We're gonna start off in Matthew 16. That will be a launch point for us tonight to explain where we're heading ultimately to the book of Acts. So, oh kids, sorry. Brother Rick doesn't wanna just stand there holding the door. Children, I usually remember when my wife's involved. Children up to, how old are we going up to? You know who you are. Eight years old, okay. All right, they know. If you need to know, ask the kids. Good job, kids. so matthew sixteen and acts chapter one will be in those places tonight is a beautiful day man i sure enjoyed it hope you got to uh... get outside a little bit i took a prayer walk for a little while today and i i look i love combining walking and praying together so exercise the body and more importantly exercise the spirit if you have a hard time staying awake when you pray take a walk i have not fallen asleep yet on my feet so it's a good way to do it walk with the lord literally Though yesterday was not any unusual Sunday, except in the sense that it was the kickoff to a revival meeting, it's common practice for most of you to be in church on a Sunday. But I want you to think about this. There would be no place called church if there were no person of Jesus Christ. The two are inseparable. Why do we go to church? It's about Jesus. It's about Christ. And the very first time you see the mention of the word church in the New Testament is in context of a question that Jesus asked his disciples. In fact, I have it marked in the margin of my Bible, the most important question a person can answer. Because it says, whom do you say that I am? We're gonna look at that tonight, Matthew chapter 16. I'd like to ask you to stand with me, if you would. We're gonna read verses 13 to 18. So, brief reading. If you're able, we'll stand. Matthew 16, I'll read from verse 13. And then we'll go down to verse 18. Verse 13, when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? They said, some say thou art John the Baptist, some, Elias, others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Now notice verse 18, first time you see the word church in the New Testament. But right before that is this all-important question, verse 15. Again, I wrote, most important question to the well-being of a soul and a church. Why did I write that? Whom do you say that I am? A person's answer to that question determines both the soundness of the church in which he worships and the eternal destiny of his individual soul. That's how important that question is. So let me ask you tonight, who do you say he is? I wanna give you a message I've entitled, Building a Triumphant Church. Building a Triumphant Church. Lord, thank you for the gathering of people, good number of us. In fact, I was counting and just over 120 of us reminded me of the upper room right after you ascended back to heaven, 120 in the upper room. We're gathering a lot like that tonight. Boy, we'd like to be a gathering of folks comparable to what you did with that 120. Fresh oil, it's a representation of your spirit. Everything we'll look at tonight was dependent upon the spirit of God working through the lives of believers. I pray you do it again, Lord. Do that work in us, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, be seated. Appreciate you standing. Jesus had led the disciples to a place called Caesarea Philippi. I went there back in 2001. I remember thinking, this wasn't on the top of my list, places I wanted to see. and if i had a chance to go back to israel again i'd want to see it one more time i didn't realize how significant was today it's called benign us uh... that's an arabic adaptation the name penniles with a p was named after the god pan evidently in arabic they don't say that sound the p so they called benign us but benign us was named after pan he was there half-goat half human who was worshipped as a god he was called the god of fertility And when Jesus had led the people there, it's interesting, this is right near Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon's the tallest geographical point in Israel. Mount Hermon's almost 10,000 feet tall. And out of Mount Hermon gushed the waters that formed the Jordan River. And the Jordan River, of course, then goes down to the Sea of Galilee and goes on down from there, ultimately, to the Dead Sea. So it goes from almost 10,000 feet all the way down to 1,300 feet below sea level. And interestingly enough, though, it's not some whitewater, rough river. It just makes a gradual descent. But it all starts at Caesarea Philippi, Benais. Right at this location where Jesus had led them, there's a giant cliff. It would be like looking at this wall and then having to look up. It's all rock, and there are carvings in that rock. In fact, it's called the Cliff of the Gods. It's called that because carved into that mountain are gods, both past and present, in Jesus' day. Caesar's image is carved there. Remember, the Romans worshiped him as a god. pan the one i mentioned have god uh... have uh... human have gold is car there he was called the god of fertility bail is carved into that rock this location is where bail worship got started you remember when israel separated after king uh... ray of all said i'm gonna be tougher than my father solomon and so he got the two southern tribes the rest follow gerobo and gerobo said i want people going back to jerusalem to worship so we gotta set up a new capital they set up the capital in samaria And Baal worship started this place called the Cliff of the Gods. Interesting, Baal was also known as the God of Fertility. I've got a note here, and I think it's worth reading to you. I looked it up in an encyclopedia to understand the significance of this place. One writer said, in first century Israel, Caesarea Philippi would have been