Sound Words Tape Ministry, Queensland.
This is cassette number two in the study
series with Mr. MacDonald in the subject of
prayer taken from the Book of Acts.
It begins with chapter six of the Book
of Acts.
Mr. MacDonald.
But then we turn over to chapter six
and we find prayer for the choice of
deacons.
Chapter six, and this is beautiful too.
Some lovely touches here.
Let's begin back in verse one.
In those days when the number of the
disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of
the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows
were neglected in the daily ministration.
These were all people of...
These were all believers.
Some of the Grecian or Hellenistic background and
others of Hebrew background, all Jewish converts.
Then the twelve called a multitude of the
disciples unto them and said, It is not
reason that we should leave the word of
God and serve table.
Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven
men of honest report, full of the Holy
Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over
the business.
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer
and to the ministry of the word.
And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and
they chose Stephen, a man full of faith
and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and
Prochurus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and
Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set
before the apostles.
And when they had prayed, they laid their
hands on them.
Here was one of the first instances of
difficulty in the early church.
The Hellenistic converts were complaining against the Hebrew
converts.
They thought their widows were being neglected in
the daily ministration.
What do you do in a case like
this?
This is a big problem today.
The problem is always the personal problem.
Interpersonal relationships.
Prayer is sufficient.
They get down on their knees.
They prayed.
They selected men to carry on.
They selected what we would call deacons.
Did God answer that prayer?
Notice verse 7.
And the word of God increased, and the
multitude of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly,
and a great company of the priests were
obedient to the faith.
Isn't that wonderful?
You have prayer in the book of Acts,
and then you read the next verses, and
things start to happen.
Hudson Taylor once said, and beautifully said, learn
to move man through God by prayer.
Learn to move man through God by prayer.
That's what these people knew.
In the book of Acts, you see them
praying.
You see things click.
You see the gears mesh.
You see the work of God moving forward.
The word of God increased.
The number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem
greatly.
And I can just imagine the thrill, the
path that rippled through that Christian company, just
to think that some of the priests in
Jerusalem were becoming obedient to the faith.
Praise God.
What a book this is, the book of
Acts.
Then chapter 7, you have the wonderful story
of Stephen, first martyr of the Christian church.
How did Stephen die?
He died praying.
He died praying for his guilty murderers.
That's the way he died.
Acts chapter 7, verse 54.
We'll begin.
Prayer of the first martyr.
Acts 7, verse 54.
When they heard these things, they were cut
to the heart, and they gnashed at him
with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost,
looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the
glory of God and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God and said, Behold, I
see the heavens opened and the Son of
Man standing on the right hand of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice
and stopped their ears and ran upon Him
with one accord and cast Him out of
the city and stoned Him.
And the witnesses laid down the clothes at
a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and
saying, that is, Stephen as he was calling
upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit.
And he kneeled down and cried with a
loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to
their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell
asleep.
Wonderful, isn't it?
Here's a man expiring for Jesus Christ.
He's going to lay down his life for
the namesake of the Lord Jesus.
And before he passes off this scene, he
just wants time to pray.
And he says, Lord, don't lay this sin
to their charge.
You know, it's a beautiful touch there.
How did the Lord Jesus die?
He died praying, Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do.
Stephen had been occupied with the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Stephen had been gazing upon the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And you know, when you gaze on Christ,
you're changed by beholding.
Stephen died, and he says, Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge.
It was Christ reproduced in Stephen.
Did God answer the prayer?
What about that prayer of Stephen?
Shall we just write that one off as
one of the prayers in the book of
Acts that wasn't answered?
Well, I wouldn't do that.
I'd rather turn over to the ninth chapter
of this book and read there the conversion
of a young fellow named Saul of Tarsus.
And you know, I can't help going back
to the end of the seventh chapter and
the prayer of Stephen when I think of
the conversion of Saul.
After all, it mentions his name there.
It says in verse 58, the witnesses laid
down their clothes at a young man's feet
whose name was Saul.
Saul was listening when this martyr prayed, and
it left its indelible effect upon him.
My, it's really worth praying, isn't it, if
you could catch a fish like Saul every
once in a while.
He changed the history of civilization.
Does it pay to pray?
It certainly paid as far as Stephen was
concerned.
Then in chapter 8, verses 15 through 17,
the gospel has been down in Jerusalem.
The gospel has moved out in Judea.
The gospel is now going up to Samaria.
Samaria!
You mean that half-breed people, the Samaritans?
You mean that half-caste people, the Samaritans?
Partly Jewish, partly Assyrian.
Yes, the gospel is going up there.
Of course, there will be repercussions.
There will be people who will hesitate, people
with racial prejudices, and all the rest.
But never mind, the gospel is going up
there.
And Peter and John are going to go
up there and pray for the Samaritans.
Verse 14, Now when the apostles which were
at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the
word of God, they sent unto them Peter
and John, who, when they were come down,
prayed for them that they might receive the
Holy Spirit.
For as yet he was fallen upon none
of them, only they were baptized in the
name of the Lord Jesus.
Then laid they their hands on them, and
they received the Holy Ghost.
Isn't that wonderful?
They go up to Samaria, they pray, lay
their hands on the Samaritans, and the Samaritans
receive the Holy Spirit of God.
The blessing is spreading.
Jesus said it would, beginning in Jerusalem, Judea,
Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the
earth.
And it's spreading by prayer, if you read
the book carefully.
The conversion of Saul of Tarsus in chapter
9, verses 11 through 17, this fellow no
sooner gets saved than he begins to pray.
That's a beautiful thing, isn't it?
We talked last night, or previously, about the
instinct of prayer.
Yes, speaking to God as Father.
And here you have this man, he had
really been a fanatic in the cause of
religion, and now he's going to be a
fanatic for Jesus Christ.
All right, verse 10, And there was a
certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias, and to
him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias,
he said, behold, I am your Lord.
And the Lord said unto him, Arise and
go into the street which is called straight,
and inquire in the house of Judas, for
one called Saul of Tarsus, for he prayeth.
Isn't that lovely?
He prayeth.
Saul is on his knee.
He prayeth.
Did God answer the prayer?
Of course God answered the prayer.
He sent Ananias to him.
That's a wonderful thing, isn't it?
To think that God has his Ananiases stationed
at strategic places, and all God has to
do is say, Ananias, here I am, Lord.
And I think when he said, here I
am, Lord, he meant available, Lord.
What do you want me to do?
Now, mind you, there was a measure of
natural reluctance when the call came to Ananias,
but that's nothing.
In every real call of God, there seems
to be a measure of natural holding back,
and natural reluctance, but God the Holy Spirit
is able to overcome that.
Verse 12, I seen in a vision a
man named Ananias coming in and putting his
hand on him, that he might receive his
sight.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard by many
of this man how much evil he hath
done to thy saints in Jerusalem.
The Lord said, Don't worry.
He's a chosen vessel unto me, that bear
my name before the Gentiles.
Verse 17, Ananias went his way and entered
into the house, and putting his hands on
him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus,
that appeared to thee in the way as
thou camest hath sent me, that thou mightest
receive thy sight and be filled with the
Holy Ghost.
