Acts 5:12-42, Where Did It Come From?

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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Acts chapter 5 starting verse 12 be reading to verse 42 Hear the word of the

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Lord Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the

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Apostles and they were all together in Solomon's portico none of the rest dare join them, but the people held them in high esteem and More than ever believers were added to the

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Lord multitudes of both men and women So that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats

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That is Peter came by at least his shadow might fall in some of them The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits and they were all healed

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But the high priest rose up and all who were with him that is the party of the Sadducees and Filled with jealousy they arrested the

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Apostles and put them in the public prison but during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said

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Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life And when they heard this they entreated the temple they entered skimming the temple at daybreak and began to teach now when the high priest came and those who were with him they called together the council and all the

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Senate of Israel and Sent to the prison to have them brought but when the officers came they did not find him in prison

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So they returned and reported we found the the prison securely locked in the guard standing at the doors

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But when we opened them we found no one inside Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priest heard these words they were greatly perplexed about them wondering what this would come to and Someone came and said and told them look the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people

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Then the captain with the officers went and brought them but not by force For they were afraid of being stoned by the people

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And when they had brought them they set them before the council and the high priest questioned them saying we strictly charge you

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Not to teach in this name yet here. You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you

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Intended to bring this man's blood upon us, but Peter and the Apostles answered we must obey

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God rather than men The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed by hanging him on a cross on a tree you mean

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God exalted him at his right hand is leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins and We are witnesses to these things and so is the

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Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him When they heard this they were enraged and wanted to kill them

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But a Pharisee and then council named Gamaliel a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people

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Stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while and he said to them Men of Israel take care what you are about to do with these men

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For before these days the Otis rose up claiming to be somebody and a number of men about 400 joined him

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He was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing After him

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Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him He too perished and all who followed him were scattered

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So in the press so in the presence case I tell you keep away from these men and let them alone

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For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

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You might even be found opposing God So they took his advice and when they had called in the

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Apostles They beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go

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Then they left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name and Every day in the temple and from house to house.

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They did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ May the

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Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word I think one of the strongest facts that extreme critics of Christianity Can't answer the things that they have to grapple with or maybe they just ignore and try to distract from is

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The problem what problem to them? It's a problem to them. It's not a problem to us where the church came from All of them, of course these critics skeptics will reject the claims of the

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Bible will say ah, this is mostly fables Some of them will even take the extreme is really just a totally ridiculous position that Jesus didn't even exist.

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I mean even the You know, you'll find even secular people that aren't even believers just think that's

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Absurd to say that but but these people if they're gonna say Jesus didn't exist all these These skepticism they have one huge fact

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That they can't answer one huge problem for what they believe Where did the church come from then?

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You know, how does a movement start if no one started it? Okay, that doesn't make any sense. Does it? How does this movement

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Christianity spring onto the scene in the Roman Empire so that by the mid 60s and I don't mean 1960s

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I mean 8060 I mean zero zero 60 by the mid 60s, but just about a little over 30 years after Jesus After you know after Jesus began to do and to teach as the book of Acts puts it just about 30 years later after Jesus There were enough

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Christians enough followers of Christ in Rome itself the city of Rome That they could those

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Christians could then be blamed by for the great fire by Nero Whether there were that many they were that well known just 30 years later

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How does it how does that move it spread that quickly in less than a generation?

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from a small band of small group on the outskirts of the Roman Empire to to where Just 30 years later they're permeating the heart of it and that doing all that without the benefit of Mass communication or rapid travel or or any marketing?

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There's no radio. There's no TV. There's no Internet There's not even a printing press to print their literature on Where does that come from?

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What comes from Palestine of all places from a small band of who had been formerly?

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Unreliable disciples who originally spoke Aramaic and and read Hebrew I mean they had to probably be taught

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Greek so they could write what they wrote And it's good and it's going to be all over the

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Roman Empire and into neighboring kingdoms in a generation How does that happen?

