To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God,
according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Our heavenly Father, we do want to thank Thee for Thy precious Word. They are indeed life and spirit to us. We ask Thee, bless Thy Word. Open our understanding and lead us into Thy truth, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
In the past, we have spent some time on the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus. And if some of you still remember, the last time when we were together, we considered the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
We would like to share together on this matter of the church. This morning we would like to share together on the purpose of the church, and God willing, next Saturday and Sunday we will stay on the meaning of the church and the expression of the church.
But before we get onto this subject, I would like to make a request. I would like you to forget all that you have known about the church—your childhood, your young manhood, your young womanhood.
I want you to lay aside all that you have heard and seen of the church, that we may be able to go back to the Word of God and see what the church really is.
It is very unfortunate, because what we have seen and heard of the church is very different from the church that you find in the Word of God. What you have known and seen of the church will keep you away from what the Lord has said of the church.
The church of God is not a product of history. It is not something that is produced and fashioned by man. Because if you read the Word of God, you will find that the church was conceived in the mind of God before the ages.
It is very different from what we know of the church today. So I hope my request is not unreasonable, because I think this is the only way that we can really get into what the church really is.
In the first passage that we have read, Ephesians 3, it says that now unto the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So we know that the church was purposed by God in Christ Jesus before the ages.
If you remember, the history of our Lord Jesus does not really begin at His birth exactly two thousand years ago, because our Lord Jesus is the Word that is from the very beginning. He came into this world to be a man in order to redeem us, but His history actually begins in eternity.
In the same manner, the history of the church does not begin on the day of Pentecost. You have to go back even before the foundation of the world. God Himself conceived the thought of the church.
And it is through the church that God is to demonstrate, to teach, even the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies, the manifold wisdom of God.
We know that the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies here refer to angelic beings. We also know that these principalities and authorities are very different from those in Ephesians 6.
Because in Ephesians 6, we are warring against principalities and authorities in the heavenlies, because they are angels who have rebelled against God. But in Ephesians 3, these principalities and authorities are good angels. These are the angels that serve and worship God.
To these angels, God is to teach lessons through the church. We know that angelic beings are more intelligent than human beings, and yet God is to use the church to teach these angelic hosts some lesson that can never be learned otherwise.
God wants them to learn from the church, He says, the manifold wisdom of God. Of course, we know these angelic beings know some wisdom of God. They know much more than we human beings know, and yet they do not know all.
And God wants to use the church to teach them the manifold wisdom of God. What is it that God wants to teach them through the church?
God wants to show them His wisdom: that He will take human beings, made a little lower than the angels, and even fallen human beings, and by the wisdom of God, by the patience of God, by the mercy and grace of God, they will be redeemed. They will be transformed. They will even become His Body and His own Bride—a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, fit to be the Bride of the Lamb.
In the church, God shows that He can make such lowly people and make them even one with Himself. Now, the wisdom of God is really beyond our comprehension.
So even when the angels look at what God has done to the church, they marvel and they worship.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is the church that God has conceived. The church exists in the mind of God from eternity past.
Of all the gifts that God has given to His Son, the church is the greatest gift to His Son. You know, why did God create the universe? God created all things because He loved His only begotten Son. He wanted to give everything to His Son.
But brothers and sisters, of all the gifts that God has given to His Son, none is greater than the church. The church is the most precious gift that God has given to His beloved Son.
Now, in view of that, you can see what the church really is. You find that it is not moulded by human history. It is not invented by man. It is not something that happened in time.
Actually, you find God has conceived it in His mind from eternity past. So the church is eternal, and the church is glorious, because it is God’s greatest gift to His beloved Son.
Now, if we can see this, then I believe it will deliver us from playing church, because we find it is something that is so glorious.
Throughout the generations, throughout the ages, God is working towards this: God is going to have a glorious church to give to His beloved Son. Since before the foundation of the world, God has been working toward that purpose.
And yet, you can never derive it from anything. The church is a mystery. It is so deep in the heart of God, and unless it is revealed, no one can know it.
Do you know that to know the church requires revelation? Now, you know about the church today. Do you need revelation? You walk by the street, and you see a church building there, and you know, “Oh, that is the church.” You do not need revelation for that.
