Sermons

“Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, You are gods’”?  (John 10:31-39)

I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d bet you’ve never heard a sermon on this text. I know I never have and I’ve never preached one. And yet Jesus used this very text from Psalm 82 as a proof text for His astounding declaration that He is the Son of God. He uses it to justify His claim that He is in fact the Son of God. That in itself makes this text important, maybe one of the most important things He ever said.

What would you think if I said you are gods? What would you think if GOD said you are gods? He does! We need to say about ourselves what God says about us, because what God says about us is true of us. Say out loud, “I am a god.” I’m not saying that; God is saying that. I’m just telling you what God says…  about you! You are gods. God says I am a god. Say, “I am a god!” You need to hear yourself say, “I am a son of God.” 1 John 3:2 says, “Beloved, now we are children of God.”  You are not THE God, maker of heaven and earth, but you were made in the likeness of the God who did, and when He made you He gave you dominion over the earth. Strangely enough, Psalm 82 uses the Hebrew word Elohim (another name for God, Gen.1:1) and translates it gods. Then in John 10 the Greek New Testament uses the word Theos for God and for gods! These don’t mean we are The God, but it comes pretty close, giving us the same name and title that the Bible uses for The God. We were made in the likeness of God; that’s why the Bible calls us gods. We are His children.

When you’re sitting in church you’re sitting in the company of gods. Superhuman beings, right? Actually, no.  To say superhuman is redundant; it’s like saying tooth dentist. Humans are super because they were created as gods. Humans are supernatural beings, created to be “like God.” Humans are the only creatures God made to be like Him. Not animals, not angels, not outer space aliens, as far as we know… When it says Jesus was made a little lower than the angels it simply means He became flesh, human flesh. Angels don’t have bodies made of dirt. It doesn’t mean man is lower than the angels in purpose and power. Man was given power and authority over all the earth, both in the natural and spiritual realm.

Let’s look at this and see if we can get some understanding of what God means when He says, “You are gods.” What exactly does that mean? And when you find out will you let that truth change anything in your life? It should. What will you do with this truth? I am haunted by this daily and am pursuing this constantly, for me and for you! I hope you will do the same.

Let’s break it down into bite size pieces and get all the nourishment we can from this truth.

I. And Amazing Revelation, v.31-36  “You are gods.”

A revelation is a mystery, which is something we would never know unless God told us. You are not just an animal. You were created a spirit-being and that spirit makes you a son of God. There is a distinction in humans between a god in the natural realm and one in the Holy Spirit realm.

Think of this revelation. Jesus is the Son of God. This every true Christian believes and confesses. But another astounding revelation is that a saved person is a god. This is what God says and He backs it up with “and the Scripture cannot be broken.” That means this is true and can never be changed.

When you are sitting in church, you are sitting in the congregation of gods. What does it mean to be a god? For that we turn to Ps.82.6. “God stands in the congregation of the mighty. He judges among the gods.” The mighty are the gods. God stands among the congregation of the Elohim and judges them, and behold they are ungodly. Man by creation is a god, different from all other creatures. God instituted the death penalty because of this very thing: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man.” (Gen.9:6) God is speaking and He said, “I said, You are gods…” Because of the context of this entire Psalm we know this has to do with the natural man. The ones God is referring to are those who are ruling in wickedness (v.2-3).

The natural man rules and judges among men, but he can do that unjustly and even wickedly: Hitler, Stalin, Mao. He can also rule over men by what he thinks, invents and does: Louis Pasteur in 1857 changed the world when he discovered the existence of microorganisms called germs which cause the death of millions annually. Antibodies kill bacteria that cause diseases. Then you have people like Elon Musk and Bill Gates.

In Ps.82:6, “Ye are gods” refers to the natural man, and in that same verse when God says, “And all of you are children of the Most High God,” He is referring to the redeemed. Saints in the name of Jesus rule righteously. Jesus did all His works in the name of the Father; we do them in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:16; Mk.16:17). We are “the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.” (Eph.4:24)

When saints behave as gods they do not start wars, they make peace. “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” (Mt.5:9) When saints have dominion they do not hurt people, they help people, for they are the sons of God. Saints act with compassion and mercy. They rule with love.

God is speaking prophetically here because those in the Old Testament never knew the privilege of calling God their Father. They knew Father Abraham, but not Father God. Imagine the impact of John’s words when he wrote, “Those who received Christ were given the right to be called children of God, for they were born of God.” (Jn.1:12-13) And when Jesus taught His followers to pray, “Our Father who is in heaven…” What an amazing revelation. Now, what do we do with this? How is this impacting our lives? Here’s how it should be.

II. The Amazing Responsibility, v.32, 37-38  “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me.”

This is how this amazing revelation should make a difference in our lives. This gives us an astounding responsibility to do the works of God. Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also…” (Jn.14:12) We are after all gods, sons of God.  We see this in the Great Commission of Jesus in Mark 16 and all the way through the book of Acts, where the saints also went about healing all who were oppressed by the devil. And even greater works! People came to be healed by even the shadow of Peter (Acts 5:15-16). This was never said about Jesus.

This haunts me daily because I know from the Bible what I should be doing. Individually and as we corporately gather for worship, we should be doing these works. We are gods, sons of God. In Luke 5:17 it says as the people came together, “The power of the Lord was present to heal them.” At other places it says Jesus and the disciples laid their hands on people and healed them. Individual members should be operating in the gifts of the Spirit and being led by the Spirit to minister to individuals. But there is also this being in the powerful presence of God, as God’s glory is being manifested and miracles are taking place.

This should be haunting all of us. We should be saying, “Why am I not seeing this in my life? Why am I not doing these works? After all, “I am a god!” I didn’t call myself this; God called me this! “You are gods.” I am not The God, but I am a god, made in His likeness to have dominion on the earth to do His works. We should not take this lightly.

III. An Amazing Reaction, 39 “Therefore they sought again to seize Him…”

When we realize who we are in Christ and what we are supposed to be doing, many will be saved, healed and delivered, but some will think the same of us that they did of Jesus. He’s crazy.  These miracles are phony. He’s doing these things by the power of the devil. These are doctrines of demons. Yet look at what Jesus said: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, You are gods. If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken) …”

We are not at all surprised at what Jesus said about what God said about Him being the Son of God. We know that. He is. It is His being the Son of God that sets Him apart from the rest of us.  And it is us being gods that sets us apart from lost people. We must show that difference. Let’s go and do just that. 

 (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Isn’t this a wonderful command from a wonderful God? And wouldn’t you love to be able to do this? What a blessed state to be living in, the state of perpetual thanksgiving. “In everything give thanks.” Arkansas is a great state to live in but this state is better, even blissful. The attitude of gratitude is the essence of a beautiful life. One to be desired above all else. Wouldn’t you like to be thankful in all things?

First, there is something that will keep you from this life of giving thanks in everything. The number one thing that will keep you from enjoying this mindset. It’s the spirit of criticism. Being critical is the opposite of being thankful. Here’s what it says in Titus 3:2, “speak evil of no one.” Our mouths affect our brains. What we say influences what we think probably more than we realize (Josh.1:8). Just never say a negative word about anyone. There’s a passage that’s akin to that one: Ephesians 4:29-32, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

Our text doesn’t say, “For everything give thanks,” because we are not and should not be thankful for everything. There are some things we cannot be thankful for. We don’t need to be thankful for cancer. This horrible disease strikes terror in the hearts of its victims, causing immeasurable pain and suffering and death. We can be thankful when people defeat cancer. The hallway was full of cancer victims waiting for chemo. There is no joy in that hallway. I turned to the victims in the hospital hallway waiting for their chemo treatment and said, “I sat in this hallway for three years and now I’m cancer free.” They applauded!

Also, we should not be thankful for the wrong people do to us. We can forgive what they did to us without being thankful. Giving thanks for everything is different from giving thanks in everything.

You don’t have to be thankful for losing your job, but you can be thankful while you’re unemployed looking for a job, trusting God will give you just the job you need and want. During my last year in Bible college, I lost my job as the staff evangelist at College Park Baptist Church. I immediately thought, “This is not my source, God is!” Within two weeks I became the pastor of an amazing church for the next four years before I headed off to seminary. It is good to lean heavily on Romans 8:28.

Being thankful is always the will of God and that is always good. Whatever you do, when something happens don’t get mad at God. That never helps. It’s the worst thing you could possibly do. Just make sure you’re dong what Romans 8:28 says: loving God and fitting into His purpose. Here are some great examples of this.

The story of Joseph has always encouraged people. He was given amazing promises from God about his future. Then he was hated by his brothers, sold into slavery to a foreign nation, went to prison, and ended up becoming the Prime Minister there and saving nations, including his own family, from starvation. Please read Genesis 45:1-8 and see Joseph’s attitude toward those who had wronged him in horrible ways.

Jesus came to earth on a divine mission as the king of Israel. After blessing people in miraculous ways (healing their sick, feeding their hungry, forgiving sinners, etc.) men with wicked hands crucified Him. While on the cross He prayed for those who were crucifying Him to be forgiven. In Acts 2:36 it says, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

God can take a bad thing that someone does to you and cause good to come of it. You can be thankful for that. Meanwhile, even before you see it, or even if you never see it, you can be thankful that God is your Lord and Savior, and that in the end He will reward you for any injustice you have suffered at the hands of other people. Joseph saw the good hand of God work good out of the evil acts of his wicked brothers. So did Jesus: “for the joy set before Him he endured the cross.” On the road to the place of His crucifixion, while carrying His cross, people were crying for Him. He had been beaten within an inch of His life and He was carrying His heavy cross to the place of execution. He stopped, looked at the women who were weeping and said to them, “Do not weep for Me!” What an amazing statement. He was telling them not to weep for Him. Why? Because He knew He was smack dab in the middle of the will of God, even as He was going through the worst time of His life. He saw the end and was joyful in what He was going through. With faith in God we may do the same thing. Do what Jesus did: trust God when you are going through hard times and be thankful. 

“And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”  (Acts 2:44-47)

You may think the church is simply here to “occupy until He comes.” Nothing could be further from the truth. No church exists to maintain the status quo, “the existing state of affairs.” That’s like saying God doesn’t want a church to reach people with the gospel; He really doesn’t want the multitudes saved. He must want them to perish. He doesn’t care if a church grows or not. And yet the Bible says plainly, “God desires all men to be saved…” (1Tim.2:4) And “God is not willing that any should perish…” (2Pet.3:9) How could so many churches ever get so messed up in their thinking? God wants every church to grow, multiply and fill the earth. A boy asked his grandma why there was this big plus sign there on the pulpit!

The largest denomination in the U.S. is currently on an 18 year decline in membership. Each year over 12,000 report not one baptism. If we simply hold the fort we lose the fort. We are either growing or in decline; we never stay the same. But…

Whatever God blesses He increases. “Then God blessed them and God said to them…” The first thing God said to man was, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…” (Gen.1:28) God told man to multiply themselves on the earth. Angels don’t multiply. There are no more angels today than when God first created them.  That’s why Jesus said that in our resurrected bodies there would be no marriage, “but they shall be as the angels.” (Mt.22:30) Angels don’t multiply. People are commanded to be fruitful and multiply.

The last thing God said to Noah before he left the ark was, “Go out of the ark, your family and every living thing of all flesh that is with you; and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” (Gen.8:13-17) The first thing He said to him after he left the ark was, “So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it.’” (Gen.9:1,7)

Even the natural world is built on increase. People plant their crops for one reason only – to reap more than they sow. Deposit a kernel of corn in the ground and what happens? Nine ears of corn grow and with each ear around 800 kernels of corn come out of the ground. That’s 4000 kernels from one. As long as there is “seed, time, and harvest” there will be multiplication. God set it up that way. His way is the way of increase. To think otherwise is like saying, “I planted this kernel of corn and all I expect from it is one other kernel.” No farmer could live like that.

Jesus certainly taught this. His parables were all about the kingdom of God. “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God…,” He would repeatedly say. He likened the kingdom to yeast that fills the dough and a mustard seed that grows into a huge tree (Mt.13:31-33). In John 12:23-24 Christ is about to die and He wanted them (and us) to know why. He said His death was like a grain of corn planted in the earth to die, and through that death it would produce “much grain.”

Many have erroneously thought it’s enough to just hold the fort. They have a handful of people and they are quite satisfied with that. The fact that it’s been years since anyone has been baptized in their church doesn’t seem to bother them at all. In fact, they kind of like it like that! It’s comfortable. No labor pains to go through, and no trouble with all those new people in their church with all their new Biblical ideas! Nothing could be more nauseous to our wonderful God who died to save people and add to the church (Acts 2:47). Churches who don’t grow are dead and the sooner they are buried the sooner the stench will be removed from their community.

Let’s hasten to the book of Acts. We see on every page of the book of Acts the produce of that holy grain being planted in the earth. In 2:47 no less than 3,000 grains are added to His church. Then in 4:4, 32 we see multitudes added; they move from 3,000 to 5,000 in 5:14.

We need to get this into our souls. This is the kingdom of God; this is our purpose in life – to see Christ’s kingdom increase and multiply. Acts 5:16 tells us the main reason for this increase of salvations: “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.” Add to that Acts 5:42, “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.”

Now look at Acts 6:1. They went from adding to multiplying (2+3=5, but 2x3=6; 10+3=13, but 10x3=30; and so on). Then in Acts 6:7 they multiplied exponentially. I didn’t understand exponentials in high school and I still don’t. But I do know that it’s increasing at a phenomenal, exceedingly extraordinary rate. In 8:6 and 12:24-25 the church was growing so fast that Barabas needed help and so he found Saul to help him. From the church in Antioch in Acts 13 they sent out missionaries who went about the Roman Empire multiplying converts and churches through the ministry of Paul and Barnabas. Finally we go to the last chapter in Acts where Paul healed everyone on the Island of Malta. We can suppose that those who were healed believed in Christ.

Closing our study of Acts 2 we conclude that any church in these Last Days that has what this church had will increase and multiply just as they did. No dispensational errors can make us conclude anything different. What drove growth in this remarkable church will continue to do so today. In this day there is no excuse for a church remaining small. We are still in the Last Days; in fact, we are in the last minutes of the Last Days. We have the same Holy Spirit and the same gospel. If a church has Spirit-filled believers with the gifts of the Spirit operating, is preaching the word of God and the gospel, is calling sinners to repentance, baptizing them and making them a part of a loving and discipling fellowship, that church will increase and multiply.

This is the kind of church every believer should want to be a part of. Not simply where they’ve always gone, or where their family goes, it’s the closest to their home, or whatever. Put your life into a church that is most like the New Testament church, like the church in Acts 2. Become involved. Let it be said of you what was said of these church members: “And they continued steadfastly…”

THIS IS THE WORK OF GOD, and if you want to be a part of this (What Christian does not?) you must commit yourself to a church like we see in Acts 2, at least one that is striving to model itself after this one.

And it shall come to pass in the Last Days that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.

And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

 (John 10:22-30)

The sheep are people. It’s one thing to think about the Good Shepherd and to read Psalm 23 where it tells us what He is to His sheep and what He does for these people who are so special to Him. How wonderful He is! We know who this Good Shepherd is. Jesus plainly declares in John 10 that He is that Good Shepherd. But the question remains – who are the sheep? Am I one of His sheep? And how may I know and be assured that I’m one of the sheep that He’s the Good Shepherd of? Do I really belong to Him and how can I know that I do?

Jesus proceeds to tell us; He tests our metal, as it were. Am I a nugget of fool’s gold? Am I a tare among the wheat? Am I a goat among the sheep? Jesus doesn’t separate the wheat from the tares and the sheep from the goats until the final judgment. I want to know before them if I am one of His sheep. There are many at that judgment who will be shocked when they hear Christ say, “Depart from Me; I never knew you.” And they will be cast into everlasting torment. I want to make my calling and election sure. He says to some of these people in this very passage, “You are not of My sheep.”

Let’s proceed with the following outline:

I. The SIGNIFICANCE of the Sheep, v.22-26

Jesus calls them, “MY sheep.” They are the ones He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28). They are the ones He actually cares for, provides for, and protects (Ps.23). They are His inheritance; the ones the Father gave to Him for an inheritance (Jn.17). They are the ones to whom He will eventually say, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Mt.25:31-34) His sheep are the blessed ones, the ones loved by the Great Shepherd. The word “My” identifies their significance.

When I park my car in public I lock it. I don’t go around the parking lot making sure every car is locked. Why? Because they are not my cars. I don’t give Christmas presents to everyone. But I do give them to April, Stephanie, Christi, and Jennifer. Why? Because they are my daughters. I don’t give presents to other people’s daughters. They are not mine. Jesus has sheep that He calls “My sheep.” A young lady showed me her engagement ring. I need a magnifying glass to see the tiny stone. But she’s so proud of it she shows it off to everyone. Why? Because it’s her engagement ring.  It’s hers and that makes that ring special. The significance of Christ’s sheep is that they belong to Him.  

II. The SIGN of the Sheep,  v.27

Webster defines sign as, “something indicating the presence or existence of something else; like the signs of success, or the signs of the time.” The sign or signal that you are one of Christ’s sheep are two:

1.     “They hear My voice.” This is not, “They read My Bible.” Or “They attend My church.” He said, “They hear My voice,” which means they have an intimate relationship with the Shepherd. If the only thing I have with another person is a letter from him or her to read, that’s good but not personal. I need to hear that person’s voice, to talk with that person in person. You talk to God hopefully, but does He ever talk to you? Or maybe I should say, “He hears your voice, but do you ever hear His?” He says you do, if you’re His sheep.       

People have sometimes said to me, “So you’re that preacher that God talks to?” Assuming I’m one of those crazy people who actually talks to God! I turn the tables on them and say, “Yes, you mean you don’t? Jesus said that His sheep hear His voice. Does that mean you are not one of His sheep?” You talk to God, that’s normal. But if He talks to you, that’s considered crazy!

What does His voice sound like? Is it audible? If it’s the Holy Spirit speaking to your spirit it is not audible, though it sounds audible to you. If it’s the voice of God spoken through someone else (It’s called prophecy.) then yes it is audible.

2.     “They follow Me.” There is the possibility of hearing other voices from the spirit world.  You know, the devil also talks to people. How do you know you’re really hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd and not some hireling or wolf in sheep’s clothing or some thief who has come to steal, kill and destroy you? (Jn.10:10) Watch what Jesus said previously in this chapter: “To Him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear His voice; and He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. And when He brings out His own sheep, He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.”

Never forget, the voice of the Shepherd will always be in line with the truth of Scripture. It may not be a quote from the Bible but it will agree with Scripture.

“They follow Me.” They are actually obeying My voice and doing what I say. This is profound. Don’t miss it. Christ’s sheep follow Christ (v.3-5). Are you actually following Christ? You can’t end up where He is if you don’t follow Him.

III. The SECURITY of the Sheep, v.28-30

What I mean by security is simply this – once you are a sheep you will always be a sheep. Under grace once you are born of God you cannot be unborn. You can change your physical appearance, commit a crime, get a tattoo, but you can never ‘not be born’ of your parents. The word “eternal” means what? Eternal. Christ’s sheep have been given eternal life, they have eternal life, and “they shall never perish.” I gain great comfort in the fact that I have eternal life and therefore I will never perish. The words eternal and never are powerful words. We stay in Christ the same way we got into Christ – by grace!

Look carefully at the text. We are in the hands of the Father and Christ. That’s double security. Please read v.28. Then read v.29. He says, “My father is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” Who can take us out of their clasped hands? Who is strong enough to force their hands open? He’s the Almighty God. That’s like a three-year-old trying to open Superman’s fist. Can’t happen.

“Well, nobody else can, but we can take ourselves out of Their hands, can’t we?” Not according to the text. Note – “anyone!”, that must mean anyone, which would include yourself! He says in v.28, “Neither can anyone snatch them out of My hand.” Then in v.29 He says it again: “No one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” That word “snatch, pluck, steal” comes from the root word that means, according to Strong’s, “To take for oneself, to choose for oneself,” meaning to personally take, snatch or steal for oneself.

In John 17:20-23 Jesus gives the most amazing revelation in all the Bible, perhaps the greatest revelation in the Bible. He had been praying for those who followed Him during His stay on earth. Then He said, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word (This is us!), that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one. I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one…”

The salvation of the world depends on us realizing this mystery. To illustrate, picture a yellow sponge in a bowl of water. The sponge is in the water and the water is in the sponge. They are not the same; the sponge is still there. But they are indistinguishable in their appearance. So many times the Bible uses these phrases: Christ in us and us in Christ.  We are in Christ and Christ is in us. We are inseparable. That’s what Jesus meant by closing this section with these words: “I and My Father are one.” (Jn.10:30)

It blesses my heart to the uttermost to know I am one who is secure in the Good Shepherd’s hand. I hope it does you as well. 

Any pastor worth his while loves the people in his church. Consequently he wants them to live forever and the good things they do to have eternal consequences. This is the will of God and a good pastor has the heart of God for his people. That is the significance every Christian should be looking for. I could have entitled this chapter “The Search for Eternal Significance” because in the long run that’s all that matters – eternal significance. If it’s not eternal then you are only building sandcastles on the beach. Some of them can be very large and impressive sculptures, but in the end they will be washed away by the tides of time and vanish forever in the ocean of nothingness. You really want to build your life on the Rock and the things He has taught us. Eternal significance is what you’re searching for.

To have eternal significance you must give your life and labors to something eternal. The only thing eternal besides God Himself is what He is building, and that is the church. Jesus stated it very clearly.  He said, “I will build My church and it will never die.” (Mt.16:18) To have eternal significance you must give your life and labors to something eternal. Jesus did that. What could be greater than sitting on the throne in heaven? Sitting on the throne in heaven with multitudes of redeemed people there with you. He gave Himself to die for them, something bigger than Himself. Please Read Phil.2:4-11.

There is a great need in every human heart for a sense of significance. To have that we must give ourselves to something bigger than ourselves. David did that when he faced Goliath. He left the mundane, the transitory concerns of day-to-day life in keeping his father’s sheep to join the battle against Israel’s enemies. Little did he know he would be launched into something much bigger than Goliath, himself and his family.

Most people will unfortunately spend their whole lives in the pasture tending sheep. Nothing wrong with that, any more than there’s anything wrong with gathering carts in the Walmart parking lot. It’s just not something you want to spend your entire life doing. David went out of the pasture and laid his life on the line for something bigger than himself and the sheep. That something was the cause of God. He faced Goliath to win a victory over the enemies of God’s people; thus his name will forever be remembered.

I suggest to you that the something bigger than yourself is likewise the cause of God, and that cause is much bigger than your limited life of doing temporary things like just making a living for yourself. You want to make a difference in this world for others. That is where your purpose and significance is to be found. The kingdom of God is that life you must give your life to. David did that and so did the Son of David who left heaven to come to earth to build His church. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus did what He did for an eternal kingdom that would include others. Many others.

I’m thinking of people who have made it to the top of their profession, whether in sports (NFL, etc), business or entertainment. People like the actor turned TV talk show host Arsenio Hall, who said when he was at the top rung on his ladder of success that he was the most miserable man on the planet. People said to him, “But you seem so happy.” He replied, “It’s called acting.” He found that life on the planet was vain in light of eternity. His dad was a preacher and he finally saw the vanity of a completely horizontal temporary life. YO might not be miserable because you are enjoying your temporal pleasures. Go ahead and enjoy them cause that’s your reward. Eternal rewards are the things done that will last forever.

You’re going to have to get beyond what you do for yourself and your own family, which is actually an extension of yourself, if you’re going to find life worthwhile. Jesus said we must lose our lives if we hope to find it. And if we keep our own life we will lose it. That’s what I’m talking about. The search for significance begins when we die to ourselves.

This brings us to Acts 2: 44-46.

These saved people were a single people (v.44), a sacrificial people (v.45), a spiritual people (v.46) and a successful people (v.47). On the surface this looks like a serene and placid place where everyone is sitting in a cozy living room, fire in the fireplace, everyone drinking hot chocolate and sharing their favorite Bible verses and prayer requests. Or a typical local church gathering of country folks routinely singing a few songs, listening to a devotional word from the pastor, a few words to each other before they all walk out the door to eat Sunday dinner with their family and take a nap. But no! It’s not just a good church having fellowship in the fellowship hall and in their home groups. They were busy witnessing and soul-winning, saving people and adding them to the church.

This is a War Room where they are equipping soldiers to invade enemy territory to rescue the perishing, bring them into the family of God to be loved, cared for, and discipled in the teachings of the apostles, and equipped to return to the battlefield in the outside world to continue to rescue more perishing people. On the heels of the serene scene of v.44-46, look at v.47.

This is the Field Hospital in a war zone where soldiers are patched up and sent back into the battle to liberate citizens from Nazi death camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka, where as many as 12,000 could be gassed and incinerated each day. The mission is urgent because every day the prisoners of Satan’s death camps in the world are perishing, and other soldiers are being wounded and killed.

Here’s where we find our eternal significance. Jesus started this for us when He said, “I will build My church.” In Acts 2:47 we see Him building His church. As we join Him we give our lives to something bigger than ourselves, the kingdom of God that will last forever. And our lives are lifted above the temporary pleasures of sin and this perishing life. into a kingdom that shall never end.

Will you give your life to this? Both your temporary and eternal significance depends on your answer to this question. Most will stay in the pasture feeding the sheep, but I’m believing an increasing number of you will say YES to God as He calls you to lay your life on the line for something greater than yourself. 

A deep sense of holy awe swept over everyone, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.  (Acts 2:43, TPT)

Acts chapter two is the God-given model of all churches since then. It is the church as it should be. The closer we get to this, the more we will be like God wants us to be. We have covered many things; this is the 20th lesson in this glorious chapter. We come now to something I fear many modern churches and Christians have lost or never known anything about – a sense of astounding awe when it comes to God. In this model church they had this, and so should we.  Their experience should be our experience. This awe has four elements.

I. The Awe of His PASSION, Acts 2:23-24, 36   

The word passion has long been associated with the sufferings and death of Jesus. Peter and the apostles on this historic, precedent-setting Day of Pentecost, preached “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” The fact that the Son of God came from heaven and suffered on our behalf should put us into a deep sense of holy awe. Every preacher should be preaching the cross and that Good News should put our souls in absolute awe.  It should affect our emotions and make us enter His gates with wonder and amazement.  Behold the Lamb! All of heaven worships as they behold the Lamb of God who has taken away our sins. When the gospel is being preached we should be in awe of what we are listening to.

II. The Awe of His PRESENCE, Acts 2:1-4  

The Holy Spirit’s presence in a church should strike awe in our hearts every time we meet together. Don’t enter the church like a dog entering a library, unaware of what is there and what is going on there.  Remember what Jesus said, “When two or more are gathered in My name I am there in your midst.” (Mt.18:20)

To help with this read Hebrews 12:18-24 and see that when we come to church we are coming into such a place with such a people. We have entered the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable host of angels, to the assembly and church of the first born who are registered in heaven, where God the judge of all is, to the spirits of just men made perfect (this is present tense). We have entered into the very presence of Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the sprinkling of His blood.

III. The Awe of His PROPHECY,  Heb.12:25-29   

The whole world wants to know the future. You can’t really know the future unless you know the One who holds the future, and that is Jesus (Rev.5). We of all peoples on the earth have God’s infallible book to tell us the future of the world and everyone who has ever lived on it. We are now living in the last minutes of the Last Days. This should put us in awe. We hold in our hands the knowledge of the future of our lives and the world. God has revealed these things to us. What wonderful knowledge! There is coming a shaking of all things by God; all things except what He has built, that being His church, the New Jerusalem. Jesus said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt.16:18) To be familiar with such knowledge should fill us with awe and cause a deep sense of awe to sweep over us and hold us in its grip.

IV. The Awe of His POWER,  Acts 2:43   

“And the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.” Miracles should make us full of awe. Even the expectation of miracles should put us in holy anticipation. You might say, “Well, that was the 12 apostles. I’m not an apostle and I don’t know any apostles, so why should we expect miracles?” Read on in Acts and you will see that those who were not apostles also did signs and wonders: men like Stephen and Philip.

I’ll admit, we don’t today see as many miracles, healings and such in most of our churches; but that isn’t because God does not want them to be done. We have seen some in our church, but they seem to be rather slow in coming. An evangelist named Freddy Clark said that for over four years he prayed for every sick person in every service, with long prayer lines, and never saw one person healed. But when it started happening, the floodgates were opened and for the next 60 years he has seen them nonstop.

The miracles of salvation, deliverances and healings in any church should make us feel the awe of God. Let us enter His gates with awe and wonder, and we will see what God will do. The awe precedes the miracles in this verse, so even the prospects of these things should fill us with the feeling of awe. The awe of God. 

 What kind of church are you looking to be a part of? This is important, for your relationship with God, for your family, and perhaps even for the whole world. Usually just like the one you came from. That’s natural because it’s what you’re used to and what you’re used to is comfortable for you. But comfort should not be the criteria that determines the church you need to be in. I want to suggest another criteria – the church in Acts chapter two, the one God gave us to be the model of what a church should be.

You’re probably not going to find a perfect church, one that fully measures up to the church. in Acts 2. But the closer the better. And it has nothing to do with the kind of building the church meets in, or the style of music, or ethnic group. (It should be a church where all ethnic people are welcomed and loved.) It’s really what goes on there and what kind of spiritual people are there.

In Acts 2 we have The Model Church, after which all churches should be modeled. Note three things:

1. The Promised Sign of Pentecost (Fulness of the Spirit, which speaks of spiritual gifts), v.1-13

2. The Powerful Sermon of Peter (Preached the Bible and the Gospel) v.14-40  

3. The Phenomenal Salvation of People, v.41-47

We also have  A. The Promise a. of what? b. to whom? v.39,  B. The Plea, “Be saved!” v.40

The promise is “the gift of the Holy Spirit,” which is the presence and power of God to serve Christ. That promise is “to your children, and to all who are far off (geographically and chronologically), as many as the Lord our God will call.” We don’t want our children to miss out on the gifts of God and especially this best of gifts, the Holy Spirit. The most important thing we will ever do is teach our children the Scriptures which can make them wise unto salvation (2Tim.3:15-17). You want a church to help with that.

In verses 41-47 notice the following (outline):

I. A Saved People, v.41a  The church is only made up of saved people. Who are those? They are those who receive God’s word of salvation and repent. There may be people on the church roles and have been baptized but have never been saved, never been born again, never repented. Only the church will make it to heaven, because it says, “The Lord added to the church those who were being saved.” (v.47) The Lord calls, we must answer. We must hear the gospel and repent, then the Lord adds us to the local church. So, make sure you are saved. There’s no other church in the Bible than the local church, the one that has saved people in it.

II. A Separated People, v.41b  Baptism speaks of separation. The baptism of Moses separated the redeemed Israelites from lost Egypt. They left Egypt, came through the baptismal waters of the Red Sea (1Cor.10:1-2), and entered a new life with God as their Savior and Lord. Baptism in water speaks of our separation from the lost world. We died to that world and have been raised to a new world with new people and a new Promised Land, the local church. It speaks of our resurrected life in a new world as (and with) the people of God.

The word church is derived from the Greek word Ecclesia which means “called out ones.” It comes from the political culture where the town crier called out for the citizens of their town to gather at the center of town (courthouse, as it were) for a public meeting to conduct business. God’s church is made up of those citizens in God’s kingdom who have been called out and separated from the world. Church people are a separated people. We are not like the world, we are “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, who once were not a people but are now the people of God.” (1Pet.2:9-10) We of all the people of the world are Christ-like, doing the mission of Christ.

Look at this – “3,000 souls were added to them,” from one sermon on one day. This is exactly why Jesus said, “Wait for the enduement of power from on high,” before you begin sharing the gospel. It takes the power of God to win souls. The church as it should be is a powerful soul-winning church.

III. A Steadfast People, v.42  “And they continued steadfastly…” If there is one major characteristic today of those who claim to be saved and baptized into the church it is that so many do not continue steadfastly in the church. The dropout rate is horrible in today’s modern American church. Studies have always shown that pretty much 60% of those who are baptized do not remain faithful to the church. (Read 1Jn.2:19 and you will see why.) There are many reasons for this, but the paramount reason is churches are not operating in the power of the Spirit like the church in Acts 2, and they are not calling for repentance. Many churches don’t even believe in the baptism of the Spirit which is what supplies the power to continue steadfastly following Christ.

Steadfast in what? Attendance, but what does that look like? It looks like this: “They continued steadfast in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” That takes showing up.

Repentance happens when we are “cut to the heart” over our sin against Christ. The old-timers called it as “conviction of sin.” It makes no difference how many times you hear the gospel; what matters is that it cuts your heart so that out of that wound comes a complete change of mind and behavior.

Notice the order. We get nothing by the grace of God before we repent. The order is “Repent and believe the gospel.” (Mk.1:15) After repenting we can receive the gifts of God because repentance changes everything in our relationship with God; it makes us His children. All the gifts of God are good because they are gifts of grace (Jas.1:17). Repentance is the biggest no-brainer in the universe. Every gift of grace comes after we repent. Refuse to repent and receive judgment from God. You don’t want anything to do with His judgment.

Peter mentions just two gifts the repentant person receives: Forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. Repent and receive forgiveness of all your sins. Don’t repent and you will stand guilty before a holy and just God, and end up in hell forever. Repent and you get God Himself in your life in a very powerful and gracious way.

After we repent, then we are to receive two baptisms: one in water and one with the Spirit. According to Jesus in Luke 24:47 and Peter in Acts 3:19 we receive the forgiveness of our sins “in view of” our repentance, not our water baptism. The antecedent for remission in Acts 2:38 is repentance, not baptism. You need to know that your sins are forgiven. I mean really know it. The Prodigal Son left the hog pen of his sin and went home. As his father was giving him gifts of the ring, the suit, the shoes, and kissing him all over his face, that son knew his sins against heaven and his father had been forgiven. Now they could throw a party and celebrate.

Baptism in water is done by the church. God wants you to put your life into the hands of other believers, a body of believers called in the Bible the church. Now it’s time to get to work. You’re a member of the family and the church is a family business. No member of the family is to be too lazy to not do chores and work in that business. What is God’s business? To build the church by witnessing and bringing people into the church.

All of that is important, but there’s an even more important baptism. The second baptism is with the Spirit, what Peter called “the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Make no mistake about it, when you repent and believe the gospel you are saved, and no one can be saved without being born of the Spirit. Every saved person has the Holy Spirit within him (Rm.8:9). But this gift of the Spirit is not that. This is receiving the Spirit upon you.

Jesus called this “gift of the Holy Spirit” several things: the enduement with power from on high (Lk.24:49), the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4), and the baptism with the Spirit (Acts 1:5-8). This gift was promised by the Father and delivered to us by the Son who is the One who baptizes with the Spirit. We have received the gift of eternal life through repentance, which is the flip side of the coin of faith, and we have received water baptism by the hands of humans; now we are to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit upon us.

Repenting prepares us for heaven, water baptism gives you a family to go there with and help you along the way, and the promise of the Spirit (the baptism with the Spirit) gives you the power to live on earth and be a witness for Christ to the lost (Acts 1:8) and do the works of Jesus. Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, because I go to My Father.” (Jn.14:12) We are to do the mighty works Christ did when He was here on earth. That’s why He left us here. Without this power we are too weak to do much of anything. We will not be effective in doing great things for God without the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In your doing, you need power to do. I am a weightlifter, but I do not have the power to compete. The limit to the weight I am able to lift is a fork with food on it. The gift of the Spirit gives the power to do (Acts 1:8).

Examples of this abound in Scripture: Jesus in Lk.3:22, the apostles in Lk.25:49, Paul in Acts 9:17, believers in Samaria (Acts 8:14-17) and in Ephesus (Acts 19:1-6).

You’ve repented and received the forgiveness of sins and water baptism. Now it is time to get to work and spiritual work needs spiritual power. Now it’s time to receive the gift of the Spirit, which gives that power.

How does one receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? Different ways.

1. When praying (Lk.3:21-22; Acts 1:14, 2:4; Lk. 11:13).

2. When listening to the word preached (Acts 10:44-46).

3. Often by the laying on of hands (Acts 8:14-17; 9:17; 19:5-6).

“I had that done once and I think nothing happened.” Have it done again! Don’t swing at the first pitch and miss, and then go back to the dugout. You keep swinging until you hit the ball. Momma tells you to wash your face, then inspects you and discovers your ears still need cleaning. Then comes mom’s spit and the scrubbing. She doesn’t stop until your ears are clean.

Nothing is easier, more fun and rewarding than receiving a gift. Gifts are free! All you have to do is take what is freely offered. Everything God has for His children is a free gift, including eternal life (Rm.3:23). Whatever God gives us has got to be the best and most necessary thing in the world. He is rich and generous.

The people asked the apostles, “What shall we do? Peter told them, “Repent and Receive.” After that there are a lot of things to do. In fact, that’s when our marching orders begin. When the apostle Paul was saved he asked Jesus two questions: “Who are you, Lord?” And “What do you want me to do?” (Same question the people in Acts 2 asked.) Paul spent the rest of his life doing what the Lord told him to do. So must we. There’s a lot for the Christian to do. Among these he must obey the great commandments and then the great commission.

