How Glorious The Blessing Is
"They were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4)
Whenever we speak of being filled with the Holy Spirit and desire to know precisely what it is, our thoughts always turn back to the Day of Pentecost. How glorious the blessing is that is brought from heaven by the Holy Spirit!
One fact makes the great event of the Day of Pentecost doubly instructive - namely, that, by their three-year relationship with the Lord Jesus, we have learned to know intimately the men who were then filled with the Spirit. Their weaknesses, defects, sins, and perversities all stand open to our view.
The blessing of Pentecost brought about a complete transformation. They became entirely new men, so that one could say of them with truth, "Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Close study of them and their example will help us in more than one way. It shows us to what weak and sinful men the Spirit will come. It teaches us how they were prepared for the blessing. It teaches us also - and this is the principle thing - how mighty and complete the transformation is when the Holy Spirit is received in His fullness. It lets us see how glorious is the grace that awaits us if we diligently search for spiritual excellence through the full blessing of Pentecost.
Blessings of the Pentecostal Life
The ever-abiding presence and indwelling of the Lord Jesus is the first and principle blessing of the Pentecostal life. In the course of our Lord's dealings with His disciples on earth, He spared no pains to teach and train them or to renew and sanctify them. In most respects, however, they remained just what they were. The reason was that, up to this point, He was still nothing more than an external Christ who stood outside of them and from the outside sought to work on them by His Word and His personal influence.
With the advent of Pentecost, this condition was entirely changed. In the Holy Spirit, He came down as the indwelling Christ to become the life of their lives. He had promised this in the words, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you ... At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (John 14:18, 20).
This was the source of all the other blessings that came with Pentecost. Jesus Christ, the Crucified, came in spiritual power to impart to them the ever-abiding presence of their Lord in a way that was intimate and all-powerful. Him whom they had had in the flesh, living with them on earth, they now received by the Spirit in His heavenly glory within them. Instead of an outward Jesus near them, they now obtained the inward Jesus with them.
From this first and principle blessing sprang the second: the Spirit of Jesus came into them as the life and the power of sanctification. Often the Lord had to rebuke the disciples for their pride and exhort them to humility. It was all of no avail. Even on the last night of His earthly life, at the table of the Holy Supper, there was strife among them as to which of them should be the greatest (Luke 22:24).
The outward teaching of the outward Christ, whatever other influences it may have exercised, was not sufficient to redeem them from the power of indwelling sin. This could be achieved only by the indwelling Christ. Only when Jesus descended into them by the Holy Spirit did they undergo a complete change. They received Him in His heavenly humility and subjection to the Father and in His self-sacrifice for others. From that point, all was changed. From that moment on, they were animated by the spirit of the meek and lowly Jesus.
Many Christians keep their minds occupied only with the external Christ on the Cross. They wait for the blessing of His teaching and His working without understanding that the blessing of Pentecost brings Him into us. This is why they make so little progress in sanctification. Christ Himself is our sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Living the Life of Love
A heart overflowing with the love of God is also a part of the blessing of Pentecost. Next to pride, a lack of love was the sin for which the Lord had often rebuked His disciples. These two sins have the same root: the desire for pleasing self. The new commandment that He gave them, by which all men would know that they were His disciples, was their love for one another.
This was gloriously manifested on the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit of the Lord poured out His love in the hearts of His own. Romans 5:5) "The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul" (Acts 4:32). All things they possessed were held in common. No one said that anything he had was his own. The kingdom of heaven, with its life of love, had come down to them. The spirit, the disposition, and the wonderful love of Jesus filled them because He Himself had come into them.
The mighty working of the Spirit and the indwelling of the Lord Jesus are bound together with a life of love. This appears in the prayer of Paul on behalf of the Ephesians. He asked that they might be strengthened with power by the Spirit in order that Christ might dwell in their hearts (Ephesians 3:17). Then he quickly made this addition: "That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints ... the love ... which passes knowledge" (vv. 17-19).
The filling with the Spirit and the indwelling of Christ bring a life that has its root, its joy, its power, and its evidence in love because Christ is love. If the filling with the Spirit was recognized as the blessing that the Father promised us, the love of God would fill the church, and the world would be convinced she has received a heavenly element into her life.
Obtaining Courage and Power
We know how Peter denied his Lord and how all the disciples fled and forsook Him. Their hearts were really attached to the Lord,and they were sincerely willing to do what they had promised and go to die with Him. But when it came to the crisis, they had neither the courage nor the power. After the blessing of the Spirit of Pentecost, it was no longer a matter of willing apart from performing. By Christ indwelling in us, God works both the willing and the doing (Phil. 2:13).
