Today we are reading Acts 4 in our Spoken Word Bible Reading Plan. The disciples who had gathered in the Upper Room have all been filled with Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues! The crowd who were present at the time heard them and knew that something powerful and wonderful had happened! In this chapter, there is powerful evidence of another sort that Peter, who had denied JESUS on the night that He was arrested, is a new man with a new spirit and a new Anointing! Peter and John have been arrested for preaching the resurrection of JESUS from the dead. Verses 8-12 reveal this brand new man!
8 Then Peter, [because he was] filled with [and controlled by] the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and members of the council (the Sanhedrin), 9 If we are being put on trial [here] today and examined concerning a good deed done to benefit a feeble (helpless) cripple, by what means this man has been restored to health, 10 Let it be known and understood by all of you, and by the whole house of Israel, that in the name and through the power and authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom you crucified, [but] Whom God raised from the dead, in Him and by means of Him this man is standing here before you well and sound in body. 11 This [Jesus] is the Stone which was despised and rejected by you, the builders, but which has become the Head of the corner [the Cornerstone]. 12 And there is salvation in and through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by and in which we must be saved.
So what was the result of this bold preaching by Peter, who before would not even admit that he even knew JESUS? Look at verse 13:
13 Now when they saw the boldness and unfettered eloquence of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools [common men with no educational advantages], they marveled; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
These men had so much boldness that they even defied the orders not to speak again in the Name of JESUS! Verses 19-20:
19 But Peter and John replied to them, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you and obey you rather than God, you must decide (judge). 20 But we [ourselves] cannot help telling what we have seen and heard.
I encourage you to read the rest of this chapter again and see just what the local church is to be about! We are to go out and fulfill our personal ministry of preaching the Gospel during the week, wherever we are appointed, and then return to church whenever services are to report, rejoice, refresh, recharge, regroup and be resent out as mighty missiles into the world again. We CANNOT make it successfully without being fully engaged in the local church that HE has called us to and planted us in! When we DO that, then there is no limit to what HE can accomplish through each of us individually , and all of us corporately! LET'S GO! We've got nothing to lose and an abundant entry into Heaven to gain! Here is Hillsong UNITED with "Go":
Shalom in Him!
