The Book Of Acts | Answered With Power (August 9th, 2020) - Mike Armstrong

Let's get into God's word.

All right, let's uh get our Bibles open to uh Acts chapter 5.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

We began uh in verse 1 last week.

We're uh in verses 12 to 16 today.

Now, one of the recurring themes uh that we're struck with all the way through the book of Acts.

We've seen it multiple times already, we're gonna continue to see it all the way to the end uh for sure, is just the unmatched power of God.

Right?

The power of God.

You may have noticed, hey, we've had actually a few sermons already on that very theme, and of course we have, we are today, and we're going to continue to see that, and we've seen it just so many times already in just five chapters.

I mean, we've saw it in the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in the upper room as the believers are enabled by the power of the Spirit to begin speaking the mighty works of God in other languages that they didn't even know before that point.

I mean, so that is God's power there.

We've seen Peter's bold preaching, resulted in thousands of people being added to the church, getting saved.

Obviously, that is God's power.

We saw the lame man powerfully healed at the temple gates.

Uh, and of course, the church, they they begin to form this amazing bond, this amazing unity that we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks.

And obviously, that is all due uh to uh the the spirit's power as well, as they're unifying around the truth of the gospel.

Now, today uh we're just gonna see how the Lord just flat out continues to bring it, right?

He really does.

He he just you know unloads his power on these people in even more impressive ways, as we're gonna see.

Now, maybe as we've been reading through the book of Acts, or as we're gonna get into our passage here in just a second, uh, maybe for some of us, somewhere in the recesses of our minds, you you you kind of find yourself thinking, man, that that's great.

That's great that we see God pour out power.

That's great for them.

Okay, but but maybe for you, you're wondering, like, it doesn't seem like I see or we see God pour out power uh like that these days.

Okay, like what about us?

Maybe that's when you're thinking.

What about me?

That's great that God's working in other people's lives.

What about uh what's going on in my life?

I want to see God pour out his power as well.

Now, of course, if you have that desire, uh that's a very good thing.

To desire more of God's power is uh amazing.

And um the question that I would just ask you, if you have that desire, is have you asked him for it?

Have you asked God for his power?

And when I say that, I'm not I'm not saying it like in a smart aleck way.

Like, yeah, thanks, Tips.

I know that I should be asking uh God for that, okay, because I know that that many of us, you know, we've been praying for and asking for God's power over and over again about something in our lives, something in the life of a loved one, something in in the life of somebody that we know, and and just you know, crying out for God's power.

It feels like we've been doing that for a long, uh, long time, and it kind of feels, I don't want to really admit it, but it kind of feels like like nothing's happening.

Okay, and we're gonna touch on some of those thoughts uh as we go here.

But listen, there is no question in the scriptures that the Lord pours out his power as his people pray.

There's a direct correlation there, there's a relationship in that, as I think we're gonna see as we go.

So let's let's read this now again, Acts chapter 5, starting in verse 12.

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Follow along with me in your Bible or on your phone.

Okay, here's what it says.

It says, Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles, and they were all together in Solomon's portico.

None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Lord, as we've mentioned uh already this morning, uh God, we see just in this passage alone the amazing unmatched power of our God to heal people of multiple ailments.

Lord, to save sinners from death.

God, that is your power.

God, and I pray that as we walk our way through these verses here this morning, Father, I pray that you would encourage us and show us that your power is at work today.

Your power has been, is, and will continue to be at work in our lives, in our church by your Holy Spirit.

And so, God, give us eyes to see this.

Lord, I pray that if there is anything in us that is limiting your power, it's just blindness, it's it's hard-heartedness, it's it's sin, it's worldliness, it's laziness, whatever it might be, Lord, I pray that you would overcome that.

Father, I pray that you would break down those barriers and continue to pour out your your spirit and power in more ways than we have ever seen.

And so, God, uh, encourage us today, I pray in these things.

I pray that Christ would be exalted.

