Rescued!

May 12, 2013

John 17:20-26 Acts 16:16-34 Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

You would almost have to have been hiding under a rock this week for you to miss hearing the story about Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. These three young women each disappeared at various times and from various places in and around Cleveland nearly ten years ago. This week, with the help of a neighbor, they escaped from their captivity at the hands of Ariel Castro. The whole story has not yet been told but the house from which they escaped was found to contain ropes and chains that were used to restrain the women and Amanda Berry escaped with a six year old daughter who has now been identified as sharing Castros DNA. What happened to these women during the last ten years can now only be imagined but will, over time we know that much will be revealed as Castros trial grinds slowly to its conclusion. Although it is, perhaps, an odd way of thinking, this must be the best Mothers Day present that could be imagined for some of these families, although Amanda Berrys mother passed away in 2006 before she could see it. Although psychics and many others have assumed that by now all three women were dead, their mothers never gave us hope. The mother of Gina DeJesus was still passing out flyers in the neighborhoods where she once hung out or through which she walked to and from work, and Michelle Knights mother refused to accept that she had left willingly or voluntarily even though other relatives and police believed that to be true. Mothers are a special breed of human being. They are tender and loving and compassionate, but if you threaten their children they can be a force of nature, more dangerous than any mother bear guarding her cubs. Had any of these women known where their daughters were, I suspect that only God could have saved Ariel Castro. What we sometimes allow ourselves to forget is that God loves us like that. As Jesus entered Jerusalem, knowing that he would suffer and die, he looked over the city and said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Matthew 23:37 God loves every one of his children with an unfailing love, a love like a mother hen gathering her chicks to warm them and to protect them; we might even understand that as God loving us with a mothers love. God sees his children in places they should not be, in places of captivity and torment, and every day he desires to rescue us. Over and over in scripture we hear stories of rescue. In Acts 16:16-34, we hear of Paul and Silas, who were thrown into prison for rescuing a woman from an evil spirit or a demon
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Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved. 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her! At that moment the spirit left her.
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When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. 20 They brought them before the magistrates and 1

said, These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.
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The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
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About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyones chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, Dont harm yourself! We are all here!
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The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
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They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be savedyou and your household. 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in Godhe and his whole household. First, Paul casts out a demon from a slave girl that can tell the future. Perhaps he does so with mixed motives because at first he does not seem to be inclined to do anything, but as she follows Paul and Silas from place to place she continually shouts to the people around them that they are emissaries of the Most High God who have come to tell others how to be saved. Perhaps her shouting attracted people to them, but, just as likely, her proclamations may have turned people away. Although what she said was true, others may have seen her to be mocking them, or they simply may have wanted to stay away from the public spectacle that she was causing. Paul, in turn, may have been annoyed that she was turning people away that he wanted to speak with, or simply that after a day or two of her shouting, he couldnt take it any longer. In any case, Paul commands the spirit within her to come out in the name of Jesus Christ, and it does. The woman is now free from the spirit, or demon, that possessed her but her owners were not pleased. We may see her has being rescued, but her owners made real money from her predictions of the future and what they saw was a significant financial loss. For that, the owners stir up the people and the city administration against Paul and his companions, who have them stripped, beaten, and thrown in prison. From there, the rescues just pick up speed. First, instead of weeping, groaning and moaning because of their abuse and imprisonment, Paul and Silas turn the prison into a revival meeting and sing praises to God throughout the night. Next, God shakes the prison hard enough to open all the doors and yet none of the prisoners escape. Paul and Silas, and the rest of the prisoners have been rescued by God but in order to serve a higher purpose, and some, perhaps out of fear, they remain. The jailer realizes that all the doors are open and prepares to kill himself so that he will not have to endure the torture that Roman law would have almost certainly inflicted upon him. Before he can do so, however, Paul realizes what the man is about to do and calls out to him and tells him that all the prisoners are where they should be. Now, even the jailer has been rescued. Whats more, the man now realizes that there is more at work in his prison than just a couple rabble rousers singing camp songs, and more than just a natural event like an earthquake. The jailer knows that what he has seeing was real authority and real power, he is introduced to Jesus Christ and the God of the Universe and he, and his entire family are baptized. In this way, the jailer is rescued twice, once from the sword, and once for eternity, and his family is also added to the list of people rescued that night. 2

But how is this rescue accomplished and why? We have no need to look any further than the nature and character of God as well as the nature and character of his son, Jesus. In Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 2021, the Apostle John sees Jesus in a vision and Jesus says these things
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Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
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Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
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I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.
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The Spirit and the bride say, Come! And let the one who hears say, Come! Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
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He who testifies to these things says, Yes, I am coming soon.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

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The grace of the Lord Jesus be with Gods people. Amen.

Jesus invites everyone to come, let all who are thirsty come and drink the free water of life. God desires to rescue everyone who is dying if they will only come to him. In fact, the entire story of the Gospel is the story of Gods invasion of a world that was overrun, dominated and in captivity to sin and death so that he might rescue those that loved him. But Jesus not only came to rescue the people of Israel two-thousand years ago, he came to rescue every one of us in the twenty first century and beyond. In John 17:20-26, Jesus prays this prayer
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My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one 23 I in them and you in meso that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
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Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
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Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them. Jesus says that he is praying, not only for those who follow him, but for everyone who will hear his message of hope from his followers and their followers and their followers even to us today as well as those who will hear the message of Jesus from us, to our children, our grandchildren, and beyond. But why is Jesus praying for us?

Jesus says that he is doing this because he wants us to be with him. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God, brothers and sisters with all who have believed, and co-heirs with Jesus Christ. Jesus desires for us to find unity, for all of his family to live together and work together, in love with God and toward a common purpose. Like any mother, God has never given up on any of his children. He is fighting every day for you, for those you love, for those around you, and for everyone with whom you will share his love and the good news of his rescue. God loves you with an unfailing love, a love like a mother hen gathering her chicks to warm them and to protect them, a love like a mothers love and he will fight for you like a mother bear so that all of his family can be together. None of us should ever be afraid of sharing this good news. It is a message of hope for the hopeless, a message of healing for the wounded, and a message of freedom for the captive. With that kind of love behind us, how can we be afraid? You may not ever get the chance to rescue someone like Amanda Berry, but you almost certainly know someone who is captive to sin, imprisoned by the impure, a prisoner of poverty or jailed by injustice. For them Jesus has entrusted you with a message of good news to the poor and hope for the hopeless, a message of healing for the brokenhearted, freedom for the captive, and release from darkness for the prisoners. Who do you know that needs to be rescued?

You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry heights in Massillon, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at http://www.scribd.com/Pastor John Partridge. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.