Acts 4:13

Acts 4:13

I. We must be with Jesus, if we would bear a good testimony for Him in the presence of the world. To have heard of Him, to have read of Him, is not enough: we must be with Him; walk with Him in a consenting will, love Him as having first loved us, be joined to him in one spirit. Thus alone can consistent testimony be borne to Him by His people. They who have been with Jesus fear not the pomp, nor the scoffs, nor the threats of men.

II. But we stand not merely in the presence of foes without, we have other and more powerful foes within. Many a man could bear testimony for Christ, before a world in arms, who yet is hushed into ignominious silence in the council chamber of his own heart. Would you find a remedy for this? Would you uplift the spiritual part of a man, so that it may give bold testimony for Christ within him, assert Christian motives, press Christian rules of action, put forward Christ as His pattern? Then must that man be with Jesus;Christ must dwell in that heart by faith. Till that is so, while Christ is absent, heard of, read of, talked of, but not present, there will be no testimony at the heart's fountain, no Christ in the thoughts, words, actions.

III. Yet again, we all have to grapple with sorrows. Ere we have gone on long in life, they stand thick around us: hopes betrayed, fears realised, joys dashed with bitterness these are every man's companions by the way. Would you arm the man for a successful conflict with adversity? Would you enable him to bear a consistent testimony in the presence of sorrow? Once more, he must be with Jesus. Here, above all, he requires his Saviour's presence.

IV. There will come a day when each one will be called on to wrestle with the last foe; to bear in the presence of his past life, and in the presence of those who are to outlive him, his witness to Christ. Would we meet death fearless, and in humble assurance that we have a part in One who has robbed him of his terrors? There is but one way, and that way is to have been with Jesus during our lives here.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons,vol. ii., p. 77.

References: Acts 4:13. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. i., No. 21; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 42; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House,2nd series, vol. i., p. 280; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iii., pp. 81, 82; vol. iv., p. 276; vol. vii., p. 65; Homilist,2nd series, vol. iv., p. 98. Acts 4:13. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 157. Acts 4:14. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts,p. 180. Acts 4:19. Homiletic Magazine,vol. vii., p. 200. Acts 4:19; Acts 4:20. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 159; C. J. Vaughan, Church of the First Days,vol. i., p. 149.