O Lord, we do desire
to see thyself in thy temple, like
thy servant Isaiah.
Lord, if we see thee, we will cry
out, we are undone.
We will experience thy cleansing, we will hear
thy voice, we will see thy holiness.
Lord, we just place our desire before thee,
and ask thee to reveal thyself to us
afresh this morning through thy word.
Lord, we do desire to worship thee, seeing
who thou art and what thou art.
We come at this time into thy hands.
We ask thee to anoint us with thy
spirit, that whether we talk or we hear,
we may be quickened by the same spirit.
Thy spirit, holy spirit, in the name of
our Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Will you please turn to
the book of Acts?
Acts chapter 4.
We'll read from verse 32 and go on
to Acts chapter 5.
Acts chapter 4 verse 32.
And the heart and soul of the multitude
of those that had believed were one.
And not one said that anything of what
he possessed was his own.
But all things were common to them.
And with great power did the apostles give
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And great grace was upon them all.
For neither was there anyone in want among
them.
For as many as were the owners of
lands or houses, telling them, bought the price
of what was sold, and laid it at
the feet of the apostles.
And distribution was made to each according as
anyone might have need.
And Joseph, who had been surnamed Barnabas by
the apostles, which is being interpreted son of
consolation, a Levite, sacred by birth, being possessed
of land, having sold it, bought the money
and laid it at the feet of the
apostles.
But a certain man, Ananias by name, the
sephara, his wife, sold a possession and put
aside for himself part of the price, his
wife being also being privy to it, and
having brought a certain part, laid it at
the feet of the apostles.
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled
thy heart that thou shouldest lie to the
Holy Spirit, and put aside for thyself a
part of the price of the estate?
What it remained, did it not remain to
thee?
And sold, was it not in thine own
power?
Why is it that thou hast purposed this
thing in thine heart?
Thou hast not lied to man, but to
God.
And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and
expired.
And great fear came upon all who heard
it.
And a young man, rising up, swapped him
up for burial.
And having carried him out, buried him.
And it came to pass about three hours
afterwards that his wife, not knowing what had
happened, came in.
And Peter answered her, Tell me if ye
gave the estate for so much?
And she said, Yes, for so much.
And Peter said to her, Why is it
that ye have agreed together to tempt the
Spirit of the Lord?
Lo, the feet of those who have buried
thy husband are at the door, and they
shall carry thee out.
And she fell down immediately at his feet
and expired.
And when a young man came in, they
found her dead.
And having carried her out, they buried her
by her husband.
And great fear came upon all the church,
and upon all who heard these things.
That's all we'll read for this morning.
Last night we mentioned how the early church
was in full possession of this wonderful name
of our Lord Jesus.
That name was very real, living, powerful in
their midst.
Even though they did not have other things,
yet they did have the name of the
Lord Jesus.
And in that name, great things were done.
But in order that this name might be
used rightly and backed up by the one
who had that name, there needed to be
a committal on their part.
They were a people fully committed to that
name.
They had no other name.
They owned no other name but that one
name.
And because of that, when they used that
name, the one behind that name honored it.
So brothers and sisters, in a sense, this
is the real meaning of the church.
What is the church?
The church is a people who are gathered
together unto that name.
Who have put them under that name.
Under the authority of that name.
And the Lord says, there am I in
the midst of them.
Now this morning we would like to go
on and see another aspect of life
in the early church.
And that is the reality of the presence
and authority of the Holy Spirit in the
early church.
In a sense, you know, on the day
of resurrection, when our Lord Jesus met his
disciples, as we call it in John chapter
20, the Lord breathed into them and said,
Receive ye the Holy Spirit.
For the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, the
Holy Spirit is given.
And those who believe in him, they receive
the Holy Spirit into them.
The Holy Spirit comes into them to dwell
in them.
He is the comforter within them.
Now brothers and sisters, everyone who believes in
the Lord Jesus has the Holy Spirit in
him or in her.
The Holy Spirit has come and dwelt in
us.
He is the permanent resident in us.
He is the comforter, the guardian, the patron,
the one who is fully responsible for us
to bring us into God's full purpose.
We each have the Holy Spirit dwelt in
us.
