Locking Up The Gospel

with Pastor Micheal Oxentenko

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's pray. Dear Father God, thank you for Jesus, just
thank you for him. Thank you that we lived just
before he returns, and we have the glorious opportunity to
be active Christians like the early Church. In Jesus' name. Amen.

(00:21):
The title of the message is locking up the Gospel now.
Elder John dam had the sermon last week on Anonius
and Saphara. I'm so glad he preached on that instead
of me. That's a hard topic to cover, and the
Lord used it. I think he nailed it. The Lord
nailed it through his preaching. I'm piggybacking it. After the

(00:41):
death of Antonius and Saphara, the church learned to respect
the authority of the apostles and their individual duties as
Christians in the church. Something happened that transformed the church. Paradoxically.
Antonius is name in Hebrew means Yahweh has been gracious.
Imagine a man having a name like that treating the
Lord so ungraciously. Sapphira's name means sapphire. No doubt there was.

(01:08):
She was named after the blue sapphire stone throne of God.
In Exous twenty four that the Bible indicates the tables
of the Law were taken from that and strong rabbinical
confirmation of that. They read the Hebrew rtely, and so
she was named after the Law of God, the blue
sapphire stone, tables of the Law of God, the Throne

(01:29):
of God. And yet she was disobedient. Annonis and Sapphiad
died because they chose to misrepresent God by looking good
without being good. Did you hear me looking good without
being good? They withheld part of the field they promised
for the cause of the church in its early need,
and they lied to look good. What do we call that?

(01:53):
We call a lot of things called evil, narcissism, manipulative.
God was gracious to the She's been gracious to them
through Peter. He gave them a chance to awaken in
conscience and to confess it. But they just covered it up.
And so would happened when they dropped dead, because the
Holy Spirit brought them down in that active discipline. God

(02:14):
restored harmony after they died, and the church was healed.
And after the departure of Antonyas and Sapphire, the jewel
of God's bluestone sapphire law was in the heart more vigorously,
and even though they had lost two dear people, they
realized it was about the future mission saving souls. Acts

(02:37):
five eleven. And great fear came upon the whole church,
and upon all who heard of these things. Somebody said,
what it be? In great fear came upon the church. Well,
that's what the text says in verse eleven. When the
church heard what had happened. Luke records that great fear
came upon the whole church. It wouldn't hurt us at
times to have a great fear come upon our church's

(03:00):
discipline of those two evil church members save the early
church from becoming an evil and corrupt church. It gave
it right trajectory so the church would be dedicated to
the cause of God. God's interventions remove these two, save
the many, and discipline them for their challenge ahead. And

(03:21):
they revitalized. They looked at their values, and they made
good decisions. And do know on me ten twelve. The
fear of the Lord means to love the Lord as
so as to obey the Lord and keep his law.
What is the first Angel's message? If I were to
ask you what it is, what would you say? Just
interact with me Revelation fourteen six, and so on fear
God give him glory. When people read that, he say,

(03:44):
fear God. Who wants to fear God? Well, we need
to know what it is. Do know onmy ten twelve
take your bible's turn with me. And now, Israel, what
does the Lord your God require of you? I could
say it this way, now reaching hearts in national church.
What does the Lord your God require you? But to

(04:04):
fear the Lord your God? Oh? There it is the
first Angel's message. Talk to walk in all his ways.
And then he tells you what the fear of the
Lord is, to love him. To serve the Lord your
God with how much of your heart? All your heart?
So that means when we are called to serve God,
are we to be half committed or fully committed the
cause of Christ. That's a high bar, isn't it. Full

(04:28):
commitment is a high bar. With all your heart, with
all your soul. It means your life, energy, your passions,
your mind, your intellect. In verse thirteen, and to keep
the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I command
you this day. And then he says, for your good
obedience helps us, It doesn't harm us. It deepens our

(04:50):
connection with God. It helps us to form characters that
align with his so that His love, his grace flows
through our lives. The fear of the Lord is the
love of the Lord Lord. And when a great fear
came from the Church, a great love settled on the
Church and the fear of the Lord. The Bible also
teaches us that the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom. That was Solomon's teaching, his legacy, his

(05:13):
contribution to ancient Judaism and Israel, and so on. Proverbs
ninety verse ten. The fear of the Lord, he writes,
is the beginning of wisdom, and then he calls it
the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. To really
have the fear of the Lord, you must know the Lord,
must have a relationship with him. Here Israel, the Lord,

(05:35):
our God is one. You shall love the Lord, your God, Jesus.
This is life eternal, that they might know thee the
only true God. And so God is calling us to
be wise, and when we are wise, we come into
a relationship with God. The Church had experienced the true
wisdom that leads believers to respect God, so they will
obey and love Him rather than take his law for granted,

(05:58):
and to be Christians in name only and do what
they want. Now, I'm telling you there's a high bar
to being a Christian. When God bids a man and
woman come and follow him Diedrich Boenhoff for got it right.
God bids that man and woman come and die, die
to self, and live to God. I was just yesterday

(06:20):
looking at the video on YouTube of Sophia schol who
gave her life in World War Two, and I'm enamored
with those people in the last one hundred and two
hundred years who have stood for principle, who lost their
lives because they would not compromise the word of God

