Concerning the Wednesday night prayer service, we certainly
would just be delighted to have everyone that's
here this morning come back on Wednesday evening.
We seek, by the grace of God, to
call upon the Lord and to not only
make our prayers known to the Lord, but
have answers from heaven to the requests that
we make, and then be able to praise
the Lord, share together the praise that he
so well deserves for all of his goodness
and mercy to us.
Now, this thought is not original with me,
but I'm going to put it to you.
If this Wednesday night at about seven o
'clock you're doing something else other than being
here for the prayer service, you can say
to yourself, what I'm doing is more important
than coming to the prayer service.
I want you to remember that in the
early church they continued steadfastly in the apostle's
doctrine or teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and
prayer.
Prayer is something that God would have his
people be engaged in.
We're expressing our dependence upon him.
We are looking to the source of all
of our blessings and asking him at that
throne of grace to hear our cries.
I think he delights to answer our prayers.
It's a source of encouragement, and in the
weeks that lie before us, and even this
week, I trust that there'll be a report,
a note of praise to God for prayer
that's already been answered.
Prayers that we have made at that throne
of grace.
Before we read from verse 12 of this
fifth chapter, I'd like to, just in the
way of review, remind you that what we
read in our last time together, from verse
1 down to verse 11, gives us an
account of two people in the early church.
This is that period of time in which
the Spirit of God had not only indwelt
believers, but believers were filled with the Spirit
of God in a very special way for
service.
And as yet, there had not been introduced
into the family of God, the church, the
body of Christ, had not been that evidence
of sin that would grieve the Spirit of
God.
But poor Ananias and Sapphira, husband and wife,
they did something that so grieved the Spirit
of God that they fell down dead at
the feet of Peter.
And I would remind you of this.
There are those that are claiming today all
of the special things that happened during that
period of time right after Pentecost.
Pentecostal power, Pentecostal signs and wonders.
Some speak with other languages, tongues so-called.
Some claim that they have special gifts of
healing.
All of this is identified and they associate
themselves with that Pentecostal period where the Spirit
of God in mighty power was working through
the Lord's people.
This is the question I raise.
If those people today that are claiming all
of those special enablements from the Spirit of
God to speak in other languages, to heal,
to perform miracles, I wonder if any of
them have lied to God.
Because if they're claiming that they have embraced
that Pentecostal period and all that was happening
there to the same extent that it was
happening here, some of them would be dead.
And I reminded you last week, all of
this sounds like and seems like it is
so severe.
But beloved, believe me, it is a serious
thing to lie to God.
It is a serious matter to sin right
in the face of God in defiance of
all that we have read and studied and
know to be the ways of God, the
truth of God.
And yet, in the face of all of
that, we can unblushingly, brazenly lie to the
Spirit of God.
It's a serious business.
The drastic measures that were taken to impress
upon the hearts of all that observe God's
people.
Because when you reach the twelfth verse, well
even before then, that eleventh verse, let me
say this in closing, says, Great fear came
upon all the church and upon all who
heard these things.
Those people that witnessed that, it sent shockwaves
through their soul.
You know, when you become a Christian, you
need to know this, if you haven't found
it out, we're not perfect.
And anyone that's teaching today that by some
process of progressive sanctification, we are being made
perfect.
Perfect in the sense that the whole question
of the old nature is eradicated.
That's not found in the Word of God.
And the proof of it is in our
everyday life because we are guilted by thought,
word, or deed in some way, more than
likely, every day that we live of committing
sin.
And the Spirit of God is grieved when
we sin.
And thank God by His grace that He
doesn't smite us dead when we sin.
There was great fear because of what had
happened.
Now, in the twelfth verse, in view of
that, it says, Through the hands of the
apostles many signs and wonders were done among
the people, and they were all with one
accord in Solomon's porch.
Yet none of the rest dared join them,
but the people esteemed them highly.
And believers were increasingly added to the Lord,
multitudes of both men and women, so that
they brought the sick out into the streets
and laid them on beds and couches, that
at least the shadow of Peter passing by
might fall on some of them.
Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities
to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who
were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were
all healed.
I want to stop right there, and I'd
like to comment on those verses.
We first get the reaction of the church,
which was one of fear, awe, and wonder.
But then we have the apostles performing many
miracles.
There were miraculous healings.
There were things that were being done by
the hands of these men, filled with the
Spirit of God, as a mighty witness to
all that beheld it, that God was working
through these instruments of clay, these human beings
that had trusted the value of the sacrifice
that the Son of God had made for
them personally in the shedding of His blood,
these that were indeed embracing the wonderful, glorious
gospel of Christ.
God, by His Spirit, was working through their
lives.
