Turn to the book of Acts. We will read Acts 1:12-14.
Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is nigh unto Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey off.
And when they were come in, they went up into the upper chamber, where they were abiding; both Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
These all with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.
We will also read Acts 2:1-4.
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.
In the same chapter, we will read from Acts 2:37-47.
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?
And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him.
And with many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.
They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.
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 did take 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.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we do want to praise and thank Thee for gathering us together this evening. We thank Thee for Thy precious promise: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
We know that Thou art here, and we are in Thy presence. Open our ears that we may hear Thy voice. Open our hearts that we may understand Thy word.
We pray that Thy Spirit will touch each one of us and bring us into Thy truth, that Thou mayest be glorified. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We thank the Lord for gathering us together tonight. The burden that the Lord has put upon my heart is simply this.
Oftentimes, we think that our Lord Jesus came into this world to seek and to save the lost. And that is very true. We are the lost, and our Lord Jesus came to seek us and to save us.
But somehow, we fail to go all the way with the Lord’s purpose in coming. He did come to seek and save the lost, but His heart is after something more.
His heart is after a church, a Body. In other words, it is more than something individual. The Lord is after something corporate. He came to seek and save the lost that He may build these saved ones together into a living church.
As we read the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—the impression we get is that He came to seek and save the lost. This is true.
But when you come to the Gospel of John, John always leads us back to God’s original thought—not just what He did, but what He is really after. In John, you can see that He came to seek and find His Body, the church.
Very strangely, throughout His life on earth, you find that He mentioned the church only twice.
He came for the church, and yet He rarely mentioned it. Why? Because the church is a mystery. It has been hidden in the heart of God throughout ages and generations.
Even though our Lord Jesus came for that very purpose, He could not reveal it to us before the time. He had to keep that secret in His heart until something was done.
That is to say, until His work of redemption was done. Then that mystery could be opened up.
That is the reason why, throughout His life on earth, He mentioned the church only twice.
Once was in Matthew 16. You remember the story. After Peter confessed our Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, then on that basis the Lord revealed something.
He said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
Of course, we know that this rock refers to Himself. It refers to Peter’s confession of our Lord Jesus. He confessed that our Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, and the Son of the living God.
This confession of Peter becomes the foundation of the church. In other words, Christ confessed is the foundation. On that confession, the Lord will build many Peters, many living stones, into His church.
The Builder is the Lord Himself. The materials are all the believers—those who confess the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. They will all be built upon that foundation.
And the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. In other words, there will be spiritual conflict, and yet the enemy is already defeated. The church will be built as a glorious church.
That is the first time our Lord Jesus mentioned the word church. He gave us the spiritual principles governing the one universal church.
Then, in Matthew 18, He mentioned the word church again, but with a different aspect.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Here you find there is a place and there are people—two or three. These two or three are gathered together; they are not scattered, but together. They are gathered unto His name.
Here you find our Lord Jesus applying the spiritual principles and putting them into practice. There will be problems. A brother may sin against another brother. But all these problems can be solved by prayer and by love.
They are not two churches: Matthew 16, one church; Matthew 18, another church. There is only one church.
In Matthew 16, it is the church universal. It includes all God’s people throughout the ages. In Matthew 18, it is the church local. That is to say, locally it expresses what the church universal is.
The reason is that we are limited. As long as we are in this body, we are limited by time and space. Therefore, to put the church into practice, it has to be where we are.
The way that our Lord builds His universal church is by building these local churches. When the local churches are built, then one day that universal church will appear.
Every local church is special. If you read Revelation 2 and 3, you find that the seven churches are all different. Every local church is special.
Yet there are certain fundamental elements that they all share together. Without these fundamental elements, you cannot consider it a church.
God willing, this time we are trying to study local churches. Tonight, we will study the church in Jerusalem, and tomorrow morning we will study the church in Antioch.
We want to learn about the church through these two churches.
After the Lord ascended to heaven, one hundred and twenty of His disciples returned to Jerusalem according to the Lord’s command.
They entered into an upper room. These one hundred and twenty people, with one accord, continued steadfastly in prayer. They prayed for ten days with one accord.
Who were these one hundred and twenty people? You know, our Lord had more than one hundred and twenty disciples. When our Lord was on earth, many followed Him.
But when our Lord began to share with them things spiritual, many of His disciples left Him. Still, there were a number of disciples following the Lord.
