“I don’t experience the Acts of the Apostles, but I must be willing to act like the Apostles!”
Good morning! We all know that small children love to imitate their parents. Undoubtedly, if you are a parent, you have a child who has done the inevitable and as the saying goes, “monkey see, monkey do.” Ultimately, a child’s behavior is learned from watching their parents or, sadly, their peers! I remember recently having a father-daughter date night with my youngest daughter Cherish. Prior to leaving for the evening, we were “rough-housing” at the house and I put on my favorite super-hero outfit – Superman! It wasn’t long before she wished to do the same…so out we went to find a super-hero costume for her! (Photo at left) She wanted to be just like her daddy! You see, children, when they are real young, usually only know how to imitate their parents. It’s where they learn behavior.
It reminds me of the graduate program we have at our Men’s and Women’s homes here in Rockford. So many times people come to Rockford broken, and they see the life of our staff and they hear our stories. They often remark how they think about my testimony – how I got right with God, how God gave me a beautiful wife, promoted me in the oil business, gave me the wonderful privilege of having five beautiful children, as well as leading the ministry of Reformers Unanimous. They see what God has done in my life, and they think, “I want that, too!”
They want to learn how to “act like me” in hopes to receive the blessings that God has for them. They desire the blessings, so they attempt to do the right things. I once heard a preacher say, “Your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.” What tremendous pressure this brings me! Actually, we should all have this “pressure.” While they learn to follow Christ, they learn from not only our words, but from our life! It is integral for us to learn that while God has different plans for every man, if we want a life similar to what God has provided our leadership, we must still follow them as they follow Christ.
In order to help us grow closer to Christ, we should imitate the best Christians we know. There was no better Christian than the Apostle Paul, along with the rest of the Apostles. We know from the writings of the New Testament that the Apostles were human and they made mistakes, but they were dynamically used of God. They set an example for us to follow and most of their great acts are documented in ACTS!
In I Corinthians 11:1, we find the Apostle Paul telling the church at Corinth “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” God did miraculous things through Paul, leading thousands to the Lord, healing people and writing great portions of the Holy Bible. Paul was even bitten by a snake, and did not die from it. God did some amazing acts through Paul! And God can still do them today, and He can do them through you!
In the days of the early church, Christ sent out the Apostles with the sign gifts, for the purpose of showing those that do not believe that God’s hand was upon them. It was a sign to show that the movement of Christianity was authentic. That dispensation is not in our generation, and we no longer have the Acts of the Apostles. What we do have is their actions and actions speak louder than words!
Paul continues in verse 2 to tell them, “Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.” God’s ordinances haven’t changed. These ordinances are where we should focus our actions. God may not work identically as He did while the church was emerging out of the life of Christ; but He still blesses our “acts of obedience.”
So let’s remember, our actions speak louder than our reactions. With that we can assume, talk is cheap and will not reap. So let’s save our tonsils and act like the Apostles!
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