Whenever Jesus is Glorified

I believe whenever Jesus is glorified, the Holy Spirit comes! Contrary to what most people unintentionally assume, the important thing here was not that the Holy Spirit had come - the important thing was that Jesus had been exalted.

Let us take a look at the second chapter of Acts. Peter and all the disciples were gathered together when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, and they were with one accord in one place. Suddenly as they were gathered there come a sound from heaven as the sound of a rushing mighty wind. It was not a rushing, might wind - it was the sound of such a wind. It filled the entire house where they were sitting (Acts 2:2). Little tongues of fire sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues. Seventeen nations were there and heard them speak in their own languages. The ones that could be amazed were amazed. The doubters doubted, and the questioners said, "What does this mean?" Those who sat in the seat of the scornful were also present, and they said, "They are full of new wine" (Acts 2:13, NKJV).

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said to them, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and sign which God did through Him in your midst, ... (Acts 2:22). He proceeded to tell them how Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled prophecy and from there on, it was all about Jesus of Nazareth. Peter testified that: "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promised of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear" (Acts 2:32, 32). He then said: "Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God has made his Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). So, the important things, according to Peter, was the fact that Jesus had been exalted.

When Peter stood up

Jesus Himself had said on that last great day of the feast at Jerusalem: "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

It is therefore plain that glorification of Jesus brought the Holy Spirit - where Jesus is glorified, the Holy Spirit comes. He does not have to be begged. Let us get it into our heart - the Holy Spirit comes when the Savior is glorified. When Christ is truly honored, the Spirit comes.

Let us take note, particularly Acts 2:14 - "But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them ..." He stood up, and then he lifted up his voice.

Notice that Peter here stands for the whole Church of God. Peter was the first man to get on his feet after the Holy Spirit had come to the Church. Peter had believed the Lord's Word and he had received confirmation in his heart. The difference between faith as it is found in the New Testament and faith as it is found now is that faith in the New Testament actually produced something - there was a confirmation of it.

Faith now is the beginning and an end. We hav faith in faith - but nothing happens. They had faith in a risen Christ and something did happen. That is the difference.

Now, here was Peter standing, and he lifted up his voice. And that should be the business of the Church - stand up and lift up. Peter became a witness on earth, as the Church should be, to things in heaven. The Church must be a witness to powers beyond the earthly and the human. It grieves the Lord that the Church is now trying to run on its human powers!

The Church that carry on in its own power

Peter testified to something beyond the human and the earthly. Some power that lay beyond the earthly scene was interested us, and was willing to enter and become known to us. That power turns out to be none other than the Spirit of God Himself.

So, Peter, witnessing to things he had experienced, wanted to influence, urged and exhorted those who had not yet experienced to enter in.

Now, let us consider the Church trying to carry on in its own power. In my opinion, that kind of Christianity makes God sick, for it is trying to run a heavenly institution after an earthly manner. What we need is divine power. The Church that seeks God's power will have something to offer besides social clubs, garden tea parties, fashion shows and all of the other side issues.

First, we must strive to make our beliefs and practices New Testament in their content. We must teach and believe New Testament truths, with nothing dragged in from the outside. It means we must be going constantly back to the grass roots, to the basic.

Second, we must also earnestly, sacrificially and prayerfully, strive to be empowered with the same power that came upon them.

Peter said: "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear" (Acts 2:32, 32). We must live to gear ourselves into things eternal and to live the life of heaven here upon the earth. We must put loyalty to Christ first at any cost. Anything less than that really isn't a Christian Church. I would rather be a member of a group that meets in a little room on a side street than to be part of a great going activity that is not New Testament in its doctrine, in its spirit, in its living, in its holinee, and in all of its texture an tenor. We need not expect to be popular in such a Church, but certain fruits will follow if we make a Church that kind of a Church.

Characteristics of a Spirit-filled and Spirit-led congregation

They will be a joyful people. Church history tells us how the Holy Spirit came upon the Moravians one October morning in 1727. They were having communion. They went out joyful from that place, scarcely knowing whether they were in earth or had died and already gone to heaven. That joyfulness was characteristic of the Moravians for a hundred years. They were not just a happy people in the sense of working up their happiness - their joy came from within.

We do have many professing Christians in our day who are not joyful, but they spend time trying to work it up. I believe when we give God His place in the Church, when we recognize Christ as Lord high and lifted up, when we give the Holy Spirit His place, there will be joy that doesn't have to be worked up. It will be a joy that springs like a fountain. That is one important charactistic of a Spirit-filled congregation. They will be a joyful people, and it will be easy to distinguish them from the children of the world.

Benefits of a Spirit-filled congregation

A Spirit-filled congregation is useful in the neighborhood - useful to the sons of men, even the ones that are not converted. In another sense, we are to be influential among the Churches, as well.

I would like to see a Church becomes so godly, so Spirit-filled that it would have a spiritual influence on all the Churches in the entire area. I would like to see every Christian and every Church become so Spirit-filled, walking with God, learning to worship, living so clean and so separated that everybody would know it and the other Churches in the same area would be blessed on account of it.