That's a comfort.
Here's a man, and he's just been saved,
and he prays, and he prays with power,
and God starts moving people on behalf of
that man.
Thrilling, isn't it?
You don't have to be old.
You don't have to be along the way
a long time in the Christian life.
You've recently been saved.
Pray and see God work.
Not only is it a thrilling truth that
God has Ananias stationed at strategic places, it's
also a thrilling truth that you and I
can be in Ananias.
Isn't that nice?
You know, maybe near you there's someone ripe
for salvation.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if God put his
finger on you and said, Look, now, here's
somebody, he's saved, but he needs follow-up
work.
He needs somebody to go and sit with
him at the kitchen table and open the
Bible and just go over some of the
simple truths with him and get him built
up in the faith.
Are we willing to be that?
Are we like Ananias, saying, Here I am,
Lord, ready.
Just tell me what you want me to
do.
Saul prayed following his conversion, and God sent
Ananias to him.
He received his sight, and he received the
Holy Spirit.
Then in the end of chapter 9, you
have Peter praying at Joppa, and Dorcas is
raised to life.
Thrilling thing.
Verse 36, There was at Joppa a certain
disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called
Dorcas.
The woman was full of good works and
alms, deeds which she did.
It came to pass in those days that
she was sick and died, whom when they
had washed, they laid her in an upper
chamber.
People are all weeping, sorrowful over what has
happened.
Verse 40, Peter put them all forth, and
kneeled down and prayed, and turning him to
the body, said, Tabitha, arise.
She opened her eyes, and when she saw
Peter, she sat up.
He gave her his hand and lifted her
up, and when he had called the saints,
it was presented to her life, and it
was known throughout all Joppa, and many believed
in the Lord.
Peter prayed.
Woman is raised from the dead.
Many believe on the Lord.
The word goes forth.
It came to pass that he tarried many
days in Joppa with one called Simon the
Tanner.
Thrilling, isn't it, to say, yeah, but we
don't raise dead to life.
A more wonderful miracle than that is to
present the gospel to sinners today and see
them raised to life, and they see the
ripples of blessings spreading, seeing God hitting families
with chain lightning, and one getting saved after
the other.
How's it done?
Prayer.
Praying souls into the kingdom of God.
And then in chapter 10, you have really
a wonderful study in prayer.
I commend chapter 10 to you.
Wonderful story about Cornelius.
Cornelius was a Roman centurion, but he was
a devout man, and he was searching after
God, and he used to pray, and he
offered up alms to God as well.
All the centurions in the New Testament are
presented as righteous men.
It's an interesting thing.
Not a bad one in the lot.
It says in verse 2, a devout man,
one that feared God with all his house,
which gave much alms to the people and
prayed to God always.
Now really, Cornelius was what we might call
an unconverted man.
He was a proselyte to Judaism, a proselyte
of the gate, but he really wasn't indwelt
by the Spirit of God.
He wasn't a Christian.
But anyway, in a sense, he was living
up to the light that God had given
him, and he was praying to God.
What happened?
Well, an angel of the Lord appeared to
him and said, Cornelius, your prayers and alms
are come up as a memorial before God.
Now I want you, there's a man in
a city about 35 miles away from here,
and I want you to send him, and
he'll come and tell you what you ought
to know.
Pretty thrilling, isn't it?
And right about that same time, a man
in the city about 35 miles away went
up on the rooftop to pray.
His name was Peter.
And as he was praying there, the Lord
was saying, I've got to prepare this man
for the work that he's going to do
with Cornelius.
So Peter fell into a trance, and he
saw a sheet let down from heaven with
all manner of beasts in it.
And the Lord said to him, Rise, Peter,
kill and eat.
And Peter said, Not me, Lord.
You know me, I've been a devout Jew.
I've never eaten anything that wasn't kosher yet.
I don't intend to start now.
But the Lord said to Peter, This is
the whole point of the thing.
What God has cleansed, don't you call common
or unclean.
And so in a wonderful way, God set
the chariot wheels in motion.
And the men come to Peter's house at
just the right time, and Peter goes down
to Cornelius' house and tells him words whereby
he might be saved.
Read verse 44 of chapter 10 of the
book of Acts.
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy
Ghost fell on all them which heard the
word.
And they of the circumcision which believed were
astonished, as many as were with Peter, because
that on the Gentiles also was poured out
the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For they heard them speak with tongues and
magnify God.
Then answered Peter, Can any forbid water that
these should not be baptized which have received
the Holy Ghost as well as we?
And he commanded them to be baptized in
the name of the Lord.
Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
Cornelius, even an unsaved man, he's praying.
God in heaven hears those prayers, and God
sets things in motion.
Peter comes, tells him the gospel, he trusts
Christ and all his house, and the blessing
starts to spread to the Gentile world.
Does it pay to pray?
Well, as I go through the book of
Acts, and we'll continue with this tomorrow morning,
Lord willing, it just makes me want to
fall down on my knees and say, Lord,
teach me to pray.
We turn to Acts chapter 12.
We'll continue our study of prayer in the
book of Acts.
You remember that yesterday we said that a
subtitle to this study might be Does it
pay to pray?
Acts chapter 12, verse 1, About that time
Herod the king stretched forth his hands to
vex certain of the church, and he killed
James the brother of John with a sword.
Because he saw it pleased the Jews, he
proceeded further to take Peter also.
Then were the days of unleavened bread.
When he had apprehended him, he put him
in prison and delivered him to four quaternion
of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter,
or rather Passover, really, to bring him forth
to the people.
Peter, therefore, was kept in prison, but prayer
was made without ceasing of the church unto
God for him.
When Herod would have brought him forth, the
same night Peter was sleeping, between two soldiers
bound with two chains, the keepers before the
door kept the prison.
Behold, the angel of the Lord came upon
him, and a light shined in the prison,
and he smote Peter on the side and
raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly.
And his chains fell off from his hands.
And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself,
and bind on thy sandals.
And so he did.
And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment
about thee, and follow me.
And he went out and followed him, and
wist not that it was true which was
done by the angel, but thought he saw
vision.
Down to verse 12.
When he had considered the thing, he came
to the house of Mary, the mother of
John, whose surname was Mark, where many were
gathered together praying.
And as Peter knocked at the door of
the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named
Rhoda.
And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened
not the gate for gladness, but ran in
and told how Peter stood before the gate,
and they said unto her, Thou art mad.
But she constantly affirmed that it was even
so.
Then said they, It's his angel.
But Peter continued knocking.
And when they had opened the door and
saw him, they were astonished.
But he, beckoning unto them with his hand
to hold their peace, declared unto them how
the Lord had brought him out of the
prison.
And he said, Go, show these things unto
James and to the brethren.
And he departed and went into another place.
Well, I think it might be good for
us just to review these instances of prayer
that we've had so far in the book
of Acts.
You remember in chapter 1, we had the
prayer preceding Pentecost.
And the answer to that prayer was the
marvelous outpouring of the Spirit of God at
Pentecost, with all that followed that wonderful event.
Then at the end of chapter 1, you
have a prayer for a successor to Judas.
And that prayer was answered in the selection
of Matthias to be his successor.
