Peter Brandon emphasizes the vital role of the Holy Spirit in preaching and pastoral care, illustrating how the early Christians faced challenges yet thrived through the power of the Spirit. He highlights the significance of prayer, unity, and the transformative experience of the Pentecost, where the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to spread the Gospel. Brandon notes that the early church's success was rooted in their steadfast commitment to prayer, fellowship, and the teachings of the apostles, leading to a remarkable growth in the number of believers. He encourages modern Christians to seek the same Spirit-filled life and unity to experience God's blessings today.

Now we've looked at the book of the Acts and I cannot give you an outline again because if I do so we shall miss getting right the way through into the second chapter. But we have noticed first of all they had problems. Then we noticed that they had infallible proofs and that simply means they were absolutely sure that the saviour that they were preaching was real and written. Then we noticed too that they had two great promises. The promises of the coming of the Holy Spirit and then the promise of the second coming of Christ. Then we also noticed he gave them a massive program. Think of it, Judea or Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. And quite frankly we all felt that if the Lord had given us a program like that we would be almost in a state of spiritual exhaustion. But these early Christians, because they were filled with the Spirit of God, they went everywhere preaching the word and they fulfilled that program within 40 years. So we can see once God meets us in power we can fulfill that program even today. Then we notice that wonderful ascension and now we're going to look at the first reference to prayer in the book of the Acts and would you turn to Acts 1 verse 12 and we'll read just three verses. They returned unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey and when they were come in they went up into the upper room where abode both Peter, James and John and Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew and James the son of Alphaeus and Simeon the Lotus and Judas the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. Now note verse 15 and in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, now notice the brackets the number of names together were about a hundred and twenty. Now that's the first recorded prayer meeting in the book of the Acts but if you go through the book of the Acts you will find there's as many mentions to prayer as preaching. Let me quote it, in Acts 1 they're praying, in Acts 2 they continue steadfastly in prayer, in Acts 3 they're going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, in Acts 4 when they have prayed the place with Satan, in Acts chapter 5 we have Ananias and Sapphira judged probably in a prayer meeting, Acts 6 the apostles appoint deacons so that they might continue in prayer and the ministry of the word, Acts 7 Stephen goes into the presence of God praying, Acts chapter 8 when the apostles came down they prayed over the converts in Samaria and they received the Holy Spirit, Acts chapter 9 Paul is praying, Acts chapter 10 Cornelius is praying and Peter praying. Now can you see the importance of prayer? Now there's something about prayer here that's very special indeed, it's joyous prayer. Now when you wave someone goodbye and perhaps you will never see them again and perhaps they're on a boat and you're standing on the jetty side and you wave them goodbye and you deeply love those people, maybe a close relation maybe your own parents, when you wave them goodbye you're waving with tears. When the Lord Jesus went back to heaven and they saw him going up into heaven and a cloud received them out of his sight and that cloud was the Shekinah Glory, the last act of approval that God gave to his son. In other words he was saying just as the cloud denoted the presence of God in the tabernacle now the one who's going up is being approved of God as the son of God and the cloud is there. It receives him out of their sight. But when they went back to Jerusalem they were full of joy, full of happiness. Now to me that's wonderful, why? Because they knew the Lord Jesus was going to come to them in another way in the power of the Holy Spirit. And as we have been seeing they were far greater men when the Lord Jesus was absent and the Holy Spirit was present than in the Gospels. They're transformed people, why? Because the Lord Jesus has gone up into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit and they were empowered. In fact they knew more about the Lord Jesus in his absence than in his presence. And do you know what that means? When people are filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit can make the Lord Jesus absolutely real to them, if they will only let it. And that's what he wants to do to us. So it was a joyous prayer meeting, they were in a prayer meeting and they were full of holy joy because of the anticipation of the coming of the Holy Spirit. But then there is something about this prayer meeting and I want you to note it and that is the place. There's something here that's quite strange that's never mentioned again in scripture and it's only mentioned once and this is what it says. When they would come in they went up. Now let me repeat that again, when they would come in they went up. Now when they were told to go and prepare the Passover as you know it was an upper room, but