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And you know, that's just amazing. So some things are just facts in history We just kind of take it for granted that it happened because it happened once it happened this happened, right?

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But that's just stunning. How does that occur? I mean you probably couldn't do that with a

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Religion today even with all the modern things we have and what makes it even more amazing

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Is that unlike some religions that grew dramatically in the first in their first few couple generations like Islam Yeah, they grew quickly, but you know how they grew quickly

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Unlike that the founder Christianity did not lead an army and you go conquering people and then forcing them to convert

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Right the the fact the founder now, did he not go conquer people and force them to convert?

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He was crucified and the early Christians. They made no secret of that They proclaimed it front and center and even regularly took a meal to remember it his death with So he wasn't even physically present to lead this movement to prominence.

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How's that happen? Indeed, not only did they not use the sword to expand their movement

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They grew in spite of the sword leader after leader for most of their first 300 years were killed and Yet they grew anyway

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How is that possible? It's all in where they came from Where did it come from Did this movement for claiming a a new life?

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And when we see that here in three major parts where they came from they came from the power the preaching

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Finally the persecution first, there's the power. Where did it come from? It came from the power of God Remember what the

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Lord Jesus said in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 which basically serves as the outline for the whole book of Acts You will receive power when the

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Holy Spirit has come upon you and here in this passage We see some of that power that power is shown in signs

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There's there's signs of power there signs that point to power that display power I put it on make it manifest make it obvious displays a power that make people wonder the signs and wonders

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They make you wonder. Hey, where did that power come from? How can you do that? He walks by somebody his shadow falls on them and they're healed out

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Wow Where's the there's power here makes people wonder makes people think in verse 12 many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people

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But the hands of the Apostles I noticed that there were a lot of them In other words, it was an ongoing

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Phenomena, they were just pouring out of the early church, but give the Apostles And there was so many of them that in verse 15 people carried the sick out into the streets

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It was just along the route. Hey, that's Peter He's coming by this way Hoping that at least his shadow might fall on them and heal them the news about the power of the church got out into the neighboring towns so that people from Judea were

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Streaming to them Judea is the area that around Jerusalem and So that shows that Jesus's Word was coming true again and back in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 that they would receive power

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And be my witnesses in first Jerusalem right here in the temple and the city and in Judea the province around Jerusalem and It's so people are streaming from all

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Judea coming and says verse 16. They were all Healed so a lot of signs wonders miracles now people want it now today our day people want to know

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Why don't we see signs and wonders? Right. Some people say, you know show me one and I'll believe

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But isn't the fact that this movement Christianity that it grew itself a sign and a wonder consider that Well, there's two main answers among Christians as to as to where are where are the signs and wonders now, where do they go?

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Some say that they have ceased Now that they were just for the inauguration of the church and they then stopped after the completion of the

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New Testament that the first generation That doctrine is called a name for it

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Cessation ism right now. We know what I'm referring to the cessation is Cessation ism is the belief that the manifestation to the

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Holy Spirit's power and signs and wonders and dreams and visions and all that that it ceased When the

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New Testament was complete now a lot of quote reform Christians don't like us today.

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They believe in that and But there's seems to me there's two major problems with that first The Bible nowhere teaches that Which is seems to me a huge problem

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With that doctrine because of what the doctrine says after all the main reason given for its cessation ism

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That is that the signs and wonders Dreams and visions and all that that they have ceased they say they have ceased because they say well those were for proving

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The message of the Bible sort of endorsing it showing that this is true Before the

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Bible had been fully given for the New Testament had been finished and and they would say now that we have the

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Bible We have it all then. We don't need the signs the manifestations of the Spirit power anymore

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I'll also point out I don't think the signs and wonders weren't to prove to us who already believe it It was to prove those outside and I don't see how that's changed any but never mind that The doctrine says that we don't need anything other than the

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Bible So we don't need the signs and wonders Except did you notice what we just said we need?

