King James Bible Study – “And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” – Mark 8:34
Date: Monday, November 18, 2019
Chapters: Acts 3-5
Message: The Words of This Life
Hello My Friend,
Every morning, the first thing I do, is thank God for waking me, and getting me out of bed, and for giving me a new day here on earth. You see, I know this is only my temporary residence, if I were to breathe my very last breath right at this moment I would be starting my new life in the presence of Jesus Himself. Amen! So, what is life? Life is defined as that state of being in which the soul and body are united. Think about that, life is not necessarily the state of our being, meaning existence, it is the soul and body united together as one that is our existence. As I read the chapters for today, one verse shouted at me, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” – Acts 4:12. Without Christ, this life if over, there is no life beyond the grave. In fact, it is much worse, that eternal soul, which is your entire existence, will spend the rest of its life in hell. This is why Jesus came here, His sinless death, burial, and resurrection, is what unites the body and soul, of those who call on Him to save them, and gives it life. “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” – Romans 10:12-13.
After the Day of Pentecost, the Apostles were on fire for Christ, everywhere they went they saw it as an opportunity to tell the people about His passion, and what better place to begin, the temple. As they were walking to the gate, about three in the afternoon, there was a crippled man sitting there, asking for charity.
“Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God:” – Acts 3:1-3,6-9.
“In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” We must understand, and they will tell us the same as you continue to read Acts, that first, it was the mans faith in Christ that healed him, and two, it was Christ that healed him. Of course, all the people seeing this man walking, knowing that he never walked a day in his life, wondered about the miracle they saw. Peter used this time to do what we all, who are saved, need to be doing, preaching the Gospel. Peter stood at the steps of the temple and started preaching the Gospel to the crowd.
“The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” – Acts 3:13,16-19,25-26.
“he faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness” You see, we who live by faith in Christ do not need physical proof or miracles to know that everything about Him is true, our faith makes us whole from the second we believe in who He is, and what He has done for us. And you know what else? Our infirmities in this life are only temporary, we will all be healed, and perfect when we begin our new life in the presence of Christ “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” – Revelation 21:3-4.
Now, as you can imagine, the ones who had Jesus crucified, and thought they would never have to deal with Him ever again, did not take it very well when they heard Peter and John talking about it.
“Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand. And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.” – Acts 4:2-7,10.
“By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?” They were referring to the lame beggar who was now standing there in the temple with them. They certainly could not deny the miracle as they too witnessed this man sitting at the gate, but they never did expected to hear Christ’s name again. In fact, they communed together in a separate room and all agreed to tell them that they were to never speak in the name of Jesus.
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” – Acts 4:13-20.
“For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen” We, who are saved, have the witness of Christ within ourselves. That means, we can do nothing, but speak of the things He has done in this life from the time He saved us. Of course, the second the Apostle were let go they were in front of the temple, preaching the Gospel again. People who got saved began bringing others who were sick or crippled being healed in the name of Jesus. At this point, from the Day if Pentecost, about eight thousand souls were saved, and the Pharisees and Sadducee’s were not pleased at all, in fact, they arrested Peter and John.
“Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.” – Acts 5:17-20,26-29.
“to the people all the words of this life.” The words of this life, meaning eternal life with Christ. I will tell you what, Jesus said when told to quite His disciples, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” – Like 19:40, they can try to stop our testimony, but there will always be someone who can testify of the life Christ gave us. Let me tell you, there is no better life than one with Christ. And another thing, a life with Christ often leads to trials and tribulation simply for standing by our faith, yet, it is still a better life than any temporal life we could live in the world. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” – I John 5:10-12. Amen!
Today’s Prayer: God, Thank You for giving me life, and for giving me eternal life through my faith in the great sacrifice that You made in sending Your Son to save me. Not by my own works am I saved, but by His finished work on the cross, am I saved. I can do nothing in this life that will ever have any value without Christ, but I can do all things through Christ who I am blessed by Your grace to have living in me. I am a witness of the amazing life that can be lived while I am here, and the proof is just how much You have turned my life around since dedicating my life to You. Jesus, All I need to ask You for is for You to shine Your Light on me so that others can see You through me, and want to know what You have done for me. I pray this, in Your name, Jesus. Amen.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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