You have repented, been baptized and received the remission of sins. Now, it’s time to get to work. For this you need the gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith is followed by work or it is not saving faith. A faith that doesn’t produce work is a dead faith, a phony faith that means nothing. We are saved to serve. 

THE STEALERS (Thieves and Robbers, John 10:1, 8, 10)

The Context: To understand a passage it always helps to know the context of that passage. In John 9 Jesus is embroiled in a controversy with the religious leaders of His day. He healed a man born blind and the Pharisees threw a fit because Jesus broke one of their rules; He did it on the Sabbath (9:14). They ended up throwing the formerly blind man out of the temple. “Jesus heard they had cast him out; and when Jesus found him…” (9:35)  It is against the backdrop of dealing with these false shepherds who were in fact thieves and robbers that Jesus took the time to teach on the fact that there are false shepherds and there are true shepherds; Himself being The Good Shepherd. These thieves and robbers I am calling stealers because that’s what they do. They steal the sheep from the Good Shepherd. Israel was the sheep God had delivered from Egyptian bondage and had kept them for hundreds of years. All because they were His sheep. He loved these sheep.

The Good Shepherd always raised up under-shepherds to care for His sheep. The history of the Old Testament is the story of God raising up leaders to deliver and care for His sheep. But along the way false shepherds would arise to steal God’s sheep, lord over and profit from them. These false shepherds Jesus called “thieves and robbers,” the difference being – thieves simply steal other people’s stuff and robbers do it with weapons and violence. False prophets and messiahs were warp and woof of Israel’s experience. These were deceivers who did not own, love or care for the sheep. The Pharisees were these stealers in Jesus’ day. They ruled God’s flock with no compassion, which is seen in their dealing with this poor blind man. They didn’t care that he had been healed of blindness and when he wouldn’t agree with them about Jesus they simply cast him out of the sheepfold. Jesus however, modeling what one of God’s shepherds is like, took him in.

These stealers were blind. Jesus established that in 9:40-41. Shepherds can’t be blind because their job is to lead the sheep (Ps.23:1-2). In Luke 6:39 Jesus said if the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch. Only the blind can be led by the blind!

The Content:  “He who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up another way, the same is a thief and a robber.” (10:1) The sheepfold is a sheep pen where the sheep were safely kept during the night. This whole illustration was very common to the people of His day. At night the shepherd would corral the sheep into a pen, usually made of bushes or stone walls. Then he would lay down across the gateway. In the morning the shepherd would wake up, call his sheep and lead them out through the door (gate) to streams and pastures. There might be several flocks within a given pen, but each particular flock knew its shepherd’s voice. They would follow their shepherd.

But there was always the possibility that thieves would go over the fence and steal the sheep. These “sheep rustlers” could then make off with them in the night to shear, eat, or sell the sheep. Their only interest in the sheep was what they could get out of them. The true shepherd’s sheep were like his children; he would name them, provide for them, tend their wounds, and find them if one of them wandered off. The Bible is full of this imagery. Psalm 23 gives the most familiar description of the Good Shepherd.

Being surrounded by Pharisees in Jerusalem and Israel, and because of the history of God’s sheep, Jesus takes the time to warn them and us about these stealers. He not only describes the good shepherds, He warns us of the false shepherds, the thieves who are always on the prowl for sheep that don’t belong to them.

The Caution:  Jesus does not speak this illustration just for our information. The Bible is full of warnings about these stealers of God’s sheep. We are told to recognize them by their fruits and run from them. The relevance of what Jesus is teaching us here is seen in the New Testament warnings about these false shepherds, these thieves. For example, we are now living in the Last Days. Every passage giving us the signs of the Last Days begins with warnings about being deceived by these stealers: false prophets and false messiahs. Mt.24 says

3 The disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

Why is this so important for us? Because of what these stealers do, which is found in John 10:10. “The thief does not come except to steal, to kill, and to destroy…” Nobody should think themselves immune from hearing and believing lies. This we learn from Adam and from Peter. We need to be able to say, “Get behind me, Satan.”

I have had formal education to learn several languages: English, French, Spanish, Nepalese, Greek, and Hebrew. I can’t speak any of them very well. My most fluent language is tongues and that’s because I didn’t have to learn tongues; they just flow out by the Spirit. But with all other languages we must learn how to speak them. Each of them takes a long time and is very difficult. This is true also of speaking the Language of the New Covenant, the language of grace and truth.

What we say is important, and if we speak God’s words what we say is also very powerful. All God’s works are voice-activated and He uses our words to activate them. With the Bible we learn to think God’s thoughts and speak God’s words. When we do, things begin to change.

This language comes in three categories of Biblical speech. It begins with “This is the word of God: I am what it says I am, I have what it says I have, and I can do what it says I can do.” This all comes from being “in Christ,” a phrase the Bible uses many times to tell us what we are, what we have, and what we can do.

I. I AM what God says I am.  

Because I am “in Christ” …

I am a new creation, a new person in Christ, different from what I was. I am no longer the same. (2Cor.5:17) Because of this …

I am holy, a saint, and sin will not have dominion over me, for I am not under the law, but under grace. (Heb.3:1; 1 Pet.2:9; Rm.6:14)

I was chosen by God; therefore I am special to God. (Eph.1:4; 1 Pet. 2:9)

I am blessed with every spiritual blessing. (Eph.1:3)

I am redeemed from every evil work by His blood and all my sins have been forgiven. (Eph.1:7)

I am under no condemnation from God. (Rm.8:1)

I am the temple of the Spirit of God who lives in me and gives me power to do the will of God. (Rm.8:11)

God is working all things for my good. (Rm.8:28)

I am becoming more like Jesus every day. God has predestined me to be like Jesus. (Rm.8:29)

God is for me, never against me. (Rm.8:31)

I am more than a conqueror. (Rm.8:37)

Nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Rm.8:38-39)

I am a child of God. (Rm.8:16)

I am an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ.  (Rm.8:17)

I am healed.  (2Pet.2:24)

II. I HAVE what God’s word says I have.

Because I am “in Christ” …

I have eternal life and will never perish. (Jn.3:16)

I have the forgiveness of all my sins. (Acts 3:19)

The righteousness of Christ. (2Cor.5:21)

Peace with God. (Rm.5:1)

I have the Peace of God. (Phil.4:7)

The love of God, the Grace of Christ, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit. (2Cor.13:14)

The fruit of the Spirit. (Gal.5:22-23)

The power of God in my life. (Acts 1:8)

The mind of Christ to help me think like God thinks. (1Cor.2:16)

The word of God in my hand and in my heart. (2Cor.3)

Hope. (Rm.5:1)

Joy. (Neh.8:10)

Love. (Rm.5:8)

Faith. (2Pet.1:1)

A forever family, the church, to help me live for Christ in this world. (Eph.2:19)

The armor of God to give me strength to defeat the devil in my life. (Eph.6:10-18)

The good Shepherd leading, protecting and providing for me. (Ps.23)

All things that pertain to life and godliness. (2Pet.1:3)  I have all things. (Rm.8:32)

III. I CAN Do what God says I can do.  

Because I am “in Christ”…

I can do all things. (Phil.4:13)

All that God requires me to do. (Rm.8:4)

Move mountains with my words. (Mk.11:23)

Love God with all my heart because the love of God has been poured into my heart. (Rm.5:5)

Forgive and Love others who wrong me. (2Cor.2:10-11)

Speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)

Pray and have God answer. (1John 5:14-15)

Witness for Christ, speak God’s word to others. (Acts 1:8)

I am wise and can lead others to Christ. (Prov.11:30)

Believe what God says. (Eph.2:8)

Work the works of Christ. (Jn.14:12)

I am able to know and pray the will of God. (1Jn.5:14-15)

There are so many other things that could be added to the vocabulary of the New Covenant and they are all found in the New Testament. Search your Bible and when you come across a new phrase you have not yet learned … learn it and speak it.

Speak this language and continue to speak it till you believe it in your heart, say it till you believe it, until it gets embedded into your soul, and you begin to speak and think this language of grace and truth fluently. You just believe. Faith works. Faith will come. Faith speaks. Faith changes people’s lives. It can change yours. 

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  (Acts 2:37-38)

To model the Model Church we find in Acts 2 we must be committed to Jesus’ Great Commission to be His witness to everyone, be filled with the Holy Spirit, believe in the Latter Day outpouring of the Spirit with signs following, and preach Jesus Christ and the gospel of His death, burial, resurrection, exaltation and consequent baptism with the Spirit. And the fact that the gospel demands a public response. Any church that is a Bible church must call for a response to the word preached. What is the proper God-ordained public response to the gospel? This is crucial. To be saved we must respond to the gospel in the way God says to respond.

The first response to the gospel is the cutting of the heart. When you really hear the gospel it will produce what the old-timers used to call conviction of sin. That’s exactly what is going on in this passage. They heard Peter preach the gospel and “they were cut to the heart” and wanted to know what they should do. Has the gospel ever cut you to the heart? Salvation is a matter of the heart. The gospel must penetrate your heart in order to provoke a response of unconditional surrender, such as is voiced in this question, “What shall we do?” You tell me and whatever it is, I will do it. That’s unconditional surrender to do whatever the preacher of the gospel calls for.

It’s the one word the Bible always uses when the word of God is preached. John the Baptist used it to introduce the kingdom of God when Jesus came, “John came saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’” (Mt.3:2-3) The first thing out of Jesus’ mouth when He began preaching was, “Repent, for the kingdom of God has arrived.” (Mt.4:17) When Paul preached the gospel to the heathen in Acts 17:30-31 he said, “Now God commands all men everywhere to repent because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Jesus not only said John 3:16, He also said, “Unless you repent, you will perish.” (Lk.13:5)

Perhaps an overemphasis on faith and a neglect of repentance has led people to ignore obedience to the gospel (Rm.10:16). And the fact that doing the will of God proves that you have faith. And that the family resemblance includes what the family does and how the family members behave. Jesus’ natural family came to Him when He was busy and couldn’t get in the door. When they told Him who was there to see Him, He responded with these words, “My mother and My brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

When Paul found out who the glorious One was standing there in front of him, the first words out of his mouth were, “Lord, what would You have me to do?” (Acts 9:6)

Repentance is the other side of the coin of faith. Repentance is a complete change of mind, a paradigm shift in the way a person thinks that produces the fruit of a changed behavior (Lk.3:8, 10-14). It is a matter of the heart. The heart and mind must change. That is the response the gospel calls for. The root of a repentant heart produces the fruit of a changed life. When you repent Jesus becomes the Lord of your life.

The people in Jerusalem that first day of Pentecost heard Peter preach and they were cut to the heart and said, “What shall we do?” Then Peter told them to “Repent!” The people who obeyed Peter’s call for repent were baptized and continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship with the church, in the breaking of bread and in prayers. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple…” is how the inspired writer of Acts puts it. Repentance begins at conversion but continues the rest of your life.

To repent means to make up your mind once and for all to follow Jesus. “Well, I repented once and then stopped following Jesus.” Then you didn’t repent; you just reformed for a while. Remorse and reform are not the same thing as repentance. To repent is not a momentary or emotional feeling that you believe in God. It is a changing of your heart and mind that produces a change of the direction in your life.

Don’t miss this. The results of repentance are forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. You get forgiven and God Himself comes to live inside of you as your Lord. There is no remission of sins without repentance, according to Jesus in Luke 24:46-47. There is no salvation without receiving the Holy Spirit. To be saved we must repent. There is no life and life more abundant unless we repent. There is no going to heaven unless we repent. There is no salvation without repentance. Peter preached it again in Acts 3:19, “Repent and be converted so that your sins may be blotted out.” God only forgives sinners who repent.

The Prodigal Son illustrated fully what repentance is when he left his life in the hog pen and went back to his father’s house. He no longer lived the way he did but began a new life enjoying the pleasures and riches his father richly and happily provided (Lk.15:18-19). If you believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose again then you must do something. Faith without works is dead, like a corpse that can accomplish nothing.

Here are two challenges calling for a public response, based on a parable of Jesus in Mt.21:28-31. A man had two sons. He told the first to do something, he said he would, but then didn’t. He told the second one to do it and he said he wouldn’t. But then the 2nd son changed his mind and did it. “Which of the two did the will of his father?” The first. It’s not enough to say we will do what Christ wants, you must get off our seats and do it.

The first is a call to repent, whether it is for the first time or perhaps you’ve fallen away and need to start over. Repentance must be public. Let it be known that you are repenting and that you want to be baptized.

The second challenge is for those who have repented but your life has not exactly been what it should be. You haven’t done much for Christ. Eternity is at stake! It’s heaven or hell for those you love. Without repentance they will burn in hell forever! It’s not enough to say you want them to be saved. You need to do something. God is wanting to raise up a strong church to reach them. Let it be known you will join Him and your church in the doing of reaching your community for Christ.

Some have been hanging around the church for years and still never actually do anything, except come, sit and leave. Don’t get me wrong. It’s good that you come, sit and leave. But there comes a time when you should ask, “Lord, what do you want me to do?” He will tell you. Some people get saved or join a church and within a month they are busy as bees making honey.

I was raised on a farm and I was picking cotton by hand when I was five years old. Everyone else was pulling large cotton sacks, and my mother made me a sack from an empty flour sack and a strap. I worked every day on that farm until I went into the military. I can’t even imagine living in my farm father’s house and not doing chores and work for the family. If I had tried, my dad would have taken his belt to my behind. And yet, multitudes hang around the Father’s house and never lift a finger to do anything. If you are one of those, shame on you. You are a bum! Get off your can, find something to do and start doing it.

Be creative. We have a man and woman who come in 2 ½ hours before Sunday School and 3 ½ hours before church to set up two tables of food and drink to nourish the folks who come in and give an opportunity to break bread in fellowship. I wonder what the people who partake of their goodies think. Do they think that all that food and drink just appears like manna from God, or floats down from heaven. No! Somebody cooks and buys all that stuff, brings it to church and sets it all out, and then cleans it all up afterward. Nobody told them to do what. It just came to them to do something and they do it, and it blesses so many people.

Start a Bible study in your home to reach the folks in your neighborhood or at McDonald’s. “But I don’t know enough of the Bible to teach anyone.” How long have you been a Christian? Fifteen years? And you don’t know enough of the Bible to show someone what it says? “By this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the word of God.” (Heb.5:12) There are hundreds of places you can find Bible studies to share with others. Do one if you have to, and keep inviting others until you have a small group. Believe me, you will then learn more about the Bible than you have ever learned in your life. 

This is the third message on the importance and power of our spoken words.

I want to begin this particular chapter reminding us of the purpose of human beings. Man was created and saved to be like God, to be the visible representative of God on the earth and to have dominion over this world (Gen.1:26-27; Rm.8:28-29). God showed us from the beginning that He gets things done (creation and salvation) by the spoken word. He spoke and things happened. Being in the image of God, we get our cue to how our dominion is exercised. It is by the spoken word. God did it and He created us to do it. Every healing Jesus did was by the spoken word (Mt.8:2-3, 5-10, 16-17). He spoke to demons and they left people’s bodies. He spoke to winds and waves, and they obeyed Him. He is not only our Savior; He is the model man into whose image God is making us. That’s why we are called Christians.

I closed the last chapter by looking at the fact that the devil listens to the words we speak. In Mt.17:14-20 we have the story of Jesus healing a sick demonized boy by speaking to the demon. When the disciples asked Jesus why they had not been able to do that, His answer surprises people. He said something totally unexpected. Most people think He should have said, “Because I am God and you are not.” He did not say that. Nobody likes what He did say. And I do mean nobody. “Why could we not cast it out?” So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief.” Nobody would dare to say that to someone today, but Jesus did! But He didn’t say it to the sick boy or his father. Never say such a thing to sick people. Jesus spoke this word of unbelief to His disciples. It’s why they couldn’t cure the boy. Workers need to get rid of all unbelief. Even Jesus didn’t do many miracles in Nazareth because of their unbelief.

Then Jesus went on to say, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” I think few have ever realized the power of faith-filled words. We need to learn. To be like Jesus we must believe what He said and practice what He said.

Remember, according to Jesus, the sins of these people in John 9 remained unforgiven and alienated from God, because they said the wrong thing! They said they saw, but they didn’t. Their words condemned them. We see the same thing with the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-20. God said He would spew them out of His mouth, “because you say, ‘I am rich and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” They gave a positive confession, but it was an incorrect confession. That’s not what God said about them. They should have admitted they were poor and then God would have given them pure gold and fine garments.

One thing that might keep you struggling with sin, especially your besetting sin, might be that you keep saying something different than what God says about you. “Well, I’m just a sinner and I sin every day. We all sin all the time because we are just sinners saved by grace.” If you’re a Christian, God doesn’t call you a sinner; He calls you a saint, which means a holy one. You are someone set apart to God and apart from sin. But if you keep saying that false thing with your mouth, no wonder you keep acting like a sinner. Stop saying you are a sinner and start saying you are what God says you are. You will live out the power of your words. Whatever you say about yourself, you will live that out because your words are very powerful.

Positive confessions are powerful, but so are negative confessions. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” (Prov.18:21) You can be hung by your tongue. I know, because I’ve done it many times. My mother used to say, “Watch your mouth!” When she said that, I knew I didn’t need to look at my mouth in the mirror, the only way you can watch your mouth. What I needed to do was shut my mouth. You were not to say the wrong thing around my mother. None of us need to say the wrong thing around anyone, or even when no one is around. Watch your mouth. Why? Because your words are powerful.

It’s not that you can just walk around saying anything you want and expect God to give it to you. What you say must be the word and will of God. Faith believes with the heart, speaks with the tongue, and does any corresponding action that goes along with that. When you speak rain, carry your umbrella. When you speak healing, believe you have it and begin to do what you could not do before. Exercise your faith by speaking and doing. If you believe God is going to give you descendants in your old age, change your name to Abraham. If you believe God is going to raise your child from the dead if you sacrifice him, go ahead and raise the knife to slay him. If you believe God has given your homeland to an invading army, hide the spies and lie to the sheriff. Faith speaks. Then faith does. If you believe Jesus has healed you, go to the pool of Siloam and wash the mud off. If you believe the prophet said to go dip seven times in the Jordan River and you will be healed of your leprosy, go to the river and dive in.

Jesus gave the powerful promise that whoever believes in Him, out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. He spoke this concerning the Holy Spirit (Jn.7:38). Then in John 6:63 He said, “It is the Spirit that gives life. The words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life.” Those rivers that flow out of Spirit-filled believers are words. Rivers of words. Reminds me of Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be My witnesses.” And “when they had prayed, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31)

The sword of the Spirit is the word of God that comes out of our mouth. Describing Jesus’ return to earth it says, “Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations, and He Himself will rule them…” (Rev.19:15) Jesus rules by the word that comes out of His mouth. So do we. When we speak the word of God, it becomes powerful and living (Heb.4:12).

Never forget how we obtain victory over the devil working in our lives. “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” (Rev.12:11) The walls of Jericho fell down when Israel shouted! The victory came when loud words came from the mouths of the warriors. Victory over the Midianites was gained by Gideon and his tiny army when “they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing – and they cried, ‘The sword of the Lord and Gideon!’” (Jud.7:22)

And let us never forget the word that God gave Joshua before he led all of Israel to conquer Canaan. “This book of the law (Lord) shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.” (Josh.1:8)

By the way, saying has everything to do with learning. If you can’t say it, you don’t know it.

Finally, we were made in the image of God, not to be God but to be like God, and to have dominion over everything on the earth, both natural and spiritual. We learn from God in Genesis chapter one is that He exercised His dominion by speaking. This is our cue. It’s how we are to exercise dominion over everything on the earth. To do that we must believe in the power and importance of our spoken words. I’m afraid few do. We must determine to learn from Jesus to do the works of God by speaking the word and will of God. Faith believes the promises of God, speaks them, and follows that with the necessary (and revealed) corresponding actions. Faith without works is dead. Let us have a living faith. Have a faith that speaks.

“God has made this Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

The church modeled after Acts 2 must have the exaltation of Jesus as its main message and mission.

Some prophecies given by God through His prophets are universal, applying to every nation. “In the Last Days I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh” is one of those. But some prophecies are specific to Israel, though they have worldwide implications. God gave prophecies (we call them promises) to Abraham and David. To Abraham He said he would have a people and a place for those people. Those people are called the nation of Israel and that place is also called Israel. Those are God’s ancient promises, prophecies, and place.

After preaching about the universal promise of the outpouring of the Spirit in the Last Days, Peter zeroes in on the prophecy given by King David. God made a promise to David that one of his descendants would rule over the house of Israel and of his kingdom there would be no end, either chronologically and geographically.

In the context of Acts 2, Jesus had been raised from the dead, so Peter quotes the prophecy given to David (Acts 2:25-28), then proceeds to explain that this prophecy was not really about David but about his son and eternal heir to his throne. Here’s where we enter our text of Acts 2:29-37. David’s tomb was a tourist attraction when Peter was preaching. His bones were still in his grave. But what David was really prophesying about was the resurrection of Christ, the son of David. Jesus answers that prophecy of Psalm 16 in Acts 2:27,31.

Lest you think this all might be irrelevant historical information for us, I assure you it is not. This is a proof that the Bible is the word of God and that God cannot lie. If He gave a promise, He would keep it. If He spoke a promise He would fulfill it. (See v.30.) When God said, “I will remember your sins no more,” that’s the truth. He cannot lie. When God said, “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved,” He meant it. He cannot lie. What He did for David He will do for you. He will keep His word. Find a promise and believe it. “Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Heb.6:12) He will keep His word, as impossible as that may seem to you. He cannot lie.

God not only raised Jesus from the dead (v.32), He exalted Him to the very throne of heaven! A man sits at the right hand of God, ruling the universe. Think of Jesus and Joseph from Gen.41:39-44 and 45:8. He was taken from prison and then he said, “God has made me the Lord of Pharaoh’s house and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” Jesus was taken down from the cross and then a dark tomb, raised from the dead and God exalted him to be Lord of heaven and earth, and put Him at the very right hand of God. Read Acts 2:33-37. “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

I entitled this chapter in Acts 2 “The Exaltation of Jesus.” This is important because what the Father did for Jesus He will do for us, if we exalt Jesus like the Father did. Exalt Jesus in your life. The more and higher you exalt Jesus, the more you will be exalted. The more you lift Him up, the higher you will be lifted up. The more important He becomes to you, the better your life will be. Your exaltation of Jesus will be your exaltation. Lift Him up and He will lift you up. Your life will become better and better because you exalt Him with your heart, your mind, your voice, and your life. So do that. Begin to exalt Jesus in everything you do and see how your life will be made better in every way.

But before all that, there must be this humility of yourself before God. Did you ever notice in the Bible that when God showed up to anyone the first thing they did? Fall down, or bow down. What was always the next thing that happened? He would lift them up. In Philippians chapter two Paul wrote the reason God highly exalted Jesus was because He humbled Himself and became a servant and obeyed even unto death. “Therefore God has highly exalted Him…” If we humble ourselves and admit we have sinned, and exalt Jesus the Savior, we will be exalted and lifted up. Our lives will be better. “For the promise is to you and to all who are afar off.”

This is what happened to those prospects of the Christian faith in v.37, “When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said, ‘What shall we do?’” They were told to repent of their sins. When they heard of the exaltation of Jesus and their part in His crucifixion they were cut to the heart. They saw that they were guilty of the death of an innocent man. We must see that our sins are responsible for the death of God’s Son. He died for our sins. This message must reach your heart, and when it does, the first thing that will happen is this cutting of your heart. Remember how the Prodigal Son came back home. First He humbled himself and then the father exalted him to the life of the party. The father put a ring of authority on his finger and a new suit on his body, then killed the fatted calf to eat at a feast in his son’s honor. There was music and dancing in the father’s house. God will do the same for you if you humble yourself and exalt Jesus in your life. 

This godly man’s death on September 10, 2025, was a political assassination for sure. He was deeply involved in politics. The last thing he did before he was killed was to throw MAGA hats to the 3,000 students who had gathered for his Turning Point USA rally at a Utah university. He was known by world political leaders. Charlie was a patriot.  But the war he fought for the soul of America is not a political war; it’s a spiritual war. And our weapons are not bullets and bombs; they are words, words of truth and words of God, which Charlie was brilliant in using. But his death was more than a political assassination. He was martyred for his faith.

Above all the political savvy of this man, to the core of his being Charlie was a Christian, an evangelist for the Christian faith. For over a decade he preached Jesus Christ and he did it in the most hostile environments in America, at our state universities. He knew they were being inundated with WOKE and anti-American ideologies that would eventually destroy the U.S. and multitudes of souls. He was a modern day Stephen right out of Acts 7:54 - 8:4. The impact of his martyrdom is probably unequaled in American history. The assassinations of JFK and MLK, as horrible and important as they were, did not match the effect of Charlie’s death.

At the time of his death there were about 2,000 chapters of TPUSA in the country. Within days there were more than 36,000 requests from high schools and college campuses to begin chapters. In London, England, “upwards to a million people” took to the streets, carrying enormous pictures of Charlie, marching in solidarity with him and his message of free speech. In Seoul, Korea, hundreds of thousands marched in the streets singing, “We are Charlie Kirk” and carrying huge pictures of him over their heads. Through social media many world leaders expressed their sorrow for his passing. College and NFL football games showed pictures of him on their screens, asking for a moment of silence in honor of his passing. Same with MLB.

The Sunday after his death churches across the country were filled with worshipers saying, “I’m taking Charlie’s seat this morning.” This was bigger than the church response after 911 because that was largely fueled by anger against the enemies of America and fear of the same thing happening to them. But Charlie’s martyrdom brought an unprecedented amount of social media coverage that showed people the kind of man he was and what he stood for. Many of them went to church because they wanted to be like Charlie. One man wrote, “I have never been a church going person, but that’s changing now. I am going to a church on Sunday and I’m going to shake the pastor’s hand and tell him that I’m taking Charlie’s seat.” He went because of Charlie and I hope he stays because of Jesus. Multitudes did the same thing with the same sentiment. They were convicted by this man’s life to live as he did.

Two main things about Charlie Kirk. First of all, he was a Christian who boldly proclaimed the Bible and Bible morality. When asked for advice for any new Christians he said, “Do these three things and you will live a remarkably significant life:

1. Read the Bible.

2. Do what it says.

3. Tell others what it says.”

Great wisdom and life-changing advice for anyone. He took a bold stance for Jesus to the places where few would like what he said. He fielded questions about the Bible, politics, and morality, and answered them with love, compassion and a world of knowledge and wisdom he had stored in his mind and heart. He was brilliant as an apologist for the Christian faith and conservative politics. None like him since Rush Limbaugh. I think what he did was even braver and more brilliant that even the great Rush, whom I listened to daily on the radio for about 20 years. Charlie’s commitment was to the truth of Scripture, and what he believed and preached went against the grain of most of the people he dealt with in the public arena. He was fluent in the use of Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek to answer questions about the Bible, science and morality. And he never finished one semester of college. He said it was boring and they were trying to indoctrinate him, and so he left and founded TPUSA when he was 18 years old. Before he was martyred at the age of 31, he said he wanted people to remember him for his courage in proclaiming his faith.

Secondly, he was a church man. He said he took his cue from the Bible and took Sunday’s off to do nothing but read his Bible, go to church and spend time with his family. He was a busy man, but he turned his phone off one day a week to go to church with his family. He would call important leaders in every field to come and go to church with him, and they would. They’d fly in from everywhere to Phoenix to attend church with him. He loved his church so much. Josh Hawley, U.S. senator from Missouri, told his story about that and said, “How could I refuse him?” It was the way he lived that made people feel that way. When asked by a college student what is the best way to find a good wife, Charlie picked up the mike and said, “Go to church,” and then put down the mike.

What should be our response to his life and death? The same as the response the early church gave to the martyrdom of Stephen in the Bible. In spite of being persecuted, they went everywhere preaching the word. We should not cower in the face of danger and unpopularity. It’s time for the church to no longer be LUKEWARM, as is described in the book of Revelation, the church that made Jesus sick. Time to get off the fence and start living the Christian life with knowledge of the Scriptures and boldness. Time to speak up! Time to support your local church. Be the church man we see in the Bible and in Charlie’s life.

Time to make your commitment to Christ, His book and His church a reality.

 (John 9:39-41)

“If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.” Therefore, your sin remains.”

According to Jesus, the sins of these people in John 9 remained unforgiven and alienated from God, because they said the wrong thing! They said they saw, but they didn’t. Their words condemned them.

I am basically a verse-by-verse teacher of the Bible. I’ve preached virtually through every book of the Bible like that. But I love to do doctrinal studies as I am going. That’s where I dive deep into one verse or topic in the book I’m teaching through and speak on a topic in a passage. It takes four or five skips through the water for the rock to finally sink into the pond. Doctrinal teaching is sinking down deep into the waters of Scripture. I once watched a hawk dive down into a lake trying to catch a fish. It took him seven tries before he came up with lunch. We are going to be like the hawk in our study of the power of the spoken word, our spoken words. We are going to dive and dive until we get something we can really chew on, some meat for the mature.

It took Donald Grey Barnhouse eleven years to preach through the book of Romans on the radio. Eleven years! He would take a verse and like putting the pyramid of the rest of Scripture on top of it, he would pour the rest of the Bible into that verse. I don’t think I’m going to take 11 years to teach through the book of John, but I’m well on my way to taking a very long time. This is my 45th chapter in it.

When I say the power of your tongue, I mean the power of the words you say; actually the power of any words, the words of God and our words, especially when we speak the words of God. Thoughts are important, but we can say words without thinking. I’m very good at this. Have you ever said anything you regret? Have you ever said a dumb thing? Probably… We need to turn our minds on before putting our mouths in gear.

Spoken words are powerful to affect your life and the lives of those who hear you. Do you ever talk to yourself? It’s ok to do that. Some of the most intelligent conversations I ever have are with myself. When the teacher asks you to repeat something out loud, he’s not wanting you to do that for nothing. There is power in your spoken words, even if they are the words you speak.

God’s words are the most powerful things that exist. He created the entire universe by the power of His spoken word. It doesn’t say, “So God thought, and light was…” It says, “And God said…” What do we call the Bible? The word of God. Actually it contains the words of God. He has a lot to say. He had so much to say it took Him 66 books to say it all.

All God’s works are voice-activated, and since creation He has used the words of man to get things done. Hundreds of times in the Bible we read, “Thus says the Lord…” When God speaks, mostly He uses the words of humans whom He created in His image.  We were made to speak the words of God. That’s how He gets things done. And that’s why He had His words written in a book, so we could speak them, to ourselves and to others (Joshua 1:8). God’s words are powerful; and they are to be spoken; so says Romans 10:13-17. That’s what witnessing and preaching are all about. We say to others, “This is what the word of God says…”

We will lean heavily on this verse, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” (Prov.18:21) Words are a matter of life and death. We are not going to skip this rock across the waters of our minds and then go on about our business. We’re going to let this rock from the word sink in. Deeply. The words we speak cause life and death in the ones we are speaking to. That means this is serious. We can bless or we can curse people with our words (Jas.3:9-10). James goes on to say, “If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body.” And Jesus said, “By your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.” (Mt.12:37) Jesus is talking about the judgment here. We know this because just before that He said, “For every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.” The words we speak tell us what is in our hearts: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Mt.12:34)

Right off the bat this message will be taken by some to mean I’m one of those “Name it and claim it” preachers. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m no “Blab it and grab it” believer or preacher. I don’t believe “You can have whatever you say.” I have never believed such nonsense in my life. In fact, I don’t know anyone who believes that and I have never even heard a TV preacher say that.

Everything I share here will be from the Bible. The Bible has volumes to say about the power and influence of our words, over ourselves and over those who hear us, including God. As we shall see, our words even influence God! Sounds hard to believe, but you will see that it’s true. Hang on and believe your Bible. And share these messages with others; it could be the best thing you could do for your loved ones. 

Peter didn’t write one of the four gospels in our Bible, but did write two epistles and he did speak the gospel in that precedent setting Acts Chapter Two. If today’s church is to model itself according to the Bible it must always include the gospel of Christ that Peter preached here in its simplest form ever. Only the gospel of Christ produces salvation for it is “the power of God unto salvation.” (Rm.1:16) This is the Good News in its purest form.

In Acts 2:17-21 Peter gives us an exposition of the Last Days. In the last chapter I gave an overview of the Last Days, which includes the Life of Jesus on the earth, the outpouring of the Spirit which produced the Church Age in which we are still living (v.17-18). It also includes the Great Tribulation (v.19-20) before the Second Coming of Jesus and His Millenium Kingdom on the earth. He finishes his quote from the Prophet Joel with the good news that “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (v.21)

The gospel always assumes that everyone is lost to God and needs to be rescued. Why is that? Because “All have sinned and the wages of sin is being dead to God.” If you realize you are “without Christ, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph.2:12) you know you need to be saved from your sins. The good news is “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Who is the Lord he is talking about and what is His name? Peter tells us. This is the gospel by which we are saved. There is no other gospel of forgiveness by God with the power to forever change your life and eternal destiny. There is “no other name given to me by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

I. Jesus was Approved by God, Acts 2:22

“A Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know.” The supernatural things Jesus did were God’s stamp of approval on who Jesus was. He was the Son of God manifest in the flesh, fully human in every sense. God provided more than ample evidence that He so loved the world He sent His only begotten Son to be a Man so He could die for the sins of man.

See Him walking around touching and healing people, telling tormenting spirits to leave people and they did, raising the dead, miraculously feeding multitudes. See Him and know this is what God wants to do for us!

II. Jesus was Afflicted by Men, v.23

“Him you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death.” The sin of man, our sins, put Jesus to death. Christ died for our sins! Who died for our sins? Christ! He who knew no sins died for our sins. Jesus, the holy one of God who was God in the flesh. That is who died for our sins. What did Christ do? He died! The One who had been alive forever died on a cross. He laid down His life. He was crucified and died in excruciating agony. Jesus died. The most important person who has ever lived died. The one they thought would never die, because the wages of sin is death and He had no sin. Why did Christ die? For our sins. He took the punishment for our sins so that His blood washes away all our sins. “He was slain and redeemed us to God by His blood and has made us kings and priests tour God and we shall reign on the earth” because of it.

III. Jesus was Approved by God… Again, Acts 2:24

“Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.” See Him lying in a tomb. Dead. No pulse. No breath. No movement. He was dead. His own mother buried Him. But see His eyes open. See His hand move. See Him sit up and swing His legs over the edge of the slab on which He had lain. See Him stand up and stretch. See Him walk toward the entrance of the tomb from which the angel had rolled away the stone. He’s alive. Soon, many would know it, at one time over 500 people saw Him. He is alive with a glorified body, never to die again. “He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.” (Rm.1:4) How do we know He rose from the dead? He was seen!

IV. The Aftereffects by the Holy Spirit, v.25-28

This quote from Psalm 16 Peter applies to Jesus. David was writing of Jesus Christ. Read it in that way. You can also read it the way David wrote it, for himself and for us. Because Jesus rose from the dead this is what He does for those who are saved by Him. He gives them all these wonderful things. Note the words “the Lord is always before my face and at my right hand, therefore my heart rejoices, and my tongue is glad. There is the presence of God, the joy of the Lord. And there is hope of my resurrection. He has made the ways of life known to me and made me full of joy in His presence! For those who are saved, He gives all these things. 

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh…”  

(Acts 2:17)

         In the last message from Acts 2 we looked at an “Overview of Acts Chapter Two.” In this chapter we will see an overview of something Peter preached in Acts 2 when he was explaining the amazing thing God was doing on that famous Day of Pentecost. The attracted crowd asked, “Whatever could this mean?” and Peter said what was happening was what God had prophesied would happen in the Last Days.

That phrase is important, not only to explain what was happening that day 2,000 years ago, but to tell what God is doing with mankind during a large part of his time on earth, which are the Last Days of his time on earth. That’s why it’s called the Last Days. It is important because of what God said about the sons of Issachar in 1Chron.12:32, “They had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” We need to understand the times in which we live so we can know what we ought to be doing with our lives.

When the prophets like Joel used this term they were referring to the time period when God would visit and live on the earth. Sometimes it was called the Day of the Lord. It’s not that God never visited man on the earth; it’s that He had never come to earth and lived on the earth … as a man! Read the Old Testament and you will see God in Eden walking and talking with Adam and Eve. Keep reading and you will see Him all over the O.T. interacting with Abraham, Moses, Joshua, the Judges, King David and scores of other people.

The Last Days began when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, when “God was manifest in the flesh.” (1Tim.3:16) Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “God who spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days, spoken to us by His Son…” And then it talks about, “when He brings the firstborn into the world….” (Heb.1:6) Last Days is when God is on the earth in the flesh, as a man. Jesus came to earth and revealed who He is by word and works. The Last Days began as Jesus lived for 33 years on earth before He went back to heaven.

