Pentecost:
The Church Became Active
Lesson
II
September 28, 2006 & October 5, 2006
Review of
Lesson One
1. Ecclesiology is the study of the Bible
doctrine of the Church.
2. The
true
Church is a company of people called out of the world into union with Christ.
Acts
15:14
(14)
Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out
of them a people for his name.
In
Acts 15:14, referring to Peter’s
contribution at the first Church Conference, James summarizes Peter’s words:
“Simeon (Peter) hath declared how God at the first (that is, for the first
time) did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.”
That
phrase, “to take out a people for His name” is a good description of what the
Church is: “Called out” from the human
race into a “union in Christ.”
3.
Matthew
Matthew
16:18
(18)
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus
said: “I will build “my” Church.” Three things are important to make note of in
that verse.
1) “I will build” indicates that at
that time the Church was still future.
2)
Jesus Himself is the builder of the Church, not men or programs.
3)
The Church is His Church. The Church is His possession.
4. Acts 2:47 is the first direct reference to
the Church in the book of Acts.
Acts
2:47
(47)
Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as
should be saved.
“The
Lord added to the Church”. Jesus is
doing what He said He would do, building the Church.
And
He alone can add people to His Church.
It should be pointed out that the record of Church history begins in the
book of Acts and not before.
5. 1
Corinthians 12:28 : The Lord set in the Church first,
the Apostles.
1
Corinthians 12:28
(28)
And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets,
thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps,
governments, diversities of tongues.
If
the Apostles were first then there was no Church before the Apostles. More about the subject of the Apostles will
be dealt with in future studies.
6. Ephesians
2:20 : The Church is built upon the foundation of
the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner
stone. It seems proper and right to
speak of these Apostles as foundational Apostles.
Ephesians
2:20
(20)
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ
himself being the chief corner [stone];
They
have laid the foundation of Church Truth in their Epistles. The qualification for such Apostles is given
in Acts 1:21-26.
Acts
1:21-26.
(23)
And they
appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
7. The study of ecclesiology makes a clear
distinction between God’s earthly people Israel, as revealed
in the Old Testament, and God’s heavenly people the Church, as
revealed in the New Testament
8. Colossians 1:18 teaches that Christ was
acknowledged as head of the Church by his resurrection. Thus, there could not have been a Church
without the resurrection.
Colossians
1:18
9. Many Bible teachers teach that the Church was
born
on the day of Pentecost.
We
ask that you consider the following.
John
20:19-22
(21) Then said
Jesus to them again, Peace [be] unto you: as [my] Father hath sent me, even so
send I you.
(22) And when
he had said this, he breathed on [them], and saith unto them, Receive ye the
Holy Ghost:
“As my father hath sent me so send I
you…” Why did Jesus say this?
These
words involve a new commission for the Apostles. Their first commission, they were not to go
to Gentiles but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Matthew
10:5-6
(6) But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But
now there is a new commission as we shall see in Acts 1:8 and in Mark 16:15. And Paul adds more light in 2 Corinthians
5:20 when he speaks of the Church as being Ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors are sent from their country to a
foreign country.
And
the Church, a heavenly people (Philippians 3:20) is in the world as
Ambassadors, not belonging to the world, because we belong to heaven.
After
Jesus said “ … so send I you.” Then “He breathed on them and said unto them,
Receive ye the Holy Ghost”.
We
suggested that this is when the Church was conceived. The body is still growing, and it will be born
at the Rapture when the body is complete.
At
Pentecost the Church became active.
I
Acts 1:3-8
Mark
16:15
(15)
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature.
2
Corinthians 5:20
(20) Now
then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech [you] by us: we
pray [you] in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Philippians
3:20
(20)
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ:
After
His resurrection, Jesus ascended to Heaven, then came back to earth for forty
days to be with the Apostles whom He had chosen. Do not ask why these men were chosen. That was an act of the Sovereign God. Remember this was after the resurrection but before
Pentecost. He showed Himself alive
by many infallible proofs. And they were
chosen to be living witnesses of His resurrection.
