Friday, January 3, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Acts 4-5
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 2
Key Verse
Acts 5:3 — “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?”
Devotional Thought
The morning after Pentecost, Peter and John healed a lame man at the temple gate, and the crowds came running. As they preached Jesus and the resurrection, the Sadducees—who denied resurrection altogether—had them arrested. The next day, Annas, Caiaphas, and the whole priestly clan demanded, “By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?” Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, answered plainly: “By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” The rulers marveled, not at his eloquence, but at his boldness, “and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” That phrase is the quiet hinge of the whole account. Unlearned fishermen stood unshaken before the most powerful court in Israel because they had walked with Christ. When commanded to be silent, they answered, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
The opposition only intensified. Arrested again, they were freed by an angel in the night and returned at dawn to teach in the temple. Gamaliel, a respected Pharisee, counseled caution: if this work is of men, it will collapse; “but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it.” The council beat them and released them, and the apostles departed “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.” Psalm 2 asks, “Why do the heathen rage?” and answers with heaven’s laughter and the Father’s decree: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” Every council, every threat, every prison door bends before the enthroned Son.
In these early January days, when resolutions are still fresh and the year stretches open before us, Acts 4-5 asks what we will do with the name of Jesus in ordinary places—at work, at the table, in conversation. Ananias and Sapphira remind us that God is not mocked; He sees the heart behind the gift. But the church also shines: Barnabas sells a field and lays the money down; believers share “as every man had need”; the sick are healed in the streets. Boldness, generosity, and holy fear grow in the same soil—a company of people who have been with Jesus.
The rulers could silence neither the message nor the men, because the stone the builders rejected had become the head of the corner. “Neither is there salvation in any other.” So the church prayed, the place was shaken, and they spoke the word with boldness. That same Spirit is not confined to the first century. He still fills ordinary people who ask, still shakes rooms, still sends His servants out to “speak all the words of this life.”
Reflection
- The council “took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” If your neighbors and coworkers examined your life this week, what evidence would they find that you have been with Him?
- Peter and John said, “We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” What has God done in your life that you have been silent about—and to whom might He be sending you to speak it?
Prayer
Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven and earth, and Thou hast set Thy King upon Thy holy hill. We confess that we have feared men more than we ought, and kept silent when we should have spoken the name of Jesus. Fill us with the Holy Ghost as Thou didst fill Peter and John, and grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness we may speak Thy word. Give us one heart and one soul with Thy people, ready hands to meet the needs around us, and holy reverence before Thee. Whether we are threatened, ignored, or counted worthy to suffer shame for His name, let us rejoice, and cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 2:1 — “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?”