Will you please turn to the book of Acts? Acts Chapter 1.
We shall read the first eight verses: Acts 1:1-8.
The first account I composed, Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and to teach,
until the day in which He was received up, after that He had given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom He had chosen:
to whom He also showed Himself alive after His passion by many proofs, appearing unto them by the space of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the kingdom of God:
and, being assembled together with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said He, ye heard from Me:
for John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit not many days hence.
They therefore, when they were come together, asked Him, saying, Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
And He said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority.
But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Then turn to the last chapter of Acts, Acts 28, the last two verses: Acts 28:30-31.
And he abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling, and received all that went in unto him,
preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, none forbidding him.
Dear Heavenly Father, as we continue in Thy presence, we ask that Thou wilt open Thy Word to us, that we may receive revelation from above, that we may really see Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask in the name of His beloved name. Amen.
The Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not only is the last book of the Bible called the Revelation of Jesus Christ, but the whole Bible is the revelation of Jesus Christ. That is why the Bible is given to us.
If we know a lot about the Bible, and yet we do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, we have missed the whole meaning of the Word of God.
You remember the Pharisees and the scribes in the days of our Lord Jesus. They knew the Old Testament, their Bible, so well that they were able to quote any portion verbatim, from memory. And yet, they did not come to the Lord Jesus to receive life.
The Lord Jesus said:
Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me; and ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life.
—John 5:39-40
So, dear brothers and sisters, the important thing for us is that, as we read the Word of God, we really see the Lord Jesus in every book of the Bible. This is the reason why the Bible is given to us.
If we receive revelation of the Lord Jesus, then we will have fellowship with Him. In fellowshipping with Him, we will be transformed and conformed to His image. May the Lord help us, as we open the Word of God, that through the written Word we may really come to a living knowledge of the living Word, our Lord Jesus Christ.
This morning, we would like to turn to the book of Acts. Probably, in your Bible, you will find the title The Acts of the Apostles. But we know that this is not the title in the original manuscript.
By this title, which is commonly known, we can see how the book has been misunderstood. This is not the acts of the apostles.
Why? Because, when the writer introduces his book, he says, “I composed the first discourse.” We know that the writer is Luke, the beloved physician. Luke says, “I composed the first discourse,” and, of course, the first discourse refers to the Gospel according to Luke.
The book is addressed to Theophilus. We really do not know who this man was. In old days, as well as today, when you write a book, you may dedicate it to some person whom you appreciate very much. Probably Theophilus was a nobleman at that time, and Luke dedicated his book to this nobleman.
But, you know, the very name Theophilus means “lover of God.” So perhaps it is a pseudonym; perhaps it is not a real name. Probably this book is dedicated to those who love God. If you love God, it is dedicated to you.
“I composed the first discourse, O Theophilus, concerning all things which Jesus began both to do and to teach.” The Gospel according to Luke is his first discourse. In that first discourse, he wrote concerning all things which Jesus began to do and to teach, until the time He was taken up to heaven.
Now he is writing the second discourse. What is he writing about? I think the hint is in that word began. When he wrote the first discourse, he wrote of the things which Jesus began both to do and to teach.
If you read the Gospel according to Luke, you will find many things that our Lord Jesus did and many words that our Lord Jesus spoke. Whatever He did was wonderful; whatever He said was full of grace. That was the Gospel according to Luke.
But Luke says, “I just wrote to you to tell you what the Lord Jesus began to do and to teach.” In other words, the Gospel according to Luke does not record all the doings and teachings of our Lord Jesus. It tells us what the Lord Jesus began to do and to teach.
Now, in this second discourse, Acts, he is going to continue what he had written before. He is going to tell us what the Lord Jesus continues to do and to teach.
So Acts is not the acts of the apostles. If you read it very superficially, you would think that it certainly is the acts of the apostles—especially the acts of Peter and Paul. The first section of the book tells us much about Peter, and the second section tells us much about Paul. Perhaps you would say it is the acts of the apostles Peter and Paul.
That might be more accurate, but no. It is not the acts of Peter and Paul, nor the acts of all the apostles. It is the acts of the risen Lord through His body on this earth. This body is the church.
