The Early Church
It's a good thing that John and the Christians of the early church are no longer alive. Maybe we would start a revolt against them. We can well understand why John the Baptist was beheaded: because he told the truth. Look it up in Matthew 3:7-12. What would happen if we had preaching like that in our churches today? The apostle John was filled with the Holy Spirit to such an extent, that he couldn't understand that a born-again Christian could still lie. He couldn't imagine a person having experienced a rebirth through the Spirit who was yet a friend of this world. He couldn't understand that such a person didn't have the capability to conquer sin in his life. A greater power is necessary to vanquish sin, to go from victory to victory, than to heal the sick. These days we have become so superficial in our judgement. If a person speaks a few words in an unknown tongue, then we say he is filled with the Holy Spirit, but this person might still be lying or living in adultery. What an immense difference to what the Bible teaches, if we have an ear to hear.
Chapter 4
The Early Church
The more we studied Acts, the more our hearts were broken. We reached the verse where Peter, John, James, Philip and all the others were gathered in the upper room in prayer. Even the women were there, and the brothers of our Lord, and Mary, His mother. It is written that they all continued with one accord in prayer. This happened even before the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. The Lord's death on the cross, His Resurrection, and the events leading up to the Ascension were enough to unite these people in prayer. To me, this seems to be the greatest miracle of all: the unity of the Christians! Normally, they quarrel and slander behind each others backs and kill each other with words. But the death of the Lord Jesus and His Resurrection moved them so deeply that they were drawn closely together in prayer and it was possible to say of them: they were one in spirit. How deeply has the cross of Jesus moved our hearts? What does it mean to us?
Later, we find these same people at Pentecost, at which time three thousand people were converted. When the Holy Spirit descended as the Comforter, (Greek: paracletos) He did exactly as His name indicates. The Comforter comes down to stand alongside us, shoulder to shoulder, and speaks the same language we speak. That is what happened at Pentecost. All the people present could hear Peter's sermon in their own language. We may all speak the same language and yet remain on different wave lengths. There is the language of theologians, the language of students, the language of politicians. We learn to speak foreign languages and can't even understand our own, but when the Holy Spirit is at work, He speaks to each person in a language he can understand. At such a time it doesn't matter whether we are educated or uneducated, whether we belong to this race or that. The Holy Spirit can speak in such a way that even a little child will understand. That's literally what happened at Pentecost. Therefore it is important not to read the Word of God superficially, but to hear it with proper ears and convey it in an unadulterated way.
At a Christian meeting I once heard a well-known preacher exclaim, "Now let's pray as they prayed at Pentecost, when they all spoke in tongues." And then the whole congregation spoke in tongues. People of different nationalities passed by outside, but none of them could understand even a single word of what was being said. Pentecost, however, was different. Everybody could hear what was being said in his own language. I am not against the gift of tongues, but it must be worked by the Holy Spirit. That is why the apostle Paul writes to Timothy that he must rightly divide the Word of Truth, i.e., to keep those things apart which must be kept apart, and to keep those things together which belong together.
When the three thousand people at Pentecost were pierced to the heart by the message of salvation, they repented. The consequences of this event can be read in Acts 2:42: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." They remained together daily in unanimity of the Spirit, as one heart and one soul. What a miracle! Thousands of people, young and old, men and women, surely also teenagers and children as well. They didn't just belong to some church or religious organisation, as we often do. There are Christians today who say, "Oh am I glad that I don't need to live with that person in our church. She gets on my nerves. It is good that we can go home after the service and I don't have to get along with her anymore." The Christians of the early church cultivated their devout fellowship daily in complete unity of the Holy Spirit. That is the testimony of the Word of God.
There were only approximately forty Christians at Mapumulo at that time, but, oh, was there friction and fighting amongst them! I often needed to be a peacemaker, because they just couldn't get along with each other. One would criticise the other. Instead of going to their adversary and settling the matter, they would rather speak about the other person's mistakes behind his back. Their own sins they would prudently conceal - the result of which was proper, double-faced, hypocritical Christianity.
