Acts 5:12-26 - Faith, Boldness, and Shadows

[Music] acts chapter 5. this evening we're going to begin at verse 12. now just to remind you what happened in the very first section of acts chapter 5. it was sort of one of these very heavy sections of the book of acts where a couple who was numbered among the early christians ananias and sapphira they did something deceptive i won't get into the details you can read the text for yourself they did something to enhance their own prestige their own image of spirituality but the reality wasn't true and i won't say that god struck them down but i will say that they both ended up dead and not at a church meeting it seems but but sort of so to speak as if they would have come in the church office so to speak i mean we're making an analogy here and the text doesn't tell us that god struck him dead it may very well be that it wasn't so much the direct hand of god's judgment but but certainly they couldn't bear the shock they couldn't bear the shame of having their sin exposed and whether it was directly by the judging hand of god or indirectly because of the shock and the shame that they could not bear first ananias and then sapphira dropped down dead now you you would be excused for wondering if the judgment of god was not upon the early christians then if god was frowning on the early church from heaven saying you don't please me and my hand of blessing is no longer upon you luke the historian who wrote the book of acts for us he very much does not want us to have that impression that's why we begin here at verse 12. immediately after the account of ananias and sapphira verse 12 and through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people and they were all with one accord in solomon's porch you see that god was still very much at work right and many signs and wonders were being done through the apostles again they prayed in acts chapter 4 verse 30 that god would continue to do such signs and wonders and in fact he did now notice there's another sign and wonder right there in verse 12. it says and they were all with one accord in solomon's sports don't miss that that's a miracle right then you know whenever something dramatic happens in the church like that oftentimes criticism and disunity arises could you imagine the apostles dividing amongst themselves i could just see bartholomew calling out peter peter why did you confront ananias this way another leader or other people in church criticize how did this happen this way and that but it did not become a point of division there was not a fault line made in the church they remained unified i'm very blessed by that second line of verse 12 and they were all with one accord even through a traumatic thing like that it was used to draw them closer together not to separate them apart and so luke wants us to know very much god is still smiling upon the church oh i'm not trying to imply for a moment that the early church was perfect as if ananias and sapphira were the two bad apples in all of the thousands of followers of jesus there were at that time no no no the church was not perfectly pure but there was something wonderful about the purity and the power of those early christians and god was blessing them with him with signs and wonders we're not told exactly what those signs and wonders were at least in verse 12 we're not told presumably it's what we see in other places in the book of acts and in the gospels that there were healings and deliverances from demonic powers and unusual blessings and it just continues on look at verses 13 and 14. it says yet none of the rest dare join them but the people esteem them highly and believers were increasingly added to the lord multitudes of both men and women look at that just for a moment doesn't it almost seem like verses 13 and 14 contradict each other 13 says none of the people dare join them but then verse 14 says that the church kept growing what does that mean well it means that nobody joined them lightly you see the church had a marvelous reputation for integrity and purity and everybody knew that it was a serious thing to be a follower of jesus you would have to admit an ananias and sapphira type incident would reduce the level of casual commitment among christians right you you wouldn't want to just well maybe i'll be a follower of jesus if people are dying right from a lack of of integrity of honesty before god and so believers were increasingly added to the lord the church kept growing though people knew that it was a serious thing to be a christian the spirit of god kept moving with power now i think this is an incredible thing you see oftentimes we have the wrong conception generally in the christian life we think this way we think that if we want more people to be christians and i think if i would ask that question most people here would raise their hand do you want more people to be christians most people here would raise their hands if we think if we want more people to become christians the way to make that happen is to lower the bar of you know what it means to be a christian make it easier and then you'll have more people who want to do it well we find that just the opposite is true is it not when you make the bar lower and make it such an easy casual thing to be a christian listen do you want to be a christian well it's no problem you you can just add jesus to your life you want a little extra pep in your life we'll just add jesus that's all you need to do or the idea that that you can keep your own dreams your own aspirations your own inclas you just keep all that and