The panorama of human history on the earth. Remember 2Peter 3:8 as we go through this: “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” And remember Gen.2:1-3: God worked 6 days and rested the 7th.

·       Adam to Abraham, 2000 yrs (2 days), Adam & Eve, Noah’s Flood, Tower of Babel: creation of nations.

·       Abraham to Jesus, 2000 yrs (2 days), Patriarchs, Old Covenant (the Law), Israel, Kings and Prophets.

·       First Coming to Second Coming of Jesus, 2000 yrs (2 days), Jesus on Earth, New Covenant, Outpouring of the Spirit, the Church, Rapture of the Church, Restoration of Israel & Great Tribulation, 2nd Coming.

·       Millennium, 1000 years (1 day), Reign of Christ on the Earth.

·       Judgment and Eternity

We have had 6,000 years of human history where God worked on the earth; the Millennium is the 7th Day.

The panorama of the Last Days. The Last Days are the days when God in the flesh lives on the earth. He was God living as man in Jesus Christ and He is God in man in the church. Jesus inaugurated the Last Days when He was born. When He went to heaven He poured out the Spirit on all flesh, when God came to earth in the Person of the Holy Spirit. God came to earth as a man in Jesus and in man by the Holy Spirit. That’s the astounding thing about Acts 2, which means it was part of the Last Days because God was and is still on the earth – in man but not as man. God is still on the earth – in man. That began on the Day of Pentecost.

There have been 2,000 years of what is called “The Church Age” when God is living on the earth in all flesh. The context of the “all flesh” is every nation under heaven, not everybody indiscriminately (2:5-12). He lives in “whoever calls on the name of the Lord.” (2:31) We are in the Church Age of the Last Days, between the Comings of Jesus.

·       Jesus Lived, Ministered, Died and Rose as a man on the Earth.

·       The Holy Spirit came to live in man on the earth, forming the Church.

·       The Church will be raptured.

·       God will again work in and through Israel during the Great Tribulation.

·       Jesus will come again and set up His thousand year reign on the earth.

·       Christ will judge everyone and eternity in heaven or hell will begin for the lost and the saved.

The characteristic of the Last Days is the outpouring of the Spirit that we might work with God to make disciples of all nations to build His church through preaching the gospel with signs following (Mk.16:15-20).

The church is each local church which is built by Christ through committed members. We are living in the Last Days and we know what we ought to be doing before Christ returns to earth. Every member of His church is to be doing everything he can to carry out the Great Commission of Christ, being a witness to everyone and making disciples. And we should be doing it with determination and urgency, because we don’t know when Jesus will return.

Those who work in hospital Emergency Rooms do lots of important things all the time. They are busy continually taking care of all sorts of patients, those who have been wounded and those who are sick. But they have what they call a “Code Blue” signal that sounds throughout the ER. When that goes off everyone drops what they are doing and hastens to where they are called to be. There’s an urgency in the Emergency Room. Something has taken priority over the normal operations of the ER. Maybe there’s been a school bus wreck. Or a burning apartment building has brought in many casualties. This is not a “business as usual” time.

The church should be operating in a Code Blue. Jesus is coming and there are people who are still lost, without God in the world and without hope, because they have not repented and believed the gospel.

Firemen usually have a lot of time on their hands. With all that time they can wash and wax their fire trucks (again) or they can cook and eat, or watch tv, or play games. But when the bell goes off they drop everything, grab their helmets and fire suits, and head to the pole and down they go. They jump into their prepared trucks and head out for the fire with all haste.

Church, the fire bell is ringing and it’s not time to lollygag around doing trivial things. The world is on fire and we need to be about the business of rescuing people from the fire that is certain to come.

We need to take our Christian job seriously. People are drowning and its time we jump up from our lifeguard perch on the beach and hit the water. We don’t want to lose anyone. We want to save all we can. Drowning is not fun and neither is going to hell. Our job is to rescue them with the gospel before it’s too late. 

We need to know that GOD HATES HUMAN SUFFERING. He hates your suffering as much as you do. Always has – always will. He didn’t make humans to suffer. He made them to live in paradise forever. He didn’t make anything to suffer, not even Lucifer.  He did, however, make them with the freedom to choose against His will and that is what has brought all this suffering. There was no suffering in Eden before sin came and there will be no suffering in the New Jerusalem – forever! God hates it and will not allow it in His presence. “In Your presence is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.” (Ps.16:11)

When Jesus came He spent almost all of His ministry alleviating human suffering. He made the blind to see and the deaf to hear. He healed the lepers and cast out demons. He destroyed the works of the devil (1Jn.3:8). Just like Jesus, when the Spirit came upon the church they went about healing everyone. There was no suffering from poverty or sickness in the Jerusalem Church (Acts 4:343-35; 5:14-16). Jesus had commissioned them to heal the sick and cast out demons, and they did. Suffering comes from sin and Satan.

Who loves to see humans suffer? The devil and his hosts of demons do. They steal, kill and destroy; Jesus came to give life (Jn.10:10) and to destroy the works of the devil. “God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and power and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38) Satan delights to see humans suffer, but God hates suffering as much as you do.

God hates human suffering so much that in the gospel He took all our sufferings and pain, and placed them on Jesus so we wouldn’t have to suffer. Mt.8:16-17 says so. In bearing our sins, He also bore the consequences of our sins, all the pain and sorrow that comes with sicknesses, diseases, and natural disasters.

If God hates human suffering so much, why does He allow it? The answer to that comes in what theologians call “Original Sin.” God gave man dominion over everything on earth, natural and spiritual. That means he ruled over the devil, the original “creeping thing.” God told man there was one thing he must never do and if he did, he would die (and bring death on the earth). God did not stop Adam from disobeying Him, because He had given man the responsibility to rule over Satan the snake. Suffering came from the sin of man.

Here’s the way the Bible puts it: “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.” (Rm.5:12) Human suffering does not necessarily come by any particular sin of any sufferer. By Adam’s sin his descendants are born sinners. The consequences of man’s choice in the beginning brought all this suffering. That does not mean our individual sins don’t have any consequences of suffering. I have buried too many smokers who died from cancer. Drunk drivers kill multitudes on our highways every year. Drugs kill even more. But mainly suffering does not come through particular sins.

We can learn things in the midst of suffering, but there is no need to. But doesn’t it say that Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered in Heb.5:8? “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”  Several things are wrong with the traditional translation and interpretation. Number one, Jesus did not have to learn obedience. He was always obedient. He said, “I always do the things that please My Father.” When He was 30 years old the Father spoke out of heaven, “This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased.” He never disobeyed God once. He never had to learn how to obey, especially by suffering.

I looked this verse up in the Greek New Testament and much to my surprise the word learned is not even in this verse! Heb.5:8 simply means that even though He was the perfect Son of God, He obeyed even in His suffering. Or, He submitted to obedience even though it meant suffering. He was not suffering for His own sin, for He had no sin. He had no “Original Sin” because He was born of a virgin. “He was obedient in His sufferings,” is what that verse literally says.

God does not teach us through suffering. God can use suffering in our lives (Rm.8:28). He did so with Joseph and Jesus. But God teaches us by instruction, not by destruction. He teaches us through His word. So says 2Tim.3:16-17. There’s nothing you could learn from suffering that you cannot learn from His word.

TAKEAWAYS:

I.     God is on your side in your suffering. It’s important that you believe that. He hates your suffering.

II.   God has given us weapons to deliver us from and keep us from suffering.

         1. The name of Jesus. “In My name you will lay hands on the sick and cast out demons.”

         2. The word of God. Jesus used this weapon to resist the devil. The word works.

         3. The armor of God will protect you from the wiles of the wicked one. Put it on and be protected.

         4. Prayer. “The prayer of faith will save the sick.”

Working our way through John chapter nine, this blind man was healed by Jesus. He was questioned repeatedly about how he was healed and who had healed him. He knew virtually nothing about the miracle of how he was healed or who had healed him. He couldn’t tell them because he didn’t know. That’s why they kept asking him. He didn’t know who or where Jesus was. He admitted he didn’t know everything.

It is a great advantage to confess what little you do know, but you should know some things and you should know and confess that you know them. If you can’t say it, you don’t know it. “One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.” (Jn.9:25) He told them a man called Jesus anointed him with mud made from His spit and told him to go wash it off, and then he was able to see for the first time in your life.

We all need this foundation, the bottom line, the starting block from which all other knowledge of the Lord comes. “I am not the same since Jesus told me to repent and believe in Him. I did and I am not the same.” Besides that, in the beginning we don’t know much. But God can work with that. Later Jesus found the man and told him who He was and then he began to worship Him and no doubt began to follow Him (Jn.9:35-38).

It’s very simple to come to Jesus. “I am a sinner and He is the Savior. I trust Him to save me.” But we fail to realize that this is just the beginning of the Christian life. Jesus said, “Come to Me, and take My yoke on you and learn from Me.” (Mt.11:28-30) We need to admit we don’t know everything there is to know about being a Christian and living the Christian life. Everything hinges on this admission that you don’t know everything. You can’t begin to rehabilitate till you admit you need rehabilitation. You can’t begin to be Christlike until you admit you need to be more like Jesus. Like Paul, you too have not arrived. Never stop learning, because  you never learn it all.

The Alcoholic Anonymous confession is genius. First, they encourage everyone to share. Great move. And the first thing they always share is their name and that they are an alcoholic. I do not agree with always admitting we are sinners. Our confession is that we are new creatures in Christ (2Cor.5:17) and that we are what God says we are – saints, holy ones! Nevertheless, the A.A. confession is really saying, “My name is Terry Simpson and I need help.” To admit you are not perfect is good, but only if you aspire to be perfect.

“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect; but I press on…”  (Philippians 3:12) The great apostle Paul, after being saved and writing much of the New Testament, admitted he was not what he wanted to be. He confessed, “Now we know in part…” (1Cor.13:12)  That’s Paul admitting that even he didn’t know everything. He said that he pressed on to know Christ! (3:10) He certainly knew Christ, but he was confessing that he didn’t know everything there was to know about Christ. Think of that! The apostle! Peter the apostle said some of Paul’s writings were hard to understand. You can bet that if they were hard to understand for Peter, they would be hard to understand for us. We must press on to know the Lord.

Many people today who call themselves Christians seem to think they know everything, at least everything they needed to know. How ignorant can one be? I used to tell the kids in school, “The object of the hunt is not to listen to the dogs bark.” They’d ask me, “Mister Simpson, what does that mean?” I was waiting for that question. I’d ask them what the object of hunting was and finally someone would say, “Meat on the table!” Bingo! The object of going to school is not passing tests, spending time with friends, or a hundred other things. It’s learning things! If you learn things you will pass your tests. Plus all the other advantages that go with that.

I was trying to teach some highschoolers how to buy a car. All of them were in the process of looking for their first car to buy so I thought they’d be interested in this. I told them there were several things they could do. One, find the dealership near them that sold the most cars. There’s a reason they do that. Secondly, find the car with the best trade-in value. They are not going to keep their first car forever. Then I noticed that nobody was listening! Here’s a teacher who had been buying cars for 60 years and had researched how to best do this and was trying to help them, and they couldn’t care less! They thought they didn’t need to learn anything about buying a car; the second biggest thing they would probably ever buy. They thought they knew everything they needed to know about it. Imagine in your house if your teen came to you and said, “Mom, Dad, I don’t know everything.” You’d probably pass out. Teens think they are smarter than their parents and their teachers. Imagine what that would do for your teen at home or school if he just realized he didn’t know everything.

Behold the importance of knowledge. 2 Peter 1:2-4 says, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. (Would you like grace and peace to be multiplied to you? The less knowledge of God – the less grace and peace.) as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (Do you know all the things God has given us by His power? Nobody knows them all.) through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature…” (The more knowledge we have the more promises we can receive whereby we are made more and more like God.) That’s huge! The more you know, the more you grow… into Christlikeness, and that is the goal of being a Christian.

The danger of thinking you know everything you need to know is found in Heb.5:11-6:2. There is much in the Bible that is “hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” (The only reason you become dull of hearing is because you think you already know everything. Why bother listening…) For by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.  But solid food belongs to those who are of full age (because they have not been dull of hearing), that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”

We learn by doing. Hear and do. That’s how you learn. According to Deut.28:1-14, if you hear and do you will be blessed beyond your wildest dreams. For example, in church services we have not taken the time to do what we are hearing. This is seen most glaringly in the gifts of the Spirit. If you don’t do it in church, you probably won’t do it out there in the unbelieving world. If you can’t do it here, you won’t do it there. People actually come here hoping to get help, admitting we need each other.

The advantage of admitting you don’t know everything or even everything you need to know is now you know you need to learn more. Now you can get on with it. Now you can wake up each day thinking you have the opportunity to learn more spiritual truth, more of Christ and the Christian life. Now you can get help. Now you can press on to know more. Now you can listen more attentively.

A popular cheerleader in high school asked if she could talk to me during her study hall period. She was upset with her parents over the fact that they kept her in a small church with no youth, while all her friends went to large, more popular churches with large youth groups with many of her friends in them. She hated being in her parents’ church and she asked me what she could possibly do about it.  I told her, “Sure. Here’s what you can do. Look on this as a blessing. Now you have three hours a week to focus on the Lord without the distraction of your friends. You have many hours with your friends every week: school, ball games, etc. Take these three hours as a call from the Lord to focus on Him.” She said she’d try it. The next fall semester she found me in the hall and excitedly told me the great news. She said since she started doing this she has grown closer to the Lord than she had ever imagined. It had been the best thing she had ever done and the best year of her life.  She thanked me and scurried off down the hall.

The advantage of admitting you don’t know everything is you get to learn more. It’s like you’ve been eating crackers and water in your cabin on a cruise ship and then the captain tells you that you can actually help yourself to the daily buffet. This is good news! Eat and grow. Learn and do. 

I. The Force, 1:8 This is for others. It’s rivers of living waters. What happened in Acts 2 was the fulfillment of the words spoken by Jesus just 40 days before in Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be My witnesses…” The point of this force is effectiveness. Jesus did not begin His powerful ministry of word, and works to back up His words, until after He was endued with power by the Holy Spirit. That’s huge! He did all His teaching and miracles after He was baptized with the Spirit. Likewise, just before He went to heaven He told His disciples not to begin their witness until after they were filled with the force of the Holy Spirit. Before Paul ever did or said anything, he was filled with the Spirit (Acts 9:17). This is no small thing. We accomplish little without this experience in our own lives. Are you filled with the force? Jesus said, “Without Me you can do nothing.” Well, you can do a lot, but it will not amount to much, without what Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The church needs this force backing our words. YOU need this force. Jesus did, the disciples did, and so do we. Make sure you have this experience.

II. The Fullness, v.4 This is for you. Paul called it being “filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph.3:19) Jesus was filled with the Spirit and so were the disciples; God commands us to be filled in Eph.5:18. This is necessary for our bearing the fruit of the Spirit; it is His fruit that will fill our hearts and lives. Are you filled with the Spirit? You must answer yes or you can’t be all that God wants you to be and the world needs you to be.

III. The Phenomena, 2:5-13; 1:8; 2:43; Jn.12:14 This was speaking in tongues. It was a strange thing for the people in Jerusalem that day, and also to the disciples who were doing it, because they had not learned these languages! A phenomenon is a significant event, an exceptional and unusual occurrence, something not normal or natural. It attracts people and makes them ask, “What is this?” Then we get to explain to them what God has done and is doing. This will seem like foolishness to many. They were accused of being drunk. But this was not the effect of being filled with wine, it was the result of being filled with the Holy Spirit (Eph.5:18).

These phenomena were common in the church in the Bible. There were miracles, healings, deliverances and supernatural things. The church is supernatural and is commissioned to do supernatural things. It all started with speaking in tongues. Take this or other phenomena out of the church and you have removed much of the Bible from our experience. We should expect the unusual because we are working for and with God! I believe in miracles because I believe in God! Miracles keep the church from being mundane. This phenom drew large crowds to hear the gospel that day (and it will still do the same today) and it confirmed the word preached.

IV. The Foretelling, 2:14-21 Prophecy can be telling the future. In explaining what was happening Peter stands out in the crowd and says what was happening was the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken by Joel, “It shall come to pass in the last days…” The Bible is a book of prophecy. God lets us know what He is going to do before He does it, so that when it happens we will know it is God doing it. The fulfillment of prophecy is one of the foremost proofs that the Bible is the word of God. We should be always explaining what God is doing, using the Bible to do it. This is how they come to know that what is happening was of God.

V. The Forthtelling, 2:22-29 This is the part of prophecy that is left out many times. It is both foretelling and forthtelling. Peter prophesies by quoting Joel and by preaching the gospel of Jesus. Gospel ministry is just that, it is ministering the gospel to others. We are all forth tellers of the gospel. It is called witnessing, and we are forthtelling the most important message ever spoken by and heard by mankind. It is the message of the death and resurrection of Christ whereby He offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who repent and believe that gospel.

VI. The Fruit, The result of all this is explained in verses 40-47. The people are under conviction of their sin of not believing in Jesus and being responsible for His death and they say, “What must we do?” Then Peter tells them, “Repent and be baptized…” After what happened in Acts 2:1-39 people were saved and the church was formed of born again converts. “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Look at all this wonderful fruit! Do you not want this fruit in your own church? Of course you do! We don’t have the effect without the cause. What produced this fruit was what happened earlier in the chapter: the Force, the Fullness, the Phenomena, the Foretelling, and the Forthtelling. Let’s have this. Let’s do this. 

(John 9:13-34)

Joy is a precious commodity. It is the strength of the Christian. “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” And “The fruit of the Spirit is joy.” Then we have the famous verse that says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy and at Your right hand are pleasures forever more.” (Ps.16:11) If you are living in the presence of God you will have joy, no matter what. Joy is the nectar that supplies the honey in our lives. Its sweetness attracts.

But we need to know there are enemies of our joy that are on the loose! Satan wants to kill your joy! This hater of men can’t stand people having joy, or enjoying righteous things. He is the father of all the other killjoys that can invade your life. And they come uninvited; they are intruders disguised as guests. They look like they’re shopping in your store, but they are shoplifters; they have come to steal your joy (Jn.10:10a).

A man arrived home from the grocery store with his 8 year old son and discovered he had a candy bar that he hadn’t paid for. The dad was upset and immediately told him to get back into the car and then drove him to the … jewelry store. Joy is located in the jewelry store of your life. To have this taken is no candy bar theft; Satan is taking this jewel of your life. Joy is what makes life enJOYable. See Acts 13:52.

Joy is a jewel and some people want to steal it from you. The world is full of bad news and if you listen to enough of it you will lose your joy. Bad news can be a blow to your joy, but it doesn’t have to kill it. The world is full of depressing bad news. Bad circumstances can kill your joy. But notice this. James wrote, “Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing.” (Jas.5:13) So what do we see Paul doing when he was beaten and thrown into the bottom of the prison? He is singing. “Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.” (Acts 16:24-25) Surely we will never face such horrible circumstances, so let us never lose the joy of the Lord.

You can have joy in the midst of adverse circumstances. God laughs at all His opposition. “Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and His Anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord will hold them in derision.” (Ps.2:1-4) Our own family members can become killjoys when they see us being “religious” and worse yet – blessed and prosperous. You share what God is doing in your life and some people won’t like it. They try to discourage you.

Sin can kill your joy. Sure, sin is fun in the beginning, but it will lead to heartache, sorrow and loss of joy. There is pleasure in sin for a season, but it’s only for a season. The rush will rush away sooner or later and leave you in pain. Some think God looked down on the human race and saw what people enjoyed and called it sin. But it’s more like God saw what brought man sorrow and loss and pain, and death, and called that sin!

A critical spirit kills joy. Once you put this spirit on, like a pair of sunglasses, it colors everything you see. And what you see will blind you to the joy in your life. Do not pick up this faultfinding attitude. If the spirit of Pharisaism and legalism is around today, it is in the hearts of the faultfinding, critical spirits of church members. This is the death of your relationships, even the most valuable ones: with your spouse, your pastor, brothers and sisters in Christ. This will halt all possible advancement in your relationship with God.

Unforgiveness is drinking poison thinking it will kill the other person. Jesus taught this in a powerful way in a story He told in Mt.18:34-35. Read these words spoken toward those who refuse to forgive others: “And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

These things will kill your joy and according to Ps.16:11 will take you from the very presence of God. But you won’t know it, at least not in the beginning. The soul is very tricky and will make you think everything is ok with you and God even though it is not with you and others, or some other person.

Finally, religious people are expert killjoys. The fruit of the Spirit is good and the flesh is against all that fruit (Gal.5:19-23). Some of the greatest killjoys in the world can be religious people who should know better. You’d think church people would be rejoicing over your healing and financial blessings, but some will not.

This is where we enter the scene of John 9:13-34. These religious leaders who should have been rejoicing over this blind man being healed are hammering him with questions, doubts and arguments, and finally casting him out of the church. They didn’t want wonderful works done in the name of Jesus and they tried to stop it. They will do everything they can to kill your joy. Don’t let them. They didn’t give you your joy, don’t let them take it away. Stay with the simple good news, stay with the good that has happened to you, with what God has done in your life. Read carefully the text and see how this man refused to let them get him down. 

“Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.”  (1Corinthians 14:3)

I want our church to be the church as it is in the Bible. Do you want that? You should, because it’s what God wants. We know that because the Bible is the Holy Word of God where He tells us what He likes and the way He wants things done in His house. My dad was the boss in his own house. Even after I grew up and moved out of his house, when I went to his house I knew what he liked and disliked. For example, I would never dishonor him by changing the tv station to something I wanted to see. I can hear him now, “Now son, I was watching that. I own this house and that tv, so don’t be changing the station away from something I’m watching. God wants done in His house what He wants done and He tells it to us in the Bible. We should want that too. You don’t go to someone’s house and tell the owner what you want to do and not do. Especially God’s.

It doesn’t really matter what we want or like, does it? The aim of our lives is to please Him in everything and that certainly includes what we do in church. We have an audience of one and our sole goal is to please Him. That’s what we see in Acts 2 when Jesus instituted the church. What He did then and the way it was then is to continue until He returns. That is The Model Church we are to model our church after.

One of the greatest and most life-changing truths I have ever received into my heart is this, that God invites me to join Him in the work of building His eternal family who will live with Him forever. Little ole me! And He will use me to speak His word and in so doing save the lost, heal the sick, and bless others immeasurably in a hundred different ways. And I get eternal rewards for working with Him in this.

When you become a Christian you join God’s team and He has a place for everyone on His team, or you wouldn’t be on it. After weeks of grueling, brutal workouts, Rudy’s buddy told him if he didn’t get on the field during a game, he’s not officially on the team. Or course, in the last minute of the last game of his senior year he did get on the field and on his first play he sacked the quarterback. God wants us on the field and in the game.

Coming to know Jesus and being filled with the Holy Spirit (two different things) and God using me to do His work are the greatest three things in the universe we could ever experience. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead that we might have eternal life, then poured out His Spirit upon us that we might have abundant life. That’s what He meant when He said, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” (Jn.10:10) The cross and resurrection gives us Jesus and with Him fellowship with God and eternal life, and Pentecost with the fullness of the Spirit gives us the abundant and overflowing life where I am “filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph.3:19)  Imagine the thrill and rush of that!

That overflowing of the Spirit empowers and equips me to be a partner with Him in His eternal work of building His church, against which the gates of death will never prevail. This is the apex of purpose and significance for any person on this earth. Jesus said, “Come unto Me,” and the very next thing He said was, “Take My yoke upon you.” (Mt.11:28-30) The yoke hooks us up with Him in doing His work. We both do the work; He supplies the power and direction for what we do.

In this glorious ministry of the gospel we are actually giving Christ through the words we speak to others, so they can experience the power and presence of God in their lives. It says in Acts 8:5 that “Phillip preached Christ” to the Samaritans. He didn’t preach about Christ; he actually preached Christ. He gave them Christ. That’s what we do when we minister to others in church.

I must admit this simple statement in 1Cor.14:26 I have always misinterpreted until recently. I thought this could only be done in small groups. But it says, “Whenever you come together.” This chapter in Corinthians is full of guidelines to conduct a service and those guidelines are only necessary because there would be a large number of people present.

I asked the Lord for the best way for us to do this, to let the different parts of the body love one another by ministering to one another and these guidelines gave me the way God wants it done. Not everyone in a large church can participate every time they gather. But some can and should. 

The Elder in charge directs traffic: who can speak and not speak, when, and how long. Members are free to prophesy or do any of the things people do in church to show love for others. Love is best expressed by the gifts of the Spirit. In the middle of the discussion on Spiritual gifts is this great chapter on love. See 1Cor. 12-13-14.        

This tells me that love is best shown by ministering spiritual gifts to one another. Here are some of them:

“For the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:

For to one is given the word of knowledge, to another the word of wisdom, to another faith, to another gifts of healings, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.”  (1Cor.12:7-10) “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them; if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation, he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”  (Rm.12:6-8)

Pray the name of Jesus over people. Pray in the name of Jesus what He can and will supply. Speak every aspect of that covenant name over people. That’s where the power to change people’s lives comes from.

Jehovah Covenant Names of God:

“I will declare Your name to my brethren.” (Heb.2:12)

JEHOVAH means “I Am”: the covenant name for God

JEHOVAH-MACADDESH.......Exodus 31:13 meaning "The Lord our sanctifier"

JEHOVAH-ROHI......Psalm 23:1 meaning "The Lord our shepherd"

JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH.......Ezekiel 48:35 meaning "The Lord who is present"

JEHOVAH-RAPHA.........Exodus 15:26 meaning "The Lord our healer"

JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU......Jeremiah 23:6 meaning "The Lord our righteousness"

JEHOVAH-JIREH.........Genesis 22:13-14 meaning "The Lord will provide"

JEHOVAH-NISSI.........Exodus 17:15 meaning "The Lord our banner"

JEHOVAH-SHALOM........Judges 6:24 meaning "The Lord is peace"

JEHOVAH-SABBAOTH......Isaiah 6:1-3  meaning "The Lord of Hosts"

JEHOVAH – SHUA……. Jesus, Matthew 1:21 meaning Jehovah Saves

ONE ANOTHER (NKJV)

These verses summarize the key to all church relationships. Do these and be the Christian God desires.

When people tell me they can be a good Christian but not go to church, I ask them, “Could you be a good Christian if every week you disobeyed 35 direct commands from God?” They just look at me and I tell them, “You can’t possibly do these 35 commands without being involved in church.” Here are those commands.

1. Have peace with one another   (Mark 9:50)   Be a peacemaker.

2. Wash one another’s feet   (John 13:14)

3. Love one another, as I have loved you  (Jn.13:34; 1Thes.3:12; 4:9; 1Pet.1:22; 4:8; 1Jn.3:11; 3:23; 4:7,11,12;

2Jn.1:5)

4. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love (Romans 12:10a)

5.  In honor giving preference to one another  (Rm.12:10b)   “Outdo in showing honor”

6. Be of the same mind toward one another  (Rm.14:13)  “Live in harmony”

7. Receive one another as Christ also received us   (Rm.15:7)

8. Admonish one another  (Rm.15:14)   “Instruct one another”

9. Greet one another with a holy kiss  (Rm.16:16; 1Cor.16:20; 2Cor.13:12; 1Pet.5:14)

10. Wait for one another  (1Cor.11:33)

11. Have the same care for one another  (1Cor.12:25)

12. Through love serve one another  (Gal.5:13)

13. Do not provoke one another  (Gal.5:26)   “Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying

   one another”

14. Bear one another’s burdens   (Gal.6:2)

15. Bear with one another in love   (Eph.4:2; Col.3:13)

16. Be kind to one another   (Eph.4:32)

17. Forgive one another   (Eph.4:32)

18. Speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing…   (Eph.5:19)

19. Submitting to one another in the fear of God   (Eph.5:21)

20. Do not lie to one another   (Col.3:9)

21. Teaching and admonishing one another   (Col.3:16) “Teach one another in all wisdom.”

22. Comfort one another   (1Thes.4:18)   

23. Encourage one another   (1Thes.5:11)

24. Edify one another  (1Thes.5:11)  

25. Always seek to do good to one another  (1Thes.5:15) “Always pursue what is good for all”

26. Exhort one another daily   (Heb.3:13)

27. Consider one another in order to stir up love and good works   (Heb.10:24,25)

28. Do not speak evil of one another   (James 4:11)

29. Do not grumble against one another   (James 5:9)

30. Confess your trespasses to one another   (James 5:16)

31. Pray for one another   (James 5:16)

32. Be hospitable to one another   (1Pet.4:9)

33. Minister your gift to one another (1Pet.4:10)

34. All of you be submissive to one another   (1Pet.5:5) “Be clothed with humility.”

35.  Have fellowship with one another   (1Jn.1:7) 

“He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and anointed the eyes of the man with the clay. And He said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool.’ So he went and washed, and came back seeing.” (John 9:7)

Families have their own ways of doing things. They are called family traditions. God has ways of doing things, but they do not usually become traditions because He is always changing the way He does things.

I. Unusual Methods.   

God has always used unusual methods of doing things. He does not think they way we do or do things the way we would do them. We see this clearly in the healing of this man born blind. A few years after Pentecost at a church convention two men began to discuss how Jesus healed their blindness. One said, “Isn’t it wonderful how Jesus makes mud out of His spit and dirt, anoints us with the mud, they go and wash, and they are healed.” The other man replied, “Well, He does not heal blind people that way at all. He simply spoke and I was healed.” The discussion was so heated they made two denominations: the Mudites and the Anti-Mudites. You never know how God may heal or deliver you. He is God and He chooses the methods He uses to do it.

We see this all the way through the O.T. The most glaring example of this is Naaman. He had the fatal disease of leprosy and the prophet told him to go dip seven times in the dirty Jordan River. He reasoned and refused to do what the Lord had said. But His servants said to him, “`If he had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?” So he went and dipped seven times in the Jordan, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.” (2Kings 5:9-15)

God always does these unusual things by speaking them. All God’s works are voice-activated, and He uses our voices. They are what we call prophetic words, “Thus says the Lord…” is a phrase used hundreds of times in the Old Testament. That’s how God did things, by speaking them through people.

Did you ever notice that Jesus healed a lot of people but never prayed for anyone to be healed? He just spoke a word to them and it was almost always something for them to do. “Go, show yourselves to the priests… And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.” (Lk.17:14) He told the man with the withered hand to stretch forth that hand (the very thing he couldn’t do) and when he did it was healed (Mt.12:13). He told the lame man, “Arise, take up your bed and go to your house. And he arose (the very thing he couldn’t do) and departed to his house.” (Mt.9:7) Jesus said to Peter, “Come,” and he walked on the water (Mt.14:29). “Jesus rebuked the devil and it came out of him, and the child was cured.” (Mt.17:18) Those are only a few from the one book of Matthew. Here we have an example of this in the book of John.

II. Prophetic Words   

What is a prophetic word? According to 1 Corinthians 14:3 it is always positive, a word that imparts strengths (edification, building up), encouragement, and comfort to others. It usually comes like this, “I just feel like I need to say this to you and I believe it’s from the Lord.” Or “I just believe God wants me to do this for you.” Or “say this to you.” Then, you speak or do what the Lord has impressed you to say or do.

Jesus used them and so must we. These utterances are faith in action (Jas.2:20-26). “Faith speaks.” (Rm.10:6) “Well, Jesus isn’t here anymore to perform these wonderful miracles.” I beg to differ. He is here. His body is here on earth and we’re supposed to be doing exactly what He did (Mt.16:17-18). And then there’s James 5:14-15. The oil is nothing but oil, but it does the deed of healing if applied with the prayer of faith.

Bringing this into our present situation, as the body of Christ we come together and love God by worshiping Him and love others by ministering to them (1Jn.3:16-17). Let’s have a clinic and do these things. If we can’t serve and minister to one another in the body of Christ, how are we ever going to do it out there where there is a whole world of needy people. If we can’t be the body of Christ here, we can’t be the body of Christ. This is where the members of the body come together, when the body is assembled. Where the team comes together to win games. Every member of the team is important.

Asking people if you can pray for them is great. Do that. But make sure you pray the prayer of faith. And just as important, be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit about what God can have the person do to put faith into action (Jas.2:17) or what he might want you to do, like lay hands on that person, or anoint with oil, or ask him or her to do something. We need to learn how to minister to others. That’s what Jesus would do if He were here and He is here. 

“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues,

as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  (Acts 2:4)

In our lessons from Acts 2 we are looking again at verse four. The following context of that verse is clear that every person in that upper room on the Day of Pentecost participated in the ministry of the word and Spirit. The apostles were the human leaders, but the Spirit was the true leader and He made all of them ministers of the word. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues.” And “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?”

To make the church all it can be, God must use all the members; therefore, every member of the body must participate in the ministry of Christ. All are necessary to make the fullest impact on this world and our loved ones. The church today is not living up to its potential as it did in the Model Church. And probably no member is doing that either. We could all do better to be all that we can be. It’s true in our natural life on this planet when it comes to things we want to accomplish. Thomas Edison once said, “The harder I work the luckier I get.” And this is equally true in spiritual matters and in the church. God wants us to live up to our potential. You should too. You want that for your kids and God wants that for His.

The question is – how can we best do this? First we learn that the church is only the church when it is gathered. We are each individual members, but only when the body comes together are we the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We function as a body when all the parts of it are together, and when everyone is participating in the function of that church.

The church is God’s supernatural body of people gathered together to do supernatural things. That’s what we find in Acts. We are not just a PTO meeting, or a session of congress, or a school board meeting. A team is only a team when it is together. We are a meeting of Christ’s team and every member of that team needs to show up for every practice and game. We are a supernatural team, endued with the power of God to do spiritual gifts which enable us to raise the spiritually dead to life by the preaching of the gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, give helpful prophetic words, speak in tongues with interpretation, and other such wonderful and powerful things.

I want to share something that will help the church live up to our God-given potential, to do what Christ called us to do. And like in Acts 2 it all begins with the church gathered. When we come together we have only two things to do: 1. Love God by worshiping Him, and 2. Love others by serving them. That’s it. Minister to God by worship and minister to others by the gifts of the Spirit. Most people do the first part relatively well. We do if we sing to God from our hearts.

Hebrews 2:12 gives us these two things we are to do when we come together as a church. “I will declare Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.” We express our love for God by worshiping as we sing praises to Him during our services. For some reason God loves our songs of praise to Him. It has always amazed me that some people don’t sing during worship. They stand like statues while everyone else in the sanctuary is singing to God. Or they hold conversations with others during the singing. Or worse yet, they are on their cellphones.

God has chosen singing to Him as the primary means of worshiping Him. We see this all the way through the Bible. The largest book in the Bible is a book of worship songs called Psalms. There was the singing of angels at Jesus’ birth and at the worship of the Lamb in heaven. At the inauguration of the house of God in Jerusalem with Solomon, all of one tribe, one twelfth of the whole nation (Levi) filled the temple grounds playing musical instruments and singing. He loves to hear us singing praises to Him. That’s the primary way we express our love for Him.

The second thing we are to do when a church gathers is “declare Your name to my brethren.” Declaring God’s name is beautiful and full of meaning. Daniel 11:32 says, “The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.” Those who know their God know Him by His names, by which He has revealed Himself. When you declare His name to the brethren, you are telling them what our covenant God is to them. When you find someone who is having trouble paying their bills at the end of the month tell them that God is their Jehovah-Jireh, Our Provider. Declare to those who are sick or in pain, His name is Jehovah-Rapha, Our Healer. Tell someone who is disturbed in their hearts about Jehovah-Shalom, The Lord Our Peace. If you find someone who is lost and feeling the weight of their guilt, declare the consummate Jehovah name of Jesus, which means Jehovah Saves. There are eight Jehovah names. Find out what they are and tell the people you minister to His name.

But alas, few ever come to church with the idea of ministering to others. And it’s not the fault of the people in the pews. It’s the fault of the church leaders who are not leading their churches to do this. They don’t make time in the service for us to love others by ministering to them the name of the Lord.

What is keeping us from doing that very basic thing? Instead of coming to church to minister to others, they come solely for themselves, for what they can get out of it. That’s selfishness to the core. You’re only in this for yourself. How different from the Jesus we worship and serve, who said, “I did not come to be served, but to serve.” (Mk.10:45) Most people come to be served a few songs and a good sermon, and that’s about it. It never enters their minds that they are coming to serve others the word of God and the gifts of the Spirit.

Some will love this part of the service. They love engaging with others and they will like doing this, especially when they learn how to minister and pray for people. Others will find this very challenging. They don’t get a kick out of talking to others, especially strangers, and they will hesitate to even try doing this. I encourage you to love others by getting to know them and encouraging them with words of love and prayers. The best way to get over your shyness is to just jump in.

