What is your passion this December?

As we travel headlong into this Christmas season, what is your passion? This question flashed across my mind as I read and considered the story of the lame man who was healed in Acts 3. I invite you to take a moment to consider this story with me and how it impacted my thinking.

 

The Lame Man Is Healed

In Acts 3, we learn of a man who had not been able to walk his entire life. According to Dr. Luke, the author of Acts, he had been lame for over 40 years. Every day friends would carry him to the Gate Beautiful in the temple where he would ask for alms. On this particular day, Peter and John were walking near that gate when he asked them for help. Peter told him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6).

The Bible describes how he received strength immediately in his legs and ankles, got up, and began walking and leaping around the temple!

A miracle. Not just simply a miracle, but a powerful miracle. Everyone in the temple knew he was the man who was lame and for 40 years had been carried to the temple to beg for enough money to live. Yet, now, he is up walking and leaping around the area in the temple called Solomon’s Portico.

As you can imagine, this began to draw a crowd. Not just any crowd, but a big crowd. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, began to explain to them what had happened. He gave them the Gospel. Many believed and were saved.

However, the religious leaders became very angry. They had rejected Jesus and now rejected this miracle done in the name of Jesus. Therefore, they arrested Peter and John. After spending the night in jail, the next day, they told Peter and John to not talk about Jesus ever again. Peter responded, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19-20).

 

Peter and John’s Passion Explained

Peter and John could not do anything less than tell people about Jesus. Why?

Dr. Luke explains it well when he discusses the religious leaders. He writes, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

Friends, did you see in the text what they noticed? Peter and John were so passionate because they had been with Jesus.

They lived with Him, walked with Him, ate with Him, and basically oriented their lives around His for three years. In that time, they began to understand that Jesus loved them. John explains it, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Peter and John saw Jesus’ love revealed. They were in the Garden of Gethsemane when Judas betrayed Him and the soldiers arrested Him. John was with Him when Jesus carried His cross through Jerusalem toward Golgotha. He experienced the crucifixion alongside Mary and others. After the resurrection, Peter and John were there to see the tomb empty. Peter was there on the side of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus forgave Him for denying Him three times on the night of His arrest.

They knew and loved Jesus because they understood Jesus’ love for His Father and them.

Therefore, when they were told that they could not talk about Jesus to anyone, they simply responded, “There is nothing else we can do!”

 

What about Us This Christmas?

As we head into December and into this Christmas season, what kind of passion do you have for Jesus? Will you allow your Christmas season to be swallowed up with so many other good things that you forget the one thing about which you should be most passionate?

Is it possible that you will get caught up into buying gifts, decorating homes and offices, attending parties, visiting family, attending school programs, and watching Christmas entertainment programs so much so that your passion for Jesus gets lost?

Peter and John were arrested and thrown into jail – then told not to speak about Jesus. They immediately responded, “That’s not possible!”

No one is arresting us, nor are they telling us that we must not talk about Jesus. However, in the busyness of life, activities, and celebration of Christmas, have we chosen on our own to lose our passion? Have we chosen to not speak the name of Jesus, but instead, enjoy the festivities of reindeer, jingle bells, and the rest?

Is it possible we love Christmas so much that we have lost Jesus in it?

What is your passion this December?

On this first day of December, let us renew our focus on keeping Jesus as the center of our passion. Remember, as John said, we love Him because He first loved us.