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We need this nice little argument that the gifts have ceased That we can't prove with the

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Bible It seems to me to be self -contradictory To say that the

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Bible is sufficient. That's that part's true But it's self -contradictory to say the Bible is sufficient. So we don't need signs and wonders

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That's the questionable part But we do need the doctrine of secessionism That the

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Bible doesn't teach Do you get the contradiction? In other words, you can't teach the sufficiency of Scripture with a doctrine

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Scripture doesn't teach Right seems to be illogical Okay the second major problem with cessationism is that there are in fact many accounts of signs and wonders here and there through throughout church history, for example

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Augustine in the 300s and early 400s first believe in cessation as himself and then came to Look into several accounts of miracles and and recounted them.

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He sells and he said they still exist today in his day Even the people I studied the Puritans who are busy the epitome that the pinnacle of what it means to be quote reformed

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They believe that God still revealed himself like is mentioned in Acts chapter 2, you know The young men will see visions you dream dreams that kind of thing

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Contrary to how I've seen them often described They were not cessationist the scandalous

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Salem witchcraft trials Were caused by them believing that a group of girls were receiving visions about people

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Involved in witchcraft and they accepted those visions as evidence They would have been better off at that point if they had been cessationist, but that's beside the point

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They didn't believe every account of a vision though They should have been more Discerning with a set of witchcraft trials, but there sometimes they were very discerning when an

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Indian chief a Satyam claimed that he had received a vision of the great Puritan missionary

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John Eliot who by that time was dead But he said he had this Indian chief said he had seen a vision of John Eliot preaching to him

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Telling him to repent of his drinking his pow wowing Which is sort of this, you know pagan incantations of spirits and and telling him to keep the

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Sabbath and the Puritans when they heard this They concluded It was a false vision

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It was whatever just made up at his imagination because John Eliot the real John Eliot would never tell people just to keep the law

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In other words repent of your sin stop doing this and start doing that. He would also tell

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Anyone to believe in the gospel believe in what Jesus has done for your sins Now what they didn't say the

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Puritans was that? We don't believe that's not a vision because we believe signs of wonders and dreams and visions have ceased

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They didn't say that because they didn't believe that They were people who were open to experiencing

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God in all his power now today Sometimes we hear claims of miracles on the mission field Particularly on the front line so where the gospel is going at into new places one recent story

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It's not verified I wish you got a proof of it But I don't but is that a believer in China said that God had told him that a mine in the town where he was was going to collapse and that the miners need to evacuate get out of that mine right away and They decided to listen to him in the mine

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In fact did collapse and many of the miners and the other witnesses around there became believers but then

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You think about that's fine. It's always somewhere else. Why don't we see signs and wonders? regularly,

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I Think that's because they aren't meant to be regular events. They're regular here because this is a special time

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You know the cross the resurrection Pentecost the giving of the Spirit to the church

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Breaking through to the Jews and then eventually to the Gentiles the power of the spirits seems to be displayed at special Breakthroughs when the gospel is advancing to new groups of people especially against opposition, by the way

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Almost any time in the Bible you see there's lots of signs and wonders and miracles and things like that There's also a lot of power coming the other way satanic power from the maybe or maybe from the world persecuting the church

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So be careful what you pray for if you're gonna pray for miracles because that means the the enemy gets that power, too

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Just like the power of the gospel is often on display when it's Advancing in major ways just like the power of the military is on special display at times of great conflict

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You know when the army it advances against the enemy then it unleashes its power

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But we all know it has that power right even though we probably never seen it, right? Hopefully we know that seen in movies that cuz we never seen in real life, but you don't think well

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I've never seen a real life. So I don't believe it exists I don't believe they really have bombers or atomic bombs or machine guns

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I've never seen them. You don't think that way do you of course not? But like take for example, though the power that was on display at the

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Normandy invasion the bombers They got it all the bombers. They could get it dropped their loads of bombs naval guns from battleships and so forth

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We're blasting away planes filled the sky thousands of ships filled the sea

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Explosions covered the land over one hundred and fifty thousand men were landed on the beach in one day

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The display of power was stunning all to blast away the enemy to advance to enemy lines to invade

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Of course the enemy fired back with all the power that they had The fighting was ferocious and fierce power against power

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Well now Imagine if you've got to go to France and you went to the Normandy you walked on the peaceful beach

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Maybe see a few plaques there. That'd be all that was left, right? It'd be peaceful.

