Acts 4:1-37
Today we continue with yesterday’s reading and my comments from yesterday are fully applicable today. Back then (46 years ago) I was truly struck when I first read about Peter and John, these …uneducated, common men… (v. 13b) speaking boldly before the Sanhedrin. I knew a lot about Jesus, but I knew little about His followers. That’s why this last half of 2021 is so important – as we read Acts and the Epistles we see the church developing and we continue to be part of that growth. Their model is our guide!
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them… (v. 8a) Here Peter and John are acting upon Jesus’ words to them when He was alive: When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. (Matthew 10:19-20, further amplified in Luke 12:12-15) The same is true for us today. We probably will not be taken before “rulers and authorities”, but we will have occasion to speak of Jesus to nonbelievers. And with a short pause and a prayer we can trust the Holy Spirit to help us …speak of what we have seen and heard. (v. 20b) We can do this!
See also: January 12 / Acts 4:1-4; January 13 / Acts 4:5-12; January 14 / Acts 4:13-22; January 15 / Acts 4:23-31; January 16 / Acts 4:32-37