Acts 5:12

Concerning the Wednesday night prayer service, we certainly would just be delighted to have everyone that's here this morning come back on Wednesday evening. We seek, by the grace of God, to call upon the Lord and to not only make our prayers known to the Lord, but have answers from heaven to the requests that we make, and then be able to praise the Lord, share together the praise that he so well deserves for all of his goodness and mercy to us. Now, this thought is not original with me, but I'm going to put it to you.

If this Wednesday night at about seven o'clock you're doing something else other than being here for the prayer service, you can say to yourself, what I'm doing is more important than coming to the prayer service. I want you to remember that in the early church they continued steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine or teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. Prayer is something that God would have his people be engaged in.

We're expressing our dependence upon him. We are looking to the source of all of our blessings and asking him at that throne of grace to hear our cries. I think he delights to answer our prayers.

It's a source of encouragement, and in the weeks that lie before us, and even this week, I trust that there'll be a report, a note of praise to God for prayer that's already been answered. Prayers that we have made at that throne of grace. Before we read from verse 12 of this fifth chapter, I'd like to, just in the way of review, remind you that what we read in our last time together, from verse 1 down to verse 11, gives us an account of two people in the early church.

This is that period of time in which the Spirit of God had not only indwelt believers, but believers were filled with the Spirit of God in a very special way for service. And as yet, there had not been introduced into the family of God, the church, the body of Christ, had not been that evidence of sin that would grieve the Spirit of God. But poor Ananias and Sapphira, husband and wife, they did something that so grieved the Spirit of God that they fell down dead at the feet of Peter.

And I would remind you of this. There are those that are claiming today all of the special things that happened during that period of time right after Pentecost. Pentecostal power, Pentecostal signs and wonders.

Some speak with other languages, tongues so-called. Some claim that they have special gifts of healing. All of this is identified and they associate themselves with that Pentecostal period where the Spirit of God in mighty power was working through the Lord's people.

This is the question I raise. If those people today that are claiming all of those special enablements from the Spirit of God to speak in other languages, to heal, to perform miracles, I wonder if any of them have lied to God. Because if they're claiming that they have embraced that Pentecostal period and all that was happening there to the same extent that it was happening here, some of them would be dead.

And I reminded you last week, all of this sounds like and seems like it is so severe. But beloved, believe me, it is a serious thing to lie to God. It is a serious matter to sin right in the face of God in defiance of all that we have read and studied and know to be the ways of God, the truth of God.

And yet, in the face of all of that, we can unblushingly, brazenly lie to the Spirit of God. It's a serious business. The drastic measures that were taken to impress upon the hearts of all that observe God's people.

Because when you reach the twelfth verse, well even before then, that eleventh verse, let me say this in closing, says, Great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. Those people that witnessed that, it sent shockwaves through their soul. You know, when you become a Christian, you need to know this, if you haven't found it out, we're not perfect.

And anyone that's teaching today that by some process of progressive sanctification, we are being made perfect. Perfect in the sense that the whole question of the old nature is eradicated. That's not found in the Word of God.

And the proof of it is in our everyday life because we are guilted by thought, word, or deed in some way, more than likely, every day that we live of committing sin. And the Spirit of God is grieved when we sin. And thank God by His grace that He doesn't smite us dead when we sin.

There was great fear because of what had happened. Now, in the twelfth verse, in view of that, it says, Through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly.

And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them. Also a multitude gathered from the surrounding cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. I want to stop right there, and I'd like to comment on those verses.

We first get the reaction of the church, which was one of fear, awe, and wonder. But then we have the apostles performing many miracles. There were miraculous healings.

There were things that were being done by the hands of these men, filled with the Spirit of God, as a mighty witness to all that beheld it, that God was working through these instruments of clay, these human beings that had trusted the value of the sacrifice that the Son of God had made for them personally in the shedding of His blood, these that were indeed embracing the wonderful, glorious gospel of Christ. God, by His Spirit, was working through their lives. Miracles were being performed for a purpose, as a witness to those that beheld it.

Now with all of that happening, and in the temple area, it seems that, Scripture's careful to mark this out, that Christians were gathering in that special place, perhaps in Solomon's court. And you know how people gather at a certain place, you get in the habit. In this auditorium this morning, I can almost close my eyes and tell where certain people are sitting.

