All About Who?
Reflection: Every now and then we hear someone say, “This or that person is so full of themselves”. Or someone will say, “It’s always all about them”. Indeed “narcissism” is prevalent in our culture, and we all possess it in some varying degree. At the heart of our sinful nature is “self-preservation”, “self-glorification” and “self-reliance”. Notice the common denominator is “self”.
We see Peter had demonstrated some of this even as he followed the “selfless” one! Jesus had foretold his disciples that one day they would have to rely on a power outside of themselves, as they were brought before rulers and authorities. And when they did, they would be given the power of the Holy Spirit to not only defend themselves, but also be given an opportunity to witness to the resurrection.
In today’s reading in Acts, this prophecy comes true for Peter. As he is seized, put in jail, and then brought before the various ruling classes in Judaism of the day (priests, temple guards, Sadducees), they want to know where this power came to heal the man at the temple who was lame. This gives Peter the opportunity to preach that there is healing/salvation (Luke uses a Greek word whose root is “sozo” that means physical healing, as well as spiritual healing) in no other name. Just as Jesus used healing in the physical realm to point to a greater power and authority, now the apostles were doing the same thing.
The rulers and powers of the day (in the earthly realm) don’t know what to do with this, especially because it is unschooled, ordinary men who were doing this, and they were used to judging everything through earthly/worldly pedigrees. Peter then uses this opportunity to say to them, “Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven by which mankind can be saved.”
Quite a bold proclamation, as Peter is given courage by the power of the Holy Spirit. Quite a turnaround for the man who cowered when asked if he even knew Jesus a few weeks before! How else can we account for such a change, if not by the power of God and His Holy Spirit to transform this burly fisherman into a spokesman on the world’s most powerful stage in that day!
So the question we might ask ourselves is (taken from the IVP commentary) "What are we attempting which could not be accomplished without the Holy Spirit? What is there about our lives which demands an explanation? We will be `filled with the Holy Spirit' when we dare to do what could never be accomplished on our own strength and insight" (Ogilvie 1983:98).”
May God give us courage as we are given the opportunity to witness to what God has done in our lives by His power through our belief in the crucified and risen Christ!
Psalm 143:1-6
A psalm of David.
1 Lord, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.
2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,
for no one living is righteous before you.
3 The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
like those long dead.
4 So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed.
5 I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
6 I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.
2 Kings 12,13
Joash Repairs the Temple
12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. 2 Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. 4 Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord—the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. 5 Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, then use it to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.” 6 But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple. 7 Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple.” 8 The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves. 9 Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the Lord. The priests who guarded the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord. 10 Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal secretary and the high priest came, counted the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord and put it into bags. 11 When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. With it they paid those who worked on the temple of the Lord—the carpenters and builders, 12 the masons and stonecutters. They purchased timber and blocks of dressed stone for the repair of the temple of the Lord, and met all the other expenses of restoring the temple. 13 The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the Lord; 14 it was paid to the workers, who used it to repair the temple. 15 They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty. 16 The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the temple of the Lord; it belonged to the priests. 17 About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem. 18 But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his predecessors—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem. 19 As for the other events of the reign of Joash, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 20 His officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla. 21 The officials who murdered him were Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer. He died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.
Acts 4:1-12
Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin
4 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand. 5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
This people I have formed for myself; they shall declare my praise. Isaiah 43:21 (NKJV)
Now God has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1:22 (NIV)
O Christ, you wash us clean and present us to God as his children, brothers and sisters through you, dear Jesus. Our joy is profound; we find our family in you. Amen.
We see Peter had demonstrated some of this even as he followed the “selfless” one! Jesus had foretold his disciples that one day they would have to rely on a power outside of themselves, as they were brought before rulers and authorities. And when they did, they would be given the power of the Holy Spirit to not only defend themselves, but also be given an opportunity to witness to the resurrection.