equivalent to Las Vegas. Sin City. But much worse than the modern city in the American West, in the open air Pan Shrine, next to the cave mouth, there was a large niche in which a statue of Pan, half goat, half human, stood, worshipped for his fertility properties. Surrounding him were statues of his attending nymphs, On the shrine, in front of these niches, worshippers of Pan would congregate and partake in bizarre sexual rites, including copulation with goats. Talk about reprehensible. And what the writer says is, be like if you in our day heard that Jesus and the disciples went to Las Vegas, you'd be saying, Las Vegas? What is Jesus doing in Las Vegas? Well, you know if the Lord went to Vegas, it would be to win people, not to participate in what's going on there. No self-respecting rabbi would have taken any Jew to what was known as the Cliff of the Gods, and yet Jesus had led his disciples there. Why? Well, I want you to notice the questions he's asking. Verse 13. He's standing in front of this called the Cliff of the Gods. Oh, by the way, at the bottom of the cliff, there's a large cave. and it's called the gate to Hades. Hades, you may remember, was the Greek word for hell, the gate to hell. They believed that their gods would enter the netherworld, the underworld, enter hell, through that cave every winter, and then in the spring they would come back out, and what enticed the gods to come back out to earth was spring fever. See, they were called the gods of fertility, bale and pan, so ultimately it was all this Corruption this wickedness that went on it was supposed to entice their gods back out So here's Jesus standing in front of this. And again, the key is Baal is inscribed there pan has been carved into that cave Caesar is carved and that's called the cliff of the gods and he asked this question Who do men say that I the son of man am? What are you hearing from the public? Well Lord some say you're John the Baptist. I remember he'd been killed. I He'd been put to death by Herod, so they're thinking he's John the Baptist reincarnated. Okay? Some say Elias. That's the Greek name for Elijah. Because all these miracles you do. Some say Jeremias. Okay? The prophet Jeremiah. Or one of the prophets. So this is what's going around. They said, this Jesus is not like anybody we've ever met before. Remember, they'd come through 400 silent years. They had had no prophet giving any proclamations in Israel for four centuries. So now that John the Baptist had come, he's the first prophet after the 400 years. And now Jesus, and Jesus is doing miracles. John didn't do miracles like Jesus did. And they say, he's somebody. And then Jesus asked this all important question. He said to them, but whom say ye that I am? We tell you, we're living in a day when it's popular for people to claim some kind of allegiance to Jesus. You know, in some circles, it's popular to claim that. Athletes, I mean, some of the kids were asking me, hey, you know so-and-so on your football team, you think he's a Christian? well they claim it but you know i'm not seen a lot of fruit of it i don't like it's between them and god to judge but i want to tell you something um... if any man be in christ he's a new creature he's gonna show up don't you in their in the change of behavior and uh... i'm just awful careful about just promoting some of these always wonderful christian when he's living with his girlfriend and he's guzzling beer and everything else you know it's just not the testimony i want to put before people right And so Jesus takes them to this very place. He says, now, who do you say I am? Well, they're saying you're this. Whom say ye that I am? And Peter doesn't miss a beat. And I wanna tell you, you gotta commend Peter. A lot of times he'd put his foot in his mouth. In fact, the Lord's about to commend him, because notice what he says. Thou art who? You're the what? You're the Christ. What is another name for Christ? The Christ is the Messiah. You're the Messiah. Okay, you're the Christ, and you are the son of whom? The living God. Well, you know, John is one of those writers who gives us a thesis statement for why he would write his books. And in John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31, John gives us a thesis for why he wrote the Gospel of John. Many other signs truly did Jesus, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing, you might have life through his name. There's the purpose statement in the Gospel of John. Peter here makes the same declaration as John. Jesus is the Christ, he's the Son of God. And notice what Jesus says. Verse 17, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. In other words, you get an A plus for that answer. That wasn't revealed to you by human opinion. That is revelation from God. And look at verse 18. I say unto thee, the dark Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Okay, there's a lot there. Remember, they're standing in front of what is called the gate to Hades. And standing in front of that very cave, he says, I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. You know, he didn't teach us to start churches in places where we're sheltered from the world. He taught us to start churches in a place where we can confront the world, where his truth would triumph over the wickedness of the world. Remember, the gates, that's a place of protection, of defense. He said, I'm going to start my church right here where it can assail the gates of hell. And he says this, you're peter and that's the name petras and upon this rock petra i'll build my church now some of mistakenly said well it was peter on whom the lord built the church no it was not peter some of civil peter was the first pope no peter was not the first pope peter was married uh... did