Christ's command to his followers before his ascension to heaven was for them to be his

witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.

Our Lord did not intend for the good news of his death and resurrection to stay local,

but instead it was to be taken globally.

In this third section of Acts, the adventure continues as the gospel is taken to the ends of the earth.

Let's join Scott Pauley now for today's study. When I was a boy, I remember watching my mother and my grandmother use a pressure cooker. And it was always a

fascinating thing to me because the amount of heat, the amount of pressure build up was such a

powerful thing. And if you didn't handle it properly, it could be very dangerous. In fact, I remember

when they would let off the pressure and watching all of that

steam come out. You had to be very careful handling it. You know, life is much like a pressure

cooker. At times, it builds up. Sometimes it's the pressure of circumstances that you can't

control, that you didn't see coming. Sometimes it's pressure from other people.

Sometimes it's pressure we put on ourselves. In fact, I think sometimes we put pressure on us.

God never intended for us to carry and never intended for us to make our own. And then sometimes

the pressure is the pressure of spiritual warfare. It is spiritual in nature. There's just

spiritual opposition as we're trying to move forward for the Lord. This is the case when you come today

to Acts chapter number 23. The Apostle Paul is in the pressure cooker. He's under tremendous pressure.

Might I say, when the pressure builds, that's not the time to blow up.

That's not the time to react in the flesh.

That is not the time to allow yourself to just lose control.

Remember that good things, wonderful things, can come out of the pressure cooker of life.

In fact, through the pressure, God is often accomplishing the greatest work.

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