Have you ever wondered why sometimes God does a miraculous deliverance and other times God seems to be nowhere to be found and you feel like you plod through adversity alone?

One of my favorite Facebook posts of all time was a cartoon that was Jesus answering the question, “Where were you?” to a guy who saw one set of footprints in the sand.  This guy felt like he was walking through life alone and Jesus said, “The one set of footprints was when I carried you.”  And then Jesus, in this cartoon, points off to the side and said, “And that long groove over there is when I dragged you for a while.”  This notion of kicking and screaming is familiar to me.

Can anyone (other than me) relate to that one?

So today’ we’ll look at 3 ways God is there to deal with opposition for us: Carry Us, Dragging Us Through, and Miraculous Deliverance, today’s “jailbreak”.

Well, there’s no kicking and screaming done by Peter and John in today’s passage and yet God carries them.  He does it through a miraculous delivery—a jailbreak.  The scene from Acts 5 begins in the public square where the apostles are doing all kinds of miraculous demonstrations of power as a Pure Church, Powerful Church and they become a Growing Church.  What we saw last week.

All that growth gets noticed…and it makes the religious leaders—the high priest, his coworkers, and all the Sadducees—really jealous.  You may remember the pattern from last week Pure Church, Powerful Church, and Growing Church…leading to the Persecuted Church.  And this week we see it.

Jealousy is but one reason that opposition happens.  

I’ve been thinking this week about opposition that is rising around the globe against Christians and against Jews because of our mutual belief that the Messiah is a Jewish one. 

Opposition to us arises out of jealousy, yes, but also out of hatred, pride—small but evil gods of self–as well as a whole-hearted devotion to the wrong god. 

Maybe you’ve wondered some of the same things I have regarding the fanatical fringe of Islam doing all the recent atrocities.  What must they believe?

• What kind of god of Islam would demand that people convert or be murdered in all kinds of atrocious ways?
• What kind of god of Islam would command his followers to gain converts or adherents by intimidation…or if they won’t behave, kill them?   That’s like from Star Wars where Governor Tarkin answers the question of how to maintain control without the bureaucracy by saying, “Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station!” Or like Darth Vader after that strangulation move, “Apology accepted, Captain Needa.”
• What kind of god of Islam would be honored at his followers purging the world of infidels instead of trying to share good news that might save them?
• Why would anyone worship a god that is primarily a spiritual bully, a gang enforcer, or serial killer?  For that is clearly what the fanatical fringe believes.

I don’t get it.  In today’s passage, however, the opposition is rooted in jealousy.  It’s powerful motivator, appealing to human desires of pride and selfishness.  Jealousy makes people do bad things.  Even the Jewish spiritual leaders of the day.  They see the Growing and Powerful Church, and what does opposition do?  They counter the spiritual power of the Growing Church with human power in persecuting which takes the form of jail, and increasing as beatings, financial punishment, threats and intimidation, up to killing, just as it did with Christ.

Acts 5:17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.

So the disciples are in prison.  The last time that they were imprisoned, they got chewed out and told not to do it anymore.  The consequences are worse this time, as that cycle of persecution intensifies.  This time they were going to be officially charged in front of the Sanhedrin,

… but God had something else in mind.

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

It reminds me of that scene in the movie The Santa Clause in which the ELFS (Effective Liberating Flight Squad) uses curling ribbon to tie up the guard and then uses tinsel to cut through the hinges in order to liberate Santa.  “Tinsel.  Not just for decoration.” they said.

There’s no evidence that the angel used tinsel.  There’s no evidence that the angel used anything at all.  It was just God’s power to deliver these disciples out of prison—a jailbreak.  Which is pretty incredible when you think about it.

Actually the whole scene is pretty interesting.  There are a lot of jailbreaks/prison escapes we see on TV, books, and in the movies.  Santa.  Movies like, The Fugitive, Shawshank Redemption, Escape from Alcatraz, The Great Escape, Cool Hand Luke, Count of Monte Cristo, etc, but it’s not always good guys getting out, or those unjustly imprisoned.  Sometimes it’s bad guys trying to break out of prison.  Bad guys, like that with the guy in Paris who radicalized at least one of the Charlie Hedbo killers.