you know peter had a mother-in-law Have you ever known any man that had a mother-in-law who didn't have a wife? My mother-in-law and I get along great. I take my mother-in-law out on coffee dates, and she loves it. She lives over in Orlando. And I have a wonderful mother-in-law. But I want to tell you, I wouldn't have a mother-in-law if I didn't have Angela, okay? If I didn't have a wife, I wouldn't have a mother-in-law. Peter was married, and Peter was not the first pope, okay? What was Peter's ministry? Well, when he said, you're Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church, the name Peter is like a large boulder. but the word then upon this rock that's like the cliff that was in front of them have any of you ever gone out to california and visited yosemite national park anybody ever been to yosemite? yosemite is one of my favorite places in the country i've been to all fifty states and i never get tired of going to yosemite and i have climbed half dome a dozen times in my life but there's one rock that i always admire and never want to climb it's el capitan when you drive into yosemite national park and you come around the valley corner, there is this enormous 3,000-foot cliff that looms overhead. It is impressive. You feel minute when you stand under it. And the term here upon this rock is a cliff like El Capitan, Spanish for the captain, okay? At the base of El Capitan, there are boulders that have broken off. I want to tell you, some of them are the size of a Volkswagen van, some of the boulders. Now, the term for Peter is like one of those boulders that's broken off the big cliff. You're Peter, and upon this rock, the cliff itself, I'll build my church." What did he mean? It wasn't Peter himself. It was the declaration made by Peter. What had Peter just declared? This all-important declaration, you're the Christ, you're the Son of the living God. Let me tell you, if a person doesn't get that answer right, two things are in jeopardy. The most important here is his personal eternal destiny is in jeopardy. You've got to get it right on Jesus. The disciples later said, neither is there salvation in any other. There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And then the other thing is, you will not have a theologically, doctrinally sound church if you don't get it right on the issue of who is Jesus Christ. So that's why I'm calling this tonight, Building a Triumphant Church. Let's jump over to Acts. Let's see how the Lord's promised to Peter on your statement here, I'm gonna build my church. Let's go to Acts chapter one. And I'm gonna look for just a few minutes with you at three areas. We're gonna start with the message of the church. I will touch on the members of the church and we'll finish up with the mission of the church. That's an overview tonight where we're going. Let's start with then the message of the church. Acts chapter one, look at verses one through four with me. The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. All right, now, the book of Acts was written humanly by what author? Luke. So when he says the former treatise, the former essay I've written, the former report, what is the former book that he wrote? Luke's Gospel, yeah, the Gospel of Luke. So, the former treatise I made of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. Now, the word passion there is used in the context of suffering. The term passion is often associated with desires that are so strong that they're just overwhelming, they almost make you suffer. Well, the passion of the Christ was talking about his agony from the plucking of his beard, to the spitting in his face, to the beating him with the flagellum, the cat-of-nine-tails, to the crucifixion where the nails were driven, that's his passion. After his passion, remember, he showed himself alive, demonstrating that he was God. Verse four, and being assembled together with him. Interesting, I circled the expression there, assembled together. That is critical to the concept of church assembled together. You might want to note that. Being assembled together with them, commanded them they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you've heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. And when they therefore were come together, okay, I circled that, come together, same as assembled together, they asked him, Lord, will thou at this time again restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it's not for you to know the times and the seasons which the father had put in his own power, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and under the uttermost part of the earth. Now, your theme this year is fresh oil. The oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ said, all right, I'm going to send back to heaven. I'm going to send you the person of my other self. That is the Holy Spirit of God. And when he inhabits you, you are going to proclaim this message with great power. So, the message of the church. What is that message? Well, I want you to jump to chapter two. Chapter two, verse one. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. I circled that expression. Notice, with one accord in one place. This is giving you an idea. What is a church? It's an assembled people of like mind. We'll get into the particulars in a minute. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind. It filled the house where they were sitting. There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire sat upon each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, if you would look up here for a minute, let me explain the use of the word tongues in the context of Scripture. The book of Acts uses two words for tongues. None of them refer to some kind of ecstatic gibberish that's unknown to the speaker. No, they always have to do with a known language. Not known to the speaker, but it was an identifiable language. In fact, you'll associate this in English, so I'll give you the terms. One term used is dialectos. What's our English equivalent? Dialect. The other term used is glossolalia. our word glossary. Okay, so a glossary is like a small dictionary to explain jargon, explain technical terms. So, glossolalia and dialectos, they're both terms meaning a known language. But what happened to be like in the United Nations, you know, when somebody speaks and you see everybody with their headsets, somebody's interpreting so they hear it in their mother tongue. If I were to speak on the day of Pentecost, I would have to speak in English. That's the only language I know. Peter was probably speaking Aramaic. That was the spoken language of the day. He's speaking in his tongue, but everybody there is hearing it in their own language. That was the miracle of the tongues. And the tongues were not assigned unto themselves. It was to be able to make the gospel known to those who had not heard. Now, the book of 1 Corinthians makes a distinction between tongues and an unknown tongue. You'll see in King James our italicized word, unknown. The unknown tongue seems to be in the context of gibberish, kind of like the modern tongues movement today. There was abuse of it going on in the 1 the church in Corinth there. When you see unknown tongue, it's used in the context of inappropriate use. When you see tongues, plural, that's the term dialectos or glossolalia, that has to do with a known tongue, not known by the speaker, but given so that those who are listening can hear it in their own language. Now, that being said, we go on to read what Peter's message is. So let's jump down to verse 14. the peter standing up to the eleven lifted up his voice and said you men of judia and all of you who dwell in jerusalem be anointed to you hearken to my words for these are not drunken as you suppose seeing it's but the third hour of the day but this is that which was spoken by the prophet joel you might want to look in your bible do you happen to see if you have a cross reference in your bible see if you find joel chapter two and this would be uh... versus who i wrote it down there twenty eight to thirty two setting your body to have that across reference that's because what peter's about to preach from that is taxed on the day of pentecost peter is going to preach from joel to verses twenty eight to thirty two and here they are pick it up in verse seventeen this is a quote It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaids I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in earth beneath, blood and fire and vaporous smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and notable day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You say, that sounds like Romans 10, 13. Yeah, because it's quotation from Joel chapter 2, verse 32. So what Joel is giving, he's giving a prophecy of looking toward the end times from when the Spirit of God is poured out on his people, which is at Pentecost, all the way down through the tribulation period. It's like looking at a set of mountain ranges from afar off, and you just see the peaks. Not all of this was fulfilled at that very moment on the day of Pentecost, but the start of it was, where their young men would prophesy and such. And the gospel message is given here in 21. It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Then look how Peter applies it, verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God you've taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Now, wait a minute. Peter is telling this to the people who had voted to have Jesus put to death just weeks before. He says, you remember Jesus of Nazareth, the one you people asked to have crucified, put to death. Yeah, by the determinative counsel of God, that happened. And notice what he says, if you keep going on there in verse number 24, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. Jump down with me to verse 31. He's seeing this before a spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Look at verse 36. This is how he ends his message. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ. Folks, there is the gospel message. I want you to mark your place here. Jump with me to 1 Corinthians for a minute. We always want to compare scripture with scripture. I grew up in southern New Jersey and I went to Gloucester County Christian School. And some of you know Brother Hodges, who's over at New Testament Baptist in Floral City. His wife, Rachel, went to school with me. Her brother, Joe, is a good friend of mine. So we all grew up in South Jersey, went to Christian school there. In fact, Rachel's dad was my Bible teacher at one time. And I remember one day, All of us were influenced by a godly man in our school named Mr. Ham, Hawley Ham. And Hawley Ham and I have been friends for four decades. And one day, Mr. Ham was my coach. He was my phys ed teacher, and he loved God. It was the foremost desire of his life to honor the Lord. One day, I was walking down the hall, and my coach was a very exuberant guy. He said, hey, bud. I said, yeah, coach. He said, what's the gospel? I said, coach, Are you not saved? He said, Brother, I'm saved. I said, Coach, you don't think I'm saved? He said, I know you're saved, Rich. I said, why ask me? You're gonna be a preacher. You better know the gospel. I said, okay. So he said, what is it? of Christ died for our sins he said and we'll see I had grown up in a Methodist church that didn't preach salvation by grace we thought if you do enough good you're gonna get you to heaven so I I wanted to be sure there was nothing added to the gospel and I said well coach it's all about Jesus he said brother you didn't give me the gospel I said, what do you mean? That's how it happened. He said, look at this. First Corinthians 15, look at verses one through four. Here is the message of the church, all right? Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you, what? The gospel. I circled that phrase in my Bible. I declare you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also you received, and wherein you stand, by which also ye are, what? Saved. This is the only way a person can be saved. Okay, this message is so important. It really is the cornerstone, the bedrock to everything we preach, okay? It's the means by which you're saved, if you keep in memory what I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that, here it is, Christ died. Now wait a minute, it's not just that Jesus died. Christ died for sins. But wait a minute, it's not just that he died for sins. He didn't die for his sins. He didn't have any. Christ died for whose sins? Our sins. And that he was what? buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures well i love the song one day we sang it the hymn one day it was written by wilbur chapman wilbur chapman was an evangelist he trained billy sunday for the ministry and in use was it would we say that tonight or yesterday tonight yeah uh... one day when heaven was filled with his praises one day when sin was as blackest could be, Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin, dwelt amongst men. My example is He, listen to this, living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming! Oh, glorious day! Now the gospel is this, Christ died for our sins, He was buried, He rose again. If you don't get right the gospel, you can't get anybody to heaven. So you've got to make sure. My coach said to me, Rich, you told me Jesus died. That's part of it. But he said, brother, everywhere the apostles went, they preached that Jesus rose from the dead. He said, you haven't given them the gospel if you leave Jesus on the cross. That's a good reminder. so the gospel the message of the church is that christ died for our sins he was buried heroes again there's the gospel message right now let's go back to acts and i want to jump into for chapter two for a minute i want to look at with you actually let me uh... we go back to chapter one for just a minute one of make one observation here acts one we'll look at the members of the church so who made up that local church well i i told you to look at verse four being assembled together uh... verse six they were come together Go down to verse 12. Then they returned unto Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up to an upper room where abode both Peter and James and John, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, Simon, Zelotes, and Judas, the brother of James. These all continued with one accord. That's the key, like-mindedness there, one accord. In prayer and supplications with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. Interesting. After Jesus rose from the dead, his brothers are now part of the believers. They're part of that church. They didn't believe prior to this, but after he rose again, they believed. All right? Go to chapter 2 now. Verse one, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all together with one accord in one place. So they're all at one location, they're all one mind. All right, and then I want you to notice this. Going down to verse 36, Peter had just preached, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, God had made that same Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ. What happened after that? Look at verse 37, now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? They're realizing the gravity now. Yeah, we're on the bandwagon, crucify him, crucify. Some of the people he's speaking to may have been part of that throng that very day saying, kill him, put him to death, crucify him. And now I can imagine their expression. What have we done? What have we done? Lord, what do we do? You see, it wasn't technically the Jews that put Jesus to death, it was me. It was you. See, when Jesus was hanging on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Forgive whom? Me. You. It was we who put Jesus on the cross. So now they said, what do we do? Look at verse 38. He said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now let me explain something there. Repent is a change of mind. I always tell people, I see three things in scripture you gotta change your mind about to be saved. That repentance doesn't save you, but you won't be saved unless you change your mind about some things. You gotta change your mind about self. You're not good, you're guilty. You gotta change your mind about sin. It's not a joke, it'll land you in hell. You gotta change your mind about the Savior. He didn't come to help you get to heaven, he's the only way to heaven. So change your mind about sin, about self, about the Savior. What does that do? makes you realize, I don't have any trust in me to get me to heaven. Now, you're in a position to put your total dependence upon him. You rely on him in order to be saved. So you come to the place of, okay, change your mind, see yourself the way God sees you, repent, and then what'd it say? Be baptized? See now, their entire denominations build off this one verse. Now let me tell you, if you have to isolate any one verse to build a dominant truth, then you've got an imbalanced theological position. We don't build theology off of one verse to the exclusion of all others. Let me explain the word be baptized for here. It's like crying for pain or leaping for joy. Did you ever slam your finger in a door? you cry for pain, right? Or what if yesterday, before church, you'd