Scripture: Acts 5:14-25
Standing Up and Speaking Up
Let me set the scene. The apostles were meeting regularly at the Temple in Jerusalem in Solomon’s Porch, an area just beyond the Gate called Beautiful by the Eastern Wall. Acts teaches us increasingly people believed and were added to the Lord. So much so, the writer and physician, Luke, tells us that sick people were being brought into the streets on beds and couches for Peter’s shadow to simply fall on them that they might be healed. The religious elite, the high priest and a sect or group of Sadducees, became jealous and filled with indignation and had the apostles violently arrested and thrown in prison.
I. The Power - When ministry is working, when you are at your best that is Holy Ghost power! When what you are called to do is under the influence of Holy Ghost Power the bible shows us as in verse 13 that “the people esteemed them highly!” Multitudes of men and women are “added to the Lord” not an individual fellowship. The apostles had such Holy Ghost power that sick folks were gathered together at a porch so when Peter would walk by his very shadow would fall on them and they be healed. What the people saw was his shadow but God is simply showing us the power of His influence. A shadow lasts on as long as you stand there and are positioned correctly while the light is shining on you. That’s all a shadow is! It is a moment in time when you are between the light and the location receiving the shadow! Somebody once sang, “Shine on Me, Shine on Me, Let the Light from your lighthouse shine on me!”
Let me talk for a moment about the Shadows of your Service! Church mothers used to scream out to the preachers and singers and the children saying speeches, “Let Him Use You!” Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth…” History records that even other cities close to Jerusalem brought their spiritual issues and they too were all healed!
II. The Prison - With Holy Ghost Power COMES Holy Ghost Problems! When you are at your highest in ministry it is often when the sect of Sadducees are filled with indignation! The modern-day equivalent of a Sadducee is in every aspect of our lives today. They are at work, they are at school, they are in families and fellowships and in every social network! The Sadducee is the one in authority who has dedicated their all to a thing and they have found out the truth and that what they have been doing is wrong, but they refuse to change! And they can’t seem to shut you up, with all your truth telling, because you got Holy Ghost power; so all they can do is lock you up so your influence is far from the people who need to hear the truth! Have you ever been jammed up, halted, seized, blocked by an ungodly authority? You are trying to get something done for the cause of Christ and its working! You can see the effect of your efforts, but in the midst of your ministry success you got to deal with folk who are supposed to help you and all they want to do is keep you locked up! The Apostles did not fight the authorities; so they let them lay their hands on them. You don’t have to fight! Do remember in 2 Chronicles 20:15 when God spoke to King Jehoshaphat as the Ammonites warred against Israel? “Thus saith the Lord unto you: ‘Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.” God is not impressed with your muscle! It is in our weakness He is made strong! God said to Paul, "My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9). So, they lay hands on them, they get aggressive! (When we were children and acting up in the grocery store, momma would say “Don’t let me get my hands on you” we knew exactly what she meant! When we got a little older growing up on the South Side of Chicago, we always had one friend who could handle himself in a schoolyard brawl and we would say to a would-be aggressor, “Watch yourself, He Got Hands”).
It is the same intention in the text, so they lock them up and it is dark outside AND GOD sends a Word to the prison! The Bible says that an angel sent from the Lord opens the prison doors and brought them out! I don’t know what door he opened because when they went looking for the Disciples, the doors were still locked and the guards were still on their post! Sometimes we think that the only way out is through man made doors but God can bring you out by opening doors that you have never seen before! 1 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” God will make a way out of no way! Somebody asked, “Won’t He Do It?” Yes, He Will!
III. The People - Listen to Word that the angel said when he brought them out! “Go, right back to the Temple, right back to the place where the people saw you arrested and stand in the very spot where they put their hands on you and speak the same Word of Life just like you did before!” And when they went back and began to do what God had commissioned them to do the news spread, “Look, the men who you locked up, the ones who you tried to stop are standing in the temple and teaching the people.” Why is it necessary that after your helplessness of being locked up in prison must you go back to the public area and stand again? The people must see that it is not by your strength nor by your power but by His Spirt you cannot be silenced! The bible says that when the people recognized God’s Power on the Apostles, the Sadducees could not lay hands on them again… this time they had to ask politely! This time the officers took them without violence!
What you are going through has an effect on the People! If you are willing to suffer for the People for Christ sake and yet still stand and speak the Word of Life, it will have an impact! “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care!” Despite what you are going through, you must stand and teach the people the Word of Life. What is this Word of Life? The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus who was crucified by hanging Him on a tree. This same Jesus, God has exalted to His right hand to be both Prince and Savior, to give both repentance and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things by the power of the Holy Ghost whom God has given to those who obey Him! Place your trust in Jesus today! He alone offers repentance and forgiveness of sins!
