September 27, 2024

Acts 4.20 (NIV)
“For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Speaking what one has seen and heard is the essence of witnessing.*

One night, in my role as a camp counselor, I was having trouble getting the little girls in my cabin to settle down and go to sleep. Finally, one little girl piped up, “There’s a room full of girls here and I just have to talk!”

Perhaps Peter and John could relate to that little girl. They were filled with the Spirit and bubbling over with good news to share. They literally were not able not to speak! Such exuberance was a new development for them. Remember when they were not so bold? Here they were in court where one is supposed to tell the truth about what you have seen and heard and they are being commanded not to speak! Instead of quaking in fear, they are willing to pay the price of this defiance with their lives.*

As someone has pointed out, “A leader’s execution is not a usual recipe for heartening his followers,”* so what accounts for the difference in their demeanor? They were pumped because of what they had seen and heard. Have you ever witnessed something astonishing? I saw the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger; I saw (on TV) the airplane flying into the second tower of the World Trade Center; I saw a boy and his bicycle thrown across an intersection after colliding with a pick-up truck. When we see something like that, isn’t it our natural reaction to want to tell someone? Imagine being an eye-witness to the events that Peter and John had seen. What a story they had to tell!

Can you give a first-hand account of what you have seen Jesus do in your life? How anxious are you to share your story with anyone and everyone – regardless of the consequences?

Actively sharing your faith solidifies your personal convictions.*

September 26, 2024

Acts 4.13 (NIV)

. . . and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Biblical wisdom is not associated with great learning or with anything particularly intellectual or scholarly.*

In this story, the observers were impressed with Peter and John’s courage while they noted that they were Jesus’ followers. How did they know? Perhaps they had seen them with Jesus or knew them by reputation, or maybe the evidence pointed to no other explanation. Peter and John were not educated men – you don’t need a college degree to be a fisherman. They weren’t rich or famous, so what did they have to be confident about? They weren’t soldiers so why were they so brave? 

Their actions were a positive reflection on the Lord. As someone has observed: “Of the proofs for the resurrection of Jesus, one of the most compelling is simply to compare [the] cowering disciples as portrayed [in the Gospels] . . . with the bold, confident figures in the book of Acts.”* If they hadn’t changed, would the book of Acts have been called, “The Disappearing Acts of the Apostles”? Or “The Sometimes Brave, Sometimes Foolish Acts of the Apostles”?

What about us? Have we ever left a bad impression on someone who knew that we were Christians? Or do we leave others knowing that they have been in the presence of Jesus because they have been with us?

If our society is indifferent to us, could it be because we have become indistinguishable from the world?*

September 25, 2024

John 20.24-29 (NIV)

Thomas . . . was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said . . . “Unless I see the nail marks . . . and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” A week later . . . Jesus came and stood among them and . . . said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Personal contact with Jesus left virtually no one unmoved.*

According to the verses just prior to these, Jesus had earlier shown his hands and his side to the other apostles. After Thomas’ exclamation, Jesus remarked that Thomas believed because he had seen him, and he goes on to say that those of us who believe without seeing him are blessed.

I am convinced that it was unfair to nickname him, “Doubting Thomas.” Did the other disciples believe that Jesus was alive before they saw him for themselves? Thomas was no more a doubter than the others; he was just not at the right place at the right time.*

  

But then, perhaps Thomas was right where he was supposed to be - because his reaction was recorded for all of us to marvel along with him: My Lord and my God! 

We have the Bible because God acted in history to make himself known, and faithful people responded.*

September 24, 2024

John 20.18 (NIV)

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

There are times in a person’s life when, even in the midst of them, you know you’ll never be the same.*

We were rehearing our church Easter drama and the director was trying to get the actors to portray the proper demeanor for someone who had just seen the risen Savior. What would that look like, I wondered. How would I act if I saw Jesus alive, three days after I had watched him die? We usually think we know how we would react in a situation – until we are faced with it, then we often surprise ourselves. It can be a moment of truth about our character.

 

Are we appropriately impressed with the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection? Wouldn’t it be great if we felt the same awe and wonder as if we had been there that morning? How much more effective our witness would be if we could say, “I have seen the Lord!” with the same breathless joy as Mary Magdalene.

Our Lord’s resurrection is not merely an historical event; it is a history-making event.*

September 23, 2024

John 17.24 (NIV)

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me.”

God came to us so we could come to him.*

Jesus’ personal request is not so different from what we might ask for – to see our loved ones when we get to heaven and to spend eternity with them. When Jesus spoke these words, he wasn’t just talking about his disciples. He was thinking about me, too.

 

Three thoughts stand out about his prayer:

 

1.  Jesus wants to be with me. I have family and friends - people who like me and love me. But how many of them crave my presence? Do any of them actually pray for time with me?

2.  Not only does Jesus want to be with me, he prayed for it. Will God not answer the prayer of his beloved only son? Will he not give him everything that he asks for?

3.  In order to be with him, we must be like him.

  

He ends his prayer by saying that he has made God known to us so that God’s love may be in us and that he himself might be in us. Amen.

Not only does He want to spend eternity with us; He wants to spend today with us.*

September 22, 2024

John 13.35 (NIV)

“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

When Jesus came he didn’t just talk about love. He loved.*

Jesus said that we would be known as his disciples by our love for one another – not by the rituals we perform, not by the “costumes” we wear, not by our secret handshake, or where we hangout. But how does loving each other prove anything? Even the heathens love others.

If we back up to verse 34, we see that Jesus presents a new command: to love each other “as I have loved you.” Oh! That’s a way different kind of love! As one writer observes, if Jesus was merely restating the law to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, it would not be new.* Instead, he is requiring that we hold ourselves to an even higher standard than to love others based on self-love. This new principle, based on Christ’s love, is “self-abandoning and self-sacrificing.”* This kind of love isn’t merely sentiment and gushy feelings; it involves putting action into love, even when we don’t feel like it!

Do we really exemplify this in the church today? If an outsider visited your church, would he marvel at how you love one another? Or would he think, “These people don’t even like each other!”

It is not agreement that unites us; it is the love of God in Christ.

September 21, 2024

John 12.32 (NIV) 

“But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.”

My part is to share the gospel and God’s part is to make the gospel effective in the heart. My part is to model Christ and God’s part is to apply Christ.*

In the next verse, John 12.33, we are told that Jesus made this statement to show what kind of death was in store for him. In his death on the cross, he was lifted up from the earth; in his resurrection he was lifted up from the grave; and in his ascension, he was lifted up into heaven.*

But his words suggest another truth as well.* He doesn’t merely tell us, “If you lift me up, the story of the cross will draw men to me.” He says, “I will draw men to me.”* We concern ourselves with the effectiveness of our witness but Jesus tells us that it is our job to lift him up; it is his job to draw men to him. 

“All men” does not mean that everyone will accept his invitation; we have a free will and we are free to turn him down. As Jesus tells us, no one comes to the Father except through him. (John 14.6) We are commanded to exhibit Jesus Christ crucified* but God is still in charge of the outcome.

The drawing by Jesus is not selective and irresistible; it is universal and resistible.*