But in our case today, it’s two good guys that God wanted back on duty.  He was setting them free so they would get back to work.  The angel gives Peter and John instructions:

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

Don’t hide.  Stand in the most public place you can find.  Don’t compromise.  Don’t short cut.  Don’t whitewash or gloss over anything.  Don’t do it in secret.  Don’t do it in a whisper. Proclaim it!  Publically!

Bold witness is something we’ve seen in Acts before and it was a characteristic of the early Church and how God grew it from a tiny band of rag tag unschooled, ordinary men into an international phenomenon that has been growing for almost 2000 years.  It started with a couple of guys telling the people the full message…of this new life.

Now is a good time for us to pause and make something clear: God didn’t gift us all to be evangelists like Billy Graham.  God does ask us to share the Good News when opportunities arise, but He doesn’t command that we drive the full Gospel dump truck up to unsuspecting people and dump the whole thing on them.  One of the reasons I bring up contemporary issues or news stories in my message each week is to model for us all… how approaching the Gospel or talking about God… can be as normal as talking about the news.  This broken world is the perfect context in which the Good News is genuinely good.

20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.”21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.

Obedience to God characterizes these disciples.  They didn’t hem and haw.  They didn’t delay.  They didn’t debate with the angel for a while about whether it was going to work.  They didn’t offer alternatives the angel needed to consider, reminding him and God about how the last time this got them in jail.  No equivocation even as these fugitives probably feared for their lives under opposition from the religious leaders.

No messing around when it comes to obeying God.

This is the power of teaching spiritual truths.  It arouses the jealously of those who don’t like God or His truth.  Simple obedience to God can result in unjust hatred by the world!  Jesus told us this would happen.  But we shouldn’t fear His instructions because it’s not like we’re serving some god who tells us to convert people at the point of the sword, the barrel of the gun, or the slice of a knife.  We aren’t armed like that.

Our God is not a serial killer.

What are we armed with?  The Word.  The Truth and good news of God’s great love.  We armed with God’s power in His truth and His Gospel of good news.

So back to our story, the apostles have gone at daybreak into a public place and are doing what they’ve been told by the religious leaders not to do.  It’s civil disobedience, not by chanting words of violence or hatred, not by organizing marches, not by torching local businesses, and not by intimidating power in numbers staging die-ins during Christmas at innocent retailers.

This civil disobedience is as simple as two men obeying God by standing for something positive:

Good News of Great Joy.  The Gospel of Salvation!

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.

(They were ready to pressure the disciples as a full crowd of people with political power!   Go get them and we’ll apply collective pressure and intimidate them to make them stop!)

22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”

Isn’t that interesting?  The angel opened the door and let the disciples out.  I don’t know how or when he locked it back up and yet the guards never even saw them leave.  I have no idea how that happens other than it’s a miraculous deliverance.  Sometimes that’s what God does.  More than just one set of footprints carrying us over the worst of it.

Other times He carries us in other ways or holds our hand as we walk through it together.

And true, sometimes He drags us through it if we’re unwilling to or simply cannot do it of our own strength or will…out of necessity…because there is no other way.

Has God ever dragged you kicking and screaming?

God with His full knowledge may drag us because He knows we’d do what we’re told…if we knew what He knows.  Like when He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because it was beyond redemption, so thoroughly evil!  Genesis 19:10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door. 12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here– sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. 15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.

(They flee to a neighboring town and Lot’s wife can’t keep herself from looking back and becomes a pillar of salt.)

27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD [pleading for saving Lot’s life]. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace. 29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.

God is gracious to deliver us out of evil.  To deliver us from evil, as we pray in “The Lord’s Prayer”.  God knows the tipping point of no return for the hearts of those who hate Him and who will always hate Him.  He knows the point of required deliverance for those who love Him…which is what He did here with Peter and John.  They’re out of prison and preaching the Good News, the full message of new life in the public square.  A miraculous deliverance from prison.

24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled, wondering what would come of this.

Sometimes God delivers us through a miraculous means.  If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you’ve already been delivered once through a miraculous means.  Let me say that again:

If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you’ve already been delivered once through a miraculous means.  The blood of Christ!