they went up without going in. You say whatever do you mean? Well when they went in someone would wash their feet. Now they missed that and when the Lord Jesus Christ went up into that room he could tell they had not washed their feet. So before he spoke to them about the Holy Spirit he made sure their feet was washed or were washed. Now they learn the lesson here and they go in and they wash their feet and probably their hands and they go up. Now why? It's absolutely important that when we pray we have clean hands. What does that mean? The scripture says if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear. And one of the reasons why many of our prayers are not answered is because we are unclean in the presence of God. Sin is in our life. You remember what the apostle says I would that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting. Now can you see what happens they go in and they wash their feet, they wash their hands. Now of course God is not concerned so much now with our feet being washed and our hands being washed although the atmosphere is cleaner when they are especially the feet but he is very important about this one thing that when we're in his presence we can lift up holy hands so that there's nothing between us and God. So have you got it? They went in and they went up. Then I want you to note another thing which is very interesting. Notice the number 120. Now we have already seen from 1 Corinthians 15 on one occasion the Lord Jesus saw 500 and that must have been a plan meeting. Where were the 380? Where were they? Obviously they were missing when the Holy Spirit came but this is the point I want to raise. The Holy Spirit came and he filled the 120. We don't know what happened to the 380 but he did not withdraw the spirit because they were not there. He came. Always be among the 120. Don't be on the outside. If revival comes say Lord I don't want to be at it I want to be in it. Be among the 120. That's a vital lesson and that gives us a wonderful clue because I do not believe for one moment we shall ever see a church that's in perfect unity but even if there are 120 out of the 380 who are there God will still bless and bless abundantly. Then I want you to note their unity and this is lovely. When they were coming they went up where abode Peter and all the apostles. Now look at verse 14. These all continued with one accord, one accord, one accord in prayer. You see God had brought them together in lovely unity and they could really sing God loves you and I love you and there was that holy unity among them. Now that's vital and then lastly I want you to note it was a simple place. It wasn't an upper room that was connected with the temple. It was an upper room that was connected with an ordinary house as we shall see in a few moments and that's where God brought his people together. Outside the confines of Jerusalem, outside of the establishment and being gathered together in the name of the Lord Jesus in a simple room and that's where the first prayer meeting was established in church history. Doesn't that lift your heart? And wherever God finds a group of people who are really fervent in prayer and in love with each other and Christ is the center he will bless. Now we'll have to forget all about the lots that were cast and we'll look now at Acts chapter 2 at these amazing verses 1 to 11. Let's read it together. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from out of heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews without men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noise the broad the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language or as it should be translated in his own dialect and they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another behold are not all these which speak Galileans and how here we every man in his own tongue wherein he was born Parvians and Medes Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia and in Pontus and in Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene strangers of Rome Jews and proselytes Cretes and Arabians we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God and they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another what meaneth this others mocking said these men are full of new wine now there we see two things we see the power that comes and we see the praise that was projected now let's look at it when the day of Pentecost was fully come the time of his coming now again may I say this to you you will never understand what that means until you understand Leviticus 23 now in those feasts of Jehovah and do try and get a grip of them because it's a gateway into the New Testament when you understand it the first feast as we have seen was the Passover that was fulfilled at Calvary secondly the next feast was the feast of first roots and we have seen that that was fulfilled in the resurrection when Paul says Christ the first root now note this after first roots there were seven sabbaths 49 days and then the day following the 49th day which was a Sunday was the feast of Pentecost now in the feast of Pentecost they had all their sacrifices they had two lambs for a burnt offering one bullock for a burnt offering they had two rams for a burnt offering then they had the sin offering and that was a goat and the peace offering of two lambs so with the feast there were the blood sacrifices but the most important thing in the feast was two big loaves I wish we could see them now these loaves were larger than the normal loaves that they had for the