Peter and John healed a lame man who was sitting at the temple gate called Beautiful (Acts 3:1-10). Then they spent the night in jail, and were brought out the next day to be questioned by the jewish rulers and elders and scribes in Jerusalem (Acts 4:1-7).
After Peter’s mini sermon about healing in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:8-14), these elders and rulers were conferring with eachother about what to do, saying…
“What shall we do with these men?
For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place
through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem,
and we cannot deny it.”
~Acts 4:16
Describing a miracle as “noteworthy” just cracks me up. What miracle is not noteworthy? Feeding five thousand? Turning water into wine? Raising the dead?
We explain away miracles all the time today. We say that the chemotherapy must have finally kicked in. And we give the glory to modern medicine, positive thinking or “spontaneous” remission.
These guys were really stuck. They did not believe in spontaneous remission of congenital lameness. And a 40+ year-old man who was born lame had gotten up and walked!
They knew that Almighty God Himself had healed this man, and yet they wanted to deny it.
So, the jewish leaders chastised Peter and John, and told them not to do any more healing or any more speaking in the name of this Jesus. If you’re reading this, you probably already know how well that worked out for them…
But Peter and John answered and said to them,
“Whether it is right in the sight of God
to give heed to you rather than to God,
you be the judge;for we cannot stop speaking
what we have seen and heard.”~Acts 4:19
Peter and John could not stop proclaiming Jesus. In fact, Peter ended up being crucified, and John exiled, because of it.
To overflow with abundant joy and exultant praise for the noteworthy things God has done for us, that is the heart of worship.
May God grant you a heart of worship!
Worship by Numbers
Ramona Denton
There are two ways to live:
you can live as if nothing is a miracle;
you can live as if everything is a miracle.
~Albert Einstein
