Rediscovering Christ — Part 1

The following is a transcript of a message that Major Ian Thomas delivered, on the topic of rediscovering Jesus Christ. The original video can be found here.

Turn with me to the fifth chapter of the book of Acts, and we'll begin our exploration at that point. It's always an exciting thing to turn to Acts, as you have no doubt on many, many occasions been reminded.

Although the book is described as the Acts of the Apostles, in many senses, it's a misnomer because it isn't really the record of the Acts of the Apostles; it's a record of the continued acts of Jesus Christ. This Luke makes abundantly clear in his opening remarks, "the former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach." "I've written one book," says Luke, "about all that the Lord Jesus began to do and to teach; now," he said, "I'm going to put on record in this second book all that He continued to do and to teach." The only difference being the humanity that He used with which to do it and teach it. What I have recorded in the gospel, Luke might well have said, was that which the Lord Jesus began to do and to teach, clothed with His own humanity — that humanity that the Father provided for Him on the day that he was born in Bethlehem. And this record is the record of all that the same Lord Jesus, that very same Jesus, continued to do and to teach, and the only difference was that He clothed His activity with the humanity of forgiven sinners already redeemed in His blood, and now indwelled and filled with His Holy Spirit. And that's why it's always exciting, because it's the record of divine activity, clothed with redeemed humanity.

It's been said of the early Christians, these early disciples, that they were incorrigibly happy, utterly unafraid, and nearly always in trouble. That was characteristic of the early disciples. Mind you, they had good reason to be happy, and they had good reason to be unafraid. They knew what they believed, and they believed what they knew. The trouble, by and large, with the Christian Church today is that the church doesn't know enough of what it believes to make it happy, and it doesn't believe enough of what it knows to make it unafraid, and it neither believes nor knows enough to get itself into trouble.

But that wasn't true of the early church. There was action, real action, and it was divine action. And that's why it goes on to say here in the twelfth verse of the fifth chapter of Acts, "by the hands of the Apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, and they were all in one Accord in Solomon's porch," in verse 14, "believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women." This was the normal experience of the normal church at that time. Multitudes were added to the Lord, both of men and women.

And notice the description that they gave in that day of a convert. One who had been convicted of the Holy Spirit, and in repentance toward God had put simple saving trust in the Lord Jesus, who was described as being added to the Lord. They weren't added to an organization or a religious club, but rather added to the Lord. They rejoiced in the fact that this boy, this girl, this man, or woman would claim redemption through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus, was now inhabited by the Lord Jesus Christ, and this boy, this girl, this man or woman had been added to His body corporate.

So the Lord Jesus now had another pair of hands. He had another mouth to speak with, another heart to love with, another mind to think, two more eyes to see with, and two more ears to hear with. Added to the Lord, a new living member of the living body of the living Christ. This was their concept of a convert. This was the one thing that preoccupied all their concerns, that people might be added to that body corporate, that fellowship of redeemed sinners worldwide, through which the Lord Jesus now was to continue to do and to teach.

And you'll notice that this was the reason for the verse that I skipped, the thirteenth verse, "yet none of the rest dared join them." Nobody was in unholy haste to identify themselves with a body corporate of Jesus Christ because in those days they knew perfectly well what the implications were of becoming a Christian. There was no cheap and easy way to become a Christian. To become a Christian, by the very nature of the gospel that was preached, involved total commitment to Jesus Christ. It meant that a man, body, soul, and spirit, with all that he had and all that he was became utterly monopolized by the Lord Jesus and expendable for God. And you can imagine there was no particular unholy haste on the part of those who weren't prepared to accept that kind of commitment to identify themselves with the Christian Church. They knew perfectly well that if they were only pseudo-Christians they'd have been exposed for the imposters that they were in no time. So nobody dared call themselves a Christian in those days who wasn't prepared for the Lord Jesus to have the place of preeminence to occupy their humanity and to monopolize that humanity.

The record in this particular chapter tells us it wasn't long before they found themselves once more the guests of the government, in prison. "The high priest rose up," in verse 17, "and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said, 'Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.'"

And notice again how the message was described, "all the words of this life." That was the gospel — all the words of this life. The gospel involves an entirely new way of life. It was life in a new dimension. And of course, that as we know is the heart of the gospel. The gospel doesn't involve simply the provision by God to you and to me of the means whereby we escape the punitive consequences of our life, how we get out of hell and get into heaven. That isn't the gospel; that's purely incidental. I rejoice in the fact that for His dear sake who died in my place, my sins are forgiven. I'm happy to know that I'm not on the way to hell and I am on the way to heaven, but that's purely incidental to my salvation. That doesn't constitute my salvation, that simply constitutes the inevitable consequence of my salvation.

It was the premise, it was the first prerequisite if you like, of my salvation. My salvation involves infinitely more than knowing who died historically in my place. It involves the fact that the One who gave Himself for me is the One who deliberately gave Himself for me in order that He Himself might give Himself to me. It was the gift of life not the gift of forgiveness. Forgiveness isn't a prerequisite. Forgiveness is an essential premise but the whole purpose of God has been consummated in the person of the Lord Jesus in that He has given us Himself. That's why the Lord Jesus said "I've come that you might have life." He didn't say "I've come that you might have forgiveness." We can only have forgiveness because He came, but that was the means to the end. The means to the end that we might enjoy and share His resurrection, and live on earth as those who have already been raised from the dead.