It seems that we just gravitate to a certain place, a certain pew, when we sit down in a building that we're accustomed to visiting very often. And so it was with the early Christians. This place, that was their gathering place there.

They were over by themselves, fellowshipping and enjoying, perhaps, things that they had in common. But in that thirteenth verse, I'm aware that there were some of them that had developed a kind of shyness about this matter of all of the miracles that were being performed. Perhaps what had happened to Ananias and Sapphira.

They had kind of withdrawn themselves a little a ways apart from where the action really was. You know, I thought that was so appropriate as far as an illustration of what happens today. You know, there's still some of God's people that do not want to be involved, actively involved, in what is going on in the family of God.

It seems like they're always a little bit over on the sidelines. They are observers, but they're not participants. And I thought that thought, the very fact that this shyness in the face of these miracles, they were keeping their distance.

That's the thought I get. Withdraw just a little bit. I'll tell you what, when you see people on fire for God, when you see people filled with the Spirit of God performing miracles and living for God, they are indeed a peculiar people.

And people shun them. They are afraid of them. I've said this before, but there's still a current of feeling that runs through the minds and hearts of many of God's people when they hear someone say, be not drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit of God.

It scares them to death. I don't know what I might do. And I've used this statement before.

It's worth repeating. The man that said, I might do something foolish if I was filled with the Spirit of God. Let me tell you something.

Those believers in this world today that are not aspiring to be filled with the Spirit of God are living foolish lives. Every one of us as believers in our Lord Jesus this morning, indwelt by the Spirit of God, should desire from the depths of our souls that the Spirit of God would control us and that we would be filled with the Spirit of God. Even at that period in church history, so close to the experience of Pentecost, there was that shyness, that reluctance to reach out and to identify and to be involved with those that were experiencing the spiritual power that God had provided through His Spirit.

When you read that 14th verse, and it's just like the 47th verse of the 2nd chapter that God added daily to the church those that were being saved, souls were saved. The remarkable thing about it is this. This is what I want to call to your attention.

They were added to the Lord. Not to a denomination. You could have said, well, the first church of Jerusalem.

They were added to the first church at Jerusalem, whatever. But it says they were added to the Lord. And I know that very often people say, well, it doesn't seem appropriate to make mention of things that it's a no man's land.

Well, listen, any name that we identify with other than the Lord, anything that we call ourselves other than Christians, we have no basis for it in the Word of God. They were first called Christians at Antioch. Is being a Christian, just being called a Christian, does that satisfy you? You by faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and what He did upon the cross, you belong to the Lord.

You've been added to the body of Jesus Christ, the church. You've been baptized by one Spirit into that one body. Does that satisfy you? This statement says they were added to the Lord, those that indeed were believing.

And I believe there was a mighty moving of the Spirit of God in saving souls. Man, that's one of the things that we aspire to see happen here at Northgate Chapel. We want to see men and women brought under conviction by the Spirit of God.

I like to hear a convert say, I'm lost, before you talk about saying trusting Jesus. Listen, you've got to get lost. You've got to see your need before you can really get into a proper focus.

The value of what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did upon the cross. He died for your sin. He didn't do no sin.

He was made sin for you and for me, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. We need to see ourselves as destitute, as lost, hopelessly lost, with no hope in this world. And God provided a Savior.

And the Spirit of God is the only one that can help you see that. And He can convict you of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. Oh, how wonderful our God is, and His ways are perfect that was added to the Lord, those that believe.

Verses 15 and 16 again touch upon that which many today want to claim as an experience and power in their ministry and what they do for the Lord. When you have people that are so confident that something miraculous will happen, if Peter's shadow falls upon a sick person, they are so confident that there's something holy and there's something special about that person that if I just put my bed here and that illness that I have, that sickness that I have, that infirmity that I have, if Peter passes by and his shadow falls across me, I'll be healed. I'll tell you, that's real faith.

We cry out sometimes, Lord, help my lack of faith. Help my unbelief. Let me tell you, that's real faith.

But you know, there's not a lot said as far as the results of what was happening. I have to believe that it was happening. I believe that faith was rewarded just like that woman that touched the hem of the garment of the Son of God.

