And with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.

—Acts 4: 33

I have a confession to make. I’m not super great at spending time studying the Bible on my own. I listen to the Daily Audio Bible podcast in the morning—a podcast that reads through the Bible in a year—but when it comes to me sitting down with my actual Bible, I struggle to find the time and energy. 

This past week I decided I would work on it. I wanted to spend time in the presence of Jesus, searching for what God wanted to tell me through His Word because, for the past few years, God has been speaking to my heart about much He longs to show us Himself if we will just be intentional about seeking Him. Since I had stumbled onto the context of Acts 1:8 last week while I was looking for what to write about, I decided I’d keep going, reading one chapter of Acts a day.

As you can see by the chapter we are in this week, I didn’t meet my goal. My workload at school became overwhelming and I stopped (not my wisest choice), but the encouragement of Acts 4 has me ready to try again.

In this chapter, Peter and John are arrested for healing a man who had been lame for 40 years because they did so in Jesus’s name. Their reaction to their arrest paints a 7-part picture of the effect a close relationship with Jesus has on His people, and hallelujah! is it something I want people to see in my life. 

1. Boldness: The day after Peter and John are arrested, they are brought before the religious rulers to be questioned about what happened. As the questioning begins, the Bible says that Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 8) and, rather brazenly, reminds the religious leaders that they were responsible for putting Jesus to death, but still hadn’t been successful in getting rid of Him and His followers.

That’s pretty bold by itself, but Peter isn’t holding a monopoly on boldness at this trial because the man they healed was also there “standing with them” (v. 14). Choosing to stand by Peter and John could have meant ex-communication from the church, or if the leaders had chosen to punish the apostles with imprisonment or death, he could have received the same. But nonetheless, he stood boldly offering evidence of the power of Jesus’s name.

2-3. Confidence and Wisdom: After Peter finishes answering the rulers’ questions, verse 13 says, “Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” As highly educated men, their confidence came from their education and what they knew (even if we could raise a few doubts about how well they understood it).

But these men had been fishermen, not scholars. They didn’t seem to have the qualifications to be confident when it came to theology, but they had studied at the feet of the Teacher with all knowledge and understanding, and the religious leaders recognized His mark in their confidence.

4. Gratitude leading to worship: After Peter and John are released, they return to their church family and tell them everything that happened. God had been good. He gave them the wisdom, confidence, and boldness they needed to take care of the situation, and He kept them safe until their release. And the response of that young church was to praise God for what He had done and Who He is.

5-6. Unity and selflessness: Acts chapter 4 ends by describing the fellowship of the believers in that area. While still working through His earthly ministry, Jesus had prayed that His people would be unified, would be one in purpose just like He, the Father, and the Spirit were one in purpose. (John 17:20) This is the fulfillment of that prayer. (At least the beginning of it. May it continue to be fulfilled in our lives as well.) The church is unified and their focus is on others rather than self, and as a result, “there was not a needy person among them” (vs. 34).

7. Great power and grace: And then we come to our verse for today. This is the result of cultivating a close relationship with Christ. The power the writer of Acts records is not power meant to elevate ourselves, but power to further the Kingdom of God. The word translated as “grace” more literally means “favor.” Certainly, they had favor with God, but they also gained favor with people. As a result of their relationship with Christ, they were living a life that was attractive to the people around them, and thousands were coming to know Jesus because of it.

This is the kind of life I want to live—one that is marked by the presence of Jesus—and the way to cultivate these traits in our lives is to intentionally get close to Jesus. I heard once that disciples wanted to follow their rabbi so closely that the dust his feet kicked up as he walked would settle on theirs. That’s how close I want to be to Jesus, so I’m back at it this week, doing my best to seek Him through His Word every day. I hope you’ll join me, friend. There is so much to gain if you do!