Category: Devotions

Withdraw: Acts 4: 15

“So they ordered them to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together.”

Happy Christmas everyone who gets a spare minute today to read this devotional blog.
The verse isn’t obviously a Christmassy verse but it may well help us today of all days!
The Sanhedrin was a Supreme Court of 70 men and the high priest. They were the highest Jewish court and were the only ones who could try a King and they were the ones with final authority of the Jewish law. It was the Sanhedrin who forced the trial of Jesus and handed Him over to the Romans for crucifixion.
Peter and John were ordered to withdraw from the Sanhedrin.
My simple message on this Christmas Day is this: no matter how busy it maybe for you today please find time to withdraw from the Sanhedrin.
You may have spent the whole year worrying about your future, you may feel it is out of your hands and left to the decisions of others. You may be waiting for hospital tests. The inevitable may seem inevitable and you are battling doubt. You may know this year the damaging effect of intimidation. Man may have ruled you with an iron fist this year or maybe even a manipulative one. Today you can withdraw.
Come away from those experiences and come to the Incarnate Son of God, to Jesus. He knows what the Sanhedrin can do, they did it to him. But he conquered. He came back and so can you. Even if you know there is much conferring going on about you, still withdraw.
Come away. It’s an order. You may feel the order has come from your enemy but it has come from your God.
Today rest in Him. Your future is in Him. He has you. He came for you. Withdraw into Him.

Acts 4: 14

“But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.”

I get tired of the voice of opinion.
Everyone seems to like their own voice.
It doesn’t matter what it is they know best.
A friend recently told me that on inviting someone over for a meal that when it came to saying goodbye that person commented how they enjoyed it but that the food was a little over cooked. Why do that?
It is because people just seem to need to speak.
They need to write that email, they need to speak their mind on a matter. Everyone talking.
Today it will be the same.
Christmas Eve amongst the shops the noise will be deafening.
The atmosphere will be wonderful and in the middle of that people will be speaking and not all of it will be kind words.
In today’s verse we see that with the healed man standing there then there wasn’t anything the religious leaders could say. They could hardly say it’s not true.
The impact of the Church silenced the world.
May that forever be.
And may the presence of Christ be in your life, so that the gospel of the Christ-child may silence your world so that there be nothing that can be said. His presence and power be enough.

Acts 4:13

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

No high flying qualifications, no top-notch references, just very ordinary men. I am not sure what ordinary means. But they were ordinary. But they had been with Jesus and as a result they were courageous.

The first people to go to Jesus after his birth were not royalty, but shepherds. They were lower class citizens who often failed in fulfilling the duties that was expected of the Jew. However they came together to bow down and worship Jesus.

Often the Church wants stars not servants. It wants status to be high. Achieving is an overarching desire. But no matter how gifted, the aim is to have the most charismatic, the most popular, the loudest person on the stage. However, what the Church needs are people who have been with Jesus.

Have you been to Jesus today?

Acts 4:12
“Salvation is found in no-one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

There is only 1 character in the Christmas story whose name means ‘saves’.
No one could save the people from Roman oppression.
No one could save the people from burdensome religious laws and duties.
Not one person could save.
Except Jesus.
It would be difficult perhaps to look at the Christ-child and see a Saviour. A baby does offer hope and a future but no one knows it’s true potential.
People still struggle to see the Saviour in this season.
How can this Jesus save me?
But just as in that first Christmas in order to see a Saviour one had to bow down and worship, in surrender and by faith to say, “I believe you are the Saviour, you are my Saviour.”
Nothing has changed. We still need to come that way.
The Saviour is still here. Faith has not gone from the story.

Acts 4:11

He is” ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’

He is.
He is Jesus.
He is Immanuel.
He is the king of the Jews.
He is great.
He is Son of the Most High.
He is Saviour.
Titles found in the Christmas story.
And today …
He is the stone which has become the capstone.
He is the all-important one.
He is what holds everything together.
He is the foundation.
He is everything that your life needs.
He is.

Acts 4:10

“then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.”

This is not magic.
This is not some Greco-Roman deity.
This is not us calling on evil helper spirits.
This is not anything to do with us.
How does this man stand before you today?
It is because of Jesus.
Once crucified by you but now raised by God.

