As we look back at the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of our Living Redeemer, I am reminded of the situation in which we find Peter and John in Acts 4. Only a few short weeks after these men, along with their friends, ran away from Christ and denied Him during His trial, we find them in Acts 4 being questioned about why and how they are healing people and preaching of their Living Redeemer. Peter proclaims the great truth in verse 12 that salvation comes by no other means than through Jesus Christ. When the religious leaders find nothing incriminating in what Peter and John have done by healing the man, they insist that the disciples stop healing and preaching at all. Essentially these religious men were commanding Peter and John to forget what they had seen in the life of Christ. I love the answer they gave:
Acts 4:19-20 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.
They were ministering and serving as a result of what they had seen in the life of Christ. Nothing, not even the threat of bodily harm or persecution, could keep them from talking about their Living Redeemer.
How often throughout the year do we allow the cross and the empty tomb to be sites all too familiar and unmoving? We know the great doctrine that no one will have salvation without first knowing the One Who made that salvation available to us. Does that truth excite you to the point that you have to tell others? Maybe we need to ask the Lord to renew in us the joy of our salvation so that Christ will be seen in everything we do and say because we can't help but tell what we have seen Him do in our own lives!
