example.lua

--Please remember this is out of context
--at the beginning of your program
local ids = {1,2,3,4}
local function isAllowed(id)
  for i = 1,#ids do
    if id == ids[i] then return true end
  end
  return false
end
--when you want to check for id and message
if isAllowed(id) and message == "blah" then
  --code
end
--If you have multiple messages, but the same ids do this:
if isAllowed(id) then
  if message == "blah" then
    --code for blah  
  elseif message == "something" then
    --code for something
  end
end
--this way you are not iterating over the table multiple times