Be Bold. One of the verses in this passage that stands out to me is verse 13: “The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures.” Many times, I think it is easy for us as Christians to defer to those trained for full time ministry to be boldly proclaiming the gospel to others. We sometimes fall into the trap of thinking we need to understand all intricacies and nuances of scripture and without that we feel unqualified to reach out to those who do not know the gospel. Looking closely at what Peter says, he very simply lays out the gospel - the healing power comes from the name of Jesus whom we crucified, but he was raised from the dead and salvation only comes through him. No complex apologetics, no complicated words used by the most educated – just the gospel.

Perhaps if feeling unqualified isn’t what is holding us back, it is our concern of how people will respond to us or how we will be treated if we share the gospel. We live in a nation in which we have religious freedom. Although in recent years, that freedom is getting challenged by many who try to make Christians look like cause of many problems in our nation, and so looked down on something no one wants to feel. For the early believers, the consequences were much worse – getting kicked out of the city, jail or even death. However, that clearly did not deter the early Christians from boldly speaking the truth about the gospel.

God calls us as ordinary men and women to be bold in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ risen. With the help of the Holy Spirit, may we hold true to that calling!