In Acts 4:31 we read of the early church that, when they had prayed, the place was shaken. No wonder! When
these people prayed, things happened. Such a prayer could shake the world. Have there ever been as many prayer meetings and prayer groups as in these times of ours? But what happens? Have Christians ever been more shaken than they are today? We pray and we don't move the world, the world moves us! One can understand why. Our very own children confuse us, our own congregation confounds us and we ask in amazement: How can such things happen? Even in our own churches there are couples who have to get married, and yet they are members of the church.
In 1966, as we considered the first Christians of the early church, we said to ourselves, "That church is far away from us, not two thousand years, but as far as the east is from the west. What a difference! If we compare that church to ours, which we believe to be the best and most pious, how will it be when things come to light..." We then took a closer look at these people, and got the impression that Jesus wasn't just their hobby or something for the weekend - no, Jesus was their very life! They lived for Him every day of the week. Whether they were together or not, their lives were the same. Every day of their lives Jesus was their all. Some of them sold their possessions, their fields, then brought everything and laid it at the apostles' feet. Jesus meant more to them than anything else. They came together daily and had everything in common, without being communists. Nobody said, "This is mine!" They weren't self-centred, they didn't think of themselves, they were Spirit-filled and lived for the Lord Jesus. Here we see what a Spirit-filled person should be like. He doesn't live for himself, he lives for his neighbour. That's exactly what we saw when we studied those first Christians.
But then the Acts of the Apostles relates something quite astonishing in chapter five. The devil, who doesn't sleep, filled Ananias' heart. So the devil can influence us as well! That's why the Bible says that we shouldn't give the devil any room. This is directed at Christians. We mustn't be of the erroneous opinion that the devil can't sneak his way into a Christian's heart. A person who makes such a statement doesn't know what he's saying. We know that a Christian can also lie, although he is born again, even if he calls it a "white lie". In that moment the devil comes into his heart. That's exactly what happened to Ananias. We don't know the reason why. The Bible only informs us that he and his wife agreed to sell their property. We don't know which of them had the idea, but one of them started the ball rolling. Maybe this couple wanted to do the same thing the others were doing. Sometimes we Christians can be brilliant imitators. If somebody does something, we imitate it without knowing why. The prophet Isaiah says, "All we like sheep have gone astray." We are like sheep. One sheep copies the other. Ananias and Sapphira said to themselves, "Let us do likewise." So they sold their possessions, maybe they even prayed about it. God even sent a buyer - wasn't it wonderful? But then they somehow reconsidered: "Let's not take everything to the apostles. We'll withhold some of it. We'll pretend that this was everything, but part of it we'll keep." We don't know their motives. Maybe they were thinking of their future. But possibly they agreed in their bedroom to give just a portion of it to the apostles and to keep the rest in reserve.
Ananias took the money, brought it to the apostles and laid it at their feet. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, who is a Spirit of truth, and the Spirit said to him, "Peter, there is something fishy here, there is something wrong." This inspiration prompted him to say, "Ananias, tell me, is this the price you got for the land?" And Ananias answered, "Yes." Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to me but to God." And what was the consequence of this lie? When Ananias heard those words, he fell down dead.
We see that the early church didn't tolerate sin, not even a white lie. They had no room and no time for sin, and dealt with it most severely. So much so, that a man had to die for a lie. That was what the early church, the church of Christ, the risen Lord, was like.
I sometimes ask myself whether we have a right to call ourselves the church of Christ, when we see the kinds of things that go on in our churches nowadays. In the early church a man had sinned: he had told a lie. We might not even call it a lie. But that little falsehood was taken so seriously that it cost him his life. The early church and the Spirit of that church said, "Rather dead in the grave than alive with a lie in the church."
What do we do? We worship God as our King, have fellowship with one another, and tolerate sin in our midst! Upon what foundation are we building? We say, "But he is a member of our church, born into the congregation and baptised." On Judgement Day that person will burn like stubble, for nobody is a member of the church of Christ, until he is a member of the body of Christ Himself, the living and holy Lord. He cannot just belong to an organisation, but must be genuinely born again, and the fruit of his life must show that he is born again.