We pray it all in his amazing name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, here we go, jumping right into the first thing here today.

One of two points.

Um, here it is.

The Lord answers our prayers with his power.

Okay, he answers our prayers with his power, making us bold witnesses and saving the lost.

Now, uh, you might be thinking a little bit here, like, hang on, Pastor.

Okay, I are you sure this is about prayer?

You know, we we just read this just together, and I don't see the word prayer mentioned in there.

I, you know, there's no, there's there's nothing of them modeling a prayer meeting or a Zoom prayer meeting or anything like that.

We don't see that.

So again, are are we sure that we're getting this right?

Okay, well, I'll give you that we don't see the word prayer mentioned there, and neither do we see them meeting together to pray.

But understand that what takes place in these verses here is the direct answer to previous prayers that this church has prayed.

Okay, and you'll see what I mean as we go here, but let's take a look at verse 12 and work our way down through it.

Look at verse 12.

It says, Now many signs and wonders, you see that there?

Many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles.

Okay, now that right there, okay, that um that God is unleashing his power in the form of many signs and wonders, that's the exact answer uh to the prayers uh of this church.

Well, how do we know that?

Where do we see that?

Well, well, back in the previous chapter, in Acts chapter 4, verse 30.

Acts 4:30

If you've got a Bible, flip back to that and uh take a peek at that with me.

You'll remember that Peter and John, they had proclaimed Christ after the lame man was healed, and the religious leaders they didn't like it.

And they got up in their face about that, and they threw them in prison for a night, and they threatened them and told them not to proclaim Jesus.

Uh, and so when they were released, they they gathered together uh with their other brothers and sisters in Christ uh to pray.

Okay, to ask God for his power to propel the mission forward.

Okay, so are you in verse 30 now, chapter four?

Take a look at this.

It's part way through the prayer.

This is what they say.

They say, while you, talking to God, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and look at this.

Signs and wonders, okay?

Signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

Okay, they had asked for signs and wonders in this verse, and that's exactly what God gives them.

That's exactly what he delivers in powerful ways here in chapter five.

Okay, now understand that as we keep going here through verse 12, still partway through it.

It says, and they were all together in Solomon's portico.

And now Solomon's portico is something that we've come across already and we've seen.

It was this roof-covered area at the eastern side of the temple that the believers would gather to to meet for fellowship and meet for teaching, and and all kinds of great things happened there.

It was kind of their their spot, their ANOVA building, if you will, uh, that they would uh that they would meet in.

You know, that word together that you see there, I think naturally we see that as oh.

They're physically together in the same room, which is so great.

And I mean that's I guess part of it here.

They were certainly together in a location, uh, but literally that word uh in the original language means that they were of one mind.

Okay, they were they're of one mind, they're of one accord.

All right, signifying that they were actually, it's more than just physically gathered together, they were unified.

And that's of course what we've been talking about over the last uh few weeks.

They were unified in the things that were taking place in the life and ministry of this church.

Okay, so you remember from last week, so because the church took very seriously the disunifying sin of Ananias and Sapphira, okay, there because they took it seriously and they dealt with it, the unity of the church remained intact.

Okay, it was it was protected.

Okay, now keep going, verse 13.

Okay, and we'll get back into the signs and wonders piece in a bit.

Um, but here's what it says, verse 13.

None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

You know, what's that talking about?

Well, the rest that you see uh mentioned there are are likely best understood as the unbelievers in Jerusalem, the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem and in the surrounding area, as we're gonna see here.

Those those Jews that had heard what had happened to Ananias and Sapphira.

Remember, many saw it, but a lot of people uh heard about it as news spread.

And and you'll remember from last week, they were struck with that great fear.

That great fear, that that holy terror that they had.

Oh man, this is the God that we are uh that we are dealing with here.

Okay, but nonetheless, though they had this fear, though they had this terror, uh the the again, these unbelieving Jews uh thought very highly of the church.

