Bullies Or God

Read Acts 4:14 - 22

The leaders could not debunk this miraculous healing of the crippled man.  The man stood before them in his own power, completely healed of his handicap.  To deny this miracle would have made the leaders the laughing stock of Jerusalem.  Feeling angered and frustrated the leaders ordered the disciples out of  their sight.  

The Sanhedrin call a meeting and discuss, "What are we going to do with these men?  Everybody in Jerusalem knows that they did this miracle and we cannot deny it."  Amazingly the they all admit among themselves that a miracle did happen, yet this wasn't going to stop them from making life miserable for Jesus' followers.  They felt like they were trapped in a corner.  So they said "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."  These leaders thought they could threaten the disciples and thus stop this movement of God.  This is the best they could come up with, "Stop what you are doing, or else..."  They had no leg to stand on, so they do what most people do when cannot stop something they don't like or want to happen, they resort to bullying tactics.  

Peter responds (my paraphrase), "Tell us is it better for us to obey your or obey God?  We cannot help but speak about what we are speaking because Jesus has commissioned us to go and spread the word and we will not stop talking about it."  The Gospel message burned their souls.  They needed to go out and spread the truth of Jesus Christ.  Absolutely nothing was going to stop them, including a but of religious bullies.  They were committed to the Gospel message 100%.

My prayer is that this would be the same for you and me.  I pray for the passion of the Gospel to be present in our lives that we can't not share the the Good News.  I pray that we would commit to following and sharing Jesus.  I know we all have passion in life.  I see the enthusiasm of people for sports, music, literature, and you name it.  There is a fire burning in all of us and may that fire be passion for know and sharing Jesus Christ unashamedly.