Today’s Reading:
Acts 4:5-22 (vv. 19-20)
“But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God, for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (vv. 19-20)
In Acts 3, Peter and John had just healed a man of about 40 years, who was lame from birth. And he used the opportunity of the crowd that gathered around them to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. This angered the religious ruling party – comprising of rulers, elders, and teachers of religious law which made up the Jewish high council. This was the same council that condemned Jesus to death (Luke 22:66). They were about 70 in number plus the incumbent high priest. The Sadducees that made up a larger percentage of the council were wealthy intellectuals, and powerful elite of the Jews. Caiaphas was then the high priest and both Annas and Caiaphas had played significant roles in Jesus’ trial (Jn. 18:24, 28). So, for them to hear the name of the man they thought they had sacrificed ‘for the good and peace of the nation’ (Jn. 11:49-51), and for these unlearned men - in their religious education, to pose troublesome to them was annoying. It is understood why they were angry and called Peter and John before them to warn them not to talk about the name Jesus (vv. 8-15).
The name of Jesus is not an ordinary verbal name, it indicates His will, His life, His person, His very presence. And salvation in the name of Jesus Christ is salvation in his eternal being. He is the only beloved Son of God the Father, and so, true salvation is found only in His name (v. 12). There are different reactions to the fact that there is no other name to which we are saved, than the name of Jesus Christ. The church has not come out with this nor any man; but Jesus himself declared that: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14:6) Jesus is the way because he is both God and man. By uniting our lives, with him, we are united with God the Father. When we trust in him to take us to the Father, we share in all the benefits of knowing him and being a child of God.
This evidence is noticeably clear, irrefutable, and overwhelming to the religious leaders – a healed man and changed life. The leaders stubbornly refused to believe in the name of Jesus and continued to suppress the truth. And the fact remains that, the fact about Jesus Christ cannot be suppressed, not even in our world. It is the same today as some people hate the positive disposition of others witnessing Jesus Christ. Their minds are closed to the clearest presentation of the fact about Jesus. In this case, we are to prayerfully continue to proclaim the Good News of the Salvation of God. It is the Holy Spirit that can convict the heart. Religion has some very definite parameters which if you operate within it you are accepted by the crowd, but Peter and John went outside this parameter of religious boundary and they got caught in its web. Against the gospel of grace of God, worldly systems of religion strive at working hard to connect with God, locate God and please Him by their good works. But in the system of heaven, we are saved only by grace through Jesus Christ. This makes the worldly system of salvation futile!
Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, there are several benefits and rewards in giving your life to Jesus Christ. Most importantly, you have eternal life in Christ alone. Tomorrow may be too late for you.
OLUFUNMILAYO TITILOLA ADEKUSIBE
Prayer:
Father, thank you because your Holy Spirit gives boldness to preach the gospel, in Jesus name.
Father let the light of Jesus shine more and brighter in my life and family, in Jesus name.
Every power contending with the power of God in my life, and family, roast and burn into ashes, in Jesus name.
Father sanitise your church with the blood of Jesus, let there be harmony of purpose, in Jesus name.
Father give us God-fearing leaders that would move the nation forward, in Jesus name.
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