Silver and Gold

*A little artistic liberty taken below.

“But Peter said, ‘I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!’” (Acts 3:6).

Silver and gold.

“For you [the church in Laodicea] say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I [Jesus] counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire…” (Rev. 3:17-18).

Silver and gold I have none.

Silver and gold we have plenty of.

Silver of education.

Gold of skills, training, talents.

Silver of insurance, 401Ks, pensions, welfare, government.

Gold of certificates, diplomas, recognition.

Silver of standing, whether as a good upright citizen; or a mother on the PTA and that mom who always has a homemade meal and takes her kids to dance and soccer and clean house; or high ranking in the gang and a reputation on the streets; or the big muscles at the gym; or the one with the Bible knowledge.

Silver for you? Gold for you?

What do we offer to the world? To neighbors? To unbelievers? To Jesus?

Silver and gold?

What do we have?

Peter, going up to the temple. Herod’s temple. A great wonder of the world. Marvel marble. Glittering gold. Columns arching high. Robinson’s arch massively looming in giant awe. Gleaming in the hot Judean sun. Intricate carvings. Silver and gold wonder.

Peter, in his coarse forever-fish-smell-embedded garments walks. “Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you.” Here, in Peter rather than the glittering gold of the temple was power from the presence of God, the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus. The veil had been torn, and the presence of God was among the fishermen. Among the factory workers, office workers, the tired moms, the grandmothers who never had the chance to get a college degree, the teachers, the car repair men, the truck drivers. Silver and gold none, but presence of God. What we have!

Peter leaves the temple with its bread of the presence, lampstand, showbread, the prayers, daily sacrifices, the law-keeping rituals to honor Yahweh as he commands. Walking down the winding streets, through the market place, down an alley of mud houses. Here, the local church in the upper room dimly lit with olive oil light. But glows. Here is Stephen. Philip. Common men. But it is the local deacon who works in the office or car repair shop during the week (aka Stephen) who:

“….full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking…..And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel” (Acts 6:8-10, 15).

Stephen, a common man. But the Sauls-pre-Pauls and Gamaliels in the synagogue, the trained religious teachers with their education and human zeal, could not withstand the Spirit’s wisdom in him (Acts 6). Silver and gold none, but the presence of God. What we have!

It is Philip, a common man, perhaps a janitor during the week, who gets Spirit-teletransported to the Ethiopian at divinely appointed timing (Acts 8). It is the factory worker/fisherman Peter who sees trances (Acts 10). It was the Wednesday night prayer meetings that today get forgotten in which the ground was shaken by the Spirit (Acts 4:31). Silver and gold none, but the presence of God. What we have!

“Now when they [the religious leaders] saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Silver and gold none, but the presence of God. What we have!

We have a faith more precious than gold (1 Pet. 1:7).

A power so great that Simon the magician offered gold for it (Acts 8:19-20).

We have Jesus, ascended and high, in the midst of seven golden lampstands, clothes with a long robe and a golden sash around his chest, gleaming white hair, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like burnished bronze, with a voice like the roar of many waters, with seven stars in his right hand, a tongue like a two-edged sword and a face like the sun shining in full strength (Rev. 1:12-16). This Jesus, we have, dwelling in the people who meet on the red-covered pews, in the metal folding chairs in a local gym, in the chairs in a church sanctuary, in the people around tables gathering around his word, in the house churches in China, in mud huts in Africa, in Romanian wooden pews with chickens wandering around. This Jesus, with all power, golden in glory, among us. You. I. Factory workers. Dads. Moms. Grandparents. Teachers. Janitors. Business owners and business employees. Ex-drug addicts and college summa cum laude graduates. Silver and gold none, but the presence of God. What we have!

We have a God in us who toppled Jericho walls, ravished the most powerful kingdom of Egypt in the world, who parted the Jordan River and the Red Sea, who caused the entire Mount Sinai to shake, in us. Silver and gold none, but the presence of God. What we have!

But what do we try to offer the world?

Laodicea.

Silver and gold?

Silver and gold none, but the presence of God. What we have!