Good morning, everyone.
Our verse for today comes from Acts 4:18, “So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.”
I don’t know if you’ve ever been involved in anything who’s fate was “held in the balance,” meaning that the ultimate success or failure was at stake. I can think of a few things of nominal importance that I have been a part of, but nothing as serious as the future of a company or the outcome of a trial or the approval of some sort of legislation. Issues of such magnitude no doubt bring with them a heavy burden and serious and constant attention and energy spent on them. Do you think that Peter and John had any notion of the importance of where they stood in the yet to be written history of the church? For in these opening chapters of Acts, these two men have been the sole voices of record for the saving work of Jesus. There have been some converts and a myriad of impressed onlookers, but we haven’t been privy to any multiplication occurring through these second generation believers. So for Paul and Timothy and the various other followers of Jesus that get mentioned in Paul’s letters, all the way down to you and me, our place in God’s kingdom in many ways hung in the balance of Peter and John’s faithfulness to their calling and their Savior. So when they were commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus, what else was there?
In today’s church, we too often find a vast array of options that don’t really need or include speaking or teaching in the name of Jesus. We have activities and groups and a host of programs that can pack a church and fill your schedule, and the name of Jesus is somehow supposed to be absorbed by others through what you are doing or where you are doing it. It’s helpful, it’s good, but it’s mostly comfortable and enjoyable, and no one is going to command against it. But as we know, Peter and John stuck to their guns. They didn’t try to disguise their message or blend it with something else in the hopes that it would go down easier. People needed Jesus before they needed anything else, and they were intent on keeping first things first. And such should be our activities and gatherings – quite simply our church.
As we seek Him today, make sure you are going and doing and being as a part of the body of Christ in ways that focus on the Head of that body.
Have a colossal weekend.
#4 Rich Holt
Dad of Ripken, Koy, TrishaJean, Samantha, Kakie Holiday and Raleigh
Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them.
