Acts 5:12-42 | Don’t Shoot the Messenger

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Slides:

Theme: Faithful, powerful witnesses evoke many different responses.

Authentic apostles…

• Were literal witnesses of the resurrected Jesus.

Acts 1:21-22

"Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us-- 22 beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us--one of these [must] become a witness with us of His resurrection."

Authentic apostles…

• Performed many miracles.

2 Corinthians 12:12 

The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

All were being healed?

• There is a connection between faith and the fantastic.

• The “normal” takes great faith too!

Matthew 27:20, 25 

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to put Jesus to death. ... 25 And all the people said, "His blood shall be on us and on our children!"

2 Corinthians 2:15-16

For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

Biblical evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit: Supernatural joy in suffering.

1 Peter 4:14, 16

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. ... 16 but if [anyone suffers] as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

Salvation is the greatest miracle!

Matthew 21:28-31 

"But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.' 29 "And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 "The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I [will,] sir'; but he did not go. 31 "Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.