Jun 7 – 2 Samuel 11, 2 Samuel 12 Acts 4:1-22 Psalm 71:1-8
2 Sam 11:2-3
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
Everything was going so well for David… then we get to this moment.
One bad mistake can set, even the best of us on a bad path. First he sleeps with Bathsheba, then when he learns she is pregnant he goes to great lengths to cover up his sin. First, trying to get Uriah to be in a position where he’d think he was the father… that failed, then when he realised he couldn’t cover his tracks he made sure Uriah ended up dead.
One mistake led to a whole bunch of mistakes, mainly through trying to cover up the first mistake. It all got out of hadn’t so quick…
If David had owned his mistake, if David had been honest, Uriah may have survived and the child may have lived.
When we make mistakes, we need to deal with them, rather than try and pretend they don’t exist. God is gracious – but repentance is the path to forgiveness. You can’t bypass repentance.
Acts 4:16-17
“What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign, and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn them to speak no longer to anyone in this name.”
What should we do? That was the question the authorities had. There was no denying a miracle took place – and everyone in the city knew that. There was no backtracking, there was no saying, this guy is faking because everybody knew he was not.
So they had a solution. A solution that the world today would probably also like the church to stick with.
They said – go about your business, but don’t speak in the name of Jesus. they were ok with a church, as long as that church didn’t speak about Jesus. The world doesn’t’ mind a church that doesn’t speak in the name of Jesus because it’s “nice” and “harmless”.
But Peter and John were unrelenting. They said they could not do anything other than speak about what they had seen and heard – they knew unless they were speaking about Jesus, they were making no difference at all.
The church MUST speak in the name of Jesus and speak to people about Jesus. The world may not like it, but nevertheless it is our call.
