23
Acts 5:12-16 THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD WITH HIS CHURCH
Introduction:
In
our text today we see evidence of the presence and power of the Lord
with His early church. We should take comfort from this Scripture
because the
same Lord is with the
challenge us to be faithful in witnessing
for the Lord in this community and, as
we have opportunity, throughout the whole
world.
I.
A reminder of some things which had happened
Jesus
had organized His church in the early part of His ministry on earth.
He called out certain men to follow Him
who had been saved and baptized under
the ministry of John the Baptist. He was the pastor of this church for three
years when His earthly ministry came
abruptly to a halt.
After
Jesus was crucified and after He had arisen from the grave He made a
number of appearances to the members of
his Church. He assigned His church the
task of witnessing to the unsaved
throughout the world. He assigned them
the
task of baptizing the converts. He assigned them the task of teaching and
training the new converts throughout the
world to observe and do all that the
Lord had commanded. That involved the organization of new
churches in all the
places were new converts existed and
training them to also do the work which
Jesus had assigned.
Before
Jesus ascended back to heaven He promised His church that He would
send the Holy Spirit to come upon the
church. The Holy Spirit would comfort
them, lead them and empower them to do the
work which He had assigned. He also
promised to be with them to the end of the
world, that is the end of the age.
He said, “I will never leave you nor
forsake you.” We are to understand that
Jesus was promising to be with His church
through the presence and power of the
Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus,
Himself, would be with
His church.
On
the following Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came upon the church as
Jesus had promised. He filled the room where the church had
gathered. From
that moment on the presence and power of
the Lord Almighty was upon the church
empowering the church to carry out the
Great Commission. On the day of
Pentecost about 3000 souls were saved and
added to the church. That great
number of converts in one day was a
special evidence of the presence and power
of the Holy Spirit of God with His
church. It was also an evidence that
through
the Holy Spirit the unseen presence of the
Lord Jesus Himself was with His
church.
Then
later as Peter and John started to enter the temple at
they were involved in the healing of a man
who had been lame all of his life.
This great miracle was another evidence
that the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit was upon His church. The Apostle Peter got a chance to preach to
another
exceedingly large crowd and he explained
that the miracle was also an evidence
that the invisible presence of the Lord
Jesus Himself was with His church.
Peter said that it was by the power of
Jesus who had been raised from the dead
that the lame man was healed. From this we are to understand that through
the
Holy Spirit the power of the Lord Jesus
Christ had healed the lame man. As a
result there was about another 5000 people
who got saved and we have reason to
believe that most of them joined the
church. Both the miracle and great
number
of people who got saved gave evidence that
the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit of God was with the church and that
through the Holy Spirit the Lord
Jesus Himself was with His church.
II.
New evidence in our text of the presence and power of the Lord with the
church
V.
12, “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders
wrought among the people...” This verse speaks of all the apostles --- not
just
Peter and John. All of the apostles were being used of the
Lord to work great
miracles.
The apostles would lay their hands on the sick and afflicted and the
sick person was miraculously healed. Perhaps you will recall that after Peter
and John had been threatened by the
Sanhedrin Council the church had prayed and
asked God to help them to be bold to speak
His word and to witness for Jesus and
He most certainly answered that
prayer. He gave them the boldness to
speak for
Jesus.
They also asked God to confirm His word by signs and wonders and we see
by these miracles that God most certainly
answered that prayer.
As
for the part that the hands of the apostles played in the healing, I
think you understand that the hands of the
apostles had no power to perform
these miracles. It was the hands of the Lord that actually
did the healing.
But the Lord did the healing when the
hands of the apostles were placed upon the
sick so as to give evidence that He placed
His approval upon the witness which
the apostles and other Christians were
giving about Jesus. The apostles and
other Christians witness about Jesus. The apostles laid hands on the sick and
afflicted.
Then the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and the presence of
the Lord Jesus Christ working through the
Holy Spirit did the miracle showing
that God approved of the message which
they spoke.
(V.
12), “...(and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.” I
want you to take special notice where the
church was meeting. The membership
had gotten much too large for them to all
meet in the upper room where they had
been on the day of Pentecost. So they were now meeting within the temple
wall
in a place called “Solomon’s porch.” We can add up the membership to be above
8000.
It had possibly reached as many now as 10,000 people. No one building
was large enough to hold them. So they were meeting in a large covered area
within the walls of the temple. It had been built to hold such large crowds
as
this.
There they met and worshipped and witnessed to as many bystanders as
came
close enough to watch and listen.
Keep
in mind that Peter and John had been ordered by the Sanhedrin Council
not to preach or teach or even speak in
the name of Jesus any more. But the
apostles were healing the people openly in
the streets of the city and the
entire group of about 10,000 Christians
were meeting openly right on the temple
grounds within the temples walls in that
covered area called “Solomon’s Porch.”
This was right under the noses of the
Jewish leaders who had commanded Peter and
John not to speak any more in the name of
Jesus. They were meeting where they
could not help but be seen by their
enemies.
V.
13, “And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people
magnified them.” This verse speaks of two groups of people in
addition to the
Christians. The first group called “the rest” speaks of
the Jewish leaders who
were in opposition to the Christians. They knew what was going on under
Solomon’s porch because they had people
who would bring them reports, but they
did not dare to go personally into that
large crowd of Christians to interfere
in any way with their worship
services. The reason was that the masses
of the
general public were greatly excited about
the miracles which were being done
through the apostles. The Jewish leaders were afraid that if they
interfered
with the Christians the masses of people
would mob them. It is quite striking
that the Jewish leaders were not afraid of
what God might do to them, but they
were afraid of what the general public
might do to them.