In chapter 2, verse 42, you have the
prayer following Pentecost, and that was answered in
a state of continuous revival, souls being saved,
the people of God going on happily for
the Lord.
Then you have prayer for boldness and power
in chapter 4, verses 24 and 29.
And the Lord did pour great power, great
witness, great grace was upon them all.
You have the prayer for a choice of
deacons in chapter 6, verses 3, 4 and
6.
And you remember that after that, the word
of the Lord went forth tremendously.
Then you have the prayer of the first
martyr Stephen in chapter 7.
And you remember we suggested that one of
the answers to that prayer might have been
the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, not bad,
not a bad answer to prayer.
Remember in chapter 8, you have the prayer
of Peter and John for the Samaritans, and
that prayer was answered with the pouring out
of the Holy Spirit upon the Samaritan people.
Chapter 9, verses 11 through 17, you have
the prayer of Saul, Saul's first prayer after
he was saved.
God had Ananias ready.
Ananias came, Saul received his sight, and also
received the Holy Spirit.
Then you have Peter's prayer at Joppa, which
resulted in the raising of Dorcas from the
dead, and many believed.
Chapter 10, as we closed yesterday, we had
the prayer of Cornelius, a man, a righteous
man, a God-fearing man, not really a
believer in the Lord Jesus.
We saw the wonderful working of God preparing
the heart of Peter.
Peter came and told Cornelius and his household
words by which he might be saved.
Now, in chapter 12, verses 5 through 17,
you have the prayer for imprisoned Peter.
One of the number has been placed in
jail.
James has been killed, Peter is in jail.
What do the Christians do?
It says, prayer was made without ceasing of
the church unto God for him.
This is an interesting thing.
That was a good prayer meeting.
That's the kind of a prayer meeting you'd
really like to attend.
You know why?
Because the best prayer comes from a strong
inward necessity.
You can pray best when your need is
the greatest.
You can pray best when the water is
the hottest.
Isn't that true?
And it's a strange thing, the way we
do, we try to cushion ourselves and comfort
ourselves and shield ourselves from all the shocks
of life.
And this is one of the reasons why
our prayers are so dull and dead and
insipid and lifeless.
I'll tell you, if we had prayer meetings
today, like this prayer meeting in Acts chapter
12, you wouldn't be able to keep people
away with a baseball bat.
Well, God answered the prayer in a wonderful
way.
Peter was miraculously delivered from prison.
I don't know why we should be surprised
at that.
And he knew where the Christians would be
and he knew what they would be doing.
In verse 12, they were there and they
were gathered together, praying.
Prayer, as we said yesterday, with the atmosphere
of the early church.
Now, it is true that Rhoda came to
the door and when she saw Peter, she
didn't even bother to open the door.
She just left him there, cooling his heels,
and went in and told the people.
And they themselves were a bit unbelieving.
They didn't really, in a sense, expect that
it was Peter.
And I guess we tend to reproach Rhoda
and the other Christians there.
But honestly, I'd rather pray the way they
prayed and see the answer, no matter what
my reactions might be afterwards.
To me, the wonderful thing is they prayed
and they prayed with power and Peter was
released from prison.
Wonderful thing, isn't it?
Now, if you'll move over to chapter 13,
we'll read the first three verses, the prayer
of the prophets and teachers at Antioch.
Chapter 13, verse 3.
It says, Now there were in the church
that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers
as Barnabas, and it goes on to mention
their names.
They ministered to the Lord, they fasted.
The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and
Saul for the work whereunto I have called
them.
And when they had fasted and prayed and
laid their hands on them, they sent them
away.
Now, this sounds kind of tame in a
way.
You think, well, just a quiet incident and
they sent Paul and Barnabas away, they prayed.
But I want to tell you, those prayers
were some of the most far-reaching prayers
that have ever been uttered because those prayers
ushered in what you might call the first
missionary journey of the Apostle Paul and the
shockwaves of that journey are still going around
the world and most of us here today,
saved by the grace of God in a
sense, are the fruit of that little prayer
meeting in Acts chapter 13.
Now this thrills my soul when I think
of it.
You mean to say that a little group
of people praying back there, and incidentally it
was a little group, wasn't it?
That they could pray back there in the
first century of the history of the church
and that the prayers could still be being
answered today and I say that's exactly what
it was.
These are the prayers that sent Paul and
Barnabas out on the first missionary journey and
you try to measure the effect of that
missionary journey today.
It's absolutely impossible to do it.
Touch the ends of the earth and the
results are still going on.
Well then in chapter 14, verse 23, chapter
14, verse 23, in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch,
Paul and Barnabas prayed for those who had
believed.
It says in verse 23 of chapter 14
of Acts, And when they had ordained them
elders in every church and had prayed with
fasting, they commended them to the Lord on
whom they believed.
Well you say, just a simple prayer for
the believers for part of the fruit of
their missionary endeavor.
Yes, that's true.
But you know, one of those persons was
probably a young man by the name of
Timothy.
That wasn't bad either, was it?
Wonderful to think of these men and crying
to God for these saints and realizing the
potential for God in these people who had
been born again.
God raises up a young man named Timothy
who goes out with the Apostle Paul and
is mightily used of God.
How much we owe to Timothy today.
You know what it really boils down to
is that every prayer in the book of
Acts is answered, isn't it?
Is every prayer in your life answered?
Well, I believe if you're a Christian, if
you're praying in faith, the answer is yes.
Every prayer is answered.
I'm a very simple believer.
I don't try to solve all the mysteries
of prayer.
But I have a very simple faith that
every prayer I pray is answered.
I have that kind of a God.
The wonderful thing is He answers them in
the way that's best for me.
Not in the way that I always think
to be best, but in the way He
knows to be best for me.
God, nothing does nor suffers to be done,
but what thou wouldst thyself couldst thou but
see the end of all He does, as
well as He.
And when we get to the end of
the journey and look back and think of
all our prayers and think of all the
answers, we're going to say, my Jesus hath
done all things well.
Yes, I really believe that.
I believe that all my prayers are answered
by my heavenly Father.
And I bless the hand that guides, and
I bless the heart that plans.
Well, then we come over to chapter 16
of Acts for the next instance of prayer.
Acts 16, verses 25 through 34.
Paul and Silas have been arrested, these disturbers
of the peace.
They've been thrown into jail.
And what are they doing?
Well, it says in verse 25, at midnight,
Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to
God, and the prisoners heard them.
And suddenly there was a great earthquake so
that the foundations of the prison were shaken,
and immediately all the doors were opened and
everyone's bands were loosed.
And the keeper of the prison, awaking out
of his sleep and seeing the prison doors
open, he drew out his sword and would
have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had
been fled.
But Paul cried out with a loud voice,
saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are
all here.
Then he called for light and sprang in
and came trembling and fell down before Paul
and Silas and brought them out and said,
Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
They said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
Thy house.
Wonderful, isn't it?
Here are two men in jail for Christ's
sake, feeling sorry for themselves, and not a
bit of it.
Prayer and praise meeting at midnight.
Dr. Rineside always used to comment on this
verse.
He used to say that the gospel entered
Europe on the wings of a sacred concert
and it brought down the house.
