Boldness
And they realised that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).
We have all experienced, to a greater or lesser degree, isolation over the past year. Our circumstances were dramatically changed. We had grown to expect our lives to have an evenness about them, and we were not used to being disturbed and our days filled with uncertainty. The Book of Acts is a history of swiftly changing events. Things move from incredible blessing to vicious persecution. People’s lives were wonderfully transformed by the love and grace of God, but they were also plunged into the dark waters of the world’s opposition to the Saviour. They faced Satan both as an angel of light and a roaring lion. We see this pattern unfold in the experience of Peter and John. Having been used under the sovereign hand of God to lead thousands of people to Christ, they were thrown into prison. But something had fundamentally changed in their lives. The forces which had terrified Peter’s heart and led him to deny his Lord were overcome by the simplicity of his faith in following the Lord, and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. The prison cell did not dim the brightness of the lives Peter and John possessed in Christ. Instead, it became another stepping-stone of experience in the ways of God that deepened their faith in Christ. And as John would later write, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).
The next day they found themselves confronted by the spiritual and political forces that had judged Jesus and led Him to the cross. But the Saviour who “was led as a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7) was no longer living in lowliness and rejection in the world, nor was He hanging on a shameful cross. No, He was crowned with glory and honour in heaven. And the Holy Spirit had descended and taken residence in the hearts of the people of God, so the life of Christ could be seen in them. God was again working sovereignly. He had reassembled the group which had previously judged His Son, and this in turn led to Him being glorified and declared to be the Saviour of the world (verses 11-12).
Peter and John stood alone before the council and were challenged by one question, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” (v. 7). They stood where their Lord had stood earlier. And the council expected to crush them. But Peter was no longer trying to be invisible amongst the group which warmed themselves by a fire as the Son of God was mocked and humiliated (Luke 22:54-62). He was not afraid or hesitant, but was empowered by the Holy Spirit of God (v. 8). He spoke directly to their consciences and hearts. The lame man was healed by the power of the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This was the name Pilate had written over the Lord’s cross – the name of the Person they had crucified. Jesus was the stone they, the builders, had rejected, and He had become the chief cornerstone. It was a message Peter would declare consistently throughout the rest of his life: the “living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious” (1 Peter 2:4). It was the only “name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved”. Peter and John were two uneducated and untrained fishermen. Their boldness and power came from being with Jesus (v. 13).
The Saviour they knew on earth was the Saviour they now knew in glory. The simplicity and power of our witness and the experience of the peace of God in a tumultuous world come from a single source, Jesus. Why would we not want to abide in Him, and follow and worship Him?