In today’s reading in Acts, this prophecy comes true for Peter. As he is seized, put in jail, and then brought before the various ruling classes in Judaism of the day (priests, temple guards, Sadducees), they want to know where this power came to heal the man at the temple who was lame. This gives Peter the opportunity to preach that there is healing/salvation (Luke uses a Greek word whose root is “sozo” that means physical healing, as well as spiritual healing) in no other name. Just as Jesus used healing in the physical realm to point to a greater power and authority, now the apostles were doing the same thing.
The rulers and powers of the day (in the earthly realm) don’t know what to do with this, especially because it is unschooled, ordinary men who were doing this, and they were used to judging everything through earthly/worldly pedigrees. Peter then uses this opportunity to say to them, “Salvation is found in no one else for there is no other name under heaven by which mankind can be saved.”
Quite a bold proclamation, as Peter is given courage by the power of the Holy Spirit. Quite a turnaround for the man who cowered when asked if he even knew Jesus a few weeks before! How else can we account for such a change, if not by the power of God and His Holy Spirit to transform this burly fisherman into a spokesman on the world’s most powerful stage in that day!
So the question we might ask ourselves is (taken from the IVP commentary) "What are we attempting which could not be accomplished without the Holy Spirit? What is there about our lives which demands an explanation? We will be `filled with the Holy Spirit' when we dare to do what could never be accomplished on our own strength and insight" (Ogilvie 1983:98).”
May God give us courage as we are given the opportunity to witness to what God has done in our lives by His power through our belief in the crucified and risen Christ!
Psalm 143:1-6
A psalm of David.
1 Lord, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.
2 Do not bring your servant into judgment,
for no one living is righteous before you.
3 The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
like those long dead.
4 So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed.
5 I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
6 I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.
2 Kings 12,13
Joash Repairs the Temple
12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Joash became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beersheba. 2 Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. 4 Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord—the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. 5 Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, then use it to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.” 6 But by the twenty-third year of King Joash the priests still had not repaired the temple. 7 Therefore King Joash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests and asked them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage done to the temple? Take no more money from your treasurers, but hand it over for repairing the temple.” 8 The priests agreed that they would not collect any more money from the people and that they would not repair the temple themselves. 9 Jehoiada the priest took a chest and bored a hole in its lid. He placed it beside the altar, on the right side as one enters the temple of the Lord. The priests who guarded the entrance put into the chest all the money that was brought to the temple of the Lord. 10 Whenever they saw that there was a large amount of money in the chest, the royal secretary and the high priest came, counted the money that had been brought into the temple of the Lord and put it into bags. 11 When the amount had been determined, they gave the money to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. With it they paid those who worked on the temple of the Lord—the carpenters and builders, 12 the masons and stonecutters. They purchased timber and blocks of dressed stone for the repair of the temple of the Lord, and met all the other expenses of restoring the temple. 13 The money brought into the temple was not spent for making silver basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or any other articles of gold or silver for the temple of the Lord; 14 it was paid to the workers, who used it to repair the temple. 15 They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty. 16 The money from the guilt offerings and sin offerings was not brought into the temple of the Lord; it belonged to the priests. 17 About this time Hazael king of Aram went up and attacked Gath and captured it. Then he turned to attack Jerusalem. 18 But Joash king of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his predecessors—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—and the gifts he himself had dedicated and all the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of the Lord and of the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, who then withdrew from Jerusalem. 19 As for the other events of the reign of Joash, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? 20 His officials conspired against him and assassinated him at Beth Millo, on the road down to Silla. 21 The officials who murdered him were Jozabad son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer. He died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. And Amaziah his son succeeded him as king.
Acts 4:1-12
Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin
4 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. 2 They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3 They seized Peter and John and, because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. 4 But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand. 5 The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. 6 Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. 7 They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?” 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
This people I have formed for myself; they shall declare my praise. Isaiah 43:21 (NKJV)
Now God has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1:22 (NIV)
O Christ, you wash us clean and present us to God as his children, brothers and sisters through you, dear Jesus. Our joy is profound; we find our family in you. Amen.
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