meal offering but there was something strange about those loaves you see all the meal offerings had to be without leaven but these two loaves had to have leaven and these two loaves were presented now what do those two loaves speak of the Jews didn't understand it they never did in the Old Testament the spiritual ones understood what the sacrifices meant those that saw behind the sacrifice the Messiah coming and dying they knew that but they didn't understand what those two loaves meant what did it mean in Acts chapter 2 the Holy Spirit came down and all those 120 in that upper room were Jews and they were all baptized into the body of Christ when you come to Acts chapter 10 they were not Jews they were Gentiles and the Holy Spirit came and brought them into the body of Christ so there are two distinct comings Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 10 one the Jews the other the Gentiles and so even in the Old Testament there were symbols of the Church of God being brought together both Jew and Gentile and Paul puts it lovely for there is one baptism in the Holy Spirit which incorporates Jew and Gentile and there's neither bond nor free for we're all one in Christ Jesus in the body of Christ now why should leaven be there now notice this when the Holy Spirit came upon the Lord Jesus he did not come upon him as a flame of fire how did it come upon him the Holy Spirit came upon him as a dove what does the dove mean it's a symbol of absolute purity for the older ones it's a symbol of intrinsic purity why because there was nothing in the Lord Jesus that was inconducive to holiness he was as holy as God himself so it was a pure dove but when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples he didn't come as a dove note this he came as a flame of fire why to expose the flesh to produce a conflict to show that there's nothing that we can do to change it and give us the power to say no to its dictates that's why he's seen as a fire so can you see that on the Lord Jesus the Holy Spirit came as a dove on these disciples that had the leaven in them the flesh it comes as a fire and so that's the significance of Pentecost now do note this there will never be there will never be another Calvary it's over and past there will never be another resurrection of Christ here it comes there will never never be another Pentecost it took place 2,000 years ago and will never never be repeated you see it's unbelief on our part to pray for the Holy Spirit to come he has come he has been poured out and he's in the church of God now grasp that because that's important then I want you to note not only the time but notice the place when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place now I want you to see the irony of this if you were in the temple you would see the priests going in and out doing their duties and there was the veil but there was no shekinah glory Herod's temple was one of the great masterpiece of building in the Roman world it took at least 60 years to build but when the Holy Spirit came and I want you to watch this it missed Herod's temple completely and the Holy Spirit came in an upper room why no longer he dwells in temples made with hands he dwells among his gathered people in simplicity isn't that remarkable there was the establishment being rejected and a simple company of people had the great Pentecost another interesting thing notice the conditions that prevail before he came with one accord in one place can you see there was this absolute unity now may I say this to you always pray that there might be unity and love in our local churches where there's unity and love God blesses then I want you to another interesting thing suddenly now that goes right the way through the book of the Acts for instance in Acts chapter 4 when they were praying suddenly the place was shaken in Acts chapter 9 suddenly there was a life from heaven and that man was saved Acts chapter 16 suddenly there was an earthquake now this is interesting a group of people may be praying for a mighty movement of the Spirit for 10 years and then suddenly it comes it's how God works and so we must continue in prayer and always remember on many occasions not all occasions God works suddenly and there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind now I don't know if you've ever been in a rushing mighty wind I was once in a rushing mighty wind there in Stornoway and I was walking right near the cliff I shall never forget it and up there in Stornoway right in the north the north of Scotland going almost as it were to Greenland I was walking round this cliff admiring the scenery when suddenly a mighty wind came and it was an awful experience and I had to cling on to a rock and ask God to help everything was going now that's the kind of wind that you have here a mighty wind for instance we read in scripture of a mighty wind we read of a rushing wind but this is the only time you will ever read in scripture of a rushing mighty wind now what does it speak of it speaks of the mighty irresistible power of the Holy Spirit now may I say to all of you we need to get back to that you see one thing we have lost in the western world is this mighty manifestation of the power of the Spirit and every group of Christians that see real revival they get back to the upper room not praying for the Spirit to come but rediscovering the power of the Spirit the rushing mighty wind now if you go through the book of the Acts you will find that rushing mighty wind in every chapter except one that's chapter 15 