Acts Chapter 5:12-21

As you look over the history of the church, not just this church, I mean the church in general, over the last 2,000 years, a lot of stuff has happened.

A lot of weird things have happened, and a lot of bad things have happened. But notice something that kept happening. God kept working with people. God kept working through people. God kept growing the church at large. Now, the other thing we see here is it says they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.

They were in unity. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As a special guest we have on the program today, D.A.

Brown, who is one of David McGee's associate pastors at the bridge. Welcome, D.A. Hey, Bob. We can all think of times in our life where we've been through rough patches. We can also think of times in our life where things are going really well.

If we look back, we've grown from both of those situations and scenarios. The same with the church. The church has had seasons, Bob, where it's gone to tough times. And there's also been times of the church where it's been very impactful. But during all those seasons, God has been doing something glorious. Today we're going to look and listen, as Pastor David shares in Acts Chapter 5, how God is in charge, and He's doing something through the church.

Even today, allow Him. That's so encouraging. So now let's listen to David McGee with his teaching, The Work of God Continues. Turn with me to Acts Chapter 5. In the book of Acts, we were talking about last week, and it was a fairly difficult passage, to be honest. We were talking about Ananias and Sapphira. And we spoke that, you know, there was some hypocrisy going on, and the Lord dealt with it in a really severe manner. That's what's been going on, and that leads us into verse 12, and it says, And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. This is interesting to me. It says they were all with one accord. Two people, just to review again, two people had just fallen over dead. I mean, that's a pretty significant thing in the life of a church, and yet there wasn't discord.

Nobody evidently came to Peter and wanted him to explain what had happened to Ananias and Sapphira. They just had unity. Why? And notice something. The work of God continued on with this church and with these people. It's important for us to understand, because sometimes things will happen, unforeseen events, people doing things, and it can derail us. I think that can happen to us, and that did not happen here.

They were not distracted. They kept on with the work of God because God was continuing the work, and you know, the sad thing is it happens sometimes. People will come, and people will leave here, and occasionally we'll have a staff member that's no longer with us, but you know what? God continues the work. I'll never forget, years ago it was interesting, when we were in a small building, and this guy came to me, and we were probably like 40, 50 people, and the guy came to me, and he said, and then I'd had some problems with him and needed to confront him on some issues, and he shows up, and he says, I got a word from God for you.

Yeah, it's kind of like, okay, well, this could be interesting, and he said, you know what? God's finished with this work, and the Holy Spirit is leaving this work because of this, that, and the other, and I knew that that wasn't true, and as I look back over the last few years, evidently God didn't leave when this guy didn't. So, you know, praise the Lord, God's still here, the work continues. As you look over the history of the church, not, not just this church, I mean the church in general, over the last 2,000 years, a lot of stuff has happened.

A lot of weird things have happened, and a lot of bad things have happened, but notice something that kept happening. God kept working with people. God kept working through people.

God kept growing the church at large. Now, the other thing we see here is it says they were all with one accord and Solomon's porch. Notice, and if you've been here for very long, we've talked about and we've noticed the unity of the early church, and when it says they were with one accord, we talked about the fact that they weren't all putting, you know, themselves in one Honda car.

It was not the Honda Accord. It meant they were in unity. They were in unity.

Now, what is unity? Does unity mean that you agree on everything? Absolutely not.

Absolutely not. See, because if you're, you know, if you're over 20, you know that you're never going to find anybody else that you will agree with on everything, and the older you get, the more you realize this, and that's okay. You're never going to agree completely with your boss. You're never going to agree completely with your spouse. You're never going to agree completely with your pastor. But if we can agree on the main things, 90%, 95%, maybe even 98% of the things, hey, you know what? We can walk the road together. We may disagree on some smaller issues, but as long as we agree on the main issues, if you're, if you're here this morning and you don't believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, well, you and I got a little problem because that is what I believe in.

That is what I teach. And you're, you're welcome here to stay as long as you would like, because I want to talk to you. I want to present the scripture to you. I want to convince you of the truth that Jesus is the only way to heaven, but sooner or later, you and I have to agree on that one.

You're probably, this is probably not the place for you long-term, but the other things we can agree if you will, to disagree. Now does God think that unity is a good thing? Absolutely. In one place in Psalm 133 verse 11, it says, behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Now again, you know, that's not agreeing on everything, but it's walking the road together. Now what's the opposite of unity?

It's division. What does God think of division? Well, again, you look to the Bible and it says this Titus 3 chapter 10 verse 10 and 11 says, if anyone is causing divisions among you, give a first and second warning.

