After that, he had given commandment through the
Holy Spirit unto the Apostles whom he had
chosen, and being
assembled together with them, he charged them not
to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for
the promise of the Father, which said he,
Ye have from me, for John indeed baptized
with water, that ye shall be baptized in
the Holy Spirit, not many days hence.
I feel that the Lord is leading us
at this time to a consideration of the
Holy Spirit, the Church, and the nations.
I trust that it can be assumed that
we are all really concerned about two things.
There is, in the first place, a very
real concern in our hearts for a
Christian life in fullness, as full a
Christian life as is possible.
That is a necessary link between us and
the Lord's will for us.
For, as you notice, the Lord speaks about
the Holy Spirit.
He uses that word filled.
His thought is fullness.
It is not just that we should receive
the Spirit, but that we should be filled
with the Spirit.
It is not just that we should be
filled, but that we should be filled with
the Spirit.
Fullness is God's thought, and for us to
come to God's thought, there really must, by
necessity, be a deep concern and exercise about
a full Christian life, a life of as
great a fullness as the Lord intends it
to be.
And then, also, we have a deep concern
for an effective witness in the world by
the Church as the Lord would have.
We really are concerned about this matter of
as great as possible an effectiveness of the
Church's testimony in the nations.
Those two things are essential, not only to
the realization of the Lord's thought, but they're
essential to make profitable a time together like
this.
We are here in any other state of
heart, then we shall find that we are
not getting very far.
It is necessary, then, for every one of
us here in this place to really be
characterized by this two-fold concern for as
full a Christian life as possible in the
will of God, and for as an effective
witness by the Church in the world as
is possible.
Now, in relation to those things, there are
several governing considerations.
Firstly, Christianity, the Christian life, and the
Church owe their very existence to the advent
of the Holy Spirit, to that day which
is marked out in the history as being
called the day of Pentecost.
There had been many days of Pentecost before
that one.
It was a regular season and feast in
Israel.
Through the centuries, the day of Pentecost had
been observed regularly, every year.
But there never had been a day of
Pentecost like this one, so much so that
this is the only one that we ever
think about when we use the word.
We forget that it was a common word
in Israel.
It was in the common vocabulary and in
the common course of Israelitish festivities.
It was what we might call almost a
day-by-day ideal in Israel.
And yet we forget all that.
We forget the centuries.
We forget the scores of Pentecost when we
use the very word itself, because we only
think of that particular occasion.
And rightly so.
It swallowed up all the others.
It brought into full meaning all that the
others had foreshadowed.
It was the day of Pentecost, rightly called
that in the Scripture.
The day.
Christianity and the Church owe their existence to
what happened on that day.
That is, there is no Christianity, there is
no Church recognized in the Word of God,
in the Bible, or in heaven that is
not the product of the Holy Spirit.
There cannot be a Christian life without the
Holy Spirit.
There cannot be a Church without the Holy
Spirit.
And of course, that leads to this, that
Christianity and the Church can never fulfill their
purpose or reach their divinely intended goal on
any other ground than they started.
That is, on the ground of the Holy
Spirit.
There are no alternatives or substitutes for the
Holy Spirit, for Christianity, or for the Church.
If the Holy Spirit is not continuing with
Christianity and with the Church, then Christianity and
the Church lose the very meaning of their
existence.
But then there's further consideration.
The beginning of the Holy Spirit and his
work was not just some unrelated set of
acts.
We have sometimes substituted for this artificial and
unwarranted title in our Bible, the Acts of
the Apostles, the other title, the Acts of
the Holy Spirit.
And we have resolved these things that are
on record here into a set of acts,
rightly attributing them to the Holy Spirit.
But they are so many quite wonderful acts,
yet they were not just unrelated acts of
the Holy Spirit, and certainly not of the
Apostles.
The falsehood of that title given to the
book is seen in the fact that not
a half a dozen Apostles have any place
in the book and in the Acts.
While they are mentioned at the beginning, in
toto, most of them disappear from the book
after they are mentioned.
And the Apostles that are really in the
Acts are very few.
Paul and Peter and one or two others.
This is not a record of the Acts
of the Apostles.
It may be a record of the Acts
of some Apostles.
My point is that the Acts that are
here are related to fundamental principles
of the Holy Spirit.
That is, they were the demonstration of certain
spiritual realities which lay behind the Acts.
The Acts were not the sum total.
We are all astray.
We go completely astray when we fail to
recognize that.
But what was happening was the demonstration of
certain fundamental realities in the constitution of things.
The demonstration of certain spiritual principles.
They were not just happening.
Things that took place without any further meaning
than themselves.
