The New Testament Church Part B
Taped by John Greene, transcribed by Mary Kay Lynd
Bible quotes are from NKJV unless otherwise stated.
We're in Acts Chapter 1 and we're looking at the continuation of what we were looking at before, which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We're in Acts Chapter 1, and we're going to start off with verse 6. But let me go back and tell you about one word that we were talking about briefly. That's the word for remission or forgiveness, that's aphesis/afesiV. It's a dismissal or release of sin. It's the complete remission of, it's the letting go of it, it's the forgiveness of it. That's what the disciples were to preach. That's what John came preaching, the forgiveness of sin. That's what the disciples did. God has always been a holy God, and God is never going to change. We already know that. He is what His Word says! His character never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Lord, He changes not. Only people who repent and come to Him in a right relationship, you have come to God His way! It sounds so simple. Repent. Repent of your sins. Repent of the things that are in your life that are ungodly, to put them away, to never do them again, to walk away from them and say, "I repent of those things." You see we make it hard. We make it impossible. We make it something that it is not. We make it into a works thing. We make it into the stretching of it to fit what we want to do with our people that we have an influence over. Let's just leave it what the Word says.
Now the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the promise, that's what they're, there in Jerusalem waiting for. Jesus has told them not many days coming before it's going to happen. It's going to happen. One of the sureties of that statement is, it's going to happen. It wasn't, "Well wait a minute now, it's only going to happen to three of you or to five of you." There is no qualitative thing here. There's nothing qualitative about the Holy Spirit other than you must be repentant of your sins, you must have a right relationship with God, your sins must be washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is the only prerequisite of receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Why do I know that? Because that is what it says. I don't see any other notation in here, none.
Look at verse 6. It says, "Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"" If you remember right one of the three teachings that the Pharisees and Scribes had about the Messiah was that: 1. He was going to overthrow Roman rule, 2. He was going to set up His kingdom immediately, and 3. He was going to restore Israel as the supreme nation of all the world. Jesus didn't come that way. Jesus came as the suffering Messiah of Isaiah Chapter 53. Jesus had to suffer and die at the hands of the chief priests and scribes. He was delivered over to Pontius Pilate out of envy, out of mocking, using people who would just blaspheme and lie, and they came together and after a certain period of time, they finally got two people to lie the same lie, and then they gave Jesus to Pontius Pilate to crucify Him. It's sad. But one of the teachings of he Pharisees was that they were going to see the Messiah come and set up Israel. Here we see that even the disciples still have a little bit of that bad teaching in them. Jesus had told them back in Matthew Chapter 16 to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the scribes. Beware of that leaven, and He went on to show them that the leaven that He was talking about was the doctrine that they held. Doctrine will kill us, if it's not correct. Doctrine will kill us if it's not sound doctrine, if it's not based on the Scriptures. Here they still have a tinge of that unsound doctrine of the Pharisees. Now look at what Jesus says. He is going to now correct them again, and it's going to be wonderful because what you are going to see later on in the next couple of decades is these same men who need correction will be used by God to write some of the doctrinal positions of the end times. You are going to see the author of the writer of Hebrews, and the author of the book of Revelation, and they're going to write some things about the end times that totally reveals they finally listened to Jesus and they got rid of their bad doctrine. Jesus says to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority." There are some things that is not set in order for us to know at specific times.
God reveals what He wants to reveal to us when He wants to reveal it, because He knows what we can handle, what we can understand, when we're ready for it. And there are just some things that are irreverent. They were thinking about the kingdom of Israel being implanted as the center nation and focal point of the entire world. They were thinking self centered. They were thinking of the Jew being number one, but see the kingdom of God is going to be so much bigger than the Jew because, remember, the Jew, out of jealousy, nailed Jesus to the tree, out of envy nailed Jesus to the tree, out of greed they nailed Jesus to the tree. All those things are true. And yet they're still that self-centeredness that's in this doctrine. Are the Jews Jesus' chosen people? Absolutely. And Paul's going to make that clear because Paul is a Jew and in Romans Chapters 9-11, Paul lays out some of the end-time theology affecting the Jew. And we know that there's going to come a period of time after a series of events take place that the Jew is going to be so softened to heart, that they're going to look up into the sky and see Jesus Christ, whom they pierced, and they're going to mourn and repent of their sins. And all of those Jews that remain and do that will be saved. But right now God has better plans because it's never God's wish for any to perish. God told Peter to record this in II Peter Chapter 3. You can look there if you want. God's desire is for all to come to repentance. That is God's heartbeat for people, all to come to repentance. And so God's vision for His creation is so much bigger than these disciples that are here listening to Jesus, and asking about restoring the kingdom to Israel. You see God's vision has always been bigger than ours. And we're going to see as Jesus gets into verse 8 the vision of that lifting and changing in the disciples and how it's going to change.