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It'd be nice the waves rolling in You wouldn't conclude would you hope not that just because you don't see the power that power anymore

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That it didn't really exist or maybe you did exist in the past, but it doesn't exist anymore.

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It all just passed away You'd know Hopefully that the the peace there now the freedom and the justice now that's now in France that it came from the power

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That was unleashed on D -Day just because you don't see that power in your experience

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Doesn't mean it's not still available So in the same way just because we may not see these kind of signs and wonders

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Regularly, and it's not much doesn't mean that we no longer have that kind of power behind us Maybe we're not on the front lines of the war you know between the kingdom of God in the present evil age and we're the

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Somewhere else in the battle. Maybe we're not where the breakthrough is happening right now That we should still be confident as the

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Lord Jesus promised. We have received power Great power from last week.

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Remember mega power and it's still available for us. Should we need it? Where did we come from after all?

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We came from great power and we still have it Well the second way some people deal with passages like this

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Or the other extreme some say it's all cease but others say hey, look at this Hey if miracles were regular as it says at the

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SV here for them. Why shouldn't they be regular for us? Now we've basically already answered that I think

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But some will say that you know, if we aren't Regularly seeing miracles, it must be because maybe we're too unbelieving

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Maybe we're in sin We're doing something wrong. So we make us feel guilty We're seeing miracles of some it's our problem

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Assuming that this here is our norm That this is our what we just read is our standard operating procedure

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It should be what it's like for us the daily life of the church But what we see here isn't intended like something to be the norm for all the church at all time

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No more than June 6 1944 was intended to be a normal day at the beach on Normandy It's what was needed to free

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Europe in World War two The power on display here in signs and wonders was what was necessary to free the church to launch out into the world

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And it may be necessary again From time to time to break through to new

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Groups of people to Chinese or to Africans or South Americans or in the future to Japanese Maybe back again to break through to Americans again.

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It's still available It's where we came from We we the church are the evidence of that power

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The result of that manifest power was both alarming to some Keeping them away and and appealing to others adding more to them every day verse 13 says none of the rest

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Yeah, the other words the people around them Dare join them not interesting.

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It's sort of the opposite of what you might think Lots of these miracles and it says none of the rest dare join them

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They were almost for some people they were afraid of them because of it They were meeting in the temple out in the open they were kind of set apart

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The people though they esteem them says they gave him great esteem But they knew that the power of God was with them was with these people meeting

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So they didn't think to casually Drift in and out of their meetings, you know,

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I'll attend the I'll attend the Pharisee meeting today and maybe tomorrow I'll come and see what the Christians are talking about.

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And maybe the after that the said no They're either in or they're out Because they know these people had power.

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You don't got to play with them On the other hand in verse 14 more than ever believers were added to the

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Lord multitudes of both men and women So they're growing the presence of the living

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God whether displayed through preaching or through miracles. It is sobering It's shocking to some it puts them off.

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It makes them wonder they don't want to it exposes their sin It makes them realize that their casual religion is not compatible with this they thought they could just live any way they want come to you know, come to their religious meeting and You know sing a nice little song and and that's it and didn't they see though in these people there's power there

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Scary if you don't want to change your life, but it draws others some are frightened away

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While others are drawn to Jesus that's where we came from a presence and a power that either repels you because it exposes sin and Hypocrisy it killed

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Ananias and Sapphira just before this Does either that or or it woos you and wins you it revolutionizes you?