And he is in us forever.
He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
But on the day of Pentecost, something more
happened.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit
came.
And they were all baptized into one body.
In other words, on the day of resurrection,
the Holy Spirit came and dwelt in each
believer.
But on the day of Pentecost, the Holy
Spirit came and dwelt in the body.
I hope you can see the difference here.
The Holy Spirit not only dwells in each
one of us as the comforter, as the
guardian, but the Holy Spirit dwells in the
midst of us, representing the head.
Now this happened on the day of Pentecost.
In typology, as you look back, you find
that after Moses had built the tabernacle, in
Exodus chapter 40 you remember, everything was made
and he set up the tabernacle.
He placed all the pieces of furniture according
to God's order in that tabernacle.
Everything was finished.
And then the cloud of God filled the
tabernacle that even Moses could not remain there.
In other words, God came in and took
possession of that tabernacle.
The presence of God was there.
And after Solomon finished the temple, you remember
he prayed.
And after he finished his prayer, the glory
of the Lord came and filled the temple.
And even the priests could not remain there.
They had to beat the retreat.
Why?
Because the glory of the Lord filled that
house.
In other words, God came and took possession
of that temple.
And the same happened on the day of
Pentecost.
Here you find that living house was formed.
The spiritual house, that temple, that living temple
of God was formed on the day of
Pentecost.
And immediately after that was formed, the Holy
Spirit came and filled the house.
He took possession of that spiritual house.
What?
If the house was there, the tabernacle was
ready, or the temple was built and there
was no cloud, there was no glory.
And you know this happened.
In Ezekiel you will find, Ezekiel saw in
a vision, the glory of the Lord gradually
left the temple.
How the glory of the Lord came out
of the holiest place and rested on the
threshold of the temple, as if he lingered.
And then he left, went out of the
east gate and stayed on the mountain opposite.
The glory of the Lord left the house.
And when the glory of the Lord left
the house, that house was emptied and finally
destroyed.
Brothers and sisters, what is the church?
The house of God.
It is the dwelling place of God in
spirit.
As you read Ephesians chapter 2, you will
find that the house is built as a
habitation for God in spirit.
This is the real meaning of the church.
The Holy Spirit dwells in the church.
Not only in each member of the body
individually, but in the body as a whole.
He comes in to take possession of the
body and he is the body.
The authority of the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, that makes the church.
Whether it is the church of God, it
depends mainly on this.
Is there the presence and the authority of
the Holy Spirit?
If the Holy Spirit is not present, if
his authority is not respected, if it is
a matter of human opinion, if it is
a matter of human decision, human activity, everything
arranged by man, it becomes an organization and
no longer a living organism.
How we need to go back to the
early days and try to see what is
the real meaning of the church of God.
What makes this different from all the other
groups or associations is the presence and authority
of the Holy Spirit.
And this is demonstrated very vividly in the
fifth chapter of the book of Acts.
You know sometimes when we read the Bible,
when we come to the book of Acts
chapter 5, our feeling is, what a tragedy.
It was a tragedy.
And probably our whole mind will be occupied
with that tragedy.
And we wonder why.
This particular incident was recorded.
For what purpose?
There is a positive lesson in it.
Because the whole thing illustrates one point and
that is the presence and the authority of
the Holy Spirit in the church.
You know when the Holy Spirit is present
and when his authority is known, things will
happen one way or the other.
And when things are not happening, something is
happening.
So let's go into this incident and try
to look at it positively, not negatively.
You know and try to learn some lessons
through it.
You know in those days the Bible said
the heart and the soul of the believers
were one.
The grace of God was such that they
were all delivered from that native, natural instinct
of self-possessiveness.
As we mentioned before, you know, within us
there is an instinct.
And it is the natural instinct of self
-possessiveness.
We like to possess something.
We like to say that this is mine.
That makes us somebody, important, secure.
But the grace of God was such that
they were totally delivered from this native instinct
of self-possessiveness.
No one says this is mine.
They shared all things in common.
They really lived as members of one body.
It was not a communal life.
It was a community life.
They lived as one family.
They lived as members of one body.
But, of course, you do not see in
it they lived a communal life.
Why?