Miracles were being performed for a purpose, as
a witness to those that beheld it.
Now with all of that happening, and in
the temple area, it seems that, Scripture's careful
to mark this out, that Christians were gathering
in that special place, perhaps in Solomon's court.
And you know how people gather at a
certain place, you get in the habit.
In this auditorium this morning, I can almost
close my eyes and tell where certain people
are sitting.
It seems that we just gravitate to a
certain place, a certain pew, when we sit
down in a building that we're accustomed to
visiting very often.
And so it was with the early Christians.
This place, that was their gathering place there.
They were over by themselves, fellowshipping and enjoying,
perhaps, things that they had in common.
But in that thirteenth verse, I'm aware that
there were some of them that had developed
a kind of shyness about this matter of
all of the miracles that were being performed.
Perhaps what had happened to Ananias and Sapphira.
They had kind of withdrawn themselves a little
a ways apart from where the action really
was.
You know, I thought that was so appropriate
as far as an illustration of what happens
today.
You know, there's still some of God's people
that do not want to be involved, actively
involved, in what is going on in the
family of God.
It seems like they're always a little bit
over on the sidelines.
They are observers, but they're not participants.
And I thought that thought, the very fact
that this shyness in the face of these
miracles, they were keeping their distance.
That's the thought I get.
Withdraw just a little bit.
I'll tell you what, when you see people
on fire for God, when you see people
filled with the Spirit of God performing miracles
and living for God, they are indeed a
peculiar people.
And people shun them.
They are afraid of them.
I've said this before, but there's still a
current of feeling that runs through the minds
and hearts of many of God's people when
they hear someone say, be not drunk with
wine, but be filled with the Spirit of
God.
It scares them to death.
I don't know what I might do.
And I've used this statement before.
It's worth repeating.
The man that said, I might do something
foolish if I was filled with the Spirit
of God.
Let me tell you something.
Those believers in this world today that are
not aspiring to be filled with the Spirit
of God are living foolish lives.
Every one of us as believers in our
Lord Jesus this morning, indwelt by the Spirit
of God, should desire from the depths of
our souls that the Spirit of God would
control us and that we would be filled
with the Spirit of God.
Even at that period in church history, so
close to the experience of Pentecost, there was
that shyness, that reluctance to reach out and
to identify and to be involved with those
that were experiencing the spiritual power that God
had provided through His Spirit.
When you read that 14th verse, and it's
just like the 47th verse of the 2nd
chapter that God added daily to the church
those that were being saved, souls were saved.
The remarkable thing about it is this.
This is what I want to call to
your attention.
They were added to the Lord.
Not to a denomination.
You could have said, well, the first church
of Jerusalem.
They were added to the first church at
Jerusalem, whatever.
But it says they were added to the
Lord.
And I know that very often people say,
well, it doesn't seem appropriate to make mention
of things that it's a no man's land.
Well, listen, any name that we identify with
other than the Lord, anything that we call
ourselves other than Christians, we have no basis
for it in the Word of God.
They were first called Christians at Antioch.
Is being a Christian, just being called a
Christian, does that satisfy you?
You by faith in Jesus Christ, the Son
of God and what He did upon the
cross, you belong to the Lord.
You've been added to the body of Jesus
Christ, the church.
You've been baptized by one Spirit into that
one body.
Does that satisfy you?
This statement says they were added to the
Lord, those that indeed were believing.
And I believe there was a mighty moving
of the Spirit of God in saving souls.
Man, that's one of the things that we
aspire to see happen here at Northgate Chapel.
We want to see men and women brought
under conviction by the Spirit of God.
I like to hear a convert say, I'm
lost, before you talk about saying trusting Jesus.
Listen, you've got to get lost.
You've got to see your need before you
can really get into a proper focus.
The value of what Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, did upon the cross.
He died for your sin.
He didn't do no sin.
He was made sin for you and for
me, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him.
We need to see ourselves as destitute, as
lost, hopelessly lost, with no hope in this
world.
And God provided a Savior.
And the Spirit of God is the only
one that can help you see that.
And He can convict you of sin, of
righteousness, of judgment.
Oh, how wonderful our God is, and His
ways are perfect that was added to the
Lord, those that believe.
Verses 15 and 16 again touch upon that
which many today want to claim as an
experience and power in their ministry and what
they do for the Lord.
When you have people that are so confident
that something miraculous will happen, if Peter's shadow
falls upon a sick person, they are so
confident that there's something holy and there's something
special about that person that if I just
put my bed here and that illness that
I have, that sickness that I have, that
infirmity that I have, if Peter passes by
and his shadow falls across me, I'll be
healed.
I'll tell you, that's real faith.
We cry out sometimes, Lord, help my lack
of faith.