After that have nothing more to do with that person. For people like that have turned away from the truth. They are sinning and they condemn themselves. Another passage in Romans 16, 17 says, now I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters, watch out for people who cause divisions and upset people's faith by teaching them things that are contrary to what you have been taught.

Stay away from them. Now, why does the Bible take division so seriously? And, and you know, you may be sitting there and go, pastor, why are you talking about unity and division again? Well, I'm teaching the Bible verse by verse. This verse talks about unity.

So you know what? We're talking about unity and division again. And also I know that at some point in your life, in your church life, in your church experience, you will be sitting with somebody that's speaking divisively and you need to understand what you need to do. Oftentimes, you know, I was talking to one person and this person, they say, you know, so-and-so they got a, they got a problem with gossip. I said, how do you know?

He got that deer in the headlights. Look, you know, see, if you listen to gossip, you're partaking in that sin. If you listen to division, you're partaking in that sin and sooner or later it's going to happen guys, or you yourself will have a divided heart.

You'll be questioning something and, and you know what? I have seen more damage done to the body of Christ over division than sex, drugs, and rock and roll combined. So we have to understand this concept and what the expectations are. And here in this work, in this body, the one in Acts five, you see a lack of division. You see unity and you see a commitment to one another.

And I think that we need to understand that and we should, you know, attempt to imitate or emulate that. Now verse 13 says, yet none of the rest dare join them, but the people esteem them highly and believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. Again, you know, you read this and man, it's such an awesome thing to, to look around on Sunday mornings and see what God's doing.

Now, let me explain. I didn't start the fellowship to see a big church. I started the fellowship to see big Christians and the thing that charges me most about the growth of this church is not the numerical growth. The kind of growth I get really charged on is the kind of growth you saw in those video testimonies, the personal growth as people figure out, as people come to the Lord and then they realize it's not about them. It's all about the Lord.

It's all about serving others. And that's imitating and that's following Jesus and that man, that gets exciting, but understand living things grow and this church was a living thing and it was continuing to grow and more people were coming and he was doing an awesome work and, and I'm sure these people were humbled and they were excited just like we are here. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge.

He'll be right back with more in just a moment, but I want to remind you of the free resources available to you on crossthebridge.com. There's a team of hundreds of people that will pray for somebody to be saved. You have a loved one that needs to know Jesus as savior. You need people to pray for him.

You need someone to present God's word to him. Every day we're presenting God's word to him here on Cross the Bridge with Pastor David McGee. We can pray for them as well just by simply going to crossthebridge.com and click on the pray for the lost button. All you need to do is put in the first names of the people you love that need to know Jesus as savior. Click on submit and immediately hundreds of people will begin praying for your lost loved ones.

And what an awesome way to bring your loved ones to Jesus. Here's a word from associate pastor DA Brown. Hey guys, we want to take just a minute to pray for some cities in our listening audience, specifically Ashland, Oregon and Baker City, Brookings, Canyonville, Cave Junction, Cloverdale and Colton.

Lord, we thank you for these cities and everyone listening. Lord, we pray that you would pour out your spirit on these broadcast audiences. Father, we pray that pastors would have wisdom in these cities on how to love their communities. Lord, I pray that people would put their trust in you.

God, I pray that you would give the governmental leaders wisdom and discernment, that you would protect these cities, Father, that there'd be peace in these cities. And Lord, that your word would be high and lifted up in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Let's read on verse 15. So that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Now, this is pretty wild stuff, isn't it? I mean, talking about the shadow of Peter falling on them, they might be healed. Now, it doesn't say they were necessarily healed by that. It could have been.

It could have been. But there was miraculous healing going on. Now, let me deal with one thing before I get to the good stuff here. It talks about tormented by unclean spirits.

What in the world is that talking about? It's talking about demons. Demons are fallen angels.

One-third of the angels rebelled against God and were cast out from heaven. This is a biblical concept. And the Bible presents that people can be influenced, even controlled, by a demonic presence. Now, that's not something that, you know, what is it, William Blair, the exorcist? That's not something that the exorcist brought up. That's a theological thing that's consistent with the Bible. And some people go, well, yeah, that used to happen. But, you know, Satan doesn't act like that anymore.

Please show me in this book where you get that. This book warns us about such things, and we need to be careful. And certainly as we do certain things, we can open ourselves up. Now, I'm talking about unbelievers, okay?

A believer, somebody that has asked Jesus to forgive them of their sins, and he lives in their heart. You cannot be possessed by a demon. You can be influenced. You can be tempted.

