Month: July 2018

unfortunately from time to time I miss the recording on the sermon.  Last week’s message did not make it to mp3  many apologies

 

But the story that follows in acts 5:12 is a clear answer to the prayers back in 4:29:

²⁹ And now, Lord, ^clook upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all ^dboldness, ³⁰ while^eyou stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed ^fthrough the name of your ^gholy servant Jesus.”

And just as predicted, according to plan, right on time God answers:

Acts 5:12  12The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. 13No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. 14Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. 

In short there are those who would put the clear preaching of the Word and the Miraculous in contrast to one another but the truth is that the one builds upon the other.  Miracles are awesome but only by the Word only by the Gospel can people be saved.  Miracles as recorded in the Book of Acts may not have been every day events but the Gospel was clearly proclaimed daily and the book of Acts is clearly a book about the advancement of the Word!  Let’s never forget to be a people who pray for God to act but let’s also be a people who share the word vigorously.

These Words are very compelling:

It’s miracles and the word back in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s there was a famous preacher in England named Martin Lloyd-Jones he said:

[We] can produce a number of converts, thank God for that, and that goes on regularly in evangelical churches every Sunday. But the need today is much too great for that. The need today is for an authentication of God, of the supernatural, of the spiritual, of the eternal, and this can only be answered by God graciously hearing our cry and shedding forth again his Spirit upon us and filling us as he kept filling the early church. (Joy Unspeakable, p. 278)

What is needed is some mighty demonstration of the power of God, some enactment of the Almighty, that will compel people to pay attention, and to look, and to listen . . . That is why I am urging you to pray for this. When God acts, he can do more in a minute than man with his organizing can do in fifty years. (Revival, pp. 121–122)