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached about Jesus to thousands of hostile Jews. With boldness and in opposition to the leaders of the people, he was able to say, "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). With courage and joy, Stephen, Paul, and many others were enabled to encounter threats, suffering, and death. They did this triumphantly because the Spirit of Christ - the Victor, Christ Himself - had been glorified and now dwelt within them. The joy of the blessing of Pentecost gives courage and power to speak for Jesus because it fills the whole heart with Him.
The blessing of Pentecost makes the Word of God new. We see this fact distinctly in the case of the disciples. As with all the Jews of that age, their ideas of the Messiah and the kingdom of God were external and carnal. All the instruction of the Lord Jesus throughout three long years could not change their way of thinking. They were unable to comprehend the doctrine of a suffering and dying Messiah or the hope of His invisible spiritual dominion. Even after His resurrection, He had to rebuke them for their unbelieving spirit and their inability to understand the Scriptures.
With the coming of the Day of Pentecost, an entire change took place. Their ancient Scriptures opened up before them. The light of the Holy Spirit in them illuminated the Word. In the preaching of Peter and Stephen and in the addresses of Paul and James, we see how a divine light had shone on the Old Testament. They saw everything through the Spirit of this Jesus who had made His abode within them.
So it will be with us. It is necessary to meditate on the Scriptures and keep the Word of God in our thoughts, hearts, and daily walks. Let us, however, constantly remember that only when we are filled with the Spirit can we fully experience the spiritual power and truth of the Word. He is "the Spirit of truth" (John 16:13). He alone guides us into all truth when He dwells in us.
Power to Bless Others
The divine power of the exalted Jesus to grant repentance and the forgiveness of sins is exercised by Him through His servants. The minister of the Gospel who desires to preach repentance and forgiveness through Jesus and have success in winning souls must do the work in the power of the Spirit of Jesus. Much preaching of conversion and pardon is fruitless because these elements of truth are presented only as doctrine.
Some preachers try to reach the hearts of their audience in the power of mere human earnestness, reasoning,and eloquence. But little blessing is won by these means. The man whose chief desire is to be filled with the Spirit of the indwelling Christ can be assured that the glorified Lord will speak and work in him. He will obtain the blessing - not always in the same manner, but it will always certainly come.
In preaching and in the daily life of a servant of Christ, the full blessing of Pentecost is the sure way of becoming a blessing to others. Jesus said, "He who believes in Me ... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). This refers to the Holy Spirit. A heart filled with the Spirit will overflow with the Spirit.
It is the blessing of Pentecost that will make the church what God wants her to be.
I have spoken of what the Spirit will do in individual believers. Think of what the blessing will be when the church as a whole answers her calling to be filled with the Spirit and exhibits the life, the power, and the very presence of her Lord to the world. We must not only seek and receive this blessing, each person for himself, but we must also remember that the full manifestation of the blessing cannot be given until the whole body of Christ receives it. "If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it" (1 Corinthians 12:26).
If many members of the church of Christ are content to remain without this blessing, the whole church will suffer. Even in individual disciples, the blessing will not come to its full manifestation. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we not only think of what being filled with the Spirit means for ourselves, but also consider what it will do for the church.
Will You Separate Yourself?
Recall the morning of the Day of Pentecost. At that time, the Christian church in Jerusalem consisted only of one hundred and twenty disciples, most of them poor, uneducated fishermen, tax collectors, and humble women, an insignificant and despised gathering. Yet it was by these believers that the kingdom of God had to be proclaimed and extended, and they did it.
By them and those who were added to them, the power of Jewish prejudice and of pagan hardness of heart was overcome, and the church of Christ won glorious triumphs. This grand result was achieved simply and only because the first Christian church was filled with the Spirit. The members of it gave themselves wholly to their Lord. They allowed themselves to be filled, consecrated, governed, and used only by Him. They yielded themselves to Him as instruments of His power. He dwelt in them and used them for all His wondrous deeds.
It is to this same experience that the church of Christ in our age must be brought back. This is the only thing that will help her in the conflict with sin and the world. She must be filled with the Spirit.
Beloved fellow Christians, this call comes to you and the whole church of the Lord. This one thing is needed: we have to be filled with the Spirit. Do no imagine that you must understand it all before you seek to find it. For those who wait on Him, God will do more than they can imagine. You must taste the happiness and know by personal experience the blessedness of having Jesus in your heart. Then His Spirit of holiness and humility, of love and self-sacrifice, and of courage and power will become as natural as your own spirit.
If you have the Word of God in you, you will be able to carry it as a blessing to others. If you desire to see the church of Christ arrayed in her first splendor, then separate yourselves from everything that is evil, cast it out of your hearts, and focus your desire on this one thing: to be filled with the Spirit of God. Receive this blessing as your rightful heritage. Take hold of it and hold on to it by faith. It will certainly be given to you.
~Andrew Murray~
(continued with # 4 - How The Blessing Was Bestowed From Heaven
No comments:
Post a Comment