It is still the Lord Jesus Himself Who is speaking and Who is working. Acts has no ending. If you read the New Testament, you will find that this is the one book that has no ending.
At the end, Paul is in Rome, in his hired dwelling, free to preach and to speak about the Lord Jesus unhinderedly. When you come to that point, you want to ask, “What next?” It is not finished, because our Lord has not finished His doing and teaching.
He is still doing His work and teaching, even up to our time. He will continue doing and teaching until He returns. The book of Acts is truly the acts of the risen Lord, still teaching and doing through a corporate body, which is the church of God.
When our Lord Jesus came into this world two thousand years ago, how did He receive His physical body?
In the Gospel according to Luke, we are told that the Holy Spirit of God overshadowed the womb of the Virgin Mary. Through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit upon the womb of the Virgin Mary, Jesus was born.
Jesus is the name of our Lord when He was incarnated. With this physical body, which He took upon Himself, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
With this physical body, our Lord Jesus was able to do many things and say many words, as recorded in the Gospel according to Luke. Without a body, He could not speak or do the things that He wanted to do. But with this physical body, He was able to do and to teach.
We thank God for what He did and what He taught us. We thank God for the redemption that our Lord Jesus accomplished for us on Calvary’s cross. We thank God for the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins. We thank God for His body that was broken, that we might have life, even eternal life.
Through this physical, personal body which our Lord Jesus took upon Himself when He came into this world, He was able to begin to do and to teach.
But then He was crucified. He was buried. On the third day, He rose from the dead, and for forty days He appeared to His disciples, teaching them about the kingdom of God. Then He was taken up into heaven.
But that was not the end. When He was taken up, then we remember that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came down, and one hundred and twenty of His disciples were baptized into one body. Through this body, the risen Lord as the Head continues to do and to teach.
Our Lord Jesus not only had a personal body; He also has a corporate body. Two thousand years ago, when He walked upon this earth, He had that personal, physical body. But after He was taken up into heaven, He has continued teaching and working on this earth through these twenty centuries.
He does all this in a mystical, corporate body of His, which is the church. How is the church called into being?
In one sense, we can say that the church is formed through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit upon the realm of our Lord Jesus.
We remember how Adam was created, and then how he was given his counterpart. In the beginning, God created man. God fashioned a form, a body, with clay; then He breathed into the nostrils of that form the breath of life, and the man became a living soul. That was Adam.
But God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” God was going to give him a helper, his counterpart, but there was none. So God put him to sleep, and God took something out of his side.
Now, it was a rib—it could be a rib; it could be something else—because in the original it simply says that God took something out of the side of Adam. God built, with that which came from Adam, a woman.
The word built is the word used in architecture. The woman was built with something coming out of man. After the woman was built, she was brought to Adam; and when Adam saw her, immediately he said:
This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh:
she shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.
—Genesis 2:23
Therefore, the woman is joined to the man, and they become one flesh.
But, you know, this is just a type. The reality is that God has a beloved Son, His only beloved Son. God said, “It is not good for Him to be alone. I want to give Him a helper, a counterpart.”
Therefore, God put Him to sleep on the cross. But it was not a peaceful sleep, as Adam’s was. It was a violent death. Why? Because of the sin in the world. If there had been no sin in the world, there would have been no need for the shedding of blood.
When God performed an operation on Adam, there was no blood; it was a bloodless operation. But because sin entered this earth, our Lord Jesus, the Son of God, had to die on the cross. He had to die a violent death. Blood had to be shed.
You remember the story. After He died, the soldiers came to make sure that He had died. They saw that He was dead, but they wanted to make certain. So a soldier thrust a spear into His side, and the Bible says that blood and water came out.
If you read the Gospel according to John, you will find that John makes a point of this. He says, in effect, “I saw blood and water coming out when the spear pierced Him. I bear witness to it, and my witness is true, because I have seen it.”
Why does he make such a strong point? Medically, we are told that our Lord Jesus died of a broken heart. When the heart is broken, the blood disintegrates. Here you find that the last drop of His blood, drawn out from His heart, was disintegrated into water and blood. Oh, the love of God!
