What It Means to be Filled with the Holy Spirit # 68

The Victory of the Cross of Christ (continued)

The Tribulation, The Kingdom and The Patient Endurance Which are In Jesus Christ (continued)

Now Gethsemane, the place of the Lord's agony over the cup He will drink, is the last time that Peter and James and John are recorded as being together until Acts 12, where we find that Herod has put forth his hands to "vex," to afflict with evil, certain of the Church. "Now, at that strategic, significant period [in the growth of the Church and the success of the gospel message], Herod the king laid his hands upon certain of those who belonged to the Church for the purpose of maltreating them. And he put James, the brother of John, out of the way, beheading him with a sword ... he proceeded to seize Peter also ... and ... he put him in prison ..." (Acts 12:1-4).

The Holy Spirit records that Peter and John are together many times after the day of Pentecost, but Peter and James and John are not recorded as being together until Acts twelve. Oh, James is there among the twelve apostles a all of them steadfastly, even under the threat of death, preached and taught and established the Church; but from Gethsemane until Acts twelve, these three are not mentioned together. Then, in Acts 12:1, the Holy Spirit tells us that Herod put forth his hand to afflict evil upon the Church, and these three are brought together again as the Lord, out from the Throne, is working all things after the counsel of His Own Will: - "the strategic, epochal season is imminent" (Revelation 1:3). A time of great tribulation is at hand; but, remember, it is through "much tribulation" that we enter the kingdom, that we become able to live in the reality of the Throne. Thus James and John and Peter are to become joint-partakers "in the tribulation," and "in the kingdom," and "in the Patient Endurance" which are in Jesus Christ.

Now, in order to grasp the full significance of that which took place in Acts twelve, we need to go back a few years and consider that which is recorded in Mark 10:28-45. In Mark 10:33, 34, the Lord Jesus had just finished telling the twelve of His Cross, He had told them that He would be killed, and that three days later He would rise again. About this time, James and John came up to Him and said to Him: "Grant that we may sit in Your Glory, one on Your right, and one on Your left." And Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking for. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism which I am baptized?" And they said to Him, "We are able." These "sons of thunder" were ambitious, they were interested in becoming the greatest in the kingdom; but  James and John were not much different than Peter, who not long before this had said, "Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee." - Which is one way of saying, "What do I get out of this?"

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 69)