Dr Thomas Chung
28.3.2010
*Bario Revival
*They climb a mountain which is said to be if your don't climb yourself, you have sinned
*Preacher up there prophesy to 2 Yang Berhormat and many people
*Manifested evil spirits
*Pray in tongues, healing takes place without doctors
*Acts 12:1-17 : About this time King Herod began to persecute some members of the church. He had James, the brother of John, put to death by the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he went on to arrest Peter. (This happened during the time of the Festival of Unleavened Bread.) After his arrest Peter was put in jail, where he was handed over to be guarded by four groups of four soldiers each. Herod planned to put him on trial in public after Passover. So Peter was kept in jail, but the people of the church were praying earnestly to God for him.
The night before Herod was going to bring him out to the people, Peter was sleeping between two guards. He was tied with two chains, and there were guards on duty at the prison gate. Suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there, and a light shone in the cell. The angel shook Peter by the shouder, woke him up, and said, "Hurry! Get up!" At once the chains fell off Peter's hands. Then the angel said, "Fasten your belt and put on your sandals." Peter did so, and the angel said, "Put your cloak round you and come with me." Peter followed him out of the prison, not knowing, however, if what the angel was doing was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed by the first guard post and then the second, and came at last to the iron gate leading into the city. The gate opened for them by itself, and they went out. They walked down a street, and suddenly the angel left Peter.
Then Peter realized what had happened to him, and said, "Now I know that it is really true! The Lord snt his angel to rescue me from Herod's power and from everything the Jewish people expected to happen."
Aware of his situation, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. Peter knocked at the outside door, and a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer it. She recognized Peter's voice and was so happy that she ran back in without opening the door, and announced that Peter was standing outside. "You are mad!" they told her. But she inisted that it was true. So they answered, "It is his angel."
Meanwhile Peter kept on knocking. At least they opened the door, and when they saw him, they were amazed. He motioned with his hand for them to be quiet, an he explained to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. "Tell this to James and the rest of the believers," he said; then he left and went somewhere else.
*Earthquake - an aftershock
*When Jesus said it was finished, an aftershock happened
*Jews offering sacrifice - curtain torn from top to bottom, only God can do that.
*Cross imperfects sufficient sacrifice
*red, purple, blue - heavy curtain
*Sinful man can enter heaven if he/she believes God died for his/her sin
*Acts 5: 17-21: Then the High Priest and all his companions, members of the local party of the Sadducees, became extremely jealous of the apostles; so they decided to take action. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But that night an angel of the Lord opened the prison gates, led the apostles out, and said to them, "Go and stand in the Temple, and tell the people all about this new life." The apostles obeyed, and at dawn they entered the Temple and started teaching.
-open prison door for apostles
*Acts 16:16: One day as we were goin to the place of prayer, we were met by a slavegirl who had an evil spiritthat enabled her to predict the future. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes.
-prison in Phillippi (Paul) -conversion of jailer
-letters to Phillippians = more personal and emotional
*Chuch of Phillippi started from the house of Lydia
*Beautiful description of the world - the book of Joshua about Jericho
*to go in, you have to open the outer door and you can only do that with the sword that is the word of God
*God still has the last word - sovereignty of God
*Wealth, family, health -cannot touch his life -God has the last say
*If God were to bow to Satan and get his authority, the cross could be avoided
1. Nature Prayer
*We rest in the victory God gave us, we do not need to be involve in Spiritual Warfare
2. Earnest Prayer -without any foul language towards Satan
3. Emphasize made for Peter
4. Must be Specific
5. Must be directed to God
-Prayer meeting use to direct to God, not one another
-made by the chrch -more powerful, is the apple of God's eye, "and I will build the church against the gates of hell."
6. Directed against the enemy
Picture of the World
1. Peter is sleeping-not expecting anything
- without Jesus, they are on their way to hell
2. He was sleeping between 2 soldiers
-let us hope the church is no asleep
3. Bound with chains
4. Centurions guarding the door
-Don't need to be Christians -family is good, I'm not as bad as the other man, I live by my conscience
-different people have different conscience, beheading people to some may be normal
5. Nature/characteristic of prayer
6. Work of evangelism
-don't see between their consequences
-transform thinking
regeneration = metamorphosis
we become like a butterfly when we have the spirit of God.
Consequences of Prayer
1. The angel of the Lord appeared -symbolic of God coming to the scene
Daniel 10:12:
Then he said, "Daniel, don't be afraid. God has heard your prayer ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in order to gain understanding. I have come in answer to your prayer.
"It is beacuse you have prayed that I came"
2. A light shone in the cell - "darkness have not overcome it"
John 1:5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.
3. Angel strike Peter on the side- God made contact with him, worship is a form of making contact with God
(not physical contact)
*Pray.Results in a spiritual awakening - in the presence of God
The angel said "Get up"
*God sets no conditions -his love is unconditional
*Salvation is free of charge but the price is to surrender to him
*When you serve God, you are not the highest servant but out of love
*My chains are gone - free man, we can follow Jesus whole- heartedly
4. Sometimes we have not even realise God has answered our prayers
5. Prayer is sometimes like a dream - spiritual awakening by God
*What is God doing in your life today?
*You got a testimony of your life today
*Christian life is a living experience
*Sometimes if we persist to ask about the wrong thing and get angry because God did not answer it, our spirituallity will slowly swivel
*We don't expect because we got a perception on how God ought to answer our prayer.
*God will only give us good things
*Never cease to give God his glory
John 17:1-5: After Jesus finished saying this, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your Son, so that the Son may give glory to you. For you gave him authority over all mankind, so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him. And eternal life means knowing you, the only true God, and knowing Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I have shown your glory on earth; I have finished the work you gave me to do. Father! Give me glory in your presence now, the same glory I had with you before the world was made.
*He moved on from that experience of being feed from prayer before he goes for his next transformation.
**Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path**
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