SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/20/2017 10:41 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2 The Persecution
Manifest
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts 4:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 As they were speaking to the people, the
priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,
2 being greatly disturbed
because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection
from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the
next day, for it was already evening. 4 But many of those who had heard the
message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.”
We have
been looking at reasons why Peter and John were irritating the priests as they
were preaching to the crowd after the healing of a man who was lame. Now the major problem that these Jewish
priests and the captain of the temple guards were upset was because the
disciples were telling the crowd that Jesus was raised from the dead. The Jewish leaders had executed Jesus as a
blasphemer, and now these men were telling people that He is alive, that He is
their resurrected Messiah, and they did not want to hear any of it. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection
of anyone as they only believed in the first five chapters of the Old
Testament. They did not believe in
angels or anything supernatural. I don’t
know what they thought of creation or about Enoch going to heaven without
dying.
“The idea
of a general resurrection was an apocalyptic concept with all sorts of
messianic overtones. Messianic ideas
among the Jews of that day meant revolt, overthrow of the foreign overlords,
and restoration of the Davidic kingdom…The notes of Peter’s sermon alarmed them: resurrection, Author of life, and a new
Moses. There were revolutionary
ideas. The movement must not spread. It must be nipped in the bud. (John B.
Polhill, The New American Commentary:
Acts [Nashville: Broadman, 1992],
140).”
Now
because the Jews could not tolerate the apostles’ teaching they laid hands on
them and put them in jail until the next day as by now it was evening. When we looked at Peter’s sermon in chapter
two we remarked that the sermon must have been a lot longer than what Luke put
into that portion of Acts and this sermon also must have been longer too. Because it was evening the Sanhedrin could
not have a trial, and so they put them in jail for the night.
Putting
them in jail did not stop people from believing as many came to know the Lord
because of this sermon. MacArthur writes
“Five thousand represents the cumulative number of men in the Jerusalem
congregation, not those added at this time.
This is the last mention of a specific number in Acts; from this time on
the church grew too fast to keep an accurate count. Luke does, however, not the church’s
continued growth (5:14; 6:7; 9:31; 12:24; 16:5; 19:20; 28:31).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: Peter gave out the gospel message in this
sermon, as he was willing to tell others the good news of the gospel. I love it when God gives me the opportunity
to tell someone the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are few things if any in this life that
give me more pleasure.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to trust the Lord to
bring to me “divine appointments” in order to spread the good news that Jesus
Christ died for who the Lord directs me to.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Andrew” (John 1:41).
Today’s Bible question:
“Where was Paul when he had a vision calling him to Macedonia?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/20/2017 11:04 AM
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