A New Story of Liberation – Acts 5:12-42
July 20, 2014Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Are you pursuing liberation today—freedom from any captivity, deliverance from chains of darkness, healing from what has bound you? Do you know someone who is? Do you know the primary purpose for which Christ has chosen you?
If you’ve been freed by Christ, are you now telling others about the freedom He has given you? Are you living free from the enslavement of idols? Are you living in the radically new way Christ to which calls us?
Our text this Sunday is from Acts 5:12-42 and is really about liberation. I could use a number other words for that: salvation, deliverance, rescue, freedom… Each of these is about liberation—being set free. I use liberation rather than salvation because salvation is often viewed as only about eternity and not about this life, an unnatural division in scripture.
The Gospel is the message that Jesus is the Messiah—the Liberating King who comes to liberate us from enslavement. From what enslavement? From any enslavement other than being His willing slave. From the enslaving power of idols and the demons behind them. From every form of captivity that binds us. From death, the final enemy. From our sin and its consequences.