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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/joel-portman/development-of-the-church-in-acts/
Turn with me again to the book of Acts, chapter 2. Now, this might be just a little shorter than I had planned, because I walked out of my seat and left my notes there. And maybe that'll be better. Acts, chapter 2, it'll read from verse 1.
When the day of Pentecost was being accomplished, was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
There appeared unto them cloven tongues, as divided tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven. And when this was noise abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Verse 14, Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, Ye men of Judah, Judea, and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you. And hearken to my words, for these are not drunken.
As ye suppose seeing, it is but the third hour of the day. For this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. It shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
And all my servants and all my handmaids, I will pour out in those days of my Spirit. They shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in heaven above. Signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire, and vapor of smoke of sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come.
It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call by the name of the Lord shall be saved. I think if you notice the comparison between this and the verses in Joel that he is quoting, you'll realize that Peter stopped quoting this scripture before it was finished, much like the Lord did in Luke chapter four.
There's still some in the verses that refer to yet in the future. Down to verse 41 again. Verse 40, and with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation.
And they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto them about 3 ,000 souls. Look with me in the book of Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two, and we'll read from verse 11.
Wherefore, remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh were called uncircumcised by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, or without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus, you sometimes were far off or made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who have made both one and have broken down the middle wall of partition between us having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances or to make in himself a twain of two, one new man, so making peace.
That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross having slain the enmity thereby. That's all I'd like to read. There are other scriptures, passages in the book of Acts that I will refer to, but I'm gonna just not read them at this time because of the limits of time sake.
This day of Pentecost was a most momentous day. We recognize of course that it was a day in which the church began. And if you trace in the history of any society or any nation in fact, you'll notice the fact that there are many very important dates where there are events that determined the future and had a great deal to do with the development of the history, whether it be in a history of a country like Mexico or in Great Britain, there were very important events that resulted in the country being the way it is now as it compared with the absolute monarchy in the past.
As well as you know in our own country, there are very important dates that we can look back to and remember oftentimes as being important events that had to do with the movements of the progress that has been seen, whether we see progress today or not is another question, but nevertheless, bringing us to the point of a democratic republic that we have in representative capacity today.
So that we recognize that there are very important events in the history of any body of people. I would like to notice with you some of the very important events that were so essential in the movements of God on the days of the acts insofar as the church was concerned.
There are some people that like to go back to the early days, they like to have Pentecostal days. They talk about getting back to the beginning. Well, that may be good in some sense, but I want to remind you that in the days of the Pentecost, there are many truths that they didn't know.
There are many things that had not been unfolded to them that God raised up a man like Paul to unfold the mysteries that you have developed for us in many of his writings. As you read in the book of Ephesians, you have four mysteries that Paul writes about.
And one that seemed to be the center of his teaching was the mystery that had to do with the one body, that is the church composed of Jew and Gentile, brought out of every people, land, and nation of this world and with no separation between them and with a breakdown of all that would divide them.
You find that God moved in the days of Acts to develop that great truth and unfold it and bring it to the point where the believers eventually recognized that God has made no difference between either one.
I would take that if these disciples had recognized the great importance and the implication of the day of Pentecost, they would have at least had some measure of understanding of that. You know that the day of Pentecost was one of the feasts of Jehovah in the Old Testament.
It was a feast that took place 50 days after the day after the Sabbath, I should say the Sabbath after the Passover. You find that it's seven weeks, it says, in one place in the Old Testament, plus one day.
Another place it says 50 days, same amount of time. The day of Pentecost was a day in which the children of Israel brought out of their own dwellings two loaves. And God specifically tells them that those two loaves were to be made with leaven.
Those loaves were never offered upon the altar, they were waved before the Lord, they were presented to him. And those loaves are spoken of as a new meal offering, something totally different, a fresh offering that's of a different character of those that had been taking place previous to that.
And the significance of the day of Pentecost, had the disciples comprehended it, they would have realized that this was symbolic of God's purpose to bring out of both Jew and Gentile for their backgrounds, one offering to the Lord, one presentation to the Lord, one thing made in the element of weakness and sinfulness that is inherent in human nature, and yet to bring them into the presence of God and to offer them, wave them before God in an acceptable manner.
Symbolically indicating to us that God's purpose that was commenced on the day of Pentecost was to form out of the quain one new man, so making peace. I think that the day of the Lord's crucifixion was a very definite day determined by God, it was linked with the Passover.