According to 1 Corinthians 15, at one time five hundred brethren saw the resurrected Lord. Most likely, they saw the resurrected Lord in Galilee. But here in Jerusalem, you find one hundred and twenty believers.
Among them were the eleven apostles. They had followed the Lord for over three years. The Lord had chosen them and sent them out.
There were also some women there. You remember that when our Lord was on earth, some women followed the Lord and ministered to the Lord and to His disciples.
There was also Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus, and the brethren of our Lord according to the flesh. When our Lord was on earth, His brethren did not believe Him. But after He died and was resurrected, they believed in Him.
There were many others unnamed. But anyway, these one hundred and twenty believers saw the Lord crucified. They saw Him resurrected. The Lord appeared to them, and they saw the Lord ascend from the Mount of Olives.
In other words, they had a deep relationship and deep understanding of the Lord. They knew His life, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension. These one hundred and twenty believers were really the cream of all the believers.
They obeyed the Lord’s command and gathered together. What were they doing there? Did these one hundred and twenty who gathered in that upper room say, “Now we have seen the Lord ascend. Let us organize a church”?
If anyone were qualified to organize a church, probably these one hundred and twenty were the best qualified. But no, they were not there trying to organize a church.
They were there travailing in prayer, waiting upon the Lord for the birth of the church. There is a universal law. This is true physically, and this is true spiritually.
To bring the church into being, our Lord Jesus had to go through travail. He was crucified, and a soldier thrust a spear into His side. Out came blood and water.
Out of our Lord Jesus, through His travailing death, came forth blood and water. This blood and water gave birth to the church.
The blood washes away our sins, and the water represents life, giving new life to us. It is because our sins are washed away by His precious blood, and because He has given us new life, that there is a basis for the building of the church.
Aside from the travail of our Lord Jesus, you find that these one hundred and twenty believers were also joined in the travail. They were in such sympathy with the Lord.
They knew that the Lord came to seek and find His church. They wanted the Lord to have His church, but they knew that they could not organize it. It had to be born from above. It is the work of the Holy Spirit.
There was nothing they could do but travail in prayer. Out of their travailing prayer for ten days, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven.
In one Spirit, they were baptized into one Body. That is the beginning of the church on earth. That is the first church that appeared upon this earth.
Our Lord Jesus is like David. David had a desire to build God a temple, but God said, “No, you are a man of war. You cannot build a temple. Your son Solomon will build it.”
But you remember David. Out of his many battles, he received many spoils, and he used these spoils as materials for the building.
Our Lord Jesus is a Man of war. He entered the battle. He gave His life, but He overcame the enemy. He overcame the strong man, and He robbed the strong man of his property.
We became His followers. He took us out of the enemy’s hand and brought us to Himself. These spoils of battle became the materials for the building of the house of God.
Then He came down in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit came. The Holy Spirit is like Solomon, the Spirit of peace. In one Spirit, the one hundred and twenty were baptized into one Body.
This is the beginning of the church in Jerusalem.
Now, brothers and sisters, we learn the first lesson: the church cannot be organized. It has to be born from above.
It is not our work; it is the work of the Holy Spirit, based upon the finished work of Christ. When the Holy Spirit builds, it is the Lord who is building.
I think this is the first important lesson we need to learn.
Unfortunately, in Christianity today, people think that they can organize a church. But what man can organize is not a church. It is an institution.
It may be a religious institution, but it is never a living organism. For a church to be born, there must be travail of heart.
This law of travail governs not only the birth of the church, but also the growth of the church. Wherever the church appears on this earth, there must be some believers travailing in prayer.
If you want to see a church grow, it is not by human effort or human methods. It is through the prevailing prayer of some of the saints.
What the church needs today is a number of believers who are in full sympathy with the Lord Himself and are willing to pay the cost of prevailing in prayer, so the Holy Spirit can work and give birth to a living church.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came and filled that house. Then you find tongues like fire sitting upon each head, and all of them began to speak in tongues, speaking of the great things of God.
When this happened, it drew many people. They could not remain in that upper room. They must have moved to Solomon’s porch, and great multitudes gathered around them.
The people were amazed because it was the time of Pentecost. Jewish people and proselytes from all over the world had gathered in Jerusalem.
Even though they came from different countries and spoke different languages, they heard their own languages being spoken by the one hundred and twenty believers. They all spoke about the great things of God.
