Acts 4:1-21
We cannot save ourselves under our own power. No more can we live out God's will on our own.
As we board passenger airplanes we are, without apology, instructed to save ourselves first; recognizing the simple logic that if we are dead we are of no use in the salvation of others, in the event of an airline emergency. The same is true of our eternal salvation! If we know not Christ, then we're of no "eternal" value to a single other soul. Yet once alive in Christ, ourselves, the Scriptures make clear.... "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
POWERLESS
So powerless that about 5,000 were saved....
"But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand." (Acts 4:4 ESV)
"And he said, "Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you, 'Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's." (2 Chronicles 20:15)
So powerless that dependance upon the Holy Spirit was absolutely necessary...
"And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, "By what power or by what name did you do this?" Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone." (Acts 4:7-11 ESV)
"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:5 ESV)
"Attempting the world's work in our own power is, at best, short-lived. God's work in our own power is already dead."
SHAMELESS
So shameless they continued to preach despite the threat of losing their freedom...
"And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus." (Acts 4:12, 13 ESV)
SPEECHLESS
The Sadduccees could not untangle the reality that these men had been with Christ, and that a formerly lame man is now walking.
"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition." (Acts 4:13, 14 ESV)
Charged by the Holy Spirit the unspeakable became the unshakable, untamable,u ndeniable, relentless pursuit of preaching the gospel to all the world. Soldiers lay down their very lives to protect the freedom of we who may continue to enjoy them. Christ' soldiers did, and continue to do, the same.
You haven't really lived until you've found something worth dying for.
"Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