The solution to this problem is LOVE. The solution to all the problems in the messed up Corinthians Church was love, found in 1Cor.13. Love is everything God requires of us. “All the law is fulfilled in one word, ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself.’” (Gal.5:14) Who is your neighbor? The one you are near and that includes when you are in church. The wounded and robbed man was not the next door neighbor of the good Samaritan. He only came across this man as he was walking down a foreign road. Then he doctored him as best he could, transported him to the nearest hospital, and paid the bill. That wounded man was his neighbor.

When you come into the church building, anywhere the church meets, you should come looking for anyone you can speak to, pray for, and minister to. And not the same ones you talk to every week. Look for new people; they don’t know anyone else. Make a friend. Heal a friend.

Every member participation should be the goal of any church. Why? Because it’s what we see in the Bible and it’s what God wants from us and from every person who attends. “Beloved, love one another.” Jesus said that and what He said is the answer to how we live up to our potential in Christ. There is no other way. Find others and ask them, “What would you like God to do in your life right now?” Then ask if you can pray for them. Make a friend. Love them enough to talk to them and pray for them. 

(John 9:1-12)

         We have come from Jesus dealing with His enemies in chapter eight and this will not stop until they have Him hanging on a cross. They called Him a liar (8:13), an illegitimate son (8:41), a Samaritan (8:48), and a demoniac (8:48,52). But in between all these enemy attacks, we have wonderful stories of Jesus demonstrating who He was and why He was here. This is one of those stories and in it He gives the seventh sign (a miracle with a message) to show why they should believe in Him and have eternal and abundant life (Jn.20:30-31).

I. The Catastrophe, v.1   

A catastrophe is an event causing great damage or suffering. This man’s catastrophe, the one noted by the disciples, was that he was born blind. It could also be called a calamity, which means a disaster, damage, distress. All those words depict what had happened to this unfortunate man. He was born blind and had lived that way his whole life. He had never seen a sunset, or a flower, or his mother’s face, or his own face. Blindness has got to be the worst distress and damage a person can live under. He was a blind beggar, so poor he had to beg for bread. Imagine yourself in his darkness. See yourself having no sight. The distress he had been living with all his life. It was difficult and it was lifelong. Until Jesus came!

He is not alone in this world. Catastrophes are the lot of most people at one time or another in their lives, and sometimes they have lasting effects, like it did with this man. Blind from birth. Or the death of a loved one. I knew a kindergarten boy who was accidently killed by his dad. The parents did not know Christ and had no hope of ever seeing their precious boy again. They turned to alcohol to deal with the tragedy and ended up divorced. It was a horrible experience. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (Jn.16:11) The last part of that verse is the key to overcoming catastrophes: to know they can be overcome.

II. The Cause, v.2-5

Doctors and professionals always seek to find out the cause of things. What is making you sick? Why did this plane crash? Why is it so hot? All of us do this. It’s human nature to seek to know why. These disciples are no different. Why was this man born blind? We think if we can find the reason for the catastrophe we can make some sense of it and help us deal with the pain of it. Mostly, it won’t. When you know the answers to all the whys, it still hurts. Answers don’t take away the pain, but as we see here, Jesus can.

On the surface, the question is ridiculous. How could this man’s sins cause him to be born blind? What did he do when he was in his mother’s womb? It may have come from Adam’s sin, but not from his own sin! Sometimes the sins of the parents are visited on their offspring. A mother on drugs can do irreparable damage to her unborn child. It does virtually no good to know the cause of something bad that happens.

III. The Cure, v.6-12 Jesus sweeps all this inquiry away by what He said in v.3-5. First by one simple word – Neither! He is saying here that their thinking and their approach to the subject of catastrophes and all bad things like afflictions, accidents, deformities, diseases, or whatever, was all wrong! They were thinking Old Testament thoughts. It’s very hard to get over an O.T. mentality and move into the New Testament way of thinking. And even if some do they will often speak the language of the O.T. where God operated strictly out of justice in these matters. That was totally on the basis of cause and effect.

Check out Deut.28 where it says God curses sinners with all these catastrophes. Job is a very revealing case and it brings us into N.T. thinking about these things. For 35 long chapters Job’s friends deal with the cause of all the terrible catastrophes that happened to Job. They blamed Job for it; it was all because of his sin. But then God shows up and speaks up. Interestingly God never tells him the reason for all his trouble! But He does deliver him from all his troubles and then blesses him with twice as much as he had before. The point of what God says and does for Job is that He is able to fix Job (Job.38-41). “I am big enough and have the power and compassion to deliver you from all this mess.” And He does. The N.T. book of James deals with Job the same way. This is the total N.T. commentary on the whole story of Job, “You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord – that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.” (Jas.5:11)

The disciples’ approach to this blind man’s problem was all wrong. That’s difficult to see from the various translations of this passage. What they have is Jesus simply presenting another cause of the man’s blindness. That would not have helped the situation at all. In fact, it would raise more questions than answers. Did God make this man blind just so He could heal him? That implies that God was the sole cause of his blindness, not sin. But, neither the blind man nor the disciples needed to know the cause. What they needed to know, and what they needed to focus on, was what Jesus talked about, how He answered the question.

Here’s how the Message Bible translates this, “Jesus said, ‘You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause and effect here. Look instead for what God can do!’” It is pointless to try to figure out the cause of this catastrophe, so why focus on that. Look rather on the One who is standing here at this moment. “I Am the Light of the world.”

I love the way Jesus illustrates His messages. Remember, a sign is a miracle with a message. Jesus said He was the light of the world and proved it by giving this man his sight so he could see the light.

Like these disciples, we often focus on the wrong thing. Things that in the long run don’t matter. All that matters is what the Lord can do for this man, and what He can do in our lives when catastrophic events happen, when we get a bad report from the doctor, or that phone call about the wreck your child was in, or whatever. I lost my job once and immediately, instead of fretting over the loss of income for my family, I thought, “When God closes a door, He will open a better door.” And He did. That other door was a pastorate where I spent four of the best years of my life. When we see someone in a bad financial, physical, emotional or in bondage to some harmful habit, don’t focus on why this happened. Focus instead on what the God of compassion and power can do with this to solve. This is the N.T. way of thinking about things. We need to learn this.

All we need to know is what God in His mercy and power intends to do in this situation, the end He desires and will accomplish for those who believe and persevere in believing. This is awesome. And it is exactly the opposite of the way most people think when catastrophe hits. Get your mind off how bad it is and how devastating it is and how long you are going to suffer from this, and put it on the God who spoke to Job showing how big He is. We have a better revelation of how good and great God is than Job ever had. We have the revelation of God in Christ in the gospel pages. He went about healing all who were sick, turning economic crises into financial boons, storms into peace that passed all understanding. Focus on the cure and the Curator.

What is the night when no one can work that He is talking about in this passage? It was during His passion. After the disciples had failed to minister to Him in Gethsemane, He didn’t minister to anyone else, except to put an ear back on a soldier. The night was from that moment till Acts 2, when the Spirit was poured out and His people began to do the works of Jesus. It is day right now. Jesus is again working through His people, His church. The Light came back and it is still here. We are the light of the world, as surely as the moon reflects the light of the sun.

One more note about this cure. Notice how ignorant this man was. He didn’t know who Jesus was or where He was. He would later say, “All I know is, I once was blind but now I see.” (v.25) And he knew and told them the One who cured him was named Jesus (v.11). That’s all he knew. The name of Jesus. We don’t need to know much to be saved or healed or delivered. All we need to know is His name. That name is loaded with power. There’s power in the name of Jesus.

·       “In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, who you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” And “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Same goes for healing or whatever it is you may need. (Acts 3:6,16; 4:12)

·     “And she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Mt.1:21)  

·       “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rm.10:13)

Crystal Gayle sings a song entitled I Speak Jesus,

“I just want to speak the name of Jesus, over every heart and every mind, till every dark addiction starts to break. Declaring there is hope and there is freedom, I speak Jesus. Your name is power, Your name is healing, Your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, burn like a fire. I just want to speak the name of Jesus, over fear and all anxiety, to every soul held captive by depression, I speak Jesus. Your name is power, Your name is healing, Your name is life. Shout Jesus from the mountains, shout Jesus in the streets, Jesus in the darkness, over every enemy. Jesus for my family. I speak the holy name of Jesus. 

“And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused.”  (Acts 2:6)

         I wouldn’t get on a plane if I didn’t know where it was going. Years ago blonde jokes were very popular. My favorite one was where this blonde got on a plane going to Dallas, and walking through the “First Class” section she liked what she saw, plopped down and settled in. A stewardess approached her and said, “Dear, you have a Coach seat and you can’t sit in First Class. You’ll have to move back.” She responded, “I like this seat and I’m not moving. I’m flying to Dallas in this seat and nobody is going to move me.” The stewardess said, “But you have to pay more money to sit in First Class and you haven’t done that. You paid for a seat in Coach. You’ll have to move.” They argued and the blonde refused to move. The captain noticed the argument and asked the stewardess what was going on, and she told him. He went to the lady, whispered something in her ear and she promptly got her things together, got up and moved back to Coach. The stewardess asked the captain what he said to her and he said, “I just told her First Class is not flying to Dallas today.”

Here’s where we’re going with these studies in Acts 2 on The Model Church. The divinely ordained standard for the church of all times is found in the book of Acts, particularly chapter two. The church began with an outpouring of the Spirit. This was the powerful launching of the church, the liftoff that carried the church into the next 2,000 years of life and ministry. It was the beginning of the church as we know it today and will be until the end of the age. There was the Spirit coming upon the gathered believers with power to carry out the Great Commission of Christ (Acts 1:8), to make disciples of all nations (Mt.28:18-20). You can see this with the many languages miraculously spoken by the Spirit-baptized believers. Then there was the preaching of the Bible by Peter which necessarily included the preaching of the gospel and a command to repent and be baptized in water. Three thousand gladly received the word and were baptized that day. Then we come to Acts 2:42-47,

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple (large group), and breaking bread from house to house (small groups), they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

This is heaven on earth. It is the answer to the prayer Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is God’s answer to this world’s problems. There was provision, healing, deliverance from demons and peace and harmony for everyone who believed and were baptized into the church. This world’s only hope is the church of Jesus, which is the body of Christ on the earth, continuing to do what He did when He was here (Jn.14:12). From this beginning came the massive movement that has continued for over 2,000 years and will continue to grow as God pours out His Spirit upon all flesh in these last days. Who would not want this sort of church in their lives and on the earth today? Many wouldn’t.

Some don’t want to be a part of The Model Church. They’ve gotten too familiar with a flat beverage and can’t take the punch of a carbonated one. If this is you, you need to ask yourself why. It may be because traditions are very comfortable and safer. It’s easier to ride a dead horse. But a dead horse will get you nowhere. A live horse may be risky and dangerous. It can buck you off! God is looking for rodeo riders, for bronc riders, those who want to live with gusto and excitement in the Lord.

This study through Acts chapter two called The Model Church has an end game. The purpose behind it is to move us to a greater walk with God as we experience Christ the way those in Acts 2 did. I want our faith and practice in the Christian life to move up to what we see in the Bible. That’s why God gave us the Bible (1Tim.3:16). God worked mightily in those early days of the church and I want to see Him do the same in our days, and with us.

Here’s the hard part, whenever we move up in our experience and knowledge of anything, especially Christ, there will be this element of confusion and bewilderment in our lives. New things can be very challenging even though they are better: new shoes, new car, new computer, new baby. That’s one reason kids tend to not like school. Every day in every class they are pounded with new things to learn. It can be overwhelming. Ever took algebra? But if we stop struggling with new things we never grow!

There is an element of confusion that is necessary because that’s exactly what we see in Acts 2. When the multitude saw what was happening they were confused. They were seeing and hearing things they had never heard or seen before. That’s always confusing. If people are not asking, “Whatever could this mean?” (v.12) they will never ask, “What shall we do?” (v.37) and we will never have the opportunity to tell them, “Repent and be baptized…” (v.38) “The multitude was confused,” but by the end of the day 3,000 of them were saved and baptized (Acts 2:41). Confusion is the gauge by which we measure growth. No confusion – no growth. This is why those who exercise say, “No pain – no gain!” I could say it like this, “There is no strength-building without resistance, you dumbbell.”

And we have some added problems. There is a devil who does not want to see us conformed to the image of Christ with the ability to do His works. He hates the thought of there being a church on every corner that carries on the teachings and works of Christ. And he will do everything he can to stop it. He will give you all kinds of lies and excuses for not desiring this, and even calling it wrong! But he is wrong. The Model Church of Acts 2 has been the plan of God since the beginning. We have to “resist the devil” – with Bible verses, like Jesus did in the wilderness.

Another problem is religious people in the church. Carnal people cannot take change. They don’t want to grow. They like everything to always remain the same. But that’s not the nature of salvation. God is always in the process of changing us into the likeness of Christ and that will never stop until we are resurrected. These people like the old ways of doing things: old shoes, old music, you name it. Every generation likes new music that the old timers don’t like. Famous last words of the church, “We never did it that way before.”

New Testament Christians knew stuff we don’t and experienced things we have never experienced, and to get into those things is challenging. I want to urge you to welcome changes because that’s how we grow. I want us to be Bible Christians and a Bible church. This will stretch us, enlarge our experience and faith in Him.

Never stop growing. Never stop accepting challenges that make life more exciting. I asked a retired man what he now did all day and this is what he said, “I sit in my chair with my remote and watch tv.” I asked him if that was all and he said, “Pretty much.” What a boring life! I don’t want my tombstone to say, “Here lies Terry Simpson. Born 10-13-1946, Died 10:13-2025, Buried 10:13-2030.” I don’t want to quit living before I’m dead.

Don’t lose the thrill of victory and accomplishments as you grow older. My daughter gave me a $100 bill with a Father’s Day card. I thanked her and she said, “It’s not yours yet!” I said I already had it in my hand and she offered me that money or a paragliding adventure over the Gulf of America. I gave the money back to her and she said, “I knew you’d do that!” As a 79 year old, I am going on a weeklong mission trip to Mexico next month. You can do that. New experiences and new things to learn are exciting. Don’t die before you die.  

I realize new things can be very disconcerting. Ever heard the expression, “Like a calf looking at a new gate?” Or it’s like when a child first becomes aware of his hand and fingers, how he looks at them. He’s captivated by this new discovery. And confused. You can see it on his face. But he’s not afraid. He wants to learn and he needs to learn about theses movable parts of his little body. And I don’t want you to be afraid of new experiences and truths that you have not previously experienced or learned. I don’t want you to be afraid as you discover things about the way God did things in days of yore and know that Christ hasn’t changed since then (Heb.13:8). What He did then in and with the church He will do today for those who know what He can do and believe He can do it with them.

Think of all the confusion the early church had to deal with as they saw Jesus dying on the cross. That had never crossed their minds. It was very confusing. Jesus rebuked His disciples with, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory.” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. (Lk.24:25-27) This was after three years of following Him.

My first confusion came at this very point. I was not a Christian and my brother asked me what Jesus meant when He said, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” I didn’t know, so my answer was, “I’m not a theologian and therefore I don’t know.” Then I got up and walked out of the room. I didn’t know then, but through much confusion and conviction I found out this was the gospel by which we are saved. When Christ took our sins upon Himself on the cross, His eternal Father forsook Him. He was judged in my place. 

Does Our Faith In and Obedience to God’s Word and Service for Him Benefit Us in This Life?

What you believe is the most important thing about you. Jesus said things like this many times, “According to your faith be it unto you, and your faith has made you well.”  (Mt..9:29) He also said, “All things are possible to those who believe.” (Mk.9:23)

Should we expect God to reward/bless us in this life for our obedience, trust, faithfulness, and service to Him? Here’s another way of asking that question: Should we expect God to keep His promises? Of course! He’s a person of infinite integrity. God tells us, “All the promises of God in Christ Jesus are Yes and Amen.” (2Cor.1:20) Do we have any promises in the New Testament (they are all over the O.T) that assure us the blessings of God come to us in this life for our obedience and service? Overwhelmingly YES!

First Timothy 4:8 says, “Godliness is profitable for all things, having a promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” All things means all things, both temporal and eternal. Note the conjunction and in this verse. The good news is God rewards and blesses us in both the now and the forever. Temporal rewards on earth and eternal rewards in heaven – for doing the same thing! It’s a win-win proposition.

Should we obey and trust God, do what God tells us in the Bible, even if there were no blessings from God in this life for doing it? Yes! Why?

1. Because it’s the right thing to do. There is a reward of a good conscience for just doing the right thing. Doing good carries its own reward. Our doing what God says blesses others and we are called to love our neighbors.

2. We obey God and keep His word to glorify God. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Mt.5:16) We don’t do the will of God just or mainly for rewards.

3. We do it to please God. “We make it our aim to be well pleasing to Him.” (2Cor.5:9)

Some think it does not necessarily pay on this earth to serve God, but on the contrary, all benefits come to us at the final judgment at the end of time. That is an extremely serious error which I intend to correct using the Bible.

Some even think if you think God will bless you on this earth for obeying Him, it will inevitably make people obey Him just for the temporal rewards. That’s not true. Not everyone who believes God wants to bless them for serving Him is greedy. They don’t give because they’re greedy; they give because they want their “more than enough” to help others. God’s children are not greedy because they have the “divine nature” (2Pet.1:4) and God is anything but covetous. He’s the most generous person in the universe. God’s children just want to enjoy the blessings of God, glorify and thank Him for them, and use the excess to help others. What could possibly be wrong with that? Expecting God to bless us for our obedience is God’s way to make that happen. It’s called faith.

If Christ didn’t want us to serve and obey Him for earthly blessings, why did He put these promises in the Bible: Eph.6:2-3; 1Tim.4:8; Mt.6:33; Lk.6:38? The good news is “He gives us all things to enjoy.” (1Tim.6:17) Why did He say what He said in Rm.8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”  

It’s not that you can’t be blessed and then lose those blessings. We’ve all heard stories about lottery winners who ended up broke after one year. We may not need wisdom to get material and physical blessings, but we sure need it to keep them.

Even in the Old Testament we have such incredible promises for those who keep His commandments. Deuteronomy 28 details the blessings that “overtake” those who obey God, and the curses on those who do not. The curses were taken by Christ on the cross that God may give us the righteousness of Christ and all the blessings of His and our obedience.

You might be saying, “I have tried to live for God and I don’t feel that blessed. I struggle paying my bills, I don’t feel that well, and I’m on my third marriage. I haven’t seen that many blessings.” Well, go to the cancer ward of your state’s Children’s Hospital. Or to a 3rd World Country! If you’re not feeling that blessed, I assure you it is not God’s fault. He wants to bless you with health and wealth so you can better serve Him and others. I don’t know what your problem is but I know God’s not the cause of it.

First of all, God wants us to believe His promises and those promises involve both temporal and eternal rewards. The temporal rewards include present and material rewards, as well as spiritual rewards such as peace and forgiveness. A simple reading of the Bible assures us that it does indeed in this life “pay to serve God,” although anything from God is not a payment but a reward (a blessing) for believing and obeying Him. Jesus paid for every gift we get from God by His death on the cross.

God does not decide what we have or don’t have in this life, or in the coming life. We do, and others do if we allow them. Eternal rewards given out at the eternal judgment are based on our behavior; all judgments are determined by “works.” We are judged according to our works (2Cor.5:10; Rev.20:13). God does not and never will decide our rewards without regard to our faith and obedience. They are rewards after all. Rewards are not “sovereignly” bestowed according to His own whim. He doesn’t reward some for doing a certain thing but not others for doing the very same thing. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Or reward some to one degree and others to another degree. We decide our own rewards.

God wants us to believe His promises and those promises concern eternal and spiritual blessings – and present and material blessings! I could take almost the whole Bible, even the New Testament, to prove that. Here are a small example of what I mean.

• • • Eph.6:2-3, Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.

    • 1Tim.4:8, Godliness is profitable for all things, having a promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

    • Mk.10:29-30, No one has left house or brothers or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s who shall not receive a hundredfold in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.

    • 1Pet.3:10-12, He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, let him turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

    • Mt.6:33, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (food, clothing and shelter – on this earth) will be added to you.

    • Lk.6:38, Give and it will be given to you, good measure, shaken down and running over, shall men give to your bosom.

So many times Jesus said things like:

• • • Jn.14:13-14, Whatever you ask the Father in My name, that I will do… If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

    •  Mk.11:24, Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

    • Jn.15:7, If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

And never forget, this is all the way through the Bible: Ps.37:4, “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Then there are verses like Rm.8:32 and Mal.3:10.

It is true, there is always the possibility of persecution. But look at the context of persecution in Mk.10:30!  This is astounding! And then there is Jn.16:33, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Doing things for rewards in this life does not necessarily lead to doing things for the wrong reasons, else Jesus would not have taught this truth and encouraged us to believe that doing good would carry rewards in this life. He expects us to believe His promises. He delights to give good gifts to His children, as any good parent does. Therefore, ask and it will be given to you, that your joy may be full and that the Father may be glorified.

What you believe is the most important thing in your life. A closing word about faith. Here’s how it operates: you believe it in your heart, you speak it with your mouth, and you do whatever corresponding actions God asks of you. You need to believe that God wants to bless you for doing His will. If you do not, it will negatively affect your relationship with God and everything else in your life. 

   I want you to notice this principle of death and life in the following verses. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” (Jn.12:24) And “So also is the resurrection from the dead The body is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor and weakness, and it is raised in glory and power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” (1Cor.15:42-44) The natural body dies and a glorious, incorruptible, powerful body is raised to life in its place. Keep that in mind when you consider the crucified life that Christ calls and equips us to live.

A principle is a law. Law is not a bad thing; it’s just the way things work. God created the universe with natural and spiritual laws. We are familiar with physical laws; the law of gravity is just one of them. We must find out what those laws are and work with them to achieve success in any area. We must learn about these laws and cooperate with God in order to see what and how He does things, and why. There is the law of works; there is the law of faith; there is the law of sowing and reaping (2Cor.9:6), and the law of sin and death.

The main principle in the kingdom of God is the law of death and life. You might say it’s the law of life and death and life. God gives life, things die, and from that death comes a richer form of life (1Cor.15:42-43). This law has been called the Law of the Death of the Dream. The dream is great, but to reach its fulfillment there must be the death of it. Death and resurrection is a law of the kingdom of God. It is seen the most clearly and all examples show the gospel.

The death of a dream is the gospel way to constant victory. There are lots of examples of this in the Bible. Abraham got a promise from God that he would have many kids with a great place to live. But by the time he was 100 years old he had no children and had lived in a foreign land. He had the God-given dream and then the death of that dream. You can feel the pain of the death of the dream as you read his story in Genesis. But then when Sarah’s womb was dead he had the son God had promised and from this one son God gave him children as many as the stars and sand.

 Joseph has a similar story. In his childhood God gave him a great dream; he would rule over his family. But soon afterward He found himself in prison in a foreign land. The dream was dead, but it was followed by the well-known resurrection. He ascended to the throne of Egypt and saved Abraham’s whole family. David began with great promise from God. He was anointed by Samuel and the Holy Spirit, killed Goliath and led Israel in victory after victory over the Philistines. Next thing you know he is Public Enemy #1 and hiding in caves for years just to save his life. But then King Saul is killed and David is exalted to be Israel’s greatest king. Time would fail to tell of Samson, Gideon, the kings, and others who experienced the death of their dream and then their resurrection. This is the way it is and the way God works to show the gospel of His beloved Son. The clearest picture of the death of the dream is seen in Jesus. He was born King of the Jews. He rode into Jerusalem with shouts of a multitude who wanted to crown Him king. He was the King of the kingdom of God. But before the week is over, He is dead on a cross and laid in a tomb. We know what happened after that.

To live in constant resurrection victory, we must consistently live “the crucified life.”

Paul put it like this, “I die daily.” (1Cor.15:31) This is what Jesus meant when He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Lk.9:23) The cross is where we die to all our enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Just like Jesus we die to our own life for the sake of others. If you want to live in constant victory over all your enemies, you must live in the power of the gospel of His death and resurrection.

That gospel is detailed for us in Romans chapters six, seven and eight. The essence of it is, “Likewise you also, reckon (consider) yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rm.6:11) The key to continually having victory over your enemies is to continually reckon yourself dead. You take care of taking up your cross (surrendering to death) and God takes care of the resurrection. You can’t be resurrected until after you die. You can’t experience resurrection power to live in constant victory until after you die. This is sanctification. This is victory. This is what the gospel in Romans chapter six through eight is all about. It describes the pathway to constant victory. The way to victory is through our faith in the gospel of the death and resurrection of Christ and the baptism with the Spirit, all found in Rm.6-8.

Your enemies will continue to defeat, assail and attack you … until you die! After that they have no more power over you. “He who has died has been freed from sin.” (Rm.6:7) Your enemies lose their power over you when you consider yourself dead with Christ. The dream comes true, but only after the death of the dream (and the dreamer). There is a reason it is called “The Crucified Life.” Victorious resurrection living comes out of your death with Christ. Reckon it to be so and it will be so.

The reason for defeat is because people give up the fight of faith for death and they no longer want to die to themselves and their carnal life. Carnality is not sin, it is wanting, or settling for, life on this earth. Worldliness will defeat you just as certainly as sin, until you see yourself as Paul said he saw himself – “crucified to the world.” (Gal.6:14)

Let’s be clear about what exactly our enemies are. They are the world, the flesh and the devil. And let’s be clear about what victory in the Christian life looks like. Victory is when you are free to joyfully trust and obey God in every area of your life. If you’re not free in every area you are not free. When you’re thinking God’s thoughts about everything, speaking God’s words against every temptation that comes to you, just like Jesus did, and by the grace of God and power of the Holy Spirit you are obeying every command of God that you know about. You don’t have to be perfect, just be obedient to what you know.

When you have power over every attack of the devil, every sinful and harmful pattern of thinking, the world, every depressing thought and harmful habit – then you are free. Victory is freedom over sinful thoughts, words, attitudes, habits and actions in your life. You are thinking God’s thoughts (mind), loving what God loves and hating what God hates (emotions), and choosing what God wants (will)… when all these things are filled with the Spirit and you are walking in the Spirit.

Here’s what you should do to have constant victory over all your enemies.

Read Romans 6:1-14 first, and then:

·       Know that you are dead because you died with Christ 2,000 years ago when He died on the cross. Say, “I have died with Christ.” This has nothing to do with how you feel about it. It has everything to do with what God says. He said you were crucified with Christ and therefore you were, whether you feel like it or not. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him… for he who has died has been freed from sin.” (Rm.6:6-8)  “For I have been crucified with Christ…”  (Gal.2:20).

·       Consider yourself to be dead to sin, the flesh, the law of sin and death, the world and the devil… because you are. God says so. “Likewise reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God.” (Rm.6:11)

·       Present your body to God to do His will and serve His purpose. “Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”  (Rm.6:14).

·       Put on the whole Armor of God. “Put on the whole armor of God…”  (Eph.6:10-17).

·       Pray with thanksgiving about everything.  “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, with all perseverance.” (Eph.6:18)  “In everything by prayer with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Phil.4:6-7). 

 (Acts 2:5-6,21)

         The sign of the Last Days is signs. Signs and wonders, miracles, healings, and gifts of the Spirit. We are living in those days. God uses these things to carry out His mission of saving the world. He did it through Jesus and He did it through the church in the book of Acts. “Truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples. These were written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (Jn.20:30-31) “Grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus. And when they had prayed… they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:29-31) Notice the connection Jesus made between the mission and signs in the Great Commission given to us in Mark 16:15-18, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.”

I. Miracles Attract Multitudes, v.6

The multitudes we are trying to reach are gathered to signs and miracles. Signs attract multitudes. It did for Jesus and it did for the church in Acts (Mt.4:23-25; 15:30; 19:2; Lk.6:17-19). Always have – always will.

“But wasn’t Jesus against signs?” No! He used them repeatedly. He gave seven of them in John. He was always performing miracles and every miracle was a sign. They surrounded the Savior at His birth, during His ministry, and after He went to heaven (Heb.2:4; Mk.16:17). The sign of the Last Days, days of the comings of the Messiah, is signs. The Bible couldn’t be clearer on that (Acts 2:19).

What kind of signs would God use to attract multitudes to hear the gospel today? Same as He used in Acts. Same kind of signs Jesus used. Salvation attracts more salvations. Healings, miracles, answers to prayers. Supernatural signs attract multitudes. God used them throughout the Bible and He would do so today if people believed it. Let’s believe the Bible!

II. Missions is What It’s All About.

This is the Great Commission for all of us. Read John 3:16 where it says, “God so loved the world.” This is the heart of God. Christ came into the world to save sinners and all have sinned. When my church was voting to financially support me going to Nepal for a year, a deacon said, “I don’t know those people over there. I don’t want to know those people over there.” He was making a statement that he wanted everyone in that church to vote “no.” However, everyone but that man voted yes, including his wife, who was sitting right next to him. This can be the way we think if we are not careful. We need to be continually reminded that we are here to reach the world for Christ. You are either part of the mission field or you are a missionary.

How can we do that? The same way they did it in the Bible! Preaching the word with signs following. God brought the mission field to the disciples in Acts 2, and He has done that for the Christians in America. We need to learn Spanish so we can communicate with these precious people in our restaurants and neighborhoods. We can even get translators on our phones. God has brought the world to us right where we are.

You might think I’m stressing these miraculous signs a lot and you would be right! That’s because the Bible does that. In the N.T. there are signs on virtually every page. “But not the epistles!” No need for that; the epistles were for teaching. Besides, they were written during the time of Acts. Check out Lk.6:17-18 where you will see Jesus healing and teaching. The rest of the N.T. follows what Jesus did: He taught and performed signs. It didn’t change after Jesus left because of what He told us in Jn.14:12. This is N.T. Christianity.

There are two reasons this teaching on signs and miracles may seem strange to you are:  

1. This part of the Bible has been ignored for so long. “Power Evangelism” has been virtually missing from our evangelism for many years. But Stephen and Phillip were not apostles and they performed great signs and wonders (Acts 6:8; 8:5-8). The church has backslidden so much that when you begin to tell people about what Jesus and His followers did, it’s portrayed as moral stories that may or may not have actually happened; their only purpose was to teach spiritual lessons like compassion, kindness, and forgiveness. You can’t really be like someone if you don’t do what that someone did. We ignored this part of what Christ was like for so long, it’s not even considered today in what it means to be Christlike. The truth has become so abnormal that when someone points out the normal, it seems abnormal! We must no longer be this way. The mission of Christ needs the methods of Christ and those methods include signs and wonders, healings and miracles, in the name of Jesus. 

2. Salvation is God making us Christlike (Rm.8:29) but Christlikeness must not ignore the fact of what Jesus did. 

  Imagine you’re a new Christian. Someone led you to Christ this past week, gave you a Bible and told you, “This is the Word of God.”  Then you walk into church and hear these things we are talking about from the Bible. What would you think? Or perhaps you are a kid and have been in church a long time, and these things just dawn on you. “I can speak in a language I’ve never learned? Cool! I want to do that. No more Spanish class for me.” Well, you can’t choose the language you want because they spoke “as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

This happened to Mike Warnke years ago. He was a self-confessed 17 year old “hell raiser” who was into witchcraft, drugs and immorality. Someone told him there would be plenty of girls at this youth camp, and he went. During the last service Mike “got saved.” On the bus ride home the kids were all going crazy till someone noticed Mike wasn’t participating. They all stopped and looked at Mike who was in the back seat reading the Bible. “What are you reading?” He stood up and yelled, “This is incredible! God just created the whole universe by speaking it into existence!”

We read Gen.1:1 and yawn. But if you read it for the first time, you’d be just as amazed as Mike. The things happening in Acts 2 would be just as startling to people when they first believe them.

In 1 Cor.12:1-2 God tells us He doesn’t want us to be ignorant of spiritual gifts. Amazingly, the one thing church members are the most ignorant about is spiritual gifts! First, God wants us to know that what the Holy Spirit does always glorifies Jesus. If it doesn’t, it’s not of God. Far from being ignorant God wants us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts (1Cor. 12:31 & 14:1). We are to have a fervent zeal in desiring and using them.

I make a distinction between tongues as a sign and tongues as a gift for the simple reason the Bible does. In the previous chapter we took a long look at the sign of tongues.

A sign is not a gift. Hebrews 2:4 makes a distinction: “God also bearing witness with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.”  John 2:1 and 20:30 says that the things Jesus did were signs – not gifts. He didn’t send the gifts until 50 days after He had died and gone back to heaven, on the Day of Pentecost. In John 14:12 Jesus said that in His name believers would do the works that He did and even greater works because He was going to the Father. Those greater works were the gifts which were given to the church and only to the church by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

The second use of tongues is as a gift of the Spirit. As a gift it is speaking to edify others who do not understand what you are saying, and thus to build up the church it needs to be interpreted. This is spelled out in great detail in 1Cor.14. Interpretation is only required when giving the church a message from the Lord. You may ask for your private prayer language to be interpreted but while that may be helpful it is not necessary.  I personally find interpretation very helpful when I sing in tongues and when I use my prayer language.

It needs to be noted that in the entire section of 1Cor.12-14 he is speaking of “when you come together.” (14:19,26) That thought continues and is amplified by his discussion of the gifts used in the church, which in this chapter he refers to as the body of Christ, or the church. In some of the verses he is speaking of the gifts being used in a church gathering as gifts, and in some of the verses tongues being used as a sign. That’s where most of the confusion over tongues comes from, and if you realize this one thing it will clear up the confusion over the use of tongues. Else why would Paul write what he said in 14:5 when he had just written 12:30? He would not! Gifts and signs are two different things, two different uses of tongues. In 14:2 he is talking about the sign that you are speaking directly to God in prayer, while in chapter 12 he is speaking about tongues used as a gift when the church is assembled, which he switches back to in 14:18 and 14:26-29. It is not the purpose of this lesson to give an exposition of 14:30-35, but to teach the two different uses of tongues. To add to our confusion Paul mingles them together in 14:28.

At this point you may be asking, “Why is all this supernatural stuff necessary? Why doesn’t God just speak to the church in the language that everybody in any given church understands?” That’s like saying, “Why are there gifts of healings? Why doesn’t everybody just take medicine or go to the doctor and have surgery, or use prayer as a means to obtain healings?” Because… these gifts are “manifestations of the Holy Spirit” proving that God is with us in very tangible ways (1Cor.12:7). They are audible and visible proofs that God is among us. God has chosen since the beginning of time to manifest Himself in supernatural ways. It’s His way.

Gifts add an element of the supernatural that makes us marvel at the goodness of God and His glory. And they make us dependent on one another, every member of the body, much like your fingers need your hand. Not all gifts are used by the same person in every assembly of the church. That’s why we have 1Cor.12:27-30.

If you want any other answer about all this, ask God when you see Him! He knows what He is doing and this is the way He has chosen to do things in the Last Days, through signs and gifts. This is the way He did things in the Bible and God still does these things. Instead of arguing with God or questioning Him, why not just enjoy the fullness of His Spirit with all the wonderful miraculous ways He has chosen to do things? If you want to learn a language then do so. If you want to take medicine or go to the doctor, then do so. But these are supernatural manifestations of the presence of God. They are the glory of God manifested in our lives.

The sign of the Spirit’s fullness may be given the moment you are filled, but not always. It happened in Acts and we maintain that as the Biblical standard; but the history of the church and other Spirit-filled believers is that for various reasons it sometimes happens later. The delay may come from believing erroneous teachings like “tongues is not for today.” Some are taught that “tongues are either from a psychological imbalance or demons.” Those untruths that have become traditions can be hard to overcome and thus cause an unnecessary delay in the experience of the sign of fullness in the New Covenant.

I was initially filled with the Spirit, with a mighty anointing on me to preach and see many come to Christ. That testimony is shared by many in church history. In fact, there may be a powerful anointing of the Spirit on your life to do certain things before you speak in tongues.

But there is no need for a delay! The benefits of speaking in tongues in your private prayer makes it valuable to have this sign the moment you are first filled.

The sign of tongues is like a wedding ring. Why refuse the ring when you are marrying your heavenly Bridegroom? Yes, you are still married without the ring, but why not wear it? Why not put the ring on at the marriage altar? Most people are proud of their ring and wear it for all to see.

Not only that, the ability to speak in languages you have not learned is the sign that opens the portal to all the gifts of the Spirit. That is true in the Bible and also in church history.

1 Corinthians 12-14 was written to the church which was birthed in Acts 2 on the Day of Pentecost. Before that, Christ gave the disciples authority to preach, heal the sick, and cast out demons (Mt.10:1). But the gifts only came as they were baptized into the body of Christ (1Cor.12:13) and that didn’t happen until Pentecost when they first spoke in tongues. After the church was birthed and they were baptized into it, then they began to speak in tongues.

This is only one of many reasons Jesus never spoke in tongues. It wasn’t time, the New Covenant wasn’t complete until Jesus put His blood on the Mercy Seat in heaven and the disciples were baptized with the Spirit. Jesus was filled and anointed with power by the Spirit, but no tongues. Acts 2 they began speaking in tongues and then all the rest of the gifts began to operate in the church. Tongues were the sign that the New Covenant had been ratified in heaven by the blood of Christ and could now be experienced by all in the Last Days.

