One

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

ONE

Acts 4:32-37

32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. 34 There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. 36 Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet.

NIV

Special note:  Although this may not be the most uplifting devotion, it is certainly thought provoking. I am not sure what can be done with this, if anything.  

This would seem to be a difficult concept to deal with as it appears most of us believers own quite a few possessions and it would seem we are all going to keep them for ourselves. We certainly have developed quite a bit from the way the early church functioned. First of all, it would seem we are not even of one heart and mind. We have divided ourselves up into so many camps, so many different denominations, each with their own heart and mind about the interpretation of what the scriptures mean. Then even the individuals within each camp cannot agree completely so as to have one heart and mind. It really is only a few denominations within Christianity that even agree about having to be born again to enter into the Kingdom of God. It becomes even more limited when we start into the baptism of the Holy Spirit and his fruit and gifts. Where is the one heart and mind? We may never see that again, and that is certainly not the way God intended. Then we have to deal with this thing about their having all things in common, selling possessions so that no one had a need. Today it would seem we have those that have and those that don’t but we actually do not hang around with anyone who does not have. It would seem we all who have simply hang out with all the others who have and we never see anyone who has a need, so there is no need to sell any of our possessions. Oh sure, we are told that we need to tithe and give to the church so it can give to the poor in our stead, but in reality most of our giving simply goes to support  those who ask us to tithe and give, so they can have some possessions too. We have come a long way from this early church and it is doubtful we will change from the way we are. Has God developed along with us? Or was this early church acting in human thought about one heart and mind, and sharing all possessions, rather than under the direction of God? Of course most of us do not own any fields to sell, all we have is our homes and cars which certainly we need to continue living where God has directed us to live and blessed us with. We do have some possessions we could sell, but then who would we share the money with, the church, and trust our giving would get into the hands of those who have a need? Although many of the giving was laid at the Apostles feet, which seems to be like us giving our proceeds of sales of our possessions to the church. It all seems way more complicated now then it was in the early church. It is doubtful the Apostles were on salary and had a staff of support personal on the payroll in some large building filled with all sorts of ministry props, like sound systems, platform lighting, kids area, daycares, Sunday school rooms, gyms and the sort. Will we ever return to the way it was? Not likely but we can at least testify to the resurrection of our Lord with great power. One out of three isn’t bad. This is going to take a lot more consideration by a lot more believers before we move toward the other two. It looks like all each of us must come to this: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Although we all are not one, we each are one. 

Shaken and Filled

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

SHAKEN AND FILLED

Acts 4:31

31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

NIV

Wouldn't it be great if after we prayed the place we were praying would be shaken and we would all be filled the Holy Spirit and spoke of God boldly? So why isn't the place we pray shaken? Why did God decide to shake that place and not the one in which we are praying? Perhaps he would if we prayed like they did. We believe we are filled with the Holy Spirit, but do we speak the word of God boldly? Maybe if we prayed with the earnestness of heart as those disciples did, we would experience what they did. Although there have been times when this believer felt the miraculous within, having the building shake is still to be experienced. What keeps us from that kind of experience? Did those disciples have more faith then we do? God said he gave to every man a measure of faith, so either we believe or we don’t believe. How can one believe more then another? If we believe then we believe, but if we have doubt, then maybe we do not actually believe. It is for certain those who were with Peter and John in that house all believed so deeply that God made the building shake, as if to say, “Amen” to their prayer. Then if that was not enough of an answer he filled them all with the Spirit, which must have been similar to that day of Pentecost. They were so filled they spoke the word of God boldly. Perhaps that was also like the day of Pentecost, and they were all speaking in other tongues, although it does not clearly say that. But what was for certain that God answered their pray and he answered in the immediate. One thing we can learn is that we do need to seek God frequently, as like daily. Although they certainly were there on that day of Pentecost and were filled with the Spirit then, they needed to stay in communication with God, and have more of him, more of the Spirit. Our actions, our deeds, our words could be empty if we express them with human power, but if we are in contact with God, in prayer, in earnest prayer, prayer that is in line with the will of God, so we can be effective ambassadors of his to the world, that he will be glorified, maybe we might just feel the ground shake beneath our feet, and experience again and again the power of the Spirit in our lives. Lord, stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus! Let us be shaken and filled. 

Enable your servant

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

ENABLE YOUR SERVANT

Acts 4:23-30

23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. "Sovereign Lord," they said, "you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: "'Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.' 27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

NIV

This was difficult to break up so let’s take the whole of it at once. The basic premise of this prayer is asking God to give them the boldness to keep speaking and teaching about Jesus. They did remind God, although he needs no reminding, about what David had said years ago, about the rulers, elders and teachers of the law raging and plotting against Jesus. They also understood that it was in his plan they do in order that Jesus would go to the cross for the sins of the world. But now they ask God to consider these current threats against them and ask him to enable them to speak his word with great boldness as well as heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Jesus. What has happened? It does not seem our prayers resemble this kind of prayer at all. Shouldn’t we be praying that God will enable us to speak his word with boldness, and not just in church, but in the streets, among the unbelievers, or we should say the unchurched, to be more politically correct? Shouldn’t we be praying for God to stretch out his hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Jesus? It would seem a sure thing if there were healings and miraculous signs and wonders, combined with us boldly proclaiming the Word of God, there would be a great number of unchurched people flooding into the doors of the church, or at least a large amount of people would be added to our number daily. But instead we pray for things, or when we meet together we pray for our friends, aunt who has a son whose mother’s father is having some kind of procedure tomorrow. Although God has said that he would provide for our every need and that we should ask him for our daily bread, it would seem this kind of prayer would certainly please him a great deal. It is also true we need to work through prayer on our relationship with him, it would seem he would be very interested in us also praying for the boldness to speak his word and asking him to heal, to perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Jesus, which of course we would have to voice out loud, to the unchurched who would see and hear at the same time, and maybe even some of the churched might join our number as well. Lord, enable your servant, enable me.

