“The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.”
Acts 5:41 (NIV)
Acts 5:41 (NIV)
This record of the early days of the early church is busting at the seams with displays of God’s wondrous power at work among the apostles in the early church.
We struggle through the account of the Ananias and Sapphira but get a glimpse of the fruit of this powerful work of God, when we read of the spread of the fear of God and the growth of the church, and we think WOW!
It is amazing that God’s healing power flowed so freely through Peter that people would place their sick so Peter’s shadow would fall on them. People would come from all over, and all of them were healed- and we think WOW!
As you read that God sent an angel to release them after being jailed by the priests, you laugh a little bit, for you think who can stand against those whom God has anointed. Then you read that they didn’t jail them the second time nor kill them like they wanted to, instead they flogged them (Dt 25:2,3), and your heart sinks a little for you realize that the God who knew the hidden lies of Ananias and Sapphira, who healed all the people who came to Peter for healing, and who sent His angel to free them from jail, could have kept them from this unjust vicious beating, which means that this beating was part of God’s plan for His church, and for His servants. I think of what Joseph to his brothers “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Ge 50:20, and we get a glimpse of a God so far above us, so powerful He uses all things even the wicked for His redemptive purposes- and we think WOW!
Then we read of the apostles reaction –they rejoiced- and realize surely it was God’s wondrous power that enabled them to rejoice over being counted worthy- and we think WOW what a God!
May God’s wondrous power be so obviously at work among His church at Parkdale.
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