Well, it really brought down the house.
An earthquake.
You know, throughout the area, the next day,
if people had had newspapers, they would have
been reading about an earthquake and they'd have
known about the earthquake.
But they wouldn't have realized that the earthquake
had spiritual significance to it.
And I often think of this when we
read the newspaper.
We read about a famine in India.
We read about an earthquake in Turkey.
We read about incidents all over the world.
And in a sense, they're just news in
black and white in the newspaper.
But don't ever forget this.
This is the spiritual significance behind every one
of them.
And what it really boils down to, this
was a very well-timed earthquake, wasn't it?
I mean, Paul and Silas pray and all
of a sudden there's an earthquake.
What does it mean?
Well, I'll tell you what it means.
It means all things serve the man who
serves Christ.
And everything is working together for good to
those who love God who are the called
ones according to his purpose.
All things are ours and we are Christ's
and Christ is God's.
And Paul and Silas realized this as they
prayed this God-answered prayer so marvelously.
Now, moving over to chapter 20, we have
another instance of prayer.
Chapter 20 and verse 36.
Paul has been speaking with the elders of
Ephesus.
They've come down to Miletim to meet him,
and he gave this wonderful talk to them.
Verse 17, From Miletus he sent to Ephesus
and called the elders of the church.
He pours out his heart to them.
It's the most moving and affecting message that
the Apostle Paul delivers to them.
It says in verse 36, And when he
had spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with
them all.
And they all wept sore and fell on
Paul's neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of
all for the words which he spake, that
they should see his face no more.
And they accompanied him unto the ship.
Well, you say you're stuck, MacDonald.
How is that prayer answered in the book
of Acts?
That's a good question, too.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I didn't notice that I haven't turned it
over.
I'm making signs and I didn't recognize the
sign.
The prayer of Paul and Silas in prison.
Paul's prayer with the Ephesian elders, chapter 20,
verse 36.
How was this prayer answered?
Well, it strikes me this way.
First of all, it brought forth a very
touching demonstration of the affection of these Ephesian
people for the great Apostle Paul.
Just remember this.
He's really on his way to the executioner's
block.
And I think he knows it.
He's going to roam, eventually.
And he's going to put his head down
on the block.
And he's going to die for Christ.
It seems to me that all the way
to Rome it'll be a nice thing to
be able to look back to that incident
with the elders at Miletum.
They're praying for him and they're weeping for
him.
You know, sometimes we get into tight spots
in life where it's even hard for us
to pray.
Have you ever been there?
It's awful nice to know somebody else is
praying for you at a time like that.
And I see these prayers of the elders
of Ephesus at Miletum answered in the life
of the Apostle Paul in the days that
were to lie before him.
Then in chapter 21, verse 5, you have
another touching incident on the beach at Tyre.
First, let's go back to verse 3.
21, 3.
The prayer of the Christians at Tyre.
Now, when we had discovered Cyprus, we left
it on the left hand and sailed into
Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the
ship was to unlaid her burden.
And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days,
who said to Paul through the Spirit that
he should not go up to Jerusalem.
When we had accomplished those days, we departed
and went our way.
They all brought us on our way with
wives and children till we were out of
the city and we kneeled down on the
shore and prayed.
When we had taken our leave one of
another, we took ship and they returned home
again.
Now, once again, I believe that these prayers
followed Paul to Jerusalem and followed him to
Rome.
He needed much of the grace, the strengthening
of God in these days of difficulty that
he was soon to face.
Here he knows there's the elders at Ephesus,
there's these Christians at Tyre.
They're praying for him.
Are you conscious of the prayers of a
Christian mother that have followed you down through
life?
I am.
I really am.
Wonderful thing to have Christian friends too who
are remembering you faithfully in prayer.
It's real.
It works.
It means a lot.
Now, just two more.
Paul's prayer prior to the shipwreck.
Chapter 27, verses 35 and 36.
Things are getting tough there on board ship
and everybody's heart is low.
The people are disconsolate.
Verse 35, When he had thus spoken, he
took bread and gave thanks to God in
presence of them all.
And when he had broken it, he began
to eat.
Then were they all of good cheer, and
they also took some food.
Wonderful, isn't it?
The poise of a man of faith.
I mean, it's really a tight situation, and
yet he gets up and he prays, he
gives thanks to God, he takes some of
the food, it changes the whole atmosphere on
board the ship.
You know, in prayer we speak to God,
but there's more to prayer than that.
There's really more to prayer than that.
You realize that when a man prays, he's
often edifying his hearer.
Mind you, he doesn't do it that way,
but it has that effect, just the same.
And I think that's very important.
And here you have the Apostle Paul praying
on the power in the prayer of a
man of God like this.
And it brings cheer to the crew and
the passengers of this ship.
Say, what about the shipwreck?
Paul didn't pray that they might be spared
from shipwreck.
If he did, it didn't say that.
The shipwreck was part of God's will.
God had a strategy in getting Paul to
Rome, and that was part of the strategy.
Then finally, in chapter 28 and verse 8,
they're on the island of Malta, and the
governor's father is sick.
Acts chapter 28 and verse 8, and the
Apostle Paul prays for him.
It came to pass that the father of
Publius lay sick of a fever and of
a bloody flux to whom Paul entered in
and prayed and laid his hands on him
and healed him.
He touched him, as it were.
He prayed and he was healed.
And as far as I know, that's the
last reference to prayer in the book of
Acts.
What a saga of answered prayer.
Now, that raises a very real problem that
I think we should face before we leave
this subject, and that's the problem of miracles
in the book of Acts.
And some of you have been thinking this
as we've been going along.
What about all these miracles in the book
of Acts?
Miraculous answers to prayer.
Are they for today?
Well, they're there in the book of Acts.
There's the miracle of tongues, where men could
get up and speak in foreign languages that
they had never studied, which is given to
them miraculously.
There are miracles of healing in the book
of Acts.
Here's one right here.
And what people oftentimes forget is not only
miracles of healing, but there are miracles where
sicknesses were brought on people miraculously, too.
Ever think of that?
There are people where...
There are incidents where people became miraculously sick.
If you can pardon the expression.
For instance, Herod developed a very bad case
of worms and subsequently died.
And there's a case of resurrection from the
dead in the book of Acts.
And the case of where people were miraculously
killed, too.
Ananias and Sapphira and Herod himself.
Rather interesting, isn't it?
Cases of marvelous deliverance from prison.
Visions.
A case of miraculous blindness that was brought
on Elymas.
Casting out of evil spirits.
And there's the prophecy of Agabus.
Now, should we expect those miracles today?
I think there are two extremes that we
should avoid in this connection.
First of all is the...
is the extreme to say that whatever you
find in the book of Acts you should
expect that today.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
This is the way He worked in Acts.
This is the way He works today.
The other extreme that weighs miracles completely aside
and says no miracles today.
We live in a different dispensation, as it
were, or God has changed.
Now, both of those attitudes are wrong, I
feel.
First of all is the argument Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He did it then.
He should do it today.
Well, that really isn't sound Bible teaching.
For instance, the plagues that God used at
the Exodus He's never repeated them.
God is the same, but His methods do
change.