Church history has many accounts of people being baptized with the Spirit without ever speaking in tongues, for the very reason I have stated above; they didn’t believe in tongues. But they were given the power of the Spirit to be His witnesses, just like Jesus said in Acts 1:8. Evangelists such as Whitefield, Wesley, Finney, Moody, R.A. Torrey, Spurgeon, and others claimed to be baptized with the Spirit long before tongues became common in the church in 1905. None of them spoke in tongues or operated in the gifts of the Spirit. There were rare exceptions to this, but the baptism in the Spirit without tongues was the common experience of the universal church before the Azusa Street awakening.

But then in 1905 the believers at Azusa Street in Los Angeles began to speak in tongues, followed by the rest of the gifts, like healings, prophecies, miracles, and such. They had crutches, wheelchairs, and other such infirmity paraphernalia hanging from the walls of that church building.

Let’s break it down. As a believer you have been born of the Spirit and baptized in water, but have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit, which gives you supernatural power to live the Christian life and be an effective witness of Christ during your time on earth? Don’t live your life without this! Receive the Holy Spirit and be used by God to do mighty things by God, just as those 120 believers did on the Day of Pentecost.

·         As a sign tongues are used in public and private as proof that you are praying directly to God, spirit to Spirit. And that we are in the Last Days, the Days of the Messiah.

·         As a gift tongues are used in the church with interpretation to give a message from the Holy Spirit to the church. 

“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Whatever could this mean? I will show signs in the earth.”  (Acts 2:4, 12, 19)

            You might be wondering, “Why should hearing about tongues interest me?” If you consider yourself a Christian, for at least two reasons. One, it’s in the Bible. You want to, need to understand for yourself God’s word. The Bible was written to you and for you! There is one whole 40 verse chapter in the Bible devoted to the subject (1Cor.14). It’s mentioned as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which makes it good news. Tongues were spoken all over the book of Acts. The church of which you are a member (There’s no such thing as the Early Church – there is only The Church.) was birthed with the experience of speaking in tongues.

Two, your experience in the Lord should match what is in the Bible, our textbook for Christian faith and practice. The Model Church began with this experience of speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4). Personally, I don’t want them to believe anything I don’t believe or experience anything I don’t experience.

So, whatever you believe and experience, you must admit this subject is important to God and it should be to you. Every person in the beginning of the church in Acts spoke in tongues. Maybe you should at least consider knowing about and even speaking in tongues yourself.

What is speaking in tongues?  It is a Spirit-filled person speaking in a language he has never learned. The KJV Bible translates it “Unknown Tongue.” It is unknown to the speaker and to everyone else unless it is interpreted by the same Holy Spirit.

Tongues are simply the Greek word glossa meaning languages or dialects. Languages are nothing to be afraid of, any more than being afraid of going to Germany and hearing someone speak German. The difference here is, by the Spirit the language is spoken by someone who never learned that language! It’s a supernatural, spiritual thing. But it is still a language and we do not need to be fearful about it. When you are speaking in tongues you are doing what the Bible says, “speaking the wonderful works of God.” (Acts 2:11)

What is presented in these next two chapters may seem complicated and may require several readings and much prayer and meditation to get the revelation of it, but I have tried to make it as clear as possible. And today’s church world needs some clarity on this matter; half are against the Pentecostal experience and many make altogether too much of it.

It will help clarify the use of tongues if we recognize the Bible makes a distinction between the uses of tongues. Tongues can be used as a sign or as a gift. That difference can be very helpful.

I would say tongues is a sign of the baptism with and outpouring of the Spirit in the Last Days because there are many signs mentioned in the N.T. (Acts 2:17-18), but tongues seem to be the sign. It was the sign for the Jews in Acts chapter two and for the Gentiles in Acts chapters ten and nineteen.

The longest answer Jesus ever gave to any question was when they asked Him, “What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” It took Him two chapters in Matthew to answer that question! (Mt.24-25) That’s 94 verses! God uses signs to let His people know things. Luke has Jesus saying these words, “And there will be signs …” (Lk.21:25) And he said, “When you see these things (signs) happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.” Then, “But take heed to yourselves lest that Day come upon you unexpectedly.” (Lk.21:31,34) Matthew has Jesus saying this, “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven.” (Mt.24:30) Everybody uses signs: traffic signs, historical markers, billboards. We even have a sign language.

The sign of the Last Days is signs! Signs are not bad things. The Bible is full of signs given by God to prove things to people. Jesus Himself performed seven signs in the Gospel of John. A sign is a miracle with a message, and that message is from God, and as such in the New Covenant (Last Days) it is always good news. When God instituted the Old Covenant 3,000 people died; when He began the New, 3,000 people were saved.

Tongues are languages that someone speaks that has not been learned by the speaker. They are supernatural by nature – a “manifestation of the Holy Spirit.” (1Cor.12:7) Tongues is the sign that mankind has entered the Last Days when the Holy Spirit will be (is being) poured out on all flesh. The Latter Days began with the coming of the Son of God in the flesh. Look at all the signs given at the birth of Jesus in Mt.1-2 and Lk.1-2. There was a pause in signs after the birth of Jesus, during His “silent years,” but they picked up again after Jesus was baptized in water and with the Holy Spirit, when He entered His public ministry.

There are two uses of tongues: it can be a sign or a gift. The distinction can be very helpful. Heb.2:4 gives such a distinction. The gift must be used with the gift of interpretation. But that is not necessary if the tongue is a sign. Speaking in tongues is a Scriptural sign that you are filled with the Holy Spirit and it is a sign that we are in the Last Days, the days of the New Covenant, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was a sign for the Jews (Acts 2) and the Gentiles (Acts10 & 19) According to 1Cor.14:2 it is also a sign that you are praying in will of God to God (1Jn.5:14-15). That prayer is sure to be answered. “He who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God.”

The SIGN of tongues is used in two ways: publicly and privately.

1. They can be used in public. with others present without an interpretation. They were all together at the same time in one place speaking in tongues in this very passage. We see this again in other places in the Bible – gatherings of people with everyone speaking in tongues at the same time as a sign that they had received the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:45-46 and 19:6-7).

When we are with others, like in a worship service, praying in tongues as a sign that we are filled with the Spirit, we don’t have to be loud. We are not speaking to others; we are simply speaking mysteries to God. Loudness when you are doing this only draws attention to yourself and that can be carnal. That’s what the flesh does, it draws attention to itself. Signs and gifts can be used carnally; that’s exactly what was going on that Paul was correcting in 1Cor.14.

This used to freak me out when I’d hear a whole assembly speaking in tongues at the same time, until I realized that’s what they did in the Bible! They were speaking as a sign that they were filled with the Spirit and this use of tongues has no need for interpretation. As a sign tongues do not need an interpretation. The whole congregation may be praying audibly “in the Spirit.” This use of tongues as a sign needs no interpretation.

2. The second use of tongues as a sign is in private. First Corinthians 14 makes it clear that tongues may be used privately as a means of prayer and communication with God. Praying in tongues is a sign that you are praying directly to God – spirit to Spirit. This is one way we can know we are speaking directly to God. Verse two speaks of a prayer language: “He who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God.” Look at what the inspired apostle wrote in v.5: “I wish you all spoke with tongues!”  Speaking in tongues edifies the speaker: “He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself.” (v.4) The gifts are for edifying the church, but we are not always gathered with the church. We can edify ourselves by praying in tongues. This is invaluable when we are not sure how or what we should pray for in certain situations (Rm.8:26-27).

 Praying in tongues is a sign we are praying the will of God. The Spirit knows what the will of God is. Understanding is not the point here. God understands and that’s all that matters. The gift of tongues is to be used with interpretation because the point of that is for the church to understand.

“Why not just speak in a language everyone understands?” I didn’t write the Bible; I’m just telling you what it says. It may be because when you are praying spirit to Spirit you’re praying the will of God while your mind doesn’t know the will of God about a certain matter. But mostly because it’s a sign! A miraculous sign from God.

Tongues is a sign that we are in the Last Days, the days of the New Covenant and the outpouring of the Spirit, and that you are filled with the Spirit and speaking directly with God (spirit to Spirit) in prayer, praying the will of God.

If you say, “What! Speaking in tongues! I’m outta here!” You do realize they did that in the Bible? “Yeah, but I don’t want to be around it.” Well, we go by the Bible here, what He wants and not what you want. And why don’t you want this? I thought you believed the Bible. You can’t believe the Bible and not believe this.

Let me tell you what happened to me. Years after being baptized with the Spirit I was praying out loud alone and began to pray in several different languages. I asked God for interpretations and He gave them to me.

In conclusion, be filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues. No Christian has to be taught how to speak in tongues. We are not going to be teaching anyone how to do this. They didn’t do it in the Bible and we’re not going to do it here. It’s a supernatural gift of God that simply has to be received. 

How to Live in Constant Victory Over All Your Enemies

Studies in the Gospel of John (8:48-59)

There is a pathway to victory. You can eventually get there. It is possible.

Jesus is the greatest teacher there ever was or ever will be. If you want to learn how to live the Christian life, which is a life of victory over all your enemies, you need to look at and listen to Christ as you find Him in the Bible. For now, we are looking into the Gospel of John.

We’ve looked at the PROBLEM of defeat in the lives of so many Christians. Large numbers of believers live defeated lives, defeated by their circumstances, their sin, the world and the devil. They are virtual POWs in the war against all their enemies: the world, the flesh and the devil. It is possible to win this victory constantly.

I. There are certain steps that lead to constant victory and Jesus walked that pathway to show us we can too. As the Son of Man, He didn’t heal people to prove He could do it. He didn’t have to prove anything to anyone. He did it to prove we could do it (Jn.14:12). He didn’t abundantly provide for people, “pressed down and shaken together,” to prove He could do it; He did it to prove we could do it (Lk.6:38). If there’s a fig tree or a mountain in your way, speak to it and it will move (Mk.11:22-24). Wouldn’t you like to know His pathway to victory?

II. In our current Scripture text we see the Cold War get increasingly hostile against Jesus. He knew His time was short, so He began to push the battle to the enemy. Here’s the Pattern of victory we see in Him.

A. He started out with overwhelming victory at the Jordan River as He was baptized with water and the Spirit. He defeated the devil in the desert and came out of it to Galilee “filled with the Spirit and power,” and everywhere He went He was healing and performing miracles for people. Huge crowds followed Him as He miraculously filled boats with fish and fed multitudes with a boy’s lunch. We’re all familiar with this beginning.        

To one degree or another we all started out with a blessed and powerful change in our lives. We were saved and were so excited to be following Jesus and be in church. We were being carried by our loving and great heavenly Father. But then, so we can become mature and more responsible, He puts us down on the floor. The time comes for us to learn to walk for ourselves. Toddlers fall but they get back up and become stronger in the process, as they begin to eat solid food. All this comes with challenges. The enemies come at us to make us stay down. His aim was to defeat us, make us live in defeat, stay on the floor, helpless and weak as a baby. We are carnal and we need help. We need to learn to walk in victory. That’s what this study is all about. Learning from Jesus how to walk in constant victory over what would keep us down and defeated.

B. A ways into Jesus’ ministry the religious enemies plot behind the scenes and begin to attack with arguments and accusations. The Cold War began to get hot. Their aim was to kill His strength and ultimately kill Him. The attacks will continue to get more and more vicious, and Jesus will spend more and more time fighting back with the truth. There is a time to retreat and there is a time to fight back, a time for Rocky Balboa to say, “I ain’t going down no more.” They accuse Jesus of being filled with the devil and doing His miraculous work by Satan’s pernicious powers. We see this in this passage. (Jn.8:48-59). The battle gets hotter until Jesus begins the Battle of the Bulge. In Matthew 23 we see Jesus fighting back as He unleashes a barrage of verbal attacks against them and pronounces woe after woe upon them as He exposes their sin and evil hypocrisy.

As we continue in our Christian life, we all need to begin to fight back. Never raise the white flag to the enemy. Never throw in the towel. The only way to insure your constant defeat is to quit the fight. Always get back up and fight back. Ultimately your enemies will flee from you (Jas.4:7). Do what Jesus did – hit the devil with the word! Counter his lies with the truth of God’s word. Resist the devil and everything he throws at you.

C. Jesus ended up dying. So must we. We surrender to death. The death of the cross. It looks like there will be no victory. But surrendering to death is exactly the way to victory in the kingdom of God. Out of that death comes a powerful resurrection, new life that knows no defeat. Jesus defeated all His enemies by dying and rising from the dead. This is the pathway to victory in our lives. Death leads to victory. To die in faith is to rise victoriously. By death He defeated His enemies: the world (Gal.6:14), the flesh (Rm.6:6), and the devil (1Jn.3:8). He defeated sin, sickness, death, hell and the grave. And He did it all by dying. And He did it for us.

We participate in His victory as we see ourselves crucified with Christ.

“He who has died has been freed from sin.” (Rm.6:7)

Acts 2:1-4 is probably the most controversial and disputed passage in the entire Bible, has been for over 2,000 years. So, do not be offended if everyone does not agree with your interpretation of it. I will begin by noting the two words that most confuse and conflict people: Pentecost and Tongues. I will cover Pentecost in this chapter and tongues in the next. Remember, these are Bible words so we need to come to some understanding of them. God put them in the Bible for our own good.

What is presented in these next two chapters may seem complicated and may require several readings and much prayer and meditation to get the revelation of it, but I have tried to make it as clear as possible. And today’s church world needs some clarity on this matter; half are against the Pentecostal experience and tongues and many make altogether too much of it.

Every sentence in this chapter on Pentecost that you’re now reading is important; therefore, study it carefully. I am taking these important two words in Acts 2:1-4, then using the rest of the Bible to explain them. I’m taking it slowly and carefully because Acts 2:1-4 is the foundation of the rest of Acts, the entire New Testament, and the Church Age. This is the platform from which the church was launched. We must get this right in the beginning. If we don’t we will never hit our target of becoming the Model Church. If your aim is off a milli centimeter at the gun, the bullet will be way off target 100 yards away.

Pentecost means fifty and tongues means languages. The Day of Pentecost was the annual feast of the Jews set up by God in the Old Testament.  It represents and memorializes abundance and the blessings of God; it had to do with the harvest of crops. Pentecost is an appropriate name for what happened in Acts 2 where we see a great harvest of souls “from every nation under heaven” being saved. Pentecost happened 50 days after Passover, the Day of Atonement when Jesus was crucified as the Lamb of God. Jesus poured out His blood and 50 days later He poured out the Spirit to bring in the harvest of souls for whom He had died.

We need both of these things. John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world by telling us how to identify Him; He would do two things. He would be the Lamb who takes away our sins, and He would be the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. You can believe in the Lamb and get to heaven and then believe in the Baptizer and receive the power of the Spirit that enables you to live the Christian life on this earth. If you bought a pair of shoes and then found out when you got home that there was only one shoe in the box, what would you do? You’d go back to the store and get the other shoe! What do you do when you find out that Jesus does two things but you’ve only experienced one of them? You go back to Him to get the other. The sooner the better. Go now and ask Him to baptize you with His Spirit. Catch the wave! Enjoy the abundant supply of the Spirit that God has for you and Jesus gives to you.

Pentecost is a good word and we should not shy away from using it. As N.T. believers, we participate in Pentecost when we are filled with the Spirit and bear the fruit of that experience. This fullness did not stop on this particular historic day; Paul years later commanded the church to “be filled with the Spirit.” (Eph.5:18) Today the term Pentecostal or Pentecost is virtually synonymous with the fulness of the Spirit. If it’s a Pentecostal Church they teach and practice the fulness of the Spirit, what is called The Full Gospel, which is the death, resurrection, and outpouring of the Spirit by the exalted Christ. And it is all that I have previously described in my prequel to The Model Church. According to what Jesus said in Acts 1:4-5, Pentecost is the same thing as the baptism with the Spirit.

Many teach that what happened at Pentecost is never to happen again; it was a one-time historical event. Well, so was the atonement of Jesus Christ. Every time a person gets forgiven Jesus doesn’t have to come down and die on the cross again to pay for his sins. He did that once and it never needs to be repeated (Heb.9:26-28). We simply appropriate by faith the work Jesus did that day for ourselves. Pentecost operates the same way. Of course, that historic day cannot be repeated, but we may appropriate for ourselves by faith what happened on that day. We appropriate the power of the Spirit by faith, the same way we appropriate forgiveness.  

This was not something that just happened once in history when “the Day of Pentecost had fully come.” It is something that began then and according to the rest of Acts that experience continued through the rest of Acts and will continue until Jesus returns. It was not just a one-time historical event; it was a precedent established for us in the Bible and intended to continue throughout the rest of the Church Age. Without this experience we are not really The Model Church.

What do we call this experience? Jesus called it “The Baptism with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4-5) Without controversy the words of Jesus in Acts 1:4-5 were fulfilled in Acts 2:1-4. We should call this experience what Jesus called it. What happened at Pentecost is the baptism with the Spirit.

Some of the confusion comes when people identify Acts 1:4-5 with 1Cor.12:13 where it says, “By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…” meaning the church. Many say these are the same baptisms. They seriously error in doing so. They are not the same thing. For one thing, we have different Persons doing the baptism. One has Jesus baptizing and the other has the Spirit baptizing. Secondly, we have different elements into which people are baptized. At Pentecost we have them being baptized in the Holy Spirit; in 1Cor.12:13 we have people baptized into the body of Christ. Two different agents and two different elements. There is actually a third baptism: man baptizing with water (Acts 1:5). Yet another agent and another element.

To prove their mistake they quote Eph.4:5, “there is one baptism.” But that baptism is a plenary baptism. Plenary means a fulness made up of more than one part. It means complete and full. There is a fulness of the one baptism that includes more than one. For example, there is a plenary in the very nature of God. There is one God, but there are three different Persons in the one God:. Within the essence of God there are three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus has a plenary nature as well. Within the person of Jesus there are two natures: divine and human.

The point is, there is one 1Cor.12:13 baptism for every Christian that happens when we are born again. But there is also a subsequent baptism by Jesus with the Spirit that happens every time a Christian is “filled with the Spirit.” (Acts 1:4-5; 2:1-4) That subsequent experience we call Pentecost.

I have been in the Christian movement since I was saved on June 22, 1969, and I try my best to know what is going on with Christians in the world at all times. From what I see, I can say it looks like the whole church world is turning Pentecostal. This has been going on for some time. Many years ago when Billy Graham returned from an evangelistic crusade in South America he was asked what is the fastest growing Christian segment in Latin America, and he quickly replied, “That’s easy. It’s the Pentecostals.” The largest churches on every continent are all Pentecostal. Their movement is exploding.

Why are the Pentecostals growing so rapidly everywhere? Because the traditions of men, developed by their misinterpretations of Scriptures, are sooner or later bound to be exposed as people continue to learn what the Bible teaches. As long as there are Bibles for people to read, the church will progressively come out of the darkness of the unscriptural traditions of men. One of those traditions is the mistake they teach concerning the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost is a biblical word and so we need to know what it means. I have tried my best to help you understand what Pentecost and the Pentecostal experience is. Please read this over and over again if necessary, and read the verses I have referenced, and pray that God will give you revelation about this important matter. And that He will give you this blessed experience. God wants this for you and the world needs this from you. God wants this and the lost world needs it.

We are living in those days of the outpouring of the Spirit. Church history is filled with such outpourings that we often call Revivals or Awakenings. This is the time of the New Covenant of Jesus. He has sealed that covenant with His own blood. We are living in those days. There is no such thing as “The Early Church;” there is only the church. There is no Amen at the end of Acts. These days will not end till Jesus comes again. We are living in the days of the bountiful harvest of souls, miracles, healings, and prosperity.

According to Acts 5:16, nobody in The Model Church in Acts was sick. “A multitude gathered to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were ALL healed.” And nobody experienced any financial lack (Acts 4:34-35). “Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.” None of that would have happened if it were not for what happened in Acts 2:1-4. This is the Model Church. We are living in those days!

The church is not going out in the Rapture as a wimpy, weak, emaciated, crippled, poor, dirty, Bride dressed in rags to meet her heavenly Bride Groom! She is going out with wholeness and holiness, adorned as a bride is always adorned, with glory, beauty, strength and grace. God is in these days preparing such a bride for His wedding. We are living in those day

(Acts 2:1)

         A young preacher just became the new pastor. His first Sunday morning sermon was received with admiration and joy. But things became curious when he preached that very same sermons the second Sunday morning of his young pastorate. But when he preached that same sermon the third time in a row, the deacons called a meeting. They asked him why he would do that and he answered, “When the church begins to do the first sermon I preached, then I will preach a second one.” Although I would never do that, I do understand the sentiment. I feel that way about this sermon, as we are getting into the series on Acts 2. If we don’t get this down, there’s no real reason to go to another one. This is the reason Acts 2 happened. The Spirit would not have been poured out upon these people if they were not in “one accord.”

A dairy farmer father had a teen son who asked him for a three-wheeler, before the advent of the four-wheeler. The dad asked him why, what he intended to do with it, and he replied just to have fun with his friends who already had one. Dad said no!  A week or two later the son comes back with the same request. “What do you want to do with it?” He replied, “I can go to the store on it, ride through the countryside, stuff like that.” No!  Another week went by and the boy came with the same request. Why? The wise boy answered, “I can use it to round up the cows and go out and fix fences and move hay around the farm.” The dad said, “Ok, now you can have it.” The dad was wanting him to have the three-wheeler, but for the right reason. He wasn’t going to get it until he realized why he needed it.

The powerful and wonderful baptism with the Spirit was to be given to make them witnesses for Christ, as stated in Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be My witnesses all over the world.” If we don’t connect with the mission of Christ, we will not get the power of Christ, for the purpose of power is to carry out the mission. We must get this down.

The very first thing we notice when we enter Acts 2 is what the inspired writer said in the first sentence: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come they were all with one accord in one place.” One accord means in unison. It has to do with the way they were thinking. They all had the same thing on their minds. There’s great power in a people who are of one mind; there wouldn’t be any more church arguments and splits. Without one vision we have di-vision.

The all together in one place at one time shows a major difference between this Model Church and the typical Modern Church. This must be recognized if we are to be the kind of church God wants us to be, and have Him put His Sprit upon and accomplish the mission Jesus gave the church. These people were all together at one place at the same time with the same thing on their mind because they all had their priorities right. Many believers today don’t have the same priority these disciples had; they are not committed to the mission of Christ in their neighborhood, much less the world. We are not committed to the mission together. That’s got to change.

Attendance at church for too many people only happens when there is nothing else for them to do. They don’t have a ballgame to go to, or a beach to go to on a sunny day, or a cookout to attend, or something. Anything.

I realize people attend church for different reasons. Some like the music, some like the people, or whatever. But we must realize, as good and enjoyable as these things may be, they are not why we’re here, not the reason any church is where it is. It might surprise you to know that we have no record of the church in Acts worshiping, much less the kind of music they preferred in their worship services. Music is powerful, but there are no musical notes in the Bible. As long as the songs glorify Christ, any style is not unscriptural.

Everything we do is supposed to have one main purpose – to equip ourselves to go out and win our community to Christ. That only happens in a Spirit-filled church. We want healings and so does God, we want miracles and so does God, we want worship and so does God, but they all have one goal in mind – to attract the lost so we can win them to Christ and disciple them with the teachings of Christ.

What was the one thing on these people’s mind? What were they in one accord about? What was the purpose for which they were gathered? Let me be very clear so that nobody will misunderstand. Why does any church exist and why are you in it? Why do you as a Christian exist on this earth? Why does any Christian exist in any church? We are here and churches exist for one reason and one reason only. It’s the same reason Christ was here. Listen to His own words: “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save those who are lost.” (Lk.19:10) Then “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1Tim.1:15) He did that by dying on a cross for our sins and rising from the dead so that whoever repents of their sins and follows Him will be saved. Before He left He said this, “As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you into the world.” (Jn.20:21) 

We exist as a church and you exist as a part of the church to do everything we can to save the lost and make disciples of them. That’ it! That’s the reason the church is here and we are here in it. We have no other divinely appointed reason for being here. That’s where the disciples were when they entered Acts 2, verse 1.

Do you realize that after over three years of public ministry, after all Christ had done and said, there were only 120 disciples there on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out? (Acts 1:15) Then on the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples were baptized with the Holy Spirit, 3,000 people were added to the church and they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine, and began to meet daily, and soon 2,000 more were added (Acts 4:4). “Believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.” (Acts 5:14) “And the number of disciples was multiplying.” (Acts 6:1) The church went from adding members to multiplying members! That’s what they had in mind when they met on the Day of Pentecost.

And throughout Acts it keeps mentioning this “one accord” business. They kept the main thing the main thing; it was always on their minds. “Then the word of God spread, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7) This stayed on their minds until the number of churches began to multiply (Acts 9:31), so that they filled Jerusalem with the truth about Christ and they ended up turning the world upside down (Acts 5:28; 17:6).

Here’s how that happened. Acts 1:15 tells us how many there were before the Day of Pentecost had fully come: there were 120 disciples praying. By the end of the first Day of Pentecost 3,000 people had been added to their number. The difference between Acts 1:15 and 2:41and 47 was Acts 2:1-4. The Day of Pentecost had fully come; God had poured out His Spirit on the church. We need a fresh baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire.

As it did 2,000 years ago, the salvation of the world depends on this. Today God is raising up Christians and churches who have this one thing on their minds – the salvation of souls. Are you one of them? Until you make a commitment to the Great Commission, you will be just riding a three-wheeler around the farm having fun; you won’t accomplish the very reason the baptism with the Spirit is given. We must become committed to the mission of Christ.

Commitment to Christ cannot be without your commitment to the mission of Christ. They are one and the same. You can’t separate the two. Are you ready to make this commitment? Do it now! 

 (John 8:30-47)

         The themes of bondage and freedom run throughout the Scriptures. Salvation is often pictured as a move from bondage to freedom. Nothing is more valuable, and nothing better pictures salvation than the switch from slavery to liberty. Paul presents salvation as an allegory involving Abraham’s two sons: Ishmael born of the bondwoman Hagar and Isaac born of the free woman Sarah (Gal.4:21-5:1). One was born of a slave woman and so is perpetually in bondage to the law, while the other was born of the free woman, picturing the freedom from the law we have in Christ. Paul declares that Christians are not in bondage to the law but we are born free.

It would be good to establish what freedom is. It is not a license to sin. Freedom gives you the supernatural ability to obey and trust God. Those who practice sin are slaves to sin. “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.” (v.34-35)

Freedom depends on how you were born. Everybody does the deeds of their father. Like father – like son (v.41). The whole book of First John has this as a proof that you have eternal life – you behave like your father. Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.” (v.44)

If you are born of the flesh you are in bondage to the law of sin and death, but if you are born again of the Spirit, you are born free. Free from sin! “Whoever has been born of God does not sin; and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest.” (1Jn.3:9-10) Born living under the law produces sin in a person’s life; but the new birth by the Spirit produces freedom from sin and the law. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2Cor.3:17)

This is the whole argument Jesus used against the leaders of Israel in our text. They thought and operated totally by their obedience to the law and their physical lineage from Abraham. They failed to realize what Paul explained in Rm.9:6-8, “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham. Those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.” John had written these words, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” A supernatural birth based on the promise of God. Jesus even went so far as to say that these religious leaders were born of their father the devil (v.44)

They had no written birth certificates, so how were they (or we) supposed to know who their father was? It’s easy to tell. Are you acting like the devil or God? You will act like your father. You will live in bondage to Satan or in the freedom of Christ. How do we know we are acting like the devil or God? It’s easy to tell. If you are a child of God you will love, listen to and obey the word of God. Remember these things as you read through this passage. Everything I’ve shared in this introduction will make this passage come alive.

30 As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. 31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

 34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. 37 “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. 38 I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” 39 They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. 41 You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.  43 Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. 46 Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? 47 He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

“Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” 

(Acts 2:1)

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.”

(Acts 2:17)

I was first filled with the Spirit as I was reading John R. Rice’s book The Power of Pentecost and the Fullness of the Spirit. Being a Baptist myself I thought this was strange because Rice was the ‘godfather’ of the Independent Baptists, and this book went against Baptist beliefs. I was attending Emmanuel Baptist College at the time and so I asked my professor if he agreed with Rice and he said, “Certainly not! I do think this power is for special people marked out by God as evangelists, missionaries and maybe pastors.” But this is not what Rice was saying, and it certainly is not what the Bible says. Note the texts. The fullness of the Spirit and the power of Pentecost is for all, for every born again believer. (Acts 2:38-39)  Acts 10:44-48 declares, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.” You can’t receive something you’ve heard nothing about. You need to say loudly, “This is for me! God has not left me out of this precious and powerful promise. The baptism with the Spirit is for me! Praise God.”

What exactly is this fullness of the Spirit the Scriptures speak of? The name tells us what it is. It is you being filled with God! Your spirit, soul, and body becomes saturated with the Holy Spirit. He fills your inside and comes upon your outside with an anointing that gives you the power of God to be like Jesus and do the things He did. It makes you more like Jesus.

People sometimes say things like, “I don’t want all that Pentecost stuff. I just want to be like Jesus.” Well, Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit at the River Jordan right after John baptized Him in water. Does God want every believer to be baptized in water? Yes, That’s a clear. Then God wants you to be baptized with the Holy Spirit as well, just like Jesus was. Jesus received both water baptism and Spirit baptism (Lk.3:21-22). So, if you’re going to be like Jesus you need both. We all do.

What most people mean when they say they want to be like Jesus is Mister Nice Guy. They want to have a nice life, get along with everybody, work a good job, make enough money to take care of their family, and be a good citizen and neighbor. Love thy neighbor and all that. That is their view of what Jesus was like. But is it a Scriptural view? Is that what Jesus was really like? Consider this. Is the following description of Jesus what you are talking about when you say you just want to be like Jesus? Probably not, but it is the Bible view of Him.

He called many of His neighbors snakes in the grass, hypocrites, sons of hell, and children of the devil. And He did that to their face! Is that the Jesus you just want to be like? Twice He went to church and threw a fit. He overturned tables, scattered their money all over the room, made a whip and ran everybody out of the building! Is that the Jesus you are talking about? You just want to be a good family man. Jesus had no family. He called His own mother, “Woman,” and basically disowned His mother, brothers and sisters when He said, “My mother and siblings are those who hear the word of God and do what it says.” He had no job, played no sports, that we know of. Never went to or played in a ballgame. Never went hunting or fishing. Was never married and had no children. “But we are His children.” No, we are children of God and Jesus is our Elder Brother. Is there anything unscriptural about anything you have just read? I don’t think so.  

Is this the Jesus you want to be like? Probably not. So, don’t say you just want to be like Jesus and not consider that He was “anointed with the Holy Spirit and power and went about doing good, healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” (Acts 10:38) You don’t want to be bothered by this “save the world from sin” stuff, you just want to live a comfortable, enjoyable life in this world and go to heaven when you die. But the Jesus of the Bible healed the sick. If you’re going to be like Jesus you need to consider what He did when He was here. Jesus cast out demons and performed miracles.  That’s the Jesus we should be concerned about being like.

It’s not that any of the things I listed above are wrong or sinful. You should have a job and provide for your family. You can enjoy a good ball game and not going around indiscriminately calling people hypocrites and snakes. The point is, don’t excuse your not wanting to be filled with the Spirit and all the marvelous and miraculous things that go with that by saying you just want to be like Jesus. Your view of what Jesus was like may be a bit skewed. “As you are going about” your life, you should be a witness for Christ, seek and save the lost. If you don’t do that, that life you’re enjoying will be the reward of the life you’re living. Don’t be surprised if you get no rewards at the judgment seat of Christ at the end of time, when He rewards those who have worked for Him.

Why should we even want to be baptized with the power of the Spirit? Because we are followers of Jesus, the One who Himself was filled with the Spirit. “Jesus also was baptized, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. (Lk.3:21-22) Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Then He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. When He opened the book, He found the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed me to …’” Then there are listed several wonderful things that Jesus did under the anointing of the Spirit (Lk.4:1,14,17-19). Are those things what you want to be doing? You can do none of them without the Spirt being upon you. As followers of Jesus and those who want to be like Him, we should ask ourselves What Would Jesus Do? And then go and do likewise.

“I don’t think this is for me.” But it is for you. It is for everybody. It’s for all. All is for everybody. God wants to give all His children His most expensive gift, purchased by the very blood of Jesus at the cross. He wants all His kids to have all His gifts, especially the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38-39). The salvation of the world depends upon all His kids being filled with the Spirit. That’s why He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This is the very panacea (cure-all) for all that ails mankind, for all that ails you and your family. This world is going deeper into darkness by the day, and Christians seem powerless to do anything about it. But God has supplied all the power we need to cure all that ails mankind, and each and every individual. And that includes you.

“I don’t want those tongues.” Don’t worry, you won’t get from God what you don’t want. But, why don’t you want them? They are the gift of God. It says, ‘And all spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” It is the blessed Holy Spirit that enables us to speak in unlearned languages. Why would you not want that? You should want everything that God has for you. Much more on this later.

Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, come to Me and drink. If you do, out of your heart will flow rivers of living waters.” Rivers give life. Look at an aerial picture of Egypt at night and you’ll see a string of lights running from North to South, but the rest of the country is totally dark. Why is that? Because everyone in that country lives along the Nile River. Why? Because where the waters of the Nile flow, life is. Same is true of those who are filled with the Spirit. To explain this, the inspired John wrote, 'This He spoke about the Holy Spirit, who was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.’ That is what happened at Pentecost. Jesus had been glorified and the Spirit was poured out. Let the rivers flow.

Jesus also said, “He who believes in Me will do the works that I have done, and greater works than these will he do because I go to My father.” (Jn.14:12) This going to His Father was referring to His exaltation in heaven and the Spirit being poured out that followed. Because the Spirit has now been poured out any believer can do the works of Jesus. That’s why we all need the fullness of the Spirit.

Let me issue this word of caution. Stephen had preached to the religious leaders in Jerusalem, telling the stories of how Israel had a history of going against what God was doing. He goes through several Bible characters to illustrate this one point which he hits them with at the end of his sermon, “You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you! (Acts 7:51 NLT)

Don’t fall into the trap of resisting what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. Yield to Him. Agree with Him. Receive the Holy Spirit. You’ll be glad you did. And many others will be glad you did. Most importantly God. 

(God wants you to want Him)

There’s a very interesting story in the life and behavior of Jesus. In Mark 6:48 is the story of the disciples being out on the stormy sea alone when Jesus comes literally “walking by.” It says, “He came to them walking on the sea, and would have passed them by.” What?! Passed them by? What’s that all about? My guess is, He wanted to save them but more than that He wanted them to want Him. He is more important than what He can do for you. Don’t be mistaken, when He comes to you He will do great and mighty things, but He wanted them and He wants us to show some initiative. They called out to Him and He came to them, got in the boat and the storm ceased.

Show some initiative with REVIVAL.

The world desperately needs a revival in the church, but many in the church sit by waiting on God to “sovereignly move.” God and revival does not work like that. He expects us to want revival enough to do something. He said, “Return to Me and I will return to you.” (Zech.1:30)  And “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you and I will bring you back from your captivity.” (Jer.29:13-14) And how about 2Chron.7:14? “If My people will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” If you’re waiting on God to move, I got news for you; He is waiting on you to move, to show some initiative. You can get lazy on the Lord and call it trusting God if you want, but God is wanting you to show some initiative. In this famous verse, He tells us four things to do in order for Him to do something.

Show some initiative with FAITH and MIRACLES.

Don’t just stand around outside in the street when your friend is lame and Jesus is in the house with people blocking the door. Tear a hole in the roof and let your friend down right in front of Jesus! (Mt.9:1-7) That’s what Jesus called faith, not your sitting around waiting on Him to do something. They told blind Bartimaeus to sit down and shut up, but he continued to cry aloud until Jesus stopped and called for him (Mk.10:46-52). Jesus commended him for having faith to be made well. Faith is equated with showing some initiative. Show some initiative toward God. Faith without corresponding action is worthless (Jas.2:20). Jesus commended the woman with the issue of blood and said she had great faith when she pressed through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed (Mk.5:29-34). Faith is an active thing, a proactive thing. Faith shows initiative. Show God you have faith.

Show some initiative with PRAYER.

Did not Jesus tell us to, “Ask and it will be given to you?” (Mt.7:7) Yes, He did. When my kids were growing up I used this verse in training them. I never gave them anything they wanted (this was not true of their needs) without them asking for it. You don’t get it if you don’t show some initiative and ask for it. “Seek and you will find.” You can’t find it if you don’t seek it. “Knock and the door will be opened to you.” God doesn’t just open the door; He tells us to knock. Show some initiative. Don’t just stand there – knock! There are two prayers God never answers: 1.) When you ask Him to do something He’s already done. 2.) When you ask Him to do something He’s already told you to do.

