TV 1759 | A Tale of Two Churches Part One

But I've, I confess to struggling a bit this week, of course I probably don't think I'm the only one, but I do believe the Lord wants to take us beyond where we've been. And I guess if I had to give a title, let's just go ahead and do it right now, A Tale of Two Churches. A Tale of Two Churches. There are pictures in the scripture that are really on two ends of the spectrum, and I believe they're relevant to us. And one of them we see at the beginning in chapter four of Acts. So let's just turn there for a moment. We know that the Lord came down with a mighty outpouring on the day of Pentecost and the church immediately baptized around 3,000 people. And the things kept on moving in powerful ways. God was just making a statement and showing his power, not just the new doctrine, but the power that went with it. And that's a key right there. But anyway, then you remember the account of how they were, was it Peter and John who were going to the temple and the Lord arranged for them to pray for a man who was healed, obviously. And there was a tremendous opportunity to preach, to proclaim the message. And we're told that the church, the numbers grew to 5,000, it says 5,000 men. I don't know if that's just strictly males or what, but anyway, it was a lot of people. And the authorities got very upset about it. They called them in. Why are you doing this? And they said it was in the name of Jesus, there's no other salvation in anybody but him. And they said, well, don't preach in this name anymore. He said, let me ask you a question. Should we agree with him or obey him or you? You tell me.

And so they threatened them and they went back to the people. Well, this is where we pick it up. In verse 23 of chapter four in Acts, on their release, Peter and John went back to where? To their own people. They didn't have an apostles meeting. They went back to the people. That tells me that everybody was involved. And reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. When they, this is the people, when they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. That's a pretty good picture of a church, isn't it? All right. Sovereign Lord, they said, you made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father, David. Why do the heathen, why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed one. See, they're realizing what's really at stake here. This is a picture of what's going on. We're not just sitting here in a sort of a spiritual vacuum just trying to muddle through. This is a church in the midst of a kingdom that is ruled over by real, a real kingdom ruled over by wicked spirits, and they are determined to oppose everything that God does in any way they can possibly do it. So they're recognizing this. They're understanding what's going on in their own midst and the devil's coming against them. So they said, indeed, Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel. So everybody got together. Everybody the devil had this power over and this influence over.

Man, this is one time they weren't enemies anymore. They came together in a united front against anything to do with Jesus. They came together to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed. But here's the interesting thing. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. You know, we sing the chorus sometimes. Nothing could happen outside of God's will. So God allowed all of this to happen and accomplished something wonderful out of it, didn't he? But now they're in a different situation. Now, next word, now, Lord, consider their threats. Now here's one thing that sets this church apart from most. They didn't say, Lord, consider their threats. and do something about those bad people, protect us, oh God. We have a nice, comfortable lifestyle where we're doing the right things, we're believing in you, and we don't want that interfered with. It isn't kind of what they said, was it? Their prayer was focused on what was really going on. I wonder how much of the time do we really tune in to what's really happening? How much are we engaged? The Lord has had to challenge me in a fresh way, and I feel like so many times I've said it and honestly, why am I the one to have to stand up here and say this? I need it as much as anybody out there. In fact, referring back to what was said at the beginning, isn't it about time I aged out? I'm afraid you don't age out in the body of Christ. We just do what the Lord puts in front of us to do. So anyway, they're praying, but what is their prayer? Oh God, protect us from the bad people? No. He said, consider their threats and enable your servants.