jesus will just be added to all that and make it better instead of realizing the christian life for what it is if you want to be a follower of jesus it's like and unto taking up a cross and denying yourself and going unto death right it's saying i surrender everything before you god i lay all my dreams all my aspirations all those things in my life i lay them down before you and whatever you want to give back to me that is free from your hand god but i surrender it all to you now interestingly the bar is set even higher after the ananias and sapphira incident yet people respond more and more people want to become christians and again i think it's a huge mistake we make in evangelism our general outlook on the gospel when we think that it will attract more people if we make christianity seem to be a light casual insignificant thing instead of realizing friend you've got to yield your life to jesus christ and you've got to consider him to be the lord the master of your life and surrender your life to him i'll never forget when i was a very young this was before i gave my life to the lord but there i'm about 13 years old i remember very clearly because i'm having my conversation with my sister we're walking on our way to junior high school there we are walking together and we walk together because i have a twin sister and we're both in the same grade and so we're walking together school and she had already given her life to the lord they were just 13 years old and she says to me she says david you you've got to become a christian you've got to give your life to the lord and i said well what does that even mean what are you talking about and she says well it means that you put him in charge of your life and you let him make all the decisions for your life and you know 13 year old girl explaining what it means to be it's not a bad explanation i mean it's not complete but it's not you know it's not a bad start i remember very plainly when she said that thinking why would anybody want to do that well you know that's just the way the natural man thinks right but when you realize that this is what it means to be a christian to say jesus i surrender my life to you well it's setting the bar high but that's a glorious thing and we see that it not hurt the early church that they were increasingly added to the lord by the way i like the phrasing of that in verse 14 they were increasingly added to the lord not to a institutional church not to a person not to an apostle not even to a movement but to god himself and they were added in multitudes we see here that that the addition or excuse me the whole ananias and sapphira incident had no lasting damage to the church and look at this verse 15 to show that god's pleasure was upon the church in a powerful way we read here at verse 15 so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of peter passing by might fall on some of them also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to jerusalem bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits and they were all healed what a remarkable thing right god's power was so evident and was so with those early christians as it's described here in acts chapter 5 that people from surrounding areas not just jerusalem but from surrounding areas they came to jerusalem and they brought their sick people they brought their lame people they brought their demon-possessed people and they they were sat in the streets waiting for peter or the other apostles to pass by and they thought that if the shadow of peter passed over them that they would be healed now you read that you go wow what evidence of power in the early church but you also read it if you're anything like me you say isn't that strange isn't it strange for people to think that the shadow of peter passing over them would have the healing power of god but understand this they were so convinced of the reality and the power of what christians believed that they thought they could be healed by the mere passing over of peter's shadow now i want you to notice something if you look very carefully at verses 15 and 16 our text does not specifically say that people were healed by peter's shadow it merely tells us that people thought that they would be healed and that they did things they took actions based on that belief we don't actually know for certain if people were healed when the shadow of peter passed over them maybe so maybe not but but if we were to take it as true that as the shadow of peter passed over people they were healed we would say this is very strange how does this happen well i'll tell you how it happens it happens because the shadow of peter became as it were a trigger point a contact point for people's faith and strange things can trigger people's faith do you understand that i'll say it again strange things can trigger people's faith do you remember the great example of that in the new testament in the gospels where in the ministry of jesus jesus is moving through a big crowd he's on his way to go visit the home of the of the synagogue ruler because his daughter has fallen deathly ill and in the midst of that great big crowd a woman who's had a hemorrhage of blood for a long time and none of the doctors could help her what does she do she makes her way through the crowd she reaches through and she grabs on to the hem of jesus's garment and what happens as soon as she touches the hem of jesus's garment she's healed now does anybody think for a moment that there was some magical power in the garments of jesus where if anybody touched the garments of jesus whoo power went out