They had a very deep meaning.
They had a much greater significance than just
the things that happened.
They carried with them deep spiritual truths.
If you and I really are concerned about
this matter of a full Christian life and
of the Church's effective witness in the nation,
we have got to get behind the Acts,
to the meaning of the Acts, to the
principles which the Acts demonstrate.
For they were all very significant things, as
I trust we shall see later.
We have there at that point to note,
and it's so very obvious, what a sad
contrast there is between the first 30 years
of Christianity and of the Church and of
all the centuries since.
There really has been nothing in all these
centuries comparable to those first 30 years.
The world certainly was a very much smaller
place in a sense then than it is
now.
Not of course in actual mileage, but as
a world.
But even so, it is not just measurement
of numbers, range of nations that governs this.
It's the comparative factor.
But then, in that world, that whole world
of nations and peoples, an impact was registered
which has no comparison at any time since.
And it is doubtful whether all the ages
put together could represent the spiritual force that
was there in those first years.
There they were.
The witness in the nations was a tremendously
effective thing.
We do not stay to remind you of
what happened, what was found at the end
of the life of the Apostle Paul alone.
That is, in the course of one Apostle's
lifetime, how things were when Paul was converted.
Small and struggling, limited in range
and in effect.
And how things were when Paul went to
the Lord.
The churches in practically every nation and many
of them far, far beyond all national locations.
Their sound went into all the earth and
their word unto the end of the world.
That is the thing.
Members record in one not very long lifetime
of Christian service on the part mainly of
one man.
I say there's nothing to compare with it.
Then there set in something at that point
which arrested it almost entirely.
At any rate, started a downgrade movement so
that about four little lamps of testimony here
and there from time to time in remote
places.
The whole church, the church as a whole
lost its sense of responsibility for the world
and its testimony in the world.
So deeply and terribly was that true when
we arrive at so late a time as
the life of William Carey.
Who way there in a country church spoke
about the obligation that rests upon the church
of God for taking the gospel of Christ
to the heathen.
Was immediately pounced upon by a member of
the gathers company and rebuked with young man
if God ever wants to evangelize the heathen.
He'll do it better material than you.
He'll do it without our help.
Such an utter loss.
A sense of responsibility.
But then we come to what we may
call the renaissance.
The revival of that responsibility and the last
hundred years and I'm not going to give
you a history of missions.
That's not the point.
You see what I'm coming to soon.
But all that has been poured into this
matter say in a hundred years.
You think of all the lives that have
gone out with this inspiration to evangelize.
A great and mighty army of men and
women have gone into the mission.
You think of all the many millions of
pounds put into this.
It would be a tremendously impressive thing dear
friends if I could bring to you this
afternoon a statement as to how many societies
there are engaged in this work and how
many representatives they have and how many they
have had since they were founded and how
much money had been poured into this.
How much labor and organization and what not.
It would be a startling and amazing story.
All the country that have given of their
resources in persons and means and energy.
Today not half the world knows anything about
the gospel with it all.
Not half the world.
And what is more Christianity is losing its
influence in this world.
Only to look at our own country.
See the loss of the influence of Christianity
in this country.
How tragic it is.
We are noting it now.
Loss of testimony in high places.
Loss of the place of God amongst authorities
and rulers.
And the terrible, terrible growth of godlessness.
Of God forgetfulness and God ignoring in the
western world.
What's the matter?
I say all this by way of drawing
the comparison.
At the beginning the church had a registration
upon this earth which provoked the world to
say the men that have turned the world
upside down have come hither.
Stirred rulers and nations and hell provoked with
fear for this thing.
The presence of this thing.
It is not like that.
I don't dwell too much upon the story
and it's a terrible story.
Spiritual ineffectiveness today and the kind of Christianity
that is very general.
With all honor and respect for the devoted
and the true and the sacrificing.
I'm speaking quite generally.
Why?
What's the matter?
I am certain dear friends that it brings
us back to this whole question of the
Holy Spirit and it challenges us
and it provokes in us surely some questions.
Questions that immediately arises in our hearts if
it is an allowable, a permissible question is
have we any ground for believing that the
Holy Spirit would continue or repeat the work
of those first 30 years?
Was it just something for a time?
Did God just then in this massive way
demonstrate something?
Did not intend it to be perpetuated?
It was for a time and something to
be looked back upon.
We cannot accept that.
Have we ground?
Have we ground for really believing that God
would have continued to do that like that
and that God would repeat that again?
Well I think the answer lies in two
directions.
First of all surely it is at least
implied.
I think it is implicit in these words
of Luke at the beginning of this second
treatise of his.