(06:42):
in their generation. And when I hear people say, well,
you know, we need to just do this to make
the church grow. Let's just do this worthly thing, that
really thing that doesn't grow anybody. All it does is
it prepares people for the fire. We must be in Christ.
To be in Christ means to have Christ, and to

(07:03):
have Christ means to love Him and keep his commandments.
The church had experienced the true wisdom that leads believers
to respect God so they will obey God and love
Him rather than take his law for granted to be
cheap Christians in name only, but disobedient as cause x five,
verse twelve. Now, many signs and wonders were done among

(07:25):
the apostles by the hands of the apostles. Actually, I
got that wrong. Now, many signs and wonders were done
among the people by the hands of the apostles, and
they were all together in Solomon's portico. Now, according to Josephus,
who was the Jewish historian who was there at the
destruction of Jerusalem in seventy a d. Solomon's portico was

(07:47):
on the eastern side of the temple. It faced the
Chidrin Valley, which was opposite, which was just beyond it
was the graveyard of the Mount of Olives. The altar
of the Red Heifer was at the summit of the
Mount of Olives. And the evidence from scripture is overwhelming
that Jesus died right there near the southern ridge line

(08:08):
of the Mount of Olives, facing the eastern gate, near
the altar of the Red Heifer. And that was understood
by Christians for three hundred years until Constantine's wife came
on board and started having visions and dreams that were
not from God to relocate it, and they realized that
one day the King of God would be on the
Mount of Olives, that God's feet Jahwe's feet, but Jesus'

(08:32):
feet would touch the Mount of Olives. And Jerusalem moved
from the old city to the new city. And so
here we find them worshiping, gathering in the Temple on
the eastern side of the temple, facing the Mount of Olives,
just like the Eastern Gate, the Beautiful Gate. They went
as close to the cross as they could get in

(08:52):
their worship of God in the temple. It was the
one spot where they could be nearest to where Jesus died.
Those early Christians tried to get as close to the
Cross as they could in their lives, their fellowship, and
their worship. Wouldn't it make sense if we did the same,
If we got as close to the Cross of Christ
as we could in our lives, so we would have

(09:13):
Christ in us the hope of glory. One Corinthians one,
seventeen eighteen. Paul says this, for Christ did not send
me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not
with eloquent wisdom, lest the Cross of Christ be emptied
of its power. And what he's saying, is it's the
duty of church members to work with me to prepare
people for baptism. I am to proclaim the Gospel and

(09:36):
preach and teach. Now I've noticed that reaching hearts. At times,
I can get very busy doing the work that many
of you should be doing. Does that make sense? God
did not call me here to manage this building, to
make sure it's cleaned, to manage the grounds, to manage

(09:59):
the fine answers of the church, which I'm not doing.
We have a good finance team. He called me to
preach and teach the gospel, and to study and pray
and do the work of ministry. Does that make sense?
And when I don't do my work because others don't
do their work, what happens The church suffers. So I'm

(10:21):
gonna challenge you, if God has put a burden on
your heart for ministry, to make a difference. The ministry
doesn't mean you have to stand in front of the
masses and do the Billy Graham thing, you know, and
he was good at that. It might mean you stand
in the shadows and do it no one notices, but
you make a difference to fill a gap and a
need look at verse eighteen. For the word of the

(10:43):
cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to
us who are being saved. How many of you want
to be in the list of us who are being saved?
Take your hands, pull it out of your pocket and
raise it straight to heaven and boldly say that's me. Okay,
who are perishing, But to us who are being saved,

(11:03):
here it is. It is the power of God. You know,
I'm not ashamed of the Cross of Christ. In my
precent teaching, I once had some people go after me
for that. In fact, does they have a number of times.
Why are you talking about the gross so much? Because
it is the power of God under salvation, Because we
are nothing without the Cross of Christ, we are everything
with it. Now behind us is a cross. A dear

(11:27):
saying one said, well, doesn't that look like a Roman
Catholic icon? I said, no, it looks like the symbol
of Christianity that stayed out there in the field for
years until this church was built. They threw popcns at
that cross, they knocked out the lights around the cross,
they defaced our cross, and when this church was being built,

(11:49):
they picked it up and they threw it on a trashy,
and we took it and saved it so it would
be right here. Because we are the people of the Cross,
or we are nothing at all. The Cross was the
nexus for wisdom in the early Church, because Prince Jesus
is the wisdom of God poured out on the cross
to save us. God doesn't want us to follow the

(12:11):
philosopher kings to be wise and saved. I'm amazed at
how often they come upon the scene, some persons as
I finally figured out the Gospel for the Last Days.
You know, if they say that they're wrong, if they
have an interpretation of the Gospel that they've suddenly come
up with that nobody else could figure out until they
figured it out, it's not the Everlasting Gospel. It's not

(12:33):
the Apostolic Gospel. It's not the gospel that empowered the
Protestant Reformation. You know, I cling to an old, rugged cross,
do you I cling to a gospel that's not new.
It's old, it has weathered the ages. It was good
enough to save Peter and Paul, and it's good enough

(12:55):
to save you and me in the final generation. I
don't need to doctor the God spell up so that
I can slip into heaven in a different way than
those who died in the stake in the Middle Ages.
I affirm with you that I am saved by the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, by faith
in Christ alone. As the Reformers affirmed, Could you say

