The final word
This week is on Acts 4:18-22:
These verses were cool because they describe two ways in which God has the final word in people's lives.
In the first, a lame man was healed. He was over forty years old. Who knows how long the man had been lame. He may have fallen out of a tree picking dates as a kid. In those days, he was retirement age. How shocking must it have been to people in that time to hear that an old guy, around the age when people start getting lame, was made whole by the power of God?
I heard recently about an 89 year old woman who had been blind all her life being healed and getting her eyesight finally. Most people are losing their vision by that age, not regaining it! How many of us would have given up hope long before then? How many doctors had probably told her she'd never see? How many times had she probably thought to herself "Well, if it was going to happen, it would have happened by now." And yet God had the final word. She was at an age where an insurance death panel would have said "Don't invest any more in her." And yet God healed her.
The second way God had the final word was when the religious leaders were trying to shut down Peter and John's ministry. They didn't want news of the miracle to get out, because it made them seem illegitimate. They tried to have the final word, but they were powerless because God had impressed people so much that they couldn't stop talking about it. They couldn't retaliate against Peter and John without hurting themselves. God had the final word because of his glory.
What situations might we be in, where we're waiting for a healing breakthrough, or a kid (hi Abraham and Sarah), or money, or insight, or a release from being persecuted, or whatever? Do we believe that God will have the final word in that situation? Or do we believe the voice of the present moment saying "You'll stay blind or lame," or "You need to be quiet and wait for the leaders to punish you?" God has the final say. No matter what happens in the present moment, or how our past has gone, it is God who owns the future.
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
These verses were cool because they describe two ways in which God has the final word in people's lives.
In the first, a lame man was healed. He was over forty years old. Who knows how long the man had been lame. He may have fallen out of a tree picking dates as a kid. In those days, he was retirement age. How shocking must it have been to people in that time to hear that an old guy, around the age when people start getting lame, was made whole by the power of God?
I heard recently about an 89 year old woman who had been blind all her life being healed and getting her eyesight finally. Most people are losing their vision by that age, not regaining it! How many of us would have given up hope long before then? How many doctors had probably told her she'd never see? How many times had she probably thought to herself "Well, if it was going to happen, it would have happened by now." And yet God had the final word. She was at an age where an insurance death panel would have said "Don't invest any more in her." And yet God healed her.
The second way God had the final word was when the religious leaders were trying to shut down Peter and John's ministry. They didn't want news of the miracle to get out, because it made them seem illegitimate. They tried to have the final word, but they were powerless because God had impressed people so much that they couldn't stop talking about it. They couldn't retaliate against Peter and John without hurting themselves. God had the final word because of his glory.
What situations might we be in, where we're waiting for a healing breakthrough, or a kid (hi Abraham and Sarah), or money, or insight, or a release from being persecuted, or whatever? Do we believe that God will have the final word in that situation? Or do we believe the voice of the present moment saying "You'll stay blind or lame," or "You need to be quiet and wait for the leaders to punish you?" God has the final say. No matter what happens in the present moment, or how our past has gone, it is God who owns the future.
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