The former treatise I made of all that
Jesus began to do and to teach until
the day in which he was received.
Implicit in that statement is not only that
now Luke is saying I'm going to tell
you what he continues to do after he's
received us but surely that his receiving up
and the continuation of his work from his
heavenly position is not something related to time
and a short time at that.
A few years of one man's life.
We cannot accept that.
Surely we would believe we have ground for
believing that from his heavenly position he would
go on and in in a reality he
is going on with his work because it
is a work for a whole dispensation.
Whole of the word I think bears that
out.
He says unto the end of the age.
He said it himself.
I am with you all the days even
unto the end of the age.
The end of the age did not come
when the apostle Paul was executed and went
to the north.
But we have other evidence that answers our
question.
That through these ages and even in our
own day where the Lord has his required
condition he does this very thing.
He does it.
The thing happens.
It may not be worldwide but there it
is here and there from time to time
the Lord has done something comparable in its
range to what happened at the beginning.
He's just done it and in some parts
of the world he is doing it now.
It is there and it can be seen.
The Lord is doing something quite wonderful and
when you see it and know it you
have to say this this is just what
you have in the book of Acts.
There it is.
Yes there are instances through history that prove
it that if the Lord had his required
condition he would go on with the same
kind of work as he did at the
beginning.
That leads of course to two lines of
inquiry.
Firstly why was the work arrested?
Why did that stop or begin to fade
out at a certain clearly defined point in
the history of Christianity?
You can see when it began to happen.
And if you look into it you can
see why it began.
That only leads us to put the matter
in another form.
The question in another form.
What are the grounds of the Holy Spirit's
work?
We can answer the second.
We've answered the first.
Why it was arrested?
The answer is found in discovering the ground
on which the Holy Spirit works and goes
on with his work.
Well that brings us right immediately to this
matter of the Holy Spirit.
And in the first place it is a
matter of the Holy Spirit himself.
Who is the Holy Spirit?
What is the Holy Spirit?
The second question that will arise will be
what instrument will the Holy Spirit use?
What kind of an instrument did he use?
Therefore what instrument will he use?
For the Holy Spirit is particular.
He is particular as to his vessel.
Who and what is the Holy Spirit?
Well first of all what the Holy Spirit
is not.
And what the Holy Spirit did not come
to do.
You know.
A very serious error is to be avoided.
That error of making the Holy Spirit impersonal
and making the effects of the Holy Spirit
be everything.
If you understand what I mean.
The Holy Spirit is not in the first
place an influence.
He may exercise an influence but in the
first place he is not an influence.
He is not in the first place a
sense.
You may sense him but he is not
just a sense.
The Holy Spirit is not in the first
place a principle.
He may work by principles.
The Holy Spirit is not in the first
place a power.
We make the effects of the Holy Spirit
everything or are in danger of doing that.
These things are just characteristics of the Holy
Spirit.
But the Holy Spirit himself is a person.
Just as truly a person as the Father
and the Son.
Word of God does not refer to the
Holy Spirit as an it.
Jesus always spoke of the Holy Spirit as
he.
As he when he is come.
Now you may think that this doesn't require
such emphasis that's accepted and recognized by most
evangelical Christians.
But I say we can get into difficulty
if we're not careful about this matter.
We put more upon the characteristics than upon
the person himself.
We are reckoning with God Almighty in the
person of the Holy Spirit.
We may ask to seek for power and
for wisdom and for life and for influence
and for strength and consciousness.
What we really must always keep in mind
is we may ask to seek for power
and for wisdom and for life and for
influence and for strength and consciousness.
What we really must always keep in mind
is that it is this divine person himself
who with him is the Father and the
Son one God.
It is God's presence.
Truly God present himself in person as ever
Jesus himself was God present in person.
You go through this book called The Acts.
You will see that neither in the church
nor outside of the church were people having
to do with some abstract thing.
They were having to do with a living
person present.
When Ananias and Sapphira Peter said, Why has
Satan filled thy heart to lie to the
Holy Spirit?
You don't lie to an abstraction.
To lie to the Holy Spirit.
Like that in every connection.
Dealing with a living present person.
God himself.
When the apostle spoke about strangers coming in
to the assembly and registering, he did not
say they will say there's some powerful influence
present here.
There's, I'm conscious of some strange atmosphere here.
He said they will fall down and say
God is in the midst of you.
They'll relate everything to God and say this
is God that you meet here.
Dear friends, whether you see the importance of
this or not, it is a very important
thing that the registration should be the registration
of none other than God himself.
If that is true, tremendous implications there are.
He is not an it.
He is a person.
What did the Holy Spirit not come to
do?
