Hey Element Church. Today is Day 4 in our One Prayer journey. Hope as many of you as can are following along. Today’s prayer is “Lord make us loving!”. Please pray for the churches on the calendar as well. You can go to THIS post to download a calendar. Today we’re reading Acts 4. You can read it online HERE.
Acts 4:1-5 — Critics can’t stop the Gospel. Again the “religious” of the day opposed the Gospel message. Peter and John were teaching that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead. (That those who believe will one day rise again and be taken to Heaven) They even put them in jail for it. V. 4 says “But many of the people who heard the message believed it, so the umber of believers totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.
Acts 4:5-12 — Read that and tell me you don’t get fired up. I LOVE Peter’s passion. Actually he always had passion, it was just mis-directed. Not selfless. His passion has combined with resolve and commitment that is unwavering. This dude, a few months earlier denied that he even knew Jesus to a stinkin’ little girl. The religious elite ask “By what power and whose name have you done this? (heal the cripple)” Notice the key phrase of how Peter could do this. “Filled with the Holy Spirit”. We can do NOTHING without the Holy Spirit’s help. NOTHING! ESPECIALLY make a stand like this one.
Peter’s response “Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.” NO waffling there. “There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
Acts 4:13-15 — Why was the council amazed? THIS WAS THE SAME MAN THAT RAN AWAY 3 MONTHS AGO! AND, they were literally standing in the same place where Jesus was condemned. Peter would have known this was the place he denied Christ 3 times. There would be no denying him this time.
Acts 4:19 — One of my favorite Scriptures in the Bible. “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard.” There was a fire in their heart like that of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 20:9.
Acts 4:29 — What a great prayer. “…give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.” V.31 Their prayer was answered.
Acts 4:32 — I want this attitude. “They felt that what they owned was not their own…”
Following Christ,
Jeff
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