Join us as we read the scriptures and a daily devotion written by Don Crisp. We pray these messages will bless us all at this time.
Thursday 24 September: Acts 5:25-32
Categories: Don’s Daily Devotions
Thursday 24 September: Acts chapter 5:25-32
V25: They then hear how the men they have arrested and put in prison for preaching about Christ are back in the temple, doing the self-same thing.
V26: So, temple guards are sent again to bring them before the council – but they will not use force, for fear of the people, who at this time hold the Apostles in high regard and even awe ( v11 and 13.)
V27-28: Brought before the council ( if more gently ) they are angrily rebuked by the High Priest for doing the very thing he has forbidden, and ” filling Jerusalem” with their teaching about Jesus, and declaring their guilt in His crucifixion. Of course, all their efforts to stop the spread of the gospel will and must come to nothing! Let this be our confidence still today.
V29: Peter and the others ( he is still the main spokesman, it seems ) reply just as they have in ch 4:19 – they must obey God rather than men. So, when human authorities seek to usurp the place that is God’s alone Christians must obey His Word, whatever the consequences. ( So Mark 12:17.)
V30-31: Forthright and uncompromising, Peter declares again how these Jewish leaders were instrumental ( humanly ) in crucifying Jesus. To hang on a tree is of course the “accursed death” in the OT ( Deuteronomy 21:23) But in Galatians 3:13, Paul explains that so Christ bore the curse for us, that we might be delivered. God has raised up and now exalted the One brought so low in His redeeming death to His own right hand ( the place of honour ) and made Him ” Leader and Saviour”, ( compare Hebrews 12 :2.) who alone can bring men to repentance and faith, and forgive their sins.
V32: Again, the emphasis on the Apostolic witness, on which the truth of the gospel rests – a witness endorsed and enabled by the Holy Spirit Himself, given to the believers. ( ch 1: 8.)