Conflict and Confidence
As we note in the book of Acts there is a good deal of conflict after Pentecost. The conflict appears to be from the religious leaders of the day. These leaders are in conflict with the follower's of Jesus because they claim that Jesus has been resurrected and that healings and miracles have occurred because of faith in him and his name.
The conflict after Pentecost is because the very leaders who had Jesus tried in a mock trial and executed by the Roman government find themselves trying to manage the growing number of people who believe that Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah. They must find some way to stop what they thought they had stopped some 50 days before. So, they resort to interviews and intimidation to these followers.
However, the tactics of the religious leaders do not work. These followers of Jesus who have been filled with The Holy Spirit demonstrate confidence in the midst of conflict. This confidence is expressed in the disciples message about Jesus even as the religious leaders demand that they stop speaking of Jesus (Acts 4:17-18).
The confidence that these followers of Jesus have is surely the empowering that occurred as they are filled with the Holy Spirit. This matter of power or empowering is exactly what Jesus promised in Acts 1:8. But I want to suggest that there is also confidence born of their experience with Jesus. In Acts 4:20 Peter and John state "we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." Part of the confidence of these early follower's of Jesus was their experience with Jesus.
It is a curious fact here that what these men had "seen and heard" occurred some time before. But it was not until they were filled with The Holy Spirit that these experiences become what they would not stop declaring.
REFLECT: Is your experience of being filled with The Holy Spirit causing you to share wha you have seen and heard with confidence? Are we giving witness to others what we have "seen and heard?"