You can be things like that, but you can't be possessed anymore. But let me ask you a question. Doesn't this answer a lot of questions when you read the newspaper and watch television? To understand that some of the craziness that you hear about is demonically influenced and perhaps even demonically controlled.

That doesn't escape these people's accountability, but it sure answers part of the reason. Now, that's part of that verse. But notice the healing that was going on. Do you understand God still heals people? God still heals people. Well, pastor, I just have a problem with healing.

I was watching television the other night, and they were slapping people and knocking them over, and, you know, I just don't know about all that. Well, I don't know about all that either, but I know that God still heals people. See, I'm not willing to write stuff off just because I see some zaniness. Now, to be honest, I wonder if God, the reason God doesn't heal more people is because we act so crazy when things happen. You know, all of a sudden, you know, God will use a man or woman to heal somebody.

All of a sudden they got this international healing ministry and they're at the coliseum and, you know, they're charging you for prayer cloths and all that stuff. So, you know, I don't know. But the fact is God still heals people. And you know, let me even say this. I know some of the stories we hear are suspect.

Some are legitimate. And the crazy thing is, you know, God will work through a zany person. You understand that? I mean, just because you see somebody on TV and go, that guy's a nut, that doesn't mean God's not going to use him. God will use anybody.

I mean, if you're here this morning, you're going, hey, man, he looks fairly desperate. And sometimes we have problems with the way God heals people. You understand that? I mean, it's interesting when I talk.

Occasionally I'll be talking to somebody, I don't believe God heals anybody anymore. And I'm sitting there and I'm wondering, do they know? They're clueless. They have no idea they're saying that to a deaf mute. Somebody that was born at deaf mute. I was born 95% deaf and my tongue was attached to my front lips.

I couldn't talk. I had to go through nine different operations and God used those operations to heal me. Some of you are going, well, now did God heal you or did you have operations? God heals people through operations. God heals people through medication. God heals people over time and God still heals people miraculously and instantaneously. You know, how he heals people is up to him. He's God, I'm not. And sometimes in this book, you'll see God heal some people in some weird ways and we need to recognize that and be okay with it.

If you go back to that passage in John where Jesus used spit and mud to heal somebody. Now we have to be honest. I'd look at that passage and go, oh, that's a little weird.

I mean, and you have to be honest with it. I mean, think of what life was like as a disciple. You know, you woke up and you thought, well, let's see what happens today.

You know, yesterday was certainly interesting. We'll just keep an eye on him and maybe we'll send the people away and that way ministry will go better. And you know, well, Jesus over there, he's not doing anything. We're okay. We'll just keep an eye on him, keep people away from him, especially the kids, you know, just keep them away, keep them away, keep them away. And he's playing in the mud. I think we're okay with that. You know, it doesn't, it looks innocent enough and he's mixing it up with spit.

That's, that's a little weird. And then, but we'll just keep an eye on it and maybe it won't be, he's wiping it on the guy's face, man. I'm not going to talk to him this time, Peter, you talk to him, you know, and then, you know, Jesus, you know what, don't do that. It makes the ministry look bad. We're going to have to answer all sorts of questions and, but Jesus healed them like that. Now I know, you know, you say that and some people in here go, I don't have a problem with that.

Really? What if, what if you wanted prayer this morning? And as you came forward, one of these folks, there are folks up here wanting to pray for you or myself. So I love to pray for you.

Maybe you've got an eye infection or something going on. Oh, will you pray for me? You betcha.

You'd be talking about, is there a number I can call turn you in or something? But that's what Jesus did. But see, as the guy went away, what did he say? He said, praise be the mud. No, he said, praise be God. I was blind.

Now I can see. Started one of the greatest hymns ever written. He didn't say praise be the mud.

We can be thankful. Or you'd have like the first church of mud right down the street, you know, and everybody came in. All right, come on in. Now that we've always done it like this, you got to do this to go in. God heals people. He does it on his timetable and he does it in his way. And he still does it.

He still does it. God still heals people. That's the life lesson here. God still heals people. Remember that.

Remember that. Now maybe you've been walking with the Lord for a little while and you think, you know, I've never seen it. I've never seen God heal somebody. You know what? It often happens so quietly and not with the flamboyance that you see on television sometimes.

You've never seen anything weird happen here up front and, you know, people doing all kinds of zaniness. But you know what? I can't tell you the number of people that have come to me and said, you know what? I've had a degenerative back for years and years. I was just sitting in there listening to a message and I don't limp anymore. Praise God. Praise God. I don't understand that. And to be honest, I don't need to understand that. I don't need to understand that. But if you're sitting there going, well, I've never seen anybody healed.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. The greatest healing that God ever does and our greatest need is to heal our soul and for us to be forgiven. Somebody lying on the bed dying of cancer, their greatest need is not to be healed of cancer.

