Have You Been With Jesus?
by Pastor Jim May
Acts 4:13, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus."
It had been almost two months since the crucifixion of Jesus but in the eyes of the world, Jesus’ birth, life and death on the cross, was no more than a momentary blip on the screen of time. He was just another religious fanatic who had come and gone. Pilate washed his hands of him. The Pharisees were glad to get rid of him. The people no longer cared because he was not the political Messiah they were hoping for.
But when Peter and John came to town, it did not take long for the people to see that there was something different about these two disciples. They weren’t just religious fanatics or insurrectionists against the Romans, or rebellious Christians fighting against the religious establishment. People sat up and took notice that there was something real about them. The Bible says that even the doubters and sinners had to take note that Peter and John “had been with Jesus."
When you got around these men you could sense the love of Jesus, who had given his life for the sin of the world; you could see the radiance of Jesus, as the glory of his power shone through; and you could feel the very presence of Jesus, as the Holy Ghost moved upon the heart of men.
Let’s look at some of the characteristics of someone who has been with Jesus!
The first characteristic is that of Compassion
Acts 3:1-8; "Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God."
Peter and John had traveled this path many times before. I wonder how many times they had passed by this same lame man and never noticed him. They were too consumed with their own plans and their own concerns to see the need of their fellowman. But now, something had happened! Now they had been with the Lord and the power of the Holy Ghost had come over them and filled them with a greater love for people. God had interrupted their plans and changed their plans to fulfill the calling of God upon their lives and now they had compassion and took the time to show this man the love of God.
You cannot help but be compassionate with people when you have been with Jesus, because Jesus was a man of compassion. We aren’t Peter and John and maybe we haven’t walked face to face with Jesus as they did. No, we have more than they did. We have salvation by the Blood of the Lamb, and we have been baptized in the power of the Holy Ghost, and the Love of God has constrained us to do His work.
That’s why the Holy Ghost impressed upon Sis. Gretchen to pass out food baskets and toys to some of the families in our area. God’s love is a love that is ever reaching out to those in need. He wants to supply their need and He wants to use you and I, as much as possible, to be His hands and feet in this world.
I read the story one time of an orphanage that had a superintendent who would always pray with his children. When he would ask the blessing, he would bow his head with all the little children in this orphanage, and he would say, "Lord Jesus, we thank you for the food that you have provided. We want you to come and be our honored guest at this meal."
Well one little fellow had heard that prayer so many times, he finally said, "Why doesn’t Jesus ever come? You always invite Him to be our guest. Will He ever come?"
This superintendent said, "Well, He will come if we really want him to." This little fellow said, "Well, I’m going to put a chair out for Him." He put a chair right next to his chair and said, "This chair is for Jesus if He comes."
Well that same day there was a knock at the door, and they went to the door and there was an old man in rags there who was hungry and shivering and cold. The superintendent said, "Sir, come in and share a meal with us. We’d be glad to have you. Just come in here and sit down and warm yourself. We even have a chair for you. Sit right here." He put the man in the chair that had been set aside for Jesus.
After this was over, the little fellow looked up at the superintendent and said, "I see it all so clearly now. Jesus couldn’t come Himself, but he sent this man to take his place." You know Jesus said "If you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto Me."
When we show compassion to others, it is though we are showing it directly to Jesus and, like I stated this morning, the greatest indication of a disciple of Jesus Christ is that we have love for one another, and that love cannot stop in the church. It must reach out to a lost and dying world.
The Second Characteristic is that of COURAGE – over in the 4th chapter of Acts we see Peter and John at work again under the direction of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 4:1-3, "And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide."
Peter and John were arrested for preaching that Jesus was raised from the dead. They had been warned to stop preaching but they had a higher calling from God Almighty. As they preached to the Jews about the crucifixion and resurrection, their message became a stumbling block that made the Jews look like murderers. They knew that the Jews would be angered but that didn’t stop Peter and John from preaching. They had the courage to speak the truth even though they were surrounded by opposition.
The week before September 11, 2001, 32-year-old Todd Beamer and his wife, Lisa, had spent a romantic getaway in Italy. The couple returned home Monday rested and relieved to be reunited with their boys David, 3, and Andrew, 1.
But extended family time would have to wait. The next morning Todd, an executive with Oracle, had to be at a sales reps meeting in Northern California. He kissed Lisa, who was five months pregnant with their third child, goodbye and headed to the Newark, New Jersey, airport where he boarded United Flight 93 for San Francisco.
About 90 minutes into the westbound flight, the Boeing 757 was approaching Cleveland when three hijackers onboard identified themselves to the 34 passengers and 7 crewmembers and proceeded to take control of the cockpit and cabin. The plane, now piloted by the would-be terrorists, made a sharp turn to the south.
Todd reached for the GTE Airfone in the back of one of the seats and was connected to a GTE supervisor on the ground. He explained to her what was happening and indicated that he and the other passengers would not likely survive. He presumed the pilot and co-pilot were already seriously injured or dead.
The GTE employee explained to Todd what had already happened at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Upon hearing this news, Todd must have realized that the hijackers were intent on crashing the plane into another prominent building near Washington D.C. (the direction they were now headed). Even though the hijacker nearest to Todd had a bomb belted around his waist, he told the GTE representative that he and a few others were determined to do whatever they could to disrupt the terrorists’ plan.