And on top of that, as a normal course of daily life, He delivers us through average means:

• Medical treatments that eradicate the cancer or dietary choices that will keep us from diabetes or heart attacks.
• Maybe a series of events that cause the loss of one job where your work for Him is done so He can deliver you into the next place of fruitful service.
• Maybe a relocation that takes you out of a place of no return into a new place of promise—a Promised Land, of sorts—where He intends to bless you and others.
• Maybe a long stoplight or freight train that you’re frustrated about…is the time delay that keeps you from being hit by the drunk driver.  Because God’s not done with you yet!

Peter and John were delivered out of prison so they could get back to work for Jesus.

That said, sometimes we aren’t delivered out of… but are made stronger through the difficulties.  Maybe some are in bad marriages, have prodigal children who break their hearts, or jobs that just seem to go from bad to worse.  Why doesn’t God do something?

The denomination that trained me, the Evangelical Free Church of America, went through a bit of a doctrinal change a few years back on a somewhat obscure plank of their statement of faith (at least from an average pew-sitter’s perspective).  They revisited their position on “premillennialism” which is big word regarding the end times.  All wrapped up in that idea is something like in the Left Behind movie “In one chaotic moment, millions people around the world suddenly disappear leaving their clothes, wedding rings, eye glasses and shoes in crumpled piles.”  The people are raptured.  They disappear.  Their clothes are left behind.  A bunch of naked people showing up in heaven.  And it’s before worse things than naked people happen on earth in something called the great tribulation.  The people are saved up and out of…and before anything worse starts happening.

This view of the rapture of believers, rapture of the church before the bad stuff, is commonly believed throughout the church worldwide, even lauded by some.  But, I think it is wishful thinking to hold a view of the church that exempts us from bad stuff.  Personally, I do not see it fitting the biblical pattern….of delivering people through:

• Through the famine in Egypt by sending the Hebrew Joseph to manage the years of plenty in preparation for enduring the years of famine.
• Through the slavery by the bricks without straw, the plagues, until the Exodus.
• Through the Red Sea on dry land, even while being chased by chariots and armies.
• Through the wilderness with manna and quail.
• Through the Crucifixion of Christ who did not avoid, but endured the Cross and death and rose victorious.

Peter and John were delivered out of prison only to find themselves back there before we know it, proving the point C.S. Lewis makes:

“Hardship often prepares an ordinary person for an extraordinary destiny.”

When we’re not being delivered miraculously, or even by average means, our prayer should be that God will deliver us through it, that long groove where He drags us for a while, even kicking and screaming as we don’t understand the why’s.  Our prayer should be that we’ll trust Him with our lives, knowing that we’ve already experienced one miraculous deliverance from sin to saved.  Our prayer should be focused on being obedient and faithful and willing to let the hardships we face prepare us in our heavenward calling.

As believers who have been miraculously delivered once, we can trust Him with the smaller deliverances, the footprints of His carrying us over the difficulties, the average means of medicine or technology, even our kicking and screaming with His hand forcibly leading us to safety because He is merciful.

Today’s jailbreak is a reminder that where God calls, He also provides in whatever way is required, even as He propels us back to our post, to do our duty as our obedience to Him.  Sometimes He carries, sometimes He drags us, and sometimes He does it through a miraculous jailbreak.

Let’s pray.

This sermon entitled Jailbreak (based on Acts 5:17-24) was first preached on January 18, 2015 at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI.  Today’s jailbreak is a reminder that where God calls, He also provides in whatever way is required, even as He propels us back to our post, to do our duty as our obedience to Him.  Sometimes He carries, sometimes He drags us, and sometimes He does it through a miraculous jailbreak.  Click on this link to listen to the audio version on YouTube.

I like patterns.  Maybe it’s that some of us never outgrow Sesame Street or mind-puzzlers, but I always liked those assignments in school where we had to figure out what comes next in the sequence by figuring out the pattern.

Well, in the book of Acts that we’ve been studying, we can now see a pattern emerging.  It goes like this: A Pure Church.  A Powerful Church.  A Growing Church.  A Persecuted Church.