Here’s a great verse in the Bible, “Call unto Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things.” (Jer.33:3) You don’t call and He can’t answer you, and He will not show you great and mighty things. God’s great and mighty works on your behalf are waiting on you to call upon Him. Show some initiative. Be proactive! Go all out. Put the pedal to the metal. Show God you have some faith and watch what God does.

Initiative gets the promotion at work. Don’t just do the ordinary, do the extraordinary. Show some initiative! Parents love it when their kids show some initiative with their chores and don’t have to be told and harassed every day to do them. God loves this too. How many times does He have to tell us to pray, witness, or love one another? All those things and a lot more are all over the Bible. How many times does God have to tell you to tithe?

Don’t be lazy in the things of God. This “I’m open to the gifts of the Spirit” will get you nowhere. God said to “earnestly desire spiritual gifts.” (1Cor.14:1) Show God you mean business. A farmer said he’d always wanted to go to the Holy Land. A neighbor said to him, “Well, why don’t you just sell one of your many cows and go to the Holy Land.” You wish you had a job? Go look for one. Seek and you shall find. “She got a scholarship…” Yeah, she worked for it. I know a girl who got a full scholarship to a Division One University. In high school, when others were just getting out of bed, she was on the high school track running. When others were sitting down for supper, she was on the track running. She won so many races she got that scholarship. She showed initiative and it paid off. It always does.

Blessed is the church that has members who will show some initiative in its services, who will believe and cry out to God, call for the elders to pray the prayer of faith, worship with reckless abandon, lay hands on the sick, and operate in the gifts of the Spirit.

The true story of the movie Rudy illustrates this perfectly. As the man in the movie said something like this to him when he was contemplating quitting the football team because they would let him play in a game, “You have no physical height or weight, no smarts when it comes to education, no athletic ability, and yet you are graduating from one of the best universities in the country, and are on one of the best football teams in the land.” He went back to the practice field fully dressed in pads, helmet and uniform. The other players applauded him. And he did play in the last game, and the team carried him off the field on their shoulders for sacking the quarterback on the last play.

A friend of mine told me he saw the movie and didn’t like it. When I asked him why he said, “The guy was a geek!” I said, “Krys! That’s the point! You missed the whole point of the movie. He was a geek. He had hardly any intellectual ability and no physical ability, and yet for two years he got beat up dreadfully by the first and second team players during practice, actually got to play in a game, and graduated from Notre Dame University. At one point in the story, Rudy tackled the quarterback during practice and the quarterback got mad and threw the ball at him. The coach ran over to the quarterback, asking what the matter was. The quarterback said, “We’re practicing and this guy thinks we’re in the Super Bowl.” Coach rebuked him, saying he could have been All-American if he had half the heart Rudy had, and told the quarterback to get off the field. Rudy’s heart made him show some initiative. We need to have a heart to show some initiative in the things of God.

Passivity will kill any relationship. It will kill any marriage, and it will kill a relationship with God. Passivity is the death knell to every endeavor of man. And it is killing the modern American church. You can’t steal second with your foot on first. You will miss every shot you don’t take. Get off the bench and give it all you got. Show some initiative. That is what wins football games, or any game. That is what brings us into revival, miracles and answers to prayers. Passivity gets no miracles, walks on no water, and tears no holes in a roof for a friend. Passivity brings no peace when you are anxious (Phil.4:6-9).

So, get in the game and show some initiative. Having financial problems? Give and it will be given to you (Lk.6:38; Mal.3:10). Having relationship problems? Buy some flowers! Spend some money and some time on that relationship. Decide now that you will no longer be passive. Show some initiative. 

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”  Acts 19:1-7

This chapter will tell if you want to be a part of a New Testament church or not, or be a N.T. believer. First, let’s be clear on this – according to John 3:16 and many other Scriptures, all it takes to be saved (be forgiven and have eternal life) is to believe in Christ. Salvation is by faith alone (Eph.2:8-9). Faith in the death and resurrection of Christ will make you right with God. From the Bible, there’s no doubt about that.  But there is more to believe in order to experience the full benefits of our salvation. Since Pentecost it is possible to have the Spirit in you but not have the Spirit upon you. In and upon are two different things.

There’s nothing wrong with being incomplete, unless it is a willful incompleteness. It is better to be complete. Imagine having a bicycle that has no brakes. It will get you down the road, but it is dangerous without brakes. Every bike needs brakes to be complete. Imagine having a house without a roof. That house is not bad, just incomplete. Every house needs a roof to be a complete house to live in.

You don’t want your body to be incomplete. Nothing sinful to have lost an arm or leg or an eye. It’s just better to have two arms, two legs and two eyes, to be complete. Wouldn’t you like to be complete? If you’re not, you are not at full strength. No wonder you’re always struggling if you’re incomplete spiritually; you lack the power Pentecost provides. If you’re saved but not full of the Spirit you are an incomplete believer, much like the believers at Ephesus in our text.

I. All Old Testament believers were incomplete.  Before Pentecost in Acts 2:1-4 every believer, though saved, was incomplete. At Pentecost the full blessings of the death and resurrection of Christ was fully realized. Some of those blessings we have gone over in all the chapters we’ve covered leading up to this one. They include:

1.     The Church was born on this day. This is Christ’s heavenly people, distinguished from Israel. God gave two visions to Abraham to say he would have numberless descendants: stars and sand. The stars represent his heavenly descendants and the sand represents his earthly children. His heavenly people are the church who will live with Him forever in the New Jerusalem. Abraham’s earthly people were incomplete without the church, and their experience was incomplete. This all changed when the Day of Pentecost had fully come.” Full salvation would be for Jews and Gentiles. Every Pentecost Sunday is a birthday celebration for the church.

2.     Believers began to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Jn.14:17). Jesus said, The Holy Spirit was with them and would be in them. On this day believers became “in Christ” and Christ came into us. Remember earlier in this book I talked about the sponge being put into the bowl of water and when that happened the water came into the sponge? The water was in the sponge and the sponge was in the water. So, the Spirit came into us and upon us. This began to happen when the Day of Pentecost had fully come.

3.     The gospel had finally been accomplished, all the sacrifices and prophecies in the O.T. had come to pass, the Law that was against us had been answered and the blood of the Lamb of God had forever delivered us from its condemnation, the blood of the everlasting covenant had been put upon the Mercy Seat in the Holy Place in heaven, the New Covenant of grace was ready to be enjoyed to the fullest as Jesus our great High Priest now pours out His Spirit, putting His Spirit upon us, Christ in us, and us into Christ, so that the body becomes one with the Head. The cross and resurrection had been accomplished for this purpose, for what happened at Pentecost, the climax of history.

4.     The Spirit came upon all flesh. Before, He had come upon prophets, priests and kings, but beginning at Pentecost it was for all believers (Acts 2:17). The Latter Day outpouring and harvest can now begin.

The thing emphasized in this passage was the baptism with the Spirit that Jesus talked about in Acts 1:4-5, 8. “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now; you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses.”

II. Notice the difference between pre-Pentecost and post-Pentecost. Before Paul came and laid hands on these disciples it had been decades since the Day of Pentecost and there were only 12 disciples in this chief city of Ephesus. But in two short years after the Spirit came upon them we have what it says in Acts 19:10-11, 18, 20, “For two years all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus. Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul. And many who had believed came, confessing and telling their deeds. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.” That difference explains why the first thing Paul was concerned with when he found these 12 disciples was, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” Same in Acts 8:14-17.

Also remember the difference this experience made in Peter. Before the Day of Pentecost he was always failing and struggling. He even denied Jesus when a girl accused him of being one of Jesus’ followers. But after Pentecost had come he was speaking boldly to those who had crucified Jesus and 3,000 were saved and added to the church. Virtually the same thing had happened to the rest of the apostles. They went from fearful to fearless because of one experience – the fullness of the Spirit that came at Pentecost.

III. Why is it that so many today are not baptized with the Spirit so we can turn the world upside down? 

1.     Ignorance, v.2, 5 You can’t believe and experience what you haven’t heard of. Our job as Christians is to find out if people have been and if not, share the good news and lay hands on them.

2.     Unbelief Some, having heard or read, their hearing has not been mixed with faith (Heb.4:2). There are two main reasons for this unbelief:

A.    Traditions based on misinterpretations of Scripture (the false Cessation doctrine). According to Mk.7:8-9, 13 Jesus said the traditions of the elders can make the word of God of no effect in our lives. This false teaching has plagued the church since the days of Augustine and the Reformers. Yet there is not one word in the Bible that teaches the fullness and gifts of the Spirit have or will ever cease until Jesus comes back. Don’t believe this lie. It takes large sections of the Bible out of your hands and heavenly experiences from your life.

B.    Some just don’t want anything more than to be saved. (These people should really question whether they are saved or not. They want to get into heaven by the skin of their teeth and teeth don’t have skin!) These people are quite satisfied to not be an effective witness for Christ and all the effort and trouble that comes with the baptism with the Spirit. They may work tirelessly serving the Lord, but they don’t realize how much more they could accomplish with the fullness of the Spirit.

Some of these unfinished believers are only interested in making it to heaven themselves; they are not really concerned whether anyone else makes it there. It doesn’t bother them that others will spend eternity in hell without the Christ they have and could share with them so they could believe and be saved. Of course, they would never admit to not caring if others are saved or not, even if billions are lost. But if they are not baptized with the Spirit that’s what they are in reality saying, because all believers may be baptized with the Spirit if they thirst and earnestly desire to be.

Some will go so far as to say, “I am open to the things of the Spirit.” But that’s not enough. I’m open to being a billionaire, but I think I must pursue that goal or I will never be that rich. I could be open to having my children have everything they ask for this Christmas, but I must do more than be open to it. I must make and spend the money to buy those things for them.

Ask people if they like the Holy Spirit and they might say yes they do. But then ask them if they’d like to speak in tongues and they will tell you no. But people speak in tongues “as the Spirit gives them utterance.” Ask them if they would like to be slain in the Spirit and they’d say absolutely not. Ask them if they’d like to prophesy and speak the word of God with boldness. The answer will be the same. So, these people say they like, even love the Holy Spirit but don’t like anything He does. That’s like telling me you like my wife but don’t like anything she does. You would lose my friendship in a hurry. This is seriously grieving the Holy Spirit. If you say you don’t want to do anything the Spirit produces in people’s lives, don’t worry – you won’t. But think of what you’re missing, and what the world is missing.

We are now ready to look at Acts 2 and see what happened in this Standard Church. Don’t just read about it without participating in it. This is the standard for every church and every Christian. 

Selected Profound Sayings of Jesus from John 8:12-30

We have read through this section with the emphasis on Jesus confusing a lot of people. Let’s look specifically at some things He said, some of the most profound things ever uttered by Him or any other human.

1. v. 12 “I am the light of the world…” The whole world sat in darkness until Jesus came. Yes I know there was the genius of Alexander, Plato, Agustus, and even Moses and Isaiah, but they were not the light of the world, didn’t ever claim to be. But here comes this carpenter from Nazareth claiming to not only give light to the world, but to BE the light of the world! And if you don’t follow Him you walk and live in darkness! You know nothing… nothing of eternal significance. The purpose of light is to make manifest and Jesus claimed to make manifest God Himself and all eternal realities. He was the perfect man in the likeness of God.

“We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are seen are eternal.” (2Cor.4:18) Jesus makes eternal things manifest. He alone has the words of eternal life. He alone could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

Don’t get upset at those who cannot see. They can’t know because they can’t see. According to John 3 without being born again, given a new set of eyes, they cannot see and thus enter the kingdom of God. In saving a soul, God must emancipate us and enlighten us.

2. v. 15   “I judge no one!” American church members’ favorite pastime is judging one another, contrary to what Jesus did as He inaugurated the New Covenant. Please read 1Cor.4:3-5 and learn to live like Jesus. Paul wrote, “It is a small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the heart; and then each one’s praise will come from God.”  

We are called to be witnesses in the courtroom of justice, not judges. Our job is not to judge others, but to help others. Help others see the light.

3. v.17-18 “I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.” There were many infallible proofs of who Jesus is. So, He was either Liar, Lunatic, or Lord. There are no other options. Look at what He said and what He did, and believe. May the Lord give you light.

4. v. 21,24 “You will seek Me and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come. If you do not believe that I am (the light of the world) you will die in your sins and where I go you cannot come.” Imagine someone claiming to be the only way to be saved! Most people think of eternal life as going to heaven. Jesus didn’t talk in such terms! He spoke of going to the Father (Jn.14:6). Have you ever noticed how much Jesus talked about His Father?

Everyone likes to think they are going to heaven when they die, whatever they imagine heaven to be. But ask those people if they want to be with Jesus and go to the Father when they die. Most have never thought in those terms. People are not as likely to be offended by your witness if you speak in those terms and that Jesus is the only way to get to the Father. This is not being deceptive; it is witnessing the way Jesus did, talking to others using the words of Jesus.

5. v.26-29 “I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. I always do those things that please Him.” Pleasing God carries a lot of weight with God (Lk.7:2-6; Heb,6:10).

Even to this day, most people think Jesus worked His works and said His sayings as the divine Son of God; that is – as God. But that is not so. Jesus did everything He did and said everything He said according to what the Father told Him to do and told Him to say. Acts 10:38 tells us that in no uncertain terms. Jesus of Nazareth (a man) was anointed by the Holy Spirit and went about healing all who were oppressed by the devil because God was with Him.” Not because He was God!

Jesus is our model in ministry, whether it be speaking the word of God or doing the works of God. He was and is truly man, doing what man was created to do, bearing the likeness of God and reigning over the earth (Gen.1:26-28). To see this man was to see God. And He did this perfectly, the only one who ever has. That’s because He always did those things that pleased Him. 

My little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.  (Galatians 4:19)

In my 55 years of studying and preaching the Bible, this is the most unusual and unique verse I have ever come across. The text was written by a man… a man who was in labor to give birth! Like any mother he is in labor to give birth. Only he’s a man! Men don’t give birth, women do. Women travail; men watch. Paul was WOKE two thousand years ago! He said that he, as a man, was pregnant! Actually in labor pains. He went even further than that – he was having labor pains for his grandchildren!

The title question is not “Who is Your Mother?” but “Whose Mother Are You?” Try not to be like Nicodemus who was totally confused when Jesus spoke to him about being born again in John 3:1-8. He asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus was speaking of a spiritual birth, not a physical birth. Same with Paul here. He’s talking about travailing and laboring spiritually, in his heart and soul. Here’s just an interesting thought: We call the birth a “delivery,” but it could just as well be called “takeout.” It depends on one's viewpoint. If you’re the mom it’s a delivery, if it’s the doctor it’s called a takeout.

Another strange thing about this is he is laboring for his “little children” to become pregnant! “I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you!” He is laboring to have grandchildren! And Christ is the grandchild he is laboring for, meaning Christ in another person. Is this not a strange text? He’s writing to his little children for whom he had labored to give birth that they might give birth to their own child which is Christ. Again, all of this is spiritual of course.

They call the travail of a woman about to have her baby labor pains. But that is only the beginning of her labors of love. Any woman can give birth to a baby, but only a mother can raise that baby and care and love it for the rest of her life. All of these are labors of love and it makes all the pain and trouble worth it. Paul was that kind of mother. God wants us to be that way when it comes to our children.

From this I want us to see that all Christians should be mothers! That is, every Christian should be in labor to give birth to children in the faith and then travail for them as Christ is formed in them. This is done through the sharing of the gospel with people and discipling them. All disciples should be making disciples. All believers should be sharing their faith so that others could be born again. In caring for our children, (both physical and spiritual) we should be teaching them the word and praying earnestly for them. This is a high calling and it is not easy.

We should be caring for our spiritual children like a mother does her physical children. This childrearing is not an easy task. Neither birthing nor rearing is easy. Praise God for the moms who have done this for their children. These incredible people we now call moms.

Question – Who’s mother are you? How many children do you have? What are their names? Where are they? How are they doing? Are they having your grandchildren? And how are they doing? This is our legacy as Christians. This is our immediate family and we should know these things.

Motherhood is the most rewarding job in the world, and yet motherhood is the hardest job in the world. Just getting pregnant can be very difficult. (The same is true with getting pregnant with converts.) Did you realize that all the patriarchs had trouble with this? Abraham and Sarah had their first son when Abe was 100 and Sarah was 90 years old. Isaac had a special difficulty because Rebekah had twins fighting in her womb. Sometimes our siblings fight and that makes it all the more difficult for the mothers. “Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because she was barren (he was 60 years old); and the Lord granted his plea.” (All of this can be found in Gen.25:20-28.) Of the next of the three patriarchs it is written, “When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied his other wife (Leah, her sister), and said to Jacob, ‘Give me children or else I die.’” (This amazing story is told in Gen.30:1.)

Age doesn’t matter when it comes to having children. All the Patriarchs were old, very old, when they had their children. When it comes to having spiritual children, age is no factor either. You can win souls when you are a five year old Christian (I’ve known some mothers and daddies this young) and you can have them when you’re in your 90’s. I’ve known a few of those too. The important thing is to have children. Be a mom!

This should be the cry of our hearts, “GIVE ME CHILDREN LEST I DIE!” That is so right. If you have no children in the Lord your spiritual lineage dies with you. If that is your case right now let Hannah be your example in having spiritual children. Her story is found in 1Samuel 1-2.

Hannah had no children and it made her so sad she refused to eat at the scheduled potlucks at the temple. She would just sit there and cry because he had no children. That was a serious thing back in the day and it is a very serious spiritual thing in our day. We are left here to make disciples and if you have not, you are considered barren before the Lord. Hannah fasted and prayed before the Lord until God gave her a prophetic word through Eli, the high priest. This made her the happiest woman in the world. She went home, became pregnant, and the Lord gave her a son, one of many who followed. She gave birth to one of the greatest men of God who ever lived. Two long books in the Bible are named after him. He was the one who anointed David to be the greatest king Israel would ever have. Hannah’s son’s name was Samuel.

You should feel as though something is wrong if you have never led anyone to Christ? Do you labor that no children are being formed in the womb of your life? How many “children” are you laboring for right now? Remember God said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” to Adam and Eve is the New Testament equivalent of “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Jesus told us to preach the gospel to every person and make disciples of all nations. How are you doing with your part in doing that? You should ask yourself, “How many have I led to the Lord and discipled for Him?” If the answer is none, this is the perfect time to get pregnant. It is written, “As soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to children.” (Is.66:8) You will never give birth to children without labor pains, without your soul longing and travailing for them. You gotta wantem if you’re gonna havem! God will not give children to those who have not labored to have them. 

   If you don’t know why you are here then you are lost. I mean God’s purpose for creating you, not your girlfriend’s answer: “You are made for me to love!” Yeah… she will probably have a new boyfriend in a month. If you don’t know why you’re here, then you can’t know who you are or what you are, where you are going, what you should be doing in your life and with your life. This is that important, so read up.

It is important to know the purpose of everything, especially man. Purpose is important to all of us and it is to God as well. He does all things with a purpose in mind. He created you with a purpose in mind. He had something for you to be and do long before you were ever born. Discovering your purpose is the most important revelation of your life, the most important discovery in your life. That’s what this lesson is all about – discovering your God-given purpose.

I. What was God’s purpose for man in creation?  Why did God create man?

The standard answer is “to glorify God.” But what does that mean? It’s a vague answer that needs to be clarified. How does man glorify God? That can be interpreted many ways.

What does the Bible say is God’s purpose for creating man? Book, chapter, verse? Genesis 1:26-28 says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created them.”

This can be broken down into two purposes. These are the two purposes God has for mankind … for you!

A.    The Image of God

The invisible God created man as the crown of His creative achievement so that the rest of His creation could see what He is like: His thoughts, words, and actions. Man shows the character and nature of God more than anything else in His creation: how He thinks, how He speaks and what He does. So that, when creation sees man, it learns everything it needs to know about God. Man was made to be like God and to do the works of God. As Jesus, the Son of Man, would later say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Man was made to think the thoughts of God, speak the words of God, and do the works of God. Jesus was saying, to see man is to see exactly what God is like.

B.    Dominion

As the highest order of creation, God gave man dominion over everything on earth. He was the ruler over God’s creation; the earth was leased to man. It was right that, being like God, man would rule for Him. Man had dominion over literally everything on the earth, including that snake. (He is a creep!)

Ever wonder why God didn’t interfere with Eve eating that fruit? Think of the horrors He could have prevented had He done so. After this sin, all these curses came upon the human race: separation from God, death, disease, murder, war, hurricanes, you name it. But God did not interfere. Why? Because He put Adam in dominion over everything on earth and thus He wasn’t going to interfere.

People are always asking, “Why did God let this happen?” Well… because He does not interfere in the affairs of man. He put us in charge. He will interfere for the good if we ask Him to. It is up to us to “rebuke the devil and he will flee from you.” (Jas.4:7) It is still the devil who steals, kills and destroys (Jn.10:10). Our job is to “call upon Him” so He can show us great and mighty things (Jer.33:3).

II. What Happened with the Fall of Man into Sin?

Basically, he lost his God-given purpose. He was left only with temporary, insignificant, and meaningless purposes. “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” (Ecc.1:2) The entire book of Ecclesiastes is a commentary on what man lost in the Fall. God’s image in man was marred and he lost his dominion.

Genesis chapter three tells us that man disobeyed God by eating of the forbidden fruit. He sinned and the consequences were as God said they would be. Man died. First his spirit died to God. He ran from God and was put out of Eden.  

Meanwhile, Satan became the ruler of the earth, making man his puppet. Satan usurped man’s dominion, or rather man gave his dominion to Satan. This is clearly seen by the death and destruction of the curse. Satan is here to kill, steal, and destroy (Jn.10:10). Gone was the fellowship with God man once knew and he was left only with a promise of a coming deliverer. “The Seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head.”

Man plummeted into depravity until at last, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen.6:5) Only Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord and the Lord would start over with him and his family. Again God gave man hope in the form of a rainbow.

The image of God was marred in man and he became a “majestic ruin,” with a hint of divine dignity but still ruined by the Fall. Like the majestic ruins in Athens, Greece, man became a mere rubble of what he was created to be. Ruined, but you can still see in him a certain majesty… marred by sin.

Man also lost his dominion. The New Testament clearly states many times that not man but Satan is the “ruler of this world,” (Jn.12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2Cor.4:4; Eph.2:2, 6:12) … until finally it is written, “The whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” (1Jn.5:19) I’d rather get my theology from Jesus than some reformed theologian or pastor!

Jesus came to set us free from his slavery. “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (Jn.8:36) Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1Jn.3:8) and set up His throne in the hearts of those who believe in Him. Jesus had dominion over creation: nature, disease, demons, weather, and even death (Jn.11). Then by His death, resurrection, and Spirit He put us in Him and Himself in us, and made us sons of God like Him, able to say and do (in His name) the things He said and did. Beginning with Acts 2, we are now sons of God, born of God, with the same nature and abilities that God has. The purpose of God in creation was restored by the Son of Man.

III. What is Salvation?

“I know what salvation is because I’m saved!” How do you know you’re saved and going to heaven when you die? If you miss the purpose of God’s salvation you’ve missed salvation!

Salvation is God restoring to man His original purpose for man. What is that? Many don’t have a clue what God’s eternal purpose for man is? In salvation God is restoring His original purpose for man in creation – that he might be like Him and have dominion over creation. This is wonderfully amazing! Right now it is seen as humans take their rightful place as children of God, bearing His likeness, speaking His words and doing His works. This restoration of man’s God-given purpose cost God the death of His only begotten Son, but it was worth it to Him. He was determined that He would not fail in His purpose for man.

No passage of Scripture shows this like Romans 8:28-29. “For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.”

All things are not good, but God can work all things, even bad things, for the good, for the ones who love God and are fitting into His purpose. What is His purpose?

Verse 29 tells us what the good is toward which God works all things. It is not our comfort and ease. It is to be transformed into the likeness of Christ. God will work everything in our lives for good and that good is to be like Jesus, who perfectly bore the image of God and had dominion over God’s creation. We have dominion over the devil (Jas.4:7). First John 3:18 tells us that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. It is our job to enforce what Jesus accomplished. It is not enough to proclaim or do something; it must be enforced. We are the enforcers. Jesus gave us His authority and power to enforce what He has accomplished for us. That is why God left us on earth after He saved us.

It is our joyful responsibility to live out, by faith and works, the purpose of God for us. This is what we are called to do. Salvation is for those who are “the called according to His purpose.” His purpose is for us to be like Him and have dominion over the earth. To see what that is, just look at Jesus in the gospels. We are saved to be like Him. What a glorious purpose! Hallelujah!

All of this culminated in Acts chapter two. That is why we need to look closely at this important chapter. In Acts 2 man became what God purposed him to be and provided the power for him to fully realize his purpose. Christ is now in us and the believer is in Christ. We have become “partakers of the divine nature.” (1Pet.1:4) We are again like God and have dominion over the earth. We realize that as we walk by faith and believe the promises of God.

That’s what the early believers realized and began to live out. May we do likewise in our day and generation. Believing and acting on this truth will change your life forever. May God give us all this glorious revelation! Amen!

In Acts 2 we have the restoration of God’s purpose for man. He now has a man on earth bearing the image of God with dominion over the earth just like Jesus had when He was here. The good news is, Christ is not just one Man ministering on a hillside in Galilee; His body is now in every local in every nation on earth. We are the body of Christ. Now God has a man bearing the image of Christ and having dominion over the earth: demons, weather, poverty, disease, and over everything Jesus had when He was here.

All of God’s history of redemption culminates in Acts 2. He finally has a man in whom He dwells who bears God’s image with dominion. This man, the church, is to be like Jesus, speaking the words and doing the works of Jesus. Most will certainly agree we should be doing the good things Jesus did like forgiving others, loving others, being kind and generous. But there is another wing on the airplane called Christ. That other wing is doing the works of healing all who are oppressed of the devil, casting out demons, multiplying food, raising the dead, and healing all manner of sicknesses and diseases. Which wing of an airplane is the most important, the left or the right wing? Both are necessary. If we are going to be like Jesus with His dominion, we must do both.

This is what began to happen in Acts 2. All of history culminated in that chapter. God finally has a body of people who are like Him. Of course we are to always be moving in this direction, “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph.4:13)

So now we are ready to see what happened in Acts 2, the standard has been set and it would behoove us to do all we can to measure up to that standard. 

 (John 8:12-30)

         I know… I know… People often quote 1Cor.14:33 which says that God is not the author of confusion. That does not mean that He will never say anything that will confuse you. God has always said things that left people scratching their heads and saying, “Huh…” Paul in 1Cor.14 was talking about confusion and controversy in the congregation over the practice of the gifts of the Spirit. (There is still confusion and controversy over these very things.) There was confusion in the way the meetings were being conducted: people speaking out of turn, interrupting one another, and other such things. But differences don’t have to lead to division. If a congregation or a person is confused in what is happening, you should pursue peace and not create disorder. That was happening at Corinth. Paul was not talking about confusion that comes naturally with learning, but confusion in the gatherings themselves. Read the chapter and you will see that is exactly what was happening.

If God says something you don’t understand and your mind is confused, pursue the truth until you are at peace with that. I think I can truthfully say that if you’re never confused about anything in the Bible, you’re probably not learning anything.

If you are not confused right now, maybe in this lesson you can learn how to help someone else who might be confused. Many people do get confused when trying to understand the Bible and they just give up and settle for ignorance. We know that is a horrible decision and maybe you can help them not do that.

In this John 8:12-30 passage, I want you to notice that Jesus kept saying things that totally confused the people, even the experts in the law. Nicodemus was “the teacher of Israel” and Jesus completely confused him with His teachings on being “born again.” (Jn.3:1-8) The people in John 8 kept asking Him questions because they were confused and weren’t learning anything. They didn’t know who He was, who His Father was (whom He was always talking about), where He had come from or where He was going, and why they couldn’t follow Him. “Will He kill Himself, because He said, ‘Where I go you cannot come?’” (Jn.8:22) Note the questions, “Where is Your Father?” (v.19) A dumb question because He kept referring to His Father who is in heaven. “Who are you?” (v.25) And because “they did not understand…” they concluded that what He was saying was not true (v.13). But amazingly in the midst of this it says, “As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.” (v.30) Some, despite the confusion all around them and perhaps in them just believed in Jesus.

But you can be confused without ever learning anything. That was the problem with these men here. In v.25, “They said to Him, ‘Who are You?’ Jesus answered, ‘Just what I’ve been saying to you from the beginning.’” They never understood Him from the get-go! They weren’t learning anything. This leads me to believe that they weren’t trying to get answers from Him because they weren’t going to believe what He told them anyway.

Some people can’t believe the Bible because they believe the Bible! They let one Scripture annul what another Scripture says, instead of trying to reconcile them. One man told me he was against everybody speaking in tongues at the same time in a meeting. I showed him Acts 2, 10, and 19 where this happened in the Bible three times, and he said, “Yeah, but in 1Cor.14 it says they were only to do it one at a time.” It didn’t matter that they did it in three places in the Bible, he was not going to believe that because his mind couldn’t get past 1Cor.14:27. There is an answer to that dilemma, but he had already made up his mind about it. He didn’t like everybody speaking in tongues at the same time, no matter what the Bible said.

The Bible can be very confusing. Just ask Paul and he will answer, “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Rm.11:33-34) If you’re never confused it’s probably because you keep drinking the milk of the word. Everyone starts out drinking milk but some never progress or mature to eating meat (1Cor.3:1-2). To get the word from your spirit to your mind requires chewing – comparing Scripture with Scripture until understanding comes. Chewing meat is more difficult than drinking milk, but much more rewarding and nourishing.

Even the great apostle Peter said that some of Paul’s writings were “hard to understand.” (2Pet.3:16) If Paul’s writings were hard for Peter to understand, do not think it strange that they rock your world and confuse you. This Bible is the mind of God and our minds can hardly fully contain His mind. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is.55:9)

The thing we must not do is give up asking and seeking for revelation. “Seek and you shall find,” Jesus said; therefore we must never stop seeking until we find the truth and think the thoughts of God. If you don’t understand what is preached, pursue the preacher to find out what he meant by what he said. If a preacher preaches over your head, climb up to where he is instead of remaining ignorant down where you are. You don’t want a preacher to come down to your level of understanding, if he is a God-called preacher. He’s trying to lift you up; refuse to stay at your current lower level of understanding. Your maturity depends on it (1Cor.3:1-2).

I know two men who exemplify what I’m saying. Allen came up to me after a sermon on prayer and said, “I do not understand anything you just preached. Nothing!” He was brave enough to tell me, but then he walked out and never came back again. On the other hand, Jim Bianchi talked to me after every service, trying to understand to the max everything I had said. Jim called me years later, on the night his wife died, and told me if he hadn’t learned what he had learned from me, he didn’t think he could have held it together during this dark hour in his life.

“Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” He had been teaching them that He was the Bread of Life and when they couldn’t understand it, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” (Which thing you don’t ever want to do.) “Then Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you also want to go away?’ Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’” (Jn.6:60,66-68) The Bible has the words of eternal life and we live by every word that has come from the mouth of God. If you want to live, you must hear and understand the Bible. It’s that simple. You have no other choice.

Let us follow the example of Jim Bianchi and the apostles. In Mt.13 Jesus taught the parable of the soils. He preached it with no explanation. They didn’t understand a thing He was saying. But they went home anyway. Now, watch this, “The disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” To whom had it been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven? Who are the you in this passage? Those who pursue to know and understand. The disciples didn’t know any more than the rest of the people who went home, but they stayed behind to ask for an explanation. And they got it.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for knowledge, for they shall understand the words of eternal life.

Don’t be lazy in the things of God. Be like the Bereans in Acts 17:10-12. Everywhere the missionary team went they were met with opposition to what they were preaching, until they came to Berea. “The Bereans were more fair-minded than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.”

When you cannot break through to understanding, I encourage you to put what you are reading or hearing on the back burner. Maybe the soil of your heart is not adequately prepared for what you are hearing. We are all at different levels of maturity in the things of God. It will come to you after there is more plowing and cultivation of the soil of your mind. This has happened to me countless times. If you continue to do this, you will continue to grow. If you cannot receive a certain piece of meat at this time, drink the milk and be thankful. To him who has, more will be given. 

Still working our way toward lingering in Acts 2, I want to give another chapter on signs, which plays an important part in the early church and will again as the church is restored to its pristine purity. To begin, I want to answer some very important questions.

1. Why am I writing on Acts 2 and on Signs? Because more than anything else in the world I want to see a church that believes and lives the Bible, the church as she should be, as seen in Acts. But all churches say they go by the Bible. Yeah… that’s what they say. But most of them go by only one verse. For some, the summary of the Bible is pretty much all they preach. Denominations teach Acts 2:38 and base their whole church on that one verse. Ironically, they misinterpret this verse and thus build their foundation on a faulty foundation. Others build their church on Mt.16:16-18. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God… And on this rock I will build My church.” Still others base everything they believe and practice on 1Cor.12:8, “Prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will vanish away… when that which is perfect comes.” Again, these denominations and churches misinterpret those verses and thus automatically dismiss most of the New Testament: Gospels and Acts. Still others simply preach John 3:16 almost every time they gather. They preach mostly how to be saved in every sermon. John 3:16 is the most important verse in the Bible, but it is not the only verse in the Bible. A stool with one leg will not hold people up. But we must have a whole Bible.

2. What are Signs? A sign is proof that God is present. They are supernatural, if done in the name of Jesus. When God shows up supernatural things happen, signs happen. His manifestations are always supernatural. We need those proofs of the presence of God today.

3. When are Signs?  God has always given signs. The rainbow was a sign, and so was a fleece. But when the New Covenant began, also known as the Last Days, after the gospel was completed by Jesus, the Holy Spirit was poured out and there was a proliferation of signs. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit would be accompanied by signs. The word signs is used 78 times in the New Testament. That is simply amazing!

Preaching is not enough. Jesus knew that and that’s why He said what He did in Acts 1:4-5,8. He told them not to begin preaching until they were “endued with power from on high.” Why? Because He knew preaching the gospel was not enough to reach the world with His salvation. They needed more. They needed the birth of the church, the beginning of the New Covenant, when the Spirit would be poured out with signs. In Acts 4:28 the disciples asked for boldness to preach and asked the Lord to stretch out His hands to heal and that signs and wonders might be done in Jesus’ name. God answered that prayer. He still answers that prayer. Many verses show that God uses signs to do His work. Verses like 1Cor.2:4 and Mk.16:20.

4. Why are not signs as common today as they were in the New Testament?  They are in certain places. A casual research can identify places around the world where churches have grown to over a million members because of these signs. Why are signs not prevalent in the U.S.? Unbelief. A man over 50 years old asked me why he had been in church all his life and had never seen a healing or any sign? I asked if he was ever in a church that believed and practiced healing the sick. He said he had not. No wonder he hadn’t seen any. Signs and healings come by faith. No faith – no signs.

5. Why does God use signs? Because preaching is not enough. And the Bible is not enough. People argue, “We have a Bible now so we don’t need signs.” Well, genius, did you not know that over six billion people in the world do not believe the Bible? Hindus have Vedas that predate Moses. Muslims have the Koran. Atheists don’t believe in any inspired scriptures. You quote the Bible to them and they could care less. That’s where signs come in. They may argue over words, but when they see a miracle…! Hard to argue against that. Why does God use signs? To confirm the word that is preached. That’s what the Bible says (Mk.16:20).

Although the bulk of Acts 2 is the preaching of the Savior (v.22-41), that is preceded by the performance of signs (v.1-4). The preaching without the signs would have had minimal effect on the folks in Jerusalem. Without the signs there wouldn’t have even been a crowd for Peter to preach the gospel to! And that’s why Jesus told them to wait for the Spirit to come upon them before they preached (Acts 1:4-8).

Signs commenced with the birth of Jesus, continued in His ministry, but they came with full manifestation “when the Day of Pentecost had fully come.” Jesus had initiated and performed signs (the gospel of John gives seven of these signs) because the Spirit of God had been poured specifically on Him. But now that the Day of Pentecost had fully come, all believers received the Spirit the same way Jesus did.

This was intended to continue throughout the Church Age. It certainly did throughout the book of Acts. The epistles do not conflict with Acts; the letters were written during the time of Acts. Signs were given by God. They are His idea. They were prophesied, promised by the Savior, and performed by the Holy Spirit.

This is hard to digest for those who have been taught that these signs no longer happen. I was a Southern Baptist for many years and was taught this all through four years of Bible college and three years of seminary. But I encourage you to do what I did – READ AND BELIEVE THE BIBLE! Take a long “Look at the Book.”

There is one thing that will make the word of God nothing in your life. Traditions! Please read Mark 7:6-13 and you will see how Jesus exposed the error of believing the “traditions of the elders” instead of the Bible; He said that traditions will “make the word of God of no effect in your life.”

One of the traditions of the elders in many churches and many minds of Christians is that signs and wonders were only for the original 12 apostles. If you believe that lie the book of Acts will become for you a mere history book with no relevance for your life and church today; add to that other passages in the N.T. epistles like 1 Corinthians 12-14.

