Go Out!

“Go out now ... and preach... all about this new life.” Acts 5:20

Peter and the Apostles were thrown in jail by the high priest and the Sadducees because crowds followed them and listened. The sick were brought out into the streets and laid on mats so the mere shadow of Peter would fall across them. But an angel came in the evening, and set the Apostles free. He told them, “Go to the Temple and tell the people everything about this life!” 

Charles Colson has said repeatedly in his preaching, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.” 

Charles Colson, would know. He was Richard Nixon’s Special Counsel. He used to be a very powerful man but in 1974, he was imprisoned for seven months for his part in the Watergate scandal. After his imprisonment, Colson founded “Prison Fellowship Intl.” in 1976, an outreach to prisoners and former inmates and their families. Colson preached about his conversion to Christ, and because of his first hand experience, he claimed that “the lesson of Watergate is that a lie cannot live for long.” 

We too have a mission. The same mission given to the Apostles, and the same mission God gave Charles Colson, “Go out and tell everyone about this new life!”