April 15, 2007 pm   True Culture Warriors   Acts 5

By Ronald E. George Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church

Introduction:  Acts 5:^17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. ^18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. ^19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. ^20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people the full message of this new life.” ^[1]

The disciples had seen the resurrected Lord.  They had watched him ascend into heaven.  He told them to wait until they received the power.  The Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and filled them with God’s love, message, and power.  They then began to preach and folks were listening and their lives were being changed.  The preaching of the full message of the new life they had in Christ brought them into direct conflict with the culture.  The culture being the religious people of their time.  The Sadducees were jealous and tried to stop them from teaching the people the message of Salvation. 

Scripture Text:  Acts 5:^27 Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. ^28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” ^29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! ^30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead—whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. ^31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel . ^32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”^[2]

Are we culture warriors?  True Culture Warriors are like the apostles of old:

1. They willingly obeyed God rather than men.   What is at stake? 

2. They taught in the name of Jesus.  They made Him and his teaching known.

3. They didn’t want a war, but they had to tell about Jesus.  Evil will succeed if good men do nothing. 

4. They were determined to tell the whole truth.  Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father but by me.”    And that Jesus had been killed by being hanged on a tree. 

5. They were determined to tell people that Jesus had been raised from the dead.   

6. They wanted people to know that Jesus had ascended and was now seated at the right hand of God. 

7. They wanted people to know that Jesus is the Prince and Savior. 

8. They engaged the culture as God had commanded.  God gave them the opportunity by opening the door.  Has God opened the door for us? 

9. They were witnesses of what God had done.  They gave their testimony.  Will we give our personal testimony of what God has done in our lives. 

10. They were empowered by God.  He opened the door of the prison so that they may go to tell the story.  God has opened the door to the world for us who live in America .  With freedom of speech there has never been a time such as this.  We have the ability to communicate his truth to the world.  Will we take this opportunity to tell the story?  And they overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. — Rev. 12:11^[3]

11. Let us go to engage the culture with the message of the gospel.  Tell the story of God and his love for us.  Let the people see and hear our personal testimony.  Let us change the world one person at a time. 

Don’t Wake Him Up!

At an open-air Gospel meeting the preacher asked for testimonies. While this was going on a skeptic was passing by just when the testimony of a saved drunkard was being given. He stopped and listened. The former drunkard was telling how Jesus had wrought a miracle and saved his poor soul.

The skeptic scoffingly made a few remarks to those standing near him. He said, “It was nothing more than a dream, religion saving a man in this manner; just a mere dream, and nothing more.” No one answered him; but God had His way of dealing with him.

Among the listeners was a little girl about ten years old. She had known the misery of a drunkard’s home. She heard the remark of the skeptic and, going up to him, she said: “Please, sir, if it is only a dream, please don’t wake him—that is my daddy!”    —Al Bryant^[4]