And the miracles of God are a sovereign
work of the Holy Spirit of God.
And God has never obligated Himself to perform
the same miracle.
It says in Hebrews chapter 2 that many
of these miracles were used in the early
days of the church to authenticate the message
of those who were preaching the gospel.
And that these were gifts of the Holy
Spirit of God.
Hebrews chapter 2, verse 3 says, How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation
which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord and was confirmed unto us
by them that heard Him.
God also bearing them witness both with signs
and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost.
Notice those last words in the verse.
It says, According to His own will.
Now that verse of Scripture, if it says
anything at all, says the gift that miracles
were given in the early days of the
church to authenticate, to confirm the message of
the gospel.
And they were given according to God's own
will.
In other words, they were a sovereign gift
of the Lord.
And so I don't think it's right to
say that just because they existed in the
book of Acts, they have to exist today.
But neither do I think it's right to
say no miracles today.
We have a tendency today to explain away
the miraculous.
And the result is that in many cases
our lives don't rise above flesh and blood.
Now, to me the lasting message of the
book of Acts is that our lives as
Christians should be charged with supernatural power.
And that you and I should be seeing
miracles in our lives all the time.
And I believe this.
Some of you might come up after us
and take issue with me.
But I believe it with all my heart
and I'd like to explain it to you.
I believe you and I should be seeing
the marvelous meshing of circumstances in our lives
continually.
God is working.
I want to see God working.
I want to see Him working through my
life.
And if I lose that sense, I want
to get back to the Lord and see
where I've got out of touch with Him.
I believe God wants us to see miraculous
guidance in our lives.
Day by day, week by week, year by
year.
I believe God wants us to see in
our lives things that lie beyond the range
of probability.
Beyond the range of chance.
God working in a miraculous way.
I believe that we should see God in
a marvelous range
in contacts in life.
Opening doors in life.
And overruling opposition in life as well.
We should be seeing answers to prayer that
are so unmistakable that we can only say,
it's the Lord.
Don't you think God wants us to have
this in our lives?
We should be seeing things happening for God
in our lives.
If not, we should get down on our
knees and ask Him, what's the matter?
We should see God's hand in breakdowns.
You know, you're driving along the road, all
of a sudden, pop!
Something goes wrong.
You say, too bad, sorry.
Why did this thing have to happen?
Why?
Maybe there's a garage mechanic within two miles
of there that should hear the gospel.
That's why.
Seeing God in breakdowns, in accidents, in losses,
in seeming tragedies of life.
I think we should have our lives so
supernatural that we see extraordinary deliverances as we're
going along the way.
We should know in our lives strength and
courage and wisdom and peace that lie beyond
our own ability.
You know, some of us might be, naturally
speaking, worry warts.
And I believe we should see God taking
that worry away and supplanting it with peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit of God.
If my life is lived only on a
natural level, how am I different from the
unconverted people about me?
That's the question I have to ask myself.
I refuse to wave aside the supernatural that
you find in the book of Acts.
I don't insist that God use those same
miracles in my life, but I do want
to see God using the supernatural.
Now, I'd like to give you an illustration
of this, not out of my own life,
but an illustration that came very close to
me within the last two years.
There was a young man that was with
me overseas.
His name was Greg Livingston, a young fellow,
graduate of Wheaton, who really has a heart
ablaze for Christ.
And about a year ago, he came back
to this country in the service of the
Lord.
He went and spoke at a mass.
And then he came over to my apartment
and he spent three hours with me discussing
various problems that had come up in the
work over in Europe.
In fact, he brought up a particular problem
during that time that had come up and
he wanted to share with me.
So I said to him, now, Greg, I
said, there's an elder in a Midwest assembly
who should know what you've told me today.
And I said, you're going to go to
this city and I'm going to give you
his name and address so that you can
contact him and tell him what you've told
me today.
But before he left, I said to him,
and I was just doing this purposely and
he knew it, I had been with him
serving.
I wanted to see what made him tick.
And I said to him, Greg, I'd like
to ask you a question.
He said, go ahead, Mr. McDowell.
I said, Greg, what's it all about?
Here you are, a young fellow, graduate of
Wheaton, and you give it all up and
you go overseas with a group of nobodies
and you throw your life away for Christ
in Europe and Asia.
I said, what do you see?
What's it all about?
And you know what he said to me?
He said, I see this, Mr. McDowell.
He said, it's very hard to live a
life of faith in the United States.
He said, you have to put yourself in
a position where you have to trust God.
Where if God fails you, you're sunk.
And if you do that, he said, there'll
be a power in your life.
And when you touch other lives, something will
happen for God.
Now, I'd like to repeat that because it's
a very important part of the story.
He said, I see that it's very hard
to live a life of faith in the
United States.
You have to put yourself in a position
where you have to trust God.
Where if God fails you, you're sunk.
And he said, if you do that, there'll
be a power in your life.
And when you touch other lives, something will
happen for God.
Well, he went up to this city in
the Midwest and he had meetings there and
contacts and conferences.
He was just there a few hours, but
he didn't contact the elder.
And he wrote and he said, Mr. McDowell,
I really believe the problem is solved to
the glory of God.
I didn't see the elder, but I don't
really feel it's necessary.
And he had committed it to the Lord
in prayer.
So he left to go out to California.
I wrote to him and I said, I
said, well, just keep yourself open.
If the Lord wants you to do it,
he'll arrange it.
So he came out to Los Angeles.
He had a series of meetings in Los
Angeles.
His two weeks there came to an end
and he got on a Greyhound bus to
go back east.
He was going to go back east via
Lobo, Texas, wherever that is.
And so he got on a Greyhound bus
in Los Angeles and started back.
There were quite a few empty seats.
But when the bus got to Riverside, California,
the seats started filling up.
And interestingly enough, every seat on the bus
filled up except the seat next to Greg
Livingston.
And the door was still open.
And so Greg bowed his head and asked
the Lord to send on some young person
to whom he could testify for the Lord.
Well, a man got on the bus and
came and sat beside Greg Livingston.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a young person, an older
man.
And Greg said, young or old, I've got
my duty to do for God.
And so he started to witness to this
man.
He started to speak to him about the
Lord Jesus.
And the man said to him, well, that's
an interesting thing.
He said, I'm a Christian myself.
And Greg said, you are?
He said, my name is Greg Livingston.
And the man said, my name is.
And gave the name of the elder of
that Midwest assembly.
And Greg wrote me and he said, Mr.
McDonald, as soon as he gave me his
name, he said, I knew what I had
to do.
And I met the elder two or three
months later.
And he said to me, Bill, nothing has
happened in my Christian life that has spoken
to me as loudly as that.
You know what happened?
That elder and his wife have a daughter
married in Arizona.
They went down to get a drive-away
car to drive out to visit their daughter.
They got the drive-away car, but the
drive-away car had to be delivered to
Riverside, California.
So this elder dropped his wife off at
the home in Arizona, and he drove the
car out to Riverside to deliver the car
there and got on a Greyhound bus to
go back to Arizona and sat next to
Greg Livingston.
Now I want to ask you a question.
Do you believe that God will arrange Greyhound
bus schedules to serve those who are yielded
to Christ?
