Public acts
This week is on Acts 4:1-4:
I suppose I could have titled this "The Sadducees get in on the Jesus-bashing action too," but it isn't the main theme of this week's teaching. This study is on truth, and the stupid things people do when they don't want to hear it.
Peter and John knew Jesus. They knew he had been resurrected. This wasn't a point of doctrine. This is something they had personally witnessed. They were telling people about this. The Sadducees, who didn't believe in a resurrection, and the temple guard, who didn't believe in anything that would result in them not getting paid anymore, both made sure they put an end to the distracting truth that Peter and John were sharing.
The truth is awesome, but sometimes people don't want to hear it. They get comfortable in whatever lie they have built their life around. When you share a truth that conflicts with one of those lies, it shakes their foundations. They can either choose to build on something stronger, which takes work, or they can attack the messenger. Usually they just attack the messenger.
Those guards and Sadducees didn't help their situation by interfering with the truth. If anything, they made things worse, as God was probably frustrated with them. The crowds that John and Peter were teaching, on the other hand, changed their lives. The truth does make a difference to those who want it.
When someone tells you something, and it makes you angry, stop and think. Are you angry because you don't want to hear the truth, or is there something else that's making you angry? Or if you tell someone something, and instead of receiving it and thanking you, they attack you, remember John and Peter. Sometimes people do dumb things like that when their world is shaking.
The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.
I suppose I could have titled this "The Sadducees get in on the Jesus-bashing action too," but it isn't the main theme of this week's teaching. This study is on truth, and the stupid things people do when they don't want to hear it.
Peter and John knew Jesus. They knew he had been resurrected. This wasn't a point of doctrine. This is something they had personally witnessed. They were telling people about this. The Sadducees, who didn't believe in a resurrection, and the temple guard, who didn't believe in anything that would result in them not getting paid anymore, both made sure they put an end to the distracting truth that Peter and John were sharing.
The truth is awesome, but sometimes people don't want to hear it. They get comfortable in whatever lie they have built their life around. When you share a truth that conflicts with one of those lies, it shakes their foundations. They can either choose to build on something stronger, which takes work, or they can attack the messenger. Usually they just attack the messenger.
Those guards and Sadducees didn't help their situation by interfering with the truth. If anything, they made things worse, as God was probably frustrated with them. The crowds that John and Peter were teaching, on the other hand, changed their lives. The truth does make a difference to those who want it.
When someone tells you something, and it makes you angry, stop and think. Are you angry because you don't want to hear the truth, or is there something else that's making you angry? Or if you tell someone something, and instead of receiving it and thanking you, they attack you, remember John and Peter. Sometimes people do dumb things like that when their world is shaking.
Comments
Post a Comment