One brother said because God emphasized very much
on family life.
In a communal life you do not have
family life anymore.
The family life is broken.
But family is a unit before God.
So even in the life of the church,
the family life is not broken.
The family life supports the church life, but
does not in any way get rid of
by the church life.
So we say it is not a communal
life.
It is a community life.
They really live as one community.
They love one another.
They share everything.
Nobody says that you don't.
They really live in the resurrection life of
our Lord Jesus.
No wonder the apostles were so mighty in
testifying to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
You know, when you are speaking of the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, where is the
power behind your speech?
You look at these brothers and sisters.
They literally live in resurrection ground.
On resurrection ground.
This was humanly impossible.
They were delivered from self-possessiveness.
They share everything.
They love one another.
They were on resurrection ground.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus was demonstrated
by the life of these people.
So no wonder the apostles were mighty in
testifying to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
And some people who had land, houses, they
saw the need of the other members.
They sold their land and their houses and
laid the money at the feet of apostles
to be distributed to each according to need.
And there was one man, a Levite, a
serpent by birth, Joseph.
He came.
He was selling barnabas.
And he sold his land, his possessions, laid
it at the feet of apostles just as
an example of what had happened.
He was moved by the love of Christ.
He was willing to share everything with his
brothers and sisters.
But after he did that, he seemed as
if the apostles commanded him for what he
did.
Everybody said, well, look, this brother, a good
brother, who really loved the Lord and loved
the church.
So another brother heard about it, Ananias.
He saw Barnabas, what Barnabas did.
And he saw the reaction of the people
towards Barnabas.
And secretly he desired to receive the same
praise, glory from man.
He was not moved by the Spirit of
God.
He was just attracted by the praise of
man.
He wanted to have a place in the
church.
He wanted to show off himself.
And people would say, now this is a
marvelous brother.
And in order to do that, he sold
a possession.
Now I wonder, I do not have the
time to look into it, into the original
manuscript.
I notice in my version it says he
sold a possession.
And I wonder if he had more than
one possession.
So he sold a piece, a piece of
his possession.
No.
You see, he was not ready to part
with all his possessions.
But in his desire to have the praise
of man, he was willing to sell a
possession, a piece of his property.
And his wife was with him.
He planned it with his wife.
He sold it.
He put aside a part of the purchase
of the money.
And he brought the rest to the feet
of the apostles.
He thought he was just dealing with them.
He didn't know that he was dealing with
the Holy Spirit.
All he saw was man.
So he came, laid the money at the
feet of the apostles, waiting to be praised
by all the brothers and sisters.
And got that praise that he was such
a marvelous brother.
But Peter, not because he had the sixth
sense.
No.
Peter as used as a vessel of the
Holy Spirit.
Ask him, is that all?
Is that what you get when you sold
your land?
Peter said, why do you deceive the Holy
Spirit?
You are not deceiving man.
You are deceiving the Holy Spirit.
When the land is in your hands, the
property is in your hands, it's yours.
Nobody forced you to sell your land, to
sell your property.
It's all voluntary.
As moved by the Holy Spirit.
When the property is yours, it's yours.
Rightfully yours.
There is nothing wrong to hold it.
And even after you have sold it, the
money is yours.
You don't need to give any.
If you keep all, nothing wrong with it.
Now why is it you want to deceive?
Peter said, you are lying to the Holy
Spirit.
You are lying to God, not to man.
And when Peter finished his word, Ananias fell
down and died.
The reality of the Holy Spirit was such
that Ananias met the Holy Spirit, not just
meeting man.
So the young man came, got him up
and buried him.
Now someone asked the question, why did they
not notify his wife first?
It seems humanly something was missing, you know.
When they bury their husband, surely they should
notify the wife first.
They just bury him, that's all.
I don't know.
I don't know why.
But after three hours, the wife came, Sepharoth
came.
And Peter asked, is this the money, all
the money for that property?
And Sepharoth, he didn't know what had happened.
So he said yes.
This is all.
So Peter said, why do you play together
with your husband?
You are deceiving the Holy Spirit.
And the result was, she collapsed and died.
So the young man came back and saw
the wife was dead, set her right here
up and buried her with her husband.