But, brothers and sisters, anything that does not need to be revealed by God is not of God. It comes by the way of man. The church is a mystery. It takes revelation to know what it is.
And God has hidden that secret for all the ages. The whole human race did not know. Even when our Lord Jesus was on earth, people did not know the church, because God had not revealed it.
But our Lord Jesus has come into this world, and this mystery began to be unveiled.
Now, our Lord Jesus came into this world. Well, you say He came into this world to seek and to save the lost. That is true. We are the lost, and He came into this world to seek us and to save us.
But this is speaking individually. You are a lost soul; I am a lost soul. And thank God, our Lord Jesus came to seek you and to seek me. He saves you and He saves me. It is speaking individually.
But when you look at His coming corporately, what did He come to seek and to save? We know that our Lord Jesus came into the world to seek for a bride.
You know, we have four Gospels. We have three Gospels which we call the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. They record the life of our Lord Jesus. Then we have the Gospel according to John.
Now, the Gospel of John is different from the other three Gospels, because the Gospel of John is the interpretation of the life of Jesus. The three Gospels give us the life of the Lord Jesus, and the Gospel of John interprets the life of Jesus.
Now, in the Gospel of John, you find the Lord Jesus came to seek for a bride. You remember John the Baptist testified and said, “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. I am but a friend of the bridegroom.”
Now, to whom did he refer? The Bridegroom refers to our Lord Jesus. So you find the Lord Jesus as the Bridegroom. He came to this world to seek for His Bride.
But He could not find it in fallen humankind. He could not find it in the old creation.
You remember the story of Adam and Eve? As God created Adam, He said, “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a helpmeet like him.”
And then you remember God brought all the animals before Adam, and Adam named every one of them. You know what that means? It is not good for man to be alone. God is going to give man a bride, a wife. But before He did that, He led all the animals before Adam.
Now, it is true that Adam named all of them. Adam looked at each of them and said, “Well, you are this and you are that, but you are not me. You are an elephant, but you cannot be my bride. You are not my like.”
So it is the law of elimination. Every animal is eliminated, and Adam cannot find his bride in all these animals because they are not his like. They cannot be united with him.
And then you find God put Adam to sleep, and God did a surgery—a bloodless surgery—and took out of Adam a rib, and He used that rib to build him a woman.
And then when Adam was awakened, God led Eve to Adam, just like He led all the animals to Adam. But when He led Eve to Adam, Adam looked and said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman.”
And they are united in one. You know, this is but a type, and the type is Christ and the church.
Christ came into this world. He met multitudes of people, but He could not find His Bride. No one was just like Him, because all these are fallen human beings. How can they be united to the One who is the Holy One?
So finally, God put Christ to sleep. You say, “Oh, but His sleep is a painful sleep.” He was crucified on the cross.
Why? Because there was sin in this world. Before there was sin, there should be no suffering. But where there is sin, there must be the shedding of blood.
So you find our Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross. Even though men crucified Him through the instigation of Satan, yet the Bible says it was God who crushed Him on the cross.
God put Him to sleep in death—the most painful death.
You remember in John 19, John was at the foot of the cross. When Christ died, a soldier came to find out whether He was really dead or not. So he pierced His side with a spear.
And when the spear was withdrawn, John saw blood and water. John testified. He said, “What I saw was true. I saw blood and water.”
Now, why did he emphasize it so much? Because out of the pierced side of our Lord Jesus, just like out of the side of Adam, came blood and water.
And with the blood and water, God builds the church: blood for the remission of sin. Because according to the law, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
—Hebrews 9:22
So our Lord Jesus had to shed His precious blood, and His precious blood cleanses us from all our sins.
But then there is not only the blood; there is also the water. Water here speaks of His life. You remember Psalm 22? It says, “I am poured out like water.”
So you find His life is poured out like water. In Ephesians 5, our Lord Jesus loved the church and gave Himself for the church. He sanctifies and purifies it by the washing of water with the Word.
That the church may be spotless and without wrinkle—a glorious church, holy and without blemish. The water there also speaks of life.