and they were healed does anybody think that does anybody think that that uh if one of the roman soldiers at the foot of the cross who was gambling for the clothing of jesus that that if the guy had you know i don't know psoriasis you know he picks up the clothing of jesus and he's healed instantly no it doesn't work like that right there's no magical power in the garments of jesus there's no magical power in the shadow of peter i'll tell you what there is power in there's power in faith in the living god there's power and sometimes strange things are trigger points for that faith when that woman reached out and touched the hem of jesus's garment her faith went from maybe god will heal me someday to i believe god will heal me now when the shadow of peter passed over somebody if they were healed and again i want to stress this text doesn't say specifically that people were healed but assuming they were it wasn't because there was power in the shadow of peter it's because their faith went through well maybe god will heal me someday to lord i receive it right now and something strange was a trigger point for their faith now this reminds me of something that i should just mention before we move on just to mention this idea that all spiritual phenomenon can't be explained or can't be explained easily friends can we explain all natural phenomenon in this world are there not strange things that you and i can't explain but even scientists can't explain that why does this happen i don't know it just happens what's the same way in the spiritual world there are spiritual things that happen sometimes strange sometimes you could even call them weird and sometimes i myself as a pastor people are saying well explain this pastor and i say i don't know sometimes people have a strange spiritual experience and then they want to sort of mold the word of god and shape the word of god to fit their experience that they just happened i say don't do that because maybe i can't explain your experience but i can't explain the word of god and i'd rather have unexplained experiences and an understandable word of god than have a fully flexible gumby-like word of god that you can bend in any position you want and feel like you can explain all your experiences look strange things happen and i released myself a long time ago from the burden of feeling like i had to explain everything that happened spiritually i don't know maybe it was the lord maybe it was the flesh but maybe it was the devil i don't know it just happened what i look to more when i can't explain spiritual phenomena i look more to the fruit that comes out from it that's the more interesting thing and that's the level where you want to examine it but notice that don't miss the point at the end of verse 16 it says and they were all healed sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits and they were all healed however god chose bring to healing whether it was using the shadow of peter as a trigger point for faith whether it was something else i don't really know but however god chose to bring the healing there's no doubt that there was a remarkable healing work going on and we shouldn't miss the connection here right the church is in a status of radical purity because of the ananias and sapphira thing right not perfect purity no let's not over romanticize this thing we don't want to act like like the church was just perfect and then ananias and sapphira came along and they were the two bad apples and we got them out and everything's perfect again no no no no but listen there was a high level of purity there was a high level of honesty and integrity before god and god was blessing the purity of the church with power from heaven no i think god wants to do that in our midst too i think we should first of all recognize that god is doing powerful things all around us friend if you think that the day of god healing people is over i respectfully tell your mistake if you think that the day of god doing powerful things and and setting people free from demonic oppression is over you're i respectfully say you're wrong that day is today that day is now none of that stuff ended with the book of acts and many people today are excited about signs and wonders and miraculous things and in general i would say this that's a good thing the bible warns us about people who have a form of godliness but they deny the power of god and yet it seems if we're going to be honest and i'll just be very frank with you guys right now doesn't it seem that oftentimes people who are most interested in signs and wonders and miraculous things sometimes they seem strange in the christian world do they not i mean i'm just trying to be frank about that have you ever turned on christian television and oftentimes the people who seem most excited about signs and wonders and miracles they just seem strange listen i'll just tell you i don't mind a little bit of strange i really don't you know look at me i tend to be a pretty level guy right not too excited not too down not too high not too low i'm a pretty moderate level guy i don't think for a moment that everybody should be just like me i think that a little strange can be good for us sometimes it can be a good thing and i love people who trust god in what sometimes to be strange ways but i do always come back to a couple of things when i think about people who focus on the miraculous and here's a couple things i focus on first of all i think about this i think about the place of truth what i mean by this is not so much biblical truth i would just say this i take that for granted