when they had a conference and a debate about whether the Gentiles should really come into the kingdom of God that's the only chapter where there's no real blessing now if you go through Acts chapter 2 Peter preaches and when he preaches he preaches under the power of the Spirit and the people are convicted they are pricked in their heart and they cry out men and brethren what shall we do and Peter says repent and be baptized and three thousand were swept into the kingdom what a wind Acts chapter 3 he's going up to the temple with John and he sees a lame man that had been in that condition for nearly 40 years the man had never walked in his life and he looks down at the man and says silver and gold have I none but such as I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he went to lift him up and the man leapt up what a wind imagine you in that sitting position I guarantee you couldn't leap up even though you're young you'll crawl up a bit but here was a man that's never walked in his life and when he hears rise up and walk he leapt up and walked up the power of the Spirit then you read in Acts chapter 4 when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together what was God doing he was showing the action of the rushing mighty wind the mighty power of prayer and every group of Christians right the way through the history of the church have got back to the upper room and recaptured that power and they've seen it in their generation and may we see it in ours the rushing mighty wind then you will notice that the wind fills the room and this speaks not only of his presence but of his presidency and so in that room where they met the place was just filled with the Holy Spirit showing that as a company of people or if you like as an assembly they were spirit filled but then you will notice this there appeared clove and tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them now let's imagine that we're there and what would happen would be there a tongue of fire would come on you on you on you and settle on your head and you it would have been amazing and when that tongue of fire came upon the heads of the people they knew by that sign they had received the Holy Spirit and they were filled so there's two fillings the room is filled with the wind and they are filled with the spirit and what does that speak of a spirit filled assembly and spirit filled belief now if there's ever a need to get back to that it's today now we do not wait for the wind why because the wind was associated with Pentecost and it was linked with the fact of the coming of the spirit we do not wait for these tongues of fire that came once and will never come again but what we need to do is to get back as it were to a local church and ask God to really meet with us in power so that the company is filled and all the believers are filled and then God can begin to do something with us then I want you to note what happens when they are filled with spirit of the spirit look at verse four and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance now you will know something about these tongues if you look at verse 11 Cretes and Arabians we do hear them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God now what does this mean these tongues were intelligent languages if you look at the nations that are mentioned here there are 13 if you look at the languages there are nine and if you look at the people that were speaking them they were Galileans now unfortunately the Galileans were called by Edesheim the cognizant of the east you see they weren't good speakers you remember with the apostle Peter it says his speech betrayeth him or bereath him in other words you could tell a Galilean a mile off you mustn't imagine that when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost he spoke brilliant cultured Hebrew or Aramaic no he spoke in the language of a Galilean and therefore these people were not linguists far from it and yet this is the miracle these people had never learned these languages and yet when they were filled with the Holy Spirit they were speaking out the wonderful works of God and it must have been wonderful for people to have seen it let's get the drama of it so that we see it and apply it to ourselves there would be one Galilean speaking beautifully in another language and he would be speaking fluently in the language that the people could understand and he would be speaking about the wonderful works of God in creation and they were spellbound then someone else would be speaking about the glorious works of God that were shown among the children of Israel when they were going through the wilderness and he would be speaking about all the marvelous miracles with their mouths open because they were not only speaking the language if you look carefully they were speaking the dialect now a missionary if it's a difficult language sometimes takes five years to learn that language so he can speak fluently but a very very few missionaries learn the dialect these people were not only speaking the language but they were learning the speaking the dialect and they were speaking out the wonderful works of God and then another person would be speaking out the wonderful works of God in the coming of Christ someone else would be speaking out the wonderful works of God concerning the work that he accomplished on the cross another person would be speaking out the wonderful works of God in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the ascension. You see they were speaking out the wonderful