(13:18):
amen with me? That is the truth. That is not
new truth. It's God's truth, the everlasting Gospel. So God
doesn't want us to follow new inventive theories. He wants
us to follow preachers and teachers who point us to
the Bible and correctly understand it. He doesn't want us
to bank on our education, our social status, our church affiliation,

(13:40):
as important as that is. There's a prophetic movement defined
in the Revelation. Our church is that movement. But friends,
if you're banking on the Church, but you're not banking
on Jesus, you won't get to heaven. You need Christ
to have your right placement in the church. We are
only wise when we cling to that all rugged cross,

(14:01):
and hear me, when we kissed the feet of the
one who died on the cross. For you, have you
ever kissed anybody's feet? Don't answer that question? All right,
All right, that was a tough question. David had the
future Jesus in mind when he commanded kings and rulers

(14:22):
to kiss the Lord's feet. Do you know this a
verse that says you better kiss his feet? Can you
think of somebody who was probably doing that as she
washed his feet with her hair? Mary look at Psalms two,
verse ten, and she was doing that because she realized
that she was a sinner. And right there with Jesus' feet,
there was something about grace there. Now David is talking

(14:44):
to the kings of the earth. Now there, for oh kings,
be wise, be warned, Oh rulers of the earth, serve
the Lord with fear, with trembling. And then verse twelve,
kiss his feet. And that's the Hebrew. Now Shah, kiss
his feet lest he be angry and you perish in
the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. In other words,

(15:05):
don't think that we worship a God who's just a
sympathetic deity whose holiness is not manifested in our midst reverence. God,
reverence him in your life. Kiss his feet, for his
wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed That means happy, or all
those who take refuge in him. I'm gonna tell you

(15:26):
right now, I'm looking forward to kissing the Lord's feet
every day of my life in prayer until Jesus comes.
We are wise men and women when we cherish every
drop of blood that will shed on the cross that
came from Jesus, nail pierced feet, and when we become
the people of the Cross, we become wise in the
only way that leads to true life. This is why

(15:47):
we should not be ashamed to pray in Jesus' name. Now,
I've heard all kinds of prayers. I'm not trying to
diminish any honest prayer. Sometimes we'll say in our culture,
in thy name, that's nice and neat, But that's not
what Jesus said to do. He said, we are to
pray in his name to his father. Why, because there's
no sweeter name in heaven or earth than the name

(16:09):
of Jesus. Every niece shall bow and every tongue confessed
that Jesus's Lord to the glory of God, and Philippians
too in Jesus' name. When we pray in Jesus name,
it changes us to be more like Jesus. The latesty
in church condition is such that end Time Seventh Day believers.

(16:30):
The Seventh Church is the Seventh Day Church, but not
all of it, because the Philadelphian Church is also the
end Time Church. It's not the majority experience among the
remnant movement. The latestee in Church is the majority experience
until the mark of the Beast hits, and we are
feeling it in Adventism today. The latesty in church condition

(16:54):
is such that end Time Seventh Day Believers have to
come to believe in everything, in any idea. But Jesus,
who is the Wisdom of God Christ, calls himself the
Amen in Revelation three fourteen. Most people don't. I'm the Amen,
the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God,
or the Arcade, the ruler of the creation of God.

(17:15):
And so the Sabbath points to the Creator. But if
you have the Lord, if you have the Sabbath, but
you don't have the Lord of the Sabbath, what good
is that? Now? Can I share a story with you?
It happened yesterday. I got to get permission on this one.
I went to a thrift store. I had been all
day working on the chiastic structure of the book Revelation.

(17:36):
I got it emailed out to a professor at the
at the seminary, and I felt so good, but exhausted.
Then had my sermon to do, so I decided to
go out and go to a thrift store, walk around,
I do a little treasure hunting. The day before I
had been there and the lady I'd met with for
years said, I had a dream and I dreamed about something.

(18:00):
And she says, where is your church and who are you?
And I said, I'm a Seventh Day Adventist pastor reaching
Hearts International. She says, God has spoken to me in
my dream, and she went really into this, God speaks
me in dreams. I don't argue with people when they
say that I don't know what's going through mind. She
was very honest, and when she was saying, she said,
I need to come to your church. And she said,

(18:23):
I know that. And she says, my husband was a
Seventh Day Aavist. And so the Lord has been working
on her for all this time, and I've prayed for
her on numerous occasions right there at the desk, and
after a number of years that surfaces. Now, that's not
the story. I went back yesterday. That was the day

(18:44):
before because I like going back to see her, encourage
her and the like. And she wasn't there that day.
And there was a man there buying something, very focused
on what he was getting, and I was trying to
find you know, what do I look for and thrip?
I looked for Rolex watches? You ever look for a
Rolex watch? I looked for a Rolex watch for fifty bucks. Now,

(19:07):
I found an Omega Sea Master that was almost solid gold.
I paid fifty five dollars for it. It was worth
over two thousand dollars. I bought that in a thrift
store and I gave it to my brother. He has
kept that watch. He can't believe he sent me six
watches since I gave him that one watch. Good investment.
Now here's the point. I was there and this man

