THEY HAD BEEN WITH JESUS
Peter and John had had a very good day. As they were going to the temple to pray, they had encountered a man who was lame for 40 years sitting at the gate. The man asked for a handout; but they gave him the gift of healing and salvation and he went about walking and leaping. Seeing what had happened, a great crowd gathered; and Peter, seizing the opportunity, preached to them about Jesus Christ. Five thousand men believed and were converted to the faith. It was a very good day!
Some of the
religious leaders were grieved, however, that the Apostles taught the people
about Jesus, and so they took them and cast them in prison. The next day, they were brought before the
rulers to answer for their actions. When
given the chance to speak, God anointed Peter again with words of
salvation. Scripture records, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled;
and they took knowledge of them, that
they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13).
It is my hope
that every child of God would desire to be bold for Him, and would always wish
to have the right words to speak to those who need to hear about Him. After all, the great Commission wasn’t intended
for the apostles only, but for every Christian man and woman. Jesus tells us, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
We may not all be preachers or
evangelists, but we certainly are all gifted by God in some way that will both
edify the church and reconcile the sinner.
"As every man hath received
the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the
manifold grace of God." (1 Peter 4:10).
The secret of
those who possess and exercise this boldness is simply this: they
have been with Jesus. Spending
time every day in the presence of the Savior is how we gain power and
anointing. There is no other way that we
can achieve this. It is a personal
relationship with Christ that is at the very heart of our walk and witness for
Him. People recognize this vitality in
us, this essence of Christ; and it draws them to the Savior that they see in us.
Paul tells us in
2 Corinthians 3 that we are living epistles, or living letters, and that we are
known and read of all men. People are
constantly reading our lives. Whether
what they read is good or bad depends on what has been written in our
hearts. As we spend time with Jesus, His
Spirit writes the Word in our hearts and it translates into our lives – the
things we say and the things we do. It
is not just filling our heads with the letter of the Word, but it is the spirit of the Word being sown in our
hearts that truly transforms us. Any
unbeliever can use the Word of God to beat down and destroy folks – even the
devil uses the Word at times, twisting it to his own devices; but the Word that
the Holy Spirit ministers to our hearts brings peace and hope to a lost and
dying world.
When Moses went
up on Mt. Sinai to receive the commandments of stone, he spent considerable
time in the presence of almighty God.
When he returned to the camp, his face shone so brightly from the
encounter that the Israelites could not bear to look on him for the glory of
his countenance. He had to put a veil
over his face so that they could look at him.
How much more glorious is it when we spend time in the presence of the
Messiah, the Alpha and Omega, and the King of kings? There should be something different that men
see about us after we have been with Him.
We should come away with some of the glory of His brightness. Moreover, we should not have to veil our
witness for the Lord, but, instead, we should let our light shine brightly for
all to see.
Before I was
converted to Christianity, a young believer was placed beside me on my
job. My supervisor asked me to work with
him and teach him the job. It turns out
that he was going to college on the West Coast and had come back home to Ohio
for the summer to earn some money before he went back in the fall. He was a member of Bill Bright’s
organization, Campus Crusade for Christ,
and was not shy about sharing his faith.
We ended up doing a lot of talking about it as we worked together. The thing that had the most impact on me,
however, was something that happened one evening when I had gone to the
cafeteria for lunch. I sat down with
several other guys that worked in my department, and my young friend came and
sat down with us. As he began to eat his
meal, one of the other workers grabbed the pepper shaker and began to dump it
on the young man’s food. I was
immediately offended by this unprovoked action, but I was also curious to see
how this man of God would handle such an offense. This young Christian showed no anger or
indignation toward the offender. His
demeanor was calm and his normally cheerful outlook did not shrink in the
least; instead, he reacted with grace and patience. I don’t remember him saying a word in his own
defense, but I’m sure there were others beside me who also were offended for
him. What I was left with from this
episode was that this man’s faith was real.
It was not just doctrines and platitudes, but it had become translated
into his real life; and I was struck with the notion that it was because he
knew and spent time with Jesus, the Son of God!
As we spend time
daily before Jesus Christ, speaking our hearts to Him and letting Him speak His
heart to us, we will find ourselves changed into His likeness from one glory to
another as we yield our will to His. The
more we are changed, the more men will marvel at our witness. Though we are unlearned and ignorant, they
will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus!
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