SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/26/2017 12:32 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 Be Obedient to God at all Costs
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 4:14-22
Message of the verses: “14
And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to
say in reply. 15 But when they had
ordered them to leave the Council, they began to confer with one another, 16
saying, "What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy
miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem,
and we cannot deny it. 17 “But so that it will not spread any further among the
people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name." 18
And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at
all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter
and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in the sight of God
to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; 20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we
have seen and heard." 21 When they
had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish
them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had
happened; 22 for the man was more than
forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.”
I said that we would
talk about the Christians responsibility of obeying their government in this
SD, and I suppose that when we went over other NT books that we have written
about this, but since it fits in nicely into this passage we will look at it
again.
“13 Submit
yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as
the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of
evildoers and the praise of those who do right. 15 For such is the will of God
that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. 16 Act as
free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as
bondslaves of God. 17 Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor
the king (2 Peter 2:13-17).”
“1 Every person
is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority
except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 2 Therefore
whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have
opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers are not a cause
of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of
authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4 for it is
a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for
it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger
who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5 Therefore it is necessary to
be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. 6
For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God,
devoting themselves to this very thing. 7 Render to all what is due them: tax
to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom
honor (Romans 13:1-7).”
As we look at what
happened to Peter and John we see that they were obeying God as it was their
desire and duty to spread the gospel, to tell others the things that they had
seen and hear from our Lord when He was on earth and to obey the Great
Commission that He gave to them, and also to us, just before He went back to
heaven to be with His Father.
In the Old Testament
books of Exodus and Daniel we also saw this put into action. The Hebrew mid-wives disobeyed the Egyptians
by not killing the babies as this was against the will of God. (Too bad mothers who have babies in their
wombs do not follow the example of these Hebrew mid-wives.)
Let us look now at
Daniel 6:4-10 “4 Then the commissioners and satraps began trying to find a
ground of accusation against Daniel in regard to government affairs; but they
could find no ground of accusation or evidence of corruption, inasmuch as he
was faithful, and no negligence or corruption was to be found in him. 5 Then
these men said, "We will not find any ground of accusation against this
Daniel unless we find it against him with regard to the law of his God."
“6
Then these commissioners and satraps came by agreement to the king and spoke to
him as follows: "King Darius, live forever! 7 "All the commissioners of the kingdom,
the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have
consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an
injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O
king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den. 8 "Now, O king, establish the injunction
and sign the document so that it may not be changed, according to the law of
the Medes and Persians, which may not be revoked." 9 Therefore King Darius
signed the document, that is, the injunction. 10 Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he
entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward
Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying
and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously.”
One thing that we need
to mention is that Peter and John treated the men who were on the Sanhedrin
with respect. They did not get into
their face and tell them how wrong they were having a bad attitude. When we speak the truth we must do it in love. Paul writes about how he must preach the
gospel in 1 Cor. 9:16 “16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast
of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the
gospel.” Peter and John did the same.
It looks like we will
have one more day looking at this section as we will try and finish up this in
our next SD.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
“Simon Peter” (Luke 5:3).
Today’s Bible question: “Who
said, ‘Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails…I will not
believe?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/26/2017 1:06 PM
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