The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 325: Boldness in Faith (2023)

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Fr. Mike highlights the boldness of Peter and John in our reading from Acts as they stand before the council of church leaders and defend the name of Jesus. He also addresses Paul’s writings on God���s grace given to us in our sinfulness and the war between good and evil present within ourselves. Today’s readings are Acts 4, Romans 6-7, and Proverbs 27:4-6. If you have found this podcast to be helpful in your faith life and would like to help us continue bringing this Catholic media to as many people as possible, please consider making an ongoing financial gift at ascensionpress.com/support. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Before we get started, I just wanted to offer a quick thank you to all those who have supported the Catechism in a Year or the Bible in a Year podcast. We hear stories every day about how those shows have transformed people's lives, and because of your prayers and financial gifts, you are a significant part of that. You might ask a question, though. The question is, what does Ascension do with these financial gifts? Great question. The answer is, we make authentically Catholic podcasts and videos and other digital content

to help people know the Catholic faith and grow closer to God. And we do it all for free. If you found this podcast to be helpful in your life and would like to help us continue making free Catholic content we can post online, please consider making a financial contribution, an ongoing financial contribution by going to ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support. That's ascensionpress.com support. Thank you and God bless. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast,

where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 325. 325, that's 325. If you add three and the two, you get five. That's today.

And we're reading Acts of the Apostles, chapter 4, as well as Romans, chapters 6 and 7, and Proverbs, chapter 27, verses 4 through 6. As always, the Bible translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, finally, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and daily updates. And every single day, including day 325, you would know what to read. And it is day 325,

reading Acts of the Apostles chapter 4, Romans chapter 6 and 7, and Proverbs chapter 27, verses 4 through 6. The Acts of the Apostles chapter 4. Peter and John before the council. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about 5,000. On the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they

had set them in their midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed. Be it known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This is the stone which was rejected by you builders, but which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men,

by which we must be saved. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man that had been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred with one another, saying, What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is manifest to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people.

For all men praised God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old. The Believers Pray for Boldness When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who by the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,

why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. For truly, in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal. And signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they

were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. The believers shared their possessions. Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul. And no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power, the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not anyone needy among them, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet,

and distribution was made to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was surnamed by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold the field which belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. The Letter of St. Paul to the Romans, Chapter 6 Dying and Rising with Christ

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his,

we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our former man was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law, but under grace. Slaves of sin or of righteousness. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law, but under grace? By no means. Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death,

or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I'm speaking in human terms

because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death,

but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Chapter 7. The Analogy with Marriage. Do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only during his life? Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning her husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. And if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ,

so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit. The Law and Sin What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means. Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said

you shall not covet. But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. The very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. The interior conflict between good and evil. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin,

and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.

For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law

of sin. The book of Proverbs chapter 27 verses 4 through 6. Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Father in heaven, we give you praise. Thank you so much. Gosh, Lord, God, as we just keep hearing about your grace that is just poured out on us, your grace which comes to meet us in our brokenness, help us just to say yes. Help us to say yes to your grace. Help us to say yes to your gift. Lord God, right now, help us to say yes to you, that you may be glorified in everything we think, everything we say, and everything we do,

we think everything we say and everything we do, that you may be known and that more and more people may love you and that you may be loved by more and more of our heart. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, gosh. Let's go back to the Acts of the Apostles first. Oh, goodness gracious. Okay, so at the beginning, what do we have? The context, of course, Peter and John going into the temple. There was the man who was crippled, right? He couldn't walk. And in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Lord heals him through Peter. And this is incredible. Now what happens is they're being brought before the priests, the captain of the temple and the Sadducees. Now I love that this says they're annoyed because

they're annoyed. The Sadducees are annoyed. Captain of the temple, priest, they're annoyed. All those people are annoyed. Why are they annoyed? This is the interesting thing. They're annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. Remember the Sadducees? The difference between the Pharisees and Sadducees? I mean, there's a lot of differences, but the Sadducees, they only believed in the first five books of Moses, right? The Sadducees didn't believe in angels. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. And one of the ways we can remember that, of course, is that the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection and the Sadducees didn't. And that's why they were sad, you see. Old joke. Okay. But it says merely that they were annoyed. And I think that that is interesting. Anyways, here is Peter and