(19:29):
was talking. He got right out of the blue he said, well,
you know, are you interested in the Bible? I thought
this is someone trying to witness to me. I said sure.
He said, well, if you're interested in the Bible, I
can help you a little bit. I said, well, what
church do you belong to? He says, I'm a Jehovah's witness.
Here's what I said. I said, that Jehovah's Witnesses, and

(19:53):
I ment every word of it, are such nice people.
They go out of their way to go to homes.
And what I respect about the Jehovah's witnesses is that
they share the Bible. They are witnessing, They're boldly trying
to share their faith. And I have studied for over
six months with the Jehovah's witness in my home. He said, really,

(20:14):
I said, yes, Doctor pack he used to be a
physicist at the University of Maryland. I didn't tell him
he tried to take one of our young people out
of the church. But I figured, why not engaging with
the Bible. Do we have anything to be afraid of
if we know our Bibles? No, and we should listen too,
So I mentioned I'd studied with him. Didn't go into
all of it. Then he said, well, what church do

(20:34):
you belong to? He asked me. I said, well, I'm
a seventh Abbodist Christian. And here's what he said, Seventh
abbost I have met a lot of them. They're always
into the law and the Sabbath, that's what he said.
I said, oh really, he said yeah. I said, well,
do you know instead of going after him. We don't
need to go after people. I asked him a question.

(20:58):
I said, tell me, do you know why seventh the
Avonist emphasized the Sabbath. Of course, he said no. I said, well,
I'll tell you why. They emphasized the Sabbath because of
the name of Jehovah Yahweh. He said, what do you mean.
He said, Jehovah's witnesses really prize themselves on having the

(21:20):
name of Jehovah Yahweh. Right, Jehovah's witnesses they won't even
pray in Jesus' name. They'll pray in Jehovah's name because
they don't believe Jesus is Jehovah. Very similar to the
anti Trinitarian movement that has come into certain quarters of
our church. It's essentially Jehovah's witness stuff. And so I
asked him this question. I said, dear brother, do you

(21:44):
know that the reason why we revere the Sabbath is
because if we were to not keep the Sabbath, we
would be profaning in the name of Jehovah. He said
what he said? Yeah, I said, God's law and God's name.
Same thing I gave him Psalms one nineteen fifty five.
I said, you know, they're in Deuteronomy six, when God's
law goes on the forehead in the hand. If you

(22:04):
go to Revelation fourteen, God's name goes on the forehead.
So Jehovah goes here, the law goes here. Same thing.
I said, So, what is Jehovah it is? He told Moses,
I am who I am at SINAI. This is not
in my manuscript. Do you mind? Okay? And then then
he said, what does it mean? It means God's character,

(22:25):
his nature, his law, is his name. It's who he is.
I am who am Yahweh Jehovah. And the ten Commandments
are a transcript of the character of God. I am
the Lord, your God who. And then instead of saying
I am, he gives us the content of what I
am means the ten Commandments. I said, so we have

(22:48):
to keep the fourth commandment to honor the name of
Jehovah Yahweh God. Now I've never given that kind of
explanation to Jehovah's witness in my life. The Lord was
helping me there he was beginning to ask, and then
he switched gears. He said, you know, pastor. He didn't
say pastor, because you know I was a pastor. He said,
you know, Jesus never commanded us to keep the Sabbath

(23:09):
in New Testament. And I didn't jump on that. You
don't when someone does that, you don't just jump on
it right away. And said, let me such a straight
I wait a little bit, is it? Yes he did.
He's where Matthew twenty four to twenty Pray your flight,
I said, Now he's talking about the time of the end,
long after he died on the cross. Pray your flight

(23:30):
will not be in the winter or on the Sabbath. Now,
if the Sabbath is done away with, Jesus wouldn't be
saying that. He's telling us to have a strong prayer
life and to keep the Sabbath in the midst of
end time persecution. Now he got real nervous. Now, I've
noticed that when we witnessed, sometimes the devil sends somebody
by to interrupt. So sure enough someone came to interrupt.

(23:50):
Did you know that this is not exactly what you bought?
And this is why? And they begin to engage in
So what I do? I just stood there, and as
I stood there, I waited until they were done. His
wife was calling him to get out of there, so
the devil didn't want him to hear one more word.
So I said, look, quick, thought, the Bible says Jesus

(24:11):
is the Lord of the Sabbath. Right, he said, yeah,
I said, you go home, You get out your Bible,
and you look at the Ten Commandments. He says, what
chapter they in? I said, Exus twenty, verse eight and
so on. And notice in the Ten Commandments and actually
verse one and so on, but the Sabbath is verse eight.
Notice in the Sabbath commandment. What the Bible says, who

(24:32):
is the Lord your God? Now, if I already asked
you the question who is the Lord of the Sabbath
based on the New Testament, who would you say, Jesus?
Based on the fourth Commandment, who would you say? The
Sabbath is the sabbath of the Lord your God. And
the word lord is Jehovah. It's capitalized in all capital letters.
You cannot be the Lord of the Sabbath unless you're Jehovah.

