Turn back now to Acts chapter
5. Acts chapter 5. Let's read verse
12. I've taken the title of this
message from verse 12, which reads, And by the hands of the
apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And they were all with one accord
in Solomon's porch." The title of this message is, In Solomon's
Porch. If you think that's a strange
title, you may see why in a moment. That is not the subject. But that's for ease of remembrance. But I couldn't help but dwell
on this a little bit when I read this. Could not help but dwell
on this porch for a moment. I always knew there was something
special about a porch. Now, the porch that it's talking
about here is Solomon's porch, or the one that he built, had
built, on the front of the temple, the temple which Solomon was
instrumental in building and that porch was thirty feet in
breadth or it was the width of the temple. This building is
thirty two feet wide so it's basically this wide and it was
fifteen feet deep which is roughly from here to the Baptist today. So it was a fairly large porch
and back in this is the same porch if you remember. Back in
chapter three, verse eleven, this is the same porch where
Peter and John were standing when they preached the gospel
to that multitude of people. You remember when they were walking
into the temple, they walked first through the gate of the
temple, the eastern gate, if you remember our study of the
tabernacle of the temple, the eastern gate. They walked in
and there was a man asking alms there, begging alms, and that's
when Peter said what he said to him, silver and gold have
I none, but such as I have, give I to thee, and rise up and walk. And after that man rose up and
leaped and stood and praised God, they started walking toward
the temple, and this man was just hanging on to them, and
Peter and John walked up the steps of the of the porch and
got no further than the porch until swarms of people started
swarming around them, saw this going on. There was always a
lot of people around the temple daily, and they saw this healing
and what was going on. And this is where the apostles
stopped, couldn't get inside because of the throng, vast throng,
I mean thousands of people. If you remember, five thousand
people were saved as a result of Peter's preaching from that
porch, Peter and John. And that's where they stood and
preached the gospel. That's where they had gathered.
That's where they were first found. They gathered around the
porch and began preaching. And this is where the religious
leaders first came and grabbed ahold of them. They were on the
porch, preaching, and took them off. Now, and like I said, I
always knew there was something special about a porch. When we
were building our house, Mindy had several things that she wanted
in the house, and I basically had two requirements. Number
one was I wanted a porch. I wanted a front porch on the
house, and as it is, we've now got a front porch and a back
porch, which is real nice, and a garage. a garage, but I wanted
a porch, and since then, since we built that porch, I've never
regretted it, because we've spent many, many hours of fellowship
on that porch, either the front or the back. Sometimes we rung
from the front to the back and the back to the front. It depends
on where the mood, how the mood strikes you. And I've been on
other people's porches as well, spent many hours, or car porch,
car spent many hours of fellowship together with believers on their
porches. So the Apostles started on the
porch. That's where they started, and
this is where they were apprehended and brought before the Council,
and they were warned and threatened for preaching that name. You
know what name I'm talking about, don't you? That name, the one that Peter
said, there's no salvation in any other because there's none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. You do know what name, when I
say that name from here on out. You see, my name will perish
and the name of the apostles will perish, but that name will
live forever, the name of Christ. So after being threatened the
first time, after they grabbed them off the porch and took them
and threatened them and said, don't you preach that name anymore.
They let them go. They let the apostles go. They went back to the church,
you remember, and they had a prayer meeting. Remember that? That's
what we studied last time, time before that. They had a prayer
meeting. They asked for boldness and courage and strength to preach
and to witness in that name. And now here they are back on
the porch again. They left that prayer meeting
and went back to the porch and began preaching again, right
back on the same porch. And it says they were with one
accord in Solomon's porch, enjoying the blessings and the presence
of Christ. All right? Now, verses 12 through 14 here
in chapter 5 have a A parenthetical statement, that
means there are some words in a parenthesis here. You see it? That part there that says, And
they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch, is in parenthesis. And let's read all that together,
that parenthesis. And they were all with one accord
in Solomon's porch. And of the rest, there's no man
join himself. to them, but the people magnified
them. And believers were the more added
to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. So that's in parenthesis, and
it's added for emphasis. A parenthesis, a parenthetical
statement, is always added to emphasize what you are saying. In other words, while you're
saying something, You add this parenthesis in parenthesis for
emphasis. You want to emphasize something.
