Everybody Thinks They Are Heaven Bound

The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest. They brought in the two disciples and demanded, “By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4.5-12] 

First and foremost, it should be noted and rehearsed that Peter answered the religious leaders' question about healing the cripple man with a response that tied that healing directly to salvation in Jesus Christ!

It really ticked off the religious leaders when Jesus healed people. Likewise, as seen in today's One Year Chronological Bible reading, it really ticked off the religious leaders when the apostles healed people.

For whatever reason we think it would not tick off religious leaders today if we healed people, we are just wrong. Should it not concern us that so many religious leaders today excuse powerlessness among God's people, or worse, oppose it altogether?

Instead of building religion today on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ with all the miraculous power associated with Him, religious leaders today spend far more time and effort comforting individuals in their powerless not-like-Christ existence. This misguided focus is on the believer, not the One believed in (Jesus Christ). This, in itself, is idolatry. Consequently, powerless sheep ignorant of God's Word flock to the 'sandcastle' of institutional religion where their powerless existence is not only excused, but embraced in great emotional passion void of the distinct and identifying power of the Holy Spirit. 

As Abraham foolishly held up Ishmael before God as the miracle child of promise, today's religious establishment foolishly and idolatrously holds up finance, insurance, medicine and technology as the miracle way to experience God's blessings. God said, "No" to Abraham regarding Ishmael and God says, "No" today to our man-made "blessings." Ishmael was Abraham's and Sarah's mistaken way to walk in God's blessing back then in the exact same way that finance, insurance, medicine and technology are the Church's mistaken way to walk in God's blessing today. And, God is having nothing to do with it - just look at the overwhelming powerlessness of the Church today.

Does this upset the religious establishment today? You bet it does!

The thing is, the Gospel can be Biblically and historically measured in the degree to which the message and works of Jesus Christ ultimately upset the religious establishment. All the while, the religious establishment today preaches "Jesus" but none of His miraculous confirmation is present. Some religious groups refute the validity of the miraculous altogether while other religious groups embrace it, but neither actually demonstrate "Jesus" with any measurable amount of the faith and miracles Jesus practiced and demanded of His followers. But still everybody thinks they are 'heaven bound.'

Jesus is indeed the only cornerstone that establishes every subsequent stone of His Church. Miracles and salvation are inseparable in the true Church (as Peter so eloquently stated in Acts 4.5-12) because Jesus was not separated from miracles.

Ready for this?

If we are not walking in the miraculous, we are not walking in Christ.

Father, while I am ashamed that my life does not mirror Jesus in every way, I still admit it. May I be found before You today proactively turning away from the world's idols and the religious establishment that allows and even exalts them. May I be found holding out for the distinguishing power of Your Holy Spirit even if it kills me. May I be found giving up my own way, taking up my cross, and following Jesus. So be it.