THE
Acts Chapter 2: 33 - 47
The First Christian
Teaching after the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Therefore being by
the right hand of God [Jesus Christ being by the right
hand of God] exalted, and having received of the
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he [God] had
shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. – Acts
Can you see spirit? No no, you can’t
see spirit. Therefore whatever they
could see, whatever they could hear, had to be in the category of the natural
world - in the senses realm. For you can
see, for instance, you can see this beautiful Dove here. This you can see. Why can you see it? Because it is in the senses
world. Is God in this room? God is spirit, God is spirit. Can you see it? No.
But, but, tonight when people spoke in tongues, could you see the
speaking in tongues? Yes. Could you hear the speaking in tongues? Yes.
But you could not see the spirit that was the power behind the speaking
in tongues or the interpretation. Right? Sure it’s
right.
For David is not
ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my
right hand. – Acts
Until I make thy foes
thy footstool. – Acts
Therefore, let all
the house of
Therefore, let all
the house of
Now when they [the multitude] heard this, they were pricked in their heart,
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles [ to Peter and the
other 11], Men
and brethren, what shall we do?
– Acts
What shall we do about it? We crucified him. God raised him up. We know he is alive because we’ve heard you
speak the wonderful works of God. What
can we do about it? And ladies and
gentlemen, versus 38 and 39 are written so accurately that they just
flabbergast people when you read them.
Then Peter said unto
them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts
Why didn’t he ask them to confess
all their sins? Because
that doesn’t get you saved. You
don’t get saved by confession of sin.
You get saved by confessing the Savior from sin, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Right? Sure.
And so he used the word ‘repent’.
To repent is to do the Will of God.
And the Will of God is that we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus
Christ and believe that God raised him from the dead. Romans 10: 9, 10 -- and thou shalt be saved. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. So whenever we
confess the Savior from sin, that is repentance. And when these men said to Peter that day,
men and brethren, what must we do? Peter
said “repent”. The Lord’s Words say to
repent. Except a man is born again of
God’s Spirit, he has no eternal life.
There is no way of getting inside than the way of the Word of God.
And if men and women want to get
born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, they are going to have to do it
according to God’s rulebook. And God’s
rulebook is the Bible. And God’s Word
was to these men that day - repent. And
be baptized in water – no, but we try as hard as we can to get water in that
verse. And God does not have water in
that verse. And many denominations try
as hard as they can to get water in that verse.
Had God wanted water in that verse, He would have put it in. Why did God not put it in here? Because it doesn’t belong
in the rightly divided Word of God.
Once you add a word to the Word of God, you no longer have the Word of
God. Has nothing to do with water
whatsoever. You can be water baptized
until you drown. That wouldn’t help
you. You must be born again. It’s got to be an inside job,
so again, no amount of water baptism is going to help you.
Then Peter said unto
them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remission of sins, [not for the forgiveness of sins] and ye shall [absolutely] receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts
Last night, you can hear some
people talking about speaking in tongues at a conference that I attended. They had never sat through this teaching
class of mine on Receiving the Holy Spirit. Here they were using the words, talking to
each other saying, ‘Have you been baptized with the Holy Ghost ’? How come Peter on this day of Pentecost
doesn’t say in this verse 38 “Remission of sins and ye shall be baptized with
the Holy Ghost?” Why didn’t he say
it? Because it was
wrong. It’s always wrong. It’s not to be baptized with the Holy
Ghost. It is to receive the gift, the
gift, the gift - not the Giver but the gift of the Giver. To receive it into
manifestation and whenever you receive [lambano --
into manifestation]. When you
manifest the gift, the gift is the God-given ability, it’s Christ in you. When you manifest it which they had just done
an hour or two before,
they spoke in tongues. And here he says,
when you repent, you get remission and you shall absolutely [lambano - receive into manifestation] the gift from the
Giver. Isn’t that something? He doesn’t say: “Are you baptized with the Holy Spirit, brother”
– he just says receive it. Receive it
into manifestation. You’ve got it in
here. Your born
again of God spirit, now do something about it.
Now speak in tongues, now interpret, now prophesy, operate – operate.
For the promise is
unto you [not us,
Has he called you? If He has called you, then the promises are
unto you. To be born again, repent, be
filled with the Holy Spirit and manifest it.
Right?
For the promise to all who are afar off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. If He has called us, we
are His. Right? Isn’t that wonderful? The only thing you have to ask yourself is
‘have you been called’? If you’re
called, it’s yours, ladies and gentlemen.
It’s ours. Sure. In verse 40, it says:
And with many other
words did he testify and exhort, saying, Saves yourselves from this untoward [lousy] generation. – Acts
Then they that gladly
received his word were baptized: and the
same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. – Acts
Were they baptized in water? No sir.
