Acts 5:19 - An angel of the Lord

5:19

Once again the plans of man are thwarted. The Sanhedrin may have imprisoned the apostles, but God intervened. An angel of the Lord came and set them free from the prison. There are some interesting things to consider here. The life of Jesus was clearly supernatural, in that many miracles and healings took place. The life of the early church is also clearly supernatural, as healings and incidents such as this are part and parcel of church mission. A church that is non-supernatural is no church at all. So how does this work out? How should this work out? Should we see a miracle a day? Well there is something else we need to note about the gospels and Acts. Miracles were clearly part of the events, and an important part, but they were not the focal point. Jesus said that He came to teach and preach the kingdom. And, of course, the primary event of His life was the cross, an event where, until the resurrection, was not supernatural (in one sense). In Acts the focus is on the proclamation of the gospel. So where does this leave us? If we make miracles the focus, which the church so often does when anything unusual does happen, then we have missed it, we have lost the plot. We should make the living and preaching of the gospel the focus, and then from time to time,and maybe even frequently, miracles may follow, but they are serving the main plan. Then we must rely on the power of the word of God. By His word He created the universe. The pattern in the Bible is that God speaks and things happen. We must not rely on organisation or professionalism, we must not rely on human wisdom. This doesn’t mean we do not seek to do things well, nor to use our minds, but the foundation  of what we do, the focus of what we do is the word of God. We rely on the fact that Jesus Christ is the Saviour  of the World, and that His word is truth.