John. They're brought before the council, that's St. Hadrian. The same people that they were, both Peter and John, were in the presence of essentially during Jesus's trial, which is remarkable to remember. Because the first time, we don't hear anything about John. We know that John went all the way with Jesus to the crucifixion, but we did hear about Peter. And we do know that John went all the way with Jesus to the crucifixion, but we did hear about Peter and we do know that Peter, he failed, right? In that moment, he was not bold. In that moment, he cracked and he denied knowing Jesus at three times. And yet now this is incredible. Verse eight, Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a cripple, by what means this man has been healed, be it known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,

whom God raised from the dead, by him, this man is standing before you well. It goes on to say, this is incredible. This is a cornerstone line, not only because it speaks about the cornerstone in verse 11, but in verse 12, the line is, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. This is huge because Jesus himself had said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And here's Peter, who's making it very clear. There is salvation in no one else. There's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And now the key word I think of chapter four

is boldness, right? Key word of chapter four is it says multiple times that they're filled with boldness. And this is remarkable. Observing them to be common, ordinary, uneducated men, and yet they have this new quality and the quality is not theirs. It says they recognized that they had been with Jesus. Oh my gosh, you guys, chapter four, this is one of those chapters in the Acts of the Apostles. You wanna have a pen. You wanna have some kind of thing to mark this down.

Not only here is Peter's boldness, not only is this no other name given under heaven, which we mostly say, but even this, they were different and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. And there's something about that, that for all of us, that's the key. That's the core, which is if we've been with Jesus, we should look different. That if we've been with Jesus, we should look like him. And as Jeff noted a couple of days ago in that intro to this

last age, the final time period of the church, you have Peter who looks a lot like Jesus. And later on after chapter eight, we're going to see Paul who looks a lot like Jesus. And that's what we're called to be. We're called to look like Jesus. I just love this. It keeps going. I don't want to say everything. Just repeat the entire chapter again. Gosh. But it says, they called on them. This is verse 18 in chapter four. They called on them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.

For we cannot speak of what we have seen and heard. In verse 21, and when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them. Because why? Because you can't stop someone who's already dead. You can't threaten someone who's already dead. And Peter and John, they've already died to themselves out of love for Jesus Christ. Now, last couple of things I want to highlight is that what happens from this in verse 23.

They're released. They went to their friends, reported what the chief priests and elders had told them. And when they heard it, they all began to pray. And what did they pray for? This is incredible. They don't say, God, there's a lot of danger out there and a lot of opposition. So, you know, make it safe. Like, God, there's a lot of opposition out there, a lot of danger. So take away the danger. What they pray for is they say

in verse 29, and now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. You know, it's incredible. Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to face life. Do not pray for an easy life. Pray for the courage to face life. Not pray for an easy way to follow Jesus. Pray for boldness to be able to do this.

This is just the secret of the saints. And this is the secret of Acts chapter four. These people were already living in boldness. They were already speaking in boldness. And they said, instead of God, take away the danger. They said, give us more boldness. And Lord Jesus, stretch out your hand and do miracles so that more and more people will know that you are the Messiah, that you are the

one who conquered death and has restored life to all of us. How great is this? You guys, this is amazing. Romans chapter six and seven, there's too much to say. There's too much to say, but let's begin. Let's try to say something. In verse six, I love this in six and seven, Paul has this pattern. Maybe you noticed it. Maybe you didn't notice it. He will say something and then he'll kind of not hedge his bets. He will qualify it. He'll say, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. And he says, what then? Are we to sin because we're not under the law, but under grace? By no means. He'll ask those questions and say, no, no, no, that's not what I meant. Just anticipating, you know, it's a literary device and it's great because it clarifies some things

because at the end of chapter five, St. Paul had said that so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness. So then he asked the question, are we saying then continue in sin, grace may abound? Because here's what St. Paul was saying. The more sin, the more grace, that the more we need God's grace because of our sin, the more he gives his grace because of our need.