He then asked the person on the other end of the phone to call his wife and report their entire conversation to her (including how much he loved her). Before hanging up, this committed Christian and devoted family man, who taught Sunday school each week, asked the GTE employee to pray the Lord’s Prayer with him. With the sound of passengers screaming in the background, she complied. When they concluded the prayer, Scott calmly said, "Help me, God. Help me, Jesus."
The GTE employee then heard Todd say, apparently to the other three businessmen he’d alluded to earlier: "Are you ready, guys? Let’s roll!" With that the phone went dead.
Within a few minutes, Flight 93 nose-dived into a rural field 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, where it left a crater 40 feet deep as it disintegrated upon impact.
Because Todd Beamer was committed to Jesus Christ and his Kingdom, he was willing to do whatever was necessary to put the needs of others above his own fear of danger and imminent death. Thanks to him and the three other businessmen who joined with him, the intended target in the nation’s capital was not reached and who knows how many lives were saved because of that. No one on the ground was killed.
According to Todd’s wife, Lisa, "His example of courage has given me, my boys (and my unborn baby) a reason to live."
Satan has hijacked thousands of people intending to crash their lives. We need the courage that Todd Beamer and the others had. We need to take back the plane. We need to rescue those folks before it is too late.
But where can we get the courage to lead people out of darkness and show them the light? Acts 4:13, "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus."
Peter and John possessed the strength they needed to stand courageously, and Todd Beamer possessed that same strength, because they had been with Jesus.
One of the most noted preachers who ever lived, Charles Spurgeon, said, "There is something in the very tone of the man who has been with Jesus, which has more power to touch the heart than the most perfect oratory.”
Do you know what the source of that power to speak is? It’s the power of the Holy Ghost within you, speaking through you, and giving you power to overcome the enemy and speak with boldness as you share the message of the cross with others.
The third characteristic is that of COMMITMENT.
Peter and John were sold out lock, stock, and barrel to Jesus. They were committed to Jesus. No one, not family, nor friend, and nothing of this world meant more to them than Jesus.
They were committed to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ at all costs.
If a law were passed today that would make it a crime to talk about Jesus, it wouldn’t bother some people, because some of us never talk about Jesus anyway. It might even make a few nervous Christians feel better because they could blame their lack of witnessing on the new law and remove the guilt that they carry now because they don’t share Jesus.
If the disciples had not preached the gospel their lives would have been so much easier. Nobody would have ever been upset with them. They would have never been under danger of persecution or imprisonment. They could have lived a nice quiet life and died of old age instead of the torture and torment that they had to endure for the gospel’s sake.
If believe that the reason most Christians don’t talk about Jesus to other people is because we are afraid of what people will say about us, and we are afraid of what people will say against us.
But if you have ever truly met the risen Jesus; if you have ever really been with Jesus; you will have to say what these disciples said, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
Peter and John were not only committed to preaching about Jesus….they were also committed to pleasing Jesus. They didn’t care about pleasing men. All they cared about was pleasing God.
In Acts chapter 5 we have a re-run of this same thing that had taken place in chapter 4.
Acts 5:25-29, "Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."
Here they were, Peter and John, in prison again. How many of our church world today would shun them for having been criminals in lock up? It seemed that in those early days of the church, and even now in some of our mission fields, preachers spend more time witnessing from the jail than from the pulpit in a church.
They had been commanded to remain quiet by the law of the land. The religious leaders didn’t care whether they walked the streets or not, as long as they didn’t preach about this Jesus!
But Peter and John couldn’t keep silence. They had a higher calling, and they were committed to that calling in God. When a man has been with Jesus, all that matters is that he obeys God.
Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-Fil-A restaurants, is a successful businessman, but for many, he is even better known—and respected—for letting his faith guide his business operation. Even though his restaurants are found in malls and shopping centers where every other business is operating every day of the week, Mr. Cathy’s restaurants have been closed on Sundays since 1948. He just doesn’t care whether he loses millions of dollars of business. His first commitment is to honor the Lord’s Day.
There have been many people who have begged him to have Chick-fil-A open on Sundays, but he just says No. Public opinion doesn’t drive his decisions…God does!
Looking around the church today, not just here but in churches all across America, we don’t see that kind of commitment much anymore. In fact, we see Christians among those who stay in the shopping centers, forcing businesses to stay open to get their money.
Think about it. Our little town once honored Sunday as the Lord’s Day, but no more. Now we have our sporting events, and our festivals, and anything else we can come up with on Sunday because we know that’s when we will draw the biggest crowds and the most money. The love of money and pleasing the flesh are vastly more important than honoring the Lord’s Day to most Christians.
We should be so close to Jesus that we always strive to please Him and not man.
CONCLUSION
I think that there is a valuable lesson to learn here. These disciples were uneducated. They were untrained. They didn’t have a lot of influence; didn’t have a lot of power; didn’t have a lot of intellectual brilliance, but they were mighty servants of God because they had been with Jesus.
How can you tell if someone has been with Jesus? If see compassion, courage, and a commitment to Christ…then you can tell that someone has been with Jesus.
Think about your own life. When people look at you, what do they see?
Do they see a lukewarm, half-hearted, professing Christian? Or do they see something different? Do they see a Christian who is truly on fire for God? Do they see someone who has truly been with Jesus?