But then the Holy Spirit used that blood and water to build a woman—the church, the body of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is the blood for the remission of our sins, because without the shedding of blood there is no remission. That is what the law says. The blood of our Lord Jesus had to be shed for the remission of our sins.
And the water speaks of life. He poured out His soul like water; He poured out His life. The Holy Spirit takes hold of the water and the blood and builds up a body, a woman, the church of God.
When the Lord Jesus sees His church, He says, “This is Me.” You remember Saul, the great Pharisee, who persecuted the Christians, the believers, in his time. According to the tradition of the fathers, he considered Jesus an impostor of Judaism, so he persecuted the followers of Jesus.
But on the road to Damascus, the risen Lord appeared to him and said:
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?
—Acts 9:4
“You are persecuting Me, because these people are Me. They are My body, members of My own body.”
Dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus is in heaven; the Head is in heaven. But He has His body upon this earth. This body has been traveling on this earth for twenty centuries. This body has traveled to Richmond and everywhere upon this earth. The Lord Jesus continues to do and to teach in that body.
You know, the church has no teaching of its own. If the church teaches independently, it is heresy, because the church only teaches what the Lord teaches. It is the Lord Who is teaching through the church.
The church does nothing of itself. If the church does anything independently, it is corruption. It is the Lord Who is doing through the church. It is the Lord Himself Who continues to do and to teach.
Whenever you hear that the church teaches, you know it is heresy. Whenever you see the church doing things on its own, you know it is corruption. Why? Because the church, as the body of Christ, is to do and teach whatever the Head does and teaches.
Let me put it another way: it is the Head Who is doing and teaching through His body. This is the book of Acts. The book of Acts tells us of all the teaching and doing of the risen Lord through this corporate body, which is the church.
When the Lord Jesus came to this earth two thousand years ago, it was prophesied of Him in Psalm 40.
Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight in;
Mine ears hast Thou opened:
Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast Thou not required.
Then said I, Lo, I am come;
In the roll of the book it is written of Me:
I delight to do Thy will, O My God;
Yea, Thy law is within My heart.
—Psalm 40:6-8
We know this was fulfilled in the life of our Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus took upon Himself a human body. God prepared Him a body, and in this body of flesh He did the will of God, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross—not because He was forced to, but because He loved.
This is the body that He had, and through that body He was able to do and to teach when He was on earth. Now, brothers and sisters, in the same manner, after He rose from the dead, from that time until our time, and until the time of His return, He is still doing and working upon this earth through a corporate body.
What is that body for? That body is to reveal Him. It is through this body that He is revealed, manifested, and known. This is what the church means: the church is to reveal Christ.
The church should be His revelation. The church is not to speak of herself. The church is not to draw people to herself. The church is to lift up Christ and let the world hear what He says and see what He does. That is what the church is.
If you read the book of Acts, what do the apostles teach? Some of you have gone through the book of Acts many times now, because we are going to have a study on the book of Acts.
When you read through the book of Acts, what do you find the apostles teaching? In Acts 2:42, we are told that those who believed in the Lord Jesus on the day of Pentecost—three thousand of them—continued steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles.
What did the apostles teach? There are a number of messages recorded in the book of Acts. Today you may call them sermons, but these are messages spoken by the apostles to whatever audience they could find.
If you read these messages recorded in Acts, what do you hear? For instance, on the day of Pentecost, what did Peter preach?
This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus Whom ye crucified.
—Acts 2:32, 36
In Acts 3, after the lame man was healed, what did Peter say to the people who crowded around them? He said it was in His name—in the name of Jesus—that the man was healed.
In Acts 7, Stephen was not really defending himself; he was defending Christ. He concluded his message by saying:
Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One; of Whom ye have now become betrayers and murderers.
—Acts 7:52
What did Peter say when he was in the house of Cornelius? He said that God had appointed a Man to judge the living and the dead, that all the prophets bore witness concerning Him, and that everyone who believes in His name receives remission of sins.
