As soon as someone mentions reports, you may imagine reams of paper filled with facts and statistics that will probably do little more than gather dust. However, reporting is not a modern invention designed to frustrate those involved in witnessing and evangelism. It is a biblical principle. As our memory text for this week reveals, when the disciples returned from a missionary tour, they reported all that they had done and taught to Jesus. This seems to be a central part of the work of the gospel.
While we cannot point to one specific Bible text that says, “You must report because,” there is ample evidence that reporting was important in both the Old and New Testaments. Reporting is an activity in a chain of events. That is, someone prepares a report, someone receives the report, the report is evaluated, and then decisions are made and actions are planned in response to what was reported.
Examine Acts 4:1–31. What did Peter and John report back to their companions, and what did this report prompt the church to do? What lessons are there for us today?
Consider that without newspapers, radios, or satellite television, word of mouth was the primary way of spreading the good news about Jesus. If these early believers gave in to the threats made against them, then their influence for God would have been severely curtailed. So, they gathered together, listened to the reports, and then decided upon a strategy that would enable them to be true to their evangelistic calling.
Central to it all, of course, was their praying and their reading of Scripture. If we take nothing else from this story, we can see how important prayer and reliance on the Word of God was to them. It shouldn’t be any different for us today.
Although we don’t have details of what they might have planned, verse 29 shows that in spite of the threats made against them they were going to continue to speak about Jesus.
John and Peter quoted Scripture before both the leaders in Israel and the other Jewish believers, showing how crucial it was to their faith and their witness. How central and crucial is Scripture in your own life? (Hint: you can know the answer by asking yourself how much time you spend with it).