Peter's Defense - 4:8-12

Acts 4:8-12

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

This questioning by the court is not so different from the questioning that was used to accuse Jesus. Once again, like they did in verses 1-7, they use this as a platform to point to the Christ, Jesus. They cared very little of their own safety and comfort, but cared more for the honor and glory of Christ and the salvation of humanity. Their commitment to pontificated the gospel so often confronts two areas of my life (1) My value of God's glory, and (2) My love for humanity, for if I truly valued God's glory would I not take more opportunity to point to him? If I truly believed that the gospel was the door to real life, and also loved my neighbor, would I not seek every opportunity to present this gift to them? Where my life shows fear that God may not come through and my words will be at best a bumbling mess or fall flat, the apostles seem to have trusted God to come through when they opened their mouth. Based off of this confidence Peter makes his defense, but a defense that was not to just prove them wrong and him right, Peter cared not about being seen as popular, right, or cool in the eyes of his accusers, Peter cared about their souls. In fact, had the defense ended at verse 11, we could rightly say that Peter was in the accusation business, but Peter ends his defense by saying, "there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

I'm gonna go ahead and not write anymore on this one, except this to meditate on: How different would our lives, relationships, jobs, communication, and daily agenda's look if our utmost concern was the glory of God and the salvation of man? What if we quit worrying about things like revenge, rather we were overwhelmed with forgiveness so we, like Peter could present the one way to be saved? What if we didn't care about impressing others, but like Peter was consumed with presenting the gospel of Jesus to others? What if we didn't care about proving our point, but cared more of the eternal condition of those around us?

Can you take about 5-10 minutes and ask God to break your heart for what breaks his, to consume you with what consumes him, and to give you eyes to see people the way he sees them...till tomorrow may this text haunt you!