January 15 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Acts 2:37-47:

³⁷Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
³⁸Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
³⁹For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.
⁴⁰And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
⁴¹Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
⁴²And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
⁴³And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
⁴⁴And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
⁴⁵And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
⁴⁶And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
⁴⁷Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Devotional

Those who were converted on the day of Pentecost continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles. They diligently availed themselves of the great privilege that God had granted them of learning from the apostles of Christ the truths about Him. They were eager to learn all that the apostles could teach them about the Lord Jesus - about His nature, His ministry, His death, and His resurrection.

Perhaps we sometimes wish that we might have had such a privilege - that we could have sat at the feet of the apostles and have learned from them. How much we would like to have as our teachers those who had been with Jesus. They could instruct us about what they had heard, what they had seen with their eyes, what they had looked upon and their hands had handled, of the Word of Life (I John 1:1).

But even though it was not in God's plan to grant us the privilege that the converts on Pentecost enjoyed, we are by no means cut off from the teaching of the apostles. God has given us an inspired record of the Gospel that they preached and of the instruction that they gave. In the New Testament we have the teaching of the apostles and of other inspired men in the early church. God has given to us the holy Scriptures - an inerrant, God-breathed Word that we can read and reread, which we can study and meditate upon day and night. We too by God's grace can continue steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)