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Where's it come from And this this movement to follow Jesus It comes second from preaching

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They were regularly preaching teaching sharing whatever term you want to use in the temple itself in Jerusalem Filling Jerusalem the city there with the gospel drawing people from all around to hear and to see of this

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High esteem that they got this great respect their their popularity and their growth

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That caused the ruling class the priests the Sadducees to be jealous Says they were filled with jealousy

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They wanted to be looked up to as God's appointed leaders to be the people you had to go to to get to God Come to me of the robes of education of the lineage.

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I come from the right family With their way of thinking and now these Apostles were saying that Jesus was the only way to go to God and so finally

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They had had enough And they arrested the Apostles apparently all 12 of them this time not just Peter and John and so they put them in prison

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They arranged for a trial the next day But during the night says an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison

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Escorted them out and said go stand in the temple and speak to the people the words of this life in other words preach proclaim

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Tell the people the gospel Notice two things about that this this message from the angel one the one the messenger and second the message

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First notice that the angel Messenger, that's what the word angel means. It just means messenger

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He tells the Apostles to deliver the message and you might think wait wait You know, the

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Apostles could get in trouble again, which they do why Why does it the angel himself go to the temple and proclaim the words of this life?

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Why did he do it? Right, he can do it Why is he telling the Apostles to do it?

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You know that would be certain to get people's attention wouldn't it angel showed up there in the temple started Preaching you would listen to the angel right?

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He's got a big and he actually shines I don't know how he what do you look like, but you would listen to the angel So why does it the angel do it?

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No, the answer is that That simply is not what God has ordained God has ordained both the the ends that is who is to be saved and the means how

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They are to be saved God has called the church to preach to communicate

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However means through teaching to sharing the one -on -one through writing or however It is our preaching like this called the church to preach the gospel.

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He has appointed us To be the means to get the good news out now

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God may send angels messengers To relay a message to the church But he sends the church to relay messages to the world

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The second thing the message is described by the angel so by God himself notice how it's described because it's not described

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In the way, we normally describe the gospel. Is it? He calls it the words of this life

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That is it's not the gospel then. It's not just a religious trick To make sure you don't go to hell when you die to ensure yourself a place in heaven

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You're kind of like you offer like the old system you offer a sacrifice and then you go off You think you can live any way you want or maybe today you say the prayer some people think they come forward at the invitation

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They say a magical prayer and they're told once they've always saved slap it on the back and they go and live However, they want and they think that's fine.

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They're gonna go to heaven because that's what they were told There's no there's no life to it. They get eternal life when they die.

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I guess that's what they know But it's not what the how the angel describes. It's the words of it's this life.

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It's a whole life It's it's a way of living with God now and forever that Revolutionizes everything about your life from money to sex to eating to drinking

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How you live every day? The message is that Jesus has a a whole life for you that's the message and And and they now we are the messengers of it

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So they went to the temple the messengers at the crack of dawn it says they didn't waste any time

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Obeying the angels command and they began to teach Of course, they're teaching the words of this life.

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And that's what we try to do that what we're trying to do right now that's why we have Jim jr.

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For we have Jim for for the guys this afternoon the Opportunities to get the the words of this life out to people outside of us

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And so what we encourage you to do with with your family whatever opportunities you may have Meanwhile back in court, you know

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The Apostles are standing in the temple at the crack of dawn preaching the words of this life back in the court

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The council Sanhedrin is convening see the gavel come down here. You hear he whatever they said in those days

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Calling for the prisoners to be brought in the Apostles The officers go to the prison

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The guards are standing outside alert, you know with only the spears of their hand and attention The doors are securely locked.

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So they got to unlock them. They open the door big creak and then they look in It's empty.

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What happened? They jailbreak I guess no in verse 24 the captain of the TV How do they break out with it?

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The door still locked the guards are still in place in verse 24 the captain of the temple and the chief priest says they were greatly perplexed

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Yeah, I can imagine You they were wondering This was a wonder right?

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How did they get out of there? Right. This is no Shawshank Redemption. There's no there's no plumbing there to go through the pipe.