We
can see that the Lord used the miracles to attract the great masses of
the public and He used the fear which the
leaders had of the general public to
protect the church at this time from the
people who hated them and wanted very
much to hurt them.
V. 14, “And believers were the more added to
the Lord, multitudes both of
men and women.)” Let me tell you that the protection which God
provided for His
people enabling them to meet openly right
in the temple where the enemies were,
was a great evidence of the presence and
power of the Lord with them.
Furthermore the great number of new
converts which were added to the church was
additional evidence of the presence and
power of the Lord with them.
V.
15, “Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and
laid [them] on beds and couches, that at
the least the shadow of Peter passing
by might overshadow some of them.” The Apostle Peter had a special attraction
to the public at this time. This is evidently because of the prominent
role
that he had played in the healing of the
lame man at The Gate Beautiful. It had
been Peter who spoke to the lame man and
had taken him by the hand telling him
to rise up and walk in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth. It had been Peter
who was the spokesman to the great crowd
of people who had gathered after the
lame man was healed. It had been the Apostle Peter who had
preached both
occasions, first when about 3000 got saved
and then again when about 5000 got
saved.
It is quite natural that now he would draw large crowds wherever he
went.
According to verse 12 the people were bringing their sick to all of the
apostles, but according to this verse the
greater number were being brought to
Simon Peter. So great was the attraction to Simon Peter that
the people tried
to lay their sick so that Peter’s shadow
would fall on their sick folk as he
walked along the street. .
Let
me say to you that this great attraction to the Apostle Peter by the
common people was not due to any special
greatness of the Apostle Peter. I am
sure that he would be very much in
agreement with this statement. You will
remember that Simon Peter is the man who
had denied the Lord three times. This
great attraction came to him by the great
miracles that the Lord did through
him.
The fact that the great crowds of people were attracted to this apostle
of
the Lord was an evidence that presence and
power of the Holy Spirit of God was
with His church. It was also an evidence that through the Holy
Spirit the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself was with them
empowering them to do the work that He had
assigned them to do.
V. 16,
“There came also a multitude [out] of the cities round about unto
Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them
which were vexed with unclean spirits:
and they were healed every one.” The word “also” means in addition to. The
great masses that had been spoken of in
verses 12 through 15 were local people
from the city of Jerusalem itself. It stands to reason that they would be the
first to flock to the Christians and bring
their sick and afflicted to the
Apostles to be healed. It was quiet reasonable that large number of new
believers spoken of in verse 14 were from
among the local people. We do not
know how many there were, but there were a
great many.
But
in verse 16 we see that a great multitude of people from the other
cities around began to flood into the city
of Jerusalem to bring their sick and
afflicted to the apostles. The crowds were much like the great crowds
that once
had come to Jesus bringing their sick to
be healed. And Luke tells us in this
verse that of all the great numbers who
were brought to them, not one of them
went away still in his affliction. All of them were healed --- every one of
them.
Let
me say once again, that the great miracles were an evidence to the
people that God approved of these
Christians. It was an evidence to them
that
what they were saying about Jesus is the
truth. They told the people that Jesus
is the Son of God. They said that Jesus is the Christ whom God
had promised
through the prophets of old. They said that even though Jesus had been
crucified --- as everybody knew that He
had --- yet He is no longer dead. They
told the people that Jesus has risen from
the dead and that He is alive. They
told the people, as Peter did on the day
when the lame man was healed, that it
was not by their power that their sick
were being healed. They told the people
that it was by the power and authority of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth that their
loved ones were healed. They told the people that if they wanted to
go to
heaven they would have to call upon Jesus
Christ and trust in him for the
salvation of their soul. They said that nobody could go to heaven
except
through Jesus. The miraculous healing was just an evidence
that the presence
and power of the Holy Spirit of God that
Jesus Himself was present. He was
present to heal their sick, but even more
important, He was present to save
their soul.
III.
A special message for today
Let
me say to you that the message which I preach today about Jesus is the
same message which those apostles preached
about Him. I am here to tell you
that Jesus Christ is the promised virgin
born Seed of Woman whom God promised to
Adam.
He is the promised Descendant of Abraham through whom all the nations of
the earth would be blessed. He is the Cornerstone whom the Jewish leaders
rejected and crucified. He is the promised Lamb of God of whom Isaiah
wrote who
would go to His slaughter without
protest. He is the Lamb of God of whom
John
the Baptist said that He takes away the
sin of the world. He is the Light of
The World, who shines a beacon of hope to
every lost sinner. He is the Bread of
Life who gives Eternal Life to all who
call upon Him for the salvation of the
soul.
He is the only way to stay out of the fires of hell. He is the Door to
Heaven.
Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man
cometh unto the Father but by me.”
You
do not need for me to perform a miracle in order for you to know that
I speak the truth about Jesus Christ. If that was what was needed here today I
would be able to call for your sick and
the same power that healed those sick
people in our text would heal today. We would be able to eleminate our prayer
list.
We would just have them brought to our services and the Lord would heal
them.
But that is not what is needed today.
I
have preached to you the truth of God’s Holy Word. God will leave it up
to you as an individual. Each individual can either believe God’s word
or he
can reject it. If one will believe and will place his faith
in Jesus Christ,
then Jesus will save his soul. The same Jesus who healed the people in our
text, the same Jesus who saved those
people in our text who placed their faith
in Him, will save today. The same Holy Spirit of God is here in our
services to
touch your heart and appeal to you to
trust in Jesus Christ. If you will trust
in Jesus then Jesus will save.
Conclusion:
Who
will come and trust in Jesus for salvation?
What believer will come
and present yourself to this church for
membership with a commitment to give
your life in service to the Lord?