Look what it says, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." This is the completion of the commission. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is going to bring power according to verse 8. When the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples, there is a purpose for the Holy Spirit being poured out upon the disciples. There is a purpose for receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the purpose is clearly written here. It is no different than the other parts of the great commission. The purpose remains the same! However, the power of the Holy Spirit will now be on believers who receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they will not be simple, ordinary believers, but they will go into a position of humility, and to a position of power in God that will bring the fervor and the anointing of the Holy Spirit into the very words that they say, going even further than what they dreamed of, because God's wish is for the entire world! Now if you think about what He first says, in Jerusalem. Right where we're at, you look at your street, look at the neighbor that's living next door to you. Do they know that you have a genuine, honest, true relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Do they know that you have repented of your sins? Do you know that it is possible for them to repent? Do they know that Jesus is alive, desiring a relationship with them? You see, the Jews, and that's what these disciples are! Don't ever let anybody tell you that the church is different. The church is the church, it consists of every believer; it's a totality of every believer, that's the church. The church consists of every believer from Adam all the way to the last person in the tribulation who repents of their sins. The church is there for one purpose.
The church is there, empowered by the Holy Spirit for one purpose to witness beginning in their own home, in their own town, on their own street where they live, to their own neighbor, to the very people that live in their own home, to their relatives, their mom, dad, brother, sister. The power of the Holy Spirit is going to bring about more conviction, more truth-hitting words. I want you to think about that for a minute because we are going to see a distinct difference between the Holy Spirit in a believer and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We're going to see a distinct difference between the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that comes when a person commits their lives to the Lord. They are regenerated according to the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus. The Holy Spirit regenerates an individual and they become born again when they repent. That person is born again of the Spirit, that person is going to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. That person is a believer. The disciples in Acts Chapter 1 are part of the church. They are believers. These disciples already had received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit back in John Chapter 20. Go back there. Some people don't even see this. John Chapter 20 verse 21-23, "So Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you." And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."" There believers are now indwelled by the power of the Holy Spirit. There the disciples are already. Now some people will tell you that the church didn't start till Acts Chapter 2. Not so! The church was around. The church means the called out, those believers that are called out, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, that's the church. Jesus is making it clear. The whole reason for the baptism of the Holy Spirit is for the church to grow, for the church to multiply. The whole reason for when you say to your loved ones, to your neighbors, to those in your town, when you tell them about the truth of who Jesus is, there needs to be an anointing and a power in those words. Now some of those in the Calvin area who desire to belittle what I'm telling you, they'll tell you well everybody's got the Holy Spirit, and there's some truth to that. But when you start looking at the Word of God and dividing the level of power on a scale of 1 to 10, a believer may have the indwelling Holy Spirit which may be on a scale of 1 to 10 may be a 1, don't hold me to the numbers I'm just trying to use this as an example to try to explain this.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit that also comes on the believer, because we understand here already that it's a subsequent thing. These are believers that Jesus is talking to right here. These are believers that are in the upper room right here. To say that these people who have spent 3 ½ years with Jesus are not believers is to negate what the Scriptures say. You go back to John Chapter 13 when Jesus was washing the disciples feet, you look at that particular passage of Scripture and Peter says no, no, no, no, no; wash all of me. And Jesus says, "Now wait a minute Peter, you're already clean!" (my paraphrase) Now why would Jesus lie to Peter and say that he was already clean if it was not true? Jesus wouldn't lie to Peter. Jesus told him the truth. The Word of God, according to John Chapter 6, is Spirit and truth and it can wash you, it will wash you. Remember at the end of John Chapter 6 when all of them were leaving, all of them, the disciples of Jesus just walked away because His teaching about the body and the blood was too hard for them to understand. And Peter said, "Well Lord, You've asked me where can I go, but the only place I can go is to You, because You're the only One that has the truth!" And that's what Peter was told by Jesus that the words that He spoke were Spirit and truth. They were real, they were alive, they had power to cleanse and wash. And that's what Jesus was telling Peter in John 13, and Jesus said a disciple only needs to get his feet clean from time to time because we're human. You're not perfect. None of us are going to be perfect until we are with Jesus. So that's what Jesus was telling Peter. Look you're going to grow, you're going to mature, you're going to continue to grow in the Word, you're going to get deeper in the Word, you're going to be used of God to do some great and wonderful things but that doesn't mean you're perfect. That's what He told Peter. You're going to have your feet cleaned from time to time. That's what we're to do with each other, clean our feet.
You see a brother down; (I'm not telling you that somebody's automatically a brother because they say they are, I'm talking about a genuine brother or sister who fell.), the same way that Galatians Chapter 6 verse 1 talks about, you that are spiritual, pray about it, get right with God, and go lift that brother up, restore them in the meekness and the kindness and the love. The power of the Holy Spirit is for the church to be effective. It doesn't mean because somebody's baptized in the Holy Spirit that they're perfect, but on a scale of 1 to 10, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a 10. It introduces the power of God into what they do and say in a different way. It introduces the gifts of the Holy Spirit into that individual. That individual now has the opportunity to be a vessel of God. Now what am I saying? I'm saying this, exactly the same thing that Paul told Timothy in II Timothy Chapter 2. In God's house there are many vessels, and we allow ourselves either to be a vessel of honor or any other stage. Some people are going to probably make heaven by the skin of their teeth, they are going to probably make it because they did repent, but because they were constantly repenting and falling down and getting back up and falling down and getting back up God was not able to use them. There are probably going to be some people in that area. I don't understand it, and I don't know maybe you do. Paul told Timothy that there are all sorts of people in a great house. The power of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit was to empower the people of God to be more effective in witnessing the truth of who He is. This is part of the commission; this is part of the power, we are to start in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to all over the place.