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So there's nothing Yeah, how do you get out? The guards are still in place then someone runs in with the news that the

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Apostles that they imprisoned last night We're in the temple. That is they're out hiding somewhere

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They're out there out in the most public place as out in the open as they could possibly be

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Teaching but of course they called the words of this life So the captain took his men

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To kindly courteously, excuse me gentlemen, would you mind coming with us, please?

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Because they were afraid of making the crowds who were respectfully listening angry causing a riot

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So the Apostles follow and stand before the council You'd think that at this point the Sadducees would be be a little humbled when you

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I mean you did you realize that a miracle? Has happened these guys were in prison and the doors

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They're still locked and the guards are still in place. And how did they get out? They can't figure that out.

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They gotta realize the Apostles were let out of prison supernaturally But the wonder of human depravity, this is how hard -hearted and hard -headed people are

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We won't even respond to signs and wonders But we won't even believe because of them and unless God gives us grace

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So anyway, the Sadducees pick up where they left off before they had been greatly perplexed By that sign and wonder and they pick up as if nothing had happened in verse 28

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They say we strictly charge you to not to teach in this name Notice they can't even bring themselves to say the name to say the name of Jesus So they're afraid of us almost like they don't want to say the magic word

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Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching That means that God has ordained that we teach about Jesus that we try to do our best to fill wherever we are casual

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County Danville with teaching about The words of this life and you intend they say to them to bring this man's blood on us

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Again, they can't even bring themselves to say who they're talking about get it this man this name

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But they are the ones I mean, they're the ones who actually did it Now they're trying to avoid responsibility

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You know, they're the ones who said to Pontius Pilate as they were pushing him to crucify

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Jesus And you know, he's Pilate was saying well, he's innocent I don't want to be guilty of an innocent man's blood and they said remember that may his blood be upon us

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You know that was in their mad rush to kill him It's just only a few weeks earlier before this and now these same men they want to be free of it

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Without really repenting of it Peter and the Apostles answered with preaching

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Where we come from come from preaching and summarize here are just four short verses first in verse 29 as they implied before They say, you know, they remember before they told him don't preach anymore in this name

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And they said well you judge for yourself whether we're gonna obey you are God, you know here this time They said well, we must obey

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God rather than men Sorry We're not gonna do what you say you say

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Don't talk about Jesus God says speak to the people all the words of this life

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Today in our day in some Muslim countries It's illegal for Christians to try to witness to a

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Muslim may be illegal actually in every Muslim country. I'm not sure I've seen in Malaysia that even when churches put up signs for some event

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They're gonna have a rally or whatever. They put up as they're required by law to put on that sign

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They're advertising something like that says that this is not a Muslim event It's kind of like a cigarette ad, you know

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They got to let you know that their their their product is dangerous Yeah, our gospel events are dangerous.

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That's a I think it's okay churches And they they they do that the law requires them to say this is not a

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Muslim event that's okay I think but what you cannot do Because you must obey

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God rather than men is not share the gospel with a Muslim Just because it's illegal

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Now they may be setting you up and this happened before Muslim would go out Not really want to hear the gospel.

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They just want to get you in trouble They may be setting you up to report you and you might go to prison But you have to obey

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God rather than men Then they said in verse 30 the God of our fathers raised

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Jesus. That's the preaching That's the source of this life the resurrection of Christ whom you killed by hanging him on a tree

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You want to be off the hook for railroading him for pushing for his crucifixion? Hanging him on a cross when you knew the law said curse

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It is everyone who is hung on a cross you you knew that's why you pushed for that particularly you did it

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God exalted him at his right hand He raised Jesus up to a throne to rule echoing again from Psalm 110

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The Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool

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By that Peter here implying that the father is right now working to put

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Jesus's enemies and you kill him

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You made yourself his enemy and the father is working right now to put all his enemies under his feet

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Jesus is now exalted as his leader as Ruler the word could be it's

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Savior there and that's a they're connected There's not one without the other

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He's not just Savior and then optionally, you know, you want to upgrade to the premium package. You can have him as ruler, too

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You can opt for that, but you don't have no he is exalted at the father's right hand the ruler and Savior And if you're to be saved from your sins, then he must rule over your life and give you this life

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Then this is the preaching in verse 31 Jesus exalted as ruler and Savior Interesting here to give this is what he's doing.

