What is God’s Word saying? It is worthy of being absolutely followed! Something happens when a person, at last, finds a firm object to hold onto. Remember the frightened disciples? Frank Morrison describes them for us. “Yet the material from which we have to derive this dynamic force consists of a habitual doubter like Thomas, a rather weak fisherman like Peter, a gentle dreamer like John, a practical tax-gatherer like Matthew, a few seafaring men like Andrew and Nathaniel, the inevitable women, and at the most two or three others.”
Thee they sit, shivering with fear, seething with doubt, overcome by despair. John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. (KJV)
Now look at Acts 2:14 Acts 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: (KJV) Look at the change!
Again Frank Morrison says: “Now the peculiar thing about this phenomenon is that not only did it spread to every single member of the party of Jesus of whom we have any trace, but they actually brought it to Jerusalem and carried it with inconceivable audacity into the most keenly intellectual center of Judea, against the ablest dialecticians of the day, and in the face of every impediment a brilliant and highly organized camarilla could devise. AND THEY WON!
Within 20 years the claims of these Galilean peasants had disrupted the Jewish church and impressed itself upon every town in the eastern coast of the Mediterranean from Caesarea to Troas. In less than 50 years it had begun to threaten the peace of the Roman Empire.
When we have said everything that can be said about the willingness of certain types of people to believe what they want to believe, to be carried away with their emotions, and to assert as fact that which originally reached them as hearsay, we stand confronted with the greatest mystery of all, WHY DID THEY WIN?”
Of course, we know! They had come face to face with the divine Witness. A sure testimony, they saw the risen Christ! From John 19:19’s gloom to Acts 2’s boldness and confrontation at all costs.
You hold the same Divine Witness in your hands this morning. And by faith it lives in your heart. It is God’s Word and it is sure.