(24:56):
Jesus is Jehovah. Now I didn't tell him that because
he was already beginning. You know, here's what he said.
He said, all I really want to do is get answers.
I said, be saved. I said, that's where I'm at.
I said, brother, I'm not here to argue with you
or to make you or anyone look bad. I just
want to find truth in my life. He said me too.

(25:16):
So here's what I did. I said, just before I leave,
I said, I usually pray with someone's but I said, sir,
would you pray for me? I had him pray for me?
And he prayed. And the reason I told him was,
I said, because I realized Jehovah's witnesses don't want us
to pray in Jesus name, So why don't you pray
for me? That's what I said. So he prayed his prayer,

(25:37):
and guess how he ended that prayer in Jesus' name. Amen,
And that was the highlight of my day yesterday. Jesus
is the Amen. He's the architect, He's the He's in
Proverbs eight thirty. That's the center of our Bible. He's
the wisdom of God in Proverbs eight. Who is the amone,

(25:58):
the Amen? It's trans a master workman, architect. He is
the carpenter who made the ark, who made anything who
made the universe. We told Noah how to get it done.
And paradoxically, he is the wisdom of God and was
a carpenter whose nails we have were driven into his feet.

(26:19):
Ax five twelve says that they were all together in
Solomon's portico. All together in the Greek language is the
word home of Thumidon. It means in one accord. They
were all in one accord in Acts one fourteen, when
they prayed for God to replace Judas with Matthias, they
are in one accord. And Acts two forty six, when
after Pentecost they gathered in homes to break bread and

(26:39):
to pray, to share the love of God with others,
they are in one accord. In Acts four twenty four,
when they stood up to the Jewish leaders who were
trying to shut them down, and they preached the Gospel anyway.
Acts five twelve is the fourth time Luke records that
they are in one accord. The discipline of the Lord
that had brought the church into one accord was his
discipline of Antonias, and unity wrapped around the cross, with

(27:04):
fellowship and soul winning and obedience empowered the early Church.
The Bible records that many signs and wonders were done
among the people by the hands of the apostles. The
apostles were among the people, and all the people supported
their ministry that were seeking God in their lives, and
God honored their hard efforts with miracles in the lives

(27:25):
of many. It took faithful believers working together with faithful
leaders to win souls for Christ. Now do you realize
that God is waiting eagerly to perform signs and miracles
in our community? Can I share with you one how
many of you been praying for a mamine of Brad

(27:46):
from the local pawnshop on our prayer tread. Jane remember Brad? Okay? Well,
I want to tell you what happened to Brad. I've
been calling him off and on. He had leukemia. He's
been for months tied up with therapy. Over there, JOHNS
Hopkins and his wife Beth was there at the shop.

(28:08):
I stopped in yesterday after I met the Jehovah's Witness
to pray for Beth, hoping she'd be there. And she
was there, and I prayed for everybody, and they bow
their heads in that place and it stops for the
prayer and Brad is recovering, and last time I talked
to Brad, he says, tell the people at your church,

(28:29):
whatever they're doing, it's working. Now does our prayer chain matter? Friends,
We should have that prayer chain filled with people we love,
people who can be baptized, who can be healed, who
can be brought to God. This business of getting discouraged
because we're praying too much as nonsense. Without prayer, we
don't get anywhere in life. We don't change the heart,

(28:52):
we can't convert, we cannot overcome sin. A church that
is focused on Jesus and the Cross and loving relationships
and service, others will experience miracles. Why not? Why would
God treat us any different than he did those early
believers who came together in one accord. Friend, Unity is
not uniformity. Unity is based on the fear of the Lord,

(29:15):
the truth of Jesus' authentic, loving service and obedience for
the Lord. And when we have that, God is with us.
One of the characteristics that the church was respect for
their Bible believing and Bible teaching leaders who were the apostles.
Now there should be no place in our ranks for
knocking ministers of the gospel, even if they're imperfect. And

(29:38):
I've struggled with that in my life. I've seen leaders
at times in our church who are unconverted men I
have and you can tell they are, and we should
pray for them. Sometimes we have to maneuver around them,
but we should not disrespect them. Disrespect leads to a
brokenness in our own lives and hearts, to where we

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can be lost. And even when Caiaphus was messing with Paul,
and Paul said, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall.
When he realized he was the high priest, he says,
the lossays were not to do that. I'm sorry. So
what does this mean? X five thirteen None of the
rest dare join them? Look at your Bible in verse thirteen.
None of the rest dared what joined them? But the

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people held them in what high honor? Now it's saying
here they didn't want to join the church. Did you
get that? Did you read that with me? It's not
on the slide. It means that people were afraid to
join the church in Solomon's portico. Why that's the question.
You know, inquiring minds won't know why, because they had
seen what happened Dan and Eisen's the fire. They realized

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it was a high bar to being a Christian. But
you join that church, you gotta live like Christ. You
gotta live like the Apostles. It takes commitment to be
in the church. They had seen what happened to them
and their respect. In time into conversions, people began to
come in, and they didn't do this cheap baptismal prep.

