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They Had Been With Jesus




“And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”[1]

    Peter and John have been arrested and are being interrogated by the Jewish leaders. They have healed a lame man and have drawn the attention of the crowd. The commotion eventually gained the attention of the authorities. During their interrogation, Peter replies with one of his speeches which apparently was pretty well done. He rehearses the recent history of Jesus and Israel in these words:

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”[2]

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash
    Pete and John are uneducated, and this apparently should have prevented Pete from being so articulate and skilled to speak in front of the power brokers of Israel – who were upset with him. Their level of education is specifically mentioned as something that was noted by the council. Following his speech is when the council notices that they have been with Jesus. What does that mean to you? Maybe it just means that after these couple of months, some of the Jewish leaders recognized them as part of the problem-making crowd. That may well be what is meant – nothing special, just physical recognition.

    But what if that recognizing was connected to an uneducated man being articulate and forceful in this one-down position he was in? What if the character of Jesus had rubbed off on Peter and John? These two were in the inner circle for three years. Maybe having been so close to Jesus, something about Jesus had become part of these two disciples.

    What might it mean if the people you know could recognize you as someone who had been with Jesus? How might that impact them? What would they see in and about you that would tip them off to that reality? Maybe they could see a handful of the fruit of the Spirit, or your maturity having added all the virtues to your developing faith. Maybe they see in you Paul’s discussion of Love and its characteristics. Having recognized that you had been with Jesus, what would they do – would they be attracted or repelled?

    If we are Jesus’s disciples and we know that a disciple matures to be like their master, we should look like him. Our lives should reflect the values, demeanor, humility, and love of Jesus. Jesus tells us that the way people will know we are his disciples – get this – is that we would love one another. He doesn’t say that they will know his disciples because we claim to, because we quote Scripture, because we preach or teach, or because we know how to act in public. None of those. People will know us as his disciples by the way we love other people.

    So how are you doing? Can people tell that you have been with Jesus?

[1] Acts 4:13, ESV.

[2] Acts 4:8-12, ESV.

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