works of God. Why? Because they were filled with the Spirit. Now when God's people are filled with the Spirit they are not only filled with power but they are filled with God. When God's people begin to praise then the world takes note. You say how do you know that? In Acts chapter 2 the last verse we read this. They were praising God and having favour with the people. Now isn't it lovely when you meet a group of people who are rejoicing in the Lord and these early Christians after all their failure were met by God, they were filled with the Spirit and then they were speaking out the wonderful works of God. But something else I want to share with you. Look at verse 11. But Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said Ye men of Judea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem be this known unto you and hearken unto my words. Now this is not so much power, this is not so much praise, this is priestly participation. Now first of all when Peter stood up you will notice they stood up with him and that meant they were all there. Not Peter standing up with seven, Peter standing up with the eleven. You see although they were only young Christians they had been joined together in the body of Christ and linked up with the head and now they were moving in unity and all the apostles they stood up with him and when Peter preached they were standing with him. Lovely. Unfortunately today we don't function in unity like that. But here they had that complete unity. Then I want you to note something else. He not only stood up with the eleven, they were all with him but they were all filled. You know sometimes when I go into the back room in these modern days and you go to the prayer meeting they say all kinds of things in their prayers. I hear them saying, Lord, lot out the preacher. Amen. Lord, bring the preacher to the dust. Amen. Lord, let's not see the preacher. Yeah, let's not see the preacher. Fill him with the Holy Spirit. Yes, fill him with the Holy Spirit. But what should we really be praying? Lord, lot us all out. Bring us all to the dust. Fill us all with the Holy Spirit. You see they were all with him. They were all filled. And then there's something else. When he stood up and preached it was a spontaneous message as we shall see in a moment. They were absolutely following every word that he was saying. All there, all filled, all with him. And when he stood up and says, we're not drunk with wine, then it's not only the third hour, that means it's not opening time. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Jo. You could almost see the 11th saying, Amen. And when he got to that point after quoting Jo chapter 2, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a man approved of God, hallelujah, with him. When he got to the point that you have crucified, yes, that's true, they were with him. When he got to that point, this same Jesus, whom you have crucified, God has made both Lord and Christ, they were right behind him in the preaching. They weren't standing on their feet and someone nodding like that. If Peter had a hymn book he would have hit him. Oh no. They weren't critical saying, oh you shouldn't have quoted Jo 2, that's only partially. They were all with him. Standing with him. Now that's the art of priestly participation. So that when someone stands up and preaches, we preach with them. Sisters preach. As he's preaching about sin, you say, Lord, bless his soul. As he preaches about the cross, you quietly say, Lord, open their eyes, they may see. As he calls them to come, you say, Lord, bring them there. You're not there to hear a sermon. You know it. You're there to help the people. You know, we were having a mission 3 years ago or a little longer in Melbourne. And there was an old man called Mr Chapman who was 91. And he went round all his neighbours inviting them to the mission. And one night he brought 6. And I can see him coming in the Bayswater Community Centre. And he's piled them all in. All quite respectable people because he was quite a wealthy man. And as I was preaching, he was preaching with me. And when I made the point of sin, he was actually saying, did you get that? Did you get that? And when I made the point, if you die in your sins, you will be lost. In fact, he was too emphatic. But you see, what was basically happening was this. He was trying to stand up with me and preach the gospel. Now, that's the secret that you have here. Peter standing up with 11. Now, let's look at Peter's sermon. And it will not take long. First of all, I want you to know it was spontaneous. He didn't have a lot of notes with him. There was this criticism that they were drunk with wine. So Peter stepped forward and says, we're not drunk with wine. And then off he went. Now, this is the amazing thing. Out of all the sermons in the book of the Acts, this is the most classical. It's even better than the sermon Paul preached in Acts 17. It has a lovely introduction. It brings the scriptures very carefully together. Especially those scriptures relating to Christ. And it has a beautiful conclusion. And yet the man who preached it was not a classical man. But he was filled with the Spirit. Secondly, if you read this sermon, there are more scriptures in this one sermon than any other sermon that you find in scripture. 