How did Paul preach when he was in Antioch of Pisidia? The same message: remission of sins through that Man Whom God has appointed.
Then what did Paul preach to those philosophers, those learned people, at Athens? The same thing: God has appointed a Man to judge the world, and to prove it, He has raised Him from the dead.
Brothers and sisters, if you read the book of Acts, you will find that whatever sermon is preached, to whomever it may be preached, it is the same message: the Lord Jesus.
No wonder Paul says:
For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
—2 Corinthians 4:5
The living church teaches nothing but Jesus. That is all—the Lord Jesus.
Now look at the works of the church. You will find that in the early church many miracles were done. In Acts 3, Peter and John went into the temple to pray. There was a man lame from birth sitting at the gate called Beautiful. Is that not a contrast? The gate was called Beautiful, but the man was not beautiful.
He was there day after day, asking for alms. When Peter and John came by, Peter said, “Look on us.” The man looked at them, expecting to receive something. Peter said:
Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.
—Acts 3:6
And he rose up and walked. Of course, the people gathered around them, wondering what had happened. Peter and John said, in effect, “Do not look at us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man whole. Not at all.”
It was that name which made the man whole. What they did was nothing but what Jesus did. It was not they who did it; it was the Head doing it through the body. So far as the members were concerned, there was nothing for them to take credit for.
Peter did not have a gift of miracles in himself. It was the Lord Who performed a miracle through that man called Peter.
Anywhere you go, you find the same thing. Paul and Barnabas were preaching in Lystra, and there was a man crippled from birth. He was healed, and the people wanted to offer sacrifice to them, thinking that they were gods.
Paul and Barnabas tore their garments, rushed in among the multitude, and said, “Do not do this. We are human beings, just like you are. We are nothing. We are nobody. It is God Who did it.”
Dear brothers and sisters, you will find that all the doings in the book of Acts are the doings of the Lord Jesus, not the doings of the apostles. The apostles never took credit for anything.
Not like today, when people like to take credit. But not the apostles. They said, “We did not do it. It is the Lord Who did it.”
And what a great work He did! Within three decades—thirty years, within a generation—you find that the gospel was preached from Jerusalem to all Judea, to Samaria, and to the end of the world, which was Rome. Rome at that time was considered the center and the end of the world.
Paul was there. What a mighty work had been done! But it was not the apostles doing it, nor the other Christians doing it. It was the risen Lord doing all these things in His corporate body.
Look at the way they lived. In Acts 2, you find a description of those believers. It was not just a few people. On the day of Pentecost there were one hundred and twenty, then three thousand, and day by day God added more and more to them.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.
And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need.
And day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved.
—Acts 2:42-47
You find these people—oh, how they loved one another! They broke bread together. They gave thanks to the Lord together. They supplied one another’s needs. God had delivered them from all sense of self-possession, and they were simply together and worshipping together.
How can it be? If it is not Christ living in them, it is not possible. It is difficult for two people to live together, and here you had thousands. In the early church, there were about twenty thousand people, yet they could be of such one accord. Why? Because it was not they; it was Christ Who lived in them.
Then you read again in Acts 4:32:
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul: and not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
And with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
For neither was there among them any that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,
and laid them at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto each, according as any one had need.
—Acts 4:32-35
They were with one accord, of one mind. Why? Because Jesus was seen in them. Jesus lived through them. That was their testimony. In that body, the Lord was able to live on earth.
See how they suffered. You know, suffering can really tell what kind of person you are. You find the apostles, when they were beaten, coming back to their own and rejoicing. Why? Because they said that God had counted them worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.
See how they died. The first martyr in the church was Stephen. When they took him out to stone him to death, he said:
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
—Acts 7:56
Before he died, he said:
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
—Acts 7:60
It was like the death of Christ. It was Christ dying through Stephen. Throughout the ages, you find the same thing, because it is not merely man; it is Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is the church? The body of Christ. Why is the church existing upon this earth? Why are we here?
Are we here to teach our own teachings? No. We are here to teach the teachings of Christ, because the teaching of the apostles is none other than the teaching of Christ. They did not teach anything else but Christ.