It was a time where the lamb had to be slain. And God had intended that that symbolic act in the Old Testament that liberated the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt would only be a picture anticipating a great sacrificial work of our Lord Jesus that has liberated his people and brought them into fellowship with him.
That was a day determined by God. It had to take place on that day. You remember the Jews would have loved to take his life prior to that, but they could not because it had to be reserved for that moment in that manner in which God had determined it.
But the day of Pentecost was no less determined by God. It was a day in which God had, in fact, from the institution of the feast of Pentecost, there's no indication of it ever being celebrated in the Old Testament.
I think that's the significance of the expression that when the day of Pentecost was fully come, when it was being accomplished, when that which it pointed forward to was actually taking place, it was that particular day.
So there are three things linked with this day. It was a day of the presentation of the two wave loaves that were made with leaven. Another thing is it is a new meal offering, so it's something fresh and different, the initiation of something in contrast to the old.
One could also link with the fact that there were seven Sabbaths that had run their course, indicating to us that the period of Judaism and God's purpose had come to an end. But it was also the first day of the week.
You figure for one day, seven weeks following the Sabbath, and then add one day, you have the first day of the week. You might not agree with that, but I believe it's true. I personally believe that this is the first day of the week set apart because the first day of the week is linked with a new beginning.
It's linked with the resurrection of Christ. It's linked with a living savior. It's linked with a people that are identified with him, and not with the old, and not linked with the old thing that has passed and run its course.
Well, there are some very significant aspects that link themselves with a day of Pentecost. And if these disciples had come to realize and recognize what that day signified, they would not have had the difficulties that resulted in sequential chapters in the book of Acts.
Because in their mind, there still existed a wall between Jew and Gentile. There existed a division, a separation. And there not only existed a separation between them and the Gentiles, it was really physically evident in the temple because of the wall that separated the court of the Gentiles from the court of the Jews.
It was also in their own minds, an absolute division, a separation that could never be breached. Sadly, of course, they forgot, or they failed to understand Old Testament prophecies, which made it very clear that God's purposes in the infinite grace of God could never be confined to one nation.
It had to embrace the entirety of the world in its ultimate aspect. Many times had they read the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Ezekiel and other Psalms, in fact, they would have found there that God's intention was to bring in all men, saved by the grace of God and linked with the living Christ.
And so they failed to realize that. And so this is the day of Pentecost was a very important day. You'll find it's a day in which was marked by the coming of the Spirit of God. It was a fulfillment of the purpose, the promise rather of the Lord Jesus.
He had promised that ye should receive power, not many days hence. And they were to wait for that coming in Jerusalem. You ever notice that there was no power for testimony prior to that moment. There was no outward going out to evangelize.
There was no preaching the gospel until Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and began to preach. Because the Spirit of God alone can give the power to be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and Judea and under the uttermost parts of the earth.
And so these disciples are waiting in the upper room until that day came. And when that day came, God initiated a totally new thing. We see here that it says, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
And I would take it the coming of the Spirit of God and that which took place on that day was marked by a number of very important events. The first was the descent of the Spirit of God to continue the work of the Lord Jesus and to bring it to its completion.
Having gone away to heaven, he sent the Comforter to his people. He sent the Convictor for the unsaved. And he did so that he might continue that work and bring the church to its completion so far as God's purposes are concerned.
So we fulfill the promise of the Lord Jesus as the Spirit of God came. His coming also was linked with this moment that is called the baptism of the Spirit in which the church was formed by his coming.
By one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, we read in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 13. Whether Jew or Gentile, whether bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. And so the baptism of the Spirit took place on that day.
And I take it personally that God had every believer in view when that church was formed on that day and you and I came in the experience of being a part of it the moment we trusted Christ. The baptism of the Spirit was a once for all event.
Don't be taken in by charismatic error because that's not a repetition in any way possible. The events that were necessary for that moment to take place have never been replicated and never will be. There's another thing that took place that day and that is that the disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
And that filling was the enablement that made it possible for them to go forth. First of all, made it possible for Peter to stand up with the 11 and begin to preach so boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus.
It's the filling of the Spirit that empowers, it's the filling of the Spirit that controls. It's how it was just so necessary. And that along with the fact that they were indwelt by the Spirit, because that's a New Testament experience that never was true of those believers in the Old Testament time.
