⁵ The witness concerning the “good news about the Christ” was now being given by the Christian body made up of both natural Jews and Gentiles. These were now the people whom Jehovah God was using as his witnesses. (Phil. 1:27)

6. (a) What marvelous opportunity did the “good news” open up to individuals? (b) As is evident from Acts 4:12 and 17:29-31, what did Jesus’ disciples recognize that both Jews and non-Jews needed to know?

⁶ The apostles and other disciples of Jesus Christ fully appreciated that they were under obligation to be witnesses of God and of his Son. All persons were entitled to hear the “good news” that, by accepting Jesus as the Christ and his sacrifice as having sin-atoning value, they could gain eternal life. (John 3:16; 17:3) The apostle Peter told the Sanhedrin: “There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is not another name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must get saved.” (Acts 4:12) Some years later, the apostle Paul said to the Athenians: “We ought not to imagine that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, like something sculptured by the art and contrivance of man. True, God has overlooked the times of such ignorance, yet now he is telling mankind that they should all everywhere repent. Because he has set a day in which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and he has furnished a guarantee to all men in that he has resurrected him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31) Yes, all men, both Jews and non-Jews, needed to hear the “good news” before death prevented them from seizing the opportunity to become witnesses of God and of Christ with everlasting life in view.

7. (a) What were first-century Christians willing to endure for declaring the “good news”? Why? (b) What questions might we ask ourselves in view of the apostle John’s example?

⁷ So the “good news” involved the eternal welfare of fellow humans. It was also God’s will that it be proclaimed to all. (1 Tim. 2:3, 4) Hence, devoted Christians, because of deep love for God and their fellowmen, kept on witnessing, though it could result in loss of freedom and even their lives. About 96 C.E. the last of the living apostles wrote to Christians in Asia Minor: “I John, your brother and a sharer with you in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in company with Jesus, came to be in the isle that is called Patmos for speaking about God and bearing witness to Jesus.” (Rev. 1:9) Are you, like John, “speaking about God and bearing witness to Jesus”? Are you willing to suffer for doing so, convinced that people need to hear the “good news” because it can mean salvation for them?