Their greatest need is to know Jesus as their Savior. And week after week we see people coming to the Lord and, you know, that healing of the soul, it lasts the longest and meets the greatest need. And to be honest, it costs God the most of any healing. It costs Him His Son.

So understand that when you look at healing. And again, you know, the angels in heaven rejoice. We should rejoice. We should be happy.

As we watch that video, as we see people come forward, we should be happy. And if you're here this morning before the morning, if you're here and you don't know if you know Jesus as your Savior, maybe you're sitting here and you go, I don't know. I mean, what do I got to do? Do I got to fill out a form? Do I got to be good for so long? Do I have to join the church?

No, no, no, no. You ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins through the cross. Tell Him you're sorry and He'll give you the power to live for Him. God will do that. He'll do that for you this very morning if you'll ask Him.

Let's read on. Verse 17. It says, Then the high priest rose up and all those who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation. They're mad again and laid hands, their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. You know, it is going to be kind of a common theme to the book of Acts. It's kind of continuing theme from the gospels. Remember in the gospels, the Pharisees were primarily the ones that were attacking Jesus and they were always upset and throwing rocks at Him and trying to kill Him and you know, all these different things and being mad. And now we go into the book of Acts.

It's more of the Sadducees when you go into the book of Acts that are attacking the early church. But you know what? As we look at the Bible, somebody was always mad.

And you know what? That's the same with church life. There's always going to be somebody that's mad.

It's not the majority of people. Most people are loving and kind and you know, but somebody is always mad and you know that's okay. I mean, I've had experiences where, you know, I'm talking to somebody and I'm confronting them on an issue and to be honest, I can't predict those.

I can't. I mean, I've sat down with someone and thought, man, it's going to blow up. This is going to get ugly, you know. And I'll say, brother, you know, this is an issue. And I've had brothers look at me and go, man, tears start rolling down their faces. And they say, thank you for being a real shepherd and coming to me with us.

I'm sorry. Then I've had, you know, conversations that I thought, well, this is a non-issue. It's a small thing. You know, I'm just going to address this situation and they'll be fine and you know, an H-bomb goes off.

And you know what? That's part of being a Christian. You're going to share some things with people and sometimes they're going to receive it and sometimes they're going to be really mad. They're going to be really mad. That's part of, sadly, that's kind of part of church life.

But see, here's the thing. The more you focus on Jesus and the less you focus on folks that are angry, the better off you'll be, the church at large will be, and this church will be. And if that angry person is you, it holds true.

Don't focus on you as the angry person. Focus on Jesus. See, because these guys are so mad, they miss what God is doing. And that happens in the church too.

People get so mad, they miss what God is doing. But at night, an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, go stand in the temple and speak to the people, all the words of this life. Verse 21, and when they heard that, they entered the temple early in the morning and talked. But the high priest and those with him came and called the council together with all the elders of the children of Israel and sent them to the prison to have them brought. They got out of prison. I want you to notice what they did. They went and hid, didn't they? Is that what it says? They went and they were afraid for their lives and they found a hiding place.

That's not what it says. Guys, they went back to the temple. Now, either these guys have the most serious case of short-term memory that we've ever observed in mankind, or they didn't care about the beating or about prison. They went back to the temple.

There's something significant in that for us. If you're here this morning and you've asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you've been set free. You've been set free from a prison far worse than a steel and a concrete one. You've been set free from a prison, depression, anger, bitterness, hostility, loneliness, bondage of all sorts. You've been set free. Why have you been set free? Same reason. In part to tell others. In part because God loves you. But once you've been set free, you know what we should be doing?

You've got to tell people because everybody deserves a chance. And that's what these guys were doing. They weren't afraid of being imprisoned.

They weren't afraid of being beaten up. They went back to the temple. And understand, we've been set free.

Look, if it was all about you, the moment you ask God to forgive you of your sins, you'd be going to heaven. That'd be it. People come forward. They'd pray the prayer. They'd disappear. They'd go. It'd be kind of a weird church experience, wouldn't it?

But that's not what happens, is it? God leaves us here. Why does He leave us here? To tell other people. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven? You can know.

Right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me, out loud, right now. Dear Jesus, I believe You died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe You were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for You, all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, have you prayed that prayer? According to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him. And He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at PO Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life.

You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much He would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge. Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the book of Acts.