They held them in high esteem, uh it says, because they they saw what God was doing in and through them, and they were they were marveling at all of that, and uh and to some degree thought it was amazing because of course it was.

Okay, now verse 14, take a look.

It says, and more than ever, okay, more than ever, believers were added to the Lord, a multitudes of both men and women.

And if you think about it, that too is an answer to this church's prayer.

Remember how we already looked at chapter 4, verse 30?

Well, if you can kind of flip back over to it again, to the verse just before that, verse uh 29.

This is the beginning part of the prayer.

It says, And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants, here it is, to continue to speak your word with all boldness.

Okay, so here in chapter 5, verse 14, we see that that prayer had been powerfully answered.

They had obviously, it doesn't say it explicitly, but they'd obviously been given the boldness to proclaim the gospel.

God had made them bold witnesses, bold evangelizers.

Okay, and the Lord was saving people.

It says there are multitudes of them, more than ever before.

We've already seen like thousands of people added in one day.

But it says here that like even more was happening, more than ever, men and women being added to the Lord.

Meaning that that obviously he was saving many people who were previously lost in their sin.

Okay, so again, there's there's no explicit mention of prayer here, okay, but we definitely do see very explicit answers to those things that they had prayed for, don't we?

It's just so clear as you read it that God's power is in full effect here.

Now, I'll just um I'll just go out on a limb here and assume that we all want to see and and experience more of God's power at work.

Is that fair to say?

I mean, I I don't know any believers who are like, man, you know, I I just want to I want a more anemic experience of of God.

Right?

I I I I'm here today at church or watching online because I want to see God do nothing.

That's not how people speak or or think.

No, on some level, we want to see God do even more.

Okay, and if that's true, okay, and we see that the Lord answers our prayers with his power, okay, and specifically in context here, that he that he loves to make us bold witnesses and and and he loves to save the lost, then I think we need to ask ourselves: are we praying for those things?

Right?

Or are we asking the Lord to do those types of things?

God, God, give me the boldness to share Jesus, to witness to my neighbor.

Lord, Lord, would you powerfully save my neighbor?

Are we a church that that thinks about those things, that that that prays along those lines?

Because as we see here, those are the types of prayers that that the Lord loves to answer.

He wants to just pour out power in those ways.

Okay, so so maybe here, okay, maybe one of one of the reasons that we sense on some level that that God's not answering our prayers with power.

I'm sure we've all felt that.

We feel like maybe he's not answering our prayers in the ways that we would like.

Maybe one of the reasons is that we've kind of found ourselves or gotten stuck in a rut of praying more for our kingdom come instead of his.

Sometimes I'll pray something like, you know, God transform me.

Lord, would you would you do a work in me?

Would you purify me and make me holy and rid me of of all the things that do not please you?

Again, all of which sounds great at face value, doesn't it?

And it is.

But what the Lord's been revealing just to me as an example for you is that there can be a certain level of selfishness or or even self-centeredness in those prayers sometimes for myself.

Okay, where, yeah, I want to be transformed, but but it's not exactly coming from a place of wanting to see the Lord use me.

Sometimes it's coming from a place of, man, I'm I'm weary from sin.

Like I'm just annoyed that sin continues to creep up on me.

Right?

It's frustrating to fall into some of those traps.

And and the battle is sometimes, or let's be honest, annoying, right?

To be dealing with sin.

And sometimes I just want the transformation because I'm I'm so tired of the fight.

And Lord, just make this, just make this easier for me.

I just I just want comfort.

I want I want ease of life.

Right?

I what I'm starting to notice is I don't always just you know want to be like Jesus when I pray those kinds of things.

I don't want to be, you know, transformed so that I can be more of a bold witness to my neighbors, right?

Or or be used more in the mission that God has me a part of to see the lost saved.

Okay, frankly, if I'm honest, sometimes I just want to experience a more leisurely life.

Right?

