The Church’s Past

The church is the subject of prophecy and type and shadow in the Old Testament. We can rightly call it “the church of the Bible” and do no violence to those terms at all. There are numerous prophecies relating to the church in the Old Testament. We’ll have time to look at only two.

The first of these is the most complete statement regarding the church in a concise form. In Isaiah, chapter 2, the prophet, seven hundred years before the coming of Christ, said these Words in verses 2 and 3: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem.”

There’s another prophecy I call you attention to. It’s the 2^nd chapter of another Old Testament book, the book of Joel. In verse 28, the prophet begins much the same way Isaiah 2 and verse 2 began: “And it shall come to pass afterward, (saith the Lord), that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh….” And then, for 4 additional verses He elaborates on that one basic prophecy[“…and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My spirit. 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.”].

Those two prophetic passages find fulfillment in the 2^nd chapter of a New Testament book, the book of Acts. The book of Acts opens, chapter 1, with the Lord meeting for the last time with His eleven apostles—Judas has defected, hanged himself and died. He is with the eleven in the Mount of Olives. He tells them to wait in Jerusalem—look at verses 4 through 8 if you want to follow in the text—until they are clothed, or endued, with power from on high. And He says this power that’s coming is going to fulfill the promise that John made, that “you [the apostles] will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” And so, they did tarry in Jerusalem.

And then, we come to the 2^nd chapter of Acts, and after mentioning the apostles in the last verse of the 1^st chapter, chapter 2 begins by saying, “And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they [the apostles] were all together in one place.” Now, there are twelve again—Matthias has been appointed in the material given us in Acts, chapter 1. So, they’re back up to twelve, now. But they were all together in one place.

“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven [or, split, divided, parting asunder] tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” Acts 2:2-4.

These things, the succeeding verses tell us, drew a great crowd together where the apostles were. And they were extremely amazed and puzzled over what was occurring. How do we explain these things? Some of them said, “These men are Galilaeans. How hear we every man in our own language?” These were not men speaking gibberish and nonsense, like the so-called “tongue talkers” today! They were speaking languages that these men could understand! The people knew that these men, being from Galilee (that’s a New Testament word for “Arkansas”—excuse me; pardon me; that just slipped out), had not had any educational opportunities. They had not been able to go to college and learn these languages. And so, the people were indeed perplexed.

Someone finally said, “These guys are drunk. That’s how they’re doing this.” Now, that’s really a good explanation. You can’t speak one language plain when you’re drunk, much less one you never learned! And so, it was time for the apostles to explain what was happening.

Verse 14 [of Acts chapter 2] tells us that Peter stood up with the eleven; he beckoned to the crowd—got their attention by his opening words, and then he said, “…these [men] are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day (that’s 9 o’clock in the morning).” It was evidentially most rare for anyone to get drunk that early in the morning in the 1^st Century. “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel….” And he begins to quote from Joel, chapter 2, we noticed a minute ago, verse 28, and he quotes the whole 5 verses having to do with that central promise of God saying that He would pour forth His Spirit.