Foundation Stones #4 – What the 3000 Received

It’s greatly expanded. Christian fellowship and the Christian life is now shared by 20 people in a small area called Galilee. And that is where it’s confined for the next four years. Now watch it. On the day of Pentecost, wow, you talk about getting big. Here is something hidden in eternity, just barely got into Nazareth, hardly even visible in Galilee, has now expanded to 120 people confined to the town of Jerusalem. And now 3,000 more people converted in one blinding moment of glory. Join with them and get this. Watch the time span and watch the geography. For the next six or seven years, church life will be confined to the Godhead, 12 apostles, 120 other Christians who’ve been around a while, and 3,000 believers in one town for six or seven years.

Do you get the impression God is in a rush? Do you know something? In a way, no, but in a way, yes. Because if you’re really going to do a big job, you’re going to do it slow. Does this sound like anything we hear today? I do not know what you brothers have been exposed to in the way of the Christian gospel, but I grew up on the hour is urgent. The day is spent and we have got to getting into the business of such and such. Whatever it is, somebody’s promoting. That’s right, or who knows. You got 12 men. The entire hope of eternity is in those 12 men. The gospel is in them. It is not in Christ. It’s in those 12 men. If they die right now, suddenly, for some reason, the gospel will never be known because they’re the ones who know it. The gospel is Jesus Christ, and they’re not going anywhere, and they’re saying to the mountain, you come to me or come to us. We’re not going to you.

The geographical confines of the gospel are incredible. May I go ahead and tell you the rest of the story? This is absolutely mind-blowing. For the next six years, the Christian life and the church, the life of the church is confined to one city. 10 years thereafter, it is confined totally to Judea, expands all the way out to Judea. For 10 years, maybe out into an area with a population of less than a million, into the villages and towns of Judea, among somewhere between 10, 20, 30,000 people. Get this. For the next four or five or six years after that, it expands to a few towns outside of Judea. Then after that time, the gospel is sent out to all the rest of the known world.

That is, the entire Roman Empire plus whatever else there is on this earth. Guess how many go to the whole rest of the world. How many people does God send out to evangelize the whole entire planet? Well, you got 20 or 30,000, maybe 40 or 50,000 Christians by now. All these Jewish people down there. The gospel spread out a little bit into some of the surrounding nations. How many people get sent out to the Roman Empire to save the world? And this is God who does it. I’m not talking about man or a movement. God picks how many people to go to the rest of the planet? Guess? You’re right. It’s two. His name is Paul, and his name is Barnabas. And that’s all. 60, 70, 80 million people. Two men. Well, certainly it’s two men. This is God doing things. God’s not in a rush. He wants the fellowship of His Life. He wants the fellowship of the Godhead taken out. And He’s being really careful about this, and He wants it done well.

Now brothers, if we could have that kind of attitude today, we might get somewhere. I have said on several occasions lately, what I am trying to do in my lifetime, what I am doing is too important to succeed in my lifetime, and it is far too important to get big. Okay, did you hear all that? Two people. Two people. Disprove me. Go get your Bible, your concordance, get your history books, get your scholars, everything, and try to find it to be any different than that. These are not verses of scripture I’m quoting you. You can prove anything or verses of scripture. This is what the story tells us happened to men. Okay, Tom, you had a question.

Audience member: The whole thing with the upper room experience is, you know, pretty controversial. The people, the other 108, or 120, I guess, were baptized in the Holy Spirit. They were, yeah, because they had that call.

Well. We better talk about that a little bit. There are 120 people present. Are they sent? Well, there’s two things we have to recognize, and that is that day that the clothing of the Holy Spirit was introduced brand new to the human race, to the church of the living God, to people other than Christ, and for all of us since that day, we are both indwelt with the spirit of the Lord and we are clothed.

Now, of course, there are some people who would say no, that’s a second experience, you’re indwelt by the Lord, by the Spirit, but there has to come a moment in your life when you have this clothing. Well, I don’t want to get into this. I don’t want to get into this, but that’s not what I believe. I believe that every one of us is saved and we have the Spirit. We are, well, let’s put it this way. Is Christ in you? Yes.

On the day of Pentecost, the church was plunged into God. It’s not an individual thing. It’s a church matter. The church is plunged into God. And the church of God is now clothed with Him. Now, for each of us, as individuals, as being part of that corporate thing, and I know this is very difficult for us Americans and us modern Christians to realize because we’re so individualistic, but in a very real way, you don’t exist. In the eyes of God, you’re part of a woman. You are part of a woman. He loves you, but when He died, He didn’t even particularly die for you. The scripture clearly says He died for you, Gene. Yes. But the scripture also clearly says He died for the church. He loved her and died for her. Gave Himself for her, and since that day, she’s been as a body, as a woman, fully equipped, filled within, clothed without, but those of us who are her members, that filling does not include full transformation. That’s gradual, and the clothing does not mean that I am, on the day I am saved, prepared to be sent out.

The apostles were prepared in every way to be sent out, except that they had not received this clothing that He had received. At the moment they received it, they were prepared, and they went out, and in that respect, the bride was prepared and went out, but you, as an individual, it does not mean that you are suddenly prepared for service just because you are saved, indwelt by Christ, and clothed with His Spirit. The rest of the New Testament witnesses to a little preparation wouldn’t hurt.

Now then, I don’t know what would be the answer to what I just said from the charismatic family, but I want you to know that many, many people who get saved speak in tongues the next day. I personally am not willing to contribute money to their going out as missionaries the day after they are converted. I do not see them as being clothed for service, and in the terms of the charismatic movement, I do not see them as empowered from on high, but I see them as being part of the body of Christ, having come into the full riches of their inheritance, but it’s going to take a little time for them to be prepared and one day sent by God to raise up churches. A man who is two days old in the Lord should not be raising up churches. It’s a no-no.

Alright, on the day of Pentecost, these men got called; that was the last preparation they needed. They were sent out and they were sent all the way downstairs, and they stayed there for six long years. Then 10 more years passed after that while they and others worked in Judea, and then more time passed before more people were sent out by the Lord. By the Lord.