And what an emphasis this is, right here, that is given. And
here is the emphasis. Verse 12, it says, they. Who's the they? Believers. You'll see they down in the,
or the people. This is the believers, the people
of God. They, believers, it says, were
all with one accord. They were all together with one
accord. That's what that means. They
were together in mind, in heart, in purpose, in will, in desire
to worship. Whenever the church meets to
worship and fellowship. Whenever the church meets to
worship and fellowship, that's where true believers want to
be. They're with one accord. They're always together. And
it says they were in one accord to worship, to meet the Lord,
to meet with the family of Christ and their friends. Verse 13. And it says the rest, or that
is unbelievers, the rest did not, did no man join himself
to them. The them here is the apostles. All right, you got that? It reads
a little hard there. But what that's saying is the
rest of the people, not the believers but other people, of no man joined
themselves to the apostles. The rest, or that is nominal
professors, mere temple-goers or in our day like a Sunday morning
religionist, they did not join themselves to the apostles. These other people did not see
anything special in the apostles, in their gospel, or in this gathering. They didn't see anything special
about it, so they did not join themselves, or they were not
united in heart with the rest of the people. But it says, verse
13, the people, the people magnified them, the believers. Those true
worshipers, those who truly heard the gospel and believed and trusted
Christ, the family of God, magnified these apostles. They esteemed
them very highly for the gospel's sake, very highly. They were
highly esteemed, and they enjoyed every meeting. These people enjoyed
every meeting and every gathering of the body of Christ. It was
the highlight of their week. They joined themselves to the
apostles and the family of God. Verse 14 says, And believers
were the more added to the Lord. Again, this is a significant
emphasis, isn't it? This is all in parenthesis. Believers
were the more added to the Lord. True believers are added to the
Lord. They don't just join a church.
They're added to the Lord. They don't just join a social
club, a poor man's country club, as some people like to call the
so-called church. They don't just join an organization,
but they're added to the Lord. They're joined to the Lord. True believers are added, and
any time something is added, that means somebody did the adding,
right? They were added by the Lord.
Later on, in Acts 13, verse 48, a verse that many people would
love to take out of the Bible—John knows what the verse is—said,
concerning the Gentiles, as many as were ordained to eternal life
believed. A lot of people like to take
that out, wouldn't they? They twist it, don't they? They
turn around and say, as many as believe were ordained to eternal
life. That's not how it reads. It says,
as many as were ordained to eternal life believe. So as many here
as were ordained to eternal life by the Lord, from the foundation
of the world, who were chosen, elected by him, were added, were
put in his church. You don't join the church. You
don't join a church. Christ puts you in the church.
He adds you to the church. He adds you to the church. You're
added by the Lord, and you're added to the Lord. Added to the
Lord. Of God, the scripture says, of
God are you in Christ. By God, or of God, are you in
Christ, who of God is made unto us. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. and redemption. So all of these
people who were added to the Lord, they considered Christ
as their wisdom, their righteousness, their sanctification and their
redemption. So they were put in Christ by
faith. They heard the gospel. God had chosen them before the
foundation of the world. They were added to, joined to
this body of believers, and it said there were multitudes of
them again. So we're talking about thousands of people in
this church here in Jerusalem. And they were put in Christ by
faith, and they fell in love with Christ and his people, and
wherever they met together, that's where they wanted to be. So,
same way with you. All right, now verse fifteen
picks up what he started saying in verse twelve. Let's go back
to verse twelve and read and leave out the parenthesis, OK?
All right, it says, And by the hands of the apostles were many
signs and wonders wrought among the people. Verse fifteen. or
that is, there were so many signs and wonders wrought among the
people, insomuch that the people brought forth the sick into the
streets and laid them on beds, laid them on beds and couches,
that at the least, or hoping at the least, that the shadow
of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. Now, and it says, and there came
also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing
sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and
they were healed, every one of them. Now that is, those are
signs and wonders, aren't they? A shadow of Peter. Now that's
strange indeed, isn't it? That is strange indeed. But it's
true. I believe it, don't you? It's
true. This was real, a real display
of God's power, God's power. A real sign and a wonder. Now, the power, do I need to
remind us, the power did not lay in Peter or in his shadow. Come on now. No way. He was just a man, wasn't he,
He was just a fisherman. He never was anything more than
a man, a former fisherman and a sinner at that. But it was
given him from above. This power was given him from
above. God must get the glory in this
thing. And again, you remember back
in chapter 3, verse 12, you remember when this man was the impotent
or the lame man was healed. And Peter would not have us now,
in verse 5, it doesn't say what he said about all this, but back
then he said, people don't look at me. Why are you looking at
me as though I by my own power, Peter just walking by Joe, on
his way to the temple and all these people, sick people and
everything were hoping that his shadow would, now this is strange,
I don't attempt to be able to explain this at all. But I guarantee you, Peter again
said, don't look at me. I don't know what's going on
either, except to say, God is doing this. This is God's power.
