58. The first
Persecution.
Just as the first
thunderstorms usually come around Pentecost or soon afterwards - but
they do little harm, rather they promote the fruitfulness of the year,
and the storm wind carries the fertile seeds further - so also soon
after Pentecost the first persecutions broke out against the confessors
of Jesus, as he had foretold them.
When Peter went with John to pray in the temple, he healed a lame man as
he passed by, who was lying begging at a door of the temple. God gives
those who walk in good ways the opportunity to do good deeds. Peter said
to the lame man: "I have no gold or silver. But what I have, I give to
you. In the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk!" The apostle was so
sure of his speech and its success that he held out his hand to the sick
man to help him up. Immediately the lame man stood up, walked around the
temple with them and praised God. All the people who were in the temple
ran to see the miracle-working apostle. Peter did not want to be
recognised for being able to do such a thing. A true confessor of Christ
does not want to appear to be more than he is. He does not want to pass
off for his art and wisdom what God's power and wisdom do through him.
Peter taught them that this lame man was not healed through him, but
through faith in Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead.
Now when the priests who were in the temple heard that the apostles were
teaching about the hated name of Jesus, they arrested them out of the
temple like common criminals or troublemakers until the next morning.
Nevertheless, on the same day the Lord's church increased by five
thousand men. The seeds that had been sown in the days of Jesus had
sprouted. The time of harvest began. The next day the apostles were
brought to trial before the same judges who had condemned Jesus to death,
but God did not harm them. They were set free again, even though they
heartily confessed that God had raised Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had
crucified, from the dead, and that there was no other salvation and no
other name given to men by which they could be saved. A righteous
confessor of Jesus must be wholehearted. He must neither disguise nor
conceal anything. - The priests forbade the apostles that they should no
longer teach about Jesus. But the apostles said: "Judge for yourselves
whether it is right in the sight of God that we should obey you rather
than God. We cannot refrain from speaking what we have seen and heard."
So the holy apostles gave the first rehearsal of their teaching in a
house, the second time already in the temple, the third time already
before the court of the chief priests and elders and scribes. Peter now
confesses before the chief priests what he had denied to a maid a few
weeks earlier. God continues to help the weak. When the disciples
continued to teach about Jesus and proclaim his resurrection, they were
once again put in prison. But God delivered them. Suddenly they were
back in the temple teaching. The chief priests said to them, ‘Did we not
solemnly forbid you not to teach in this name?’ They did not speak the
name of Jesus at all, they hated it so much. But the apostles replied:
‘We must obey God rather than men.’
There was talk in the council of killing them. But one of the lords of
the council named Gamaliel, a man like Nicodemus and Joseph, said, "Be
careful what you do to these people! If their work is of men,‘ he said,
’it will perish. But if it is of God, you cannot dampen it." It was from
God. They could not dampen it. The apostles were set free again, though
not without painful maltreatment, as Jesus had told them beforehand.
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