And when the whole church heard about it,
there was fear among them.
Now brothers and sisters, not looking at this
incident negatively, but try to look at it
positively.
When the presence of the Holy Spirit is
very real, when His authority is really
manifest in the church.
You know, we are all dealing with the
Holy Spirit and not with man.
Today, people can do anything, almost anything they
like in the church and nothing happens.
Is it that the time has changed?
No.
The real reason is, today the Holy Spirit
is not so manifest in the church.
If He is here, if His presence is
living, if His authority is respected, you will
find.
He will manifest Himself in many ways.
We are not dealing with man.
We are dealing with God, with the Holy
Spirit in the church.
There will be His discipline.
He will make Himself known to us in
many ways.
But today, just, just, just look.
People seem to be able to get by
with everything in the so-called church.
And nothing happens.
That doesn't mean that we have done everything
right.
That only means that even though we have
the Holy Spirit in us, yet the presence
of the Holy Spirit in the church is
missing.
It is almost like the scene in Ezekiel.
The glory of the Lord gradually left the
temple.
It has become an endowment and man takes
over.
Brothers and sisters, I feel there is a
very deep lesson for us to learn here.
As we are approaching the end, this is
the time that we should look back and
see the real meaning of the church.
Why should there be a gathering of God's
people?
Why should this be an assembly?
Why?
It is the house of God.
It is for God to dwell by His
Spirit.
It is that the Holy Spirit may make
His presence known, that His authority may be.
Brothers and sisters, the more we come together
and learn to submit ourselves to the name
of the Lord Jesus, you will find the
more manifest will be the Holy Spirit.
Many things you can get by before.
Many things you can do before.
And nothing happens.
But when the Holy Spirit is very real
and living in the body, anything that touches
that body touches the Holy Spirit.
So whenever we see the Holy Spirit begins
to discipline, we should bow our heads and
worship the Lord.
This is not something bad.
This is something good.
If the Holy Spirit were not there that
day, Ananias and Sapphira will not die.
Nothing will happen.
And they will be looked upon by the
other brothers and sisters as marvelous brother and
sister who love the church so much.
You will have a completely different picture.
And this is what you see today.
A completely different, but we thank God, the
Holy Spirit was present.
And He manifested Himself on that day.
That kept the church living.
That gave the meaning to the church.
There was a holy fear because they were
in the presence of God, in the presence
of the Holy Spirit.
Dear brothers and sisters, is the Holy Spirit
so real and so living today with us?
Maybe as individuals.
More or less, if you live before God,
you know how real He is.
You know He draws in you.
You know that if you say anything, if
you do anything wrong, how He checks you,
how He restrains you.
And if you continue to do that and
you are stubborn, He disciplines you.
You know that.
You know that the Holy Spirit is very
real in your individual life.
What if the Holy Spirit is not real
in your individual life?
Your whole Christian life is ruined.
Is ruined.
If we live our life on this earth,
you know, just do things that we think
is right or good or beneficial to us,
profitable to us, and we can just get
by and do things, you know.
You think that that's good, but we know
that's tragic.
A lot of people complain and say, why
is it that other people can and I
cannot?
Look at other Christians.
They can do many things.
Has nothing happened to them.
They can get by very easily.
But if I do the same thing, God
can come upon me.
Why is it that God is so strict
with me?
Oh, if His hand would just go back
and leave me, that I can do what
others do.
Brothers and sisters, you do not know what
we are talking about.
Other people may, but you cannot.
Because you are specially loved by Him.
The closer you live with the Lord, the
stricter He will be with you.
He will manifest Himself to you.
He will not let you go your way.
He holds you to Himself.
He will transform you.
He will discipline you.
He will chasten you.
Now, if this is true individually, how much
more it ought to be true completely.
The Holy Spirit is not less present in
the church than in individual believers.
The authority of the Holy Spirit should not
be less manifest in the church than in
individual believers.
If this is true with us individually, how
much more truly it will be accomplished.
But do you see it today?
You may see the working of the Holy
Spirit in individual lives.
Thank God for that.
But how much do you see the presence
and the authority of the Holy Spirit in
the church completely?