And so then the question could be, well, shoot, in that case, how about I sin more and get more grace? And that's why St. Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. That's not the point. When you need the grace, grace is given. But don't go like injuring yourself in order to get more grace. grace is given, but don't go injuring yourself in order to get more grace. But the reality, of course, is that's the power of God's healing. The power of God's grace is we can be trucking along at a certain level of relationship with the Lord, a certain level of holiness, and just his divine life in us, and then we fall into sin. What happens when we repent and

turn back to the Lord, we go to confession, God doesn't just raise us back up to the same level we were. He raises us up and elevates even further because where grace abounds, or sorry, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. But that's why he clarifies, don't go looking for sin so you get more grace. But if you happen to need the grace, you can trust in the love of God for you to give you even more. Hopefully that makes sense because he goes on to talk about those of us who are baptized into Christ, baptized into his death. We were buried therefore. And so this reality of course, is that the old man, right? The former man, he calls it the old man being our fallen flesh is meant to have been

crucified with Christ in our baptism. That when we actually repented, right? We turned away, not just from sin, not just from vice, not just from old habits, but we turned away from that person. I was someone different before I encountered Christ. I was someone different before he saved me. He's made me into a new creation. And so I turned from that and let that person die. I remember going to confession to a priest and at one point he said, you know what?

I think sometimes we would rather just kind of torture the old man or what St. Paul says of torture the old man or what St. Paul says here is the former man rather than actually let him die. Because he was kind of highlighting how sometimes we don't really fully turn away from that former way of life. Sometimes we don't really fully turn away from that sin. And so he can use that turn of phrase to be able to say, sometimes I think we just torture the old man rather than actually let him die, keep him alive a little bit,

and maybe he'll have some power in our lives. But as St. Paul says, we know that our former man was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed and that we might no longer be slaves of sin. That's verse six in chapter six. For he who has died is freed from sin. So if we've died with Christ, we believe we should also live with him because this is the whole, this incredible mystery. Gosh, there's so much to say. I'm going to just jump to the end in chapter seven because there is so much good, but there's also this sense of, oh my gosh, Paul understands me. In chapter seven, this is another place where you might want to just have that highlighter out there, that pen, that pencil, whatever it is,

to be able to write your notes, to underline these. We recognize, he says, the interior conflict between good and evil. And this is one of those passages of scripture that you might say, oh my gosh, this is me. If it's not, that's great. Praise the Lord for that. But I read it and think, oh God,

at least you understand me. So does Paul. He says, I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. He ever felt like that, that we're at war within ourselves. He even says that he says, now, if I do what I do not want, I agree. The law is good. Yeah. Because I don't want this. I want the right. I don't want the wrong. So then it's no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. And that recognition that, yes, there's this brokenness. And when St. Paul uses the terms, the flesh, he's not condemning like our bodies.

The flesh means the fallen human nature, our fallen human nature. So keep that in mind. Whenever you hear the term that St. Paul uses, the flesh, but I don't know if there's any exceptions, St. Paul refers to the flesh. That means our fallen human nature. It doesn't mean that bodies are bad. It's just that part of us that doesn't want to do the right thing, essentially. But I love this. He says, so I find it to be a law when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. This is chapter seven, verse 21. I see in my members another law. A war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Then he cries out in verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

And the very next verse, he just like inserts this praise. And he says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Just like, I'm still, I'm still a mess. I'm just, here I am, a puddle of messiness, but thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And it's just, that's the key in the middle of the mess to be able to praise God for his presence, for what he's doing in the midst of that mess. You guys, I don't mean to take any more of your time today. It has been an incredible gift to, man, be in what, day four, I guess now of the age of the church and just be trucking along here.

I think I've used that term twice today. Oh, well, here we are. I'm telling you, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless. you