There were those who were filled with the Spirit for the purpose of the accomplishment of some particular work in a temporary way because the filling of the Spirit is not permanent. But for believers today, we are indwelt by the Spirit of God.
And that is true regardless of our outward condition, manner of life, as long as a person is a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus, they are indwelt. That's the evidence they belong to Christ. But there's a difference between that and being filled with the Spirit because being filled with the Spirit, we heard about from our brother by the steers, be not drunk or controlled with wine, but be filled or controlled with and empowered by the Spirit of God.
I think of that, I always think of a neighbor that we used to have across the street from us that was a very tranquil kind of a person, a very easygoing kind of an individual until he got drunk. And how it changes a person's personality and changes their manners.
It's like they're being controlled by something else and they become a different person. That's the idea of it, to be filled with and empowered and controlled and motivated and dominated by the Spirit of God.
That's what we need in our lives today. We should never be satisfied just to be indwelt by the Spirit. We should long that our lives might be in such a condition that the Spirit of God can truly control and use us, mold us and move us in such a way as to be servants and to be useful for Him.
So the disciples were filled with the Spirit of God, they were indwelt by the Spirit of God. And there was a work that has begun on that day that has continued even to the present hour. You find that there are those who were gathering at that place, I should say first of all before that, that it says that not only there was a rushing mighty wind which the multitude around them heard, that was what they heard.
And I don't know whether I can say that they saw the clove and tongues as a fire. I would take it the disciples saw that and they certainly experienced it. It seems to me that the clove and tongues, the divided tongues indicate the ability that they received that day to speak in different languages, not just one language.
Many of us would like to speak in more languages that we do more fluently. But these disciples in that day received the ability to speak many different languages and so that those that were listening to them recognized what they were saying.
The divided tongues, that's not a two-tongue person saying one thing and meaning another, but it means that they were speaking different languages. And they were as a fire because the fire would seem to be linked with the fact that what they spoke had the convicting power of God about it.
And it searched out those who were hearing it with the result that they had to submit and they were pricked in their conscience and all they could do was cry, men and brethren, what shall we do? So there was power imparted to them and they began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance.
And that was a gift that was exercised, expressed in the days of the Acts. And as I see it in the practice of it, it was always when Jewish individuals were present and there are many aspects of significance about that.
And so they began to speak in such a way that these who were gathered from many different parts could understand what they were saying. I better get my watch off because time is going away from me. But you notice that when Peter began to speak, he quoted three times from the Old Testament.
I won't dwell upon those times. He quotes from the book of Joel. Again, he quotes from Psalm 16 and then he also quotes from Psalm 110. Every one of them has a direct application to what he wants to impart to the hearers.
But listen to what he quotes from Joel in the first part of his quotation, where he reads, I should say, quotes from him. And mind you that Peter was a man who could quote the Old Testament scriptures.
Perhaps he could do it far better than you and I can. He knew the word of God. But he begins to say, and he used the word of God properly. He knew it, recognized it in its context. It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God.
That is the last days of the Jewish dispensation in its application to this point in time, but utterly yet looking to the future. He says that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. Notice the significance of that, all flesh.
And Joel is one of the Old Testament prophets, perhaps the most unique one. And I don't say that because I have his name. But nevertheless, he was one bit, looked beyond the boundaries of the nation of Israel and God showed him that God's purpose was to reach and to pour out of his spirit upon all flesh.
In the Old Testament, the greatest promise that God could give to his people was that he would put a new spirit within them. A different spirit, not of legalism, but a spirit that would empower them to please God and to honor him in a way that far transcended what they'd ever been doing under Old Testament law and legalism.
So Peter, in fact, in quoting from Joel, had certainly an inkling from that Old Testament quotation what God intended to do. So we find him preaching. And in Psalm 16, using that quotation that would indicate that God's purpose was that the Lord Jesus would be raised from the dead and exalted to God's white head.
And Psalm 110 tells us that that's where he is. He says, sit thou on my right hand. The result was that these devout men out of every nation, Jews from every nation, they could only cry out to Peter, men and brethren, what shall we do?
Because they recognized the fact that they were linked with a nation that had condemned their Messiah. They were linked with a nation that was ultimately going to receive God's judgment because of their unbelief.
What should we do? He says, there's only one thing you can do, that's repent and be baptized. And that baptism would symbolize their separation from that nation, their identification with a new leader, that is the Lord Jesus.
