Acts 5 12-
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The Church for Real
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. 13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.
14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, 15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. 16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
The Church here was for real!
The Church here was pure!
Their was power in the church in verse 12, the apostles laid hands on the people.
Power, not from Peter or the apostles but from God!
Verse 13 tells us that none of the rest dare to join them, but yet verse 14 tells us that The Lord added to them more than ever,
What could this mean?
Back in verse 1-11 we saw Annanias and his wife Saphari, you know the hypocrites, the ones who were trying to be something without giving their all back to God.
Wanting all that The Lord has for them but yet witholding from the Lord.
Not willing to surrender all.
Lieing to God
We saw how the Lord dealt with this couple.
Bam, dead as a doornail was the husband, and three hours later bam again, down went the wife! both struck dead!
Back to that question in verse 13 and 14,
None of the rest dare to join them.
yet the Lord added to the church more than ever.
when I read verse 13, when i see the words none of the rest dared to join them,
The none of the rest, were no other than people who wanted to be seen or known for something that they actually werent, and those people didnt dare to join the Church!
No Way Jack, I am not going up in their! You go, Im staying right here.
This is waht the casual follower of Jesus would have said.
Kinda reminds me of hearing the older men talk about the veitnam draft days.
One man said I am going in and I am gonna be in the C class, another man said well I am gonna enlist I am will be in the A class. yet a third guy said well I am gonna be in the B class.
The other two men thought for a moment and they both said their isnt no such thing as the B class.
The third man said yes it is, I will B right here!
This man knew that the odds of being killed were pretty high and had decided it best to just B right here.
The people in verse 13 had decided it be best to not join the church as they were.
as they were is a key pharse I dont want you to miss.
These people werent willing to change, they werent willing to repent and they knew exactly what had happened to Annanis and Saphari.
They were struck dead.
Ever been around someone and all of the sudden you hear this gigantiac lie start coming from their mouths, what do people usally do, they duck so not to get struck with lightenng!
back in verse 12
12 Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.
Today people ask the question all the time,
Why dont we see the signs and the wonders as recorded in the Bible?
One reason we have it in the Bible is that the church was pure, it was clean. The Church was the church. The Body Of Christ!
The Church was complete and build on the the right foundation, Jesus and Jesus alone!
It wasnt about membership, power, control, fame or self glory. It wasnt a social club of sorts.
It was about Jesus Christ and the Resurrection!
Everyone wantd Jesus and then they wanted even more of Him!
They had the desire to worship Him with everything they had.
This Church could have actually sung I Surrender All and meant it!
This church was of one mind and accord.
This Church had no division but complete unity,
The result, Many Signs and wonders were seen. People were healed,
But what about today?
Many studys have been done and the results show that in just about every church everywhere that only 50% have never repented!
All you have to do is ask this one question to them,
When did you become a Christian?
You will probably hear that they have been a Christian their whole life.
warning warning!!!
No one has been a Christian their whole life, they have been a sinner their whole life but not a Christian.
We were all born into sin, we all have sinned amd fallen short of the Glory of God!
They may have been attending church snce they were born but that dosent make a Christian.
For the one who says they have been a Christian all their life well they are just as lost as a goat!
50% of the church has made profession of faith but yet never turned from their old ways.
This is what I beleive is the reason we dont see the signs and wonders in the church as they did in the Early church.
Oh, God does still do signs and wonders, many of you are a living testimony of that!
I have been so blessed to have wittnessed God’s hand at work right before my very eyes on sevral occasions.
I always asked, Lord why dont you let the church see this, It will stregenthen them so much.
But then I remember
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
You see Faith comes by hearing Gods Word, not seeing. This is why we call it Faith.
So many people would beleive if they could see God.
But this isnt the way God works,
Man will say show me God and I will beleive, but God says beleive and i will show you!
This is the reason we dont see the signs and wonders today like they did in the early church.
Today the church is seen as being judgemental, outdated, out of touch.
This is totaly different from the early church as they werent looked upon in this way at all.
13 None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.
The ones who would not joing them held the church in high esteem.
