This sermon was preached by Rev. Paul Mims on Sunday, September 30, 2012 at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Cherry Log, GA.

Acts 5:17-42
Today, I want to use the words of an angel to focus on the life that we have in Christ. It is a life most unique for in our hearts a passion has been developed to know and serve our Lord.Although the situations we face are different from the early Christians we have the same power and grace available to us. We are devoted to the same Lord Jesus. We are empowered by the same Holy Spirit. We are commissioned to give witness to the same gospel. And we and our contemporaries face the same opposition from the same satanic forces as they did. What we share with the first century Christians is the same life transformation in Christ. The angel called it, “This New Life.” From this passage of scripture we will notice four qualities of this new life.

I. THIS NEW LIFE HAS GUIDANCE FROM ABOVE. (vv.17-20).

The apostles were arrested and put in the public jail by order of the religious ruling party, the Sadducees. At his time they were in charge of the Temple and the Temple grounds. The apostles were on the temple grounds preaching the crucifixion of Jesus at the hands of the religious leaders. This was especially bitter for the high priest and his associates for they were being accused of the death of Jesus. Then the preposterous idea that he had been resurrected from the dead was too much for them for they utterly denied any resurrection.

“During the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. ‘Go, stand in the temple courts,’ he said, ‘and tell the people the full message of THIS NEW LIFE.’”

Dr. Luke tells the story of the angel with no fanfare for they were living in the realm of the supernatural and it was now considered natural for God to intervene on behalf of his servants. God sent an angel to open the doors of the prison and to guide them in what to do next.

There are people today out across the world who are in similar circumstances to these first century Christians. These are stories that are happening now, this month, as reported by THE VOICE OF THE MARTYRS, a Christian organization that keeps account of the contemporary scene of Christian persecution.

In Iran, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was released from prison on Saturday, Sept. 8, after remaining in custody for nearly three years while fighting apostasy charges and a death sentence. Authorities dropped the apostasy charge and retained only a charge of evangelizing Muslims. For the lesser charge, he was sentenced to three years in prison and given credit for the two years and 11 months already served. With bail accepted for a 30-day early release, Youcef left the prison and was reunited with his wife, Fatemeh, and their two sons.

“Thank you to everyone that has supported me with your prayers,” he said.

A young, physically-handicapped Christian girl accused of blasphemy waits to hear her fate in a high security prison in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Rimsha Bibi, a poor girl from a low caste family of Christian sweepers, was accused of burning pages containing Quranic verses. When rumors of the incident spread, hundreds of Muslim protestors surrounded a police station on Aug. 16 and demanded Rimsha face prosecution under Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws.

Under the laws, Rimsha could receive a death sentence if found guilty of insulting Islam. However, because of her age, the case was handed over to the juvenile courts, which are often more lenient. According to her lawyer, Rimsha could be granted bail at her next hearing. A hearing is scheduled to take place on Thursday.

The police First Information Report listed Rimsha’s age as 11, but a medical board said she was 14 and determined Rimsha has a degree of mental disability.

There are conflicting claims as to how Rimsha found the papers, but when a Muslim neighbor accused her of desecrating the Quranic verses, more than 300 Muslims entered the predominantly Christian neighborhood in Islamabad, where the family lived. They surrounded Rimsha’s house and threatened to kill her. A VOM contact reported that they verbally abused Christians while chanting, “Kill kafirs!” (meaning,“Kill unbelievers!”).

The prayer leader of a nearby mosque stated that he saved Rimsha by leading her out of the mob and handing her and two family members over to local police. The mob then rioted around the police station. Fearing the mob would harm the family or destroy the police station, police charged Rimsha with blasphemy. Police held her two family members in protective custody before releasing them three days later.

Hundreds of Christians fled the neighborhood and sought safety in other areas of the city, including a tent city on some forested land. A makeshift church where the displaced held a church service last weekend was later burned down, and the Christians were forced off the land. About 50 families have since returned to the neighborhood, but shopkeepers are refusing to sell them food.
VOM staff in Pakistan are closely monitoring the situation.

In Moscow, Russia, the authorities destroyed a church. The church’s pastor, Vasili Romanyuk, rushed to the church in the middle of the night to halt the destruction, but it was too late. As other church members arrived to help salvage church property, civil volunteers surrounded the site and refused to allow them access. “A car was destroyed, while a generator, the mixing desk with microphones, musical instruments and other valuable items were taken away,” church members complained in a Web post.
By morning, the church building was a pile of rubble. “The workers didn’t say who they were or who had sent them,” said Pastor Romanyuk. “[But] they did all this with the protection of the police.”
The church held a service on Sept. 8 at the site of the destroyed church, using chairs and other materials salvaged from the church.

A Christian worker in Kyrgyzstan has filed a case against a village Islamic leader who, along with a small mob, attacked the worker and his friends as they attempted to distribute humanitarian items in Ak-Kyia village. The case is of crucial importance for all Christians in Kyrgyzstan, who risk beatings or even death by local extremists even though they are officially protected by the law.

Narsbek was invited by the school principal and several village leaders to distribute gifts in his home village of Ak-Kyia in the Naryn region of Kyrgyzstan. He and a team arrived in the village on the morning of April 11, 2012 in two vehicles. As they greeted the principal and other leaders, the village mullah (mosque leader) appeared with his students in tow. He ordered the group to stop the distribution immediately. Instead, the principal directed the team to move their vehicles on to the school yard, and the mullah left.