Peter wouldn't have us marvel at him. He would have us marvel
at the power of God in his study. But I tell you, I did find something
interesting in this word, shadow. I did. I stopped here and dwelt
a moment. Shadow, shadow. Where have I
heard that before? Turn over with me to Lamentations
4. This story, as all stories, as all things that are written
in the Paul said, are written for our
learning, and they have a spiritual application. Even these literal
or actual happenings in the early church, whatever it may be, the
Word is the first spirit. And we don't do damage to the
scriptures when we spiritualize it. We do when we take it totally
out of context and really and really make it say what it does
not say, but it does have a spiritual meaning. And this, like all earthly
elements, this story, like all earthly elements, like the parables
of our Lord, this, too, must be a shadow of heavenly things. Now, what does it say about the
things of the temple? A shadow of heavenly things, a spiritual
meaning. Here in Lamentations chapter
And I saw this and I thought, my, my, this surely must be a
prophecy. Verses 18 through 20 say this. It says, They hunt our steppe.
Now read it as if this were a prophecy of the persecution of the apostles. Read this as if this were a prophecy
of the persecution that the apostles were about to endure. what the
Lord underwent. They hunt our steps, that we
cannot go in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are
fulfilled, for our end has come. Our persecutors are swifter than
the eagles of the heaven. They pursued us upon the mountains. They laid wait for us in the
wilderness. The breath of our nostrils, the Spirit, the anointing
of the Lord, He was taken in their pits. You see that? He was taken in their pits, him
of whom we said under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.
Under his wings, the shadow of his wings, that shadow of a rock
in a weary land, under his protection, under his care, these apostles
would safely abide for a time until their persecutors would
finally catch them. and kill them as they did their
Lord. Their Lord told them of that. He told them to expect
it. I believe that's the prophecy of that which was to come. I
couldn't help but immediately think of Psalm 91.1 that says,
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Almighty shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty, the shadow of his wings. I thought
of another place, too. That's Shulamite Maiden. Over in the Song of Solomon,
listen to what she said of her beloved. She said this, I sat
down under his shadow with a great delight, and there is cool refreshment. You know how a shade, a nice
shade tree or a shade on a hot day feels to you? The shadow
of a porch or the shade of a tree or a shade of a cave, a cool
rock, there's cool refreshment. and shade from the heat of day
in resting with Christ." So y'all come, just sit a while and rest
in the shade, the shadow of his wing. And there's healing. Back
in the text it says, as many were sick were healed. Got any
sin sick folks in here? Huh? Any sin sick? Well, sit right here on the sound
of the gospel. You'll find some healing. And
it says, those that were vexed found help. They were healed,
too. Anybody get vexed today, dwelling in Sodom? Huh? Did the
conversation of the wicked at work today vex your righteous
soul? Just sit right there. I've got
some comfort for you. Let's just sit under this little
shade tree here, a little while. So here they are again, back
on this porch. back on this porch, speaking
and teaching in that name. Now, verse 17, it says, The high
priest rose up, and all they that were with him, which is
the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with indignation,
or that is, envy, and they laid their hands on the apostles and
put them in prison. Here came these high priests,
this religious hundred-goat-meat crowd, and they grabbed these
apostles off the porch where they were in the first place.
They grabbed him out of the middle of the crowd and jerked him,
dragged him off and took him and put him in prison, threw
him in prison. And they were saying, we thought
we told you not to preach in that name again, not to preach
or teach in that name. Didn't you hear us? And they
threw him in there and closed the door behind him. Didn't you
hear us? And maybe Peter or John might
have said, yeah, we heard you. We heard you. We look at verses 19 and 20,
but the angel of the Lord that night opened the prison doors
and brought them forth and said, Now you go, you stand, speak
in the temple to the people all the words of this life. Go, stand,
speak that name, the words of this life. Now they heard that.
