February 25, 2015 (Wednesday)
Acts 4:1-22 is the scripture passage we will study tonight at prayer meeting. Acts 3 gives us the account of a disabled man who was healed in the name of Jesus by Peter and John. For this benevolent act of mercy they were arrested by the leaders of the Jewish Sanhedrin.
The number of believing men in Jerusalem now numbered 5000, because the miracle had demonstrated the power of God and the authenticity of the disciple’s faith so well that many more people accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. The Sanhedrin was astonished and shocked by this turn of events. So they brought Peter and John in and began an interrogation, asking, “By what power or in whose name did you do this miracle?”
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:8-12 NIV).
After deliberation among themselves, the Sanhedrin commanded Peter and John never to speak of Jesus again, but Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20 NIV).
And so it began. The church grew and believers told everyone that Jesus is the Messiah, while the rulers grew more determined to stop them until finally open persecution developed and the first Christian martyrs gave up their lives in devotion to Jesus Christ (Acts 5:17-9:2). The gospel message continued to be shared and by the end of the first century was being preached throughout the known world. Today there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion.
Way to go, Peter and John!