True To Life

TRUE TO LIFE

Acts 5:17-33

S: Obedience

C: Obedience to God as priority.

Pr: WE CAN BE EFFECTIVE FOR GOD.

TS: We will find in Acts 5:17-33 how the early church took the truth about Jesus and aligned their lives to match it.

Type: Narrative, Inductive

PA: How is the change to be observed?

Courage

Principle

Mission

Version: ESV

RMBC 24 July 05 AM

INTRODUCTION:

1. Have you ever had trouble doing what you are told?

I may have told this story before…

My dad built the house I grew up in, but before we moved into the house, we actually lived in a trailer that was parked behind it, as it slowly was being built.

One day, my mom was mopping the floor because we were expecting company. So after she was done, she left the pail full of the dirty water in the middle of the kitchen.

For a five-year-old, that pail was a mighty big temptation. So I backed up, and ran as fast as I could in that small trailer, and leapt over that pail in a single bound. I was, simply, amazing.

It was then I heard mom … boom, boom, boom … coming down the hallway (did you know that my mom was a giant?). “Paul, what are you doing?”

“I was leaping over the pail.”

“Well, you better stop it before you have an accident and end up with water everywhere. Then you will really get it!”

“No problem, mom, watch I can leap over this pail with no problem.”

And then I proceeded to show her … successfully … what a magnificent piece of human flesh I was … able to leap over this pail. Then mom went … boom, boom, boom … back down the hall.

Of course, I had to continue to practice. And I did several more times … until … bam, I caught the side of the pail and water went everywhere.

Then, of course, you know what happened … boom, boom, boom … the rest is too hard to tell …

Why is obedience so hard?

Why is it so difficult to do what is right?

We may know what the right thing to do is.

We are aware of right and wrong, true and false, but we so often choose to go the wrong direction.

We have been studying Acts 5 this month.

You got a break from it this past week I believe since Jim spoke.

The book of Acts describes the early church.

Luke, our historian, describes what goes right, and what goes wrong.

You may hear someone say, “We just want to be an authentic New Testament Church.”

And I say to that, “No, thank you.”

They were not a perfect church.

Ananias and Sapphira proved that.

And as we move further down into this book, more problems are coming.

So, you see, we are not called to be a New Testament church.

We are called to be a 21st century church.

This being so, we should seek and desire to be what God is calling us to be now.

We are to be true to this calling.

I have entitled today’s message as “True to Life.”

So…

2. What is it to be true to life?

Simply, for our definition today, it is living the truth.

It is being true to God’s design and plan.

It is demonstrating the courage to live differently.

So…

3. We will find in Acts 5:17-33 how the early church took the truth about Jesus and aligned their lives to match it.

But the high priest rose up, and all who were with him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, "Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life." And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.

Now when the high priest came, and those who were with him, they called together the council and all the senate of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought. But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison, so they returned and reported, "We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them we found no one inside." Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were greatly perplexed about them, wondering what this would come to. And someone came and told them, "Look! The men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people." Then the captain with the officers went and brought them, but not by force, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.