(31:05):
They took men and women, young people through the Bible
in the Word of God, and they kept on doing
it high bar Acts five fourteen. And more than ever
believers were added to the Lord, multitudes, both of men
and women, so that they even carried out the sicken
of the streets and laid them on the beds and palettes,
that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might

(31:27):
file and saw some of them. Now think about that,
even the darkness of the apostles shadow was light in
the world. So don't think for a second you don't
have any light to give. In time, Solomon's Portico was
not big enough. The early Church became a movement that
broke out of the temple. In verse sixteen, the account
tells us that they entered towns around Jerusalem. The miracle

(31:50):
at the Beautiful Gate and the others in Solomon's Portico
spread into the communities all around. The church was no
longer in the church. The church was in the community,
healing people with prayer, relationships, truth Bible Studies, Life Ministry
Acts five sixteen. The people also gathered from the towns

(32:11):
around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits,
and they were all healed. Now what had been a
church experience became a community experience. Did you catch that?
So the church board here at Reaching Hearts does not exist.
So we can manage the lights all the time. These
kind of minor decisions is not why a board is established.

(32:33):
Based on the Church Manual, Elder, the primary purpose of
the board is evangelism. It is to promote the work
of God. They shared, they cared, they healed, and they
cast out demons. Now, don't think demons aren't all around us.
They are. Every time you go down and you go around,

(32:55):
you run by them all the time. They're invisible. They'll
work with people who will let them. Demons hide in
churches all the time, too, Do you know that? Did
you know that? And Sister White tells us that when
the pews are empty on the front, guess who likes
to occupy those seats? Demons? I thought that was an

(33:18):
amazing statement her writing well. I imagine when she shared
that suddenly the evangelistic meeting she was in had everybody
come to the front. That'd be a good motivation, wouldn't it.
This story so far is but an introduction to the
demonic confrontation that would follow at the hands of demons
in church leaders, unconverted leaders, the Sadducees look at X

(33:39):
five seventeen eighteen. But the High Priest rose up, and
all who are with them, that is the party of
the Sadducees, and filled with and what's the keyword in
your Bible, because I hope you have it open? We
don't have slides filled with jealousy or indignant. They arrested
the apostles and put them in the common prison. The

(34:00):
apostles freed the people from the demons, and I say
church leaders, the Jewish church, the church that had rejected Jesus,
not the Apostolic church. The apostles freed the people from
the demons. And now the demons moved on the Sadducees
to lock up the apostles. I think you look at
the evidence the demons were in. I'm working through those
Sadducees and named Sadducee. Have you ever heard the song

(34:22):
I don't want to be a Sadducee because there was
sad you see, I don't want to be a Pharisee
because they're not phair. You see, we sing that around campfires.
But the name sadduce comes from the Hebrew word zedek,
like you know Kezedakh, king of righteousness. Zedek means righteous
or just. The Sadducees were called the just ones. They

(34:46):
were the ruling class in Judea. That virtue signaled a lot.
They were very manipulative. The Pharisees were the conservatives. It's
not a good thing because they were conservatives without Jesus.
The Saducees were the liberals. Not a good thing because
they were liberals without Jesus. The just Ones, as they
were called, crucified Jesus for political reasons. They were in

(35:09):
power at the time in Jesus died. The Pharisees, for
religious reasons, worked with them to crucify Jesus, so it
didn't matter if it was the right or the left.
What the Bible calls the King of the North or
the King of the South. They worked together at the
end to kill Jesus. They'll do the same at the
time of the end. Now, look records that the Sadducees
were jealous. They were supposed to be religious and political leaders,

(35:31):
and yet these untrained apostles from Galilee, with all their followers,
had grown too big to ignore anymore. So the political
intellectual class took note of them. Satan working through the
left here, He can work through the right as well,
but the left here. Satan moved on the Jewish leaders
to lock up the apostles. But locking up the Gospel

(35:53):
doesn't work. In the Bible, God moves on angels to
do what men cannot do. When the Gospel was locked up,
the angels came down to earth to spread it all around.
And the book Revelation there are three angels in Revelation fourteen.
Are you aware of that? Our message to the world

(36:14):
is the three angels messages in Revelation fourteen. And then
there's a fourth one in Revelation eighteen that will follow that.
Those we are in the third angel's message. The first
and second have sounded, and when the mark of the
Beast hits, the third angel's message will have the loud
voice that deserves and it will look like the third
Angel fails and falters, we are told in the book

(36:37):
Great Controversy. And then the fourth Angel join with the
Revelation eighteen with a great and mighty voice which repeats
the second Angel's message, and the world will be gathered
in a dramatic way to be one people for the
second coming of Christ. So don't underestimate the power of
those angels messages. And our church was raised up to

(36:57):
proclaim the three Angels message. We're number three. The apostles
were locked up and locked down by the just ones,
the Sadducees, who were rotten to the core in anything
but just. These political church leaders of Judaism, not the
Christian Church, crucified Jesus, and now they oppressed the apostles

(37:18):
of Jesus by throwing them into jail. Has anyone here
have been to jail, Keep your hand down. I have
been to jail. I was arrested one night for throwing
a smoke bomb into a when I was a kid,
into a parking lot at a hospital and the police
just rolled up and they says, boys, get in the

(37:38):
car and said, sure, I made a mistake. We talked
our way out of that. They actually took us back
and let us go. I couldn't believe it, But you
know what. It's better to do the right thing than
to be slick, isn't it? Doctor John Butler, who I
believe God used more than any other person here to
put this church up. Doctor John Butler once told me