Now we’re seeing it again in today’s passage.  But it began last week with purity.  As the cycle continues, the growing Church will become increasingly persecuted.  It follows:

Purity + Power + Growth = Persecution.

Each time the pure, powerful, and growing Church encounters the wider culture of governing socialites, intellectuals, and religious hoity-toities, the persecution will get kicked up a notch.  The Church’s increasing power is a threat to all other powers.

We’re mid-pattern this week since last week we saw purity matters to God and He rooted out Ananias’ and Sapphira’s deception before it could take hold in the Church and become an invasive cancer.  Great fear of the holiness of God filled the Church, just like fear of the Lord filled Jericho and was felt by Rahab in our OT reading (Joshua 2:8-3:5) this morning.

God wants a pure Church.  But He also one that is a complete Church, one that is increasingly holy, powerful, and growing…and visible to the watching world.

A pure Church in hiding… is an enclave.  A light under a bowl, soon to run out of oxygen and be snuffed out.

• To be fair, in some areas of the world where persecution is the worst, the Church hides from some (to avoid being beheaded for example) while reaching out carefully to others.  Oxygen comes in, but cautiously.  It’s an underground Church that has power beneath the surface.  It’s a pure Church, but not in total hiding.  It’s just underground, but the root is good and very much alive and growing.
• But in other areas, a Church in hiding becomes an exclusive club.  New club members aren’t allowed in unless they pass the litmus test of intellect, music preference, or doctrinal views on abortion, gay marriage and ordination, etc..  These churches slowly die out for lack of purity, light, oxygen, and power.

A pure Church displaying God’s power is a light on a stand for all to see.  This is what God wants:

A Pure Church.  A Powerful Church.  A Growing Church.  This is what changes lives as God does what only God can do….which is to save people.  The ultimate healing. It’s a picture of Revival that we’re praying for.

Some of you may recall my saying in conversation going way back to my first days here that God wants

Purity before numbers.”

Today’s passage in last week’s context is actually the root of that thought. 

It is not beyond God to grow this—or any—church! It’s not beyond Him to do it in a dying community.  Even in an neighborhood or town where people’s souls might be the sickest in all kinds of cultural ills, it’s a harvest waiting to happen!  That’s what God sees!

But God always starts from a place of purity and grows us from there.  God will not revive any church that doesn’t start with pure worship, for that is the source of the Church’s power. Pure Church Powerful Church, the power flowing from God being glorified!  A light in darkness!

We hear a lot of reasons why people go to church.  Why they make decisions to show up on a Sunday morning.  Why they will show up in inclement weather or in the face of persecution.  Why they will show up even if there’s a good game on TV.

Why do people bother to come to church?  Well,

• Some people view church as a town hall.  The church being a place of gathering, to gain encouragement from others who are also believers.  To know we’re not alone in our Christian walk.
• Some people view church primarily as a place of prayer where gathering together in prayer causes God to hear us differently than when you or I pray alone in our separate homes.  God hears us better because of our unity, praying with one voice as many people.
• Some people view church as a university—a place of higher learning.  Feeding on the Word of God.  To learn what the Word says and have it explained so that each of us may grow in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus.
• Some people view church as a gas station—a place of equipping.  To be spiritually filled, replacing what spiritual resources we’ve expended during the week in our Christian lives.
• Some people view church as a place of healing…like a hospital.  There is recovery for the sick and the injured, the emotionally weary, the depressed, those whose flesh is weak and whose spirit is exhausted.
• Some people view church as a place of safety.  There is protection and a time away—a vacation of sorts—escaping the stresses of life.  A place to forget about our problems for a little while.

While all of these have some truth in them, together they paint a picture of a powerful church because of the big distinction in a Pure Church Powerful Church:

• After all, what sets apart the church gathering from a city council meeting?
• What distinguishes a church of prayer from a mosque of prayer?
• What’s the difference between the church and a religious studies program at a university?
• Why would one need to come to church to be filled if they could be filled elsewhere, like the self-help section of the bookstore, or the personal Bible study at the coffee shop?
• Why come to church for emotional or physical ministry when there are therapists of every shape and size, VA hospitals, even Christian ones, and insurance covers the cost?

What is the big distinction of the Pure Church Powerful Church? 

