Thursday, December 6, 2018: Acts 4:8-14

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, ⁹ if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, ¹⁰ let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. ¹¹ This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. ¹² And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” ¹³ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus. ¹⁴ But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

At the beginning of Acts, Jesus said that the disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. This is exactly what happened. In chapter 2, Peter preached in the power of the Spirit of Christ, and people moved from death to life. In chapter 3, under the power of the Spirit, Peter caused a man to walk again. Here in verse 8, Luke wrote that Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit,” which gave him the courage to speak honestly before his interrogators.

To be filled with the Spirit means to submit to His control and power. No matter how “ordinary” we feel, the Holy Spirit works through us in extraordinary ways. To find power in Christ means to trust His Spirit and what He is doing in our lives. This approach worked because the religious leaders were shocked that an “untrained” man could speak with such boldness and clarity. This led them to see that they had been with Jesus.

Relying on the power of Christ means that when we do extraordinary things, Christ gets the credit. The whole point of the Christian life is to bring glory and honor to Jesus; this only happens when His power is made perfect through our weakness.

1. In which area of your life do you need to trust in Christ’s power instead of your own this week?
2. What keeps you from trusting in Jesus’ power?
3. Ask God to fill you with His Spirit to do His work.