Lenten Devotions - Day 36
“Peter and John answered, ‘Do you think God wants us to obey you or to obey him? We cannot keep quiet about what we have seen and heard.’” Acts 4:19-20
Even in ministry, there are times when one is called on to place some other concern ahead of faithfully serving God. There are institutions to protect; there are donors one should not upset; there are issues the general public is not prepared to discuss or understand. There are concerns over paying homage to history, tradition, and heritage that may contradict the teaching of Scripture or the mission of Christ Jesus for the church. There are hot-button issues of society that to addressing stirs up a hornet’s nest of controversy. It is tempting to go along with the flow—to allow the swell of public opinion or the direction of institutional heritage sweep us along in its current.
This is somewhat the situation Peter and John faced. They did not consider themselves as preaching a new religion, breaking off from Judaism. Jesus was, after all, a Jew. He had remained so through his death and resurrection. He had never disavowed his heritage or the basic structure of Jewish faith. On the other hand, he had questioned certain emphases from tradition and legalism as he spoke of grace, forgiveness, love, and God’s desire to reconcile all people under the banner of faith.
For Peter and John, Jesus message became inconvenient. It was a great inconvenience to the Jewish religious leaders. It promised to distract the population from following the prescribed traditions of doctrine and practice that kept them in power. Jesus’ message was upsetting the apple-cart of Jewish life. This was why they had connived to have him crucified by the Romans. Jesus had been a threat to their way of understanding God and the structures of worship they found comfortable and secure. They had deemed the means of executing Jesus justifiable for the purpose of settling the people down and getting them back in line. He had been a danger to their way of thinking, so they had gotten rid of him. Now Peter and John had come along with more of the same message.
The two disciples were beaten, thrown in prison, and brought before the religious leaders to be ordered to keep their mouths shut. If they were a threat to the establishment, the establishment was not above threatening them if they should continue reporting the gospel of Jesus and his resurrection. Their very lives hung in the balance, for Rome did not interfere with such trials. Their response was likely startling. By all rights, they should have cowed in fear. They should have tucked their tails and run.
Their attitudes, however, were not those of commoners cowed in the face of authority. They answered in self-assured tones, yet with confidence expressed in God alone. They determined to remain true to their experience of Christ and the direction of God’s Spirit, regardless of opposition from any other quarter. This was not an attitude of arrogance, but of submission to the call and character of Christ Jesus. It was not a violent stance, but one that would face opposition just as they had watched Jesus face it—with humility, grace, forgiveness, and peace. It was a stance that called for an assessment of pressure placed upon them and the determination of its origin. Are we involved in wrongly applying pressure to conform, or do we stand with the integrity of faithfulness to God?
Determine how far your faithfulness to God goes. Perhaps issues are clearer in the case of Peter and John, but what matters is how they play out in your own life.
“Lord, help me to clarify what you desire of me over what is simply expedient.”
—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
Even in ministry, there are times when one is called on to place some other concern ahead of faithfully serving God. There are institutions to protect; there are donors one should not upset; there are issues the general public is not prepared to discuss or understand. There are concerns over paying homage to history, tradition, and heritage that may contradict the teaching of Scripture or the mission of Christ Jesus for the church. There are hot-button issues of society that to addressing stirs up a hornet’s nest of controversy. It is tempting to go along with the flow—to allow the swell of public opinion or the direction of institutional heritage sweep us along in its current.
This is somewhat the situation Peter and John faced. They did not consider themselves as preaching a new religion, breaking off from Judaism. Jesus was, after all, a Jew. He had remained so through his death and resurrection. He had never disavowed his heritage or the basic structure of Jewish faith. On the other hand, he had questioned certain emphases from tradition and legalism as he spoke of grace, forgiveness, love, and God’s desire to reconcile all people under the banner of faith.
For Peter and John, Jesus message became inconvenient. It was a great inconvenience to the Jewish religious leaders. It promised to distract the population from following the prescribed traditions of doctrine and practice that kept them in power. Jesus’ message was upsetting the apple-cart of Jewish life. This was why they had connived to have him crucified by the Romans. Jesus had been a threat to their way of understanding God and the structures of worship they found comfortable and secure. They had deemed the means of executing Jesus justifiable for the purpose of settling the people down and getting them back in line. He had been a danger to their way of thinking, so they had gotten rid of him. Now Peter and John had come along with more of the same message.
The two disciples were beaten, thrown in prison, and brought before the religious leaders to be ordered to keep their mouths shut. If they were a threat to the establishment, the establishment was not above threatening them if they should continue reporting the gospel of Jesus and his resurrection. Their very lives hung in the balance, for Rome did not interfere with such trials. Their response was likely startling. By all rights, they should have cowed in fear. They should have tucked their tails and run.
Their attitudes, however, were not those of commoners cowed in the face of authority. They answered in self-assured tones, yet with confidence expressed in God alone. They determined to remain true to their experience of Christ and the direction of God’s Spirit, regardless of opposition from any other quarter. This was not an attitude of arrogance, but of submission to the call and character of Christ Jesus. It was not a violent stance, but one that would face opposition just as they had watched Jesus face it—with humility, grace, forgiveness, and peace. It was a stance that called for an assessment of pressure placed upon them and the determination of its origin. Are we involved in wrongly applying pressure to conform, or do we stand with the integrity of faithfulness to God?
Determine how far your faithfulness to God goes. Perhaps issues are clearer in the case of Peter and John, but what matters is how they play out in your own life.
“Lord, help me to clarify what you desire of me over what is simply expedient.”
—©Copyright 2009 Christopher B. Harbin http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/
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