if people aren't teaching biblical truth then forget about what kind of listen i wouldn't care if a person came in here and had like the power of god coursing from their fingertips with lightning bolts you know and they had all of that if they weren't teaching biblical truth then we should just have nothing to do with them right i mean that that's a given when i talk about the place of truth i'm talking about just true truth are miracles really happening or are they pretended and let's be honest among some people a lot of times miracles are pretended it's not real you know certain things are said to happen phenomena and it's just it's just not real it's basically this person was healed but they really weren't healed that this person will be raised from the dead but they're not raised from the dead this person and it just doesn't have listen i just think we need to be real about this when god really does something miraculous we should shout it from the rooftops but we need to be honest about what does and doesn't happen so the place of truth is important to me but i tell you the other thing that's important to me is the place of integrity and what i mean by that the place of integrity i'm just trying to get at the fact that the person has integrity in their theology i could use a different word of integrity i'd say i want to know what their theology of suffering is you see because unless they believe that a miracle always happens when they pray and if that person really believes it i want to shake their hand and that's the one i want praying for me because 100 it's going to be a miracle coming unless they believe that a miracle always happens when they pray they're going to have to deal with the truth what do you do when the miracle doesn't come has god abandoned you is god on your side when the miracle comes is god against you if the miracle doesn't come or does god want to do a different work another work you see i'm saying you have to deal with this now if there is a lot of weirdness or strangeness among people regarding the moving of god and all it's been my experience that it's probably coming from people and not from jesus do you understand that that god can really be moving god can really be doing a work and if there's strangeness there often the strangeness is coming from the people and not from jesus can i give you an example from some years back and i really don't know if this is a contemporary example look i've been out of the church scene for you know some seven years when we were in germany and also if this is all up to date well then i i didn't think it was but i'll just use the example nonetheless some years ago there was a great fuss in the church over this whole phenomenon of people what they called it was barking in the spirit and the idea was when the holy spirit would come upon a person in such a powerful way that that person would just start barking like a dog well i find that strange i don't know about you but i find it strange and i just have to say that based on my experience with the bible and the christian life and all this i just don't think that that's jesus doing that i i don't think the person's the devil who's doing that i just think that whatever strangeness is coming forth is coming forth from the person and not from jesus and sometimes we have just to realize this when god is moving in a way god is doing his thing but sometimes people are strange in regard to what god is doing by the way and i don't know man i'm looking at the clock maybe i shouldn't take time out i find this barking thing very interesting because the the barking thing goes back actually people claim that it's very present in revival times in the past and they go back to some remarkable revivals that happened in the early part of the 19th century called the cane ridge revivals and they talked about those old believers who were filled with the holy ghost they were barking all over the place well you know if you actually do the research of the history of this and find out who says this you know what contemporary reports are there of this it's all nonsense the closest thing there is of any kind of documented history of barking so to speak happening at this one thing is of an old presbyterian minister leaning up against a tree with his forehead on his arm sobbing because of the conviction of sin and he's sobbing so convulsively that he's kind of snuffling you know what he did people do that when they're just sobbing and some you you know what it's like when you have just this monster cry right well listen that kind of snuffling or or grunting so to speak when you're crying so so much it can sound like you know it can that doesn't sound exactly like barking but it sounds kind of like that and i think of this precious old presbyterian minister who's so convicted of sin that he's just broken and weeping at a tree and that story being distorted and you know what they said they said he was barking and that he was like a dog who had chased the devil up a tree and they get these legends that the devil was like a raccoon and you know his and he treed the devil and all this nonsense gets put forth from that and that story is repeated over and over again that at the cane ridge revivals in the 1830s that they were barking and treeing the devil those stories get repeated again and again when they're nothing but exaggerations and mockeries of a true work that god was doing again i think we just have to distinguish between what god is doing and what man is doing now one other thing i know i should be getting on to verse 17 and but i just