Been with Jesus

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

BEEN WITH JESUS

Acts 4:13-17

13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 "What are we going to do with these men?" they asked. "Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name."

NIV

The rulers, elders and teachers of the law took note that Peter and John had been with Jesus. They were somewhat set back about the fact that both of them were simply unschooled ordinary men, yet the words of Peter were certainly filled with the kind of wisdom they would have expected from an educated, schooled person such as themselves. They could not deny what had happened, but they also were not willing to accept what Peter and John had said, they wanted all this nonsense to stop, as it threatened their position with the people. There are two types of people in this narrative, believers and those who do not, even in the midst of the miraculous. But that never dissuaded Peter and John from allowing the Holy Spirit to use them in miraculous ways. This should be our life lesson today. We should be living in such a manner that the Holy Spirit can use us in miraculous ways. Although we live as believers, like Peter and John, we may not be living in the miraculous. If we keep our eyes on the physical that may be all we will ever experience. If we walk by sight, seeing only the circumstances in our life, perhaps all we can expect is the natural outcomes from those circumstances. If all Peter and John saw as they passed the lame man was a lame man and his circumstances, they may have just dropped in a coin and gone on to temple to pray, being religious and all. But they saw a lame name and they saw an opportunity as inspired by the Spirit to live in the miraculous, to do the right thing, to bring glory to the name of Jesus. We should be living in the miraculous, not so we can have any fame or fortune, but so we can bring glory to Jesus. We should be living in the miraculous so that others, even those who are religious, might note that we have been with Jesus. We should be living expecting the miraculous, open to the inspiration of the Spirit, to move, to act, to speak the words he prompts us to speak, and to act as he prompts us to in the miraculous so we can bring glory to Jesus, so others will be astonished and take note, we have been with Jesus.