Now turn back over to Matthew Chapter 16. Not Matthew, Mark Chapter 16! We're going to see this. In verse 16 we're going to look at the great commission again. Look at verse 16. It says, "And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature."" See God again confirming through the Words of His own Son Jesus that He loves every bit of His creation, but He has so ordained that we as the church go forth and just preach the truth! What are we supposed to preach? We already saw that in Luke. Repentance for the remission of sins! What are we supposed to preach? What the disciples have already been taught. Now look. "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned." That seems like it's pretty easy. You know if somebody accepts the truth of the Word of God, they're going to be born again. They're going to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, they will be saved! But those that reject the truth of God's Word, there's going to come to them a point in time when that rejection is gone, over with, Kaput, the door's closed, that's it. They're no longer able to come to Jesus. They'll be condemned. They've made their own decision, that's it they made their decision. There are only two things! You're either going to be born again and you're on the side of Jesus or you're not born again and you're on the side of the other guy. Guess who that guy is? It's the devil. You're either with Jesus or you're against Him. "And these signs will follow those who believe." It doesn't say these signs will follow those who have doubts, who have decided to switch descriptions around, to twist them in a way that they want to twist them. It doesn't say that at all. It says those who believe. Well what do you believe? You believe the Word of God as it is written. You believe the Word of God as it states, no twisting, just what it says. And what's going to happen? What signs are going to follow those who believe? "In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." In all of those signs that follow, you will see the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. It's all there. The purpose of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit is not for some Corinthian Pentecostal to stand up on their little soap box of self-centeredness and say, "Hey look, I've arrived", but the purpose of the Holy Spirit generating each of those nine gifts in the body, is to receive that power to be witnesses everywhere. It's the power of God in the church that brings about the change that needs to be taking place here, there and everywhere. That's why it grieves me in my heart many times when people will tell me, "Well I don't believe the Holy Spirit is still for today", and then they try to prove it. And they can't prove it. They can only just say, "Well, I don't believe it that way." If you take them back to certain Scriptures and say, "Well what does that say?", and then they'll tell you what somebody else told them that says. But the truth is, they can't show you any Scripture where it says the Holy Spirit is gone. And we'll be able to see a little bit further as we get down through.
The great commission is now handed over to the disciples, those who believe, those who have repented, those people who have accepted the truth of the Word of God, who are made disciples. Now notice there's another peculiarity here. In the great commission, it says make disciples. A believer is a disciple, a believer is a learner, a believer is somebody who learns the truth of God's Word. A believer is not arrogant, prideful and unteachable. That is not a believer, that is not a disciple! If you think you know it all, if you have so much pride that nothing NOT even truth will even affect you, then guess what? You're not a believer; you're not a disciple. But, on the contrary, you're on the other side. You're on the other team. You're on the team of the devil. The great commission, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the disciples making disciples, that is God's heartbeat. Now notice nowhere in all this that we've looked at so far does it say, "Go win souls!" I have read in a number of different books, and I've heard people, and I've listened to a bunch of Pentecostals tells me, "Hey man, let's go out and win souls today for Jesus." And they want to go on the street corners, and I commend them for that. We need to go out on the street corners. They want you to go down into certain areas of town and that too is also to be commended. But it doesn't say anywhere to win souls. The proverb says that we need to consider looking at winning souls but the commission doesn't. These people who say we're going out soul winning, what are they doing? They're going out and they're saying to individuals, "Listen to what I've got to say" , and then, "I demand you to pray this pretty prayer", and then, "I'm going to tell you you're saved." And nowhere in the commission does it say any of that. That is a figment of people's imagination to get people to be into the position that makes their hearts feel good. That's the typical gunslinger mentality for the Christian world, the Pentecostal world. They put on their holster another slot saying, "Yep I won me another Christian!" But the fact of the matter is, there's nowhere in Scripture that says that. It says to make disciples, it says to witness, it says to wear the power of God, it doesn't say win souls. And you can't show me that. If you can show me that I'll be very happy to change my position. But I don't see that anywhere.
We're to teach. Well what's the indication that somebody is a believer? When they start showing that they're learning something, they're growing; they're becoming more spiritual in terms of insight of what the Word of God says. They receive the Word of God from those of like mind. That's some of the clear indication that somebody is a believer, somebody has received the witness of God, somebody has been born again and is a disciple. When you go to church, if you come out the same as you went in, there's a problem. When you dress up and you say all these fine little words, and you sound like you're a so-called Christian, that doesn't make you a Christian. Let's keep the commission to what it says, exactly what it says, and let's not try and twist it. This is the second part of Acts Chapter 1. We'll go on further. I hope that we see a little bit of the commission and the truth of what it's saying. Amen.