So, brothers and sisters, you find that out of the pierced side of our Lord Jesus came blood and water. And with this blood and water, God builds His church: a people who have their sins washed away, a people who have received a new life.
The church is a new creation. So He could not find His Bride in the old creation. He had to die and build a church out of a new creation.
So, you read the Gospels. You find that in the beginning, our Lord Jesus travelled around from city to city, from village to village, and He preached the gospel of the kingdom to the multitudes.
But then you find many people could not understand, and they rejected the Lord. Then, as you read the Gospel records, you find that in the latter part of His life, He began to spend more time with the few whom He had chosen.
In the beginning, He was with the multitude, and out of the multitude some believed Him and some became His disciples. Then you find gradually the Lord began to spend more time with His disciples. He was preparing them for the day.
And then you find that after our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, for forty days He appeared to His own disciples. He did not appear to the world. He only talked to His own disciples, preparing them.
And He said, “You wait in Jerusalem until you receive the promise of the Father, and then you will be My witnesses.”
So you find one hundred and twenty of His disciples gathered together in that upper room in Jerusalem. And for ten days, they were praying and waiting with one accord.
Then on the day of Pentecost, suddenly there was a mighty blowing. Actually, in the original, it is not wind blowing through, but a blowing, a breathing, a hard breathing. A hard breathing came upon them.
And the Holy Spirit filled the house, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues.
You know, when man rebelled against God, they built the tower of Babel, and God dispersed them by confusing their tongues. But on the day of Pentecost, it was the reverse. God gave them tongues that they might be united into one.
Now, brothers and sisters, what happened on the day of Pentecost? On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came.
Now, what did the Holy Spirit do on the day of Pentecost? We are attracted by the sound and the sight of Pentecost. We are attracted by the wind, or the blowing. We are attracted by the tongues like fire upon each head. We think that is Pentecost; that is what the Holy Spirit has done.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if you carefully read the Word of God, you find what the Holy Spirit did on the day of Pentecost is much more than that.
What the Holy Spirit did on that day is twofold. One is recorded in Acts 2.
When this thing happened, the rumour began to spread, and people began to gather together. I suppose they could not all get into that upper room, so evidently they must have moved to perhaps Solomon’s Porch.
So you find great multitudes gathered around these one hundred and twenty people, and they heard in their own dialect. They did not know what had happened.
So Peter stood up with the eleven apostles and began to explain to them what had happened.
Now, what did he say? In Acts 2:33, he said:
Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.
And Acts 2:36 follows:
Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
What is the meaning of what you have seen and heard? The meaning is this: Jesus, whom you have crucified, God has made Him both Lord and Christ.
So you find, whether it is the sound or whether it is the sight, it means one thing. It proves one thing. It proves that God exalted Jesus as Lord and Christ.
The very coming of the Holy Spirit is to prove the exaltation of our Lord Jesus. Because after He had been exalted on high, then God anointed Him with oil, and that oil began to flow down to this earth.
So, brothers and sisters, the first meaning of Pentecost is the exaltation of Christ. God has made Jesus Lord of all.
In Ephesians 1, it says that God has made Him Head over all things to the church.
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.
—Ephesians 1:22-23
So, brothers and sisters, do you see what is here? God has made Jesus Lord and Christ. He is Head over all things to the church, because the church is His Body, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all.
So the meaning of Pentecost, first of all, is that Jesus is Lord. God wants every one of us to see that Jesus is Lord. He is your Lord, not only your Saviour. He is your Lord. He is your Head. He is the Lord of all, and especially He is the Head of His Body.
Number two: the meaning of Pentecost is explained in 1 Corinthians 12, in verses 12 and 13.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Before the Holy Spirit came, we had one hundred and twenty disciples gathering in that upper room in Jerusalem. Every one of them was one of the disciples of our Lord Jesus.
We know the Lord had more than one hundred and twenty disciples. After His resurrection, He appeared at one time to five hundred brethren. But only one hundred and twenty listened to Him, obeyed Him, and waited in Jerusalem.