Worship of the One True God.

It’s not happening at the city council meeting, the local mosque or New Age temple, it’s not happening in a religious studies course.  It’s not happening in the self-help section or even in the fullest sense while studying your Bible alone in the coffee shop. It’s not happening in the counselor’s office or even the pastor’s office.

Why?  Because the focus in all of those instances is on me, on you.  And on what you or I are getting out of it.  The focus is not on Him, the One True God.

Worship of the Almighty God in the Pure Church is what makes the Church a powerful one.

With that in mind, let’s look at Acts 5:12-16 and see this in action:  A Pure Church.  A Powerful Church.  A Growing Church.

God has just finished purifying the Church by rooting out deceivers like Ananias and Sapphira, great fear seizes the people and now

Acts 5:12 The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people.

That’s power.  A Pure Church is a Powerful Church.  Now this doesn’t mean we’re suddenly going to be a place for faith healings, but salvation is the ultimate healing and if we’re preaching the Gospel, salvation will be happening.  Eternal healing is happening.  There’s power in the Pure Church–verse 12 continues…

And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade.

They gathered, but it wasn’t a social club.  They met together in a public place to worship the One and Only True God at great personal risk.  Their light of Christ was on a lamp stand, not hidden under a bowl.  That’s why next week the persecution follows in our pattern.

It’s often said that the Church has grown the most during times of persecution.

How many “causes” still exist for which people will willingly die for that cause?

Over the past few days, we’ve seen a terrorist attack at Charlie Hedbo in Paris.  The publication, which ridicules religion (period), was targeted by Islamic militants because of Charlie’s cartoons of their prophet Mohammed.  The editor who lost his life at the hands of the gunmen was previously quoted as saying, “I’d rather die standing than live my life on my knees.”  Ironically, this same quote was from Emiliano Zapata, a charismatic revolutionary in the Mexican Revolution.  It has been said about Zapata, “in the long run, he has done more for his ideals in death than he did in life.”  It is said that he died a martyr and his beliefs lived on in the hearts of Mexicans.  He revolted.  How could he be a martyr?  A casualty, yes. But a martyr?  Hold that thought.

Centered in Paris, the world’s backlash against the terrorists shows that there is courage in numbers as people gather in public…raising pens in solidarity and holding signs that say “Je Suis Charlie” (translated, “I am Charlie”).

I find myself rather struck by the notion that people will gather courageously in solidarity with a newspaper’s right to ridicule religion and it reverberates around the globe, making headlines…and yet far more than 12 Christians are dying every day simply for being Christian and it barely merits notice in most media outlets.  While Charlie was going on, no one blinked at the story last week of Boko Haram killing thousands, obliterating whole towns in Nigeria, and reported as “too many to count.” 

Christians aren’t dying for the right to ridicule, for freedom of speech, or for freedom of religion.  Christians aren’t dying for public attention or world accolades as charismatic revolutionaries.  Christians aren’t putting up a military defense.  Or even dying for something like New Hampshire’s motto “Live Free or Die!” as General John Stark said in 1809 “Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.”  Christians aren’t dying as Patrick Henry’s rallying cry :

 “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains or slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take but as for me; give me liberty or give me death!”

It’s not about freedom—per se—to the Christians who are dying for their faith.  It’s about who they worship freely.   At Solomon’s Colonnade on the east side of the Temple complex, the believers gathered to worship Jesus at great personal peril then and Christians face persecution for the same faith in Christ now.  The Nazarenes in Iraq are still dying for Christ even if it’s not making headlines!  They are the true martyrs.

And yet, Christian martyrdom preaches in a quiet way. 

A profound, yet subtle way.  Person to person.  Face to face.  Not as crowds united, lifting the Cross of Christ high in a show of solidarity.  One by one.  Individual by individual.  People trusting God with their lives so much that they’re willing to die for their faith.  John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” as Jesus once said.

OK, so what’s the difference between an Islamic “martyr” who kills 12 people and then dies in an exchange of gunfire with police…and what we see here in Acts?

