Hey, how’s your summer been? It’s hard to believe we’re already this far into the year. We just started back up with school for the kids on our end so it’s been a busier season recently with summer and getting ready for that. In the middle of it, I’ve let my Bible study fall off more than I really wanted it to so I’m in the midst of getting back to it. I’ve been reading through Ezekiel lately, but today I felt a pull towards Acts. Chapter 4 was my next one there so I continued where I was at. And boy does that chapter light a fire when you read it. 

At the end of Acts 3, Peter and John have just healed a man and Peter begins preaching in Solomon’s portico. Chapter 4 picks up here with the religious leaders being “greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” So Peter and John are arrested for this, but so many people have already seen and heard what happened that verse 4 tells us five thousand people believed. Amen. 

Then the next day, the religious leaders give their case against Peter and John, asking in whose power they healed the man from Chapter 3. Verse 8 says that Peter is “filled with the Holy Spirit” and he gives his own case. He tells them very plainly, we healed in the name of Jesus. But more than that, he preaches to them. “By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead– by Him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.” And this is my favorite part. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Point blank. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is our salvation. Amen. 

The religious leaders are shocked. Peter and John weren’t highly educated, weren’t high up on the social structure. They were “uneducated, common men.” The leaders are shocked at how confidently and how boldly Peter has just spoken to them. Normally this would have been the other way around. How are these common men speaking so matter-of-factly to the leaders of the church on their own subject matter? How can they stand there and correct them so blatantly? But verse 14 says that with all the evidence in favor of Peter’s words and the healed man standing right there, “they had nothing to say in opposition.” Verse 16 says they “cannot deny it.” 

Instead of believing though, they confer with one another and tell Peter and John to essentially keep their mouths shut. Don’t tell anyone else about Jesus. Keep it to yourselves and we’ll let it go. And Peter and John call them out on it in verses 19 and 20. “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” The religious leaders had no real case against them but they didn’t like what they had to say. It was different than what they had believed. They didn’t recognize the signs in Jesus and thought they were in the right. They were more concerned with being right than believing in the truth. 

Peter and John are let go as the leaders have no real grounds to punish them for anything and they immediately go tell their friends all about it. They don’t keep it to themselves as they were threatened to do. And verse 24 says “they lifted their voices together to God.” They recount God’s greatness, His authority, His omniscience and omnipotence. They acknowledge their situation and bring it before God, asking that He “grant to [His] servants to continue to speak [His] word with all boldness” and ask Him to continue the work He’s already doing in healing and performing signs and wonders in the name of Jesus. This section ends in verse 31. “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” Amen. Amen. Amen. 

I pray that we would all have the boldness to speak the word of God. To lead others to Him. This is our job. It can be so easy to forget that when all the other cares of life are vying for our attention, but there is literally nothing more important than this work that God has given us to do. That He’s entrusted us with. 

Last month I talked about being a good steward of our talents and gifts to serve God and others. This is how we do that. This is the work we are meant to be stewarding. That may look different from one person’s life to the next because God created us all differently, intentionally. But it all boils down to this. Know God and make Him known. Lead others to Him. Be a light in the darkness, a lifeline to those who need it. Pray for boldness to do it. 

“Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.” 1 Chronicles 28:20 

This verse is specifically David’s charge to Solomon in building the temple of God, but it applies to us today as well. Be strong and courageous and do the work God has given you. Whatever it is. Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t be discouraged by it. God is with you. He won’t leave you. We each have a service to the house of the Lord. It’s in the way we live our lives, the way we interact with people. Reflect God. Live like Jesus. Love others and stand up for what’s right. Tell others boldly about what Jesus did for them. How much He loves them. How He created a way to salvation where there was none. 

Amen.