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This is the reason to give repentance Now many people assume today because they assume we're called to repent

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I were commanded to repent They assume from that command their repentance is then is what we do

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All by ourself, it's just what's the Two cents we add to our salvation what it's what the little thing we do that activates it and That's the basis of what?

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Theological Armenian or a man centered a human dependent interpretation of Scripture that they assume that when there is the

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Command from God to us like to repent like to believe then that implies they say

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That we are ultimately responsible for whether we repent or believe that it relies ultimately

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On us on our ability they say and you know, that's what they're doing there. They're inferring

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What they assume? Is is underneath the the passage of the command says repent they assume we have the ability to repent and it all depends on us

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But that's reading into the Bible What's not there? Yes, we are commanded to repent to believe everyone is in Acts chapter 17

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We'll hear that God commands all men everywhere to repent, but then only some do

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Is that because only some people? Make the ultimate choice and it's all up to them or is that because not everyone is given repentance

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Notice here in verse 31 repentance is given It's a gift It's given he says to Israel that is to the people of God not to everyone all people are called to repent

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But not everyone is given repentance, but those who are given repentance are also given forgiveness of sins

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That's the preaching that there is forgiveness of sins if you repent

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Which is a gift that he gives We Apostles are witnesses of this they say standing before that council for witnesses of Jesus being raised of being ruler and Savior We're witnesses that he's giving repentance and forgiveness to his people

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And so is the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is also witnessing to this that's the ministry of the

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Holy Spirit today to point people To Jesus so they'll bow to him They'll be willingly under his feet so that they'll repent and believe

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God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey him obey his command to repent and to believe we need both witnesses

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We need the church us Witnessing to the world that you need to repent.

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You need to believe in Jesus. He's the ruler the Savior God has raised him He's giving repentance. You need you need to believe it.

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They need us But it doesn't work without the Holy Spirit also witnessing in their own hearts Convicting them and then giving them repentance so they can actually act on it.

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That's the preaching now Where did this movement come from? Yeah, we're no visible leader riding roughshod over their enemies

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It came from the preaching Holy Spirit inspired Holy Spirit witness to Preaching that gives faith so that people can receive that gift of repentance and forgiveness

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But not everyone responds with faith and gets the gifts

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The men in this council didn't They were instead instead of having faith and receiving repentance.

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They they were enraged They were they roused to fury. They wanted to kill these apostles

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Well, whether legally or not, you know, if they had to get in trouble with Pontius Pilate, they'll do it They'll kill him and that brings us to the third thing that Christianity came from What accounts for the wonder of?

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this movement Arising out of nowhere from it from a leader who had been crucified before they even began to grow

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No earthly power. No armies marching for them. No mass communication. No printing press

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Nothing. How does this how did that happen? Where did it come from? We see it came from Supernatural power from preach from preaching and now ironically bizarrely it comes from persecution

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Persecution didn't stop the church It planted it The council was to kill them

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But a prominent Pharisee, I mean, he's really prominent. He's even remembered in Jewish tradition still to this day named

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Gamaliel. He speaks up. It's not as though he's a believer. He's not he's just a cool -head and he argues

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You know, don't worry about these men you know, we've had movements arise before under some fiery leader and then we killed the leader and The movement soon faded away

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We've already killed Jesus their leader. So He says, you know this this this movement will also soon fade away

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Just like those before nothing will become of it if this plan or undertaking is a man it will fail in verse 38

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But if it doesn't fail and Here Luke now the writer wants us to know about a test to prove

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Where we came from right for skeptics that he's writing this book for the book of Luke the book of Acts There's a test

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Where did we come from? It's a if it's a man it will fail right?

