1. Only Jesus.
The first big statement comes from Peter in verse 12:
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Big implication…”Must be saved” – What does that mean to you? That will depend a lot on your background. In this context it meant healing – generally, delivered from sickness, bondage, judgment, etc. but there is no other “name” or authority that will do it for us. The holistic understanding of salvation comes in here – Jesus is the Messiah, for the people of God…and beyond! No one comes to the Father but through Him, so the Father draws all who seek Him to His Son! Remember the voice of God in the New Testament had basically one thing to say: “Behold My Son!” (Luke 3:22, 9:35)
2. Witness is not Optional.
The second statement is in verses 19-20:
“Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge, for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
a). We don’t recognize God’s deliverance in our lives. Both inside and outside of the church, we have explained away so many of the things that evidence the grace of God in our lives…most often attributing them to “right living” or some such hog-wash. If we could just see the reality that true “justice” in our lives would leave us all dead, I think we would be grateful for every breath – Life is a deliverance!! What’s more, God delvers us from bondage and sickness more than we realize – if we only had a glimpse of what goes on in “heavenly places”…
b.) We allow the world’s shame to silence us about Jesus. So many places it is said right out loud: You can talk about God (maybe) or religious customs, but start talking about Jesus and all of hell will object! You will see the ripple effect in the reaction of those unaware of how the spiritual world is influencing their reactions. It’s time we stand against the “gag orders from hell”! Jesus Christ saved my life! The Holy Spirit is a witness of His power, and so am I!
i have a good friend who tells how “Jesus rocks” every time I see him. He is telling the truth – every time! Isn’t this what verse 13 is saying??
As I searched the translations, I became very frustrated that NONE of them (New Living, NIV, New King James, New American Standard) translated this idea in the least. Who stole the “passion” from Scripture? Apparently the translators. Would it not be helpful to know that in Acts 1:14, 2:46, 4:24, 5:12, 8:6, 15:25, and Romans 15:6, that believers were not riding around in a Honda (NAS “one accord”), but rather had a shared passion for Jesus??? Well, it’s there, and if it’s not here among us, then we are missing something. So let’s got over our selves and catch a common passion for Jesus – It was and always has been normal for the Body of Christ!
There are three weeks left for the Tuesday night Spiritual Warfare Workshops, where we have an hour of teaching and another hour for application. We meet from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Enterprise Commons, Isanti, next to the John Deere Store on Hwy 65. The last session will be November 22. We have not been doing the the monthly training while these workshops have been going, but will be picking those up on Sunday December 11th when we tackle the issue of:
House Meetings and Larger Gatherings – What is biblical,”organic”,“missional”, …or should we just be asking, Where’s the fruit?