Help my unbelief.
Let me tell you, that's real faith.
But you know, there's not a lot said
as far as the results of what was
happening.
I have to believe that it was happening.
I believe that faith was rewarded just like
that woman that touched the hem of the
garment of the Son of God.
She was healed.
This is a very special period in time
when the church, by the mighty power of
the Spirit of God, things were happening.
And beloved, you know that's what we pray
for today.
We want to see things happen.
We want to see the Spirit of God
work.
We don't want to do anything to grieve
the Spirit of God.
And certainly we don't want to do anything
to quench the Spirit of God.
His mighty power working in and through His
people.
Every believer being gifted of God to make
a contribution to the body of Jesus Christ.
For the upbuilding of the body.
Every joint supplying a need within the body.
Oh, we want to see that.
That's no secret.
We want to see the Spirit of God
work.
And we need to pray to that end.
That every one of us would say, Lord,
I want revival so bad.
Start right here.
Oh, don't be talking about your brother and
your sister and them getting revived.
Them being spiritually empowered from on high to
perform miracles, to be a good witness.
Start right here, Lord.
Right here.
I want to see souls saved.
Lord, start right here.
Exercise my soul to be a witness for
Jesus Christ.
That's the way revivals start.
Things were happening.
Even the shadow of Peter brought healing and
blessing.
And of course, I like that sixteenth verse.
It says, all, all were healed that came.
I've never been to one of these mass
revivals where they offer healing to people that
come to those services.
I've heard some things that are rather disturbing.
In fact, it's a little disgusting that people
that apply for healing, and you do have
to apply and say, I want to be
healed.
Everything must be done decently and in order.
But I understand that people are carefully screened
out.
In fact, they interview people.
What's your problem?
Well, I've got a backache.
You've got a backache.
And they're very careful sometimes to take the
cases that in a moment of time in
which emotions are so aroused that a person
will even forget his backache.
He'll even forget his limp.
He will be so overwhelmed by what's happening
that it might appear obviously that a miracle
has been performed.
But listen, I see no screening process here.
I see everyone that was being brought to
be healed.
And when these brethren say, you're healed, when
their hands were laid upon them, the healing
power of God, sick people, those that were
tormented by unclean spirits, they were all healed.
And I challenge those today that say they
possess that kind of power from God.
Why doesn't it work every time?
Why is it that you have to be
so careful about who you approach and who
you heal?
I believe during those times that they'd had
the modern hospital facilities and things that we
have today, Peter and the others could have
gone down the wards in the hospital and
every room, every bed that they stopped at,
that person would be healed.
Why don't the so-called faith healers of
today do that?
I don't see any of them.
I don't hear of any of them in
the hospital.
Beloved, there's nothing like being a victim of
self-delusion.
There's nothing so sad as to see someone,
perhaps earnestly, perhaps sincerely, thinks that he has
this kind of power.
But he doesn't have it.
He doesn't have it.
For obviously, I don't believe that there is
that kind of power today entrusted to men.
It was during a very special time.
It was exercised for a special purpose, and
God was sovereign, sovereign, guiding and directing in
this whole matter.
That's what's so important.
Now, beyond that section from verse 17 down
through 28, we have the apostles.
Again, they are witnesses.
They are making known the message.
They're teaching, and as a result of that,
there's a violent reaction, a violent reaction from
the priest, the hierarchy, the religious elite of
that day.
What are these people doing?
Well, they're healing people.
Miracles are being performed, and they are preaching
and teaching in the name of Jesus.
That brought about a reaction that you just
couldn't hardly believe.
What is the crime that they've committed?
What are they doing that you don't approve
of?
It says, the high priest rose up, and
all those who were with him, which is
the sect of the Sadducees, they were the
ones that just could not stand you to
be that word, resurrection of the dead.
And they were filled with indignation.
It may be in the footnote of your
Bible, jealousy.
They're doing things we can't do.
We don't like it.
They were jealous of them.
They are performing these miracles.
People are being blessed.
People are following them, and they were jealous
of them.
What did they do?
They said, arrest them.
Arrest them.
For what?
What are you going to arrest them for?
You don't read about a warrant being served
and the specific things being mentioned for which
they were being arrested.
Just arrest them.
We can't stand this.
Well, in this passage that we read, they
were arrested, and they were cast into the
common prison.
They were thrown in there with all the
others.
But you know, there's going to be angelic
deliverance here, and there was.
An angel came and unlocked the door at
just the right time, told them exactly what
to do.
Go back to the temple and teach the
same thing you've been teaching before.
Now, I trust that you remember what they
prayed for in that fourth chapter.
They were being persecuted.
Trial and testing was just coming in from
all sides.
