Mt. Zion Church of the Holy Spirit - Sermons
The Testimony of Jesus Christ in His Church
Acts 4:13 — "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus."
Acts 4:33 — "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all."
Acts 4:13 brings a great truth to the forefront of our minds that bears witness to the power of the resurrected Christ active and present amongst His Body. Peter and John were called on the Sanhedrin’s "red carpet" for trial. The whole temple area was in an uproar over not only the apostle’s message, but also the awesome demonstration of power that was revealed in the healing of the lame man at the gate Beautiful.
After examination by the “most noble” and “honorable” court, the fact was apparent and undeniable: these poor, ignorant and unlearned men had been with Jesus. Yes, the council had quite a dilemma on their hands. It was now very apparent that this "Jesus movement" was not going away. The hard pill for the religious leaders to swallow was that the ranks of the redeemed were swelling daily, and if this continued any further, their religious façade and lifelessness would be exposed. The leaders scrambled and clambered to stem the tidal force of life that was being unleashed in Jerusalem through the Church, but at the end of the day all they could do was threaten the apostles not to teach anymore in the Name of Jesus.
Why did these men have such an impact on their society and the people’s lives that they came into contact with? The reality is not found with the court’s simplistic answer that these men had been acquainted at some point in history with Jesus, and they learned His teachings and His ways. Behind their marveling unbelief was something cynical, benign, and condescending. In Christ’s earthen ministry the religious were always trying to marginalize and minimize the expression of God’s life issuing forth from Christ. It was seen in their belittling comments, “And they said, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He saith, 'I came down from heaven'?'” John 6:42
Such is always the response of any cynic that stands to be exposed of the true state of their life when they are confronted with the reality of the living Christ. It is the age-old defense mechanism of human flesh: whatever threatens to expose our lifeless religiosity we tend to stymie, belittle and kill with criticism. By attributing the miracle of the healed, lame man to men mimicking a dead Rabbi whom they felt was inspired by Satan, the religious community comforted themselves in their darkness and put off until another day the inevitable.
What happened at the gate Beautiful went further than mimicking and patterning a ministry after a dead teacher named Jesus. The Truth stretches far beyond that shabby observation of the Sanhedrin. As a matter of fact, what the religious elite failed to comprehend and realize was that Jesus was with these men presently. What was apparent to the lame man was hidden from the pious. Jesus was very much alive in their midst. He had not been stopped by experiencing the death of a common criminal on a tree nor was He shut up in a tomb. Their bribe money offered to the soldiers had no ability to restrain the present living testimony that stood before them.
No amount of condescending ridicule could quench the apostles' boldness, and when they were commanded by the highest court of the land to be quiet, they did not cower away and slip into a religious oblivion. They persisted, because they could not help but speak of the things which they had seen and heard. Yes, the same miracle worker named Jesus was still doing His mighty acts, His wonderful wonders, only now He was doing it through a multi-faceted and corporate body. Such reality was far beyond the blinded court's ability to see and comprehend.
For example, let us consider the apostles Peter and John and the lame man at the gate Beautiful. If there was no living testimony of Christ within them we would have been reading a far different account of this blessed story. Imagine, if you will, the outcome of a Christless encounter of the apostles and the lame man. Their exchange of words would have sounded something along the lines of, “Please sirs, do you have alms for a lowly, lame beggar?” The apostles would reply, “Silver and gold have we none, but we do have a large collection of Christ’s teachings and doctrines, and some very convincing reasons as to why you should believe in Christ.” At best the disciples would have convinced this man’s intellect that Jesus was the Christ, after all they not only walked with Him, they also saw Him alive after the cross. So the best they could have done was to make a mental convert that would be able to present arguments and reasons why he believes what he does.
They could have physically carried him to their home and taken him into their fellowship and cared for his physical needs. Someone in the church could have made him a little cart that he could be pulled around in or a pair of crutches that would prop him up and help him get about. This could have accomplished two purposes. The first would be that he would have a sense of belonging and camaraderie. He that once was a social outcast could feel acceptance and love by those of like faith and conviction. The second is that they would help lower the city’s beggar population. The Church would be lauded as a great social agent and readily received as an advocate for those who are physically and socially challenged.
It would seem that in the end everyone would be happy, but we must ask the “tell all” question. What would the lame man really be thinking and feeling? If you could get him to talk honestly and squarely with you, what would he really say? I am sure that deep down within he would be truly perplexed and left with many unanswered questions: "Why do I still need to be propped up? If Christ is real, why can’t I stand on my own? I believed the arguments about Christ, but I’m still unchanged; I have no capacity to walk on my own for Christ."
Also, we must face what the apostles would have inevitably thought: We did everything just right, just like Jesus did, but all we have done is add another need and burden to the Church. We see that our teachings have no real power. Why? What is the point of preaching and teaching if lives are not truly changed and transformed?
The Reality of Jesus in the Midst of His People
Peter and John never attempted to sway men’s minds by fascinating sermons, or by presenting clever proofs of Christ’s existence. You never see them sending their budding intellectuals to the Temple to debate the Pharisees and Sadducees. If the Body would have employed these feeble methods there would be dire consequences, the Church would be remembered only as a heap of stones outside of Jerusalem. There would have been no eternal impact, no drawing power—no 3,000 saved and filled with God's Spirit.
