Saved

“Immanuel Spirit” – Part 10

(Acts 2:47b, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 27, 2011)

… And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

And the Lord

The Lord saves people.

God's ways are above our ways, and His thoughts are above ours. We know Him now, and we will know Him better the more that we see Jesus in the Word and give ourselves more fully to Him. We will know Him far better when we see the Lord in heaven and all our sin is gone. But we will never have exhaustive knowledge of God. He is the Creator. Even in heaven, we will still be His creatures.

We do not understand God. Nor do we understand even the glory of mankind made in God's image. What is man? He is one being, yet after death, his body rests in the grave and his spirit is in the hands of God. He has a heart, mind, and will that can applaud the Law of God, and yet he may do what he does not want to do. His soul is a spiritual battleground during his stay on earth, even though the Spirit of God dwells in him, and his once dead spirit has been made alive. Man is a complex being. Who can understand his own heart?

If we do not understand God, and if we cannot fathom what man is, it should not surprise us that we get into all kinds of trouble when we consider the interaction of Almighty God and His mysterious image-bearer man. We need to hear words from heaven on these great topics, receive them, and embrace them. Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Yes. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Yes. In one it was an expression of man's wickedness. In the other it was for a revelation of God's righteousness. Thus God displayed the mystery of unbelief that is beyond our knowing. But here in Acts 2, the people saved themselves according to Peter's plea. Yes. God saved people according to His sovereign plan. He added to their number those who were being saved. Yes again. Thus God displayed the wonder of salvation and the interaction of God and man for eternal life. We cannot fathom the depths of this glorious blessing. We receive it and rejoice. This was the Lord's work among men. Blessed be His Name!

Added to their number

An entire generation of God's people, the Israelites, died in the wilderness. Only Joshua and Caleb were spared. When the time came for them to go into The Promised Land, they turned away in fear. They had seen God's great works of deliverance in Egypt. They saw the consequence of hardheartedness. They saw that God made a distinction between Israel and Egypt. But they were lost. But do not assume that their death in the wilderness according to God's judgment tells you everything that you need to know about their eternal condition. The same author of Hebrews who says that this generation died in unbelief, lists that congregation among the heroes of the faith in heaven. “By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land.” These are in the great cloud of witnesses from heaven that surround us now. See Hebrews 12:1. From their new home they cheer us on in the race of faith.

Through centuries of Old Testament revelation, we have been prepared for the message of faithlessness and death. Even the best men and women of faith fall short of the Lord's command to Abraham in Genesis 17:1. “Walk before me and be blameless.” They live and they die. Even Moses could not go into The Promised Land. But now, through the one blameless Man who died and rose again, through faith in His Name, through the power of God, through the road of repenting and the symbol of better waters than those that drowned the soldiers of Pharaoh, people are being added to the number, rather than subtracted to a better place. And this is just the beginning. 120 has turned into more than 3000, and the number of the community of the redeemed, the society of Jesus, is growing. They are believing, repenting, receiving the promise of the Holy Spirit, that promise that was for them and for their children. The Lord is adding to their number.

Day by day

This great divine work of addition into the new society of Jesus, the church, is happening day by day. The power of the Spirit cannot be contained to just one day of the year, or just one day of the week. Every day they are devoting themselves to Jesus and His generosity. Every day grace is being received from heaven and extended throughout the community of the redeemed and beyond.

The church was growing continuously because Holy Spirit Christianity cannot be contained in the limits that we might define for God. We like to control things. We have been created to have dominion. We are people of the sixth day of creation. We were made to fill the earth and subdue it. We are to rule over all the kings and kingdoms of this world. But there is Someone else above us who is King, and we need to tremble at His Word. He is the One through whom all things were made. He is the God of the seventh day, and the King of kings and Lord of Lords. He is in us and working among the growing number of His people who will go from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, until they come again to Jerusalem, where the ingrafting of all sorts of Gentiles will make jealous the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God the Holy Spirit will use your steps as He has used other suffering servants of Jesus Christ over these centuries of addition. He has prepared you to be worshipers and workers, givers and helpers, hands and hearts, both near and far, mothers and fathers, parents and children, lovers of creation and servants of the Creator. He is always adding, though death may seem to subtract. He is adding, because He is saving what death and hell can never own.

Those who were being saved

The Immanuel Savior has saved. Now the Immanuel Spirit is saving. People are being saved. Long ago, the Lord made a distinction between His Old Covenant people, Israel, and their captors in Egypt. He saved Israel with a mighty hand. In the next generation, He brought them into a land that He gave them forever through a man named Joshua. But when that Joshua was preparing to take The Promised Land, He was encountered by a better man, called the commander of the Lord's Army. Joshua bowed down before Him who had a saving purpose that would reach beyond Israel.

That great Captain of our salvation has come. He is Jesus, the new Joshua, and He sends us forward in a different kind of conquest. He saves people, and brings them into a new army, led by the King, the new Joshua, who died and rose again. We give food to the hungry in His Name. We bring up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ. We work for others in our jobs as if unto Jesus, our Master. We submit to all lawful authority as subjects of the One who reigns forever. If we live, we live for Him. If we die, we die with His Name in our hearts. We are saved. Praise the Lord! The Lord has brought us into the number.

1. Who brings church growth?

2. What is the “number” referred to in this verse?

3. How could it be that the church was growing continuously?

4. What does it mean to be saved?

OT Passage: Numbers 14:1-25