This is time, I believe, that we should
really go back to the Word of God
and see that this is real completely.
When God's people come together, they dare not,
they cannot do anything they like.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit is there.
We are not dealing with man.
We are not dealing with one another.
We are dealing with the Holy Spirit.
He is in charge.
He manifests Himself.
And if we do anything, we know.
Now this is very manifest in the early
church.
And I do believe as God's people really
come together, put themselves under the name of
the Lord Jesus, the presence and authority of
the Holy Spirit will be manifested.
That's a sign that the Lord is there.
It is not a bad thing.
And thank God for that.
Now this is the presence and authority of
the Holy Spirit in the church.
Everybody knows the Holy Spirit is here.
They are afraid.
They dare not do anything.
Now as you read on, you will find
that the presence and authority of the Holy
Spirit is not only known in the church,
it is also known in the world through
the church.
You go early into the temple, to the
temple area and preach the gospel.
So early in the morning they all went
to the temple area and started preaching.
And the next morning the whole council gathered.
They sent men to get them out of
the jail.
The door was closed, everything was secure, but
there was no gospel there.
And they were perplexed.
And then someone came and said, these people,
they were preaching in the temple.
So they tried to get them and said,
did we not forbid you to preach in
that name?
They thought they were dealing with innocent people,
unlearned, unlettered, never been to school, fishermen and
so forth.
And yet you'll find Peter answered, to obey
you are to obey God.
We must obey God.
What we have seen and heard we must
preach.
We are bearing witness and the Holy Spirit
bears witness.
The result was the council didn't know what
to do with them.
They threatened them, but they couldn't do anything.
It was the council against the Holy Spirit
in the church.
What if the Holy Spirit was not there?
These fishermen were no match to the council.
The council were the highest authority.
They could crush them easily, crush the church
very easily, being innocent men.
Certainly they would be frightened, but they didn't
know they were dealing with the Holy Spirit
in the church.
The authority of the Holy Spirit was very
real in the lives of these people.
On the one hand, they were submissive to
the council.
When they were arrested, they did not resist.
When they were put in prison, they went
to the prison.
They were submissive.
They did not rise up and rebel, and
revolt.
They were very submissive.
Even when they talked to the council, their
spirit was submissive, because the council was the
authority on earth.
And yet they obeyed God.
They obeyed God, because the Holy Spirit was
in control of their lives.
And when the Holy Spirit is in control
of our lives, no man can believe it.
The world does not know what to do
with the church.
Not because the people there are clever or
different.
No.
It is because of the Holy Spirit.
So brothers and sisters, I do hope that
through this incident, in this chapter, God will
show us something very real.
Is the Holy Spirit real in our lives?
Are we so live under His authority that
even the world has to recognize it, and
they find that they are no match to
the Holy Spirit?
We are now approaching the end, and you
find history repeats itself.
The world is trying to crush the church.
So it is not because of the Holy
Spirit in the church.
The church will, long ago, be eliminated.
But no matter what the world does, you
find a testimony.
On the one hand, there is submission to
authority.
On the other hand, there is obedience to
God in the power of the Holy Spirit.
So we do believe, no matter what happens,
the church will live.
The testimony of Jesus will be maintained until
He returns.
So I hope this morning, just briefly, we
fellowship on this point, and as a kind
of encouragement to us, that we need to
look to the Lord, that His Holy Spirit
may be very, very real, and living in
the midst of His people.
Shall we pray?
Our Heavenly Father, our hearts do rejoice, because
Thy Holy Spirit lives not only in each
of us individually, but Thy Holy Spirit lives
in the church.
This is Thy habitation.
Thou art able to manifest Thyself in many
ways, proving that Thou art living, Thou art
here.
For our Father, we do pray that more
and more Thy people will enter into this
reality.
We pray that as we come together, it
may not be just a formality, but we
really put ourselves under Thy Name, and Thy
Holy Spirit is in charge.
We know that Thou will manifest Thyself in
glory.
We ask Thee that we may learn these
lessons, and take these lessons to heart.
May this be.
May the presence and authority of the Holy
Spirit be known among Thy people everywhere.
To Thee we give the praise and the
glory, in the Name of our Lord Jesus.
Amen.