looked out your front door, and there's a television crew out there, and they've got this check that says one million dollars and a whole bunch of balloons, and you open the door and say, may I help you? And they say, are you so-and-so? Yes, we're with Publishers Clearinghouse, and we just wanted to tell you, you won the million dollars. You might leap for joy. Now listen, the leaping does not cause the joy, the leaping's because of the joy. Okay, be baptized for the remission of sins. In other words, because your sins have been taken away. Remember the Ethiopian eunuch, when he was coming to understand the gospel, he said, well, see, here's water, what the hinder me to be baptized? What did Philip say? If thou believe us with all thy heart, thou mayest. Then he took him and baptized him. I was telling the kids in chapel today, you know, this wedding ring doesn't make me married, but it's a very important symbol. Okay, now if I took this off, I'd still be married. If I gave it to one of the teenage boys, he would not be married. I was telling the kids, you know, if they went by some jewelry store and bought rings and swapped rings and started shacking up in a hotel, that does not mean they're married, just because they swapped rings. The ring without a relationship means nothing. But I'm telling you, Angela would be very hurt if I didn't wear my wedding ring. because that's an important symbol. Okay. Baptism was so inherently tied to professing Christ that it was, it's what you did. You got saved, you trusted him in baptism. That's how you identify. Just like we exchange rings in Western culture when we get married. That's important. But baptism doesn't save them. And I wish I had, I could go on a bunch of rabbit trails here. Let me just point out, how do we know baptism doesn't save? Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples, John 4 verse 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul says, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Let me tell you, if baptism saved people, Paul and Jesus would have done as much baptizing as they could. They made little of baptism compared to the gospel. I'm all for baptism, I'm a Baptist. But baptism is the expression of faith, it is not the determination of my faith. Very important. So, all right, now who are the members? Let's see, back to verse 39. For the promise is unto you and to your children, to all that are far off, and to as many of the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words he did testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Now look what happens, 41. Then they that gladly received his word, okay, the just shall live by what? Faith, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The word of God. They that gladly received his word were, they were saved, they were believing, okay? They that gladly received his word, then what happened? Were baptized, and the same day were added unto them about 3,000 souls. All right, now, what is a church? I remember, you know, I had grown up in Protestant circles, and I was really struggling with the idea of, okay, boy, some people are so gung-ho local church that it's almost like this idea of some universal body just has no place, and others are like, oh, I'm just part of the body of Christ. Listen, church is important to the Lord. and almost every reference to church in the scripture is to a local body. In fact, the only exceptions are like where Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, and it's used in an institutional sense. If I said to you, boy, the family is under attack in America today. What family? The Peterson family? The Tozer? Yeah! I'm talking about the institution of the families under attack, okay? So there are times you'll see church used in an institutional sense. Let me tell you, 95% of references to church are local. And I remember I was talking to Dr. James Crumpton. He was a pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Natchez, Mississippi for 57 years. he turned two doctorates in southern baptist seminaries and then he pulled his church out of the convention uh... when he saw liberalism coming in uh... he was a president maranatha baptist mission in brilliant manny we haven't reached when i was in college many times And I said to him one day, Brother Crumpton, I'm trying to figure out, I know the term church is a called-out assembly. Did you know that? The word ecclesia, you've heard of that, okay? Listen to this. In fact, I went back and wrote the definition out of the Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, and it said, church in our English Bible is translated from the Greek term ecclesia, never refers to a place of worship, but has in view an assembly of people. In the overwhelming majority of cases, Ecclesia indicates a local company of believers. I went to the Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, because they're not Baptist, and they'll tell you that the term means a local assembly. When I was a kid, we had, here's the church, here's the steeple, open the door, see all the people. You ever hear that? Well, guess what? This is not the church. This is the church. not the fingers, the people, okay? The people are the... If this building burned down, which we don't want to happen, but if this building burned down, First Baptist does not go up in ashes. You are First Baptist, okay? So the building is not the church. You're the church. I said, Brother Crumpton, what about this idea of a universal body. He said, well, Brother Rich, he said, I like the way, I think it was Dr. Clearwater used to describe it. He said, the book of Hebrews refers to a future event when there'll be the general assembly of the saints. He said he called it the church in prospect. One day, all