Do you?
I believe God wants us to see this
type of thing in my life.
In closing, may I just repeat Greg Livingston's
words to you?
What makes you tick, Greg?
He said, I see that it's very hard
to live a life of faith in the
United States.
You have to put yourself in a position
where you have to trust God, where if
God fails you, you're sunk.
And if you do that, there'll be a
power in your life, and when you touch
other lives, something will happen for God.
Look at the book of Acts and see
what we can learn there about the church.
And I'm thinking this morning particularly about the
local church.
I'm sure, as we have been reading in
the book of Acts, that you've noticed that,
largely speaking, the church in the first days
of Christianity was what you might call a
household church.
The meeting place was the home.
And this was a tremendously startling development that
came with the introduction of Christianity, because down
through the Old Testament, religion had been associated
with buildings on earth.
In the earliest days of Judaism, God set
up a tabernacle, a tent-like structure, and
although it might have been rather plain and
simple on the outside, it was very ornate
on the inside, a beautifully embroidered veil and
very costly furniture.
And then, you'll know, after the people came
into the land, God instituted the temple, which
was a very magnificent building, the Temple of
Solomon.
And in those days, as I say, worship
was related to buildings on earth.
But with the coming of Christianity, there was
an abrupt change, and God loosed religion, shall
I say, from specially sacred places.
Mr. Walden is smiling because he thought that
only happened when he was speaking.
God loosed religion from specially sacred places, and
this signaled a great dispensational change.
Why was the home so prominent in the
book of Acts?
Well, the reason is that with the coming
of the Holy Spirit, with the coming of
the Lord, men no longer worshipped in buildings
on earth.
And I think this is very important for
us all to grasp.
We, as Christians, do not worship in church
buildings, in chapels, in halls, call them what
you want.
The Lord Jesus said that to the woman
of Samaria, didn't he?
She said, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain.
Ye say that Jerusalem's the place where men
ought to worship.
And the Lord Jesus said, Look, that's all
changed.
Forget it.
The hour is coming, and now is when
the true worshippers will worship in spirit and
in truth.
He said, Neither in this mountain, nor yet
in Jerusalem.
In Christianity, it doesn't really make too much
difference where our bodies are, because we, by
faith, ascend into the presence of God in
the sanctuary of heaven.
That's a wonderful thing, and it's a truth
that is largely lost sight of today.
We do not worship on earth.
We worship in the presence of the sovereign
of the universe in the throne room in
heaven.
And when we do worship, we should be
conscious of that.
We should be conscious of the fact that
we're in the presence of God, that we're
bowing there before him and telling him all
that is on our heart.
And so the home was entirely suitable and
entirely adequate as a place for the Christians
to meet.
Sometimes they met in dens, in caves of
the woods, out in the moors, in deserts,
and all the rest didn't make a bit
of difference.
Unger says that the church continued to meet
in homes for about two centuries.
That's interesting.
And the reason I want to emphasize this
today is because I believe there are some
indications that the Spirit of God is moving
back in this direction again in the day
in which we live.
Mr. Walden was telling about a wonderful work
of God's Spirit in the Colorado area, where
God is raising up a group of young
men who have a vision of planting, shall
we say, household churches.
And God has signally blessed their efforts.
Just before I came here, I heard of
five leaders of one of the prominent student
organizations who have resigned their positions with that
student organization and are just moving out in
order to evangelize and see household cells started.
I think they call them cells rather than
churches, but the idea is very much the
same.
And I personally know of some young couples
who have resigned their jobs and are moving
out to districts, settling in new areas for
the specific purpose of making Christ known and
seeing believers gathered in the simple way in
which it was done in the book of
Acts.
Now, I have a question here.
Why not special buildings?
Well, we've all already given one reason, the
very nature of Christianity.
We don't ever speak of a building as
being the house of God.
No building on earth is the house of
God today.
But that isn't all.
Number one, it gives a false view of
Christianity.
That is, for Christians to be having ornate,
costly buildings, it's just inconsistent with the very
genius of Christianity.
Let me give you two illustrations of that.
First of all, a man went into a
magnificent cathedral in Rome and he saw a
statue of the Christ Child, the Bambino.
And around the statue there were strings of
costly jewels, real jewels.
And the church itself was magnificently decorated with
gold and all the rest.
And he went out into the streets from
the cathedral and on the streets of Rome
he saw the emaciated faces of children who
were hungry.
And he said to himself, I wonder if
the Christ is enjoying his jewels.
And he said, I decided that if he
were, I could no longer enjoy the thought
of the Christ.
And he said that Bambino, with the jewels
around his neck, spoke to him of what
men have done with Christianity, bedecking the Christ
Child with jewels while outside the door are
the dispossessed and the unemployed of the world.
Rather a striking thought, isn't it?
And it makes you wonder how we can
justify the expenditure of vast sums of money
on costly buildings when 7,000 people die
daily of starvation and over half the world
has never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, two years ago I was standing
at Speaker's Corner.
We were having an open-air meeting at
Speaker's Corner in London, Hyde Park.
And in the audience there were young people
really from all over the world.
I don't think that's an exaggeration.
But after the meeting some fellows came up
to us.
They were from India and some from Pakistan.
And they wanted to talk to us.
These fellows were not dunces.
It turned out they were in London for
their graduate degrees.
And one of them said to me, he
said, we have no quarrel with the ethics
of Jesus.
We have no quarrel, he said, with the
teachings of Jesus.
But he said, how can you Christians justify
the expensive buildings, the expensive cathedrals you have
when there's starvation in our countries?
How would you answer a fellow when he
comes to you with a question like that?
Well, of course, if I feel a man
is right, I'm not going to argue with
him.
And I felt he was right.
And I told him so.
Now, incidentally, they have some pretty costly church
buildings or religious buildings in their own countries.
But that isn't the point.
And it wouldn't do any good to bring
that up to him.
The point is they have higher standards for
Christianity than they do for themselves.
And what he said to me was a
subtle admission that that was the case.
That they can expect that type of a
Taj Mahal in their country, but they don't
expect it in a Christian country.
Rather interesting, isn't it?
Gives a false view of Christianity.
Then, secondly, it's uneconomical.
I often think, especially of some of these
church buildings, beautiful structures.
Architecturally, they're tops.
And used one, two, three hours a week.
Now, you wonder about these things, don't you?
You wonder that men ever allow themselves to
be so brainwashed.
I know they wouldn't do it in their
businesses.
I know when they buy costly machines in
business, they oftentimes think of adding another shift
or two in order that the machines might
be utilized around the clock in order that
their investment might be realized.
And yet men will spend vast sums of
money in ornate edifices and use them relatively
few hours a week.
It just doesn't seem economical, does it?
And then, thirdly, it's perhaps the greatest hindrance
to the expansion of the church.
I can't help thinking that the more we
go into vast building programs, the more we're
slowing up the program of God on the
earth.
You say, how does that work?
Well, I'll tell you how it works.
Let's say we build a great building and
have a heavy mortgage on it.
And we're really having to scrape in order
to meet the principal and interest payments.
Supposing at that time there's exercise of soul
among some of the Christians to hive off
and start another work.