These believers gathered in Acts 5 are committing no acts of violence or anarchy.  They didn’t draw first.  They’re simply gathering as Christians and doing so at the risk of their own lives, never once threatening someone else’s.  The terrorists in Paris are killers, not martyrs.  They are casualties of a war they are waging against others.

So these believers met in Solomon’s Colonnade, right there outside the Temple in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem! 

Where Jesus was sentenced and crucified only a few short weeks ago. This is why those who watched from a distance had this reaction:

13 No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people.

* * *

Onlookers were witnessing faith in Christ.  Yet, fear of man overshadowed it for the moment.  They saw the pattern.  Purity.  Power.  Growth…uh-oh: Persecution.  Respect for the Church and the believers was clearly apparent.  The light shines best in the darkest place.  Light penetrates darkness, not the other way around.  A powerful church witnesses.

14 Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

Though Persecution comes next, we still see a Growing Church. A Pure Church is a Powerful Church and becomes a Growing Church.  One that shines in dark places and stands firm in public witness!

15 As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.

The altar call, if you will, maybe didn’t happen with crowds rushing forward to be baptized in Solomon’s Colonnade, but despite the risk, the Church grew.  In a few weeks, we’ll see our first view of the Apostle Paul…back when he better known as Saul, archenemy and persecutor of the Church.  The Pure Church, the Powerful Church, the Growing Church penetrates the darkness of the darkest hearts and even in the midst of persecution, it can change people.  Saul the persecutor extraordinaire of Christians becomes changed to Paul the powerful Christian evangelist.  Live free in Christ or die trying would be his motto.

Sometimes this change of heart happens as an overnight, lightning bolt Eureka moment, but often it is as the quiet accumulation of many points of light until onlookers have light enough to see.

16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.

People see a Pure Church worshiping God alone! 

A Powerful Church standing firm. 

And a Growing Church and people know this is where healing occurs. 

So what’s our take home lesson from all of this?

1. Pure Church!  First, we need to constantly assess our purity as a church.  Is there anything in our church closet, in the drawer, on the computer, under the table, on the wall, in our history, or in our pews that is keeping us from being pure?  If so, we need to deal with that because it’s keeping us from growing.  Jesus said,  Mark 9:43 If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 44  45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 46  47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,
2. Powerful Church!  Second, since the power flows from God we need to see the Church as being primarily about Him.  Let’s ask ourselves why we come to church and each of us ask, “Do I come to church primarily to worship Christ?”  Yes, the church fills many other needs and heals in many ways, but keeping in mind that we worship Him, we will embrace the changes necessary to bring others to worship Christ in purity and in power.  John 4: 21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”  It doesn’t say attenders, observers, club members, or even family members.  The dominant word in this is worship.  That’s what believers were doing in Solomon’s Colonnade and what we need to do here.
3. Growing Church!  Third, we want to be a growing church.  If we are church that worships Christ in purity and in power, crowds will gather.  But it won’t happen without two things:  (1) asking God to grow us.  We need to pray for revival and then act upon it. And (2) our risking something like the believers were doing in Solomon’s Colonnade. Is there anything that keeps you from inviting people to come?  Maybe you not know any people who are not already church goers and you need to come out of your shell or from under your bowl to meet some.  Maybe you need to get a case of courage and ask one person to come.  Is there anything that you find embarrassing about Plymouth that keeps you from inviting your friends out of fear they will judge you?  Share that at GROW Plymouth and let’s change that.  From God’s perspective, the harvest is always plentiful.  The workers are always too few for what God is willing to do with people sold out for Him.  So let’s pray and ask for more people to join us.  Bold people!  Luke 10:1 “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.” So where is the Lord about to go in Racine?  Where is He sending you?  What risks are we willing to take?
4. And for those of you seeing the pattern, you know what comes next.  Persecution.  Are you willing to be challenged as a believer, to be embarrassed, ridiculed, or even benched by your family and friends for asking them to come some Sunday?  This is how the Kingdom grows.

So let’s be A Pure Church.  A Powerful Church.  A Growing Church.  That is the picture of Revival in Racine that we’re praying for.

This sermon entitled Pure Church. Powerful Church. Growing Church (based on Acts 5:12-16) was first preached on January 11, 2015 at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI.  Click on this link to listen to the audio version on YouTube.