Acts 10:39-43\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0\u201cWe are witnesses\u00a0of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross,\u00a040\u00a0but God raised him from the dead\u00a0on the third day and caused him to be seen.41\u00a0He was not seen by all the people,\u00a0but by witnesses whom God had already chosen\u2014by us who ate\u00a0and drank with him after he rose from the dead.\u00a042\u00a0He commanded us to preach to the people\u00a0and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.\u00a043\u00a0All the prophets testify about him\u00a0that everyone\u00a0who believes\u00a0in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cWe are witnesses\u00a0of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.\u201d\u00a0 It is important that they were witnesses.\u00a0 It is vital that they saw and they believed.\u00a0\u00a0 They were not promoting themselves, or some scam that they thought up.\u00a0 After all if it comes down to dying for lie it is rare that man might do so.\u00a0 But that all twelve would be willing to die for a lie is not believable.\u00a0 All but John died for what they testified for, except John, and he did not renege even though they tried to kill him by boiling him in oil, but God protected him.\u00a0 Charles Colson, who was imprisoned for his part in Watergate wrote \u201cI know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Everyone was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.\u201d\u00a0 People don\u2019t die for lies.\u00a0 They die for the Truth.\u00a0 People will lie about their guilt and then die.\u00a0 But people don\u2019t die for a lie about a fact that could easily be taken back and they could then live a normal life.\u00a0 The ideas that the Apostles died for a lie is preposterous and anyone who would hold to that has ulterior motives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey killed him by hanging him on a cross,\u00a040\u00a0but God raised him from the dead\u00a0on the third day and caused him to be seen.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 The will of God will be done.\u00a0 The enemy of God and us thought that killing Jesus on the cross had accomplished destroying the plan of God.\u00a0 But all they accomplished what was God had already planned.\u00a0 Jesus never prayed to the devil to please allow him to live.\u00a0 Perish the thought! Jesus prayed to His Father God who was in control.\u00a0 God was faithful and raised Jesus from the dead and because He lives, we know we too shall forever live be with God.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n
\u201c41\u00a0He was not seen by all the people,\u00a0but by witnesses whom God had already chosen\u2014by us who ate\u00a0and drank with him after he rose from the dead.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Again, it is God who is in control.\u00a0 He chose the Apostles, He chose who would see Jesus after Jesus rose from the grave.\u00a0 He chose who would see the resurrected Christ and so He chose who would be His witnesses.\u00a0 These men never reneged.\u00a0 They were beaten, tortured and killed and not one ever reneged.\u00a0 They did not hold to their story to die, they held to their story for life, eternal life that only comes from God!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n
\u201cHe commanded us to preach to the people\u00a0and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Our Savior and Lord commissioned the eyewitnesses, and us too.\u00a0\u00a0Matthew 28:18-20<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThen Jesus came to them and said,\u00a0\u201cAll authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.\u00a019\u00a0Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,\u00a0baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,\u00a020\u00a0and teaching\u00a0them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you\u00a0always, to the very end of the age.\u201d<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 And so Jesus was and is ever with them.\u00a0\u00a0 And so Jesus is ever with us.\u00a0 We must also remember to be His witnesses to a lost world, just as the Apostles did.\u00a0 There are brothers and sisters in hostile countries who daily are losing their lives from their faith.\u00a0 May we at least be faithful to share The Gospel, whatever the cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the prophets testify about him\u00a0that everyone\u00a0who believes\u00a0in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 It was not only the Apostles and the rest of the disciples who could not be quiet about Jesus and would not renounce Him.\u00a0 It was not only them that proclaimed Jesus, it was also the Holy Scriptures that God had already given them and that they claimed to know and cling to.\u00a0 Peter was saying that if one did not believe their contemporary witnesses, then they should believe what their ancestors had delivered to them as the very words of God.\u00a0 Believe Peter, or believe the Prophets, just believe and be saved.<\/p>\n
That is our message to the world \u201cIf you declare\u00a0with your mouth, \u201cJesus is Lord,\u201d\u00a0and believe\u00a0in your heart that God raised him from the dead,\u00a0you will be saved.\u00a010\u00a0For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved<\/i>.<\/span>\u201d (Romans 10:9-10<\/b>)\u00a0 What lives within us is what lived within them and they shared.\u00a0 Jesus has not changed.\u00a0 His story does not change.\u00a0 We must hold to the unchanging truth to receive the unchanging processes.\u00a0 God will reward us.\u00a0 He is faithful.\u00a0 He is good all the time and He loves us.\u00a0 Thank you Jesus!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 10:39-43\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201cWe are witnesses\u00a0of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross,\u00a040\u00a0but God raised him from the dead\u00a0on the third day and caused him to be seen.41\u00a0He was not seen by all the people,\u00a0but by witnesses whom God had already chosen\u2014by us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,101,94,17,10],"class_list":["post-1635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1636,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635\/revisions\/1636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}