52% of the scripture is a mere quotation of scripture. And 48% is exposition. Think of that. And then remember this, 50 days previous before this, they didn't understand the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And now in those 40 days, the Lord had instructed them and their memories were fired up so that he could stand up and give these long passages of scripture. He could quote Gerald chapter 2, Psalm 116, Psalm 16, I'm sorry, and Psalm 110. And quote them perfectly. Now, may I say this to some of you young men and women who are thinking of going into the Lord's works. Memorize the Word of God. Fill your mind with it. So that when you're preaching, you're quoting the Word of God. And then I want you to note that his preaching was faithful. He went right to the point and he told the Jewish people that they had put the Lord Jesus on the cross and they were responsible for his death. And yet this man, 50 days before this, denied his Lord before a little girl. And look at him now. Filled with the Holy Spirit, preaching to thousands of Jewish people who had put the Lord on the cross and he accused them of placing the Messiah on a tree. You see the courage that God had given to him and the faithfulness of preaching. And then lastly, I love this, it was fruitful. Notice what happens if you can and you'd like to turn over the scripture. Look at verse 37 because it's a very important verse. The connecting verse is 36. Then let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. Now that word prick is the strongest word for pain in scripture outside of hell's time. The word is taken from the idea of a red hot needle going into the center of this part of the skin so that the poor victim says, Oh, we used to have a boy in our school. He suffered a little with obesity. He was a lovely chap. And one boy sat behind him and he could see his teeth coming through the back of his head. And the master was excreting his prick and one boy put the pin in him and he shut up, Oh! He got the cane over his paw. Now if you can imagine that, that's exactly what happened. As Peter was preaching, can you visualize it? Suddenly the Spirit of God began to move and they were pricked to the heart. They were brought under conviction and they said to him, Men and brethren, whatever shall we do? We must get right with God. You see now that's real conviction. And wouldn't it be lovely if we saw that again. You see, scenes like that broke out in the 18th century. They broke out in the 19th century. They broke out in Wales. Can I give you a little description of what took place in Wales? Round about 1950, I was there in a place called Llanelli and I was preaching in a public house and it was full of people and an old man came to me and this is what he said. In 1903, he says, I was in this pub as a young man. This shows the power of revival. And he said, all of a sudden something came over everybody in the pub. It was as packed as it is now, only with men. And they all went into that gospel hall just over the road where you've come from. And every one of them got saved. Can you see, all drinking and suddenly something hits them. The conviction of sin. And they went into that pub and all got into that gospel hall and all got saved. Furthermore, so many people were converted that the pubs all closed. And they were actually pouring the beer down the gutter. The miners who got saved in the Welsh revival, when they went down to the mines, the pit ponies didn't understand them because they used to swear at the ponies in order to get them going. And now they were converted, they didn't swear. And the ponies did not know what to do. The Swansea Football Club had such an impact because of the revival, half of the professionals got saved and that was in what we would call the Premier League at that particular time. And they came right out. They wouldn't play football because they thought that it was a worldly sport. And Swansea Football Stadium closed down. And they had to build all these churches. And if you go to Wales now, you'll see these massive churches that they had to build to accommodate the people. And praise filled the whole of Wales. You know, it would be lovely if we could see a movement like that. The real convicting power of the Holy Spirit coming back. And then I want you to note with Peter's preaching his faithfulness. He not only preached repentance, but he preached baptism. And this is what he said and Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises unto you and your children and to all that are afar off and as many as the Lord our God shall call. Then we read, They that gladly received his word were baptized. Now note this, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Now let me share with you a problem. We've seen now haven't we the power, we've seen the praise, we've seen the priestly participation, we've seen the faithfulness of the preaching and we've seen that it was scriptural preaching and we've seen it's convicting preaching and then we've seen that three thousand people were saved and baptized in one day. How did they do it? How did they do it? Let me give you a similar situation. In 1925 there was a man raised up called Fred Elliot who was mightily used of God in Britain and he went to Aberdeen and preached the gospel for a month and there were only 68 in fellowship and 300 people were saved and it took them a week to baptize 300 people and within five weeks they had 368 people in fellowship. Then he went from there to a place called Miriam Hall that seated three thousand and there were so many people getting saved they couldn't deal with them at night and they had to queue up from twelve o'clock to two and there were a group of elders including Mr Elliot leading people to Christ for two hours. Then