Missions Paul

Facing the big man
Acts 5: 27

“Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest.”

You are in a move of the Holy Spirit, things are taking place, real definite non-flaky stuff. Healings, salvations and very strange things that would clearly indicate that God was within the Church doing very powerful things.
Then you are brought before the rule book and the group that forcibly carry out the rule book, the Sanhedrin.
Seventy people plus the High Priest formed this group. This is a large formidable group to face its scrutiny.
They had the last word. You didn’t have it.
Within the group there were people called the Pharisees, they were incredibly popular with the people and this gave them further confidence bordering on the arrogance.
They met in what has been described as a great basilica near the temple.
Everything about this experience was nerve-wracking.
Rules are meant to control and bring into line.
There are times when the Holy Spirit breaks every rule of man.

You may be facing such threats today.
You may be facing the ruling bodies.
You may be going before a council who will determine your future.
Your life is in their hands.
You like these apostles are going to be questioned by the big man in charge, the high priest.
But hold on, you actually are serving the real High Priest, so do not fear, do not cower, Jesus is really the big man!

Ways
Acts 5: 26

“At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.”

The enemy of your life does not only move with force and violence.
Be careful of the gentle alluring words.
Watch out for the empty promises of no harm shall befall you.
Be attentive to the friendliness and understanding of your situation.
Ways, steps, paths, roads are more important than we think.
Be careful who you have signed up to walk with.
Better to walk alone than with a manipulative friend.
Many have eyes solely on the destination that they miss the importance of the journey.

Look there they are.
Acts 5:25
Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.”

Look there they are!
Behold!
It doesn’t matter where you put them they still remain standing.
We silenced them but now they are teaching the people.
Their voice will never go to,sleep.

Puzzled
Acts 5: 24
“On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this.”

They were puzzled at the report. It was unexplainable. Magical. If this were true then what does this mean?
Oh that these kind of words would return in our generation.
Social media is full of rhetoric each day from the Church advertising to Christians in order to attract more, through words such as “Awesome, Incredibly anointed, fire falling, wind blowing, vision casting night!”
Oh that we may just read something of the sceptics, the unbelievers, the slanderers being silenced and not being able to understand what they have just witnessed and more importantly the ramifications of what they have just heard.
In 2009 radio DJ, Chris Moyes, on his morning show spoke of attending Kingsgate Community Church as “fascinating, it was amazing, people with their hands in the air, it was amazing, I’ve been in gigs with less atmosphere, I’ve never seen anything like it …”
Maybe the Church should stop reporting clearly to the Christian world on how the Church performed and leave it to radio 1 DJs to express their puzzlement. It feels more healthy that way.

You should not be there.
Acts 5:23
“We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no-one inside.”

So there was nothing wrong with the locks.
Security was impenetrable.
Along with that there were those keeping guard.
They were neither asleep or absent from their post.
We are describing how impossible it was to break in or break out.
We are not sure whether someone broke in or whether the prisoners broke out.
We cannot explain it.

Those who have stood guard over prisons of darkness have often found themselves unable to explain the unexplainable.
Think of the garden tomb.
The fact is that we must keep the unexplainable within our faith.
Not that it becomes the norm. But to know that there are times in our life when we have to say “that was God, I cannot explain it, I came through what I thought I would never do and it had to be God.” But even more so when others say it about you. When they look at you and say ‘You shouldn’t be there, you should be here! How did you get there?’
Do you know that experience? Think of it now and thank Him again.

We are not there
Acts 5:22
“But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported”

We are not in the jail.
We were there but not anymore.
We are not in the darkness.
We are not prisoners anymore.
We are not in the dungeons of despair.
We were chained, lock and key, to the thick walls of banishment.
But you won’t find us there anymore.
We are not there, we are here.
We were in and we couldn’t get out.
But God made a way.
He opened the door.
If we live we walk with Christ.
If we die we live with Christ.
So go to the jail.
Examine those shackles.
We were dead and buried.
But we are now alive forevermore!

Daybreak
Acts 5:21
“At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.
When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin-the full assembly of the elders of Israel-and sent to the jail for the apostles.”

You may be imprisoned in the night but walking free at dawn.
You can be trapped by the darkness but at daybreak you can be rising again.
Today the dawn will rise on many.
The dawn of resurrection!
The dawn of realisation!
The dawn of redemption!

If you are still here on earth during the daybreak then you had better remember what was said to you in the night time.
Some make promises during the night but then forget their commitment at daybreak.

Daybreak signals activity not apathy. Some go through the day behaving like it is the night. Daybreak is for waking up to work.
Daybreak is for serving. Daybreak is for speaking out again the message of Jesus Christ.

May the dawn rise upon you today!

Speak
Acts 5:20
“Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

Go and tell. That was the Angels message.
It is always the message from heaven.
I often find myself on the other side of a table with a para-church organisation wanted partnership.
A lot of the social justice organisations have a Go and Give approach. Social justice will open doors for you to be anywhere in the world and though the original intention may be for the gospel to be known, the fear of reprisals means that social justice has become the central vision of the organisation not in faith but in practice.
Go and Give is not what the Angel commanded.
Social justice needs the gospel.
Take the gospel away from social justice and then no one needs to be a Christian.
Go and Give reaches the poor, lifts burdens off the needy and can release the imprisoned. It is good.
But how will anyone hear unless someone speaks.

Night
Acts 5:19
But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out.

What takes place in the night?
1. The enemy can advance against you 2 Kings 6:8-17
2. Addiction and deception can strike Genesis 19:30-33; Isaiah 5:11
3. There can be discontentment Numbers 14
4. Attacks of fear Psalm 91:5
5. Lack of peace Ecclesiastes 2:23
6. Betrayal can take place John 13:27-30
Of course these are the negatives.
However look what else can take place ….
1. Transformation Genesis 32:22-30
2. Salvation Exodus 12:12-13
3. God leading Exodus 13:21
4. God making a way Exodus 14:21-22
5. God’s refreshment Numbers 11:9
6. The power of God Matthew 14:25
And of course … Prison doors are opened!!
Look at all these things!
You may be in a night time and I don’t mean you cannot sleep but maybe you feel that is just the bat way to describe your situation today.
Folks, God can turn nightmares into dreams!
He can turn your night into day. Your darkness into light.
He can bring you out! Amen!

Hold on!
Acts 5:18
They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

We so often see jealousy as a negative. But the Bible says we have a jealous God. He was so filled with jealousy for man’s love that it led to a course of action. He sent our High Priest whose course of action was to lay his life down on the cross that we would be set free from prisons of darkness today.
However this high priest was unlike Christ. He arrested and imprisoned them.
From revival to restriction. How 2 days can be so unlike!
It doesn’t matter what has gripped you or what has trapped you, it will never be over. This is just a season you are in. The apostles who are the sent-ones are going nowhere and maybe you think you are treading water today. You may even be publicly disgraced like the apostles in a public jail. Hold on don’t panic God hasn’t finished with you yet.