First Hand Witnesses

Acts 1:8 (but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth).  Cross referenced verses are:  Act 2:1-4, Luke 24:48; John 15:27; Acts 8:1,5,14; Matt 28:19; Mark 16:15; Rom 10:18; and Col 1:23)
Jesus' ancestry is from the Jewish nation. God separated His people from everyone else for the sole purpose of brining the Messiah into the world.  He went through a lot of stuff with these chosen people, even calling them obstinate.  They were His people; they saw many signs and wonders, yet they still rebelled against Him.  He continued to bring them back to Him; He continued to save them from themselves.  He did all this to bring the Messiah into the world.  Jesus must be a pretty important Guy, huh. 
I happen to agree with that statement.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for everyone.  His ancestry is from the Jewish nation; however, He didn't come for just them.  The latter part of verse 8 reminds us for whom He came...all of us!!!  How awesome!
What does it mean when Jesus says they will be witnesses?  Remember, His disciples had been with Jesus during His entire teaching time (the previous 3 or so years).  They witnessed

all He had done.  They saw His signs and wonders.  They saw Him arrested, beaten, crucified, buried, risen, and now reappear after death.  They were first hand witnesses.  These weren't events handed down to them through the generations.  They were there!!  There's nothing better than first hand witnesses!!
Once they received the powers through the Holy Spirit, it would be their jobs to use those first hand witness accounts to further Jesus' message.  Until then they were to remain in Jerusalem.  Things would happen, as we will see, that facilitated the process of proclaiming Jesus to those outside Jerusalem.  While these things are horrible, we will watch God use the bad for good (Rom 8:28), and we can be so thankful for these bad events because without the spread of Christianity outside Jerusalem, we wouldn't know salvation.  It's not always easy to see through the bad, but those times could lead to even greater things for us.  It's a reminder to always be thankful in the midst of every storm...something I struggle with on a constant basis.