She was healed. This is a very special period in time when the church, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God, things were happening. And beloved, you know that's what we pray for today.

We want to see things happen. We want to see the Spirit of God work. We don't want to do anything to grieve the Spirit of God.

And certainly we don't want to do anything to quench the Spirit of God. His mighty power working in and through His people. Every believer being gifted of God to make a contribution to the body of Jesus Christ.

For the upbuilding of the body. Every joint supplying a need within the body. Oh, we want to see that.

That's no secret. We want to see the Spirit of God work. And we need to pray to that end.

That every one of us would say, Lord, I want revival so bad. Start right here. Start right here.

Oh, don't be talking about your brother and your sister and them getting revived. Them being spiritually empowered from on high to perform miracles, to be a good witness. Start right here, Lord.

Right here. I want to see souls saved. Lord, start right here.

Exercise my soul to be a witness for Jesus Christ. That's the way revivals start. Things were happening.

Even the shadow of Peter brought healing and blessing. And of course, I like that sixteenth verse. It says, all, all were healed that came.

I've never been to one of these mass revivals where they offer healing to people that come to those services. I've heard some things that are rather disturbing. In fact, it's a little disgusting that people that apply for healing, and you do have to apply and say, I want to be healed.

Everything must be done decently and in order. But I understand that people are carefully screened out. In fact, they interview people.

What's your problem? What's your problem? Well, I've got a backache. You've got a backache. And they're very careful sometimes to take the cases that in a moment of time in which emotions are so aroused that a person will even forget his backache.

He'll even forget his limp. He will be so overwhelmed by what's happening that it might appear obviously that a miracle has been performed. But listen, I see no screening process here.

I see everyone that was being brought to be healed. And when these brethren say, you're healed, when their hands were laid upon them, the healing power of God, sick people, those that were tormented by unclean spirits, they were all healed. And I challenge those today that say they possess that kind of power from God.

Why doesn't it work every time? Why is it that you have to be so careful about who you approach and who you heal? I believe during those times that they'd had the modern hospital facilities and things that we have today, Peter and the others could have gone down the wards in the hospital and every room, every bed that they stopped at, that person would be healed. Why don't the so-called faith healers of today do that? I don't see any of them. I don't hear of any of them in the hospital.

Beloved, there's nothing like being a victim of self-delusion. There's nothing so sad as to see someone, perhaps earnestly, perhaps sincerely, thinks that he has this kind of power. But he doesn't have it.

He doesn't have it. For obviously, I don't believe that there is that kind of power today entrusted to men. It was during a very special time.

It was exercised for a special purpose, and God was sovereign, sovereign, guiding and directing in this whole matter. That's what's so important. Now, beyond that section from verse 17 down through 28, we have the apostles.

Again, they are witnesses. They are making known the message. They're teaching, and as a result of that, there's a violent reaction, a violent reaction from the priest, the hierarchy, the religious elite of that day.

What are these people doing? Well, they're healing people. Miracles are being performed, and they are preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus. That brought about a reaction that you just couldn't hardly believe.

What is the crime that they've committed? What are they doing that you don't approve of? It says, the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, they were the ones that just could not stand you to be that word, resurrection of the dead. And they were filled with indignation. It may be in the footnote of your Bible, jealousy.

They're doing things we can't do. We don't like it. They were jealous of them.

They are performing these miracles. People are being blessed. People are following them, and they were jealous of them.

What did they do? They said, arrest them. Arrest them. For what? What are you going to arrest them for? You don't read about a warrant being served and the specific things being mentioned for which they were being arrested.

Just arrest them. We can't stand this. Well, in this passage that we read, they were arrested, and they were cast into the common prison.

They were thrown in there with all the others. But you know, there's going to be angelic deliverance here, and there was. An angel came and unlocked the door at just the right time, told them exactly what to do.

Go back to the temple and teach the same thing you've been teaching before. Now, I trust that you remember what they prayed for in that fourth chapter. They were being persecuted.

Trial and testing was just coming in from all sides. Did they pray, Lord, deliver us from our oppressors? No. They said, give us holy boldness to preach the Word of God.

