Week 29—Thursday 1 Timothy 1:4-6
Week 29—THURSDAY
“THINGS WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD”
The “this-ness” is the keynote of the Christian gospel. When the Jewish authorities tried to silence the apostles with this, “They then called them in and ordered them to refrain from all public speaking and teaching in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18, NEB). They thought it was simply a “public speaking” and “teaching”—the Word become word. But Peter and John set them right: “We cannot possibly give up speaking of things we have seen and heard” (vs. 20, NEB). Note “seen,” first in Jesus and then “seen” in themselves. “Seeing is believing,” and they had “seen.” When the attempt was made over again to repress the apostles, they replied, “We must obey God rather than man. . . . And we are witnesses to all this, and so is the Holy Spirit given by God to those who are obedient to him” (Acts 5:30, 32, NEB). “We are witnesses . . . and so is the Holy Spirit”—we have seen it with our eyes and we have known it in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is within. We witness and the Holy Spirit witnesses to the same thing—the human and Divine blending in the witness. This fulfilled the promise of Jesus: “But when your Advocate has come, whom I will send you from the Father . . . he will bear witness to me. And you also are my witnesses” (John 15:26-27, NEB). Here was the double witness: “He will bear witness to me. And you also are my witnesses.” It was a double witness, and yet one and the same witness—the witness of the Word become flesh.
The Jewish authorities might have suppressed teaching—the Word become word, but they ran against the rock of testimony—the Word become flesh, and it confounded them. They didn’t know what to do with it. It was rooted in Reality and not in mere idea. The Christian faith was a realism and just “teaching” was no match for it. Testimony reaches the heart—and mind. Teaching reaches the mind—maybe.
O God, our Father, we thank you for this blessed Realism. It is the Rock upon which we can and do build. And the gates of hell and the storms of life cannot prevail against it. Help us to be real in the Realism. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: No fear of anything shall keep me from witnessing to what I’ve seen and heard.