But “The Acts of the Apostles” were not that. According to the wording of Acts 1:1 they were the continuation of the acts Jesus began in the book of Luke. In Acts Luke is simply giving a further account of the works of Jesus that He began to do in the gospel of Luke. Besides that, many of the signs in Acts were not done by apostles at all. Stephen and Philip were not apostles and yet they “did great wonders and signs among the people.” (Acts 6:8)  And Philip was another believer who did miracles, cast out demons, and healed the sick (Acts 8:6-7). If you listen to the traditions of the elders they will take the Bible out of your hands and heart, and you will not be able to hear God who speaks in the pages of the New Testament; and that is a serious thing.

Jesus Himself did not enter His ministry until after He was anointed with the Spirit, and only then did He go about healing all who were oppressed by the devil.” (Acts 10:38) Paul wrote that he came preaching the gospel with “demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith might not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1Cor.2:1-5)  In 1Thes.1:5 it says, “Our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and the Holy Spirit.”

Hebrews says that the gospel “was confirmed to us by those who heard Christ, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will.” (Heb.2:3-4) And we have this, “They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs.” (Mk.16:20) Jeus said He needed the witness of works – miraculous works – signs – to bear witness of Him. “The works which the Father has given Me to finish – the very works that I do – bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me.” (Jn.5:36) Even Jesus Christ needed the witness of signs to confirm who He was and what He was saying, that they both were from God the Father.

We are not going to win the world to salvation without demonstrations of the Spirit and power of God, and the accompanying signs that follow. Jesus said that signs would accompany the preaching of the gospel (Mk.16:15-20). Until people ask, “Whatever could this (sign) mean?” (Acts 2:12) they will not ask, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) and told to “Repent” (v.38) to be saved (Acts 2:41).

We can’t make signs happen. God does them. But we can believe that signs happen. We can have faith that God performs signs for those who believe. And we can act on that faith. Faith always has corresponding actions: Abraham offered up Isaac and Rahab hid the spies. We can’t turn water into wine, but we can fill the pots with water (Jn.2). We can’t raise the dead and buried, but we can roll away the stone (Jn.11). We can’t make a man lame from birth walk, but we can say, “In the name of Jesus, rise up and walk!” (Acts 3) And he will rise up and walk. All signs, wonders, miracles, healings, and deliverances are preceded by the words and/or acts of men. We can’t heal a lame man, but we can tear a hole in the roof (Mk.2).

By faith Noah prepared an ark and saved his family from drowning, by faith Sarah received strength in her old age to conceive and give birth to Isaac, by faith Moses kept the Passover and stretched out his rod over the Red Sea, by faith the Israelites shouted and the walls of Jericho came tumbling down, through faith our forefathers subdued kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, and by faith they turned to flight the armies of the aliens (Heb.11). By faith we speak to mountains and cast them into the sea (Mk.11:22-23).

Don’t sit there on your duff, without ever doing or saying anything by faith, you will never see God do a sign, work a miracle, or heal a body. What does the Scripture say? “I believed and therefore I spoke.” (2Cor.4:13) It’s time to put your faith into action and watch God work. 

Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you.”  (John 7:53 – 8:11)

         Don’t let the familiarity of this story make you think it’s not important. It is heavy laden with truths about God in the New Covenant. They brought before Him a woman who was caught in the very act of committing adultery. She was caught sinning, breaking God’s holy law. The Law of Moses, which is the law of God, is very clear: “The men of her city shall stone her to death with stones.” (Deut.20:10) By the way, the man was to be stoned also; but they never brought the guilty man to Jesus. Didn’t need to because they were only concerned with one thing – “testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him.” (Jn.8:6) They were laser focused on getting rid of Him and no better way to do that than find Him in opposition to the Law of Moses. They had the perfect case. If He just forgave her and let her go He would be throwing aside the Law of Moses. If He was the first to throw a stone, how could He justify His teachings on forgiveness, mercy and grace? They had Him between a rock and a hard place. No way out… they thought.

I. The Places   7:53 – 8:1

Notice what happened at the end of the day. They are in Jerusalem; business is over. Time to go home and go to bed. And that’s what everyone did… except Jesus. He would have plenty of beds to sleep in, but we find Him instead going to the Mount of Olives where there were no beds, only a Garden. Having read ahead we know that this was Jesus’ favorite place of prayer. He spent His last night before death on that Mount … praying. Jesus teaches us the importance of prayer here. He began His day alone in prayer (Mk.1:35) and He ended it the same way. This was so familiar to His disciples that after leaving the Upper Room Judas knew where to bring the soldiers to arrest Him.

II. The Practice    8:2

Prayer and the ministry of the word was not only a priority to the apostles (Acts 6:4), it was the utmost importance for Jesus. This tells us something because “As the Father sent Me, I also send you.” (Jn.20:21) This is the way we fulfill our purpose of being and doing like Jesus. Jesus went to the House of God and taught the word of God. “He sat down and taught them,” which I take to mean He taught them for hours at a time.

III. The Prosecutors v.3

Here come the prosecuting attorneys to the judge for a judgment. They knew the outcome because they were experts in the Law. They turned the Temple into an outdoor courthouse and set her in the midst of everybody. They pushed for a showdown between Jesus and the Law of God. They thought they had Him. There would be no way out of this for Him. You cannot go against the Law and be a teacher in Israel, must less the Messiah. These men were given to the Law and therefore proficient in judging people critically.

IV. The Polluter v.4

To pollute means to make ceremonially or morally impure, to be alloyed, to make impure by adding a foreign substance. This woman’s sin made her impure and furthermore this was looked upon as making the nation impure. As a little girl dressed for Easter falls into a mud puddle, this woman was morally dirty. They would consider her filthy in the sight of God and should be considered filthy in the sight of God-followers.

V. The Problem v.5-6

The dilemma for Jesus was His immaculate teaching on mercy and grace against the strict Law of Moses. According to the Law sinners must die, but Jesus taught mercy for sinners. That’s a problem.

VI. The Parade 7-10

Jesus’ famous answer left the accusers speechless. Having nothing to say they walked away, one at a time. The only one who could throw a stone didn’t. That’s grace.

VII. The Panacea (to condemnation) v.11

We have no idea what Jesus was writing on the ground. Nobody does. It’s not the point. He was ignoring them. Doodling in the dirt … until they were relentless in their pursuit of getting an answer from Him. “So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them…”

Jesus’ answer is the universal remedy and cure-all for the condemnation for sinners by the Law of God. “Neither do I condemn you.” During the dispensation of the Law there was condemnation for everyone for “all have sinned and the wages of sin is death.” But with Jesus grace wins every time because Jesus took our death. That’s the panacea. But we must not let the grace of God become a license to sin. “Go and sin not more.” 

 (John 7:40-52)

         Jesus raised more questions than He answered. Questions swirled around Him like bees around a hive. He spoke in parables and this raised many questions. He spoke in metaphors and this raised even more. He said things like, “Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you.” Huh? “It took 46 years to build this temple and you said if it was destroyed You could raise it up in three days?” Aside from the things He said, He was a mysterious person who did unusual things… on the wrong day! Questions to Him were countless. Questions concerning Him were just as numerous. The people talked among themselves trying to figure out who He was, where He had come from and where He was going. There were speculations galore.

In this passage we have questions and answers. Most of the questions were unanswered and the answers were speculations. “Truly this is the Prophet.” Moses had predicted a prophet like unto himself would one day appear. They reasoned that this Prophet would be the Lord Himself (Deut.18:15-16). “Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’” But they were confused because they thought He was from Galilee and no prophet had been predicted to come out of Galilee. They didn’t know He was actually born in Bethlehem, in fulfillment of prophecy.

“So there was a division among the people because of Him.” The first thing God did in the first creation was divide the night from the day, so God is good at dividing. Jesus always brings divisions. He said, “I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Mt.10:35-36) Do not be surprised if that happens in your own life among your family and friends. In fact, you can pretty well expect it. Just don’t be discouraged by it.

The powers that be sent officers to arrest Jesus and when they came back without Him they asked, “Why have you not brought Him?” They responded, because “No man ever spoke like this man!” They were right. “And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” (Mt.7:28-29) He never said, “Thus says the Lord,” only, “I say to you…”

What He said then astounded people and has continued to do so for the last 2,000 years. Let’s look at some of the things He said. Read these out loud for they were spoken.

“Follow Me!” (Jn.1:43) That was His gospel. The audacity! He asked people to follow Him! Not the God of heaven, or the law of Moses, or the prophets, or follow the traditions of the elders and scribes and Pharisees, or even the Scriptures. “Follow Me!” In those two words He boldly declared that to follow Him was to follow Him all the way to heaven, and unless you did you wouldn’t even make it to heaven at all! And amazingly, many obeyed that call to do just that. Don’t underestimate that statement. Within that call came the power to learn from Him the secrets of the universe and the power to perform miracles. This is the call to learn and do, a lifelong journey to purpose, significance and life.

“You must be born again.” (Jn.3:3) With these few words Jesus changed the whole scope of salvation. Salvation was not a mere obeying the law of Moses, it was being “born again.” These words made the learned Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, scratch his head and speculate about going back into his mother’s womb. He had no idea what these words meant. These words sound all too familiar to us, but I assure you they are still just as mysterious to the most learned of the world. It had nothing to do with one’s nationality. Hindus take them to mean nirvana, another step in the eternal evolutionary chain. Jesus didn’t help much with His explanation on how that happens, “The wind blows where it wishes… So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

“The hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His (He was speaking of Himself) voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” (Jn.5:28-29) He claimed to not only raise Himself from the dead, He said He would raise all who had ever lived and died from the dead, by merely speaking the word. What an incredible statement from one who would soon be executed. Surely, no one ever spoke like this man.

“I Am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live again. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (Jn.11:25-26) And this is only one of the seven “I Am” statements found in the gospel of John. When He said, “I Am the Good Shepherd,” He was identifying Himself as the God of David who wrote Psalm 23. That was astounding. And when He quoted Ps.22 on the cross He was identifying Himself as the one who was dying for the sins of the world.

Time would fail to quote all the things Jesus spoke that made the officers say, “No man ever spoke like this man,” but I want you to look at the astounding things He said during the Passion Week. Look them up and read them aloud:

 Matthew 26:53 – “Do you think that I cannot pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”

Mt.26:64 – “Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Luke 23:34 – “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Lk.23:43 – “Assuredly, I say to you, ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise.’”

Lk.23:46 – “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” And having said this, He breathed His last.  Many in the Bible did not die from sickness; they simply gave their spirit up to God.

John.18:4-6 – Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, ‘Whom are you seeking?” They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Then – when He said to them, “I Am He” – they drew back and fell to the ground.

Jn.18:36 – “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”  

Jn.19:11 – “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

Jn.19:30 – “It is finished!” When Jesus said it was finished He was talking about all the millions of sacrifices that God ordered the Israelites to offer for sin down through the ages. His sacrifice finished all that forever. Please read Hebrews 10:12,14 – “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… for by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

Matthew 4:4 underscores the importance of what Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

In Colossians chapter one we have a long list of amazing unique things said about Jesus Christ. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, He is the image of the invisible God. By Him, through Him, and for Him all things were created. In the middle of all this the inspired apostle writes, “And He is the head of the body, the church.” (1:18) What an amazing statement in the context of other such statements. The church is not a metaphor; it is actually and literally the body of Christ: “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.” (Eph.5:30)

Never underestimate the importance of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not that important to the world of unbelievers and that is our fault. But nothing is more important to God, and nothing should be more important to the Christian. The church is the best friend your family has, the best friend you have if you want to grow to be more Christlike and make it to heaven when you die.

“Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her,” says what the Lord thinks of His beloved bride, the church (Eph.5:25; Acts 20:28 says, “the church, which He purchased with His own blood). We want to think like Christ thinks. Wisdom does that. We want to love like Christ, love who He loves: “Love one another as I have loved you.”

Every couple celebrates their births and so should we. We remember and celebrate what happened in Acts 2. The birth of the church will be celebrated forever for the church will never die. Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of death (Hades) will not prevail against her.” (Mt.16:18). The church is the only people who will live with God in the New Jerusalem. If He thought it was that important, so should we.

What is the church? This needs to be made clear because there is a lot of confusion about this. It is the Body of Christ, the House of God, the Temple (dwelling place) of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1Cor.3:16) The you in that verse is in the plural because he’s writing to the church at Corinth: “to the church of God which is at Corinth.” The church is the local church. Individual Christians are living stones placed individually into this temple by the Holy Spirit (1Pet.2:5; 1Cor.12:13). The church is a local body of people. It is not a building made with man’s hands. It is built by Christ (Mt.16:18; Acts 2:47) and His fellow-workers, which is us (1Cor.3:9). He uses us to build the greatest, most glorious, long-lasting building that will ever be built!

The church in the Bible is a local church. There was the church in Jerusalem, in Antioch of Syria, in Philippi, etc. There were seven local churches in Revelation chapters 2-3. Christ does not have some mysterious, ethereal (non-material) body, floating all over the earth. The church is a flesh and blood people meeting in a certain place. It is the actual body of Christ, here to do His work of saving souls and healing bodies, ministering just like Jesus did before He went back to heaven. Paul didn’t just traverse the Roman world preaching the gospel, winning converts, making disciples, only to tell them, “Now you’re a part of the vast universal ethereal church. Go your way.” NO! He established churches to put those disciples in and appointed elders over them everywhere he went (Acts 14:21-23). Then he wrote 13 epistles to those local churches that make up much of the New Testament. We wouldn’t have the Bible we have without those local churches.

All of our personal salvation deals with the revelations we see of Christ. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Cor.3:18) Revelation takes place in your heart. We see them with the eyes of our hearts. “The eyes of our understanding must be enlightened.” (Eph.1:18)

Redemptive revelations begin with the confession Peter made, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Mt.16:15-17) Peter saw who Jesus was because that was revealed to him by the Father. Without that revelation you are not a Christian. That revelation differentiates, distinguishes, separates us from every other people, nation, or organization on the earth. It has been revealed to us who Jesus is. He is a man (1Jn.4:1-3) who is also the Son of God (Jn.1:1-3,14).

After ‘who He is’ comes the revelation of what He has done – the gospel. His death means little apart from who He is, who it was that died on that cross. “Roughly speaking 150,000 people die every day around the world” and hardly anyone notices, except a few friends and family members. But one man died in Dallas, Texas, November 22, 1963, and within minutes the whole world knew about it. The difference? Who he was. He was the president of the U.S. who was assassinated in public.

Millions died on Roman crosses, but who Jesus was made His death different. He was the Son of God, bearing the sins of the world, taking the punishment we deserved. That “Good News” goes on to say that three days later He rose from the dead physically with a glorified body that will never die again, and “whoever believes in Him will never perish.”

Upon these two revelations the church can be built. After they were given, the church can be born! Every advance and growth in the Christian life comes by another revelation. We become more like Jesus as we see more of Him.

After Jesus told His followers He was going away, they were filled with sorrow. Then Jesus said it was for our advantage that He goes away. Jesus in John 16:5-7 said, “If I don’t go away, the Holy Spirit will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” Acts 2:1-4 is when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to us. That is the day in which what Jesus said came to pass, “My in you and you in Me.” (Jn.14:20) That day was the Day of  Pentecost.

Many have seen the revelation of Christ being the Son of God who died and rose again to save us from our sins. But I fear very few have seen the most important revelation there is after that. Without this third revelation you will be virtually useless in your Christian life, as far as doing the eternal work of God on earth is concerned, and obtaining eternal rewards, which are given for our work in building the eternal house of God (1Cor.3:9,14).

What is the revelation? That Christ is the Head of the church in heaven and assembled believers are His body on the earth. There is this oneness with Christ as a church that so many have failed to see, and the church and the world suffers for that. The church was in the mind and heart of God from the beginning. It was shown in prophetic picture form in the creation of man and woman, and their marriage (Gen.1:26-28; Gen.2:20-24).

Look at what Paul writes in Ephesians 5:22-32 where Paul gives the role for each spouse in the marriage relationship. Zero in on v.23, “For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and He is the Savior of the body.” Then v.25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” Then v.28, 30-32, “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” Colossians 1:18 says, “He is the Head of the body, the church.”

This can be said of no other body of people on earth. Not your own body, or family, not the company you work for, the government, or whatever club you are part of, and not any ball team. This is true only of the church. When you see this your priorities will change. This revelation will change your life forever.

The church was born in Acts 2, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come…” The advantage of having Christ leave earth and sending the Spirit is – He, by His Spirit, makes the church one with Him, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. This is when what Jesus prophesied in Jn.14:17,20 came to pass: “For the Holy Spirit dwells with you and will be in you. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” When the Spirit was poured out, He came into us and He baptized us into Christ, “you in Me and I in you,” and thus the church was born (1Cor.12:13).

The church can now speak the same words He spoke (in His name) and do the same works that He did when He was on earth. Only now His body, His physical presence, is not limited to one geographical location on a hillside in Galilee. Now, all at the same time, He is in Clinton, Conway, Little Rock, Memphis, Branson, New York City, Hong Kong, London, and Moscow, Russia; wherever there is a local body of believers. Christ is still on earth continuing to speak and do what He did in the Gospels!

The Holy Spirit dedicates the first eleven chapters of Romans to the “mercies of God” in which are written the truths of our great salvation. In chapter twelve He begins to apply our salvation practically. The first thing He says is to beg us to “present your bodies (your physical, mortal, flesh and blood bodies) a living sacrifice to God, and be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Rm.12:1-2)

Why are we commanded by God to present our bodies after our souls are saved? He answers that by going immediately into a long passage about the church (Rm.12:3-8). Our bodies are to serve God and others in the church. “For as we have many members in one body… so we are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: prophecy, ministry, teaches, exhorts, gives, leads, and shows mercy.” The gifts listed here are not exhaustive; there are others given in 1 Cor. 12-14. When the church was born gifts were given to equip the members to say and do what Christ did before He went back to heaven.

I want to be a part of a living, active, dedicated, working member of Christ’s body, the same one born on the Day of Pentecost. God has no other plan of carrying on His work and it will continue to do His work until it is raptured, and “so shall we ever be with the Lord.” The church will continue forever as the New Jerusalem, the eternal abode of the redeemed (Rev.21:9-11; Rev.22:17).

Every Christian should be committed to a local church, the church of Jesus Christ. You’ve made a commitment to Christ as the Head of the church, now make a commitment to Christ the Body. In the minds of many Christ has been decapitated. Let it not be so with you. If you are ready to be a part of the body of Christ, then you are ready for what happened on the original Day of Pentecost to happen to you. Acts 2 is not something you just read, study and learn about; it must be something you experience. No experience – no life! 

      Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And multitudes heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.  (Acts 8:5-8)

I have previously in ACTS I gone into great detail to show that Jesus began to do and teach in the Gospels and in the rest of the New Testament He continued to do and teach: do in Acts and teach in the epistles. I want to now show some of those things the believers did. Keep in mind that it is believers who continued and are to continue the acts of Jesus, not just the apostles. That’s why the extra-dispensational teaching that says these things died with the apostles is, on its very face, a serious error.

I want God to ACT. I want God to DO something… in my life, in your life, in every service, and even daily. Well, what sort of things would God do if He did do something? According to Jesus, silly little things like save you from your sins, save you from yourself, from this present evil world, and from hell. He will never harm you; He will only do you good. He does things like heal the sick, deliver us from addictions and demon oppression, give us eternal purpose and life, equip us to help others, and give us His love, His joy, and His peace. And oh yes… the forgiveness of all our sins.

I want God to speak to us, because His voice comes with power to change things for the better. All God’s acts are voice-activated and since Genesis chapter one He has used the voice of humans to do His work. So, “Speak, Lord. Save, Lord. Heal, Lord. Help, Lord. Do it now. And we will give you all the praise, in Jesus’ name.”

I. The Record of the Acts of God

These are ACTS of Christ done through His people. They don’t get done without His co-laborers. They don’t get done without us! Here is but a smidgeon of what we find in Acts:

*2:4, “They began to speak with other tongues…”  2:6-7, “They heard them speak…” People spoke in tongues. Many spoke at the same time and in the same place in Acts 2, 10, and 19.

*2:17, “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.”

*3:6-10, “What I have I give to you…” The lame man was healed; he jumped up and leaped around.

*6:8, “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.”

*9:17, “Ananias, laying hands on Paul, said, ‘Be filled with the Spirit.’”

*Paul – 14:3, A summary of what happened wherever Paul went: “Speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.”

*14:8-10, Paul said with a loud voice, ‘Stand up straight on your feet.’ Healed, he leaped and walked.

*19:6, “When Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.”

*1Cor.12-14, The gifts are given to all members of the church to say and do (12:7-11). These are some of the very things the believers in Acts and Jesus in the Gospels did.

II. The Results of the Acts of God

What was the result of all these teachings and ACTS of miracles and healings? Exactly what you want to see in any church – the number of disciples multiplied. Miracles bring multitudes. Jesus set the precedent: Luke 5:12-15 and Luke 6:17-19 tell us great multitudes came to hear Jesus and be healed.

The disciples continued to do and see the same things. What Christ started, they continued:

*Acts 2:43, 47, Many signs and wonders were done… And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

*5:12-16, Many signs and wonders were done among the people. And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes!

*8:5-8, Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And multitudes heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

*9:32-35, Peter said to bedridden Aeneas, ‘Jesus Christ heals you. Then he arose immediately. So all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

*28:8-9, Paul laid his hands on him and healed him. When this was done, the rest of those on the island who had diseases also came and were healed.”

God has always been interested in growth: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Gen.1:28; 9:1; Lk.14:23; Jn.3:16) God has given us the method for reaching multitudes; pray that He would give us the heart for reaching them.

III. Our Response to the Acts of God        

Here’s how we should respond to these things? In Acts 4:29-31 they prayed,

“Grant that we with all boldness may speak your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done in the name of Jesus. And when they had prayed, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”

God answered their prayer and He will ours too. Pray this prayer, “Lord, fill us with Your Spirit that we may work the works and boldly speak the words of Christ to a lost generation.”

It’s time we start doing what the Christians did in the Bible. It’s time we start acting like New Testament believers. That time has come! I have asked God to give the church words of knowledge, words of wisdom, gifts of healings, gifts of miracles, and signs and wonders, so that great multitudes would come to church to hear and be healed, that they might be saved and brought into the church to be loved and discipled for the glory of God. That prayer has been prayed in faith by me (and I’m sure others) and according to 1Jn.5:14-15 that prayer is the will of God; and therefore has been heard and answered. That is the prayer of faith and God always answers the prayer of faith.

Who wouldn’t want this? I’ve actually heard people say, “I don’t want to be in a big church.” You don’t want multitudes saved, loved and discipled in your church? What kind of Christian are you? We live to see others saved; the more the better. Glory to God! Any church can have a small church inside a big church. All you need are “connection groups” and you have a smaller church within a larger church that would have many benefits, like having the ability to do great things for God. We could have the closeness of a small church, and yet large enough to have wonderful music and youth and children’s ministries. We can have the best of both worlds!

According to Acts chapter two, they had the best of both worlds. They had it all! I want it all. I want God to do today what He did in the past. Do it now, Lord. Do it here, Lord. Stretch forth your hand to heal, that signs and wonders may be done in the name of Jesus, so that the number of disciples may be multiplied. restore the glory of what we read in the Bible. 

“As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” When He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:21-22)

         A good subtitle would be “What It Means to Be a Christian.” You may think you already know what it means, but when you compare what you know to the teachings of Christ and the church in Acts, you may find that you are a long way off and there’s a vast difference between what you think a Chrisian is and what a Christian is, according to the Bible, and only the Bible can tell us what a real Christian is. To some it simply means you “Accept Jesus as your Savior and you go to heaven when you die.” But there’s more to it than that.

A family drove about 16 hours to spend a couple of weeks with us. When the couple and their two daughters left, about halfway there the man pulled over to a rest stop without saying a word, got out of the car and went walking around about a stone’s throw away, and started crying out loud to God. After about two hours of this the lady called me to ask that I pray for him because she had no idea what was going on. I did pray and then a few minutes later she called me and said, “He got back in the car, wiped the tears from his eyes, smiled at me and said, “I just got saved. I just gave my life to Christ.”

Later he called me to explain. He said that in all his years growing up his family never missed church. He thought this is the Christian life. But he said they laid our Bibles down when they went in the house and never picked them back up till they headed out the door to church. And he said they never talked about the Lord all week. His father had been a deacon for over 20 years. Then when he spent two weeks with our family, he said he saw what real Christians were and got under conviction that he wasn’t saved at all, and so he had to pull over and work this out with God. He did. I think many people and families in our churches are like him and his family. They think they know what a Christian is, but really have no idea what it means to be a Christian.

Many Christians don’t know who they are “in Christ,” what God has called and commanded them to do, or anything about the power needed to accomplish the God-given task He has given to every Christian. They live ignorant, purposeless, and powerless lives on this earth. They don’t know who they are or why they’re here. I have good news for you. I intend to answer those questions for you in this chapter of our study of Acts two.  

This is yet another prequel to Acts chapter two. A very important one. It’s about something that happened that prepared the disciples for what took place on that first Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit. This is a preparation for all who will ever experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This is not mentioned in Acts chapter one, but it is mentioned in our text where Jesus was preparing the disciples for this momentous event in history and in our lives. Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Notice when it happened. It happened after He gave them what they were to be doing the rest of their lives. What a statement! “As the Father has sent Me, so send I you.” Jesus was not sending them or us to die on a cross and shed His blood for our sins. He’s talking about what He did before that during His earthly ministry, when “He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God (the Holy Spirit) was with Him.” (Acts 10:38) The same ministry He had they were to have and it is the same ministry we as fellow believers are to have. This is John’s version of the Great Commission to all of us. “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” Let those words sink in. We have the same mission as Jesus in this world. That’s why we need the same Holy Spirit baptism as He had, for without the Spirit we can do nothing.

The BIRTH

Notice these words “Receive the Holy Spirit” came before Pentecost. I have never heard or read an adequate explanation of these words. But I am about to give one. This is speaking of the spiritual birth of the believer before the baptism with the Spirit. They are not the same thing. The birth happens before the baptism. It did historically in the Bible and it does experientially with us now. You can be born of the Spirit without being baptized with the Spirit. The birth will get you into heaven but the baptism will equip you to live and be of service to God and humanity here on this earth, same as Jesus. He was born of the Spirit before He was baptized with the Spirit (Lk.1:35; Lk.3:21-22). Remember, salvation is being made like Jesus (Rm.8:29). We think like Jesus, speak like Jesus and do the works of Jesus (Jn.14:12). We begin to speak and act just like Jesus.

The BAPTISM

         In John 10:38, notice the words of Jesus, “Believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him.” Every word of this statement is profound. Jesus and the Father are one. Remember that. We find Him saying the exact same thing in Jn.14:11. John 13-17 happened in the Upper Room the night Jesus was to be taken and crucified. He is teaching His disciples, preparing them for when He would soon go away. He wanted them to know a dramatic shift was about to take place concerning their (and our) relationship with Him and the Father.

In explaining this, He said, “I will pray to the Father and He will give you another Helper, the Spirit of truth (the Holy Spirit). He dwells with you (now) and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans.” (Jn.14:16-18) Then Jesus makes this astounding statement, “At that day (the Day of Pentecost) you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (Jn.14:20) Note that: “You in Me and I in you.” This would be true of the ones He was talking to and it is equally true of all believers since then, and that includes you and me, as Jesus said in Jn.17:20-21 as He prayed, “I do not pray for these alone (the disciples who were with Him at the moment) but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

I don’t know why or how, but the whole goal of salvation for many long years has been to be forgiven and go to heaven when you die. That’s all most people know and think about, and quite frankly all they selfishly care about. The church lost most of what the Bible teaches about salvation during the Dark Ages.

Coming out of the Dark Ages, in the 16th Century Martin Luther restored the truth of Justification by Faith, which means we are declared right with God by our faith in the Gospel. In the 18th Century the First Great Awakening restored the truth of the New Birth to the church: “You must be born again.” In the next century people like Charles Finney and D.L. Moody started experiencing and restoring the Baptism with the Spirit to the church. Wave after wave the truth was being restored to the church. An overreaction to the baptism with the Spirit which happened at Azusa Street in 1905 took a major part of the evangelical church back as they rejected speaking in tongues. (Even though the Bible clearly states, “Do not forbid speaking in tongues.” 1Cor.14:39)  It was because of what they perceived as excesses in that modern Pentecostal movement.

Then a “Third Wave” made the baptism with the Spirit more acceptable to the modern church because it didn’t require such an emphasis on tongues; it’s the Pentecostal experience without all the perceived excesses. The gifts of the Spirit are more acceptable now than they have been since the Dark Ages of the church.

After the Dark Ages the church failed to fully regain what it means to be a Christian, the New Testament teaching of the overall purpose of God in our salvation. What does God do when He saves a person? It’s more than forgiveness and punching our ticket to heaven; He is fulfilling what He started in creation, when He made man in His likeness to have dominion over the earth (Gen.1:26-27). Through sin man gave that dominion to Satan (Jn.12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2Cor.4:4) until the man Jesus got it back for us through the gospel. The dominion was restored to the Second Man and all who are in Him. As we were in Adam when he sinned, the Christian is now in Christ who died and rose, and to whom all authority in heaven and earth has been given.

In our salvation, in the new creation (2Cor.5:17), we are made in the likeness of Christ, who is the fullness of God in a human body. Christians are made and being transformed into the very image of Christ the Lord. Because of this, I can rightfully claim that “all things work together for my good.” (Rm.8:28-29) Even bad things, even the worst of things! I cannot be defeated in this salvation because I am “more than a conquer through Him who loved us and gave himself for us.” (Rm.8:37). And “For whoever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.” (1Jn.5:4) This is my present reality in regeneration and sanctification, and my destiny in glorification. Salvation is me becoming a son of God, made in the likeness and image of God, to exercise dominion over the earth through speaking His word and doing His works.

Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you,” which He did in Acts 2. Here's what He meant. Instead of one limited person of Jesus ministering on the earth in one place, when the Spirit comes there will be many, even millions of Me, speaking My word and doing My works.

So, I cannot rightfully say, “I am God,” but I can say, “I am like God!” I can’t say, “I AM the Son of God,” but I can say, “I am a son of God.”

By the grace of God in salvation He has put Himself in Me and put me in Him so that I am like Him. I am like Him in that I have all the privileges and power of a son of God, a member of His family. “As He is, so are we in this world.” (1Jn.4:17) I have been given the privilege of using His name to give authority to whatever He wants me to do and say. And as such I have dominion over everything on earth.

“We are the body of Christ.” (1Cor.12:27) That is more than a metaphor, it’s a present reality. Scripture puts it like this, We are “bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh.” (Eph.5:30) We are one with Christ. I have two ways to illustrate this awesome reality:

1. Blacksmiths have long plunged a horseshoe into the forge where it takes on all the qualities of fire. It becomes red like the fire and hot like the fire. It becomes red hot. As you look into the fire you cannot tell the difference between the horseshoe and the fire. The horseshoe is in the fire and the fire is in the horseshoe. Though similar, the horseshoe is not the fire and the fire is not the horseshoe. So it is with the Christian being in Christ and Christ being in the Christian. They are alike, but the Christian doesn’t become Christ and Christ doesn’t become the Christian.

2. Take a porous sponge and plunge it into a pan of water until it is soaked. The sponge is in the water and the water is in the sponge. So much so, there is no difference, except the sponge does not become water and the water does not become a sponge. Different yet alike. Almost indistinguishable. So it is with the Christian being in Christ and Christ being in the Christian. Remember what Jesus said, “I in you and you in Me.” That’s what it means to be a Christian. And that is so much more than being forgiven.

In the context of all this red letter portion of Scripture He said what He did in 14:12, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also…. because I go to My Father.” They were going to do mighty works for Him but not until He went to the Father. What happened after He went to the Father? He poured out the Holy Spirit upon them and they were baptized with the Spirit (Jn.7:37-39; Acts 1:4-5,8). That’s when rivers of living waters began to flow from them and they were endued with power from on high to be His witnesses and win the world to salvation.

This baptism is what happened in Acts chapter two and it needs to happen to everyone who is born of the Spirit. Ask yourself what Paul asked the disciples at Ephesus, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?” The lost world waits for Christians to find out who they are in Christ, why they are here and receive the power to speak the word and do the works of Christ. 

This passage is about halfway through the three years of Jesus’ ministry. At this point a lot of questions about Him were circulating within the chosen nation. There are six questions asked in this short passage. They were trying to figure out just who He was. Is He the Messiah or what? C.S. Lewis said no one could remain neutral concerning the person of Jesus: “He is either Liar, Lunatic, or Lord.” People back in Jesus’ day were pondering such things. Who is He? (25-26) Where is He from? (v.27) Where is He going? (v.35) They couldn’t come up with answers to any of these questions.

An eight-year-old girl asked her daddy, who was reading his newspaper, a question and her dad said, “I don’t know, Honey,” as he continued to read his newspaper. She thought for a moment and asked him another question. “I don’t know, Honey.” She paused another minute and asked him yet a third question. Again he replied, “I don’t know, Honey!” Then she asked him, “Does it bother you for me to ask you questions?” He said, “Of course not, Honey, how else are you going to learn anything.”

God Himself asks questions throughout the Bible, not because He is seeking to learn anything. Like any good teacher, Jesus asked questions to try to get us to think and arrive at the right answer without simply being told. “Adam, Where are you?” Like He didn’t know… The omniscient God certainly knew exactly where he was. “Will you also go away? Why are you so slow to believe? Who do people say that I am? Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” Don’t be surprised if He asks you questions. He asked Elijah, “Why are you here?”

Jesus liked to answer questions with a question or with an answer that didn’t make sense to anyone. He did this in this passage. Where are you from? My Father sent Me (v.28-29). Where are you going? Where I go you cannot come (v.32-36).

Even with so many unanswered questions, some simply believed in Him (v.31). Why did all these people believe while having all these unanswered questions? SIGNS! Truly His story (His words and works) compel us to believe. His signs were given for that very reason (Jn.20:30-31). Here’s the bottom line – you’re never going to have all your questions answered. And neither will you be able to answer all the questions of the people you talk to about Jesus. “Where did Cain get his wife?” Here’s a major key to soul winning. You’re never going to answer all their questions. Just say, “I don’t know,” and go back to the gospel. Just keep bringing them back to the gospel. They don’t know where Cain got his wife and they don’t even want to know the answers to such questions. What they do need to know (as a matter of heaven and hell) is the gospel of Christ.

A Jewish atheist on a long ocean voyage from America to Israel, was challenged to and he did begin to read the gospels. He found Himself falling in love with the Hero of the story. When he came to the passage about stoning the adulterous woman he quickly closed the Bible. He knew the Jewish leaders had Him. After preaching all that mercy and forgiveness, He couldn’t just stone her. But He had to go by Moses’ law. He refused to open the Bible … until the next day. When He read what Jesus said, he said to himself, “Surely this is the Messiah.” But he didn’t know what to do. Later, in the very familiar Jerusalem, he found himself surprisingly lost. Running, he leaned exhaustively against a store window. The owner came out to talk to him. It was a Christian bookstore and the proprietor led this man to surrender his life to Christ and be baptized.

Doctrines are good. They tell us everything we need to know about any subject in the Bible. It’s good to be balanced, to drive in the middle of the road to avoid driving into the ditch. But therein lies our difficulty – we can’t seem to stay balanced. We let one truth keep us from believing another truth. Jesus is a man. Jesus is God. Which is it? They can’t both be true. Yes, they can and they are. Jesus came from heaven and He was born in Bethlehem. There are antinomies throughout the Bible, things that are contrary to human reason but both nevertheless true. The Bible is full of contradictions, but they are all true!   The Trinity. God’s election vs. man’s responsibility (Acts 13:48 vs. Rm.10:13). Paul came to this conclusion – 11:32-33.

The hardest questions to deal with are matters of experiences that seem to contradict what the Bible teaches about the goodness of God. “If God is good and almighty, then why did this happen to my mother?” There are answers to that question and all the apparent contradictions that people are wrong or confused about. But the gospel is the answer to all their misconceptions. “I don’t know about that and about a lot of things, but I do know that “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rm.5:8) The gospel answers so many questions. Experience never trumps Bible truth. When they are in conflict, go with the Bible. Trust is the answer to all questions. Trust the goodness and love of God. All questions will be answered eventually. In the end, everything will be revealed, and it will be proven that God is good.

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach.   (Acts 1:1)

(That former account was the Gospel of Luke.)

Here’s a summary of the entire New Testament.

Gospels: The Son of God became the Son of Man, without ceasing to be the Son of God. In the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) Jesus both acts and teaches. He is full of works and words during His famed anointed three year ministry. He died for our sins, rose from the dead, and sealed the New Testament (Covenant) with His blood (Heb.9:16-18).

Acts: In Acts Christ returns to heaven leaving His disciples to continue what He had been doing. That’s why the name of the book is called ACTS. They continued doing the same things He began doing in the Gospels: signs, miracles, healings, and deliverances.