But I want you to notice that as you go on to the book of Acts, they fail to recognize that God's purpose was to make of Twain one new man. Come down to chapter eight and you notice that the spirit of God begins to break down the wall of separation.
It was perhaps not as great a wall that existed between the Jew and the Samaritan. We read in John chapter four, when the Lord Jesus deliberately passed through Samaria and stopped at Sychar's well, it says that the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
There are many reasons for that, and one reason was, of course, because these who inhabited the area of Samaria had been brought in after the deportation of the 10 northern tribes by the king of Assyria.
They had been brought in from many different nations, and it says that when they came in, they worshiped their own gods, and God brought judgment upon them in the form of the lions that he set among them, and many people were killed.
So they ultimately, of course, adopted the degenerative and depraved nature of the worship of Jehovah that had been characteristic of that which was under Jeroboam, or instituted by Jeroboam, and so these people were those who were recognized as practicing a corrupted form of Judaism.
I understand they were willing to accept certain parts of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch. They were only willing to accept certain things that they thought were appropriate. They had changed God's designed and designated place, no longer Jerusalem, that was Samaria, or Mount Gerizim.
They determined that that was a place where God ought to be worshiped, and the result was that they had built a temple on Mount Gerizim, which was destroyed in the period of time between the Old Testament and the New Testament, so that the woman in John chapter four could say, our fathers worshiped, past tense, upon this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem, men ought to worship, and so there was an antagonism between the two, and we understand, historically, that the Samaritans had constantly taken the side of Israel's enemies, and so there was an animosity that existed between them, but notice that in chapter eight, I won't turn to it, you can look at it yourself, you'll find that the persecution that arose after the storing of Stephen, under the hand of Saul, it says, many were scattered abroad, and they went into Samaria, and they evangelized the gospel to none but the Jews only, that is, they did not preach it publicly, but they were speaking it, they were communicating the gospel, as you and I are capable of doing in our day-by-day life, and then we find that Philip went down to Samaria, and he preached Christ unto them, he proclaimed Christ, he began to preach the person of Christ, and the result was that many were saved, a great display of the power of God, and many were brought into the good of God's great salvation but they were not, they did not receive the spirit of God until, of course, Peter came down, and the reason I take it was because God was not gonna have a separate Samaritan church, and a Jewish church, no, it was gonna be one church, one body, not Jew and Samaritan, but one body, a new man.
So the wall was partially broken down there, but when you come to chapter 10, you find that even though Philip was in Caesarea, following his encounter with a Ethiopian eunuch, he had gone to Caesarea, but even though Philip was in Caesarea, God gave Peter a vision, as a result of that vision, he went to Cornelius, the Gentile's house in Caesarea, and there that man opened another aspect of the door, as we oftentimes say, he used one more of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God, and we find him preaching the gospel in the house of Cornelius, God had showed him he was not to make any difference between the Jew and the Gentile, never to call them unclean, because what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common or unclean, and so we find that Peter is preaching the gospel, and when he got to Cornelius' house, he found there were receptive hearts, that God had prepared already, that were longing to hear the truth, and you know, as a result of that, those who heard the gospel at Cornelius' house, they believed what God said, and for the second time in the New Testament, in the book of Acts, we find that God poured out his spirit upon them, and so that that wall was broken down, it was broken down little by little, partially when Philip went to Samaria, and another step was taken when you come to chapter 10, and the wall was broken down when Peter went to the house of Cornelius.
I'm abbreviating all this for time's sake, but that wasn't the end of it, because you come to chapter 15. I would take it chapter 15 was a very important event in the progress of the church in understanding that God's intention was to break down the barrier completely.
You remember in chapter 15 that there were those that came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and they were preaching that except you be circumcised, you cannot be saved, and they were causing great disturbance among the believers.
After all, the believers had received the spirit of God, they had come into the good of salvation, they'd enjoyed the blessing of having peace with God, the certainty of knowing their sins were gone, and now they tell them, well, what you've heard from Paul and Silas, or Barnabas, rather, is not enough.
Likely those in Antioch would have recognized the fact that these men coming from Jerusalem, well, after all, that was a center, that was a place from which God's work originated, so therefore, maybe they have more authority and they have a better message than Paul does.
So a great dissension arose in Antioch that was causing great disturbance, but that was an essential aspect that brought this whole matter to a climax, because the result was that Paul could say in Galatians that he went up to Jerusalem by revelation.