That's the deceptive desire that can be lurking behind the words or the thoughts when I pray.

Okay, and just think about this for me and think about this for yourself.

If I, you know, deep down, really, I just want the kingdom of Mike to be established, my glory to be made manifest, then at the end of the day, I really shouldn't be all that surprised if God isn't like rushing to my side to unleash his power to see all of my plans prevail.

I shouldn't be too shocked by that.

Okay, so to so today, you know, and and and this week even, really think about that for yourself.

Okay, I give you an example of what I'm chewing on.

Okay, but think about that for yourself.

What are the desires behind your prayers?

Okay, these are the words that I say, but what is it that I what is it that I really, really want there?

What is it that you truly desire as you pray for God's power?

Is that is that really more about yourself, or is that about God and his kingdom?

Is it about his glory?

Is it about his mission?

You know, is it about you witnessing boldly?

Is it about you uh about the lost people being saved and God using you and all of that, or is it more about the kingdom of insert your name?

I mean, it certainly takes some effort and it takes some some thought power to and and some energy to think through that, right?

And and think through what are the desires, what are the things that I that I truly want, even in my subconscious or you know, on that kind of a level.

Okay, it takes some effort, but I want to just say don't be don't be discouraged by that.

I think sometimes we feel like, oh man, like I gotta do some more work, right?

And and this seems like kind of a hassle and what a drag, and COVID's already hard enough, and you know, we we think about that, but but don't be discouraged.

Learn to see this as an opportunity.

Right?

God is God is refining you in all of this.

Okay?

He's he's unearthing whatever, you know, whatever selfishness might be there.

He's he's pruning you, he's cutting off dead branches, he's bringing these things up to the surface and out into the open where they can be confessed and then moved on from.

I want to continue to want those things.

I want to I want to see the Lord transform me in on even on a desire level, where we can just move forward in grace and and in the pursuit of him and and and his power experienced in in ways that will only just blow our minds as we go on from here and give him much more glory, which I think is what it's all about, right?

And of course, what it really I think just gets us to this final thing here.

Okay, the Lord answers our prayers with his power, doing a work of healing that we can hardly imagine.

Okay, so remember there, verse 12, and how it said that many signs and wonders were regularly done by among the people by the hands of the apostles.

Okay, we looked at that.

Now it picks it up back, picks that theme back up again.

Uh notice it there in verse 15.

Let's read the rest of this.

It says, so that they, that's the people now, okay, even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as people came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.

Verse 16.

The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted, afflicted, like meaning troubled by uh with unclean spirits or the demonic.

And notice the last part of that line there, verse 16.

It says, And they were all healed.

Now we we know that some superstition abounded back in this day.

Uh, that's definitely the way uh the culture worked, and we know that there were people that you know that actually believed that shadows could have magical powers, okay?

And so maybe that is a little bit about what was going on in in some of these people, especially unsaved people who just kind of hear the stories and look what God's doing through Peter, and it's all about Peter, and man, and if his shadow you know comes, there's magic there that will heal me.

I mean, again, perhaps some of that was going on, and that was their mindset as they were desperate for healing in all kinds of different ways.

And or it could be that some of them just had such great faith in God's ability and God's power to heal that they just believed that even if Peter's shadow you know fell on them, God could use that to heal their loved ones.

Okay, and of course, you and I, we know this, that it wasn't really Peter's power at all, it was the Holy Spirit's power working uh in and through him in the other apostles as well.

Okay, but again, this just shows us uh that the reputation of Peter and the apostles and this growing community, this church in Jerusalem was was was becoming greater, right?

Their reputation was, it was, they they were revered so much so that people from all over began flocking to them.

Up until this point, it's been what's what's going on centralized in Jerusalem, and now we're seeing the effects starting to expand, which is really cool.

And of course, we're gonna see that way, way more all throughout the book of Acts.

People are like flocking to them because of what they hear is happening, and they're looking for signs and wonders to be performed through uh acts of healing.