Epistles: Then after Acts we have the Epistles in which Christ continues His teachings through His church. [All these works and words of Christ continue in effect until He comes back.]

Revelation: In the book of Revelation, Christ returns to earth and sets up His kingdom on earth, then judges everyone who has ever lived and they all end up in heaven or hell for eternity.

What is the first word in the title of the book in the Bible that follows the Gospel of John? ACTS of the Apostles. What is the one word title we call this book? ACTS. It’s normally called the ACTS of the Apostles because it is mainly the story of the ACTS of two apostles: Peter and Paul. But people who were not apostles acted in ACTS. Stephen and Philip did powerful Acts in the book of ACTS. “Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” (Acts 6:8) “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.” (8:5-7)

Jesus spoke and acted in the Gospels and the believers acted in ACTS. After that we have the written word which we call the epistles. After Jesus went back to heaven we have Him continuing to act and speak in ACTS and the Epistles. These do not contradict each other; they complement each other. God is not doing one thing in one part of the New Testament and then saying something different in another part of it. He wrote both Acts and the epistles. Jesus began to speak in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and He continues to speak in the epistles. The whole N.T. could be written in red letters! Jesus also began to act in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and He continued to act in the book we call ACTS. That’s why we call it ACTS! 

Acts 1:1 tells us that. “The former account I (Luke) made of all that Jesus began to do and teach.” He began to do and teach in the gospels and He continued to do and teach in the rest of the N.T. In Acts He continued doing things. Peter explained this in Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him.”

Where much of the modern American church is today – they only want what the Bible teaches, or what they think the Bible teaches. They are even selective about that. Typically the evangelical world cares only about going to heaven when they die and living a good life, which usually comes down to living like a normal Middle Class citizen. They don’t teach and practice Jn.14:12, or Mk.16:16-20, or Eph.5:18; or 1Cor.12-14 where it teaches about the “gifts of miracles and healings,” and says, “Do not forbid speaking in tongues.” These verses make it abundantly clear that it was not just the apostles who did the works of Jesus, it was “believers.”

We are not reaching our world for salvation by merely speaking. Paul tells us how he did it in 1Cor.2:1-5, “My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” And how about this? “God bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.” (Heb.2:4) God desires to back the word with things only He can do. This is the only effective way on a large scale to win the world to salvation.

What Jesus did in the gospels He continued to do in ACTS. What Christ started they continued to do. And what happened in Acts should still be happening today. The disciples continued to do and see the same things Jesus had done. God has no other plan to win and save the world, which is stated clearly in Mk.16:16-20.

It’s time we start Acting. This is the “dinner bell” for the gospel and confirms the words we speak are from God. Believe that you have the privilege of doing the acts of the believers in ACTS? Let’s do them!

How long are we going to live like the world and just be nice people? We should be nice and do good. But to be like Christ we must do more. We must go about healing all who are oppressed by the devil because God is with us, which means the Spirit is upon us as He was with Jesus. We need the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the power of God.

Here’s what I mean. Acts 10:38 talks about the Jesus we say we want to be like. The Man “Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the Spirit and power. Are you anointed with the Spirit and power of God, or are you just a believer on your way to heaven and trying to live a good life? He went about doing good.” Although we have no record of it, we assume Jesus, before He was anointed with the Spirit, went about doing good. No doubt, He loved His neighbor as He loved Himself, and that would certainly involve doing good.

So far so good. Christians believe in doing good. The problem with that is, nobody ever got saved by us just living a good life. They must hear the gospel and they must hear it from those who have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew that and said so by commanding the believers to not “preach the gospel to every creature” until they had been “endued with power from on high.” (Acts one) To become like Jesus we must have the rest of what Peter said in Acts 10:38, “healing all who were oppressed by the devil.”

That’s the missing ingredient of the majority of Christians who claim they want to be like Jesus. But we can’t leave out what the Bible says He was like and what He did. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit and power to go about healing, performing miracles, and casting out demons. The Gospels are full of Jesus doing such things. That’s what Jesus was like. And that’s what Jesus is still doing today. He began it in the Gospels and He continues it through the church… today!

Without this power and anointing of the Spirit to do the miraculous, we will not have any large effect on the 7,000,000,000 people in the world. We must go back to Acts chapter two. We must set the church back 2,000 years. Let’s do this.

 (John 7:1-14)

Don’t let anyone or anything outside of you control you. Don’t be anybody’s puppet. Don’t let anyone pull your strings. You are not a puppet or some preprogramed robot. God does not control people. He is not interested in controlling you. More on this later.

Some who are reading this feel like you’re a victim of a lot of things, even in bondage and you don’t know how to break free. The truths shared in this lesson will set you free from all sorts of bondages and controls that other things and people have put on your life. Jesus said the truth will make you free. Here is the truth.

Work your way through the passage and note that Jesus didn’t let His brothers tell Him when to go to Jerusalem or what to do when He got there. He was led by His Father and He chose when to go. Disciples in Jerusalem would not openly acknowledge Him for fear of the Jewish leaders. Thus, fear controlled them.

People tend to be controlled by pretty much anything. Hormones! A mother of two came to my office asking me to pray for her. She was pregnant. She said that with her other two children she was absolutely controlled by her hormones, which made her and everyone else around her miserable. I prayed for her and for the next nine months she gave timely testimonies that she had been delivered from hormone control. Some people are controlled by their emotions. Depressed people are controlled by their depression or chemical imbalances. Fear is a terrible master. Phobias control the lives of many people. Phobia of storms. Rejection. Rodents. Insects. You name it.

Even parents are not to control their kids! Instructing and disciplining them is not the same as control. We wish some parents would control their kids! One lady said, “I just can’t control my kids. They’re just wild.” I felt like saying, “I know, I’ve seen them in WalMart,” but I didn’t. You shouldn’t try to control your kids, but you can lovingly train them to obey. I once witnessed about 30 kids from a black preschool come into McDonald’s and they each went to a seat and sat there without getting out of them while the teachers ordered their food. What they wanted was not discussed in the restaurant. They didn’t fight or run around or talk loudly. They behaved perfectly. I told the head teacher before they left how I admired all this and he said, “It’s all how you train them.” He was right.

Some parents are controlled by their kids. I mean, the whole household is run by what that kid wants and wants to do. Believe it or not, that’s wrong. Meeting their needs is not what I’m talking about. I know a family who desperately wanted to be in church, but they couldn’t come because, “Our kid cries every time we put her in the nursery, and we just can’t stand that.” So, they quit coming. I’m pretty sure the Bible doesn’t say, “Do not forsake assembling together, except in the case of your child not wanting to come.”

People’s jobs control a lot of people. When I worked for GM they were giving out orders to work on Sunday and I told them I wouldn’t because I went to church on Sunday. They told me they could fire me for not coming to work. I told them, “So fire me. There are other jobs; I’m not working on Sunday.” I checked it out on the internet and found that the present day equivalent of my pay in 1969 would be $1800 a week for 40 hours, and they all worked ten hours a day for six days, time and a half for overtime. That’s $3000 a week, plus full benefits. But I didn’t care what they did, they were not going to control my life.

I’ve heard some people say things like, “He makes me so mad!” I say, “What is he doing making you do anything? He should not be controlling you.” Peer pressure controls many lives, especially teens. I always say, “Parents Rule,” but that isn’t reality in most kids’ lives. It’s “Friends Rule.” I’ve never seen a day when kids were so influenced by their friends.

Drugs and alcohol are bondages that control people. When you hear someone say, “I can quit smoking anytime I want. I just don’t want to,” you know they are hooked. Addictions control people.

Phones. You can be addicted to that computer you hold in your hand. For most people their lives are in that phone! Take it away and they would feel like their best friend just died.

Your past. You can’t let go of hurts you’ve experienced and those hurts that control your life. Sickness and poverty control multitudes.

Satan is in the business of controlling people’s lives. He delights to put people in all kinds of bondages, like sin. I once asked a man if he’d ever been addicted to anything and he said, “Yes… sin!” We all have been slaves to the world, our flesh, and the devil. Satan will put a hook in your nose and make you do things you don’t want to do. In fact, he uses the things I have just mentioned to control people.

God doesn’t want you to be controlled by anything. Even He does not control people. That’s one difference between the devil and God. Satan wants you to be his slave; God wants you to love and trust Him. Jesus sets people free from Satan’s control. Satan will rape you; Jesus will woo and love you. God is nobody’s puppet master. He said, “Choose this day whom you will serve.” We are responsible to God for our thoughts, pursuits and actions. If not, then why is He going to judge everyone for their works on the Day of Judgment? If He controls you, how can He punish or reward you for what you do or don’t do? He will help you do His will, but He will not control you. I’ve always heard this definition of being Spirit-filled, “To be Spirit-filled is to be Spirit-controlled.” That’s wrong. To be Spirit-filled is to be Spirit-led. “As many as are led by the Spirit, these are the children of God.”

You are the only one in the universe who should control you. It is right to be led by the Spirit, but the Spirit doesn’t control you. He has a plan for you and you should follow His plan, but He won’t make you. That’s your choice.

The key to all this is the fruit of the Spirit; one of them is “self-control.” (Gal.5:22-23) Cults control people. Christ’s church is a voluntary thing. The pastor can tell you what God says, but whether you do it or not is up to you. You are the one who decides whether your going to church or not, whether you are going to pray, or read your Bible, or witness. Nobody’s controlling you. The Holy Spirit gives you grace and power to control yourself.

Here’s the good news. God can set you free from anything that controls you. He delivers people from their addictions. And it doesn’t take Him two years, or a shot of some other drug, or a lifelong regimen of pills. He can even deliver you from Satan. Jesus and the disciples were constantly casting out demons. You can’t say, “The devil made me do it.” He shouldn’t be making you do anything. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Do you want to be free? Right now? God has given us power over all our enemies by this means – Rev.12:11. Claim the blood of Jesus and then give your testimony of faith. The blood sets you free from all bondages.

Stand up and declare, “I am free!”  Say, “I am free from all things that have controlled my life. The Son has set me free and I am free indeed.” 

 (John 6:60-71)

(What Happens to Them and How You Can Keep from Becoming One of Them.)

What does happen to disciples who turn away from following Jesus? Whatever it is, it can’t be good. Peter did but when he repented he was restored. Judas did and ended up committing suicide. Whatever … this is important. It is very important.

First, we need to realize that people leave. We can’t take it personally. Adam and Eve left God. People leave church. Husbands leave wives.  In this passage, disciples left Jesus. We can’t let people discourage us. Jesus didn’t. He simply said, “There are some of you who do not believe.” (v.64)

You can be a disciple without believing. You can be a disciple without being a believer. Judas was. Being a disciple simply means you are doing the disciplines. What are those? Reading your Bible, praying, going to church, tithing. You can do all those and still not believe, still not be a believer, still not be saved. The Pharisees did all those things and more, and they certainly were not saved. Jesus pronounced woe after woe on them in Matthew chapter 23:15, 23, 29, and yet we have v.33.

I’ve seen many faithful church members get saved! In fact, historic revivals usually begin with church members getting saved. Judas was a disciple and he wasn’t saved. Look at v.70-71, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.”

“Follow Me” was Jesus’ call to discipleship but His call to salvation was, “Believe in Me.” (v.35, 40, 47, and Jn. 3:16).

You can’t be a believer without being a disciple. In the mind of Jesus a believer is a disciple. In the Great Commission Jesus said to baptize believers in Mark 16 and in Matthew 28 He said to baptize disciples. In His mind they are the same. A believing disciple is not perfect, but he does believe in his heart and does the disciplines to some degree. In all your church going and Bible reading make sure you are a believer, which means to make sure all those things are in your heart and done from your heart.

Kids can grow up in church and do all the disciplines as long as they’re with their parents. When they grow up or leave home is when you find out if all of that doing was in their hearts. Here’s the test for all disciples – DO THEY CONTINUE? Hebrews 10:36-39 says this: “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: ‘But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who draw back to perdition/destruction, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” Then in Heb.11 the author of Hebrews gives multiple examples of those who “died in faith.” (Heb.11:13)

Studies have always been consistent on this. About 85% of all kids who grow up in church do not continue to go to church when they leave home. My dad used to say, “As long as you put your feet under my table, you will do what I say.” Most kids, when they stop putting their feet under their parents’ table, stop putting their feet inside the building where the church meets. And don’t be fooled by thinking church doesn’t really matter. Young adults especially can be so deceived over this. “Mom! I know I don’t go to church anymore, but God and I are doing alright.” That’s a lie. If they are members of the body of Christ and are severed from that body, it will make a difference in their relationship with the Head of that body. Try cutting your finger off and leaving it on the table, then come back a week later and see if there’s a difference in that finger.

Parents, your kids are watching you while they’re in your home, to see if your faith is important to you, if your devotion to Christ is real and in your heart. This will be revealed by your joyful choices. When there’s a conflict between the disciplines, like going to church, and other things, which do you choose? They are watching. Choose what you want, but I’m telling you they’re watching you. They see what’s in your heart, even if you don’t. They see what’s important to you, what’s in your heart.

Every person is responsible for his own choices, but we are responsible to influence the choices our children make. It does not help our kids to make good choices concerning God if the things we do for Him are not in our hearts. If it’s not in the parents’ hearts, it probably won’t be in their hearts.

One way you know if you believe from the heart is shown to us in Jn.6:66-69. Peter said those who didn’t leave Jesus would not leave because He was the Son of the living God and therefore He alone could give the words by which we might have eternal life. Do you value who Jesus is and the eternal life He gives? If these two things are all that really matter to you, you will not leave off following Jesus. One faithful man told me, “I will not stop following Jesus till I hear those Pearly Gates close behind me.” That’s the attitude we need.

Lastly, there will be things you don’t understand. They will confuse you because you don’t understand. What should you do when that happens? Don’t complain or murmur, and by all means don’t give up. According to v.60-61, it begins with not understanding. But then it progresses to complaining, and then being offended. And if that isn’t shut down, they will turn away from following Jesus.

I was teaching on prayer one Wednesday night and after church a faithful member said to me, “I didn’t understand a thing you said tonight.” He wasn’t asking me to explain further. He was telling me he didn’t understand and therefore it was useless to come to church anymore. I know that because, after that evening I never saw him in church again. The rest of his family continued to come regularly, but he never came with them.

In Mark 4:2-12 Jesus commended those who pursued Him for the explanation of His vital parables, “To YOU it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” To those who seek to know the truth, the truth will be revealed. Just because you don’t know or understand everything – don’t give up. Don’t walk away. It doesn’t mean you never will understand. Ask and it will be given to you.

The bottom line is, make sure you do not turn away from following Jesus. Make sure what you do for Him is in your heart to do for Him.

The salvation of your soul depends on it.

 (John 6:41-59)

Both Jesus and Paul warned us that the premiere negative sign of The Last Days will be spiritual deception (Mt.24:3-4; 1Tim.4:1). One sure way to spot false doctrine that leads to your own destruction is to use the standard of the most familiar verse in the Bible – John 3:16. If there is false doctrine it will certainly fly in the face of these profound words spoken by Jesus Christ. I will name three:

1. The Oneness Movement These denominations and churches deny the Trinity, which says, “Within the essence of the one God there are three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” This profound truth comes from the Bible by revelation, not by human reasoning. These deceived and deceiving churches teach that Jesus and the Father in heaven are the same Person and that when Jesus talked to the Father He was talking to Himself. Many Scriptures deny this Oneness. The entire book of John does, where Jesus continually, scores of times, referred to Himself as the One whom the Father sent. When Jesus was baptized in water and the Holy Spirit came upon Him, the Father spoke from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” In Revelation 5 we have the worship of the Lamb and of the Father. Both are worshiped.

The Pentecostal Church is the fastest growing of all Christian groups in the world, but not all Pentecostals teach this false doctrine. The United Pentecostal Church is the fastest growing Pentecostal denomination among the Pentecostals. There are also “Jesus Name Only” and “Apostolic Churches” and “Oneness Churches” all over the place. Literally hundreds of thousands of them. They tell lies about God. Their doctrine is so unscriptural it isn’t even funny. Aside from the many false doctrines they preach, like salvation by speaking in tongues and works, they propagate this paramount lie about God.

But what does John 3:16 say? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” The Son died on the cross, not the Father, nor the Holy Spirit. The Father sent the Son; He stayed in heaven.

2. Universalism That is, everybody is going to be saved regardless if they believe in Jesus or not. The list of churches that teach this is inexhaustible. Foremost among them is the Catholic Church. But universalism is quickly gaining ground in other churches and denominations. This is certainly not taught in Scripture. There is a judgment and multitudes will be cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev.20:11-15). Watch out for this damning teaching.

What does John 3:16 say? “Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Meaning, if you don’t believe in Him you will perish in hell. Jesus continually warned people of going to hell. Read your Bible. There is a resurrection of life and a resurrection of condemnation (Jn.5:29). There is a hell to shun and a heaven to gain – for everyone!

3. Salvation by works Salvation by faith, yes, but faith plus works. But our works add nothing to our salvation. Rewards for works after we are saved, but not for salvation. The Bible is clear on this. Not faith plus baptism, faith plus communion, faith plus good deeds. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; not of works lest anyone should boast.” (Eph.2:8-9) Abraham was justified by faith alone and so are all his children.

This is the main way they hold their members in check, just put them under the law of works. Read the book of Romans and Galatians, or any of the rest of the Bible, and you will see it is salvation by believing in the Christ. Everyone who has ever been saved has been saved by grace through faith alone. Read Hebrews 11.

What does John 3:16 say? “Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

This brings us to our text. Jesus said He was the Bread of Life and unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood you do not have everlasting life (v.53-55). The Catholics have used this verse to teach what they call the Mass. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation teaches that when the priest blesses the bread and wine in Communion it miraculously transforms into the literal flesh and blood of Jesus. They mainly get this by their misinterpretation of this passage in John six.

Jesus said, “Eat My flesh and drink My blood,” while He was standing right in front of them in His full body with all His blood still in His veins! He said basically the same thing the night of the Lord’s Supper.

If what the Catholics and a growing number of others in the Evangelical Church believes is wrong, what did Jesus mean? He was quite simply teaching the way He always taught – by the use of metaphors (figurative language that means an idea is used in place of another). Jesus said, “I Am the Door.” Was He a wooden, glass, or French door? He said, “I Am the Vine.” Was He literally a grape vine crawling up a tree? I think not. Jesus tells us what He meant in the context of this passage. Verse 47 says, “He who believes in Me has everlasting life.” He actually said in v.63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.” Eating is a metaphor for believing. This takes us back to John 3:16 which says, “whoever believes will have everlasting life.” 

Or, How Do You Become Gifted by the Spirit?

You might not know this because you have not been many other places or examined the difference between churches today and the one in the book of Acts, but the modern American church is in a mess. A terrible mess. We are far from what it once was or what God desires.

First of all, most come to church for the wrong reason. They know why they go to Wal Mart – to shop. They know why they go to the gas station – to get gas. They know why they go to the ballfield – to play ball or watch their kids play. But they don’t know why they go to God’s house, why they meet with God’s family. How many times have I heard folks say, “I left that church cause I wasn’t getting anything out of it.” I always think of the old statement, “You get out of something what you… put into it.” That’s true whether it’s your studies, your ground, everything, including your church.

You might think, “I go to church so I can see my brothers and sisters in Christ. They bless me so much.” You think that you get so much out of being there with those people. All of that is not the reason Paul said in Romans 1:11, “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established.” Paul longed to see the church at Rome because he wanted to give them something. He had been given spiritual gifts by God that he wanted to pass along to them. He wanted to go to their church to give. This is like Jesus who said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.” (Mk.10:45) Jesus was continually giving: He gave forgiveness to sinners, healing to the sick, deliverance to the oppressed, food to the hungry, hope to the hopeless. Be like Jesus. He and Paul knew it’s more blessed to give that it is to receive.

That’s why I say when you come to church for the right reason, to give spiritual gifts, that’s when church gets exciting for you. ‘Spiritual’ means something that comes from God; spirit is that part of man that is like God, who is spirit. ‘Gift’ is charisma. I remember the horrors that went through the Baptist churches during the “Charismatic Movement.” Then I found out that the word charisma is a Bible word. It means spiritual gifts! A charismatic was someone who operated in the spiritual gifts listed in the Bible.

It is the spiritual gifts that make us more like Jesus, enabling us to do the same things He did. He did every one of those gifts after the Spirit came upon Him. He left the earth and sent the same Spirit that was upon Him to do the same things He had done. The gifts have this major goal and purpose – to edify the church, to build the church. If you read 1Cor.12 and Eph.4 you will find this is true. God’s purpose in creation and salvation is the same – to have a church where He will live and express Himself forever.

My every prayer and teaching these days is toward this end, that people might love Jesus and love the church the same way He does. He said this to His disciples in John 15:12, just before He laid down His life for His bride, “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Eph.5:25)

My concern in this current study is that God’s people might experience Eternal Rewards. Our belief determines where we will spend eternity, but our behavior determines how we will spend it. This is important beyond anything we could experience on this earth. The last thing He said to us in the Bible, which underscores the importance of eternal rewards, is, “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work.” (Rev.22:12)

Rewards are for those who work with God in the building of His eternal family – the church. How do we work with God in the building of His church? By the gifts of the Spirit. God gives the ability for us to do what He will reward us for in eternity! Now that’s grace! The relationship between rewards and gifts show how important spiritual gifts are. Rewards are given to us by God in eternity for cooperating with him in His eternal purpose of building His church.

The spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 are powerful things we do by the Holy Spirit that causes the church to grow. Every gift that God has given was given to the church. That includes winning the lost and bringing them into the local church to be loved and discipled. The best way to “love one another” is by the gifts of the Spirit. There’s a reason the greatest chapter on love in the Bible is found right smack dab in the middle of the longest passage in the Bible on spiritual gifts (1Cor.12-14). Using spiritual gifts is the best way for us to show the love of God.

The second type of gifts which God uses to build His church is found in Ephesians 4:8, 11-16. These are not just manifestations of the Spirit, powerful ministries, activities, and works (1Cor.12:4-6); these are men! They are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers; people who are given to the church for its growth. This is why the Bible says the “household of God” is something “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” (Eph.2:19-20)

The simple answer to how to get a gift from God is – you just receive it. You don’t pay for a spiritual gift because Jesus already paid for every gift and blessing you will ever get from God. To get the gifts He paid for, you simply take them.

By gift I mean a gift to give away. There are gifts you receive from God through others for yourself and there are gifts you receive for others. Typically gifts are given to you for someone else. It’s something God gives you to do or speak that will build up, encourage, and comfort others (1Cor.14:3). To get a gift God gave someone else for you, you simply believe and receive. Don’t receive anything condemning or negative! If it comes in the form of a warning (God does sometimes give appropriate warnings, like don’t get on that plane or go down that road.) but when He does it is for our good. He will tell you to change course, detour, there is a better way. He may say to you, “This is the way. Take this course and you will be blessed.”

Some people are born gifted. This is true in the natural and likewise true in the spiritual realm. God puts it in your DNA when you are born again. We must learn to recognize our innate gifts. How do we do that? By doing and speaking things that bless others, your gift will become obvious to others and to you. The thing you say or do may not be supernatural; we all do and say things all the time. But when God anoints and empowers what you say or do, that’s the spiritual gift, that’s the supernatural. That’s when the other person or persons are super blessed. That’s when you enter the supernatural. That’s when it gets exciting. But if you never say or do things for others, you will miss out on the supernatural power of God working in and through you.

Here’s how God is sneaky. Most of the gifts God gives to us come through other people. “But I just want Him to give it to me directly. He knows where I live. Let Him just do it for me or speak it to me.” He doesn’t work that way. That’s not His way. Here’s why.

From the beginning that’s the way it has been for every one of us: we must hear the gospel and receive baptism from other people. God wants a family where all the members work together. He does not want any of us separated from the rest of the family. We need to see that we all need each other. The church is the body of Christ and the whole body is not one member (1Cor.12:17) We are an army and we are brothers at arms. No war battle is ever won by a single soldier; it takes an army. David killed Goliath, but the Israelite army defeated the Philistine army. And we are a team. As gifted as any Manning quarterback has been or is, he doesn’t win games if he’s the only one on the field. He must have someone to pass the ball to; he must have someone to hike the ball to him; he must have blockers. It takes a whole team to win a game. So it is with the church. One of the greatest revelations you will ever see is that you are not going to accomplish much without a local church.

How do we get spiritual gifts? In 2Tim.1:6 Paul tells Timothy to “stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”  Timothy got his gift (whatever it was) when Paul laid his hands on him. The apostle imparted this grace (charisma) to him when he laid hands on his young apprentice. Timothy was told, now that the gift was in him, he needed to stir up that gift. To stir means to fan the flame, to stir the coals of the gift that was in him. Evidently spiritual gifts can lie dormant and need to be awakened by us! That’s our responsibility. It says that David encouraged himself in the Lord. Not sure how he did that, but we need to stir up the gift in us by encouraging ourselves to use them. Say things to yourself like what’s in the next verse, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Remind yourself of Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be My witnesses.” And other such verses.

Another verse says, “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the elders.” (1Tim.4:14) We can neglect our spiritual gifts. Don’t do that! These are precious gifts paid for by the blood of the Savior. These are gifts of the Holy Spirit, not things to be neglected. How dishonoring to God to profane His gifts. Remember the sad end of Esau when he did that very thing.

Notice how Timothy got these gifts, by the laying on of the hands of, not Paul, but the eldership. This is the collective board of elders that every church should have.

A word about elders. The Greek word Paul used literally means older believers who lead the church in its affairs. The church is a family and these are the parents. Every normal family has parents and children. Elders are the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. The elders rule (Heb.13:7,17). The church has gifts and the church has government. We need both. Why? Because spiritual gifts can get out of hand. Read 1Cor.14 and you will see a Scriptural example of this. Those highly gifted are to submit their persons and gifts to the elders of the church. Elders should learn to be proficient in ‘handing’ out the gifts of the Spirit. Timothy got his gifts from Paul and the elders of his church, and therefore they are the ones who are to provide Scriptural guidelines for their use.

It also says, “through prophecy.” I think some elders just lay hands on Christians and don’t have any idea they are supposed to be imparting spiritual gifts. Others are just trusting the Lord to give you the gifts He wants you to have. With others they do know and they prophecy according to the revelation they have received from the Holy Spirit about which gifts they are imparting to you.

All gifted people tend to think others are not as gifted as they are and therefore elders have no business placing restrictions on the use of their gifts. They are so wrong. There are gifts and there is government in the church. Government trumps gifts when they are in conflict. They should run alongside each other with no problem. But that does not always happen. So the best rule of thumb is to trust the guidelines of the elders. Like any good parents, they will always do what they think is best for the rest of the family. You keep the fires stirred up and they make sure no wildfires break out and spiritually endanger others.

Finally, spiritual gifts are quickened, enlivened, empowered, and stirred up by the baptism with the Spirit. This baptism gives the power to your gifts like nothing else. In fact they go together (Acts 2). The baptism with the Spirit is often obtained by the laying on of hands by those who are already baptized with the Spirit. And praying in tongues edifies you and can cause the gifts that are in you to be stirred up (1Cor.14:4).

The Bible and church history teaches us that tongues is the doorway into the supernatural. This we see in Act 2 and in all of church history. Since the days of Zinzendorf and the Moravian Awakening in the early 1700’s and on through the likes of Charles Finney, George Whitefield, and D. L. Moody we see people experiencing and preaching what they called “the Baptism with the Spirit.” But there weren’t many “gifts of healings and working of miracles” for hundreds of years. Not until Azusa Street in 1905. When the church began speaking in tongues they began to cast out demons, lay hands on the sick, and do the mighty works of Jesus. On the walls of that humble old barn on Azusa Street there were wheelchairs, crutches and eyeglasses galore. Miracles began to happen. The gifts were spontaneously and abundantly displayed. God began to move.

If you need hands laid on you, find the nearest person who is baptized with the Spirit and ask them to lay their hands on you so you can receive the baptism and gifts of the Spirit.

To illustrate all this let’s use the GIFTS OF HEALINGS. Healing directly from God comes through faith. The Bible is very clear on this. Healings happen in at least two ways: they either comes through your faith or someone else’s.

Many times the Bible says something like, “According to your faith, you are healed.” (Mt.9:29; 15:28; Mk.5:34; Lk.8:48; 17:19; Acts 14:9; James 5:16) This goes with the renewing of your mind spoken of in Rm.12:2. You hear the teaching of the word of God and you believe, and you are healed. This is why we have teachings on this in places like the church and Healing University. We are building ourselves up in our most holy faith and are healed.

Here are some Scriptures that, if you read, meditate on, or hear preached, can give you the faith to be healed. Say things like: “By His stripes I am healed.” (1Pet.1:24) “His word is life and health to my flesh.” (Prov.4:22) “His Spirit quickens my mortal body.” (Rm.8:11) “Life and death is in the power of my tongue.” (Prov.15:21) He sent His word and healed me.” (Ps.117:20) “I bless the Lord and forget none of His benefits. He has forgiven all my iniquities; He has healed all my diseases. He has redeemed my life from destruction and crowned me with lovingkindness and tender mercy.” (Ps.103:2-4)

The second way is, we can be healed by the faith of someone else. The Bible says, “When Jesus saw their faith,” He both forgave and healed this crippled man (Mk.2:1-12). This is where the gifts come in. They are called “gifts of healings.” These can come through the spoken word of the person who has faith or the laying on of hands. The gifts of healings are especially needed when someone does not have the time to renew his mind with the truth of Scripture. He needs healing now! The gifts of healings provide that for him.

A third way for healing to come is when you are in a gathering and the power of God shows up. “And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” (Lk.5:17) While Jesus was teaching, it does not say that anyone in particular in that crowd had faith to be healed or that Jesus laid His hands on anyone. It’s just the power of the Lord that was presence, and in the presence of the Lord healings took place.

Don’t forget your assignments:

Assignment for every church gathering afterward do this:

Think of at least two people who are not members of your family or your closest friends, pray for them for the next three days and get a word of edification, comfort and/or exhortation (1Cor.14:3) for them, and share it with them the next time we meet together as a church. It may be a word or a prayer for healing, or wisdom for decisions they are struggling with. Anything that will bless their socks off.

So, the next time you come to church be looking for those people you’ve been praying for and getting a word for, then give them the gift God gave you for them.  This will revolutionize your experience with God when you meet with other members. You will actually be a part of the “ministry” that goes on during a meeting. 

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.  (Acts 2:42)

         The perfect God specializes in ideal things. When He makes something, He says that it is “very good.” (Gen.1:31) He made man in His image, which means he was perfect, everything God wanted him to be. We eventually mess everything up; we did in Eden and have been doing it ever since. Everything God has done in salvation is to bring us back to that pristine Eden (Rev.22), perfect people living in a perfect environment. When He makes the New Jerusalem, it will be completely glorious and perfect, and we will not ever be able to mess it up, for “there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” (Rev.21:27) 

When God started the church in Acts chapter two, it was perfect, everything He wanted it to be; His ideal as a bride for His Son, a dwelling place, and a perfect body for His Son. Therefore, it stands forever as His standard. A standard is “something established by authority as a model or example.” (Webster)  When clothes designers first show off their ‘wares’ they put them on what they call a “Model.” Designer Clothes are supposed to look like what the model exampled in the beginning. They were designed that way and they are always supposed to look that way. Those who make clothes at home use what they call a “pattern.” They pin the paper-pattern to cloth and then cut the cloth along the pattern and the clothes follow the pattern, whether it’s a shirt, skirt, or whatever. Acts 2 is the standard for the church, designed by the hand of God and meant to be patterned from now until Jesus comes. It’s His model church. Any deviation from Acts 2 is not what God designed.

The standard church is not supposed to be what you are used to. You’ve been in a dead church for years but when God infused some life into it, you didn’t like it. It’s not the type of church you’re used to. But we must always choose and design our churches after God’s standard, pattern, and model we find in Acts 2.

If you continue to read Acts you will see that men began to mess with the pattern, through sin, false doctrine and practices. Paul knew about this when he wrote, “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.” (1Tim.4:1) False teachings and man-made traditions pervert the pattern and sabotage the standard.

For example, a 4th Century bishop named Augustine has been the most influential man since Paul. He wrote the theology for both the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches. He wrote that the gifts of the Spirit had died with the apostles. He was the first to do so. The Reformers had two books in their hands: the Bible and Augustine. So, they accepted the teaching of Augustine that the gifts are no longer valid in the church. Reformed churches today still hold to this doctrine. But what the Reformers didn’t do is take his change of mind that came later.  He said that in just two years he had seen so many healings and miracles that he no longer believed the gifts had passed away. He recanted his former teachings, which still has many denominations and churches in their grips. But this is a deviation from Acts 2, as we shall see when we walk through it. Augustine had deviated from God’s design. This erroneous view of the book of Acts reduces this inspired book to a mere history book with nothing more than facts from the past. However, the correct view of Acts is quite different.

We will first fly over the land, looking down at the creeks, fields, and thickets. That’s what this chapter and outline is all about. After this we will land the plane and walk through the fields, jump over a small creek, lean against a tree, walk through a thicket of woods, suddenly surprised by a covey of quail flying up in front of you. Every church should have what happened in Acts 2. Please read through the chapter with the following outline and you will begin to see the significance of this amazing chapter.

Where’s all this going? 2:41 & 47, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Setting the Stage for The Standard Church, cha.1

I. Mighty Signs, 2:1-4

II. Sermons, 2:5-39   

       A. Meaningful, v.5-21

       B. Messianic, v.22-39

III. Many Salvations, v. 40-41, 47

   IV. Multiple Services, v.42-47

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  (Ephesians 4:3)

God built everything for unity. Unity is God’s will because God is one. He is the perfect plurality in unity. Within the essence of the one God there are three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Man was made to live in unity with God and with each other, another plurality in unity: Adam and Eve, “one flesh.”

Unity is heaven. When Lucifer rebelled against God he was cast out of heaven. When Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” He was telling us to pray for unity. Lucifer landed on earth and the first thing he did was bring disunity between God and man, and the husband and wife. Adam and Eve accused each other for their sin, and so began the first domestic dispute. Sin destroys unity. They’ve been going on ever since. One of their two kids killed the other one: Cain killed Abel. It was a religious hate crime which has spawned religious hatred ever since. Behold the Crusades, the Middle East, and church fights!

Unity in the church is heaven on earth. It’s the way God designed us. He gave it to us by Jesus’ death on the cross and by giving us His Spirit. Now it is our job to endeavor to keep it.

God loves diversity, but He hates disunity in that diversity. He can’t even make two snowflakes or two fingerprints alike. We are all different in so many ways: color, height, tastes. The list goes on. We are not all going to agree on everything – even in church. That’s why our text says endeavoring to keep the unity. Look at the unity in Eph. 4:1-6, then the diversity that follows that passage. This is the genius of Christ’s unified church – we can be different without being divided. We can even have different beliefs and still have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Differences don’t divide, the flesh divides (Gal.5:19-21).

One of the mantras of our church is: In Essentials we have Unity, in Non-Essentials we have Liberty, in All Things we have Love. It doesn’t really matter what you believe the Bible teaches about healing or prosperity or the millennial kingdom, or many things, which are helpful for your Christian life, but not essential to have fellowship in order to carry out the Mission Christ has given us as individuals and a church.

There are several essentials, like what we believe about the Bible, God, and salvation. Assuming we agree on these essentials, I want to elevate the essential of unity. Every local church needs to be absolutely and totally unified in its Message of the gospel and its Mission in the world. Everything we do should be under these two things which serve to unify us.

I say Unity in Message and Mission because Jesus identified and emphasized this as the last thing He said before He was crucified and before He was later raptured into heaven. To see this just read John 17:20-24 and Luke 24:46-49.

“I pray that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that You sent Me; that they may be one as We are one. I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me.

It was necessary for Christ to suffer and rise, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached to all nations. But wait until you are endued with power from on high.”

Notice there is the necessity of the Might to carry out our Mission of sharing the Message. Regardless of our various views of the workings of the Spirit, we can all agree we need His power. Every Christian should be involved in this. Everything a Christian and church does serve this purpose. This is what should guide and drive us. This is the goal, like a goal line in football. Not just a touchdown, but to win the game. If we have not participated in the winning of this game, we lose in life and in eternity!

Our participation in Christ’s Mission is the basis for our eternal rewards. You may not be about living for eternity, but God is. It may be that all you think about and do is temporary: what you will eat, what you will live in, get around in, wear, etc., but the eternal God made you to live forever. (Read Mt.6:33 and 2Cor.4:18.) Compare a weekly paycheck, by which all those temporary things come, which only lasts you a week, to eternal rewards being handed out at the judgment at the end of time and the beginning of eternity. When you get your paycheck, you have your reward. But eternal rewards will determine your forever future. That’ll give you the divine perspective which should determine how you live your life, especially your priorities. Eternal purpose should determine your priorities in life. Our participation in Christ’s Mission is the basis for our eternal rewards. Everyone needs to state publicly that you will live for this Mission.