His Hand

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

HIS HAND

Acts 11:19-21

19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

NIV

Here we are at a moment in the history of the new or early church where we see many believers who had left Jerusalem during the time of the great persecution, right after the stoning of Stephen, telling the message of Jesus Christ to others. Now some were, as we have seen before, stuck in the law so to speak and only sharing the message with other Jews. But some, for a reason will we see, started telling the message to Greeks, who were gentiles to the Jews. The key to the life lesson here for us is in the fact that the Lord’s hand was with them. This is the reason a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. We can talk, discuss, argue, and debate all the scripture until we are blue in the face and not a single person will turn to the Lord unless the hand of the Lord is with us. It does absolutely no purpose to tell the story about Jesus Christ to any unbeliever unless the hand of the Lord is with us for they will not turn to him without his hand in the matter. We know one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict men of their sin and need of repentance. Unless the Holy Spirit is at work in the life of a person and that person is responding to that conviction it does not matter what we say, they will not turn to Jesus. Now having said that we also know the Holy Spirit is at work in all men, but some have suppressed the truth so deep within because of their evil deeds they do not respond to the working of the Spirit in their lives and nothing we can say to them will convince them. However, that is no excuse for us to remain silent. We must continue to speak the truth, tell the story to whoever we can, both Jew and gentile. Of course in our case, we are not Jews and gentiles but rather believers and Christians. So many who say they are believers still need to hear the message of Jesus, but many who call themselves Christian really do need to hear the message of Jesus. So often people associate attending a Christian church as being a Christian, but the fact is only those who turn to the lord, which implies turning from self, are believers and that requires the hand of the Lord being with the one who speaks to them. No conversion is possible without the hand of the Lord being with us. This is not to be confused with predestination or being elected or chosen by God, but it merely means no one can turn to the Lord unless his hand is at work. No one will listen to what we say about Jesus unless his hand is with us.