No water in that verse either. Do
you know what it was? They were baptized
with the presence of Christ. Its Christ in you, the hope of glory. It’s a one time deal. And its called to be
baptized in his name because it’s in him.
Well, look what else it says.
And the same day they were added
unto them about 3000 souls. You know, my
critics have said from time to time when they hear me teach on the multitudes,
they say that multitudes couldn’t get into the upper room and those poor stupid
people say, ‘Well maybe the Bible meant 50 or 60 people as a multitude, you
know. I never say too much until I get
them cornered and then I chop their ears off.
How can 50 or 60 people equal
3000? It says there were 3000 people
saved that day, then there must have been 3000 people
at the meeting. Right? I couldn’t get 3000 saved in this auditorium
tonight with all the believing in the world, because they are not here. Right? So if 3000 got saved, there had to be least
3001 there. Because one of them was a
doubter, you know. At least 3001, right? And ladies and gentlemen, the proportion is
the same then as it is today. I say they
had to have a pretty good size gang at that meeting place in
And that day, when Peter preached
his message and he was bold, boy, he stood up and he told them, but he loved
them. Oh sure, but he laid his cards on the table spiritually speaking, and he
said ladies and gentlemen, this is it. Whatcha gonna’ do about it? And they said, ‘well what do we have to
do’? He said: you better repent. And when you repent, you’ll get remission of
sins and be baptized with everything that that name represents, and then you’re
going to lambano.
You are going to manifest the gift.
You are going to show it forth and the only thing he knew about showing
forth the gift, so far, the only thing he knew was that they had spoken in
tongues. And down through the history of
the Christian church, ladies and gentlemen, every time anybody was born again
in the church, the evidence in the senses world that he was born again always
was that they spoke in tongues. This
carried on in the early church until about the tail end of the first century.
By that time, the pressure had
grown on circumcision so much as a Christian that circumcision sort of took
over the speaking in tongues. And by the
time 250 AD
came around, the church was so organized, centralized with 12 major branches
such as the one in
I think the Way Ministry represents
one of these lights in an age which I think is one of the last times in our
civilization. And that is why, people,
we must be bold in our teaching. We must
be courageous. We must just be
gloriously happy that we have a share, an opportunity to be a part of this
Ministry at this time.
Then they that gladly
received his word were baptized: ………………
Referring back to verse 41, we are
going to look up that word ‘gladly’. A real interesting word that is explained more fully and clearly in
the text. The word gladly means
those who are wide open; those who didn’t fight; those who said, boy I want to
learn, I want to hear, I don’t want to ask a question to show that I want to
fight. I asked this question because I
want to know. That’s the word ‘gladly’.
And they [the 3000 souls] continued stedfastly [met
constantly – New English Bible] in the apostles
doctrine and fellowship, in breaking of bread, and in prayers. -- Acts
They made the Word of God their
own. They followed those men in the
ministry who were leaders and teachers.
Now I want you to take notice that
verses 41 through 47 use the word ’and’ extensively and repetitiously. Notice that verse 42 up to verse 46 begin
with the word ‘and.’
This is the figure of speech called polysyndeton
or ‘many ands’. What you need to know is
that when that figure of speech is used, it points out the importance of those
verse(s). The Word of God is very simple
to read when you study to show yourself approved unto God. There is a major book by Bullinger
called Figures of Speech Used in the Bible.
If you want to do some serious studying, you should purchase that book
and it will open up many Scriptures to you that you did not understand.
Let us begin now to close out the
book of Acts chapter 2. I will try to
keep it as simple as I can starting with verse 42 and
ending with verse 47.
And fear came upon
every soul: and many wonders and signs
were done by the apostles. – Acts
The word ‘fear’ is old English and
it actually means that they had respect for one another.
And all that believed
were together, and had all things common:
-- Acts
This is quite an amazing principle. I will give you an actual example after the
next verse.
And sold their
possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. – Acts
There are families that go out on
the field to share God’s Word for one whole year. There was a family who had very little money
or material things. A leader from a
different family who was very well off financially,
gave that family a lot of money to be able to function on the field for that
year. It was an amazing thing to
witness. Most people will not part with
their money. This was a perfect example
of what was mentioned in Acts 2: 45.
They parted there possessions and goods to meet every man’s need. Isn’t that wonderful?
And they [the 3000], continuing daily
[praising God] with one accord in the temple, and
breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and
singleness of heart [undivided loyalty] – Acts 2: 46
Praising God, and having
favour with all the
people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. – Acts
Why did God add to the church every
day? Because the people were doing His
Will and they were constantly operating the law of believing. What a person believes in his heart, is what he will receive into his life.
I enjoyed working Acts 2 with
you. As you continue to study, you will
see that the Word of God will open up more of life’s mysteries to you and
contribute to your more than abundant life on this earth until Jesus Christ
returns.
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