Truth
In my previous blog I quoted Acts 4:1-22, where we read about Peter and John being brought before the religious leaders of their day for preaching in the name of Jesus. They warned them not to speak in the name of Jesus. To which Peter and John replied,
“But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.
For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”Acts 4:19,20.
Luke the writer of the book of Acts tells what happened when Peter and John reported to the other believers what had happened. Luke writes,
“On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:“ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’
Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”Acts 4:23-31
Put simply the believers prayed and gave praise to God.
The believers then as believers today know, that what they believe is true. Those early believers were not put off by the arrest of Peter and John.
Instead they did what all true believers in Christ do. They prayed and praised God. They did it because they knew first of all that they were right in their beliefs.
They also knew that those persecuting them must consciously or subconsciously believe that the facts about Jesus is true.
After all if Jesus was just a man and those who were believing Him were believing a myth why persecute them. A myth cannot hurt anyone.
On the other hand if everything the New Testament writers said about Jesus is true then people have a lot to consider. John’s gospel records Jesus as saying about himself,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”. John 3:16-18.
C. S. Lewis said of Christianity,
"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." C. S. Lewis.
Please think about it.
In my previous blog I quoted Acts 4:1-22, where we read about Peter and John being brought before the religious leaders of their day for preaching in the name of Jesus. They warned them not to speak in the name of Jesus. To which Peter and John replied,
“But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.
For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”Acts 4:19,20.
Luke the writer of the book of Acts tells what happened when Peter and John reported to the other believers what had happened. Luke writes,
“On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.
You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:“ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’
Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed.
They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.
Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.”Acts 4:23-31
Put simply the believers prayed and gave praise to God.
The believers then as believers today know, that what they believe is true. Those early believers were not put off by the arrest of Peter and John.
Instead they did what all true believers in Christ do. They prayed and praised God. They did it because they knew first of all that they were right in their beliefs.
They also knew that those persecuting them must consciously or subconsciously believe that the facts about Jesus is true.
After all if Jesus was just a man and those who were believing Him were believing a myth why persecute them. A myth cannot hurt anyone.
On the other hand if everything the New Testament writers said about Jesus is true then people have a lot to consider. John’s gospel records Jesus as saying about himself,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son”. John 3:16-18.
C. S. Lewis said of Christianity,
"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." C. S. Lewis.
Please think about it.
