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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends;
I’m deeply troubled, this morning! The news each morning in America these days is shocking, isn’t it? Many major cities are in uproar as riots are sweeping across America. For those of us old enough to remember the volatile 1960’s… what terrible memories are coming alive on our TV screens, again! We who lived through that horrible decade cry out to the young people caught up in this terrible rioting now… “Restrain yourselves! Tomorrow you will live with the destruction of today, and that will mean lost jobs, broken relationships, bankrupt businesses and lots of wounded hearts that may never heal. No good will come from this, only profound regret.”
Psalm 1 cried out to me today… “Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the mockers. But their delight is in the law of the LORD and on His Word they meditate day and night.” (Psalm 1:1,2) Do you see the contrast between those contributing to the problem, and those bringing solutions to the problem? My ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends, it’s time for us to stand up and help bring calm and clear thinking, in Jesus’ name, to this terrible condition, where-ever you are, across America and the world.
Our study in God’s Word today fits perfectly with this crisis of anger and out of control anarchy. As we’ve seen in the last few days in our time together, Acts 3 describes a large crowd stunned by the healing of a crippled man, and Peter’s explanation, which resulted in both a large number of people trusting in Jesus Christ and the arrest of Peter and John, for causing such a disturbance in Jerusalem. Acts 4 describes their ‘trial’ as Peter and John were brought before the same religious leaders who had condemned Jesus to death, perhaps in this very same room. However this time these angry leaders could not ignore a healed, formerly crippled man, who was standing before them. Luke writes this about the angry religious leaders who were in turmoil: “What are we going to do with these men? Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle and we cannot deny it. But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name of Jesus.” (Acts 4:16,17)
There it is friends…do you see it? From His place of ascended authority the risen and resurrected Jesus was unleashing His mighty power in Jerusalem and thousands of people were turning from their sin and trusting Jesus for their salvation. In Acts 2 the Holy Spirit had come upon them and their lives were being transformed, and we saw the evidence of this as they gathered daily to listen to the Apostles teach them of Jesus, shared meals together, prayed and cared for one another. (Acts 2:42-47) This was spiritual Revival my friends, rather than destructive Riots!
Then in Acts 3 with the power of Jesus unleashed in the healing of a crippled man, and thousands more people turning to Jesus, these religious leaders are so fearful of what is happening their solution is to try and silence Peter and John, and stop the work of God in Jerusalem! Friends, this is what has been happening in America since the 60’s! We need to watch this very closely!
The post war 1940’s & 50’s was a time of great spiritual revival in America, as people were so grateful to God that the great war was over and they could begin to rebuild their lives. Thousands of churches were birthed in those years. Thousands of Americans felt called of God to return to the places ravaged by the war, and bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and a Tsunami wave of American missionaries flowed out from America to the world. My parents were among them.
But then came the turbulent 60’s and another wave started to sweep across America. This wave was trying to push God OUT of America! Remember the movement to remove prayer and Bible reading from our schools? Then the movement to give women the right to choose if they wanted to carry their pregnancy to full term as a mother, or abort the baby as an inconvenience? Then the movement to remove the 10 Commandments or other uses of the Bible from courtrooms, hospitals, businesses, and classrooms.
Then the movement to demand both acceptance and even celebration of the homosexual lifestyle. Then the movement to redefine marriage as between any two people regardless of their gender. And much more. As a result we now have a Godless America with uncontrollable anger, immorality and violence both on the entertainment screen and in real life on the streets of our cities. It is vital we understand HOW we got to this decadent, desperate place in society, in only two generations of time. It’s Judges chapter 2 and Romans chapter 1 my friends!
Now please notice, the total opposite of this is what was happening in Jerusalem in Acts 4. People were turning TO Jesus and God’s Word, and lives were being wonderfully changed, healed, and hope for the future awakened in many people. But there were those who wanted to “…stop this thing from spreading any further among the people.”
The angry religious leaders threatened Peter and John demanding their silence, or else… Notice please what happened next! Luke tells us Peter and John returned to the other followers of Jesus and had a worship and prayer service, thanking God for the revival movement which was sweeping Jerusalem and asking God for more. “Now Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:29,30)
Now what do you hear these followers of Jesus asking God for, my friends? Do you see the difference between Riots and Revival? This was not about any public disturbance or civil unrest. This was not about anger or violence. This was about inviting a mighty work of God which would deal with deep seated anger and violence and bigotry and power abuse in Jerusalem.
Look what God did in response: “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” An earthquake, another fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit, and courage to speak boldly, directly from God’s Word. It was 2 Chronicles 7:14 happening in Jerusalem!
Now my friends, what does this look like in real, everyday, practical living… when Revival sweeps a city rather than Riots of anger? Look carefully at what Luke records happened next in Jerusalem: “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus…There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and gave it to the apostles and it was distributed to those who had need.” (Acts 4:32-35)
Ok my friends, now compare this remarkable scene in Jerusalem, with what you’ve seen on TV recently in Minneapolis, Chicago, LA, NY, and so many other American cities in riots. Could they be more different? The help and hope, love and compassion, selfless acts of generosity in Jerusalem, as compared to the violence, destruction, greed, anger, explosions on American streets. And I propose to you that the single most important difference is the American rejection of God and the Jerusalem embrace of Jesus!
When a person or family or community or nation embraces Jesus, welcomes the power, authority, and truth of the Word of God, then you will have what they had in Acts 4:32-35 in Jerusalem. When a person or family or community or nation rejects God’s Word as meaningless, refuses Jesus any place or authority in their life, then you will have the anarchy and riots we are seeing in America. Do you agree history shows us this is true?
Please take careful note of this. . .God will NOT force Himself upon any person, family, community or nation. God creates our lives, sustains our lives each day, provides us the freedom of thinking and choosing every decision we make each day. God will NOT force humanity to obey Him, or honor Him or even live according to His truth and wisdom. God allows us to reject Him if we choose.
BUT. . .we live with the results of our choices and when we push God away we naturally invite the devil and his darkness into our lives, our families, our communities and our nation. We, America, the nation which prints “In God We Trust” on our money and has sent missionaries to the world… we, America, have become who we desired to be. . . a nation without God. But a nation without God, becomes a nation filled with the presence and values of the devil! That is what we see on our TV screens… the work of the devil and his destructive darkness consuming our Godless nation, one person, one family, one community at a time!
Once again in closing I urge you my friends to consider the lessons of Acts 2,3,4! Peter’s courageous, Holy Spirit empowered, and guided messages are for us today. . .
“Repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, and that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…”
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)
“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19)
Oh God we grieve once again for America. If the Coronavirus pandemic was not enough, and the economic shutdown was not enough, now we have the self destruction of greed, anger, hatred, flowing out from the rejection of God. America is imploding oh God. It is not an invasion of some foreign enemy, it is the cancer of evil which our nation has invited, as America has rejected You Oh God! And it is happening at the very same time as churches across our land are finally re-opening, calling the people to Jesus. We, Your people, rise up as they did in Jerusalem in Acts 3,4 and ask you please God “Now Lord consider their threats, enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform miraculous sign and wonders through the name of Jesus.” And show us Holy Spirit, what You want to change in each of our lives.
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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