(38:01):
directly and we miss him when we were facing a
serious challenge at RhI and I felt pressure to overreact.
Here's what he said, Pastor Mike, God don't like ugly?
Say that with me. Come on, let's say with me, God,
what don't like ugly? I've never forgotten those words. That's

(38:24):
hard to live up to, isn't it. When things are
dark and bleak and you can't figure out how to
get out of a deep, dark dungeon in your life.
That is the very moment when God sends angels to you.
If you don't act ugly, if you don't get ugly
about it acts five nineteen. But at night, an angel
the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out
and said, go and stand the temple and speak to

(38:45):
the people all the words of this life. The apostles
have been driven to the temple by the just ones,
the sadducees, the virtue signalers, and the angel came down
to that dark, deep dungeon and sent them right back
to the temple. When you escape from a prison in
your life, you don't go back to the people who
threw you into prison. But that's what the angel said,

(39:06):
go right back there. Wow, they did. The angels clear,
Go and stand the temple, speak to the people all
the words of this life. Don't you hold back the truth.
Don't you water it down. Don't you say what you
think they're like. Teach the truth. The life that the
angel was talking about was Jesus. John calls them the
eternal life that was with the Father. In First John One,

(39:28):
Jesus says, I am the help me with that when
I have slides. I am the way, the truth and
the life. This life. The angel said, get right back
there and keep on preaching Jesus this life. I've asked
myself this question, why did the angel say this life.

(39:48):
Doesn't that seem odd couldn't even said the life he
said this life. Now there were this points to something
or someone that they could see or pay attention to.
I would bet you money that Jesus was right there
with that angel in that dungeon when that angel said this,
that they could see Jesus was in the lions den

(40:10):
when Daniel was there. He was the angel of the Lord. Well,
I can't prove it. I highly suspect that's what it
meant when said this life. Disciples went early to the
temple to start teaching and preaching this life as the
Angel had commanded. Jesus and the religious leaders didn't get
theirs early, and they didn't notice who was there already.
So if you want to be like the Apostles, you

(40:31):
come to church. What come on, help me? I'm not
only a few people are saying that if you want
to be like the Apostles, you get to church early.
If you want to be like the Sadducees, you get
to church late. All right, that's the Bible, it's not me.
And the religious leaders didn't get there as early as

(40:51):
they didn't that they should have, so that they went
directly into a committee meeting to have the Apostles dragged
out of prison to appear before them. But when they
went to get them, guess what. They went into the prison,
they unlocked the doors, and they didn't find anybody, and
so they came back and said, there's no one there. Now,
these deep thinking Sadducees were and here's the word, perplexed.

(41:14):
They were always measuring things by political outcomes. Now you
know we got a ten minute, we got a fifteen
minute late start here at RhI. Can can I go
just a few more to finish this thought up? Can
we get a consensus on that? And because it's because
our system went down and these dear men got it going.

(41:34):
Is that all right? I'm not gonna try to overdo it,
but I gotta finish this. So these deep thinking, saying
Sadducees were deeply per perplexed. They were always measuring things
by political outcomes. Friends, you can tell if a religious
leaders a man or woman of God by how they
respond to a majority. If they're always sticking their finger
or thumb in the air to see where the winds

(41:55):
are blowing so they can be liked, you can know
for certainty they are not a man or woman of God.
There are times when the apostles had to stand up
no matter what people thought. The Sadducees were that kind
of bad leaders. They cared about the masses. At this
point in time, a person appeared and told the perplexed
leaders that the Apostles were standing in the temple teaching

(42:17):
and preaching just like Jesus had done. They could remember,
and now their perplexity turned to sudden action. Acts five
twenty six to twenty eight. The capital guard went and
got them, but it says they were in verse twenty
six they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
And when they brought them, it says they set them
before the council, and the high priest interrogated them and

(42:39):
questioned them. And this would be the high priest that
killed Jesus, verse twenty eight, saying, strictly, we charged you
not to teach. And here's the keyword, this name, remember
this life. Yet here you had filled Jerusalem with your teaching,
and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

(43:01):
Suddenly there was a crack in the damn. The apostles
had already stood before these leaders, offering them a second
chance before to repent, and they didn't take it. Here's
a third chance, they are right here with an opportunity.
You know, Jesus had given them a chance. They had
spoken before, and there here they are again a third
time in the total picture. And the apostles had boldly
declared that you leaders crucified the author of life. You

(43:25):
crucified him when you crucified Jesus. But these leaders didn't
care about the truth or the person who was the truth.
They just wanted to stay in power earned by lies.
They wanted to control the people to feel important. They
wanted to stop that crazy teaching that was destabilizing their
country and their religious culture. With the Romans all around watching,

(43:46):
even though all the people were being healed, the churches
in this country were shut down. Friends, for the first
time in American history during the COVID crisis. Am I right?
We lived through that. He chose at Rihi to be
wise and careful. We didn't want people getting sick. We
chose to keep the doors of this church open carefully

(44:07):
so men and women could be saved, and God honored that.
This was not an easy thing to do. But these
leaders back then were haunted by the murder of Jesus,
and these apostles kept speaking of his life and that
you killed him. Jesus became the ghost in your life
that they wanted to go away. Let me ask you

(44:28):
this question. Is Jesus the ghost in your life that
you just want to go away? I hope not. Friend,
Jesus is not a ghost. He is alive. The angel
said this life. Christ is the living one, and he
matters in our lives. John ten ten. The thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come

(44:50):
that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I
am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down, He
is life for the sheep. The religiously said, you intend
to bring this man's blood on us. They got it right.
That's exactly what the apostles wanted to do. They wanted
the blood of Jesus to cover everyone of their sins.
They wanted the blood of Jesus to forgive these men.

