Can People Tell You’ve Been with Jesus?
By Dean Collins
Do you have a favorite technology or app that you use? I am an Apple user, and I am amazed at the amount of help my phone and iPad provide me every day. The applications available to help me get organized, remember things, or track expenses are so much quicker and more efficient than the old-fashioned way of writing everything down somewhere. However, there is one thing that frustrates me constantly: passwords!
We are told not to use the same password for different accounts and applications and that we need to use a certain number of symbols, letters, and numbers to make them secure. And, of course, we should change them from time to time. I am running out of pet names, sports teams, clever sayings, and countries in the world that I can spell. Then, remembering which symbols or numbers I used makes the possibility of remembering my passwords nearly impossible!
Face recognition has helped me significantly when I need to access an application but cannot remember the password. Maybe someday we will have technology that helps us recognize people when we haven’t seen them in a while. I would love to have an app on my phone that would tell me the name of the person who eagerly greets me while I am standing there trying desperately to remember their name!
In the fourth chapter of Acts, we learn about the harsh treatment the Jewish leaders gave Peter and John after they healed a lame beggar and preached to those gathered in the temple courtyard. They were arrested and interrogated by the chief priests and elders. Yet they continued to proclaim the good news of Jesus and His resurrection.
Beginning in verse 13, we read these remarkable words:
“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. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.”
The high priest and those who questioned Peter and John were well educated and possessed titles of authority. But as they questioned Peter and John, they didn’t flinch or back down. According to Luke, this greatly annoyed their questioners.
The Jewish leaders had not encountered this kind of boldness. Other than Jesus, they were not accustomed to being questioned or challenged. Luke captured the tone of the interrogators, who were amazed that uneducated, ordinary men—even fishermen—could speak so clearly and confidently.
But the sentence that jumps off the page is this: “They recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
It may have been as simple as remembering that they had seen these two men with Jesus during the week leading up to the cross. But the surrounding verses, which describe their astonishment at Peter and John’s boldness and clarity in explaining who Jesus was, suggest something more. They recognized that these men had been with Jesus, had learned from Jesus, and were now doing the same kinds of things Jesus had done.
And the evidence was standing right beside them. The lame beggar had been completely healed and was standing there as a living testimony. They could not dispute the miracle.
When, by faith, we come face to face with Jesus, He knows us, transforms us, brings us from death to life, and calls us to serve others and share His good news every day.
Wouldn’t it be great to have that said about you and me? I hope that one day someone might see us and say, “I can tell they have been with Jesus.”
Father, may our words and our actions reveal Christ to someone today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
Acts 4 ESV
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