Devotional Acts 4: Courage in the Face of Threats and Prayer Reflection on Acts 4: the arrest of Peter and John, how to overcome enemy intimidation through prayer, and generosity in the early church. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional Acts 4: Courage in the Face of Threats and Prayer

My devotional today was on chapter 4 of the Book of Acts, and this was what happened.

Synopsis: In this chapter, Peter and John are summoned by the Sanhedrin (i.e., the Sadducees, Pharisees, scribes, and all the haters of Jesus 😅) because they were performing signs in the name of Jesus Christ and preaching the Gospel. Because of this, more and more people from Jerusalem—first 3,000 believers, but in this chapter almost 5,000—believed in the Gospel and accepted Jesus as their Savior. Because of the influence Peter and John were gaining, the members of the Sanhedrin decided to imprison them. But they knew they would have to release them because they had committed no crime. However, they could not let them continue preaching the Gospel so as not to convert more people to Christ. So, they decided to release them but threatened them to stop spreading the Gospel. But the apostles did not stop; on the contrary, they prayed to God to strengthen them so that they could preach the Gospel with boldness. Finally, the growing Christian community deposited the money from the sale of their possessions at the apostles’ feet. Because of this, none of the apostles suffered need—all had financial abundance.

Observations

These were my observations.

1. The enemy is always trying to stop God’s will. I don’t know if you remember, my dear, from the book of Nehemiah where Sanballat, Tobiah, and the Samaritans tried to stop the building of Jerusalem’s wall through intimidation, threats, etc. Well, in this chapter, the exact same tactics were used by the enemy. For the haters of God threatened the apostles to dissuade them from continuing to do God’s will. They knew that the signs the apostles performed and their preaching were marks of people that only faithful servants of God could do—especially the preaching of Peter and John, who were uneducated men. Moreover, they knew that the more the apostles spread the Gospel, the more citizens of Jerusalem would be converted to Christ. This was a problem for their plans to maintain control and influence over the people. So, they resorted to whatever methods they could to prevent God’s will from prevailing.
2. Prayer as our protective shield and sword. When Peter and John left prison and reunited with their brothers in Christ, they were not afraid to keep spreading the good news of the Kingdom of God. On the contrary, together with their brothers, they prayed for God to strengthen their faith so that they could continue spreading the Gospel with boldness despite the threats of the authorities. Here we can observe that they used prayer not only to request divine protection from God, but also to gain strength, conviction, and courage to preach the Gospel even when facing various dangers. That is to say, the apostles used prayer for both defense and offense against dark forces.
3. The Christian community is very important for the economic well-being of God’s servants. In this chapter, we also realize that none of the apostles suffered lack because the Christian community gave their proceeds to the apostles as support. This allowed none of them to suffer need and enabled them to continue spreading the Gospel throughout Judea with one less worry (i.e., financial). This is something God always taught through the tithe to all His servants so that the Levites could live off this support. For they had no regular jobs because their purpose was to serve God full-time, and they needed the help of their brothers in God to keep fulfilling their purpose. The same happened with Jesus’ apostles and the early Christian community in Jerusalem. And in our day, the same happens with religious leaders in the evangelical church and the Christian community. Therefore, we should always give our tithes and help our Christian brothers and sisters who are risking themselves to spread the Gospel. For they will have to face many battles against the enemy who pursues them and tries to stop them. And it is up to us to help them have one less worry in their daily lives.