They said, think about it. The Lord dealing with those that were opposing them, those that were beating them, those that were threatening them. Lord, give us boldness to preach the Word of God.

And the angel sends them after he has opened the prison, not only delivers them, but he gives them instructions what they're supposed to do. Go back into the temple area and preach and teach the Word of God. They were right there at daybreak.

Didn't waste any time. At daybreak, they were there. Just as soon as people began to stir and things began to happen, and there was someone there to give the message to, they were there, and they were giving it out.

Giving it out and giving it out in power. Teaching all that Jesus had taught them, the gospel of Jesus Christ. How important that was.

So often I hear people say, well, I don't think I'll go to that meeting. It's just a gospel meeting. I cringe when I hear that.

It's just a gospel meeting. It's just a place where the truth concerning what God has done to save our souls, and we say, it's just a gospel meeting. Beloved, you better get down on your knees if you've said that and say, Lord, forgive me.

That's where I got in from hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, let the Spirit of God impress upon our heart. The priority is in our ministering and teaching and preaching to other people.

We've got to tell them about the Lord Jesus. We can't take it for granted that they know. That name Jesus is just, people speak it so casually.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I like the full name, the full title. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He's more than just Jesus, that human man, that one that was born in Bethlehem's manger, the one that lived in Nazareth. He's more than all of that. He is the eternal Son of God that left heaven's glory and came to this world, and He died upon the cross for you and me.

That's who He is. So don't ever, ever look in a demeaning way upon, it's just a gospel meeting, brother. You pray that the time will never come when we can't have a gospel meeting, when there's no place for the gospel of Jesus Christ in this world.

We were saved through hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. These apostles, they were there. They were in the temple.

There were people there. They were seeking to draw nigh to God. They didn't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

They needed the gospel. They needed to hear about His death, His burial, His resurrection, His ascension back into heaven. And praise God, they were telling them.

And the religious leaders just couldn't stand it. People were just being attracted and drawn to them powerfully by the moving of the Spirit of God. And religious people were jealous of it.

And they spoke against it. Well, the time is gone. I'd like to remind you, though, that when trial time came for the prisoners that they had put in jail, they weren't there.

They'd been released. And that again, that just no doubt created the greater feelings of fear and wonder, what God has so mightily done in the lives of His people. There's so many things that are happening in the course of life today, circumstances, that I trust the Spirit of God will use in the hearts and minds of many.

You reflect back on your own experience in coming to know the Lord. Very often you will be reminded there were certain circumstances that strangely drew me to the Lord and helped me to know just how lost I really was and how adequate the sacrifice that Jesus Christ had made upon the cross, how adequate it was for saving my soul. If you're here this morning, you're having a difficult time, difficult time.

There's trial, there's testing. You don't know the Lord. You have no peace in your heart and soul.

You need the Lord Jesus. You need the Lord Jesus. There's an invitation to you this morning, whosoever will may come.

You come to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, those that come to me I will in no wise cast out. The door to heaven is still wide open this morning.

Thank God for that. Whosoever will may come, but God has His way of coming. Repentance deep within the soul, that feeling of our lostness before Him is a part of God's divine process in bringing us to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ.

And a cry from my lips, oh God have mercy upon me, a poor sinner, and save my soul. That's the cry of the penitent thief that was hanging from the cross. And you and me, not unlike him, we had to make our way to the cross, and we had to make that same cry, Lord have mercy upon me, a poor sinner, and save my soul.

If you don't know that this morning, I trust that you will make your decision for Christ. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee again for the Word of God.

We thank Thee for that mighty moving of the Spirit of God, how it's so clearly spelled out upon the pages of Scripture. And oh our God, we know that Your hand is not shortened, that You can't save. We know that the same Holy Spirit that was there at Pentecost, we know that same Holy Spirit resides in our own hearts and souls at this moment.

We know the same power that was available to those early disciples, that same power resides in us. Oh, to be witnesses for Jesus Christ in this world, help us to be faithful witnesses for Him. Grant, we pray Thee, that all of us will leave this place this morning firmly committed and dedicated to the cause of Christ in these days as we await that shout from heaven that will carry us into His very presence.

We ask this again, giving thanks in the wonderful name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.