the Third Week after Easter
Click to donate today!
Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
Acts 4:1-22
A work as powerful as this cannot fail to provoke opposition from Satan. His instruments are well known to us: Annas, Caiaphas, the priests, the elders and the scribes, in short, the leading people responsible for the condemnation of the Lord. If they had dealt gently with the disciples, they would, by the same token, have admitted their guilt in putting the Master to death. Pride prevents them from this. They persevere in their hatred against the name of Jesus. He becomes henceforth the supreme touchstone: for some the "chief cornerstone, elect, precious", for others "a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence" (cf. v. 11; 1 Peter 2:4-8). V. 12 is fundamental. It asserts the unique value and the necessity of the name of Jesus in order to be saved.
The disciples are recognized as having been with Jesus (v. 13). If we live continually in communion with the Lord, it will be noticeable.
All the opposition of the rulers of the Jews cannot stop the action of the gospel (v. 4) nor close the mouths of the apostles. For they have received from God Himself their calling and their commission (v. 19), and His Word is in them "as a burning fire" (v. 20; cf. Jeremiah 20:9).