I sold a car last week to a couple, nice people we got to talking and it just came out I started telling them about Jesus and we started talking and before I knew it I had done told them I was a Pastor.
I suddenly thought uh oh… I done blew it!
You see years ago if someone thought they were buying a car from a pastor they would beleive every word they were told, after all a pastor wouldnt lie to make a sale right.
we will fast forward to 2018 and well, i thought that these people might just walk away. thinking we better watch out.
A story about a couple who were together since 1st grade. they actually lived beside one another and were up in theuir years and had never gotten married.
They decided to get married and got in the car and headed to find a preacher and a tragic accident happened and they were both killed.
They never had the oppertunity to get married.
They get to heaven and see Peter, he welcomes them and ask if they need anything, they answer with how they want to get married. Peter says ok after hearing their story.
a very long time went by and they still hadnt gotten married or seen Peter, then one day they saw Peter and they caught up with Him, Hey Peter did you forget about us?
Peter replied no, not at all Im am working on it. they said well ok
Finally one day Peter comes looking for them and says ok, you ready to get married and they were delighted with joy.
They got married in heaven.
Guess what happened next?
no they didnt live happy ever after, from the wedding night on they couldnt stand one another anymore and decided best they get a divorce.
They go and find Peter, he ask how they are liking married life and they tell him they want a divorse.
He says what! It took me over 2 years to find you a preacher up hear and now you want me to find you a laywer!
This is the problem with the church today, it isnt pure, it isnt Holy, it isnt for real anymore.
To many times we see a church being focused on entertainment instead of Holliness.
I have heard it said before that instead of the feeding of the sheep we have the entertainment of the goats!
This is why the church has the problems it has today because of it lack of being pure.
14 And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women,
We see today men and women leaving the Lord and leaving the church,
The United States today has become the third biggest group of unreached people in the world for Jesus, we ar right behind China and India.
Missionaries are now being sent to america from other countries .
What a change. We need a great revival so that a great awakening can occur in our country.
difference in revival and awakening.
Revival of the beleivers, we need to be revived! We need fire!
Because as it has always been Gods plan to use men and women to reach the lost.
Unless the church is revived their will be no awakening of the lost!
what were some of the signs and wonders that happened in verse 12?
15 so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
Notice the words cots and mats in this verse,
It means the rich had cots and the poor had mats.
God dosent have any standard of economical standards to which He works.
Everyone needs God!
this church was clean and pure, God had a clear source to work in and through.
notice what was just said,
there is a progression that must take place.
To Work in
To Work Through!
Unless a man allows God to work in him God will never work through him!
This Church was clean and provided a channel for God to work through! The result many were healed from sickness and disease.
Their faith was incredible, they knew that God was working through these people as they brought the sick out and laid them on the side of the streets least Peters shadow might fall upon them.
Now we all know that their is no power in a shadow, in oil, in laying in hands or in a hemn of a garment.
These are only points of contact that release our faith.
21 for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.”
It was her point of contact to release her faith.
here it was the shadow of Peter.
Why dont we see this happening anymore?
why we dont see God working the signs and wonders around the church today as in the early church.
The church isnt clean, it isnt pure anymore.
Take most people out of the churcch building on a sunday morning and put them anywhere you want and you cant tell a lot of them from the rest of the world!
This is why we dont see the signs anymore.
many years ago some great thelogioans got to gether and made the statement that the reason the church dosent see the signs and wonders any longer in the church is that it all ceased with the death of the apostles.
They added it ceased when the bible was completed, thus the signs were no longer needed because the word of God was complete.
This is their reason and excuse, I say the reason is that the church is involved with unclean activity, not being Holy, not desireing to be pure.
5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.
Church we cant be right with God on our own tearms, in our own mind.
We can only be right with God on His terms and His Terms are Jesus, by repenting and coming to Jesus.
Its through repentance, meaning turning from the world and to turn to Jesus.
Its by confessing our sins to a Holy and Righteous God and asking for forgivness of our sins.
By putting our faith and trust in the work of the cross where Jesus died for our sins, went to the grave and defeated death!
