Unstoppable gospel
by Pauline Simonsen
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You will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God (Acts 5:39).
You can’t keep a good man (or woman!) down. Or an apostle from proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ! You can forbid them from preaching, arrest them, put them in prison – but they keep coming back, declaring to everyone the news of Jesus the Saviour. You can threaten them with death – you can even kill them – but their message continues to be proclaimed and goes out.
The Pentecost-transformed, Spirit-filled apostles in Acts have been arrested multiple times and ordered by the temple authorities to stop preaching the gospel. Their response? ‘Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness!’ (Acts 4:29). These proclaimers respond to threats and persecutions with a prayer for even more boldness of proclamation! Is this foolhardy bravado? No! This is the Holy Spirit, ‘a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline’ (2 Timothy 1:7). This is what standing in God’s strength and loving with his love looks like.
And sometimes, even those opposed to us recognise there is more to us and our words than mere human conviction. Gamaliel, a wise Sanhedrin member, a man who knew the law of God, seemed to recognise the voice of God in these apostles. His words in our text suggest more than cynical political cunning. In his advice to the council, he clearly seeks the purposes of God.
And unwittingly, his words have become a huge encouragement to messengers of the gospel of Christ everywhere! We know that the good news we believe and speak about Jesus Christ is truth and life. The gospel we have been given is the power of God for salvation to all who believe it, and it is unstoppable. Jesus himself said that ‘this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come’ (Matthew 24:14).
You bear this gospel, too, friend. You are a messenger of peace to the people in your life. You have the words of salvation that speak life and hope to family, friends, workmates, the supermarket shelf-stacker and the bus driver. Whether you meet mockery, abuse or indifference, your testimony comes from God, and his word will not return empty, but it will accomplish God’s purposes.
Go, share, love, speak … and keep going! Because it is God who goes with you.
Lord God, be the conviction in our minds, the courage in our hearts, the words in our mouth, and the love in our eyes. Speak your words of life and truth through us, and do your will. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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