Church history tells us that when Luther carried out his reformation, the Catholic Church was forced to clean up - the moral pressure from Lutheranism brought about change in the Roman Church. When Wesley came and preached throughout England, the Anglican Church was forced to clean up some of the things that were wrong. Methodism was a spiritual force that compelled other to do somethin about their own condition.

There is no reason why we could not be a people so filled with the Holy Spirit, so joyfully singing His praises and living so clean in our business and home and school that the people and other Churches would know it and recognize it.

But, of course, there are some Christians who just won't even fill at home in a Spirit-filled congregation. Not all men have faith and there are some who don't want that kind of Church. For example, the people who put on religion as a well-pressed Sunday garment won't like that kind of joyful Church.

The cross of Jesus Christ changes men's plans

Let us be reminded that the cross of Jesus Christ always changes men's plans. The cross of Christ is revolutionary, and if we are not ready to let it be revolutionary in us or let it cost us anything or control us in any way, we are not going to like a Church that takes the things of God seriously.

People want the benefits of the Cross but yet they do not want to bow to the control of the cross. They want to tak all the cross can offer but they don't want to be under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Those who expect religion to be fun won't like that kind of a Spirit-filled congregation. We have just gone through a long period when Christianity was the "funniest" thing on earth. Many of us have been told that we could have more fun serving Jesus than we could do anything else in the world. It is clean, too - and we don't have a hangover! But we can get drunk in the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine some people would think that the purpose of being a Christian is for the sake of fun - Christianity as an entertaining medium? The whole thing is offensive and foul before God Almight. Seriously, the cross of Christ isn't fun, and it never was fun. It is most solemn.

The joy of the Lord

There is a such thing as the joy of the Lord which is the strength of His people. There is such a thing as having joy unspeakable and full of glory. But the idea that Christianity is another form of entertainment is perfectly ridiculous.

When I sing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound," I am worshipping the Lord God Almighty. If you want to call "entertainment" that which they do before the throne when they cry day and night without ceasing, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," then I am an entertainer. If it isn't entertainment - and it certainly isn't - then I am a worshipper.



The Church must worship, beloved! There is more healing joy in five minutes of worship that there is in five nights of revelry and worldly entertainment. Nobody ever worshipped God and then went out and committed suicide as a hangover. Many a man has killed himself because he had just burned himself out trying to have fun. Many a pretty young woman has thrown herself into having fun, and before she is twenty-five, she has to have a make-over job done on her countenance - she has simply burned herself out.

How I love to see the grace and the joy of the Lord in a face! I believe many true Christians love that too.

Cultural values of the Church

People who embrace a Church for its cultural value will not be happy and satisfied in a Spirit-filled congregation. These people don't know anything about the Spirit in their lives or the Spirit-filled Church. They do believe that cultural value of the Church is good for them and offers them something, and they want their children brought up in the cultural atmosphere of the Church. They seek after lectures on flower arrangements, child-rearing, book reviews and all sorts of things. It is a foregone conclusion that they are not going to be at home among God's regenerated people who are intent upon spiritual advance.

So, we will always have to be be aware that this kind of discontent is going to rule out a few, and we are made sad by their dicision. But we thank God for those who will be in their glory if we go constantly to the grass roots, weeding out everything that is not of God and keeping the grain growing lush and beautiful. Thank God for those who want to gear into things heavenly and walk with God and obey the truth and love one another!

Those who are in a Spirit-filled congregation



Who are these people who will be happy and contented and fulfilled in a Spirit-filled congregation? They are those who have a leading ambition to be rid of their sins.

I believe we ought to have the sincere to be rid of our sins. If I had a cancer growing in my neck, I would want to be rid of it - the sooner the better!

Let us talk about getting rid of our sins. Some people that are overwhelmed with the desire to be free from their sins have had refining fire go through their hearts sanctifying the whole person.

These people will be happy in a Church that would not allow any form of "cancer" to be in the congregation. They want to know God and to walk with God. Their ambition is to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They ar the Lord's people and they know and appreciate one another. No matter what our backgrounds or where we come from, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We have learned to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd. We will be at home in a Spirit-filled Church.

The true Christian Church can be a conglomeration of everything under the son. That is, we may ha Calvinists and Methodists and Baptists and members of Assemblies of God and all sorts of believers, and yet we are all together on one thing - Jesus Christ our Lord. He is all wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption! He is All in all, and the people of the Lord who have learned to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd gravitate toward that kind of Church.

Thank God for those in the Churches who would rather hear the voice of Jesus than to hear the voice of the greatest preachers. Thank God for those who would rather be conscious of the Divine Presence than to be in the presence of the greates man in the world.

These are the things in which we believe: Jesus Christ the Lord; clean living; decency and separation from all things that are wrong; joyful, radiant, joyful worship; sweet fellowship based on kindliness and patience, endurance and honesty. Above all things, "Worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness." Amen.