want to say one more thing about this whole issue of the miraculous and god doing great things i heard a pastor say something once that gave me so much freedom so much liberty in my christian life because look just like you whenever i'm going to pray for somebody for healing or something miraculous in their life i have the same fears i have the same concerns what's the concern that comes into your mind when you want to pray for something miraculous in somebody's life you think this what if it doesn't happen right oh great i'll pray for him here pray oh great boy that was a you know flat tire boy big deal about that you know there you go mr man of great faith and power thanks for praying for me you prayed me and nothing happened and then i realized this pastor said this and it just it just opened my eyes he said listen you're not responsible for healing that person that's god's business what you're responsible for is loving them whether or not they walk away from that healed at the moment that's god's business so pray in faith and trust god to do big things but leave that in his hands but what you're responsible for is loving them right there whether or not they leave healed leave that up to god pray in faith whether or not they leave they're loved that's entirely in your hands give them the love of jesus and suddenly i felt free right it just reminded me look i'm not respond i can pray in faith and trust that jesus will do it but more than anything i want to love that person encourage them in the lord well with god moving in such a dramatic way among the early christians you can see that there would be a pushback and here it is right in verse 17. then the high priest rose up and all who were with him which is the sect of the sadducees and they were filled with indignation and they laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison so we find the opposition raising up you know every time luke will give us a picture of how the early church was just being blessed and god was using them in a powerful way then he shows us what's happening in the world and oftentimes when the world is encountering the church in the book of acts not every time to be sure but a lot of times when the world is encountering the church there is a conflict right there's persecution by the way that persecution is not over today i i just ran across it in the news it's on my mind but but we should remember our persecuted brothers and sisters all over the world you know in recent weeks there's been a series of abuses against christians sweeping across the muslim world there was a murder of a notable christian leader in pakistan attacks on churches in ethiopia an attempted assassination of a church leader in turkey repeated pogroms and persecutions against the christian copts of egypt and now rights groups are reporting new developments in iran's long-term anti-christian crackdown there's been nearly 300 christians arrested and imprisoned since last june one iranian cleric he called house churches that are springing up all over iran the work of the enemy and this is what he said quote today the global aggressors have accurately planned and invested resources for these purposes this is why in our country there is a strong inclination towards christianity but that sort of struck me right not just that this iranian cleric this muslim man would be against christians and house churches but even this iranian cleric would declare that there is a high interest in christianity in his country he thinks it's because of this great scheme and funding and strategy from the west would to god that there was some great scheme or strategy or funding from the west accomplishing these things it's not happening but god is doing it nevertheless and praise god that he is but don't forget to pray for your persecuted brothers and sisters it is a season of heavy persecution and even though it doesn't touch us directly in the comfortable place where we live there are our brothers and sisters who are suffering greatly from the name of jesus all over the world well that's what was happening there was this push back in verses 17 and 18. now look what happens in verse 19 the apostles were thrown into jail and then it says but at night an angel of the lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said go stand at the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life that amazing here the religious leaders are determined to intimidate and to stop this preaching so what do they do they don't just take a couple of the apostles they take all of the apostles all 12 of them must have been a big prison cell and they put them in there and they locked him up and they said oh we're going to stop you now from doing all this and then what happens well god just sends an angel send an angel let him out tell them to go on and keep preaching isn't that remarkable that's so easy for god to do god sees him in prayer i don't want them in prison send an angel and let him out now i don't know if they understood that it was an angel at the time right i don't know if i had that classic angel don't think of a naked little baby in wings coming up to the prison door and opening it no that's silly that's not what angels look like nor do i think they have wings at all right normally i mean that's a that's a very modern conception nowhere in the well i can't i was just going to say nowhere in the bible the angels have wings no that's not true the cherubim in heaven have wings so i don't know wings wearing things i don't know sometimes i have wings sometimes they don't i don't know what these angels