Did they pray, Lord, deliver us from our
oppressors?
No.
They said, give us holy boldness to preach
the Word of God.
They said, think about it.
The Lord dealing with those that were opposing
them, those that were beating them, those that
were threatening them.
Lord, give us boldness to preach the Word
of God.
And the angel sends them after he has
opened the prison, not only delivers them, but
he gives them instructions what they're supposed to
do.
Go back into the temple area and preach
and teach the Word of God.
They were right there at daybreak.
Didn't waste any time.
At daybreak, they were there.
Just as soon as people began to stir
and things began to happen, and there was
someone there to give the message to, they
were there, and they were giving it out.
Giving it out and giving it out in
power.
Teaching all that Jesus had taught them, the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
How important that was.
So often I hear people say, well, I
don't think I'll go to that meeting.
It's just a gospel meeting.
I cringe when I hear that.
It's just a gospel meeting.
It's just a place where the truth concerning
what God has done to save our souls,
and we say, it's just a gospel meeting.
Beloved, you better get down on your knees
if you've said that and say, Lord, forgive
me.
That's where I got in from hearing the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
Oh, let the Spirit of God impress upon
our heart.
The priority is in our ministering and teaching
and preaching to other people.
We've got to tell them about the Lord
Jesus.
We can't take it for granted that they
know.
That name Jesus is just, people speak it
so casually.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
I like the full name, the full title.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God.
He's more than just Jesus, that human man,
that one that was born in Bethlehem's manger,
the one that lived in Nazareth.
He's more than all of that.
He is the eternal Son of God that
left heaven's glory and came to this world,
and He died upon the cross for you
and me.
That's who He is.
So don't ever, ever look in a demeaning
way upon, it's just a gospel meeting, brother.
You pray that the time will never come
when we can't have a gospel meeting, when
there's no place for the gospel of Jesus
Christ in this world.
We were saved through hearing the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
These apostles, they were there.
They were in the temple.
There were people there.
They were seeking to draw nigh to God.
They didn't know Jesus Christ as their Lord
and Savior.
They needed the gospel.
They needed to hear about His death, His
burial, His resurrection, His ascension back into heaven.
And praise God, they were telling them.
And the religious leaders just couldn't stand it.
People were just being attracted and drawn to
them powerfully by the moving of the Spirit
of God.
And religious people were jealous of it.
And they spoke against it.
Well, the time is gone.
I'd like to remind you, though, that when
trial time came for the prisoners that they
had put in jail, they weren't there.
They'd been released.
And that again, that just no doubt created
the greater feelings of fear and wonder, what
God has so mightily done in the lives
of His people.
There's so many things that are happening in
the course of life today, circumstances, that I
trust the Spirit of God will use in
the hearts and minds of many.
You reflect back on your own experience in
coming to know the Lord.
Very often you will be reminded there were
certain circumstances that strangely drew me to the
Lord and helped me to know just how
lost I really was and how adequate the
sacrifice that Jesus Christ had made upon the
cross, how adequate it was for saving my
soul.
If you're here this morning, you're having a
difficult time, difficult time.
There's trial, there's testing.
You don't know the Lord.
You have no peace in your heart and
soul.
You need the Lord Jesus.
There's an invitation to you this morning, whosoever
will may come.
You come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, those that come to me I
will in no wise cast out.
The door to heaven is still wide open
this morning.
Thank God for that.
Whosoever will may come, but God has His
way of coming.
Repentance deep within the soul, that feeling of
our lostness before Him is a part of
God's divine process in bringing us to the
foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.
And a cry from my lips, oh God
have mercy upon me, a poor sinner, and
save my soul.
That's the cry of the penitent thief that
was hanging from the cross.
And you and me, not unlike him, we
had to make our way to the cross,
and we had to make that same cry,
Lord have mercy upon me, a poor sinner,
and save my soul.
If you don't know that this morning, I
trust that you will make your decision for
Christ.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee again
for the Word of God.
We thank Thee for that mighty moving of
the Spirit of God, how it's so clearly
spelled out upon the pages of Scripture.
And oh our God, we know that Your
hand is not shortened, that You can't save.
We know that the same Holy Spirit that
was there at Pentecost, we know that same
Holy Spirit resides in our own hearts and
souls at this moment.
We know the same power that was available
to those early disciples, that same power resides
in us.
Oh, to be witnesses for Jesus Christ in
this world, help us to be faithful witnesses
for Him.
Grant, we pray Thee, that all of us
will leave this place this morning firmly committed
and dedicated to the cause of Christ in
these days as we await that shout from
heaven that will carry us into His very
presence.
We ask this again, giving thanks in the
wonderful name of the Lord Jesus.
Amen.