Ephesians
4:10-11, informs us that it was after He
Ascended He gave ministry gifts to men, “he gave some apostles…” they were
first. Then, He gave these gifted men to
the Church.
For
forty days he taught them speaking of things that pertained to the
He
commanded them to not depart from
In
Luke 24:49. That promise was “power from
on high.”
Luke
24:49
(49)
And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city
of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
It
is evident by the questions asked by the Apostles in Acts 1:6-7, that during
the forty days Jesus did not teach them anything relative to
Acts
1:6-7
(6)
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt
thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
(7)
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons,
which the Father hath put in his own power.
Here
we must remember that it was the same company of men He had taught during his
earthly ministry before his
death. He had taught these same men
“…Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the
Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel” (Matthew 10:5-6).
Romans
15:8
Jesus
Christ was a minister of the circumcision.
He also stated that “He was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). We must not
ignore these texts when building our doctrine of the Church.
We
gather from what follows in the book of Acts that during the 40 days he was
teaching these men about the new program for the Church. They were to continue a ministry to the Jews,
but they were now to lift up their eyes beyond the Jews and go also to the
Gentiles.
Acts
1:8
(8)
But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye
shall be witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth.”
Mark
16:15 They were now to preach the gospel to every
creature.
(15)
And he said
unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
They
had been ministering in His vineyard, “the house of Israel”.
Isaiah
5:7
Now
they are being sent into His field, the world.
Matthew
13:38.
(38) The field is the world; the good seed are the
children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked [one];
We
repeat: this had not been the case before the cross, nor before He had breathed
on them when they became the first members of the Church.
So
rather than teach that the Church was born at Pentecost, we think it better to
say the Church became active as a result of Pentecost. Pentecost endued them with power. In the language of 2
Corinthians 1:21 it was an anointing from God to do the work of
God.
(21) Now he
which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, [is] God;
The
Church members are to go everywhere with a heavenly message, not an earthly
one.
II Acts 2:1-4 is the historical account of the day of Pentecost. What took place that day happened
suddenly. And it came from Heaven on
earthy people to make them heavenly minded.
Acts
2:1-4
(1) And when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
(3) And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
The
events of the day of Pentecost have created problems for the Churches,
especially speaking in tongues. In my
opinion the Church has missed the important fact about Pentecost. That was the day the Church was endued with
power from on High. It was the day the
Church received an anointing for service.
The
Church by and large today seems to know little about this anointing.
The
Church is tempted to do things in the energy of the flesh rather than that of
the Spirit. We are also tempted to judge
results by what we see.
1
Corinthians 4:5 warns us not to judge before the time. One reason for not judging is we do not know
all the facts.
1
Corinthians 4:5
(5)
Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will
bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the
counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
One
pastor said he thought he was pastor of a spiritual flock but found out that it
was Sodom and Gomorrah. We are all
tempted to follow the dictates of the flesh that can only produce products of
the flesh. At the judgment seat, much
will be revealed to be but wood, hay and stubble, works of the flesh and not of
the Spirit.
John
6:63 “It is the Spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing…”
2
Corinthians 1:21 “Now he which
stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath
anointed us is God.”
1
John
“Anointing”
and “unction”! Who can explain those
words?
In
public ministry, we fear some are only appointed by men to official positions,
while others are anointed by God.
A
dear brother in the Southern States asked a young preacher, “Were you sent or
did you just went?”
Spurgeon
says: “It were better that you never
learned a rule of human oratory, than to remain without the Apostolic
Anointing. Anointing is not fleshly
activity. It certainly is not
noise.”
We
feel we can illustrate it rather than explain it.
It
can be likened to the live coal from God’s altar that touched the lips of
Isaiah (Isaiah 6:6,7).