Then Peter stood up. He became the spokesman. Yet when he stood up, the other eleven apostles stood with him.
When we read Acts 2, probably our impression is that on the day of Pentecost Peter was the only one who spoke. But that is not true.
When he stood up to speak, the eleven stood with him. That is to say, everyone was speaking. They were all functioning.
You see the Body here—a Body with one hundred and twenty members. Every member is functioning, not Peter alone. They all spoke of the great things of God in different tongues. In other words, they functioned in different ways, and yet the subject, the theme, was one.
Now you see the Body. What is a body? A body has many members, and yet, even though the members are many, the body is one. Every member in the body is living, and every member in the body is functioning, glorifying the Head.
If in a body there is only one member functioning and all the rest of the body is paralyzed, you do not see a living body. It is dying.
Do you see what has happened today? When we think of a church, first of all, we think that it is organized by believers. Secondly, if we want a church, we think we need a pastor, and the pastor will take care of all of us.
We, as members, just sit there and receive. That is the idea of a church. But you see, in the beginning, the church was not like that.
As soon as the church was born, every member was functioning—the apostles and the other believers. Everyone was speaking of the great things of God.
Dear brothers and sisters, that is what the church really is. If you want to see a church, you have to see all the members of the Body functioning.
It is not one member functioning and all the other members receiving. Nor is it a few members functioning and the majority receiving. Nor even is it the majority functioning and a minority receiving.
It is true that the functions are different. Peter could deliver a message, and the others could glorify the Lord. But every member is functioning according to the gift and the grace that God has given to each one.
No wonder it was not Peter who drew the crowd. It was the one hundred and twenty.
Brothers and sisters, in the first church on earth, we learn the second lesson: if we want to see a living church, every member must function.
By the way, how do you become a member of the church? You become a member not by joining it. You become a member because you are born into it.
If you can join, then it is an organization. If it is born, then it is an organism. Everyone born in that Body is living and functioning. That is how the church grows.
The third lesson is found as Peter preached Christ to them. Many were pricked in their hearts and were baptized. Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized.”
The promise is for those who are near and for those who are afar off. With many words, he exhorted them, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation.”
Three thousand were baptized. They repented, and they were baptized.
Now, brothers and sisters, what is baptism? Why is it that, when you believe in the Lord Jesus, you need to be baptized?
Of course, baptism has many meanings. But one basic meaning of baptism is to be saved from this perverse generation.
We are not only to be saved from sins. The blood of our Lord Jesus washes our sins away. Thank God for that. But we must remember that we need to be delivered from this perverse generation.
This world is perverse; it is wicked. We belonged to this world before, but now we are to be saved from this world. We are to be separated.
The church is a new creation. The old has to be buried. That is baptism. Baptism is to be saved from this world.
When you step into the water, you have already believed in the Lord. He has already forgiven your sins. But when you step into the water, you declare, “I am going to be buried, and I am going to come out as a new creation.”
You remember the children of Israel. By the blood on their doorposts, they were saved from death. But they needed to go out of Egypt. They had to cross the Red Sea.
By the cloud and in the sea, they were baptized unto Moses. Formerly, they belonged to Pharaoh. Now, through baptism, they belonged to Moses—that is, they belonged to God.
The world is behind us. There is the cross that separates us from the world. Now we belong to the Lord: a new creation.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away; all things have become new. All things are of God.
That is not only true individually; this is true corporately. Nothing of the world should be brought into the church. The church is a new creation.
Anything that belongs to this perverse world and to this perverse age should be buried. That is what baptism means.
Brothers and sisters, from the very beginning, in the church in Jerusalem, they declared that they had nothing to do with this world. They were a new creation. They belonged to the Lord.
Today, you can hardly see where the church begins and where the world ends. The world has come into the church. It is like a boat sunk in the sea.
There is no separation, and therefore there is no testimony. The early Christians were so separated from the world, sanctified unto God. Their very presence in the world was a testimony.
People, on the one hand, feared them; on the other hand, they were drawn to them. May the Lord help us.
Do not allow the world to come into the church—worldly methods, worldly ideas. These things should have been buried long ago. Everything is new, and everything is of God.
In Acts 2:42, we read that they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and the prayers.
The church was born on the day of Pentecost. It began with one hundred and twenty, and on that same day three thousand were added. But these three thousand one hundred and twenty members of the Body of Christ continued steadfastly.