The Church as a whole stood in great anointing and power. When they preached and prayed, society was shaken. These simple men confounded the great theologians of their day. They preached repentance, and hearts turned to God. No one sat disinterested in their midst, nor did sin find a habitation, because it was dealt with on the spot. When they said to the lame man, “In the name of Jesus stand up”, the man immediately stood up. Why?
Jesus made the promise in John 12:32 that "if I be lifted up (crucified, buried and raised), I personally will draw men to myself." In Psalm 22:22 Jesus through the Spirit of Prophecy says of Himself, "I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee." Now, obviously and most assuredly this Psalm is Messianic through and through. This, I believe, Jesus knew when He said the words, "if I be lifted up I will draw men to Me." Jesus in one verse declares the resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Holy Ghost to His Body - "I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee."
What happened at the gate Beautiful was the fulfillment of the prophetic utterance of the psalmist found in Psalm 22. It was Christ expressing His life through simple men. The fishermen, Peter and John, were not men standing and testifying about a Christ that they had spent three years with, they were men possessed and filled with the Spirit of the Living Christ. Their testimony was not merely men telling other men about God, it was God in men telling them about Himself. It is the living active testimony of Christ in His Church.
This is what separates empty talk about God and life-giving testimony. The fact that Christ was alive in these men was why they could speak to the lame man’s condition and something drastically changed. That is why they could stand with boldness at the counsel’s meeting. It was Christ standing in them, speaking through them.
The testimony of Jesus Christ was what John was imprisoned for on the isle of Patmos.
Revelation 1:1-2 — "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John: Who bare record of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw."
It was what Paul brought to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 2:1 — "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."
Notice that John and Paul write that they bore the living testimony of Jesus Christ, not for Jesus Christ. This is no play on words or a semantic word game. To these men and those that are filled with Christ’s Spirit, it is a living reality. This is the testimony that truly changes people and causes them to stand.
Why is this important to God?
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 — "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."
God desires all who come to Him to encounter the power God, so that their faith stands in God and not in man’s cleverness! The only way this is accomplished is through an encounter with a living Christ. Today, people are herded in masses to altars to pray simple prayers without a revelation of Christ, and because there has been no real encounter with Christ, many "converts" have been spiritually hindered and can identify with the hypothetical state of the lame man. They are left with many unmet needs and unsatisfied longings.
Unfortunately many in the church have embraced doctrines, dogmas and cleverly designed arguments that can convince people’s minds to the historical Christ, but contain no real transforming power. Week after week these crippled believers shuffle lamely in and out of lifeless meeting houses with no assurance of the reality of Christ. Many feel they must be propped up over and over again. The common consensus is that all that they have gained at the end of their religious exercises is a new set of crutches. They have been given a list of arguments and principles for living without any power or life that only serve to prop them up for another week. For many, this is what being a Christian is all about, and since everyone is limping, no one seems to notice.
Ministers, if truly honest, must not feel very different than those who inhabit their pews. While they labor at their work benches offering new and improved crutches to prop up the unchanged, they must certainly wonder, “How long? How long must I labor for new ways to convince my flock of the reality of an event that happened over 2,000 years ago? How long must I labor among the lame without the transforming power of the resurrected Christ?” Those that truly possess the divine spark of God must certainly ponder these thoughts as they whittle and chisel away. Many ministers cannot help their own state because they themselves are products of seminaries and theological institutes that specialize in crutch making.
Pulpits and parsonages are emptying by the thousands because of the lifelessness that pervades ministers' hearts and the hearts of their people. Churches are becoming museums, showpieces of factual historical events, with no real ability to offer the proof that the world so longs for. What the world longs for is the kind of proof that is not found in creeds, doctrinal statements, or apologetics. The hurting world longs for something real, something that grabs their hearts and transforms them from crippled sinners into leaping saints.
Society is reaping the whirlwind of a lifeless, Christless Church. In nations like France, Germany and England, society is plunging into the dark night of secularism and humanism and becoming jaded and hardened to religion, in particular Christianity. In the United States, the best the Church can do is to attempt to stem the tide of death and evil by becoming politically active. We have sought to win a spiritual battle by electing politicians that are riding the church all the way to the polls and further their political ambitions. As a result of the church’s weak political assault on sin, via politics, there will be a great backlash against the church or “religious right” in the United States by what is considered to be the "liberal left" in the very near future. More and more religious freedoms will be removed instead of gained, because we have used the chariots of man to try and gain victory in the war against sin and darkness. Paul said, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God..." (II Corinthians 10:4). We have left the Lord of hosts sitting on the sidelines of the battle and the consequences have been devastating.
When you see with heaven’s eyes you cannot blame society for their lack of interest in spiritual matters, especially concerning the Gospel. Sad to say, society at large sees beyond what many in the Church fail to see: the lameness and powerlessness. Christ said the children of the world are wiser than the children of light, and in the case of facing the facts as things truly are, the world wins out, hands down.