They heard those fellows, but they weren't going to. They were
here, but they weren't going to do what they said. But they
heard this, Get back to that temple, and you just keep preaching.
So verse 21 says, when they heard that, they entered into the temple
early in the morning and taught. What did they teach? Well, look
at what he said back there in verse 20. He said, Go stand and
speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. Did that grab your attention
when you read that? It did mine. It jumped out at me like the
words of this life. What is the Spirit of the Lord
saying to them there, the angel of the Lord? Go tell the people
how they ought to get up there drinking and smoking, how they
ought to live? Huh? Is he telling them how to lead
the victorious life? Huh? Or as Bob would say, how
to have success in life? Huh? The words of this life?
Is that what he's talking about? Look over at 1 John with me. 1 John, this is a blessing. Now,
I'll tell you what the words of this life are. They're a person. Over in 1 John 1, John wrote
about this life later on, over here in 1 John 1. It says in verse 1 and 2, "...that
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes," it's so mysterious we can only say
it's a that, so majestic, so marvelous, "...that which we
have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked upon, our hands have handled of the word of life." The word
of life. For the life was manifested.
The life was manifested, the Creator, the giver of life, the
sustainer of life, the Lord of life, was manifested or revealed
in whom we live and move and have our being. He says he was
manifested. We've seen it and bear witness and show unto you
that eternal life which was with the Father. We've seen it. That's not irreverent language,
it's just mysterious. And it's, there's not superlatives
good enough to talk about it. And we bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life, that eternal life. Later on, in chapter
five, he said this, he said, this is the record that God hath
given unto us eternal life. And this life, is in his Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life. So this is that life that was
commanded of them to speak. So the Spirit said, Go stand,
be strong, that is, stand on the rock, Christ Jesus, don't
worry, don't worry, and speak. all the words of this life. Speak all he said, all he did,
all that he is, because Christ is all. You go preach Christ. You go get back on that porch.
And you preach Christ again. Preach Christ. Everything he
said, everything he did, nothing more, nothing less. So early
in the morning, they went back to the temple. Back to the porch
to teach and to preach. Now, verses 21 through verse
26, let's read what happened to them. It says, When they heard that,
they entered in the temple early in the morning and taught. But
the high priest came. Now, these fellows weren't aware
that they had broken out of jail or been taken out of jail. The high priest came, their little
bunch of peanut preachers came, and they were with him and called
a little council together. You know, they were going to
have their little meeting. And all the Senate of the Children
of Israel was sent to the prison and said, Now, go get those boys. They were going to interview
those fellas. Go get them. Go get them. So when the officers
came and didn't find them in the prison, they returned and
said, The prison, the gates were shut. The officers were outside. The keepers were standing outside
the door. Well, there wasn't anybody inside. There wasn't
anybody to get. We went to get them, and they
weren't there. We didn't get them. You don't know where they are.
And this left the high priest and the captain of the temple
and the chief priest scratching their heads, and they doubted
a bit. They didn't know what was going on. And then somebody
came running in, verse 25. It says, And in came one, and
told them, saying, I found them. Well, where are they? And you
know what they're doing? Let me guess. They're preaching
that name. I heard them, loud. They're preaching
that name. They're hollering. They're declaring
that name for everything they're worth. Everything they're worth. And they went down, it says,
verse 26, and brought them without violence. They grabbed ahold
of them again, but they didn't want to cause a scene because
the people were, there was a lot of people believing what the
apostles were saying by now. And when they brought them there,
verse 27, set them before the council, and the high priest
asked them, or said to them now, saying, Now, didn't we tell you? Did we not straightly command
you that you should not teach in this name?" That name, you're filling Jerusalem
with that name, with your doctrine concerning this man, this person,
his work. And now you intend to bring this
man's blood upon us. You intend to bring this man's
blood upon us? Didn't we straightly command
you not to teach in this name?" And Peter and the Apostles spoke
up real fast, verse 29, and said, We ought to obey God, not men.
