Feel Like You Are Banging Your Head Against the Wall?

In Acts 15:36-40, we find Paul going forth on his second missionary journey. Paul teams up with Silas, a leader in the church and a prophet as well. Barnabus wanted to include John Mark, and Paul refused to take a quitter along. So, God through this personality disagreement, has TWO missionary teams where there was once only one.

Someone once said the reason there are so many different kinds of churches is because we have so many different personalities.

In Acts 16:1-5 we find Paul & Silas returning to Lystra and Derbe. A young man by the name of Timothy caught their attention. Paul saw a great potential in Timothy and wanted to take him along with them. There was a small problem. Timothy’s Mom was Jewish, but she had married a Gentile man. This meant that Timothy was not circumcised, and would be regard by the Jewish people Paul was witnessing to as something similar to trash. This would severely handicap their witness in the synagogues and to the Hellenistic Jews they would encounter.

Paul circumcised Timothy, not because he was conceding to the Judaizers, but because it removed a barrier to evangelizing the Jews, who all knew that his father was a gentile. “And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.”

Paul and Silas then had what we preacher’s call a “Head banging experience.” Maybe you have had one too. It’s when you feel like instead of making progress you realize you have simply been banging your head against a wall. First they had been forbidden to go into Asia by the Holy Spirit. So they went through Galatia and started to go toward Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. But that night Paul had a vision: a man from Macedonia appeared saying “Come over to Macedonia and help us” Paul immediately realized that God was directing them through this vision.

Realize this: As Revelation 7:10 says “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb”.

God is busy in this world speaking to people and working circumstances to draw people to Jesus. Most of you can bear testimony to the fact that before you accepted Jesus as you Savior, that God had been using circumstances and even His own words to touch your heart. That is why God needs people who are willing to partner with Him in reaching the lost that He is calling. So while Paul and Silas were spinning their wheels, God was preparing the hearts of three people. God was arranging circumstances. God kept Paul and Silas spinning their wheels until He was ready for them!

Don’t ever think you are banging your head against the wall when you are serving Jesus. You may think you are spinning your wheels, but all the time God is preparing someone or some situation for you to be used in. There will be times of feasting, but there will be times of seeming famine. Do not lose heart. Hope thou in God! For we shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance! God is preparing someone’s heart for you to talk to. God is still in the Saving Business! Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb!

Power of Witness

The Church Needs to Re-Discover the Importance of Witness!

When Moses was shepherding the Israelites through the wilderness in their 40 year roundabout way, God met with him in a tent. It became known as the tent of witness or tabernacle of testimony. It became the tabernacle of worship that we see so many displays of. But the tent of witness was that special place where Moses met one on one with God. It was in the presence of the Ark of Witness or Testimony. It was probably called tent of witness because God promised Moses and his successors to meet with them and talk with them in that place as Exodus 25:22 declares: “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.”

The Ark of Witness was the visible tangible evidence of God’s Power and works among His people. The Ark was there when the Red Sea parted. The Ark was there in the wilderness wanderings. The Ark was there when they crossed the Jordan River. The Ark was there when the Temple was built and dedicated by Solomon. The Ark of Testimony bore witness to Jehovah and His mighty power.

As we all know, the Ark is hopelessly lost (in some secret American depository according to Hollywood). God lost the testimony of His people when they rejected His Son as Messiah. Now the Ark of Testimony resides in a new Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Church as founded by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This Church built upon the blood of Jesus Christ and the eyewitness of His disciples is the Living manifestation of the Ark of Witness.

What gives Power to the Church? The Power of Witness!

Not only was the Ark witness to the Jews of God's Covenant and Care for them. But it was witness to the world of God's Power. The Church is the divinely appointed vessell of God's Power in this world today. God is using the Church to lift up the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to a dying world. Jesus lifted up the Cup at the Last Supper and said this cup is "Witness of the New Covenant sealed by my blood".

We no longer need a visible ark because we ourselves are witnesses of the Invisible Power of a Risen and Glorified Savior.

I used to have a construction company specializing in asphalt and concrete paving. We did a job for a general Contractor that required preparing a site with new curbs and paving in preparation for an OSCO that would be built later by someone else. Six months after we had finished they called and said we had put some curb in at the wrong elevation, and OSCO was demanding it be redone and a large section of the parking lot re-paved. What really happened was that we had done it correctly, but OSCO discovered that their sidewalk would not meet ADA (handicap) standards and there was an engineering mistake. I refused to do the work for free, which really irritated the General Contractor. A few months after that my company was sued for over $75,000 in costs and damages. My lawyers advised me to settle because according to state law, if my company was in any way at fault, I could be assessed all the attorney's fees etc. I did not want to settle. So we went to trial whicj lasted 3 and 1/2 days. (Lawyers are so slow). This General Contractor presented their case, but did not bring the guy who had been on sight the entire time. They did not bring a real credible witness. The owner of the comapny had never really been there, and his vice-president was there only three times. I was there quite often, plus I brought one of my guys who had been in charge of that section of the project. He testified as an eye-witness. The end result was that the jury sided with us, and ruled against the General Contractor. It was all because we had witnesses!

The early church realized the importance of being witnesses. It was their zeal and boldness in testifying to the resurrection power of Jesus Christ that turned the world upside down.

• (Act 1:22)beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us--one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection."
• (Act 22:15) for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
  
• (Act 22:20) And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.'
• (Act 26:16) But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you,

The church loses its effectiveness in reaching this world when it loses its witness! When the church has as much divorce, as much immorality, as much theft, as much gossiping, as much quarrellings as in the world, we have lost any witness to the life-changing power of Jesus Christ. We might as well hold up a box covered with gold and tell the world that God lives in there, because He certainly does not live in us.

When we get concerned about our witness to the Living, Powerful, Resurrected Jesus Christ, we will once again start to touch lives for eternity. God desires that His church be a witness to the Power of His Word and His Testimony!

Are you concerned about being a WITNESS! What life-changing power of Jesus can you testify to? Are you a WITNESS to the Life-Changing Power of Jesus?