HEAVEN'S HEROES (7 OF 18)
by Tim Badal
Scripture: Acts 5:12-32, Acts 5:34-42
This content is part of a series.
Heaven's Heroes (7 of 18)
Series: Unfinished - Acts
Tim Badal
Acts 5:12-42
Last week we saw a turn in the life of the early church. The religious leaders were becoming upset by the growing number of people who were coming to believe in Christ and making it their mission to spread the gospel. So the Pharisees and Sadducees started turning up the heat. We also saw some internal troubles in the church, beginning when Ananias and Sapphira lied about their gift to the church and God in His justice gave them the death sentence.
You might think these things would cause the early church to consider giving up. Imagine what it would be like in our service if God caused two of us to die because of our sin. I think there would be a lot of us who would decide not to come back next Sunday. At least we would expect the early church to slow things down because of these troubles-but that's not what they did.
As we'll see in today's text, more people than ever came to Jesus. More miracles and signs and wonders were taking place. We'll begin to see a recurring theme. The gospel was preached, the establishment threatened them and even beat or imprisoned them, yet the disciples refused to stop preaching the name of Jesus. But this herky-jerky relationship between the believers and the religious leaders forced the church to answer a question: ''When the going gets tough, how will we respond? Will we give up or will we become even more committed to bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost world?'' As we'll see, they chose the latter course. In the face of opposition, they continued to pray for boldness.
We live in a time of relative peace. Sometimes we might get a little static, perhaps from the media, about how bad and bigoted and out of date we are. But most of us go through our days with little or no push-back because of our faith. Still, we have to consider what we'll do if and when that push-back comes to us. Are we ready to deal with it? Do we realize that ...
Series: Unfinished - Acts
Tim Badal
Acts 5:12-42
Last week we saw a turn in the life of the early church. The religious leaders were becoming upset by the growing number of people who were coming to believe in Christ and making it their mission to spread the gospel. So the Pharisees and Sadducees started turning up the heat. We also saw some internal troubles in the church, beginning when Ananias and Sapphira lied about their gift to the church and God in His justice gave them the death sentence.
You might think these things would cause the early church to consider giving up. Imagine what it would be like in our service if God caused two of us to die because of our sin. I think there would be a lot of us who would decide not to come back next Sunday. At least we would expect the early church to slow things down because of these troubles-but that's not what they did.
As we'll see in today's text, more people than ever came to Jesus. More miracles and signs and wonders were taking place. We'll begin to see a recurring theme. The gospel was preached, the establishment threatened them and even beat or imprisoned them, yet the disciples refused to stop preaching the name of Jesus. But this herky-jerky relationship between the believers and the religious leaders forced the church to answer a question: ''When the going gets tough, how will we respond? Will we give up or will we become even more committed to bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost world?'' As we'll see, they chose the latter course. In the face of opposition, they continued to pray for boldness.
We live in a time of relative peace. Sometimes we might get a little static, perhaps from the media, about how bad and bigoted and out of date we are. But most of us go through our days with little or no push-back because of our faith. Still, we have to consider what we'll do if and when that push-back comes to us. Are we ready to deal with it? Do we realize that ...
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