16/07/2017 - WITNESSES TO THESE THINGS

• 
• 
• 
• 

And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. Acts 5.32

The Jewish high priest and the other members of the Council were astonished. They had placed the apostles in prison in the evening, and by the morning, they received the news that the servants of Christ were in the temple teaching the people about Jesus. An angel of God had set them free and ordered them: Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life (Acts 5:20). This terrified that Council, who went after them to ask for an explanation.

The religious leader and his followers convoked the elders of the people of Israel. Then, they sent people to search inside the prison where the apostles were, but they came back with the same news: indeed we found the prison shut securely, and the guards standing outside before the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside (Acts 5.23). This situation surprised everyone there, for they saw that the hand of God was operating in that place. 

At that moment, someone informed them that the apostles were preaching in the temple, so they ordered them to be arrested. They remembered the men of God of the rebuke that they shouldn’t teach in the Name of Jesus. The Council said that the entire city was filled with the Christian doctrine and questioned if the apostles wanted to bring Jesus’ blood upon them. Peter answered that it mattered more to obey God than men.

On his sermon, Peter shared that God had raised Jesus to Prince and Savior, in order to bring forgiveness and repentance of sins to Israel. These should also be our words to people. Obviously, we know of the power of healing, of doing wonders, signs, and prodigies, but the main work of the Most High is to prepare the people for the coming of His Son. Those who accept Him as Savior will be saved, and all others will be lost. 

The mission of the church is not social, philanthropic, or political. It may do social and philanthropic work, yet avoiding politics and commercial opportunities. It must bring salvation to the captive, complete sanctification, while it prepares the saved to rise with Jesus. In preaching the Truth, it will set the oppressed free from the forces of hell, it will heal the sick and will lead the recently converted people to be born again (John 3.5).

Peter said that they were witnesses of those words, for they had heard them from Jesus’ lips. Today, the Church does not have to accomplish anything similar to what other religions do, for they work in the realm of the mind, while we work on the realm of the spirit. Those who are called to salvation are born out of water – the Word of God – and the Spirit. Thus, they are blameless before the Father, since they are members of the Body of Christ. 

Peter ended his brief sermon affirming that God gives the Spirit to those who obey Him. This part of the message of Christ has been lacking in the midst of His people, but it is essential. Instead of bowing before the Lord, the important Jewish leaders ordered to kill those servants of God.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares