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(b)
To apostles. `God also bearing them witness ... with
signs' (Heb. 2:4).
(4)
Peter and the Eleven. `Ye shall be witnesses unto Me' (Acts
1:8).
(5)
Paul, before Acts 28. `Unto all men of what thou hast seen and
heard' (Acts 22:15).
Paul both before and after Acts 28. `A witness both ... hast
seen ... I will appear' (Acts 26:16).
Paul after Acts 28. `The testimony of our Lord ... of me His
prisoner' (2 Tim. 1:8).
It is written of John the Baptist `John did no miracle' (John 10:41),
and there is neither sign, wonder nor
miracle recorded of the apostle Paul after the change of dispensation which
took place at Acts 28. We therefore distribute the witnesses in the New
Testament as follows:
A
John the Baptist.
No miracle.
B
Christ and His apostles until Acts 28.
Sign, wonder and miracle.
A
Paul the Prisoner.
No miracle.
It should be noticed with heart -searching seriousness, that each one
of the `witnesses' enumerated in the list above, were actually `martyrs'.
John the Baptist was beheaded, the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Peter was
forewarned by the Lord as to the death he should die and spoke of the near
approach of his `decease' in his second epistle (2 Pet. 1:14), and Paul wrote
his second epistle to Timothy in view of his approaching execution using the
words `my departure' and of being `offered' (2 Tim. 4:6). They were
`witnesses' in the double sense of the word. It cannot be too strongly
emphasized that only in a secondary sense can any one of us today be called
`witnesses'. A `witness' must give firsthand evidence. He must be able to
say `I was there'; `I saw with my own eyes'; `I heard with my own ears'; and
we only spoil the incisive character of New Testament testimony by
appropriating so intensely personal a term to ourselves and to our own far
lower type of testimony. Let us put this to the test.
John the Baptist.
How far was he `an eye -witness'?
`The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto Him, and saith, Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This Is He of
Whom I Said ... and I knew Him not ... and John bare record, (martureo
same word "bear witness" John 1:7) saying, I Saw the Spirit descending
from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but
He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon Whom
thou shalt See the spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is
He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost' (John 1:29 -33).
The Twelve.
How far were these `eye -witnesses'?
`Wherefore of these men which have Companied with us All the time that
the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Beginning from the baptism of
John, Unto that same day that He was taken up from us, Must one be
ordained to be a Witness with us of His resurrection' (Acts 1:21,22).
Peter `He was seen of Cephas' (1 Cor. 15:5).
Paul `Chosen ... see that Just One and ... hear His voice'