Christians are a witnessing people. A witness tells what they have seen and heard, and we believers tell the biblical story of Christ's love and our salvation that was purchased through his life, death, and resurrection. We tell our own story too, how Christ has impacted us, how his love and salvation have changed our lives, how he has given us hope and peace and purpose.
The apostles were ordinary men, but they had been with Jesus, and that made them extraordinary men. In Acts we do not see a withdrawn people; rather we see a courageous, compassionate, and engaged people, a people carrying on with the redemptive and caring work that Christ began in his ministry. And we carry on this work today.
There is an old saying: "People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care." We can say that, in general, society views the church in a similar way: the world first looks for signs of our love, before they are interested in our message. The church is called not just to teach and preach the gospel, but to live it out also through compassion and caring for those around it. The church has a role to play today. Government programs for the needy, no matter how good they may be, cannot replace the Christ-centered compassion and witness of the church.
