Scripture to Read: Acts 4:1–4
God loves to use us, as His children, to grow His Kingdom for His glory. God used Peter and John as they shared with the crowd what God led Moses and the prophets to say and write (2 Peter 1:19–21) about Christ. But when Christ and His resurrection are proclaimed, the opposition will come. Jesus promised us in John 15:18–25, and in many other portions of God’s Word, that this world would hate all of His followers. In Acts 4:1–4, we see the hate that the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees had for Peter and John. The reason the Sadducees hated Peter and John so much is that the Sadducees did NOT believe in angels, demons, heaven, or hell, and they denied a resurrection from the grave after death (Matthew 22:23). Well, Peter and John had proclaimed that Christ had been raised from the dead, so the Sadducees had to stop them. At this point, we must remember Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” No matter how we are persecuted for proclaiming Christ, remember that it is the spiritual forces of darkness using people to carry out their dirty deeds. The good news is that though Peter and John were imprisoned, according to Acts 4:4, “many of those who had heard the message believed.”; now that’s worthy of going to prison.
Challenge & Application
· What would you be willing to go to prison for to serve your Lord well?
· How are you seeing persecution occur in your life or other Christians’ lives because of an unwillingness to compromise?
Don’t forget to pray using the A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) method!