But a few moments later, he reappeared, this time with a group of about 20 young zealots with him. The mob shouted “Allahu Akbar” and rushed in to pummel the visiting Christians, flinging rocks through the air. They grabbed Narsbek and his brother-in-law, Marazat, pinning them to the ground to beat them. Narsbek was hit in the back of the head with a rock, and another attacker clenched his hands around his throat.
“At that moment, I remembered how I used to encourage the young in faith to persevere even when it hurts. This was my test,” Narsbek said. As he felt himself about to lose consciousness, he prepared himself to meet Jesus.

Unexpectedly, the grip on his neck loosened. His slight wife had fought through the mêlée to reach her husband and her brother and surprised them into releasing their holds. Narsbek and his wife scrambled through the crowd to reach their minivan. They slammed the vehicle into gear and drove out in a shower of rocks that damaged all but the minivan’s windshield. Marazat and the other two team members also fled in the second vehicle, though the attackers pursued them for several kilometers.
The remaining zealots collected the gifts and burned them in the school yard in front of the students and school staff.

The distribution team notified local authorities of the incident, but police took no action. Narsbek and Marazat were both treated at the hospital, but Narsbek still has remaining damage to his right eye, as well as reoccurring headaches. His wife has been under constant stress since the incident.
The man who attacked them was same person who managed to put Narsbek in prison 14 years ago after he became a believer. He claimed Narsbek was injecting people with a special drug, then “programming” them to become Christians. He even produced a false witness, and Narsbek spent a year in prison. For his zeal in the fight against infidels, the mullah was promoted.

Narsbek decided to file a case against the mullah to prompt authorities to act, but even that didn’t get results until Narsbek and his family got a lawyer from another city to come speak to the local state attorney, police and village leaders. The lawyer reminded the local officials that Kyrgystan’s new president had stated it was important not to have conflict over ethnic or religious issues and that the country’s laws must be followed.

Kyrgyzstan’s laws do promise to uphold religious freedom, but in practice these laws are not always followed. Believers face property destruction, intimidation and physical harm regularly. The 2009 Religion Law requires churches to seek registration, which is often denied. A proposed amendment to the law would further limit and censor any religious literature imported, stored or distributed in the country.
It appears that Narsbek’s case will go all the way to the country’s Supreme Court. Narsbek wrote, “We are pushing this case not for our own benefit, but so that everyone will feel safe and not afraid of being beaten or killed because of their religion. People… are very afraid to think about following Jesus. … Please pray that justice would reign and that there would be freedom, and not fear, in following Jesus.”
The team has not been able to continue their work for the last three weeks because they have to be available to the prosecutor’s office. They are thankful for their bold lawyer, as well as others who are supporting them.

In Nigeria, a pastor supported by VOM survived an attack by Muslim extremists on Friday, Aug. 10, according to VOM contacts. At least seven gunmen entered an Ekillisiyar Yan’Uwa Nigeria (EYN) church compound in Borno state, intending to kill the pastor, his wife and three children. One gunman entered the room of the pastor’s 24-year-old son, but “God gave him the courage and strength to push the man down,” VOM contacts said. The young man was shot in the leg and fell to the ground as he fled his attacker.

The pastor ran from the family’s house when he heard the gunshots, only to see his son lying on the ground and gunmen shooting at him. Although the pastor was not hit, he also fell to the ground when the gunmen fired at him. Thinking both men were either dead or injured, the gunmen entered the house to search for the church key.

After confronting the pastor’s wife and two other children, the gunmen ordered them to lie face down on the floor. The family remained in the house as the attackers set fire to the house and church. The woman and her children eventually escaped the fire and hid in bushes near the church.

Apparently satisfied with the burning buildings and persuaded that the pastor and his family were dead or seriously injured, the gunmen fired their guns into the air while shouting, “Allahu Akbar.” As the attackers left the scene, they unknowingly passed right by the pastor and his family hiding in the bushes.
The family remained in hiding through the night and took the oldest son to a hospital in Maiduguri the next morning. He has been released from the hospital, and the family is staying with another pastor in Maiduguri.

So these are a few of the stories of Christians who are telling of THIS NEW LIFE this month in our time.

II. THIS NEW LIFE HAS COURAGE BEYOND OURSELVES. (vv.27-32).

“At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.” (verse 21). They went from prison to preaching without missing a beat. This is courage from above. ‘We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.’ Peter and the other apostles replied: ‘We must obey God rather than men!’” The courage we have to confront our society comes from beyond ourselves.

III. THIS NEW LIFE HAS DIVINE AUTHENTICITY. (vv.33-39).

A professor in the rabbinical school named, “Gamaliel,” addressed the Sanhedrin and said, “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men…if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Jesus said, “The gates of hell could not stand before his followers.”

IV. THIS NEW LIFE HAS VICTORIOUS SUFFERING. (vv.41-42).

“They called in the apostles and had them flogged.” This flogging consisted of thirty nine lashes on their uncovered chests and backs with a leather strap with pieces of metal on it to tear the flesh. It was a severe punishment and it was known that some people did not survive it because of loss of blood. But the apostles looked at each other’s bleeding bodies and exclaimed, “What a privilege to suffer for him who suffered flogging and crucifixion for us!” “Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.” (v.42).

Praise Be To His Name!