look like or this angel but he came and he opened up the door and he let him out and he said you go stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life so easy you're let out and what did the angel say hey guys i'm letting you out now run for your lives did he say that did the angel say i'm letting you out go hide there's a safe house in ramallah go there he didn't say any of that what did he do he says listen i'm letting you guys out but i'm letting you out for a purpose you go preach the word now i just have all these you know imaginations in my mind i imagine peter or john turning to the angel hey angel why don't you go preach you're a pretty impressive guy right and nobody can lay a hand on you man they could kill us when did you go preach and what would the angel say the answer would say listen peter john it is not given to angels to preach the gospel that is a charge entrusted to you men who are followers of jesus christ we are not blot with the blood of jesus that the cross in the same way you humans are whatever relationship we have with god it's not the same as what you enjoy and so you have been given the charge not to us as angels but to you you have this job of preaching the gospel now you go do it and they went out and they did it now before we see them preaching on the temple mount just in the following verse which will be verse 21 i want you to consider something isn't it glorious how easy it was for god to release them right oh i don't want them in prison let them out i just need to ask you did it always work this way for the apostles no no it didn't did it could you imagine the apostles saying this is great we never have to worry about persecution whenever we get in a tight spot god will send an angel and let us out great did it work out like that no sometimes god miraculously delivered them sometimes he did not now the rest of the bible does not tell us except for a few occasions what happened to each of the apostles and many of the leaders of the early church but fairly reliable church history and tradition does so matthew was beheaded with a sword mark died in alexandria after being dragged through the streets of the city luke was hanged on an olive tree in greece john died a natural death the only one of the group to do so but only after they unsuccessfully tried to boil him in oil peter was crucified upside down in rome james was beheaded in jerusalem james the less was thrown from a height then beaten with clubs until he was dead philip was hanged bartholomew was whipped and then beaten until death andrew was crucified and as he hung on the cross he preached at the top of his voice to all of his persecutors the gospel of jesus christ thomas was run through with a spear jude was killed with the arrows of an executioner matthias was stoned and then beheaded as was barnabas and paul was beheaded in rome now what does anybody want to tell me god liked the apostles when he was freeing them from prison with an angel but he didn't like them when they died the martyr's deaths no we know that god was with them in each circumstance right we know that on the one hand god would send an angel to deliver them we know that the other hand god would send an angel to strengthen them in the midst of their trial and friends this is one of the difficulties and one of the great mysteries of this life that we live with jesus christ yes god wants us to trust him for great big miraculous things and i think god wants to do more of that not less of that in our midst but we have to realize that there are times and more than just a few times where god says my son my daughter i am going to send supernatural help to you but not help to deliver you miraculously from your problem but help to strengthen you in the midst of your problem and to see you through to the end and we have to understand friends these are not two things that contradict each other in the christian life these are two things that complement each other in the christian life friends we should trust god for miraculous things and we should want to see them more and more but we should know that god also has a purpose when he does not deliver with a miraculous hand by the way we also see that when god does set us free it's always for a purpose it's not just for our own comfort and so they're set free to go do this work verse 21 and when they heard that they entered the temple early in the morning and taught but the high priest and those with them came and called the council together with all the elders and the children of israel and sent to the prison to have them brought but when the officers came and did not find them in the prison they returned and reported saying indeed we found the prison shut securely and the guard standing outside before the doors but when we opened them we found no one inside now isn't that amazing the angel tells them okay guys i want you to go out and spread this word what do they do they go first thing in the morning to the most public place possible and they preach the word i don't know about you but i would have kept it a little more on the down low for a while don't you think angel we are going to preach the gospel let's just let things quiet down for a week or two did they do that no the very next day don't they know that they're supposed to be hiding from the authorities apparently not they go out to the most public place in jerusalem and start teaching the people the word of god again and then what the officers who look at they returned the report hey we went to open and the guards were there just as normal the prison door was