advertising and grassroots marketing. The Witness campaign pays tribute to James and acknowledges the legions of fans worldwide who are “witnessing” his greatness, power, athleticism and beautiful style of play.” (Cleveland Leader, 6-6-07) Nike was banking on the fact that they had the next player who would change basketball.

 

In Acts 1, the disciples are given the task to be witnesses, but this group of people are witnesses to something much more important than basketball. Jesus asks his disciples to be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Since He would be leaving Earth and ascending to heaven in the next verse, it would now be up to them to share the good news. They would be the ones to help this new church grow.

 

Now that we have finished Luke’s gospel, we will move on to his second volume: the book of Acts. We will spend the next few months looking at the first half of the book of Acts together. We will see the beginning of the church and how his disciples took on this mission. We will see that church grow and spread across the world. I pray through it all that we will be reminded that we are all to be witnesses today. We should be working every day to continue that mission that began in Acts 1:8 to take his story to the ends of the Earth and even to our neighbors here in Pontotoc County.

 

Brian