Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. (Acts 4:29, 30, 33, 34)
Kingdom commitment always faces resistance and opposition.
Sometimes that opposition is subtle. In this first recorded episode of opposition in Acts 4, the opposition is blatant. The religious rulers have left Peter and John in no doubt that they must stop this teaching about Jesus which is giving them a bad reputation. The level of influence and power that the religious rulers had in the society should not be underestimated. Rejection from the rulers can be a sentence to being social outcasts.
When Peter and John take the report back to the believers, it would be understandable for some of them to have doubts, reservations and concerns about the enterprise they had embarked n. It would be reasonable for their prayers to be ones of protection or ones asking God to be with them as they took some steps in retreat.
Jesus, however, had already informed them that those who followed Him should expect resistance, opposition and persecution. It’s a thrilling example to see the community of believers respond to resistance by looking for more boldness to speak and act in a way pleasing to God.
What’s also remarkable is how the response isn’t just about boldness to speak, but also how the community lived out what happens when the Spirit of God gives the good news. That sort of community life based on the grace of God that means no one is in need. That grace of God that compels saints to sell what they have put the proceeds at the feet of the apostles knowing it will go to those who need it. Living out the peace of God that sees no lack. Evidence of the good news in word and deed.
It’s a challenge to 21st Century Christ followers to recognise the subtle and overt resistance to life in the name of Jesus and respond in like-manner of words and deeds in boldness pointing people to Jesus.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 