Day After Day

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

DAY AFTER DAY

Acts 5:40-42

40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.  

NIV

It is a good thing we are not getting flogged because we never stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. If we were getting flogged would we be rejoicing? The Apostles certainly had the calling upon their lives. They were determined not to be stopped from teaching and preaching to everyone they could about Jesus. They were not going to be silenced. This was certainly a big change in their lives from when they first encountered Jesus, and even after his death, as they were hiding in a locked room. But since the infilling or outpouring of the Spirit they have become bold to the point of being flogged. What kind of life lesson can we learn from this? It does seem as though we are taught today or at least we think we have to make friends with an unbeliever, develop a relationship before we can sneak Jesus into our conversation. It also appears we have to make our church as much unlike a church in hopes some unbeliever might decide to come it to find out it is not like a church, but the messages are still aimed at believers, so who is going to teach and preach to the people the good news that Jesus is the Christ? We certainly have changed our approach, but are we actually teaching and preaching that Jesus is the Christ? Do we just assume people know, and we just talk about God and Jesus as if everyone is saved? Yet we know people who are not saved but somehow we allow them to silence our voice. Are we afraid they will shun us if we tell them the truth? Are we afraid they will tell us off, or make such a convincing argument against faith in Jesus that we will not have an answer, that we will look foolish to believe? We interact with all sorts of people every day, but do we say anything at all to them about Jesus being the Christ? Has our society silenced our voice? Certainly we will not be flogged, so why are we so silent? Why don’t we speak up to everyone we encounter? It is time to get on with not only being a believer, but being a follower of Christ, getting on with our voice, telling people that Jesus is the Christ. It is true that is some cases it might be against the company policy to speak up at work. So then what do we do? We all must come to grips with this concept of telling, teaching and proclaiming every day, day after day, everywhere and to everyone that Jesus is the Christ.