Whenever the church begins to teach something else, read Revelation 2 and 3. You will find that some churches began to teach something other than Christ. What did they teach? The teaching of the Nicolaitans, the teaching of Balaam, the teaching of Jezebel. None of these is the teaching of Christ.
When the church begins to teach something other than Christ and what Christ teaches, then it is teaching something else entirely.
What do we do? Are we here just to let Christ do what He wants to do in and through us? Or are we here because we want to do something—even something for Him?
Today there is a great deal of work done in the name of the Lord Jesus. But this may be work done for God, work done for Him, and yet it may not be His work.
We can do nothing but what He does. We can only cooperate with what He is doing, and that is God’s work. It is not the work of the church acting independently.
How do we live? We may each live our own life, even when we come together. The Corinthian believers came together for the breaking of bread, which is the most solemn occasion for remembering the Lord. Yet even when they came to break bread, each one ate his own food; some were drunk and some were hungry.
Church life is not merely being together in one place. It is Christ living in a corporate body. It is not limited to time and space.
It is the love of the brethren—not because one is lovely, but because he is a brother or she is a sister. There is the body, that Christ may be expressed.
Brothers and sisters, this is what the church is. If we can live and die and do and teach in this fashion, then thank God, you will find that another chapter is written in the book of Acts.
The Holy Spirit continues to write this book through the twentieth century. He is still writing. Whatever is the Lord, whatever is Christ—Who does, teaches, lives, suffers, and dies—you will find it recorded in Acts. It will be remembered forever.
But if it is not Christ, no matter how great it may appear in this world, no matter how successful, prosperous, or well known it may be, it will all be buried and remembered no more.
So, dear brothers and sisters, as we read the book of Acts, we need to see Jesus—not only in the early church, but we need to see Jesus today in His church.
Finally, we need to see the Person through the body.
When Christ was upon this earth, He had a physical body. With that body, He was able to do and to teach, full of grace and truth.
But the Jews at that time looked at Him and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James, and Joseph, and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?”
How did all these things come to that man? The Bible says they were offended in Him. In other words, they saw the body. Even though that body had done so many wonderful things and spoken so many gracious words, they were offended at that body.
Why? They only touched the body; they had not touched the Person in that body.
This can happen today. People can see only the church and not see Christ. The world knows Christianity, but does it know Christ?
Brothers and sisters, on the one hand, we cannot look at the body as though it is everything, because the body is not everything. The body is only a means to an end—a channel, a habitation for the Person Who dwells in the body.
The church is the body of Christ. The church is the holy habitation of God in the Spirit. The church is a vessel to contain the riches of Christ. The church is the channel, the instrument, through which God works. The church is not something in itself.
It is the Person in that body—Christ. We need to see Christ, not merely see the church.
It is true that Christ is expressed through the church, because without a body, how can the Head express Himself? But it is the Head, it is Christ, Whom we must see.
So, brothers and sisters, let us see Christ in the church and not just the church. If all you see is the church, then it must be an organization or an institution that you see. It is not Christ.
Forget about the body and see only the Person. If the church is what it ought to be, you will not notice it, because all you see is Christ and all you hear is Christ.
If people should notice us instead of Christ, may God have mercy upon us.
Because people often see the church and do not see Christ, how many are frustrated with the so-called church. They refuse it. They want nothing to do with it. Oh, if only they could see Christ, what a difference it would make.
So, dear brothers and sisters, the book of Acts reveals Christ in the body. May this book be continually written today among us, among God’s people.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank Thee for that physical body which our Lord Jesus took upon Himself when He came to earth. In that body He did great things. In that body He accomplished the work of redemption for us.
Our Father, how we praise and thank Thee that, even though He is now seated at Thy right hand, He does have a body upon this earth: the church. We do thank Thee for the church, the body of Christ.
In that body of Christ, we are able to see Christ, to hear Him, to live and to die for Him. So, our Father, do have mercy upon us, that as we are here upon this earth, we may really offer to Thee such a habitation, such an instrument, such a vessel, that the world may see Him and not us.
We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.