After Pentecost: The Disciples DeployedSample

Faithful and Obedient Messengers

No matter what, God will be glorified. Even now, He’s working all things, good and bad, together for the purpose of His will, His glory, and we have a choice. We can glorify God through our humility and obedience, proclaim Him to be the One True God worthy of reverence and fear by our actions, and so enjoy fellowship with Him, or we can display arrogance and pride through our disobedience, giving God a perfect opportunity to prove His justice by dealing out the punishment we deserve. 

Herod, full of pride and presuming himself above God’s censure and power, chose the latter, paid for it with his life, and the truth of the Gospel continued to advance, sparked by yet another unlikely catalytic event. 

Peter and Paul, having met Jesus personally and having the Holy Spirit within them as a result of their faith, knew exactly Who God was and who they were not. Unlike Herod, they refused to be worshipped. For one thing, Peter and Paul loved Jesus too much and were too grateful for what He had done to steal His glory. Second, they knew the people they came in contact with needed a relationship with Jesus, not them. Third, they feared God, and rightly so.  They and the other believers focused on doing God’s will regardless of the people’s response to their obedience, which was often mixed. 

For instance, all Paul and Barnabas ever did was heal people, preach the Gospel, and encourage believers. Sometimes it made them popular, and sometimes it made them unpopular, to put it mildly. Driven by a deep desire to see God’s Kingdom advance, they pressed on, neither letting positive responses swell their egos nor negative responses discourage or slow them down, and God continued to move through them, sparking life-change and revival in the wake of their obedience. 

What about you? Whose reputation concerns you most, yours or God’s? Do you leave people impressed with you or impressed with God? Are you a good steward with the attention you get?