Let's return to our account in Acts, chapter five. About three hours later, Ananias' wife, Sapphira, comes in, not knowing what had happened. We must remember that these were simple people, they had no telephones or cars. One would assume that the most obvious thing to do would be to notify the wife of the deceased, so that
she could make arrangements for the funeral! But we read that several young men carried him out and buried him. Now his wife comes along and doesn't know that her darling husband is dead. Immediately, Peter confronts her and asks, "Sapphira, tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" Well, she had to stand by her husband. They had agreed as to what they were going to do. So she was faithful to him and answered, "Yes, that is the price." Peter said to her, "How could you and your husband agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." Upon hearing those words, she also fell down dead.
In 1966, we asked ourselves whether we would want to become a member of such a church, one which was like the first church. What would become of people like us, with our white lies and our petty little sins. I thought to myself, Thank God there is no church like that today and thank God that I didn't live in that time, because I might have felt it to be my duty to warn people: "Beware! That's a dangerous place. Terrible things happen in that church. People die there. Peter can't be a man of God, filled with God's love. Nobody whose heart is filled with love would act like that, it's cruel. He didn't even give her a chance. Why did he expose her in front of all those people? Why didn't he go to her and warn her?"
Maybe we can thank God that we didn't live in that time. We might possibly have been filled with the Holy Spirit, but I can tell you one thing: if you pray for revival, you are asking for something the world doesn't understand. You might even be asking for something that you don't understand yourself. Consider what happened in this first church when the Spirit of God descended in all His power and worked amongst its members.
I asked that little congregation of Zulus, "If I had been Peter, what would I have done? If you had been Peter, what would you have done?" The trouble is that we read the Bible so superficially that we cannot grasp what it's all about. Just imagine if we had been there. What would happen if such a church as the early church were in existence today? Maybe we would drive those people away and reject them as fanatics, as too extreme, unloving and without grace. If I had been Peter, and Ananias had come to me, I might have hugged him, given him a brotherly kiss and said, "Brother, God bless you." I probably wouldn't have worried about whether he was telling a white lie or not, I would have looked upon the generous gift he contributed and thought: "that's what we need." We know the financial costs when thousands of people come together every day. Maybe I would have received him with enthusiasm and said, "Brother, the Lord be with you. At the next board meeting I'll propose that you are appointed as a deacon." Those are the kinds of people we need in the church: people with money.
Peter, however, reacted differently. One could imagine that he was saying, "To hell with you and your money. We have no room for you in the church of our risen Lord. We can't tolerate a person who lies, is dishonest and speaks half-truths. It is better to be eaten by maggots, than to live like that in the church." That is how they dealt with both the husband and his wife in those times.
We didn't get very far in our Bible studies. We turned back to the third chapter of Acts, where Peter and John went to the temple to pray. Peter said to the beggar at the gate, "Look on us. Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" Let's examine carefully what Peter said. First he said to the beggar, "Look at us." How could Peter make such a mistake? No theologian would express himself in such a manner. We would say, "Look at Jesus, look at God, look at the Bible, not at us!" Of course, we can understand that Peter made such a mistake. He didn't have our theological seminaries with professors and teachers as ours. But we must qualify this assessment. Peter had the greatest Professor and Teacher, he sat at the feet of the greatest Master. But, even so, how could a person who had just been filled with the Holy Spirit say, "Look at us." Didn't he know that one had to look at Jesus? We then delved into the word of God and found 2 Corinthians 3:3, where it is written, "Clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart." And verse 2, "You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men." We could now understand Peter. The hand of God was at work in the apostles' lives. The Spirit of God did something to these people. That's why they could declare without shame, "Look at us." Even before Peter began his healing ministry he could proclaim with authority, "Look at us!"
Can we, as witnesses of Christ and ministers in the church of God, say to the world, "Look at us!" before we begin to witness? Can we as parents say to our children when we reprove them, "Look at us and the life we live!" Are we setting a good example for them? Can we say to the maid or the garden labourer, "Look at me," before we tell them about Jesus? Don't we usually declare, "Don't do as I do, do as I say!" That's exactly what the Pharisees did. In Matthew 23:3 the Lord Jesus says, "Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do." The Pharisees didn't practice what they preached. That is the distinguishing characteristic of a Pharisee! The Pharisees and scribes of the twentieth century are exactly the same. They preach the truth, but they don't practice it themselves. I
emphasise: the Truth! Very often, we believe that Pharisees are people who preach lies. But then Jesus wouldn't have said to His disciples, "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do," if they had been telling them fairy-tales.