Which, of course, I think draws our minds back to what we saw happen with Jesus Himself.

In the Gospels, Jesus would travel around from town to town with his disciples, and people would just come out of the work woodwork, and they would bring their sick before him, and you know, we remember the demoniac, and we remember those people, and and and God, and Christ would just heal, right?

He healed many, many people.

Again, people are you see in the text that are so desperate for this.

Healing of all sorts of physical illnesses and I mean even demonic afflictions.

Pretty amazing to see there that it says that they were all healed.

I mean, this is a stunning and truly mind-blowing situation being described to us here.

It's amazing how many times we read that and we're like, oh yeah, look what happened.

Kinda neat, I guess.

But when you think about it, this is wild.

It's it really is.

I mean, God is doing such a mighty work of engaging his unlimited power in the lives of these people, right?

And the healing of lost and broken individuals, physically healing them from illness, sickness, freeing them from being troubled by unclean spirits.

And you know, it's just an absolute, it's an absolute statement, right?

It's it's it's again a triumph over Satan.

It's a showdown that Jesus and the and the church is having, right?

And we know also that he was obviously saving multitudes of these people and adding them to the church.

Remember, we looked at that already.

So spiritual healing is taking place as well.

It wasn't all just you know physical, and again, if we're all answers to the prayers of these people of this church.

Now, well, I would definitely say that you know this was a very you know unique time in human history in the life of the church where God was doing something incredibly special to establish his very first church ever with a mighty bang.

Again, it's a statement to the enemy.

Okay, well, I would say all of that's true.

Okay, it's not to say that God can't or won't or doesn't uh do amazing works of healings uh these days.

Again, remember that God loves to display his power in response to his people's prayer.

So listen, just a couple of things for you to chew on here uh before we end our time today.

First thing here, don't give up on prayer.

Okay, don't don't give up on it.

You're gonna be tempted to.

And maybe you even have.

I was reminded of Galatians 6, verse 9 this week, let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

I think it's safe to say that prayer would be considered one of those good things that we're to to keep at, to, to keep doing and and not give up on.

And I was also just thinking um this week about uh my grandma, and my grandma is still with us, and and she has told my myself and my brother uh and our wives and our kids multiple times.

She's like, hey, I want you guys to know I pray for you every single day.

And she would point, she'll point to the chair and just say, I get up and with my Bible, I am praying for you.

And she told me that years ago and continues uh to remind us of that.

Just a faithful woman who who prayed.

Now, why would I give you that?

Why would I share that with you?

Well, because um there would have been multiple points along the way in my life where you could look at me and be like, man, what's going on with that guy?

Right?

That like that is not that's not a great direction that he's going in.

And and I'm sure at times my grandmother just had no clue and was concerned, you know, as she was praying, and there might have been times where she was tempted to give up and and yet she she never did.

And I like to think that if you know the work that the Lord has done in me and and and if he has been able to use me in any way in ministry, I'd like to think that that some of that, maybe a large part of that, has been due to the fact that she was faithful in prayer.

So listen, as you think about that, don't give up on prayer.

Don't give up on it.

You may not have your answer yet, you may not see the thing that you want, happen yet, keep going, right?

Be faithful in this.

Okay, next thing to kind of chew on here is learn to see his power in your life where you might be missing it because you're expecting it to look a certain way only.

Okay, does that make sense?

Learn to see his power in different ways in your life.

Don't necessarily just look at it one way.

Okay, because I love that, again, that John Piper quote that I've used a hundred times where God is doing 10,000 things at your life at any moment, and you may be aware of like three of them.

God is always doing something in your life.

Learn to see that.

Ask the Lord to open your eyes to see his power in your life.

I I mean, I've struggled with you know, with different things in my life and feel like, man, I'm not growing in any of this.

I'm I'm not changing.

I see zero growth, I see zero of God's power.

He's not answering my prayers.

