A Message

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

A MESSAGE

Acts 4:1-4

4:1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

NIV

Peter and John were speaking the truth about Jesus Christ and the establishment was not happy about it, to the point of arresting them and putting them in jail. But it was already too late for them to really do anything about this truth because many of the people who heard what Peter had to say, believed in that truth. There are too many voices out there that are not speaking the truth today because it is not what people want to hear. Large numbers are not being added to the congregation of truth, but there are large numbers being added to the followers with silver tongues proclaiming all the feel good, you deserve it to have it all, messages. What has happened to the truth? Even the establishment seems to have moved into messages for the believers, rather than for those who need to believe. Some of them certainly want to increase their numbers in the pews, but then that might simply be to increase their offering. Certainly not all of them are like that, certainly some of them are preaching the good news, the truth about Jesus, spreading the truth. But the personal life lesson for us today it that we should be standing up and speaking out about the truth of Jesus Christ, even if the rest of the world isn’t and even it is cost us something, as it did Peter and John. The truth has to be told, first to the unbelievers, but even to those among the congregations of churches. There are so many who believe in something other than the truth as those priests, the temple guards and the Sadducees yet they belonged to the establishment. We must stand up and tell the truth about Jesus Christ, about the word of God, which is Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. When we tell the truth about the scriptures we are telling the truth about Jesus Christ. It is our responsibility, no matter what anyone else says, to tell the truth about the Word. The truth is simply as the Word says that in order for anyone to enter the Kingdom of God he must be born again. The Word declares we are all sinners, and that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for our sin, there is no other way. We must declare the truth, stand up, speak up, tell those in and out of the churches the truth about Jesus Christ. It may not be the most popular message, but it is the message that must be told. We have a message.