We are all sinners, the only thing that seperates a beleiver from a non-beleiver is Jesus Christ!
I A Christian is a person who has turned from their sins, its a person who has placed their faith in Jesus in dieing for their sins.
Its a person who has confessed that they are a sinner before god and who has asked for His forgivness.
A Christian is a person who followers Jesus, daily!
A Christian most importantly of all is a person whom Jesus live His life through!
A Christian loves, no matter what, a Chraitian has to love, they cant help but to love, its Jesus who is in you that loves.
A Lot of things go away when becoming a Christian, some things go away slowly, some very fast but one thing that goes away very fast in every Christian is hatered.
God is Love!
16 The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
The people came from the towns around Jerusalem,
They must have put a ad up on facebook, thats right no facebook back then.
They must have heard it on the nightly news, opps no news or tv back then either.
Local newspaper? afraid not.
the only way the people heard about what was happening in the church was for the people of the church had to be shareing what was going on.
The people were shareing with others of how God was working in their lives and growing them.
When we only learn and grow and take in and never put out we become just as the dead sea.
Their are rivers that lead into the dead sea yet the dead sea never puts anything out, the result.... we have a dead sea. it becomes stagnet.
Just as a Christian who always takes in and dosent put out they to become like the dead sea.
Take the Jordan river, it has water coming in and it puts water out daily, the result is a thriving Jordan River.
If the church dosent put out whats going on amongst Gods people how will people ever come to learn about it.
oh the church will put out a fund raiser, a chicken muddle, a stew, a gospel sing.
But how often do we hear about what God is doing in a church, How often do you share what God is doing in you,
A little hint for you.
Start sharing what God is doing in you and He will begin doing through you!
There are people with sickness, illness, injuries, emotional problems and distress. There are ones with family problems, marital problems, finanical problems.
Bring all of these problems to Jesus.
Just as we see in these verses and in verse 16, even the ones with unclean spirits were healed. They all were healed!
You know I tried real hard a few years back to get the Group Kutlas to come for a worship concert.
They talked with meand they were anxious to come to a little town like Emporia Va. but they had a list of requirements that had to be met.
We could not meet those requirements therfore they would not come,
So how did it all end up working, God sent us Exodus!!
And my personal opinion they actually do a few of Kutlas songs better than Kutlas!!!
We would all like to see God come to this church right here in Branchville Va. and do a mariclous work just as He did in the early church. I know their are people everywhere that need His touch. He wants to come more than we want Him to come here too.
But He to has requirments before He will come do a maricouls work here and I beleive He wont do untill His requirments are met.
He has to have purity, He has to see Holiness. He has to see cleaniess.
God wants to come here to do signs and wonders as seen in verse 12
God wants to come so that the Church will be held in high esteem as seen in verse 13
God wants to come so that men and women will be added to the church more than ever, verse 14
God wants to come to heal the sick, He wants the rich and the poor to come to Him as in verse 15
God wants people from the surronding towns to come and to be healed as in verse 16.
The early Church was a very powerful church.
They were powerfull because they were a praying church,
They were a clean church, a pure church.
Yet the church of today is doing the same things the world is doing and the church wonders why God dosent show up and do mariclous things.
We must put adhere to
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
We must repent of these things and to confess our sins and He will be just in forgiving our sins.
1
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we are a Clean, Pure Church God will begin to do signs and wonders, the result men and women will come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Is Jesus your Lord and Savior?
I know for everyone here Jesus is your Savior, but is He your Lord?
Is Jesus the Master of your life?
A lot of people want Jesus for a savior, for the fire insurance but yet they keep the steering wheel from here to the grave, Give Jesus the steering wheel of your life and sit back and watch where He takes you!
I promise you havent seen anything like it in all your life!
1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
When Repentance takes place, Gods shows up and He will do a work we havent yet seen!
Lates pray.....
Maybe there are ones here who dont have a realitonship with Jesus, If you dont know for sure that when you die that you will spend all of eternity in heaven you come to Jesus today.
He says He is standing at the door of your heart and is knocking, if you will open up He will come in and make His home with you.
The altar is open, if you want prayer you come,