“And now, Lord, behold their threatening; and grant unto your servants, that with all boldness they may speak your word. 30. By stretching forth your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of your holy child Jesus. 31. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”
Peter and John healed the lame man at the “Beautiful Gate” of the temple. This caused trouble and led to a confrontation with authorities, who told the disciples to stop preaching about Jesus. What we have in this answer are the qualities of effective Christian fellowship. The first thing they did was to take it to the Lord in prayer. They did not try to figure out what to do in response to the authorities, and then pray about it. We do not need to help God do His work on our behalf, we need Him period. In verse 30 they asked God to do a great work in the midst of the trouble. It’s interesting that they did not pray for God to deliver them from the trouble, but they asked Him to a great work through them in the trouble. Their concern was not on their safety but on their witness to the world. Someone once said: “When all else fails, pray…” The rejoinder to that was: “Before all else fails, pray.” Dwight L. Moody wrote: “All great Christian movements begin with a kneeling figure.” They prayed for boldness. They did not try to get around witnessing for Jesus; they asked Him to give them more boldness. This is one quality of Christian fellowship that we see throughout Acts. Stephen was bold enough to die for his faith in Jesus. Peter stood and boldly proclaimed the name of Jesus on the day of Pentecost. Saul of Tarsus was saved on the Damascus Road and boldly the gospel all the way to imprisonment in Rome. Where, by the way, he boldly witnessed for Jesus. We do not need to be afraid of the unbelieving world; rather, we should be bold witnesses of our faith in Jesus Christ. The text ends by relating that they “spoke the word of God with boldness.” They continued to speak for Jesus being “filled with the Holy Spirit.” He is the One who gives us the boldness that we need to witness for Jesus. He is One who empowers us to speak the name of Jesus. If we are not “filled with the Holy Spirit” we might make a holy noise but we will not be effective in our witness. They prayed together in unity because they were held together by the Holy Spirit, and they work in unity with each other under the power of the Holy Spirit. We should take note of this text when we are planning to be effective witnesses. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|