believers from everywhere will be gathered together in one universal body. And he said, that's going to happen, but that's future. Everything he's doing right now is through local bodies of individual believers, local assemblies. And that's the emphasis. That's good. And so then I said this. So, you know, you hear the debate, did the church begin at Pentecost or did it begin with Christ? And, you know, I've heard good arguments on both sides. He said, well, you know, I've always thought about this. When Jesus said to the disciples, if you have a problem, go tell it to the church, and the references in Matthew to the church, He said, I've always thought of it this way. It's kind of like, remember the church is an organism more than it's an organization. An organism is a living entity, right? He said, think of it this way. When a woman's expecting a baby, she carries that baby in her womb. It's a living organism. Well, some say, well, the birthday of the church was at Pentecost. Well, he said, think of it this way. The church is like a baby in the womb. Now on the child's birthday, it's made viable. What does that mean? Independent of the mother. When the umbilical cord is cut and the baby's lungs begin to operate now, the baby can live outside the womb. But it was still a being before it was separated from the mother. He said, if you think of it this way, the church was being formed as it were in the womb of Christ during his earthly ministry, but the church is made viable at what we often call the birthday of the church at Pentecost. You know, that is one of the best explanations, and there's no perfect explanation at all, but that's one of the best explanations I ever heard of the matter. Now, here's the deal. The church is made up of believers. Notice, they received the word. And then, what's his plan? They were baptized. You remember when the Lord gave the Great Commission, it wasn't just go get people saved? he says go you therefore and do what teach all nations that's the word for make disciples and then what baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son of the holy ghost and then what teach them to observe all things whatsoever i've commanded you so look the church the mission of the church was to take the gospel and see people believe then be baptized and then become part of a body alright so who are the members of the church here's a great way to explain it the members of the local church are those who've been saved and baptized and are now unified together to make Christ known to this world. How many of you have invited people to church and you've thought, man, I worked really hard to get them to church and try as I might, they just won't come. Have any of you had that experience in your life? Yeah. Remember this, the Lord never told them to go to church. He told the church to go to the world. That's our job. We're to go to them. Now listen, if you bring them, I'll tell them. I've already explained the gospel tonight, and I'll do it every night. But I'm not gonna get all bummed out if you, well, nobody came. Well, you keep telling them. If you bring them, I'll tell them. But they were not commanded to come to church. We were told to go to them. Now, who were the members of the church? I want you to see. I wrote down A, they received the gospel message, verse 41. B, they were baptized in Jesus' name. And by the way, it's not just Jesus' name. Some only baptized in Jesus' name. Well, that doesn't contradict baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Remember, Jesus said, I and my Father are one. Remember that? So baptized in His name implies, yeah, the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. Okay, so received the gospel message. They were baptized in Jesus' name. They were added to a recognized company. Because notice this, the same day were added unto them about 3,000 souls. Who's them? That's the body we know is the local church. How do we know that? Well, they'd already been saved, and then they were baptized. You don't get baptized to be saved, but baptism is a precondition to becoming part of what? The local church. So they received the message, they were baptized, and then they were added unto them. So they were added to a recognized company and then they continued steadfastly in worship letter d here the fourth thing they continued steadfastly worship so they received the gospel they were baptized in christ's name they're added to the company and they continued steadfastly in worship what is worship look like in the bible all we could i can preach a series on this let me just at the highlights look it up forty-two they continued steadfastly apostles doctrine first thing they were grounded in doctrine and fellowship, that's having things in common. And breaking of bread, that's the Lord's table. And in prayers, remember the Lord said, my house will be called a house of what? Let me ask you, is this what excites most people about going to church? The first thing is doctrine. Well, it is you people. I mean, that's why you come to a church like this. But lots of people want to go to a church where they feel good, where the music moves them. That wasn't the thing God said to look for. He said, look for doctrine, and then fellowship, and then breaking bread, and then prayer. And then notice verse 43. Fear came upon every soul. Many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. All that believe were together and had all things common. They sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. By the way, some try to say, well, see, there's socialism in the Bible. From each according to his ability to each according to his need. That's not socialism. Socialism is imposed by the government. This was voluntary. Okay? God is not sanctioning socialism