Daily Devotions
June 12th, 2012 by Pastor SolleyActs 4:1-4
4:1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, 2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. 4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
As Peter and John spoke in the temple the priests were offended. Now these fishermen had not offended them before this. As was noted yesterday, this was not the first time they had been to the temple, not the first time they passed the lame man of chapter three, not the first time they had helped him. These things took place many times before and no one was ever offended. What was the difference that day? That day Peter and John preached Jesus Christ and people were offended. One thing we know for sure, in our day people need Jesus Christ and the preaching of Christ offends the lost. Those religious leaders of Israel were lost, as lost and even more so than the vilest sinner of the day. Lost in tradition, lost in pride, lost in self righteousness, lost, bound in sin and headed for hell. The preaching of Christ divides and offends my friend, it did in that day and it does today. The question becomes one of us being willing to offend people in order to give them what they need. Are you will to give people what they need today? Most of the time the Christian is not and our only reason is that we don’t want to offend people, we don’t want to make enemies. But consider this thought, there will be a meeting in the air one day of friends brought together by the blood of Jesus Christ, but there are no friends in hell. Better to make a friend for eternity than to see one lost soul go into hell because we didn’t want to offend them.