Christians ARE Free (Acts 5:18-29)
Gary McManus, 06/29/2014Part of the Life With Jesus is Better series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
Luke is the author of Luke’s Gospel and
The Book of Acts.
(See Luke 1:1-4, Acts 1:1)
Luke wrote to create an ORDERLY account.
Luke is trying to answer questions about Jesus,
the Apostles and the message of the church.
For example. . .WHY are the disciples arrested?
There were reports and rumors, but why did it happen?
The short answer is that there is no good reason for the
disciples to be arrested and jailed.
The Apostles were speaking about Jesus.
(See Ch 4:17, 16:16-20)
The followers of Jesus are not criminals.
The followers of Jesus have not done anything wrong.
The Apostles were being bullied (you could say).
It was not against the law to change religions.
The pilgrims came to American shores to escape
this kind of harassment!
Our patriot forefathers in the American colonies resisted
the British stamp act.
Our forefathers and foremothers could leave or protest
but the Apostles and disciples could not.
Some people are worried about the future and about
our freedoms. But long before we lose freedoms we,
the church, will probably be bullied.
(Jesus and other writers in the Bible say that things
will get very bad for us.)
But we will have to remember the words of the Apostles
WE MUST OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MEN.
If the church in America is to survive in the 21st century,
what must we do?
The Apostles did NOT survive, but the churches they
started DID survive.
The church must have known what it was up against
way back then. Here is what church planters say (and the Apostles were Church planters):
There is a vast spiritual wilderness in this country. And if
the church is unprepared, the wild country will eat the
church alive.
Is our situation like the movie Star Wars (Episode 3)
The church in the U.S. does not have “armies” of believers
who can march to win people to Christ.
(There are no more “crusades”.)
Not politics! The struggle of light and darkness!
We are going to have to INFILTRATE.
WE can only get to those being held captive by slipping across
Satan’s border where Satan holds souls captive.
We will have to go to them.
If we are to LIBERATE those who live in darkness,
we will have to be a team of believers dedicated to
one purpose. . .to tell those others that they are free in Jesus Christ.
Whether we are ever protested. Or God forbid, someday,
the government turns against us,
we must respond as the Apostles responded. .
"We must obey God rather than men."
Amen
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