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We Cannot Stop Speaking |
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"But Peter and John answered and said to them, 'Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4: 19-20). Peter had healed a lame man and the miracle was verifiable (Acts 3:1-10). The Sanhedrin could not deny it. The apostles attributed the miracle to the power of the resurrected Lord (Acts 4:8-12). Instead of believing, the Sanhedrin was more concerned about "damage control" and tried to intimidate the apostles by warning them "not to speak at all nor to teach in the name of Jesus" (Acts 4: 18). However, the authority of the Sanhedrin was not enough to stop the apostles from speaking or teaching by the authority of God. The authority of God always supersedes the authority of man (Acts 5:29). EXAMPLES The people of God have always resisted any command that was contrary to the will of God. Consider the example of the parents of Moses who hid him and "were not afraid of the king's command" (Hebrews 11:23). Likewise, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego refused to bow to the image of gold and faced the wrath of Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:1-30). The apostles followed suit. Why? Their hearts were filled with the teachings and miracles of Jesus (Acts 4:20). They could not stop speaking! Jeremiah tried not preaching an unpopular message, "but His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not" (Jeremiah 20:9). PERSONAL EVANGELISM Why is personal evangelism lacking among Christians today? There may be a number of reasons. Perhaps we have not filled our hearts with the teachings and miracles of Jesus. We may be doctrinally sound and oppose false teachers, but Jesus is not alive in our hearts. If we truly believe that He is the Son of God, that He walked on the water, that He fed the five thousand, and that He was resurrected from the dead, how can we stop speaking (John 20:30-31)? AN EMMAUS EXPERIENCE Two men met Jesus on the road to Emmaus following His resurrection and later recounted the experience: "Did not our hearts burn within us, while He opened the Scriptures to us" (Luke 24:32)? Such an "Emmaus experience" will cause our hearts to burn and nothing can put out the fire of faith in our hearts except the cold water of complacency and indifference. If our hearts overflow with the teachings and miracles of Jesus, no one can stop us either.
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