SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/27/2017
8:41 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Be Obedient to God at All Costs”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 4:14-22
Message
of the verses: “14 And seeing the
man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply. 15 But when they had ordered them to leave
the Council, they began to confer with one another, 16 saying, "What shall
we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place
through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17
“But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them
to speak no longer to any man in this name." 18 And when they had summoned
them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered and said
to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you
rather than to God, you be the judge; 20 for we cannot stop speaking about what
we have seen and heard." 21 When they had threatened them further, they
let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the
people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened; 22 for the
man was more than forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been
performed.”
First thing I wish to do is talk
about what Peter and John had “seen and heard,” which is what they were saying that
they could not stop talking about. Both
were eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus Christ, His life, His death, and
especially His resurrection. John writes
the following in 1 John 1:1-3 “1 What was from the beginning, what we have
heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with
our hands, concerning the Word of Life- 2
and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim
to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us-
3 what we have seen and heard we
proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed
our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” It was probably around 60 years later that
John wrote these words, and we know that He never forgot when he walked with
Jesus even when he was probably in his 90’s.
John MacArthur quotes F. F. Bruce as
he writes about when the Sanhedrin did not disagree with Peter and John about
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“It is
particular striking that neither on this nor on any subsequent occasion 9so far
as our information goes) did the Sanhedrin take any serious action to disprove
the apostles’ central affirmation—the resurrection of Jesus. Had it seemed possible to refute them on this
point, how readily would the Sanhedrin have seized the opportunity! Had they succeeded, how quickly and
completely the new movement would have collapsed.”
I have to say that these are some
things that are new to me as I have never thought about them in this context
before. We have mentioned when we began
our study in Acts that Acts is a book that has the theme of the resurrection of
Jesus Christ as this is foremost important in the teaching and preaching of the
gospel. If there was no resurrection
there would have been no need of the apostles going out and teaching about
Jesus for it would be all in vain. Jesus
Christ is alive as He lives in heaven interceding for His children all of the time
and we as believers can be thankful for that.
We see that the Sanhedrin had run
out of options as they threatened Peter and John, but they knew that the
miracle that was performed by them was something that truly happened and so
what could they do about it. We know for
sure that the Sanhedrin feared the people and this is another reason they did
not punish Peter and John. However as we
have mentioned the persecution will get worse in the next chapter of Acts.
John MacArthur concludes “In the
midst of persecution, Peter and John remained obedient to God. Like them, no bribes or threats should cause
us to be unfaithful to our Lord. Later,
in his first letter, Peter wrote from experience as well as inspiration,
“13 Who
is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you
should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR
THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, 15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in
your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to
give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”
We will have a rather short SD in
our next subject which comes from Acts 4:23 as we look at being committed to
fellowship.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: As I look
at this section from Acts my thoughts go to a song that I heard when I was a
new believer and the song talks about “The Church Triumphant” as the church which
began on the day of Pentecost will go on, and will keep going on until Jesus
comes back to take His church back to heaven with Him. Nothing is going to stop it even though there
are forces of evil in this world which are trying to do so now. It will not happen.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the
Lord for wisdom to get the message of Revelation 1:9-20 out to our Sunday
school class this coming Sunday.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Thomas”
(John 20:25).
Today’s
Bible question: “Over which country did
Pharaoh rule?”
Answer
in our next SD. 9/27/2017 9:46 AM
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