Bible Commentaries

Definite Religious Teaching (In St. Lawrence Jewry, to the Association of Head Masters, 11th January, 1907)

Acts 5:12

What were they doing there? Worshipping—is the answer which used to be made; holding the primitive Divine service out of which have grown our liturgies. The unlikeliness of this answer does not need drawing out. We shall most of us agree that the meetings of the groups of Christians in the Temple's cloister must have been for conference on the affairs of the community on some few occasions, on most occasions for instruction.

The scene can be reproduced with ease and with much assurance that our reproduction is correct. A visitor to the Eastern Mediterranean, when he traverses the court of a university or loiters in the vestibule of a mosque, and sees a cluster of scholars seated on the ground round the little platform of a teacher, and echoing after him the texts which the instructor drones out to them, can feel sure, in lands where the outward course of life seems not subject to fashions or development, that the scene before him is a sound interpreter of the scene of Christians met with one accord in Solomon's porch. It is worth while to summon up to the eye, if we may, the spectacle of a Peter, a Acts 5:15

I. A man's shadow is the result of his position with regard to the sun. Its length and its sort depend on where he stands in relationship to the shining rays. Similarly the influence of a man's character is entirely conditioned by his relationship to the Son of righteousness. What I am toward Jesus Christ determines also what I am toward men, for relationship with Him controls the quality of my entire life. And just as in the sunlight a shadow is silently cast without the putting forth of any effort and is often quite unnoticed by the man of whom it is cast, so in the nature of the case is our unconscious influence. It is silent, effortless, and unavoidable, and falls either this way or that upon all who are in our pathway. It is therefore not a matter of option but of compulsion that we who are professed disciples of the Lord should lay to heart this fact and should seek that our lives in their unconscious outgoing may at all times minister to His glory.

II. It is of great importance that we bear in mind that while the Gospel of Christ calls us into personal relationship with Him, it is a relationship which nevertheless has social consequences. We must remember that while His blessing begins with us it by no means ends with us, for "no man liveth unto himself". We must recognise that while we are units in the kingdom of God, we are nevertheless joined to an innumerable company of similar units, and that our influence is for ever spreading, just as leaven spreads in a lump. This fact affords us at least a partial interpretation of much that is otherwise inexplicable in life, for God is always ordering our lives with a view to making their shadows helpful to others. It is not, for instance, merely that we may ourselves learn some lesson of faith and trust, or be purified in some needed measure, that we are put into the furnace of pain. It is also that our attitude of surrender and submission of love and of glad trust shall be seen of those who behold us. It is to make our shadow reach to some who need just its ministry. These experiences, whatever their nature, are all directed toward bringing us into closer fellowship with Him, that is into such new relationship with the Sun as shall cause our shadow to be a blessing to those who are always watching us and are forming their conception of Christ from our lives. It is true that in a certain sense our lives, like His own, are vicarious in character. Our sufferings mean eventually a longer shadow; and a longer shadow means fuller blessing for other lives.

—J. Stuart Holden, The Pre-Eminent Lord, p81.

References.—V:20.—Bishop Talbot, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p27. Archbishop Alexander, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p41. V:28.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p133. V:30 , 31.—Bishop Browne, Sermons on the Atonement, p85.

The Prince and His Saving Gifts

Acts 5:31

I. Peter's words cast an instructive sidelight upon the motives which rule the order of the heavenly world. The Father governs it in pity to His rebellious people, and the invisible, no less than the visible, spheres above us distil blessing upon a thankless race. The Father expresses at once His own compassion towards a rebellious people, and answers to the unfathomed deeps in the soul of His Acts 5:32

I. The Subject-matter of the Witnessing.—"These things." The Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ (vv30 , 31). We of today are called not so much to testify of the facts as of the great truths they teach and prove—the completed atonement for human sin, the vindication of the dignity and power of Christ and of His exaltation as the Divine Prophet Priest, and King.

II. The Character of the Witnessing.—It is twofold—human and Divine. "We—and also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey Him." Human testimony is defective. But when the Divine Spirit is joined to the human, when the evidence is the testimony of the Spirit in and through man, it is unmistakable. (1) The spirit inspires the witness with boldness. The spirit strengthens our natural faculties, so that we apprehend truth clearly, and believe and hold it with a certainty and power that nothing can shake. (2) The Spirit inspires the witness with humility. The spirit guards us from all boastful parade, and endows us with the meekness of wisdom. (3) The Spirit imparts to the witness sanctified common sense. Thus we are taught when and how to witness, whether by speech or silent action—to choose the time, the place, the manner. (4) The Spirit again gives continuity to the witnessing. The Spirit takes care that the succession of witnesses for Christ is unbroken.

Application.—(1) We are prompted to the duty of witnessing for Christ by the instinct of self-preservation. (2) By gratitude. (3) By the love we bear to Christ, and our ardent desire that others should love Him.

—G. Barlow, The Preachers Magazine, vol. v. p225.

References.—V:34.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p33. V:37.—C. S. Robinson, Simon Peter, p76. Expositor (7th Series), vol. vi. p93. V:38 , 39.—G. F. Pentecost, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p139. G. MacKenzie, ibid. vol1. p170. F. D. Maurice, The Acts of the Apostles, p61. P. M"Adam Muir, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p205. V:39.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p395. V:42.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No369. C. M. Betts, Eight Sermons, p85. VI:1.—F. D. Maurice, The Acts of the Apostles, p73. VI:4.—G. Bladon, The Record, vol. xxvii. p2. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p278. VI:5.—G. A. Smith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxii. p24. VI:6.—Expositor (6th Series), vol. i. p391. VI:7.—J. B. Meharry, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p329. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No802. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ix. p270. VI:9.—A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. ii. p404. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p448; ibid. vol. v. p412; ibid. vol. vi. p379. VI:10-12.—J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iv. p91. VI:13.—Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p382. VI:14.—Ibid. vol. x. p395.