Thursday 27 April 2023

Background

The Acts of the Apostles, which we are reading this week, speak to us from across the centuries about a young church ‘making it up as they went along’, always under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and led principally by people who had known Jesus during his life on earth. Today’s section of the text follows on immediately from yesterday’s and relates the unfolding reactions of the crowds and Jewish authorities to both the healing of a crippled beggar outside the Temple and to Peter’s subsequent sermon. In it we see a wonderful reversal of power where those used to being in control were confounded by the boldness and confidence of ‘uneducated and ordinary men’ (Peter and John).

The people in the Council are described as as being amazed. From the stories of Jesus in the gospels we know that these individuals and groups are not often speechless, so in telling us in v. 14 that ‘they had nothing to say in opposition’ to what they saw in Peter and John, and the man who had been healed, Luke (the writer of the Acts of the Apostles) is making a very significant claim. It is clear that the Holy Spirit was at work in and through these individuals in a way which, while causing controversy, also carried with it integrity and truth. 

The subsequent discussions of the Council made it clear that they knew themselves to be in a dilemma. They do not dispute that something, ‘a sign’, had happened, but they wanted to stifle it. Strange! Their compromise was to order the apostles to keep quiet, forbidding them to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. Peter and John were not intimidated by this warning and refused to comply, claiming that they ‘cannot keep from speaking’ about what they have seen and heard. We may be reminded of the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, who also knew this inability to keep silent: (Jeremiah 20:9) "If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name’, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot."

Their dissent led to further threats but not punishment, as the authorities feared the reaction of the crowd, and the men were released.

Verse 22 is interesting, commenting that the man who had been healed was ‘more than 40 years old’ suggesting perhaps that a child or a younger man might have recovered without supernatural intervention, but that this must be regarded as a miracle.     

To Ponder:

• Reflect on your story of coming to faith in Christ. Can you recall a time when you were unable to deny the work of God, however much you might have wanted to?
• Reflect on your experience of Christ’s Church. Can you recall any times when you, or others, sought to stifle the work of God, for whatever reason?
• To what extent, if any, are you able to identify with the apostles’ claim that they cannot keep silent about what they have seen and heard in Jesus?

Prayer

Constrain us, Jesus, so we may speak boldly of what we have seen and heard from you and give us again the fullness of your Holy Spirit so we may open our mouths and bring healing and hope. Amen.