Will you please turn to the letter to the Ephesians? Ephesians 3:10-11.
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.
Turn also to Acts 2. We will read from Acts 2:1-4, then Acts 2:33 and Acts 2:36.
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.
Finally, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13.
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.
We commit these words to the Lord.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do want to thank Thee for Thy precious Word. They are indeed life and spirit to us. We ask Thee to 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. If some of you still remember, last time when we were together, we considered the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
God willing, this time we would like to share together on this matter of the church. We will have three sessions on that subject.
This morning we would like to share together on the birth of the church. God willing, next Saturday and Sunday we will speak on the meaning of the church and the expression of the church.
But before we get into this subject, I would like to make a request. I would like you to forget all that you have known about the church.
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 molded and fashioned by time.
As 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.
I hope my request is not an unreasonable one, 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 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.
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 in Bethlehem 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.
In the same manner, the history of the church does not begin on the day of Pentecost. You have to go back to eternity past, even before the foundation of the world. God Himself conceived the thought of the church.
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.
In Ephesians 6, we are warring against the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies, because these are evil spirits—those angels that rebelled against God. But in Ephesians 3, the 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 us human beings, and yet, in the purpose of God, God is to use the church to teach these angelic hosts some lesson that can never be learned otherwise.
God wants them to learn through the church the manifold wisdom of God. Of course, we know that these angelic beings know some wisdom of God. They know much more than we human beings know, and yet they do not know all.
God wants to use the church to teach them the manifold wisdom of God. 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, redeem them and transform them.
They will be conformed to the image of His beloved Son, and 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 demonstrates His manifold wisdom. Even the angelic beings will marvel at the work of God: that He can take such lowly people and make them one with His beloved Son.
The wisdom of God is really beyond our comprehension. Even when the angels look at what God has done to the church, they marvel and worship God.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is the church that God has in His mind. 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 of God to His Son.
Why did God create the universe? God created all things because He loves His only begotten Son. He wanted to give everything to His Son. 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.
It is not molded by human history. It is not invented by man. It is not something that happened in time. Actually, God has conceived it in His mind from eternity past.
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 He will deliver us from playing church, because we find that it is something so glorious.
And yet God has hidden this mystery in Himself. Throughout the generations and throughout the ages, God has been working toward that purpose. God is going to have a glorious church to give to His beloved Son.
Since the foundation of the world, God has been working toward that purpose, and yet He has never revealed it to anybody. Even the angels did not know that, and yet God was working steadily toward that purpose.
The church is called a mystery. A mystery means something that is secret, and it is a secret hidden in God Himself. It is so deep down in the heart of God that, unless it is revealed, no one can know it.
Brothers and sisters, do you know that to know the church you need revelation? You may know about the church today without revelation. You see some people there and say, “Well, 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, because all that is of God needs revelation. The church is a mystery. It takes revelation to know what the church is.
God has hidden that secret throughout the ages. The Old Testament saints did not know the church. Even when our Lord Jesus was on earth, people did not know the church.
Why is it that God did not reveal it? Because it could not become a reality until Christ came into this world. Only after our Lord Jesus came into this world did this mystery begin to be opened up.
Why did our Lord Jesus come into this world? Well, you say He came into this world to seek and to save the lost. That is true. We are 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. Thank God, our Lord Jesus came to seek you, and He came 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 possess? 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 that 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. 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.
In the Gospel of John, you will find that 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, but the friend of the bridegroom.”
Whom did he refer to? The bridegroom referred to our Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus, as the Bridegroom, came to this world to seek for His bride.
But He could not find it. 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. When God created Adam, He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helpmeet for him.”
Then God brought all the animals before Adam, and Adam named every one of them. God said it was not good for man to be alone; He was going to give man a bride, a wife. But before He did that, He led all the animals before Adam.
It is true that Adam named all of them. Adam looked at each of them and said, “Well, you are a lion, but you are not me. You are an elephant, but you cannot be my bride.” It was the law of elimination.
Every animal was eliminated, and Adam could not find his bride among all these animals, because they were not his equal. They could not be united with him.
Then God put Adam to sleep, and God did a surgery—a bloodless surgery, a painless surgery—and took out of Adam a rib. He used that rib to build him a woman.
When Adam was awakened, God led Eve to Adam, just as He had led all the animals to Adam. Adam looked at her and said, “This is me. This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. This shall be called woman.”
And they were united into one. You know, this is but a type. The antitype 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 were fallen human beings. How could they be united to the One who is the Holy One?
Finally, God put Christ to sleep. But His sleep was 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.
Our Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross. Even though man 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—to death, the most painful death.
Brothers and sisters, you remember in John 19, John was at the foot of the cross. A soldier came to find out whether He was really dead or not, and pierced His side with a spear.
When the spear was withdrawn, John saw blood and water. John testified, “What I saw was true. I saw blood and water.”
Why did he emphasize that so much? Because out of the side of our Lord Jesus came blood and water, just as out of the side of Adam came Eve.