What kind of a reception will it get?
Well, I'm afraid, generally speaking, it'll get a
rather cool reception because, after all, we have
our payments to make and we need every
possible bit of help in making these payments.
And whether we like it or not, practically
speaking, the effect of these great building programs
has been a hindrance to the expansion of
the church.
You can see that where they concentrated in
the homes, it furthered the expansion of the
church because, after all, a home is rather
limited in its size, usually, and when the
work grows, they have to hive off.
And this is exactly what would happen in
the city, apparently, and happened in Rome.
If you read the 16th chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans, you'll find there were
various household churches in Rome.
They were hiving off.
They were meeting all around the city.
Now, what about the arguments in favor of
special buildings?
Well, the first argument that's generally used is
it's necessary to attract the unchurched.
That is, in order to get unsaved people
into the meetings, you really have to have
a fairly respectable and presentable place of meeting.
Now, let us put ourselves back in the
book of Acts and see what that argument
is like.
Well, actually, as I read the book of
Acts, it seems to me that the meetings
there were not for the unchurched.
The meetings in the book of Acts were
primarily for Christians.
You have that in Acts chapter 2, don't
you?
We've already read the verse, and that's why
I didn't read this morning, because many of
the verses we've already read pertain to this
subject.
But it says, verse 42, "...they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking
of bread and prayers."
And this seems to have been the genius
of the early church, that they came together
as Christians in homes, and the meetings were
for Christians.
Then they went out from the homes, and
they carried on the evangelistic work during the
week, every one of them.
And I think that's very good, too.
Really, there's no substitute.
There's nothing better than God's method.
In other words, they did not meet on
Sunday to evangelize the un-evangelized.
They met together when they met to study
the Word of God, to have fellowship in
the things of God, to remember the Lord
in the breaking of bread, and to pray.
And then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
in their work, wherever they were, they were
making Christ known.
Then when they saw people saved, they brought
them into the household church, as it were.
The household church was more of a feeding
station and a strengthening station for those who
were already converted to God.
Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't use chapel
buildings today for evangelistic meetings.
I'm just going back and trying to take
a fresh look at the book of Acts
and see how it was done then.
Then, secondly, another argument in favor of special
buildings is that it was necessary, that it's
necessary for Sunday school.
And there is a measure of truth, this,
that in many homes they are not adequate
for Sunday school classes.
I rather believe that in the book of
Acts the emphasis in the teaching of children
was in the home, but that does raise
problems, too, because what about the children in
the neighborhood who do not come from Christian
homes?
How are they going to get taught the
word of God?
So this is something that we want to
consider in order to give a fair, well
-rounded view.
But I think that there are very obvious
advantages to meeting in the home, and one
of them is its very informality.
As I say, God loosed the church from
especially sacred places and brought it into that
place of universal living, and that is the
home.
And I'm always interested in talking to people
today.
Oftentimes when you try to get them to
come out to special meetings in a church
building, they're not interested.
They say, they say, all the church is
interested in is your money.
You ever hear that?
I'd just like to say very frankly today
that my impression is that the unchurched people
today are tired of organized Christianity.
But some of those very people, if invited
to come into a home, will come.
If invited to come into a home for
a Bible study or for a coffee hour
or something, very glad to come into the
home.
And incidentally, some of them don't feel that
they have to dress as well coming into
the home as they do.
In fact, a lot of people say they
just don't have clothes that would be suitable
for going into the church as they envisage
the building.
So there is something very delightful about the
informality of the home.
And as I say, I believe it's coming
here in the United States.
I believe the Spirit of God is moving
this way in the United States.
And my whole idea in presenting this this
morning is that we might be open and
sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of
God.
It says of Isaacer in the Old Testament
that he was a discerner of the times
and of the seasons.
And we ought to be too.
And we ought to be sensitive to how
the wind of the Spirit is blowing and
be usable of him in this connection.
Then the household church is ideal for every
culture and country.
You know, we're so smug here in the
United States and we think, well, this is
the right way to do it and what
other way is there?
But actually, I have a feeling that if
you could look down from heaven today over
the whole world, you'd find more assemblies meeting
in homes than in any other place.
Does that shock you?
Well, I really believe it's true.
I believe that if you could take a
closer look, you could find that more are
meeting probably under thatched roofs than in any
other place.
We think it has to be a gospel
chapel or something like that.
Nonsense.
Many places in the world, the people are
so poor they couldn't afford a special building.
But they have homes in which they can
meet and this proves to be ideal for
the work of God.
Now, let's just go over these again before
we move on because some came in late.
The subject is the local church and first
of all, we're thinking about its meeting place
and we noticed that in the book of
Acts the meeting place predominantly was the home.
Why not special buildings?
Well, we said first of all because they
give a false view of Christianity, especially ornate
buildings, costly buildings.
I can't help thinking of the Jehovah's Witnesses
in this connection.
Have you ever noticed the emphasis they place
on buildings and on literature?
Generally speaking, they're satisfied with very modest cinder
block buildings but they spend hundreds of thousands
in literature.
Their presses in Brooklyn are really turning out
the literature by the tons in almost any
language in which you could desire it.
Well, it might speak to us.
Their message is wrong.
In many cases, I believe their method is
right.
Not only so, it's uneconomical to spend vast
amounts of money in buildings and use them
two or three hours a week.
And thirdly, it's perhaps the greatest hindrance to
the expansion of the church when the church
settles down comfortably in an ornate building and
it's a hindrance to a hiding off operation.
Arguments in favor of special buildings.
Well, we say that they're necessary to attract
the unchurched, but the answer to that seems
to be that, first of all, that's rather
a carnal weapon with which to fight a
spiritual warfare.
But we should remember that in the book
of Acts they went forth with the gospel
message and we're going to see that more
as we go on in this study.
And the second argument is that the special
buildings are necessary for Sunday schools.
There's a measure of truth to that.
There are arguments pro and con.
You can think about that at your leisure.
Advantages of the home.
Very informal, very economical, ideal for every culture
and country.
Now, another feature of life in the New
Testament church is what we might call every
member involvement.
I'd like to point out, first of all,
and it's good to read the book of
Acts and remember this, that Christianity is a
layman Christian movement.
And I'd like to read from the writings
of some men who have been connected with
what you might call the organized church, rather
illuminating some of these quotes.
Christianity, a layman's movement.
Harnack claimed that, quote, when the church won
its greatest victories in the early days in
the Roman Empire, it did so not by
teachers or preachers or apostles, but by informal
missionaries.
Interesting, isn't it?
Dean Inge wrote, Christianity began as a lay
prophetic religion.
It is on the laity that the future
of Christianity depends.
And he was a high church man.
Brian Green says, the future of Christianity and
the evangelization of the world rest in the
hands of ordinary men and women and not
primarily in those of professional Christian ministers.
Interesting, isn't it?
And then Leighton Ford, who is on Billy
Graham's team, writes, a church which bottlenecks its
outreach by depending on its specialists to do
its witnessing is living in violation of both
the intention of its head and the consistent
pattern of the early Christians.
Evangelism was the task of the whole church,
not just of the name characters.
And finally, a man named James A.