Now right there, they recognize we don't have the ability to do what is appropriate in this situation. We need not just better doctrine, we need divine power. Anybody think we need divine power in this warfare? So what's the power that we need so that we can stand and not give in? What did they pray about? Enable your servants to do what? To speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. Now I'm not drawn to this scripture because I want to emphasize signs and wonders particularly, but the reality is they weren't just looking for, Lord protect our religion. They were looking for a way to go on offense and accomplish what you have set in motion. You have allowed certain things to happen, but you did it not just so we can say, oh, look at all that bad stuff out there, God. Help us to go back to our little enclave here and protect us, oh God. They wanted to go on offense. And I feel like that's one thing that God is trying to stir us to is we're not here to play defense. God wants us to go on the offensive, okay? And so they prayed and this was, how many of the people, by the way? All the people. Again, this was not an elders meeting. This was everybody was united and involved in what was going on, okay? All right, after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. Now I'm not suggesting that this scripture is a formula where if we just have a good prayer meeting, wham, amazing things. But the principles involved apply in every age. You know, there are people who actually teach that all of the signs and wonders that you

see in the New Testament, the gifts of the Spirit, that all passed away. We have a Bible now. I'll tell you, there are churches everywhere that got the Bible, all right? I'll make some other comments about that as we go. So here's one church, one example. And it wasn't just, oh God, preserve our doctrine. Oh God, don't let them interfere with our meetings. Don't let them mess with our lives. We've got it all worked out to where we know what to do and how to do it, what to believe, and that's good enough. Now it's quiet. Is it something to think about? All right. Let's go to another scripture. And that's in Revelation chapter 3. That's a sobering one. Revelation chapters 2 and 3 consist of letters that Jesus wrote to seven particular churches. Everyone had a unique, a particular need that the Lord addressed. And, you know, with Ephesus it was you lost your first love, there were others who had false doctrine, there was one that he encouraged to stand fast in persecution, there was another one that had a little strength and, you know, preserve what you have anyway. Then we come to the church in Laodicea. This is a tale of two churches. To the angel of the church in Laodicea write, these are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation, I know your deeds. You suppose the Lord knows everything about us? Praise God, yes He does. What does He know about this particular group of people? That you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other.

So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so that you can become rich. And white clothes to wear so that you can cover your shameful nakedness and salve to put on your eyes so you can see. Now here's the encouraging part. Does this say those who I am mad with? No, it doesn't, does it? Those whom I love, those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Now the word earnest means, you know, let's get on fire. Let's wake up and let's turn the heat up. There's a passion that's missing is what he's saying, okay? Be earnest and repent. Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I was victorious and sat down with my father on his throne. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So this is the other church. And I find it interesting that the Lord doesn't say, you're believing the wrong things. You have false teachers. As far as you can tell, they were still faithful to what the Word says. Didn't say so and so has fallen into deep sin and you're not doing anything about it. Doesn't have any of those kinds of things going on here. They were, and I'm sure they were continuing to meet. This by the way, Laodicea was kind of an unusual city in that era, probably in any era, because

it was comfortable. It was a prosperous place. It was a kind of a good place to live. Business was good. Life was okay. There wasn't a whole lot of conflict going on. How many of you think that's a really good thing for serving the Lord? It kind of conveys the wrong thing, like let's just be comfortable and that's okay. And so they had their own ideas that, hey, we believe the right things. We meet together. We do what the Lord says. So everything's cool. Everything's good. We are just right there. I want to confess something. I was recently in a gathering of ministers and I swear as I sat there, I said, what in the world makes us any different from any of these? We tend to think, oh, my church, my church this, and we're the best ones, or we're this or we're that. God help us. So I looked around and I could say, they preach faithfully the Word of God as best they understand it. And of course, we'll say, yeah, but they don't understand it. Well, they'd say the same thing about us. But they preach the Word. They believe in gathering together. together and they gather. They believe in singing good songs of praise to the Lord. So do we. I mean, you can go right down the list and they're doing all the things that we do.

