“He Has Caused Us To Be Born Again”  

          Acts 5:27-29 ²⁷ And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, ²⁸ saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” ²⁹ But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

          Does history repeat it’s self? The world today wants us Christians to keep quiet, don’t pray in public, don’t teach prayer, don’t teach Christianity in the schools, and let’s take out any reference to God from our allegiances to our countries.  Yes, history repeats it’s self because battles are won but the war rages on retrying battle plans of the past.

          Where are you in the war?  Most church going people think they hold the position of being neutral.  The unfortunate truth is in this battle there is no neutral ground, you are either on the winning team or the losing team. So where do we fit in this war and what is the battle plan? 

          From the time after Christ died to the time after Christ disappeared from the grave, Peter and the apostles started out just sitting in the pews. They were all afraid to do anything, and they were confused, because their faith had just been shattered. The one they thought they could count on was painfully killed in front of their very eyes.  Their faith in the one they knew to be the savior of the world became weak as they forgot all the words they had heard from the mouth of the Christ.

          But Christ came back to renew their faith and to build upon it, to help them remember the words He used to prepare them for the next day.

          1 Peter 1:6–7        ⁶In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, ⁷so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

          Our lives are the test of our faith.  We go through many things in our lives that we put ourselves through and others help put us through as well.  Ultimately it would be the decisions we make that define the test we force ourselves to live if not for Christ. 

          Christ makes the difference in our faith as He did for the apostles that day He appeared to them in the upper room.  Christ appears to us when we study His word, recognize the answers He gives to our prayer, and realize the immensity of His grace, and mercy Christ gave us on the cross.

          1 Peter 1:3–5        ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

          The apostle’s faith grew that day Christ first appeared after His death on the cross, so much that it was not a question of faith to stand before the leaders of the church and say, “We must obey God rather than men.”  Life on earth is so temporary, where life in the promised salvation is so permanent. The apostles finally figured that out. 

          Obeying men would not lead them to salvation, but obeying God’s gospel would.  Yes, like the apostles when Christ handed out His forgiveness, we were all reborn through the regeneration of the faith Christ brings to us through our baptism, which comes through the Holy Spirit and the very word of God.

          1 Peter 1:8–9        ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, ⁹obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

          We might not see Jesus Christ in the flesh in this life, but because of the faith that Christ has built in each of us, we will see Him in the flesh in our salvation of eternal life.  We have the word of God, and that word gives us a picture of Christ, and that picture of Christ gives us the love of God through His grace and mercy.

          John 20:30–31 ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; ³¹but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Amen.