Men or God

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

MEN OR GOD

Acts 5:29-32

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead — whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."

NIV

We have seen this scene once before, and Peter and John said pretty much the same thing in response to being told not to speak about Jesus anymore. But this time Peter goes on to tell them they were responsible for killing Jesus, but that he did not stay dead, as the God of our fathers, which included the priest, raised him and exalted him to his own right hand. Peter made sure they knew it was God, whom they insisted they were the rightful representatives of to the people. Peter laid out the complete message of this new life to the high priest and his associates. Our life lesson can be multi-faceted from this short section of scripture. We could head in many different directions, first dealing with the fact that we should obey God rather than men. This, of course does not mean we should ignore the law of the land written by men. This is strictly aimed at people who would attempt to silence our voice about Jesus Christ. We cannot be silenced when it comes to talking about the full message of this new life we experience. No matter if people tell us not to talk about religion at gatherings we can still talk about our new life in Christ as Jesus is not a religion, he is God. We can still tell about the fact that it was people’s sin that caused Jesus to have to die on that cross, but God raised him and he now is at the right hand of God so he can give repentance and forgiveness of sin. We can still tell them we are witnesses of these things because we have the Holy Spirit who bears witness within us to these things, we know them to be true. We can ask them, if they want to deny that which is true. Peter spoke with boldness and with confidence of this truth and that can once again be our life lesson. To speak  boldly about our faith in Jesus Christ, our trust in him, our confidence of his forgiveness of sin, our confidence of his provision and providence, and his sovereignty in our life. Why should we allow anyone to silence our voice? Is it because they tell us we offend them and if we are Christians we should not be offensive? Does the truth offend? Does our experience offend? We can tell them we are sorry the truth offends them, then ask them if we should obey them and be silent, or should we obey God and tell our life experience? We have the Holy Spirit who empowers us with the truth and we should be open to expressing that truth whenever and wherever and with whoever we find ourselves. So who do we obey, men or God?