Is that all there is to the kingdom of God? Just saying and doing the right things and not getting caught up in the great sin or something like that? Is that it? That was all they had going for them in Laodicea. That's a dangerous place. And I'll tell you, human nature trends that way, doesn't it? You remember when Samuel was sent to anoint David as king and he looked upon the first son and said, man, that's got to be him. He really looks good. This is the Lord's anointed. And what did the Lord say to Samuel? You don't see the way I see. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. And you see the difference in the way people in Laodicea, the church, thought of themselves and what the Lord said. They measured their standing and how good they were as a church by what they did and what they believed and life was good. It's almost like serving the Lord is a checkbox, or a bunch of checkboxes. Went to church, sang the songs, I joined the choir, wow. I did my Bible reading today. Well, I missed today, but I'll catch it up. Check. I prayed. Check. And you go down the list, okay, what's for lunch? You know, and then you go to life and life is what's really got control and that's the only thing that really functionally matters as long as we check all the boxes. Do you kind of see where maybe that's where these people were at? That's not a good place to be because we are in the middle of a war.

Don't we see that everywhere, the Scriptures? It's like the Lord's given us this little place and now the only thing He really wants us to do is just hang on to it. Do the right stuff, hang on to it. And you see the other church and they're not saying, oh God, protect us from those bad people. They're saying, God, empower us. We're in the middle of a war. You are raining from heaven. You have a purpose. You've even allowed all of this, but you didn't allow it so that we can just sit back and just go into hiding, to hide in a cave and say, all right, we're good Christians. When are you coming, Lord? They realized that there was a war that they needed to be engaged in and their purpose was not God protect me, but God empower me. That's what everything is about. And I thank God. I, you know, the, the thing is we're somewhere in between, honestly, is that right? We're somewhere in between, but the trend, if we're not careful, is just to get satisfied with coming to the services, hearing the word of God, doing all of the activities and, and not really falling into terrible sin and we're good, we're rich, we're the best. It's not about us to start with. It's not who we are or what we are, or we can look back and say, oh, look what God did so many years ago. Look at all of that. Isn't that wonderful? And we're the, we have the heritage of that. What good is that? If there are needs in our midst, let alone outside where we need God to come and actually do something.

You know, there's a scripture, I'm not going to turn over there, but you can look it up later. Paul was about in, in first Corinthians four and five, he was about to really have to deal with some pretty serious stuff and he was plain. There's a time to speak out about needs because this was something everybody knew about and they weren't dealing with it. But he was talking about having to come and deal with, with the people. And he said, there are some people who are all bold in their speech, but he said the kingdom of God. God is not mere talk, it's not just words, but it's power. And I'll tell you, there's a danger that we can have all of the right stuff and not really be seeing God in action, changing lives. I don't care if we get our doctrine perfect and it sounds good and it makes us feel good and we go on, yes, that's encouraging, I'm glad to hear about all that. But if God is not actively changing lives, transforming people, what do we have? He's reaching out in love and mercy because He wants a people who are connected to Him, whose heart is, God, I want what You want. We've got to see Your power in action, Lord, it's not enough. It's not enough to have the truth. Having the Bible and preaching it accurately, the world is full of people who can do it better than I can. If you're talking about understanding what the words say and organizing them and saying them in a way that is memorable, that's what Bible colleges train people to do, it's easy. There are people who have natural ability to speak, so what? If God's power is not there to accompany those words and transform hearts and lives, what do you have? A nice, comfortable religion that makes you feel okay. You remember the words that we often referred to that where Mordecai was talking to his niece Esther, who knows but that you are called. You've come to the kingdom for such a time as this.

We often say those words. God has us in a particular time and a particular place, but we're not called to sit in a little behind four walls, and this is not about any particular issue. This is just saying, God, we need to seek you and we need to see transformations happen in the church, needs that we know about, that just don't need better arguments. They need power. The answer to people's needs is not just to debate the ideas and say, your idea is wrong, this one is right. Satan holds onto people with real spiritual power. Yes, ideas are involved, but without the power, you're just arguing, you're debating a devil. There needs to be divine power that comes to grips. The danger is you can have people grow up in the church and they go along and they affirm what they're told to believe, but what if they have never had a divine encounter where God has come and revealed Himself to their hearts in power, shown them their need and shown them a Savior, and then it's on them, what are they going to do about it? This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, the Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time, and may God richly bless you until then.