You remember the first time? Remember they asked him, Should
we obey God rather than men? You judge. Remember that? And
now they just flat said, We're going to obey God, not you. We
heard you. We ain't going to listen. We're
listening to God. God told us, you told us not
to preach. God told us to preach. You told us not to preach that
name. God said, don't preach anything else. Preach that name. Declare it. In Isaiah, he said,
from the mountaintop. Get to a high place. Declare
it. that name for all to hear, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess
he's Lord. And this is what Peter began
preaching, and all the boys, verse 30 on. He said, The God
of our fathers raised up Jesus, raised him up. That's the first
thing out of his mouth. Stand these Sadducees hated resurrection
with a passion. This was the thing that got the
apostles killed by the Sadducees. This is the thing they hated,
this first thing Peter said. He's not dead, you think he is,
but he's alive. God raised him up. They were
gnashing their teeth by this time. God raised him up. The
one you killed, God raised up, for you can't kill life. You
hung him on a tree. God sat him on a throne. Verse
31, God has exalted with his right hand to be a prince and
a Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins. And we are his witnesses to these
things, and so is also the Holy Ghost. whom God hath given to
them that obey him." They talked about another deity. Oh, man. And they hated that. They hated
that. And when they heard this message,
verse 33 says, when they heard that, oh, it cut them to the
heart. Cut them to the heart. When they
heard this message, their guilt before God, the lordship and
sovereign salvation of Christ and Christ alone, the giving
of the Holy Spirit, the perseverance and preservation of the saints.
That's exactly what they're preaching here. They were cut to the heart,
and so are men and women today when they hear this same message,
aren't they? And these Pharisees or these Sadducees and high priests
said, Now, we're warning you. We're warning you. got so exasperated, everything
they did was wrong. Everything these religious leaders
did was wrong. Everything they did backfired
on them. They persecuted the church and it just spread that
much more, like pouring oil on a fire. And they said, Now, we're
warning you. We're going to put a stop to
all this. We're going to shut your little church house down. We're going to see a little bit
later, and I can't wait to get to the following verses. For
one man stood up and said, Now if this is of God, you can't
fight it. You can't fight it if this thing's
of God. And we're warning you, these
wolves said, Now we're warning you, we're going to huff! And
we're going to puff! They said, no, it ain't made
of straw or sticks, wood, hay, and stubble. And it ain't sitting on the sand.
It's built on rock. And it's not going anywhere.
It ain't going to be moved. And you're not going to move
it. You're not going to do anything about it. So they threatened them some
more, and I'll quit here. They threatened them some more,
and boy, did they threaten them this time, though. They weren't
idle threats this time. They took them and they beat
them. Look down at verse 40. After they heard Gamaliel out,
they called the apostles and beat them. Now, this is with
a cat of nine tails. They always beat anybody they
beat. They beat them forty stripes,
they won thirty-nine times. It was rough. And they beat him. They roughed him up bad and said,
no, you get out of here and don't you dare preach that name again. So they beat him. And look at,
oh my, doesn't this make you hang your head? And it said,
they departed from the presence of the council, verse 41, rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name,
to take a beating for the Lord. And you know where they went?
Back to the bars. They went right back. Peter said
they were walking home, they were sore. John, picture this
group of Peter and John, tears running down their face. They
were hurting. I think you have a tough time walking, Sherry.
Some of you have back problems. They've been beaten. And they
have tears of pain running down their faces with a smile on their
face, a smile on their lips, rejoicing. You know, the Lord
took this. The Lord took this. He said we'd
have to take it. He said, blessed are you if you
be persecuted for my name's sake. He said, so persecuted are the
prophets before you. He said, Blessed are you. Blessed
Father, praise God when this happens to you. He said it happened
and here it is. Thank you, Lord, for allowing
us to do this, go through this. Oh, boy, John, where do you want
to go? Let's go back and sit on the porch. I'll give you one guess what
they were talking about. Let's go back and preach a little
bit. What do you reckon they were preaching? That name. That name. Cherry, I lied to
you. Honey, I told you you weren't
going to have to play. I want you to come up here and play
a song for me. This is an appropriate song.
Number 443. 443. I think this is appropriate after that message. May the Lord bless it, because
there's no name so sweet on earth, no name so dear in heaven. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
another name given among men under heaven, given among men
whereby we must be saved. Stand up with me. We'll sing
the first and last verses. There is no name so sweet on
earth, no name so sweet in heaven. The name before his wondrous
birth, to Christ the Savior give thanks. We love to sing of Christ
our King, and hail Him blessed, Jesus. For there's no word here
ever heard so dear, so sweet as Jesus. Last verse. To Jesus every knee shall bow
and every tongue confess Him. And we unite with saints in light,
our only Lord to bless Him. We love to sing of Christ our
King. May the Lord bless you. You're dismissed.