(45:12):
They wanted these men to come to Christ. So they
spoke boldly the truth to them. But they didn't get it.
They rejected it. Peter delivered to those leaders the one
important principle that would guide any leader in the church.
It should be the test of a leader, the defining
test for leadership in our movement. Acts five twenty nine.
I wish I had on the screen, But Peter and

(45:34):
the apostles answered, we must obey God, you know the verse,
rather than men. Why don't you say that with me?
We must obey God rather than men. As soon as
Peter said this, he immediately started proclaiming Jesus to those
leaders who crucified him. Sometimes we don't appreciate how hard
that would have been to stand before those bloodthirsty politicians

(45:57):
who lied, manipulated, and bribed their way to crucify Jesus.
Only the power of God held them back from killing
the apostles. Right there on the spot, Peter preached Christ
into their faces, and Peter told them point blank that
they were guilty for murdering Jesus Christ, and I guarantee
you there were tears running down his face. Acts five

(46:19):
point thirty. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom
you killed by hanging on a tree Verse thirty one.
God exalted him at the right hand as leader and
savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
The word leader is the word pioneer. He is the
pioneer of our movement. He is the new Israel. He
is the founder of a new religious nation, the Christian Church.

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At that point they got angry verse thirty two. And
we are witnesses, he says to these things, and so
is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those
who obey him. Now, if you want the Holy Spirit
in your life, what do we have to do. We
have to make a decision to do up to obey him.
Not the power to obey, but we decide to obey.
The Bible reads that they were enraged, and they cut
to the hearts, and they wanted to kill them. That's

(47:04):
what it says. At this point, a wise Jewish rabbi
named Gamellio stood up and calmed them all down. He
reminded them of two insurrectionists in the past, and he said, listen,
if you try to fight something that is of God,
it won't work. Leave them alone. Now. The just ones
couldn't help themselves that day. They took half of Gamellel's advice.
When they called the apostles, they beat them. Come over here,

(47:29):
they beat them. Now, the Greek word for beat means
to remove their skin. Have you ever been hit so
hard it takes the skin off of you. Those apostles
were beat so that it removed their skin. It was
like a lashing of Roman lashings. It's like, well Jesus
had they whipped them so hard that it hurt them.
They spanked the apostles hard for sharing Jesus. Paul said,

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I have the marks of Jesus Christ on my body.
I've been whipped like Jesus was whipped. So were the
other apostles the next five forties. So they took his advice.
And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them,
and they charged them not to speak in the name
of Jesus and let them go. And so they were
bloodied up as they went out of there. Then they

(48:12):
left the presence of the council rejoicing. Now, I don't
know how to do that. That's the all the spirit
helps me. If I had been beaten that heart, I'd
be saying, oh, give me to the hospital right now,
er unit. But they were rejoicing because the power of
God had taken over the wounds. So you may be
hurt in life by someone, You may have been devastated
by a blow that cut you deep in life, But

(48:34):
dear heart, when you come to the cross, and you
face Jesus, it is time to rejoice for the blessings
God has given you in spite of those wounds. They
left the presence of the council rejoicing that they were
counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. And every
day in the temple and at home, they did not
cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. I like

(48:58):
the way the story ends. It's a true story. Every
day in the temple and at home, they did not
cease teaching and preaching Jesus Christ. Church friends, Let's get
busy doing the same thing at reaching hearts. Let's share
everything we know with everyone we know in our home
and outside our homes. Let's pray for people who never

(49:19):
come to church. And let's not be ashamed of praying
in Jesus' name. The Sadducees locked up the Gospel. The
angels have come down to earth to set it free.
Paul says, for freedom. Christ has set us free. God
has sent us the three angels Messages of Revelation fourteen
and the Fourth of Revelation eighteen. Don't you think it's

(49:42):
mighty high time we get the job done in the
power of the Holy Spirit. Dear Heavenly Father, I'm very
grateful today that you found a way for us to
broadcast with the challenge we faced. And Lord, I'm grateful
you brought John Carroll into our life, who was online
with us trying to fix this thing. And Father, thank
you that we had to open our Bibles today instead

(50:04):
of looking on a screen. We take that as a discipline.
Help us to grow in the Word of God, to
obey You, to love others, to live for you, and
help us to be about Jesus and not ourselves, not
like the Sadducees who are all about themselves, but the
apostles who are nambored with Jesus. The Lord, thank you

(50:25):
for loving us. Thank you for loving these dear people.
Forgive every one of them, cover them with your blood,
because we're all guilty of taking Jesus to that cross.
So Lord, put the blood on us. Help us to
kiss his feet every day in Jesus' name. Amen.