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It'll just fade away into nothing. The leader has already been crucified Yes, sure These guys have they have some lingering excitement that they believe he's been raised from the dead

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But you know, he's not physically present with them anymore. So You know all that will

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Peter out with the leader gone But if it doesn't if it flourishes and grows if it eventually converts the

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Roman Empire in nations like Armenia and Ethiopia if It reaches

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America founding Bible commonwealth's that become a new nation if by the 20th century in that century alone

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It quadruples in size as millions of Africans and Chinese and Koreans come to be part of it

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Then that's proof. It's from God. That's where it came from Gamaliel advises them, you know

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There's no there's no reason to persecute the church There's at least certainly not to kill these men

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Yeah, their leaders already been killed so they will soon disappear like the others

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Unless It is of God And if it's of God if that's the case, then he argues also, you know

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It doesn't matter how much you persecute it. You won't be able to stop it. You'll just be opposing

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God So they took his advice now sort of you know, they wanted to kill them

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Instead they just have been beaten. That's sort of a compromise. The Apostles are persecuted And so they leave the council

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Rejoicing saying hallelujah in between they're out. Oh, man Tend to throw it out my arms like that.

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Yeah, it hurts. They got welts all over their back But rejoicing because they've been counted worthy to suffer

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Like Jesus suffered to be dishonored for the one who was dishonored on the cross

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They had the honor of being dishonored and So the persecution of the church begins in earnest

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And so does this growth? The church does it grow in spite of persecution?

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but because of it an Early church leader in the third century named Tertullian wrote to the

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Romans kill us Tortured us condemn us Grind us to dust the more you mow us down the more we grow the blood of Christians is seed

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You know people see these Christians are Willing to give up all things to suffer be fed to lions or whatever to lose their lives for Jesus and realize

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Hey If these people are willing to die for Jesus then he must really have the ways of life now understand

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It's not as though the Romans the government they confiscated Christians Property or maybe they beat some of them or they kill the pastor here and there and then the very next day

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Just more people came to church No, he didn't we didn't work like that back in the short term.

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It appeared the persecution Was working what would happen first is Weak people who claim to be believers hypocrites putting on a show people like Ananias and Sapphira People whose commitment was maybe more to the easy message the society of having their needs met that kind They would fall away

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The church would lose people because of the persecution when people saw the high cost of the ways of this life

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That it wasn't all about getting your best life now or prosperity and comfort that it would cost you

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Cost you a lot Maybe money service commitments to keep

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Maybe your life Persecution would succeed in the short term in drawing some people to fall away.

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It would sift out those Sunshine Christians, you know, you know the the empty talkers

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But that ended up purifying the church that meant that those who were left who still

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Came to their meetings now at houses because their building had been destroyed Who came to their meetings no more pastor because he had been killed the people who came

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Really had received the gift of repentance. They really loved the words of this life they had made the choice that the life

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Jesus gave was better than the life that the world offered and a church full of such people

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Even if it's a small church what's left in The long run became a beautiful church highly esteemed powerful courageous loving

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Rejoicing sometimes rejoicing because of the swords on their back But a rejoicing church that drew many people to the

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Lord Remember that When people say that having a church covenant or practicing church discipline or meaningful membership to all that kind of stuff

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Then it will turn some people away Maybe losing people in the short term Is that the worst thing that could happen?

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the blood of Christians or sacrifice dollars or the time of Christians is seed

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So they leave the Apostles Sore backs. Oh but happy and Every day says that they're out in the public in the temple most prominent place

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They could possibly be never minding the beatings never mind the threats and in every home that they could what they would have them

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They were teaching and preaching that Jesus is who he said he was the anointed one That's where we came from now

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Even if you've never seen something that looks like a miracle or had a supernatural dream or a vision that's

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I've got a revelation Isn't that a sign pointing you to Jesus that he's worth

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Suffering for and so he must really have the words of this life.

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Isn't that something? To make you wonder that Jesus really is exalted that he is ruler