In order to demonstrate what I mean, let me tell you about a famous preacher. This man received so many invitations, that he couldn't possibly accept them all. On one of his tours he was asked to speak in a large cathedral, and his wife, who had also been invited, accompanied him. Two of the congregation's leading women welcomed his wife and escorted her to church. Then this preacher got into the pulpit. He was such an orator that everybody was completely spellbound. While he spoke you could hear a pin drop. His mode of expression was perfect and he never repeated himself. When the sermon was over, they all departed silently, deeply impressed. After the three ladies had left the cathedral, one of them turned to the preacher's wife. "Oh, it must be wonderful," she said, "to be married to a man who can preach like that!" To which the minister's wife retorted, "Oh, you don't know what he is like at home!" If our lives can't even impress our own wives, how much less our children and even less the devil. May God grant that the people to whom this applies, and who feel this is directed at them, repent and turn from their Pharisaism.
In 1966, we recognised that we had no right to open our mouths and preach to the world or the heathen Zulus before we could say, "Look at us." Let us hear Peter once more: "Such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" We might ask anew, "Peter, aren't you ashamed? You had let the Lord down so terribly, you denied him! And now you say, "Look at us!" He may then reply, "Yes, my brother, I can speak in such a way. I sinned, but I repented. I was able to cry because of my sin and I received forgiveness. When God forgives, He forgets, and I may forget as well." This is the gospel: we needn't live in the past; the past has been dealt with. If we have truly, genuinely repented and brought our life in order with God, then through the forgiveness of our sins we can continue without shame.
Peter went on to say, "Silver and gold have I none." Just imagine! If we had come to the point where we had no money, could we still say to people, "Look at us?" When we're on top of the world, when we've won lots of money, when everything is going fine and glistens like gold, then we smile. Then we say to the people, "Look at us." However, when things go wrong, when we are bankrupt and at our wit's end, can we still say, "Look at us?"
Was Peter being honest when he said, "Silver and gold have I none," or was that just a trick to get around giving the beggar some money? We may have conducted ourselves in such a manner! We might have said, "I am sorry, I haven't got any money at the moment," although in reality our pockets were full of money.
In spite of these questions, we must accept that Peter was speaking the truth, but he wasn't ashamed of the fact that he had no money and he continued by saying, "But such as I have..." - notice what Peter said, he had something! - "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!"
At this point, I told my little Zulu congregation the story of a Roman Catholic priest, whose services were attended by thousands of people in a huge cathedral. This priest didn't use the customary collection plates for the offering. Instead, he set up a large table near the door for this purpose. After the people had left, the table was laden with money, with silver and gold. As the old priest was counting this money with his young curate at his side, he said, "Look, young man. Peter can no longer say, 'Silver and gold have I none.' Nor can the Pope say that today." To which the young man replied, "Neither can he say, 'In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!'"
We see that the tables have been turned. What they once had, we no longer have. Somewhere along the way something got lost. What they didn't have, we do have, and it plays quite an important role in our lives. Money is a significant factor when we decide whether or not to go into the Lord's ministry, and it assumes a decisive role in regard to our decision. Perhaps we are a bit like Judas Ischariot. Peter, however declared, "I don't have any money." It didn't seem to bother him either, as he gave what he had.
Suddenly, a young woman of the Zulu congregation, who had been converted just three months before, stood up. Tears were streaming down her face as she said, "O Mfundisi, please stop." This young woman interrupted me in the middle of a sentence! Astonished, I asked, "Yes, what's wrong?" She replied, "May I pray?" I didn't know what to do. It was like a bolt out of the blue. A newly converted person suddenly gets up, stops the service, and wants to pray. I didn't know whether to allow it. This young person had no theological training, she was no deacon, no elder in the church. Could she even pray? What if she prayed incorrectly? But then I looked at her and I thought, "Well, she isn't deceiving us, she seems to be serious." Thus I said, "All right, you may pray." This young woman then prayed a simple prayer, "O Lord Jesus, we have heard what the early church was like. Couldn't you come down and be in our midst as you came down two thousand years ago? Couldn't our church be the same as the one in Jerusalem?"