he came to London and preached in London at a hall called Folkestone Road and after a week of meetings a hundred and twenty were saved but it took them a week to baptize a hundred and twenty. They had to baptize roughly eighteen people a night. But look at these babies. They baptized three thousand in one day. How did they do it? They must have all been doing it. All the believers baptizing them. What a wonderful joy that must be. You just imagine in your own village or your own town a mighty movement of the Spirit like that and all the brethren have to do the baptizing. Wouldn't you be filled with holy joy? Of course you would. But then how are they going to look after three thousand souls? Now I remember one local church and in this local church they had seen seventy people saved in two years. And the elder said to me what are you going to do as far as the ministry? Well I said I'm going to preach the gospel. Well he said look we've seen seventy souls saved in two years and if we had another seventy we're absolutely up to our eyes. Lovely problem isn't it? You see here they had three thousand. Now can you see the problem for pastoral care? Now how did they do it? Now you have a look first of all at their principles. Look at verse forty one. Then they that gladly received his words were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. Now note this. And they all continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. That meant they were grounded in the word. That was the first thing. Secondly in fellowship. Now what does that mean? They loved one another so much that they were joined together as real brothers and sisters in the Lord. And although there were three thousand there were no cliques and divisions all in holy unity. Now look never have little divisions always move together in unity. Then I want you to note an embracing of bread. What does that mean? Well we know from scripture and probably they did it in the evening in those days. They met once a week in order to break bread. But you see something else happened and in prayers. Now notice what happened. They do not just continued steadfastly in breaking of bread. They continued steadfastly in the ministry in fellowship in breaking of bread and in prayers. Now one of our big problems is this. And what a problem it is. We've got scores of people and their SMO's they've just come. How can you build a local church? Now look at these Christians here. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine fellowship breaking of bread and in the prayers. Now the word prayer there is three prayers and some suggest they were set prayers. Now forgive me being a little harsh. That's sheer nonsense. Do you know what it means? It means when they were praying they prayed in their prayers. It was real prayer. The prayer that was going up to God. And they were just so. Now how were they going to pastor that lot? Now you watch. Look at verse 43 And fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. Now that shows their spirituality because fear is the beginning of wisdom. And immediately a person fears the Lord it shows that he has a deeply spiritual intake in his life. Now the word fear is not fearing the terror of the Lord there. It's the idea of a reverential fear and it means fearing less you can breathe a loving heart. Then go on. And all the believers were together and had all things common and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. Now someone tried to tell me that this was Christian communism. But that's wrong. You see communism especially Engels if you look at it very carefully basically says this. What's yours is mine. But Christianity is the reverse. It's this. What's mine is yours. Have you got it? And those that had all these possessions were willing to share it with those that had need. Then go on. And they continued daily with one accord in the temple and raking of bread. There's no article there. That means their meal. In fact they called their meal raking of bread because if you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that speaks of the Lord's table. The Lord's table is the table that's in your house. The Lord's supper is the place where you gather to remember the Lord. Now they went from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Now what does that mean? They had hospitality. And all the homes were open. And everyone entertained. And in their homes they were raking bread. What does that mean? There was a time when they worshipped and adored the Lord and discussed the scriptures together with gladness and singleness of heart. You know we used to have a bazaar and it was wonderful. You know I could teach that bazaar anything. I used to teach him to say we need a mighty and he used to say we need a mighty revival. Then I taught him love, hope, peace. The greatest of these is love. And he would say that perfectly. And we also taught him don't gossip in this house. And we had one lady that was subject to gossiping and it was very strange. All the time she was sitting in this area, oh don't gossip in this house. What's he saying? Don't gossip in this house. He stopped immediately. Now can you see that marked the early church. And they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Praising God and having favour with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be said. Now I'm going to tell you wouldn't it be lovely if some local church got back to the upper room and recasted the power of the Holy Spirit. And we saw a replica of that in the 21st century.