A Good Confession: Meditations on Acts 4

When I survey the world in which we live, I often appreciate why there is so much fear out there. People are afraid of the food they eat, the cars they drive, the neighborhoods they live in, the governments they elect, the companies they work for, the people they work with, the dog down the street, the cell phone attached to their head, or the germs crawling on their desks. Folks are afraid of almost everything and anything, attempting to structure their lives in such a way as to minimize their risks and exposure to those things they fear. Our society and economics seem almost to be based on fear. Advertisements promise drugs and therapies to save you from the illness you fear; politicians promise to save you from policies you fear; stores and merchants promise to save you from the technology you fear; the endless 24 hour news cycle promises to scare you into insanity, then provide a commentator who will soothe you for a few minutes, before the titillation of fear comes on again. Fear drives commerce and investments, Wall Street and the world bond markets. Fear is a powerful force, and one that the world is well acquainted with.

And it’s worth noting, that not only the world, but the Church, is often driven by fear. There are those pastors, theologians, and arm-chair prophets, who are motivated by fear to “grow” or “change” the Church. They would tell us that the Church must “change or die,” and that the Church needs to be constantly conforming itself to the images and patterns of culture, so that is does not disappear. They chase the right worship teams, the right bands, the right music, the right atmosphere, the right message, the right 12-step plan, to attract more people into Church membership. When the Church is driven by fear, it does all kinds of crazy things… almost everything other than what Christ told them to do.

Examined, though, fear is a paper tiger, and points to something else. All the fears one can list eventually boil down to a single fear—a fear of death. We want to be popular, prosperous, intelligent, educated, medicated, and so forth, really in an effort to stave off death. Losing their grip on life is really what most people are afraid of, because down deep, they know their life is fleeting. As many have observed, life is a terminal condition—no one gets out of this world alive. The wages of sin in our fallen world is death, and the sinful flesh we live in, will eventually bear the weight of that curse, as our body is laid in the earth. But fear of anything, especially of death, is fear of something already conquered.

While the world might be ignorant of the victory Christ has made over the grave, the Church should never forget what her Chief Shepherd has won for His people. We are liberated from sin, death, and the devil. We are liberated from the grave, such that we know what lies beyond it for those who live in the love of God. Death for the Christian is merely a laying down of this sinful flesh, an escort into the presence of Jesus, and a waiting for the resurrection of all flesh unto a new life in a new creation, undefiled by the sin and death of this world. We who live in Christ, have our lives hidden in Christ, such that they can never be taken away by the wicked powers of this world. Our lives are as surely protected and kept in Jesus, as Jesus’ life is kept by His immortal and omnipotent power. No one takes His life from Him—He lays it down, and He takes it up again, according to His good and gracious will. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end—and if He is for us, who cares what stands against us?

In this faith which overcomes fear, we see St. Peter and St. John, make their bold confession before the Sanhedrin. Sure, the council had power, and the ability to inflict torment on those they desired to harm. But the Apostles knew that their very lives were kept with the Risen Christ, and no power of man or demon could change that. They stood and made a good confession of Christ, not only before the religious and political powers of their day, but before the people who sat in their own fear and lack of understanding. In the face of that which the people feared, the Apostles stood fearless. It was a marvelous thing to behold—men whose faith cast out fear, raised a lame man to walk, and turned Jerusalem upside down, in the Name of Jesus Christ. The Apostles had no fear for their own lives, because they knew Jesus kept their lives forever with Him.

And the result of their good witness to the Chief Shepherd, was that upon that one moment of conflict, 5000 souls were added to Christ. 5000 men were born from above by Water and Spirit, plus their wives and children, harkening back to the momentous conversions at Pentecost. Two men stood before the power of their age, bore witness by faith without fear for their own lives, and through their witness, the Holy Spirit worked faith in the hearts of the people. More than 5000 people, previously sitting in darkness and fear, found faith which cast out fear, liberated by the blood of Christ.

Here lies the Church’s power in every age. We have a Good Shepherd who has laid down His life for the sheep, and taken it back up again, because death could not hold the Author of Life. Our Good Shepherd has sent us out, as He sent the blessed Apostles, to bear witness to the world without fear, knowing that He has our lives firmly in His nail-pierced hands. All the fury of the devil and the world and sinful man could not keep Jesus in the grave, and we who live in Him, have that same promise. Let the nations rage, and the rulers of this world imagine vain things; let the evil ones murmur their threats and loathing; let the devil howl as he will, and his faithless minions cower and flail. We belong to Christ. We are born from above, living by His grace, through faith in His Name, in the power of His Spirit. We have nothing to fear, in this world or the next, because Christ is Risen, and has defeated every power, placing all things under His feet. We are the Church of Christ, sent to bear witness to the Lord of Life, who grants these gifts of forgiveness and life to all who will repent and believe.

We are His, and there is nothing to fear. He is risen, and we too, shall rise. Let the kingdom of darkness tremble at the witness of the Saints—Christ is Risen, Alleluia!