Stewart, I don't really know what his connection
is, he writes, each member of the local
assembly went out to win souls for Christ
by personal contact and then brought these newborn
babes back into these local churches where they
were indoctrinated and strengthened in the faith of
the Redeemer.
They, in turn, went out to do likewise.
What it really boils down to is that
in the apostolic church there was no such
a person as a clergyman and no such
a system as the clerical system.
These men recognized that fact in so many
words.
Philippians chapter 1 and verse 1, Paul writing
to the assembly there at Philippi, addresses the
letter as follows, Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in
Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the
bishops and deacons.
In other words, the structure of the church
at Philippi included saints, the believers, it included
bishops or elders, because that's the meaning, really.
The word, it included deacons, and that is
servants of the church.
Now, there wasn't anyone else there.
If there had been anyone else there, the
apostle Paul would have had the common courtesy
to recognize a clergyman, but he wasn't there.
Now, somebody says, yes, but what about the
apostles who did go out in the book
of Acts?
Weren't they specialists?
Weren't they a group of men designated to
preach the gospel and to establish New Testament
churches?
Well, that's why we have here there were
gifts to build up the saints for the
work of the ministry.
And you have that in Ephesians 4, verses
11 and 12.
Gifts given to build up the saints for
the work of the ministry.
Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12, and he
gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and
some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of
the saints should be really unto the work
of the ministry, unto the edifying of the
body of Christ.
A little bit confusing in our King James
Version.
It almost sounds as if there were three
separate purposes there introduced by the preposition for.
Notice the three fors.
For the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ.
And it almost sounds like three coordinate purposes,
but that's not the idea.
The purpose of the gifts is for the
perfecting of the saints unto the work of
the ministry, unto the edifying of the body
of Christ.
If this verse says anything at all, it
says that the saints are the ones who
are to do the work of the ministry.
Who are the ministers in the New Testament
sense?
Believers.
What a vision that is to see these
men like Paul, and Peter, and Barnabas, and
they'd go out, and they'd preach the gospel,
and souls would be saved, and these men
would be there, and they'd build them up
in the faith, they'd carry on what we
call follow-up work, so that then these
people in turn could move out and do
the very same thing.
Move out and witness effectively for the Lord
Jesus Christ and teach the word of God.
The New Testament envisages every believer a witness
for the Savior.
Every believer a Bible student.
Every believer a teacher.
That's a shocker, isn't it?
To think that every believer is intended to
be a teacher.
Not in the sense of these gifts, but
you might turn to Hebrews chapter 5.
I think it's in Hebrews chapter 5.
The writer of the epistle anyway says
in verse 11, "...of whom we have many
things to say and hard to be uttered,
seeing ye are dull of hearing."
Verse 12, "...for when for the time ye
ought to be teachers, ye have need that
one teach you again, which be the first
principles of the oracles of God, and are
become such as have need of milk, and
not of strong drink."
Now he's really speaking to Hebrew believers here.
Not just one class of believers, but to
the people in general.
And he's saying to them, you ought to
be teachers.
I underline that in my mind.
You ought to be teachers.
They had been saved long enough and built
up in the faith sufficiently.
The time had come when they ought to
be teachers.
Alright, every member involvement.
Christianity, a layman Christian movement.
No clerical system.
The world will never be evangelized as God
intended it to be as long as we
depend on a clerical system upon certain professionals
carrying on the work.
Christianity consists of what you might call informal
missionaries.
God did give gifts to build up the
saints.
We have gifts today, evangelists, pastors, and teachers.
And their purpose is not that the saints
become perpetually dependent upon them, but that the
saints be built up so they can go
forth and carry on the work of God.
Then God also did give elders to govern
in the local church.
Elders who by their lives and godly example
are guides to the people of God.
And I think this is very important to
remember.
And we're going to be saying more about
that as we go on.
And then he also gave, he also sets
up deacons to serve.
And Mr. Walden has already spoken about that
word.
I believe anyone who is not an elder
who does serve the local assembly is a
deacon.
Just a suggestion.
Not someone who's elected, but anybody who's ministering
in connection with the local assembly and who
is not an elder is a deacon.
Every member involved.
Now, I have a list here of some
unusual pulpits that were used in the book
of Acts.
And you'll probably wonder why I went to
such detail to do this, but I'll draw
the lessons as we close.
Unusual pulpits.
First of all, you'll find in the book
of Acts that they love to preach in
the open air.
This is very, very interesting.
I could give you a list of the
places where the open air is used, and
it's quite a formidable list.
They preached in the temple in Byron's.
It wasn't exactly the easiest place in the
world to preach, but they went there and
they preached there.
They preached in the Jewish, before the Jewish
Sanhedrin.
They were always having scrapes with the civil
law and with the religious law.
They often found them there in front of
the Jewish Sanhedrin.
I mean, this wasn't exactly the way they
had planned it, but this is the way
it turned out.
They preached down by the river.
They preached in the marketplace.
They preached on Mars Hill, at least Paul
did.
Preached from the stairs of the fortress of
Antomio.
They preached in the synagogues as long as
they were able to do it.
They preached in private homes as well.
One man at least witnessed in a chariot,
Philip, with the Ethiopian eunuch.
The ship proved a pretty good pulpit for
the Apostle Paul.
He reasoned in the schoolroom of Tyrannus.
They went everywhere, it says, preaching the gospel.
And a very common place for preaching was
the civil courts.
Now, what does that mean?
I purposely made that list of places where
witnessing was carried on in the early days
of the church.
Well, it speaks very loudly to me like
this.
There were very few prepared messages in the
book of Acts.
Did you ever think of that?
There were very few instances in the book
of Acts where a man got up and
prepared a message and delivered it.
Most of the preaching in the book of
Acts was done in the normal routine of
life and especially when crises came up.
As a result of their godly lives, for
instance, they oftentimes ran into trouble with the
law.
And so they'd be arrested and they'd be
brought before a tribunal.
They said, wonderful, this is a good opportunity
to preach Christ.
And they never missed a chance.
And what the lesson really is to me
in the book of Acts was that preaching
wasn't the performance of an hour but the
overflow of a life.
I think that's very, very significant and I
hope we don't allow the Lord to waste
it on us.
Preaching in the book of Acts was not
the performance of an hour but the overflow
of a life.
It wasn't as formalized as we have it
today.
You just had people living their lives, living
Christ, witnessing for Christ as they went along.
And no matter what came along, they thought,
well, here we are, a good opportunity to
speak for Jesus Christ.
And what happened?
Well, the preaching was extemporaneous.
And it's just the same old story.
Don't worry in advance what you're going to
say.
The Lord will give you in that moment
what you'll say.
And they were pretty tremendous messages, weren't they?
And had pretty tremendous results.
Seems to me that the early Christians majored
in the culture, the cultivation of a godly
life, the fruit of the Spirit in their
own lives.
And then it bubbled out from them and
how effective it proved.
Well, tomorrow, Lord willing, we'll go on and
take some more looks at just what took
place in the book of Acts.
Kind of refreshing, isn't it, to go back
and breathe the pure air of the early
church.
We continue with Mr. MacDonald on the book
of Acts, on cassette number three.