in case you want to know. And if you don't want to know, I'm going to tell you anyway. All right, in verse 46, they continued daily with one accord in the temple. Wait a minute. How often did they get together? daily breaking their bread from house to house okay so that's having fellowship at each other's homes did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart so there's joy and there's exuberance and look at 47 praising god how do you praise god sing, testify? You know, it's why him singing is so important. When I open my mouth to praise God, I open my heart to him. They're praising God, and have in favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. And I close with this, what's the third facet we wanna look at? There was the message of the church, those are the members of the church, but then notice the mission of the church. The Lord added to the church, how often? Daily, such as should be saved. How are people getting saved? The church is going and telling. In fact, you might jot these references down. Each of the gospels makes reference to the Great Commission. I already mentioned Matthew 28, 19, and 20. Then there's Mark 16, 15, going into all the world and preach the gospel to whom? Every creature. Then there's Luke 24, 45 to 48, where Jesus said that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in all the world, beginning in Jerusalem. And then there's John 20, 21. John 20, 21 says, as the Father has sent me, so send I you. What does he send us to do? Go and tell. Let me ask you this. When you look at the members of the church, the mission of the church, the message of the church, think of it this way. If everybody at your church were just like you, would you want to be a member of this church? Well, we could go a lot of directions there. What if everybody were as faithful at showing up as you are? What if everybody were as generous in giving as you are? What if everybody was outgoing and optimistic and encouraging as you are? How are you doing? Terrible. Some people are like Eeyore. They've got their personal cloud following over them. Remember Eeyore and Winnie the Pooh? How are you? Terrible. It's a beautiful sunny day. It's raining, you know? And what if everybody in church were just like you? Would you want to be a member here? Listen. Every chain is no stronger than the weakest link. Satan will do everything he can to weaken any individual member of a church. Somebody said, you're writing a gospel, a chapter each day. Take care of that writing, it's true. For you're the only gospel some men will read, the gospel according to you. Whom say ye that I am? You're the Christ. You're the son of the living God. Let me ask you, who knows that truth because you cared enough to tell them? Let's bow our heads together. You've really done well listening. I want to ask you to stand with me. As we go to the Lord tonight in prayer and we just have a brief invitation, I'll ask just a general invitation to Christians. This is for those of you who know the Lord as Savior. You look at the members of the church. What are they like? You look at the message. Boy, you look at the exuberance of that early church, and they were getting together every day. You know, we think, Sunday through Wednesday, we're gonna meet every night. They did it every day. Let me ask, what in your personal experience is like that early church? Maybe I should ask it this way. What in your present experience needs to change so it's like their reality? I'm not talking about talking in tongues. That's not the focus now. We have a completed scripture. But where's the zeal for God, the worship of God, the witness to the lost? In fact, before I even close with an invitation for those who may not be saved, I wanna do this. I'm gonna have our pianist play tonight. I wanna ask you tonight, if the Lord spoke to you, my Christian friend, about some specific, instead of me asking you, would you raise your hand? It's so easy to just raise a hand. I'm gonna ask you tonight, might you bow the knee before God? She's gonna play. Would you come? Would you find a spot here at the front seat or maybe here at the platform? Lord, here's where you pointed out a need in my walk, in my life. Please change me. I'm gonna be quiet just a minute. I wanna close with an invitation for those who need Christ, but let me start with God's people. You know why? Judgment must begin at the house of God. You need to come, would you, tonight? I've seen a person or two that has knelt right there at their seat. That'd be fine. If you want to do likewise, I'm fine with that. Some are coming. I'll close with this thought. It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment. Friend, God doesn't want to judge you. He wants to save you. That's why he sent Christ. You've heard the gospel tonight. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again. Peter preached on that day at Pentecost, day when 3,000 were saved. Simple message, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Who here tonight would say, preacher, I wanna call on the Lord. I need the Lord to save me. Would you hold up your hand? Pray for me, I want to call on the Lord to save me. Is there someone like that tonight? You'd say, pray for me, please. Pray for me, I need for God to save my soul. Is there anyone like that tonight? You may look up my way. I appreciate your coming on a Monday night. Thanks for your good attention. If any of you don't know the Lord, pastor's available, I'm available, we'd like to talk to you. I didn't see anybody raise his or her hand, but I know sometimes it's all new. Thank you, sister, for playing. I'd love to have you come and talk to us. We can show you tonight how you can trust the Lord. Thank you for making time to be in God's house.