This is not some make believe story that the whole world celebrates.
Trimmings, lights, festivities and food, there is a reason for this.
The root of the activity of this time of the year is in the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, a week of evil and debauchery. (For those who would much rather change it to happy holidays and remove Christ from the season may have second thoughts if they knew that during Saturnalia much human sacrifice, rape and other wickedness was celebrated.)
But how does this man or this woman stand here today? The many thousands who are standing this Christmas having been healed, rescued and saved. How has that happened?
It is not because of the root of the activity but the root of the story that Christianity has chosen to celebrate at this time of the year.
They are standing because of Jesus.
A virgin birth. Which some disbelieve.
A sinless life. Which some disbelieve.
A sacrificial death. Which some disbelieve.
A resurrected ascension. Which some disbelieve.
A coming King. Which some disbelieve.
But that is why they can stand. That is why I am standing.
So turn on the lights, hang the decorations, put out the food and let us celebrate as we announce, “This man (or woman) stands before you today because of Jesus who man has always tried to get rid of but who has always failed!”

Acts 4:9

“If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed,”

There it is right in the middle of this verse, I haven’t seen it here before, an “act of kindness”.
I remember when pastoring my Church we would set aside a month for ‘random acts of kindness’ and it was so encouraging to see people who perhaps were previously shy in evangelism suddenly realise it is not hard to be a witness, just be kind.
Kindness is to step aside from your life to engage in another’s.
Kindness is to come down, not in a patronising way, but in a selfless manner.
Kindness is not to hold on to what you have but to empty yourself so that others can hold what they have never held.
Kindness is to move across the room, to leave the room, to walk across the street, to journey, crossing borders and cultures very different to your own.
Kindness is humility.
Kindness attracts the dirt and the mess of life.
Kindness is good news to the poor and a release to those who are held back.
Kindness opens eyes, lifts burdens off people and helps the cripple stand again.
Kindness can often be misunderstood and even criticised.
Kindness can be killed off but kindness will still keep coming back.
Kindness came and Kindness will come again.
The birth of Jesus, the Act of Kindness, nothing random about that.

Acts 4:8

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people!”

The work of the Holy Spirit is often lost because of the sole focus on Pentecost in Acts 2.
Similarly the Holy Spirits presence in Christmas is often forgotten too.
Here’s a reminder, read each one slowly and listen:

To Zechariah (regarding his son John the Baptist, forerunner to Jesus): “he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth.”

To Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you …”

Of Mary: “before Joseph and Mary came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”

To Joseph: “what is conceived in Mary is from the Holy Spirit”
Elizabeth, on Mary’s visit: “and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit”

After Zechariah’s speech came back and John was born: “His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied”

A righteous man in Jerusalem called Simeon: “the Holy Spirit was upon him”

At some point Simeon had a divine experience: “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

When Jesus was 8 days old: “Moved by the Spirit, Simeon went into the temple courts” (it was there he met Jesus, Mary and Joseph and praised God).

Today the Holy Spirit is still moving on people, revealing things to come, enabling prophetic words, doing what man cannot do.

And back to our verse today. The Holy Spirit is still filling our lives and enabling us to speak to those in greater authority than ourselves and even perhaps to people who intimidate us, to rulers and elders of people.
Come Holy Spirit.

Acts 4: 7

“They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

So they are brought into the centre of the room for their inquisition.
The most important question was trying to answer what or who was behind the healing of this crippled man. Was this natural healing? Divine or from the devil?
At the time as throughout the history of the Bible, names were very important. They did not just identify who the person was but expressed the very nature of that person and what they would be able to do.
The power of the person is in the name.
So if the name is removed then there will be no power.

“You are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”

There is power in the name of Jesus. Power to save.
Power to save from wrecked lives and sickness. Power to save from impossible situations. Power to raise the dead. Power to release the crippled lives.
Christmas is about a name, Jesus. In that name is the power for anything.

Acts 4:6

‘Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest’s family.’

Annas the high priest: he had probably been appointed high priest by the ruler Quirinius. His name means ‘grace of God’.

Caiaphas, his name means ‘searcher’ and remarkably and unknowingly prophesied the death of Jesus as an act of God’s grace during the trial of Jesus.

John, his name means ‘loved’. Most probably the one who replaced Caiaphas as the next high priest.

Alexander: not much is known about him.
Other men: men of the household of the high priest.

These gathered in Jerusalem to discuss the claims that Jesus who they had seen crucified was apparently alive.
Jesus has always attracted discussion on who he is.

On this day the grace of God, the searcher, the loved and the unknowns gathered.

Dear Lord
May this Christmas see the ‘grace of God’ fall upon those who ‘seek’ because you ‘love’ the whole world even the ‘unknowns’ within it.