It
is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even
Aaron’s beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments (Psalm 133:2).
It
is like the dew that fell from Heaven on Gideon’s fleece (Judges 6:37).
It
is like the fragrance that filled the house when Mary broke her alabaster box (John
12:3).
It
is the oil of gladness (Psalm 45:7).
It
is like the oil poured on the head that makes one’s cup run over (Psalm 23:5,6).
It
is like the Divine Presence that made the face of Moses shine (Exodus 34:29).
It
was the anointing that made the face of Stephen shine like that of an angel (Acts
6:15).
It
is that which brings a heavenly atmosphere as on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:2).
A
word about the word “unction.”
Someone
said it is holy gumption. It is a holy
fire as in Psalm 39:3 “my heart was hot
within me, while I was musing the fire burned, then I spoke with my tongue.”
That
is unction. One thing is certain. Both “anointing” and “unction” are unique
works of the Holy Spirit. One cannot
anoint oneself. It must be of God or it
is nothing.
John
14: 26 illustrates: “But the Comforter,
which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach
you all things, and bring all things to
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
John
Also
Luke 24:8 “and they remembered his
words.”
People
talk to me about my good memory. Is it my memory? The Holy Spirit has pledged Himself to bring
to remembrance those things which we have learned. We have concluded that bringing Scriptures to
one’s mind is a special work associated with the anointing of the Spirit.
Here
we say a word about memorization of Scripture.
Unless you memorize Scripture, it will not be brought to your
memory. One of the sad side effects of
so many English translations today is that few Christians are memorizing the
Scriptures.
The
anointing is Old Testament as well as New Testament teaching. In 2 Samuel 23:1-2
we read these verses.
(2) The Spirit
of the LORD spake by me, and his word [was] in my tongue.
It
is our opinion, that the anointing as used here, had not to do with David as
King, but rather David the psalmist. He
was anointed King of Judah at
2
Samuel 2:4.
He
was anointed King of the 10 Tribes of Israel later.
2
Samuel 5:3.
But
it was when he was anointed by Samuel that the Spirit came upon him.
1
Samuel 16:13.
And
it was that anointing that made him the sweet psalmist, the sweet singer in
Israel.
F.B.
Meyer wrote: “It is clear that over and beyond the ordinary grace, which all
believers must have, there is a blessed anointing of the Holy Ghost which gives
special equipment and fitness for service.
Elijah had it. Our blessed Lord,
as a perfect servant, had it. The
Apostles had it. The Samaritan believers
had it. The disciples at
Had
what? A special anointing from God.
Writes
C.H.Spurgeon:
“
I wonder how long we might beat our brains before we could plainly put into
words what is meant by preaching with unction, yet he who preaches knows its
presence and he who hears soon detects its absence. Such is the mystery of spiritual
anointing. We know, but we cannot tell
others what it is”.
Pentecost
gave the Apostles a new mandate and a
new message. For before that, they were ministers of the circumcision
only, as was Jesus. Romans 15:8.
Romans
15:8
(8)
Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of
God, to confirm the promises [made] unto the fathers:
But
as we shall discover, in the plan of God, Paul was to appear with his new
revelations not from Christ on earth in the flesh, but from Christ now in
glory, glorified.
2
Corinthians 5:16
Before
the resurrection Christ was known by His earthly ministry, but now we are to
know Him by His heavenly ministry, not for an earthly people but for a heavenly
people.
While
on earth Jesus was anointed to preach (Luke 4:18) …
Luke
4:18
(18)
The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the
gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised,
and
He was also anointed to do good (Acts 10:38).
Acts
10:38
(38)
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went
about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was
with him.
So
we do not confine this anointing only for preaching. Every believer is not anointed to be a
preacher but every believer is anointed to do good for others.
Philippians
2: 3-4
(4) Look not
every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
And
we can only do what God calls ‘good’ by the Help of the Holy Spirit.