They continued together in the teaching of the apostles, in the breaking of bread, and in prayer.
From the very first day you are born into the church, you begin to live a Body life. They began to live a life totally different from the world.
They occupied themselves and devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles. You find that teaching here is singular, while apostles is plural.
In other words, even though there are many apostles, there is only one teaching. Paul does not have his own teaching, and James does not have his own teaching. They teach one teaching because they were instructed by the Lord Himself.
From the very first day, everyone devoted himself to the teaching of Christ. They received all that Christ had taught through the different apostles.
Not only did they receive the truth; they also received the fellowship of the apostles. What is the fellowship of the apostles?
In 1 John 1, John said, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
There is only one teaching: the teaching of our Lord. There is only one fellowship: the fellowship of the Father and of the Son.
That fellowship was open to the apostles, and through the apostles it is open to all of us. There is no such thing as one group having fellowship by itself while another group has nothing to do with it.
You find one Body, one church, and the fellowship of all the saints. They broke bread together, remembering the Lord, loving the Lord, waiting for the Lord to return, and they prayed together.
It was not merely that you prayed your prayer and I prayed my prayer. A corporate life appeared.
On the first day the church was born, a church life—a Body life—appeared. It appeared naturally and spontaneously.
They were together. They loved. Nobody said, “This is mine.” They shared everything together. They broke bread together. They praised the Lord together.
A new way of life appeared—a corporate life, a Body life that had never been seen on this earth.
That is the reason why, when you read the book of Acts, the name Christian is not there yet. When people looked at these believers, how did they describe them? They called them “the Way,” the people of the Way.
They had a new way of life. That is church life; that is Body life. From the very beginning, everyone enjoyed Body life, church life.
Not only were they in the Body, but they lived the Body life. Oh, may this be true with us.
The first church did not remain perfect for very long. You cannot find on earth a perfect church. As long as there are you and me there, you find problems very soon.
Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid of problems. Problems are opportunities. It depends on how you solve these problems.
In the early church, let me mention three ways in which they solved their problems.
First, they solved their problems by prayer. In Acts 4, Peter and John were reprimanded by the Jewish council. They were warned not to preach in the name of Jesus.
Persecution was in the air. The problem came to the church: persecution. How did they solve this problem?
Did they gather together to come up with a counterplan? Did they march and protest? No.
When Peter and John came to their own company, they told them what had happened. With one accord, they raised their voices in prayer to the Lord.
They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and with boldness they witnessed. That is the way they solved problems.
Brothers and sisters, today that is often not the way we solve problems. When we have a problem, a few heads gather together and try to come out with a counterplan.
No. In the church, problems are solved by prayer.
In Matthew 18, the Lord shows us very clearly: when you have a problem among the brothers, how do you solve it?
If you love your brother, you will not only forgive him, but you will want to restore him. Love is always the best way to solve problems.
Together with love, the Lord said, “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them.” Through prayer, problems can be solved.
When there are problems among brothers and sisters, we need to solve them by love and by prayer.
Sometimes, as in Acts 5, problems are addressed by the discipline of the Holy Spirit. A problem arose, and immediately you find the Holy Spirit exercising the discipline of the Head.
Brothers and sisters, the church that has no discipline is no church. But we must remember that discipline comes from the Holy Spirit, and it has to be exercised in love.
Then the Lord will be glorified.
I do not think I can go into more detail because the time is already gone. But what I want to say is simply this: do not expect a perfect church. You cannot find it anywhere on earth.
We are still in the process. There is much rubbish there. Much work of the discipline of the Holy Spirit has to be done.
Just remember: let there be love, let there be prayer, and let there be discipline. Let us submit ourselves to the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Then you will find the blessing of the Lord will come.
Even after all these problems, when you read on, you find the church continuing.
These are the five lessons we can learn from the first church on earth. May these things be apparent among us. Then you will see.
Lord, we thank You and praise You. For You said, “I will build My church upon this rock; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
We thank You, Lord, that for these two thousand years You have continued to build Your church. We pray that we may see what You have built, that we may learn also.
Lord, we pray that You will have mercy upon us, that what we have fellowshipped tonight may be under Your precious blood and in the Holy Spirit, that it may become reality in each one of us.
May Your church be built, and may Your heart be satisfied. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Amen. There will be some announcements for the meetings tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning at 9:40, we will have hymn singing.