And yet you find these were one hundred and twenty individual believers. Every one of these individuals is good, but they are one hundred and twenty individuals. Yes, they gathered together with one accord, but it was just a congregation of one hundred and twenty members.
But when the Holy Spirit came down, what does the Bible say? “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.”
In other words, the Holy Spirit came, and these one hundred and twenty individual believers became one hundred and twenty members of one Body. Do you see the difference here?
Let me put it this way. Before the Holy Spirit came, you had a congregation of one hundred and twenty members. Or, put it this way: it was an organization of one hundred and twenty members.
But after the Holy Spirit came upon them, they were baptized into one Body. They became members one of another in one Body.
It is no longer an organization; it becomes an organism. You know, the difference between an organization and an organism is life and death. It is heaven and earth.
So on the day of Pentecost, something tremendous happened. Jesus—crucified, despised, humiliated—was made Lord of all. And here you find this group of believers: they became one Body.
They are still individual members, but they are members one of another. They are now organically related.
I mean, you know, as a congregation of one hundred and twenty members, when you are together, you are together; when you are separated, then you are completely separated. You are together only when you are congregated, but when you are not congregated, each one is on his own.
A body is different. A body has all these members. Whether you are congregated or not, it is a body.
It is not that on Sunday, when you come together, we are a body, and after the meeting is over, we go home and we are just members. That is a congregation; that is not a church.
A church is an organism, a Body. We are organically united into one. We cannot be divided. We cannot be separated.
No matter whether you are happy or unhappy, you are here. If you do not like me, you cannot get rid of me. If I do not like you, I cannot get rid of you. We are stuck for eternity.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is the church. Isn’t it terrible? Oh, it is glorious! That is what happened on the day of Pentecost.
We usually say Pentecost marks the birth of the church. Now, so far as the church’s appearing on earth is concerned, that is true.
The church is eternal; it is in the mind of God. But when the church appeared for the first time on earth, it was on the day of Pentecost.
In one Spirit we were baptized into one Body. Not only that, but we were made to drink of one Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, not only is there the immersion of the Holy Spirit, but we drink of the Holy Spirit. You know, when you are baptized, you go into the water. You are immersed in the water. But when you drink, the water you drink goes into your body.
Now, what is the church? The church is baptized into one Body and drinks of one Spirit. It is not filled outwardly only; it is also filled inwardly.
We are filled with the Holy Spirit for the growth of life, and filled with the Holy Spirit for service. This is what the church is, and this happened on the day of Pentecost.
Because the church is a living organism, it has to grow. It started in Jerusalem, spread through all Judea, and went to the end of the world.
You know, the book of Acts records about thirty-three years of history. The Gospels record thirty-three years of the history of our Lord on earth. Actually, we may call Acts the thirty-three years of the early church.
Within those thirty-three years, the gospel spread to the end of the world at that time. It began in Jerusalem and ended in Rome. Rome was the end of the world at that time.
Not only did it spread in many places, but you find that in each place there is a demonstration of the church.
And the book of Acts is a book that has no ending. All the other books in the Bible have an end, but Acts has no end, because Acts has to continue on.
It continues on from the first century up to our twentieth century. The church is still growing. The Lord is still building His church until it is completed, and He will come back and claim it as His Bride.
Brothers and sisters, remember this: everywhere the church appears, it always follows the principles of the early church.
The church is conceived of God, not of man. The church is built with the blood and life of our Lord Jesus. The church is brought into being by the Holy Spirit.
In one Spirit, we become one Body. And the church is always filled with the Holy Spirit.
Wherever the gospel is preached, and people begin to receive the Lord Jesus not only as their Saviour but as their Lord, and the Spirit of God brings them together, they gather under the headship of Christ.
And they love one another. All who are the Lord’s are members one of another, and by the power of the Holy Spirit they witness Christ to the world. This is what a church is.
Now, brothers and sisters, seeing this is what the church is, isn’t it glorious? Isn’t it a living organism? Isn’t it the fulness of the Holy Spirit?
Do we long for that? Do we want to be part of that?
I do hope that God will stir our hearts up. Long for the church which God has conceived, and Christ has died for, and the Holy Spirit has brought together.
May the Lord help us.