Speak The Gospel

Speak The Gospel

PREACH THE GOSPEL

We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Acts 4:20

For many cushioned and coddled Christians today, it is all too easy not to speak about the gospel truths which we have seen and heard. Far too often, we bury the gospel light we have been given under a basket full of excuses and justifications.

But this was not the testimony of the apostles. Having seen the risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ themselves, having learned at His feet, and having received His charge to go and baptize and teach in His name, they had no option or inclination but to proclaim the gospel truth they had learned and experienced.

Notice especially the context of their bold declaration. The Jewish authorities had just threatened them and commanded them not to speak any more in the name of Jesus. The apostles could have compromised the glory of Christ and settled for a philanthropic, people-pleasing message. But instead they declared their irrevocable determination to “be right in the sight of God” and continue to publish the truth concerning Jesus Christ.

The compelling motivation that is expressed by these faithful disciples should force us to ask this question of ourselves: if we are so easily silenced in our gospel witness, have we truly seen and heard the same thing the apostles did? Is Jesus Christ a living, breathing, instructive reality to us?

Those who have seen and heard the resurrected Christ are clearly and helplessly consumed by the experience. They cannot help but speak of the things they have seen and heard. What about you?

Prayer: Lord, reveal Yourself in me so that I will preach You to the world.

Scriptural Reading: Acts 4:1-22

1 Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them,

2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

Addressing the Sanhedrin

5 And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes,

6 as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.

7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

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

9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well,

10 let it be known to you all, 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 stands here before you whole.

11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders,

Speak The Gospel