Be the Cause

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

 BE THE CAUSE

Acts 4:21-22

21 After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

NIV

What were the rulers, elders, and the teachers of the law going to do? They were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of Israel and here because of the healing of this lame man, all the people were praising God, the God this Sanhedrin was supposed to be leading the people in obedience to. How could they punish Peter and John in light of all the people praising God because of what Peter and John had done? It was obvious Peter and John were men of God, used by God to heal a man that had been lame for over forty years. Yet the rulers, elders, and the teachers of the law in private, out of the sight of all the people threatened both Peter and John never to speak about this Jesus again to the people. We are not sure what exactly their threats were, what they were going to do to Peter and John if they continued to talk about Jesus, but we can be sure it was not something good. So what is our life lesson in this exchange, in this threat and possible punishment for obeying God, rather than man? Once again we are faced with being obedient to God, rather than men. Once again we can see that some people are not wanting to be a part of the moving of the Holy Spirit, maybe some of them are even part of the leadership of churches, of denominations, as the Sanhedrin were. But we can also see that we must not allow ourselves to get caught up in this kind of thinking. We must allow the Spirit to move freely in our lives, even if it causes some to threaten us, because it will also cause many to praise God. If we are living in the miraculous, if we are living as willing vessels to be used in a miraculous way, there will be some who will threaten us in some way, but there should be many who will praise God, and hopefully some of that many will be people who have never praised God before. Surely the Spirit has given the body of Christ gifts which he intends for us to exhibit in our lives as he empowers. But if we exhibit some of those gifts in the wrong assembly of believers we might find ourselves being threatened not to use those gifts, because this denomination does not believe in them, or that they are for today. But if we lived in the Spirit and were used in miraculous ways, no matter how many threats there might be, many people would be praising God. Is this not our calling, to bring people to Jesus? Is this not the reason the Spirit flows through us? Is this not the reason for all the gifts, so that people will see the power of God at work in his people, and turn from their wicked ways, and praise God? If all we ever say, is that God loves you and expect people to leave their wicked ways, we might be losing the battle. God is a God of miracles, A God who works in the miraculous, A God who has sent the Holy Spirit to gift and empower us with the miraculous, let us pay no attention to any threats, let us be people who cause many to praise God. Let us be the cause. 

No Silence

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

NO SILENCE

Acts 4:18-20

18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. 20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

NIV

There will always be some people who not only refuse to believe in Jesus, but want to silence those of us who do. The rest of scripture makes it clear enough why they refuse to believe in Jesus, but is there anything which tells us why they desire to silence us as well? This Sanhedrin did not want to accept Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ and that was their choice as God has given every man the free will to decide on his own whether he desires eternal life, or to perish. But to impose their will upon Peter and John was not a part of their free will God gave them. We know that God will put to silence those who do evil, but these men wanted to put Peter and John to silence for talking about Jesus. Today we have men trying their best to put us to silence. In other lands, they are actually killing Christians in order to silence us. In this land it is those who hate God, who declare unbelief in God who want to silence the voice of believers. Even our own government is acting in a way to remove our voice from the public forum by declaring any form that represents Christian belief must be removed from public places. They spit on Christianity whenever they can, making laws which defy the faith of believers. It seems we are a nation which touts tolerance for all beliefs except, of course, Christianity. Our nation even tolerates those who declare death to all those who do not believe as they do, especially Christians. When we gather with people who do not believe, we are told not to talk about our God, about Jesus, because it offends them, they don’t believe and so they do not want to hear about Jesus. But Peter told them to judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather then God. This is the voice we need, the words we need when we are asked or told to be silent about our faith. When someone says to us that it is fine for you, but not for me, so please keep silence about your faith, about Jesus, we need to simply ask them to judge for themselves whether it is right in the God’s sight for us to obey them or God. We have a voice and we cannot be silenced about the things we have seen or the things we have experienced. We have the right to speak our mind, our heart, our faith whenever the Spirit inspires us, which should be just about all the time as we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. When others want to silence us, we say, “No silence”. 

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. 

The Cornerstone

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

THE CORNERSTONE

Acts 4:8-12

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 He is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.'   12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

NIV

They asked and Peter had the answer, of course he was filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit and it was pouring out all over those rulers, elders and teachers of the Law. Although it is true these men may have been among those who incited the crowd to crucify Jesus and release Barabbas, in all reality it was their sin, as it is ours that crucified Jesus. This may well have been the point Peter was making as he declared that salvation is in no one else other than Jesus. Salvation is not from the single act of inciting that crowd, but from a life of sin. These men had rejected Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the one they in fact had been waiting for, but their own selfish ambition and need for power and influence over others superseded all else. They were blinded by their sin. They were a great example of suppressing the truth about God which he had put within them by they own evil deeds. We will even see in their response their evil deeds continued to suppress the truth, which Peter told them. But we can see this truth, our eyes, the eyes of our heart, have been opened and we see that it was indeed our sin which crucified Jesus.  It was this act of kindness shown to us, a cripple person, which healed us. Once we were indeed crippled, lame unable to walk with God, but because of his act of kindness, sending Jesus to die for us, we have been healed. We have not rejected the corner stone, as he is the very foundation on which our life is built, without him we could not be who we are, as we are indeed living stones being built into the temple of God, with Christ as the cornerstone. All things about our life are based on this cornerstone. It is when we move in our own direction, insisting on our own will, our own path, our own desires in life, we reject Jesus as our cornerstone. We may have found salvation in Christ, as we have rejected all other names, all other gods, all other means, including ourselves, but we must continue to use him as the cornerstone of our life.