there just as normal we opened it up no apostles they just all left we don't know where they are and then the funny thing is i could just imagine coming back and look at it here verse 24 now when the high priest the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things they wondered what the outcome would be oh there's a lot packed into that one verse isn't there they wondered what the outcome would be what are we going to do the power of god is with these men we can't stop them what are we going to do so now this is funny verse 25 so one came and told them saying look the men who you put in prison are standing in the temple and preaching and teaching the people okay but where where are the apostles how they get out of the prison where are we going to find them you can imagine one in that council of religious man raised his hands i know where we can find them let's go look at the temple they're probably teaching people the word of god and that's what they were doing they were teaching people they went they find that the disciples were not hard to find it wasn't difficult to find where they were they were right out there doing what god had told them to do and then it says in verse 26 then the captain went with the officers and brought them without violence for they feared the people lest they should be stoned i think it's significant that they brought them without violence now what does that mean well it means that there was no motivation for violence on behalf of those officers of the religious council who arrested them no no motivation for violence there they knew the crowd was against them by the way it's kind of shameful that these men did not fear god but they feared the crowd but i think that the fact that there was no violence is a special credit to the apostles because they had such favor with the multitudes that they could have very easily just said to the multitude hey are you going to let them take us away no way and started a riot but they didn't they went with them because they knew god was with them they knew god was with them whether his deliverance was miraculous or whether it was endurance in the midst of their trial they knew god was with them i guess that's the point i want to conclude with i wish i could get inside your mind right now and find out which you need i mean because i'm absolutely convinced that there's some people here this evening and honestly either theologically or practically you doubt the miraculous power of god if that was you i would love just to get believe he does powerful miracles today understand that his spirit is still at work you can believe that god is a powerful miracle-working god today that's what i want to say to some of you and then there's others of you here and again i don't know who's who it's so easy if you know all the one people wearing red hats and all the other people were blue hats or something like that but there's others of you what you need to know is you need to know that god's power is often manifested in the ordinary in the endurance through the trial you need to look at that person who has endured for a long time under some physical trial and you need to understand that god's power is at work and them helping them to endure you know instead of that person who's endured a long season of difficulty or unemployment or stress or dip whatever it would be that god's power is just as present there in their endurance as it might be in a miraculous deliverance i don't know which one you need but i think god wants us to hold both very strongly and believe that god is here today to minister to your needs the the greatest example i can think of this is to think of what jesus did at the cross for us did not the father give jesus the son the power to endure through that difficulty of course he did right amazingly so but did he not also deliver him from that difficulty in resurrection yes he did both were at work in that glorious work of jesus for us where he went to the cross and he paid the penalty that we deserved he suffered for our sin our shame he did it all at the cross that's where our focus is and that was the message that the disciples preached so let's pray together and ask that god would just seal these things to our heart father i understand that this this compliment between your immediate miraculous power and the sustaining patient endurance that you give i understand lord that these things are not merely intellectually understood they have to be spiritually apprehended and lord i don't know if i can explain it any better than i have lord the next thing is that your spirit just has to minister to your hearts and i pray for people who are struggling with all this lord i pray that you would help them lord in the midst of their struggle to trust you for what they should if they should trust you for an immediate miraculous deliverance then lord guide them in that way if they should trust you for the patient endurance then lord help them to do that father bring us all into this place of maturity and consistency in our walk with you point us to jesus who can lead us into all truth and all wisdom we pray this in jesus name amen [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 951

Rating: 4.9047618 out of 5

Keywords: david guzik, guzik, enduring word, the book of acts, acts 5:12-26, acts 5, faith boldness and shadows, faith, boldness, shadows, new testament, calvary chapel santa barbara, ccsb, calvary chapel, power, church, miracles, unity, apostles, imprisoned, jewish rulers

Id: v8iKCZBzgG8

Length: 41min 56sec (2516 seconds)

Published: Wed May 12 2021