The words of Christ ring truer than ever, “if the light that is in you becomes darkness, then how great is that darkness” (Matthew 6:23b). Society’s fascination with sin and disinterest in spiritual matters can be directly tied to the state of the Church. Jesus said, “Ye are the light of the World” (Matthew 5:14a) and if the church be dark, then the world will be even darker because the light in their midst is corrupt.
God’s Plan
Thank God this is neither the plan nor purpose of God for His people, His Bride, His assembly. The Father sent Christ to die on Calvary to do more than offer mankind a religious crutch, leaving men to hobble and shuffle through life with no real cure for their condition. Christ's sufferings, resurrection, and ascension to His throne of power affected something far greater than the current image that is being believed and lived out by millions of believers. Such reality is supported by the testimony that we have before us in Acts 3 and 4.
What is the Remedy?
Individuals Seeing and Hearing Christ
Acts 4:19-20 — "But Peter and John answered and said unto them, 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.'"
People have tried to duplicate what happened then and have patterned their assemblies after the early church, but they have failed to produce the manifest presence of Christ. Doctoring up our doctrines, meeting in small groups, having all night prayer meetings, attending church growth seminars, or trying in our own strength to love one another in a communal setting is not going to bring this manifestation of Christ. You could recreate the perfect conditions, but never see life.
I am convinced that the problems in the Church could be solved if individuals in the Body saw Him themselves. Christ is not exclusive, and He desires to reveal Himself to all hungry, yearning hearts. What the early Church had as a whole was a revelation of Jesus Christ. Their eyes were opened to see Him. In seeing Him, their faith rested in Him, not in an idea, not in a doctrine, not in a pastor, and not in a personality, but in a real living person that was seated in eternal power and glory. They were able to withstand the fires of persecution and devilish attacks because their hearts were ignited by divine light.
The lame man at the gate Beautiful would never again doubt the reality of the living Christ. Why? Because he saw Him for Himself and knew that Christ was real. His faith did not stand in arguments, but in the demonstration of God’s power. This transformation took place because two men had a personal encounter with Christ and allowed Christ to express His life through them. Imagine what would happen if all of those that call on the Name of the Lord saw Him as these men saw Him. The effects would be tremendous. There would be faith-filled Christians in the pews and the hurting, dying world would be confronted with the reality of a living Christ that has the power to transform them.
Our heart's cry must be that of the Greeks in John 12:21b, "Sir, we would see Jesus."
"A New Dawning"
Away in the darkness I toiled and I labored
Searching for the God that I knew had to be
Through forms and rituals I thought I could find Him
But that which seemed light was darkness to me
The teachings and doctrines like a veil hung round me
Blinding and dampening the true light within
To these I adhered so firm and so faithful
To turn from them would be a gross sin
I furiously defended and fought for the Kingdom
I captured and killed the faithful and true
Delivering to stocks, to bonds and affliction
Rejoicing to see them suffer their due
Out of my darkness He appeared without bidding
I fell to my knees for the brightness of Him
The light once hidden now shone all around me
My eyes and my world they grew very dim
The words of the prophets and fathers came clearly
The One whom they spoke of, spoke directly to me
The veil of my heart, it burned in His presence
The glory once hidden, the Christ, it is He
The dawn of the Daystar now gloriously appearing
The mystery long hidden with rapture was seen
Doctrines and rituals that once had me captive
Melted in light of the Godhead Supreme
The desire of all nations, Oh Christ, I have seen You!
Though broken and blinded I lay before Thee
Gladly I’d trade the sight of all life now
To get but one glimpse of Your majesty
Through whips and chains this Light did sustain me
In toiling and preaching it gave me my strength
I labored for men and brought souls from darkness
And gave up my life; for this Truth I was spent
That I may know Him, now alone is my cry
I press onward and labor for this very thing
To be acquainted with Him in the pathways of life
To be found in Him, my Savior my King
In forms and rituals we seek hard to find Him
Toiling and building our concepts so true
We build and we smite with all that’s within us
To protect God’s kingdom from human abuse
We’re blinded by form and stiffened by dogma
We’ve murdered the Christ that is mighty to save
While the whole world looks on we continue in battle
In a meaningless war we fight on so brave
Surrounded by doctrine and in our creeds we’re protected
So securely that even His light can’t break in
For the one thing that matters we’ve completely forsaken
God help us and break us of such pride and sin!
We need a fresh dawning
We need a fresh light!
To pierce all our darkness
And stamp out the night
What light is this?
And where do we find it?
What person can tell us or give us direction?
'Tis so simple that many here do stumble
So to heaven with earnest we must lift up our plea
Reveal to my heart in its searching and aching
The dawning of Christ in truth and glory
'Twill solve all our problems
Heal all our schisms
Beholding the Head
There will be no divisions
The lost will be saved
The darkness will scatter
The things that divided
They just will not matter
Like Paul let us fall from positions of grandeur
That lead us to bite, devour and slander
To the dust of humility bid us to go
That Jesus alone we too might know!
In resurrected form we’d then appear
Nothing could stop us for there would be no more fear
We would be consumed with one undying passion
That Jesus would be seen in a glorious fashion!
Written by Hamp Sirmans November 2005