With the blood and water, God built the church. Blood is for the remission of sins, because according to the law, without shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
Our Lord Jesus had to shed His precious blood, and His precious blood cleanses us from all our sins.
But there is not only the blood; there is also the water. Water here speaks of His life. You remember in Psalm 22, He says, “I am poured out like water.” His life was poured out like water.
In Ephesians 5, our Lord Jesus loved the church and gave Himself for the church. He sanctifies and purifies her by the washing of water with the Word, that the church may be a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish.
The water there also speaks of life. Brothers and sisters, out of the pierced side of our Lord Jesus came blood and water, and with this blood and water God builds His church.
The church is made up of people who have had their sins washed away and who have received a new life. The church is a new creation. He could not find His bride in the old creation, so He had to die and build a church out of a new creation.
You read the Gospels and find that, in the beginning, our Lord Jesus traveled around from city to city and from village to village. He preached the gospel of the kingdom to the multitudes.
But 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 multitudes. Out of the multitudes, some believed in Him, and some became His disciples. Then gradually the Lord began to spend more time with His disciples. He was preparing them for the day.
After our Lord Jesus was risen 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.
He said, “You wait in Jerusalem, and there you will receive the promise of the Father. Then you will be My witnesses.”
So one hundred and twenty of His disciples gathered together in that upper room in Jerusalem. 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 a wind blowing through, but a blowing, a breathing—the mighty breathing of a person.
That breathing came upon them, and the Holy Spirit filled the house. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they 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 language. 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.
What did the Holy Spirit do on the day of Pentecost? Today 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 what the Holy Spirit did on the day of Pentecost.
But, dear brothers and sisters, if you carefully read the Word of God, you find that what the Holy Spirit did on the day of Pentecost is much more than that.
The Holy Spirit did two things on that day. One is recorded in Acts 2. When this happened, the rumor began to spread, and people began to gather together.
I suppose they could not all fit in that upper room, so evidently they must have moved, perhaps to Solomon’s Porch. Great multitudes gathered around these one hundred and twenty people, and they heard 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.
What did he say? In Acts 2:33, Peter 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.
Then, in Acts 2:36:
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 both Lord and Christ.
Whether it is the sound or whether it is the sight, it means one thing. It proves one thing: that God exalted Jesus as Lord and Christ.
The very coming of the Holy Spirit proves the exaltation of our Lord Jesus. After He had been exalted on high, 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.
Brothers and sisters, do you see what is here? God has made Jesus Lord and Christ, Head over all things to the church, because the church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
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 Savior. 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 12:12-13.
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 gathered in that upper room in Jerusalem. Every one of them was among the best of all the disciples of our Lord Jesus. Hallelujah!
We know that 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.
Yet these were one hundred and twenty individual believers. Every one of these individuals was good, but they were one hundred and twenty individuals. Yes, they gathered together with one accord, but it was just a congregation of one hundred and twenty individuals.
But when the Holy Spirit came down, in one Spirit they 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? 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 was no longer an organization; it became an organism.
You know, the difference between an organization and an organism is life and death. It is heaven and earth. On the day of Pentecost, something tremendous happened.
This Jesus, crucified, despised, and humiliated, was made Lord of all. And here you find this group of believers becoming one body.
They were still individual members, but they were members one of another. They were now organically related.
As a congregation of one hundred and twenty members, when you are together, you are together; when you are separated, you are completely separated. You are together only when you are congregated.
But a body is different. Your body has all these members. Whether you are congregated or not, it is a body.
Do not think that on Sunday, when you come together, you are a body, and after the meeting is over, you go home and become dismembered. 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.
Whether you are happy or unhappy, 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. Is it not 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 appearance 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 also drink of one Spirit.
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.
What is the church? The church is baptized into one body and drinks of one Spirit. It is not only filled outwardly; it is also filled inwardly with the Holy Spirit for the growth of life.
Filled outwardly and inwardly with the Holy Spirit—this is what the church is. And this happened on the day of Pentecost.
Brothers and sisters, because the church is a living organism, it has to grow. It started in Jerusalem, spread to all Judea and Samaria, and then to the end of the world.
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, and Acts records the thirty-three years of the early church.
Within those thirty-three years, the gospel spread to the end of the world. It began in Jerusalem and ended in Rome. Rome was the end of the world at that time.
Not only did the gospel spread to many places, but in each place there was a demonstration of the church.
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.
But, brothers and sisters, remember this: everywhere the church appears, it always follows the principle 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 to pass by the Holy Spirit. In one Spirit, we become one body.
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 Savior, but as their Lord—the Spirit of God brings them together.
They gather together under the headship of Christ. They love one another. All who have the Lord 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, if we see this is what the church is, is it not glorious? Is it not a living organism? Is it not the fullness 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 to long for the church that God has conceived, Christ has died for, and the Holy Spirit has brought together.
May the Lord help us.