Am I even a Christian, right?

Like you battle that sometimes.

And I've had faithful, godly people say, hey, listen, you need to maybe look at this a different way.

And help me realize that I used to think of it as I used to struggle with this, now I never do.

That's God's power only.

But God's power is that he'll sanctify us maybe gradually, he'll change us in different ways that we weren't really seeing.

Maybe it's that we used to give into that sin 30 times a week, now we give into that sin 10 times a week.

You're like, man, that's lame.

I want to give into it zero times.

Great, that's your heart, that's your desire.

But the Lord is refining you, right?

He's transforming you.

And that's his power in your life.

Right?

See it that way and glorify God because of that.

Next thing here, something for you to think about.

Leave the results in God's hands.

Yeah, that's a challenging one for us because we so badly just want what we want now.

We want it to look a certain way.

God, pour out your power in the very detailed, you know, shopping list way that I have just presented to you.

Okay, but learn to learn to leave the results in his hands.

Where we trust that how he's gonna answer those prayers, the timing of it all, that's up to him.

Okay, and if you want some further encouragement of that, I was thinking about uh an old sermon from last year, September 1, 2019, uh, James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

James chapter 5, there's a there's a sermon that we preached that was a lot about that.

James 5 · chapter mention

And I would just commend that to you to go back and find that on our podcast or or online.

Okay, leave the results in God's hands.

Last thing here.

Okay, don't ever forget your salvation.

Don't ever forget that.

Your salvation is the ultimate example of God's power and and work of healing in your life.

Do you see that?

You were you were dead in your sin, the Bible describes it.

Dead.

What can dead people do?

Nothing.

That's the answer.

Nothing.

So God did a work of resurrecting you spiritually, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead saved you from sin and death and judgment.

That is God's power.

That is an awesome work of healing in your life, and he's continuing to do that by way of your sanctification, growing you.

Look back on your life.

How far have I come?

And what are the different ways that I've seen God answer prayer and work in me and learn to glory in the fact that God is powerful and he is healing you, and if he promises that he's gonna do that, and we've seen him do it, he's gonna continue to do it.

He's gonna continue to answer those prayers.

Don't ever forget your salvation.

You are a child of God, not because you're smart enough to figure it out, it's because God opened your eyes.

It says God softened your heart.

And listen, if you have questions about what it means to know Jesus as Savior, okay, recognize those things, what I just said.

Recognize we we've got sin, it's against God, it's against a holy God, and we deserve punishment for that.

Okay, but God in his mercy sent Jesus to pay our price.

We deserve death.

Jesus took that on himself in the cross.

If you admit all that to God and believe that Jesus did all of that for you, you can become a follower of Jesus.

You can become a Christian.

You can be united with God and made right with him.

That's a decision that you can make today.

And again, if you have questions, please reach out.

We would love to walk you through and talk through some of those things.

Listen, but listen, the Lord is absolutely still in the business of wowing us with his power.

He's doing a work of healing that I mean we can hardly even imagine.

He's transforming us.

And I'll just say this one quick thing here.

Like, I've been noticing the Lord uh working in my life and and and pouring out power and answering prayers and healing in ways that honestly I've been praying for my entire adult life.

And even just in the last several weeks, I'm like, whoa, like things are happening.

And I and I look forward to sharing some of those things with you in the coming days and and working through that with uh you yourself.

Uh but just be encouraged.

Lord is he's not just at work in me, he's at work in you as well.

And right now I just want to pray for us as as John comes.

Join me as I pray, Lord.

We thank you for your goodness to us, Lord.

You are good.

You are good.

Lord, I pray that we wouldn't doubt that today.

Lord, I pray that we would see that you love to show us your power.

That you love to manifest that in us through your Holy Spirit.

So, God, would help us to work through some of the things we've talked through today.

Lord, soften us to give us a greater love and a greater hunger for Jesus and the mission you've called us to.

God, we love you, and we pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.