God directed him to go, and he was sent along with Barnabas, and you'll read in Acts chapter 15 that they came to Jerusalem, and the way they recounted in all the churches in Samaria what God had been doing among the Gentiles, and there was great joy among them, and when they arrived in Jerusalem, they began to recount the same thing.
What were they doing? They were giving evidence of the fact that God had worked in a mighty way among the Gentiles, but immediately there arose those who would oppose and argue that would still be clinging to the legalistic aspects of including the Judaistic requirements and trying to mingle it with the grace of God, but then we find that Peter, I take it that that was a very important thing when Peter was sent to the house of Cornelius, was when you come to chapter 15, you find that Peter himself had to remember, that you remember he says that God made choice of me at the first, that he could make it very clear that God had sent him there to the Gentiles and that those Gentiles in Cornelius' house had received the gospel, they had trusted Christ, and they had received the spirit of God.
Therefore, he says, why should we put a burden upon the, a yoke upon the neck of these disciples which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? So Peter gives testimony. First of all, Paul and Barnabas testify to what God had been doing.
Secondly, Peter stands up and he begins to recount what God had done at the very beginning through his ministry, his preaching. And then they had a time of silence perhaps, and perhaps Paul and Barnabas recounted still more.
And ultimately, you see James, who seemed to have a great deal of respect and influence among those of Jerusalem, and he stands up and he begins to tell them, he says, listen, the clearest scripture of the Old Testament is absolutely certain that God intends to do a work calling out a Jew and Gentile.
I should read that in chapter 15. Read that with me, please, because it's very interesting how he uses the word of God so properly. And that put an end to the argument. In chapter 15, we read, as James stood up in verse 14, he says, Simeon, or Simon, hath declared out God of the first to visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name.
And to this agree, out of the Gentiles a people for his name, and to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written, after this or after these things, God says, I will return. I will build again the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up.
So after these things is indicative, after this present period in which God is calling out a Jew and Gentile, a people for his own name, after these things, looking forward to the future. He says that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
Another translation says, unto God, known unto God are all his works from eternity. In other words, he's saying as he begins to get enlightened, this man that was inclined toward legalistic requirements, he says, no, the word of God is absolutely clear.
Now I understand it. But God intends that Gentiles will be included without any reservation, without any question. And so the whole issue was settled, obviously, by the apostles and elders writing a letter that, of course, made their decision very clear.
This is a very important step, very important development. And the significance of it is taught in Ephesians chapter two. Here he speaks about those, he says, that you were in time past Gentiles, strangers to God, foreigners, having no claim upon God, having no link with the Messiah, being totally separated from God, without God in the world.
But now, in Christ Jesus, you who are once far off, Gentiles, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. And dear brother, today, we need to appreciate the fact that God was moving incrementally to develop this truth and to enlighten the minds of the disciples, to realize that God was never intending to limit his purpose and his day of grace to a Jewish nation, but included all, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And so we have in our day the appreciation I trust in our hearts that God broke down the middle wall of partition between us. The middle wall of partition that was contained, he says, in the law of the ordinances, the commandments, all that was contained in the Old Testament law, he'd broken down that differentiation.
And it's all for the purpose, he says, that he might make of twain one new man, one different man, one that is totally a work of God, one that is going to be consummated. And that's my last point, is that we have the consummation.
That is spoken to us in many different places, 2 Thessalonians chapter four, where we read very simply that one day in the future, he says, we who are alive, the dead in Christ shall rise first. We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them.
So what was true on the day of Pentecost when they're all with one accord and unity was perfect will be completely expressed then. A church will all be one, all caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.
So shall we ever be with the Lord. So we have something most blessed that we've come into. I think sometimes we take it for granted that God has brought us into fellowship and harmony and union with himself as well as with God's people.
There should be no barrier between us and others, perhaps from different nations, different colors, different people, but God has made both one. While there may be divisions that exist today in terms of practice and doctrine, thank God there's going to be a day when all will be united and surround the throne to render praise and honor to the Lord Jesus.
So pivotal points, very important points in the development of the church have resulted in what we enjoy in the fullness of how Paul, by the spirit of God, unfolded the great truth, the mystery of the one body.
Body composed of every believer from the day of Pentecost until the rapture. May God help us to appreciate that and to bless God that we have a part in this great work that represent him in this world.