Well, he did not come to start a
new religion.
Let it be very carefully noted.
Christianity was not a new religion set up
and over against or alongside of other religions
and made one of the comparative religions.
It was quite a long time before some
of the leading apostles themselves realized the implication
of their new position.
They did not at once come to the
conclusion that their Jewish religion as such was
finished and now they were in the Christian
religion.
There was no such dividing in their consciousness
or realization.
I say it was some time before they
realized the implication of their new position.
It was not clear cut in a moment.
They grew into it.
They found themselves moving in a certain direction,
in spirit, gradually moving away from something, feeling
themselves out, more and more out of something
that they had been in, and more and
more involved in something.
But what this something was, was not clear
to them.
Think of Peter and the House of Cornelius.
Peter was not at all clear as to
the implications of this strange departure, this innovation
of God.
Peter had the idea or the belief that
Judaism is wound up and finished and Christianity
now comes in to take its place as
a religion.
There would have been none of that battle
at all over the Gentiles in the life
and heart of Peter.
Others there in Jerusalem, leading apostles and elders,
who took a very long time, even if
they ever did get quite clear on this
matter.
All the evidence is that the Holy Spirit
did not come to set up a new
religion called the Christian religion.
It's very important for you and for us
all to recognize that, dear friends.
That's the negative way of putting it.
Positive way is we really have got to
know what Christianity is, what it really is.
It is not a new religion.
The Holy Spirit did not come to launch
a new movement in this world.
No, not a new movement.
If he had done that, if that had
been his object, then we should have had
in this book some committees being set up,
consultative and executive, and plans being laid and
made for the evangelization of the world.
Tremendous amounts of machinery and organization.
The impressive thing about this whole book is
anything like that as the basis upon which
the work was initiated.
No, it was not a new movement that
the Holy Spirit came to launch.
No thought out campaigns existed.
They were so often taken by surprise.
They were compelled to do things that they
never thought of doing or intended to do.
They were launched altogether beyond their depth.
Many things that they had planned never took
place or were satisfied.
No.
Let us be very careful about this.
It's not a new movement.
Not a movement at all that was felt
with a capital M, but the Holy Spirit
had come to inaugurate.
Further, the Holy Spirit did not come to
inculcate a new teaching.
We need to be well informed and instructed
on this matter.
There is no ground whatever.
There is nothing in the whole story to
rest an argument upon or an affirmation that
the apostles went out into the world with
the teaching of Jesus.
It may surprise you, startle you to hear
that said, but there is absolutely nothing to
warrant any such idea that these apostles went
out into the world with the teaching of
Jesus.
Whatever Confucius may teach, whatever Buddha may teach,
whatever the other great religious teachers or leaders
or founders may teach, this is the teaching
of Jesus.
That was not their idea at all.
That was not the Holy Spirit's idea.
They were not propagating a system of doctrine.
All the things happened before the explanation of
them was given.
The teaching came after the event.
Things happened and then explanations were given.
Our New Testament teaching was made necessary by
what was happening.
It was not, now this is the teaching,
go and put it into practice and constitute
everything according to it.
That's a long way around.
Don't get a New Testament church like that.
You don't get a Holy Spirit movement like
that.
This is the teaching.
Therefore, had everything conformed to it, Holy Spirit
took things into his own hands and launched
and landed the church right out beyond its
own understanding and comprehension.
Then afterwards, anointed or endowed men to teach
them the meaning of their experience of what
had happened to them.
See, we've got to get things around the
right way.
Oh, that we could get back there where
the Holy Spirit does it and we don't
understand what he means, what he's doing, and
then we go to the Word of God
and find, oh, this is that.
This is that.
This is the explanation.
It's here in the Word of God.
No, not a new teaching.
And the Holy Spirit never came to make
something, something that is called the church.
It is true that the church was born
on the day of Pentecost.
Here we've got to get a little clearer
and a little straightened out.
Not something called the church.
See, our mentality in relation to that word
church may be a bit confused.
We have got an object in our mind,
in our view.
We have got a thing called the church.
Oh, it goes by that name.
It's only one of many names.
The Holy Spirit did not come to make
a new thing by the name of the
church.
What did he come for?
If he did not come for any of
these things, what did he come for?
The Holy Spirit came to reproduce Jesus Christ
in the lives of men and women.
The church is that, or it is nothing.
The teaching relates to that, or it has
no meaning.
Any movement of the Spirit is in that
direction, or we have entirely misunderstood.
He came to reproduce the Lord Jesus in
the lives of men and women.
Everything has got to be tested by that.
All our activities and energies and expenditure and
sacrifice and machinery and everything else, all our
efforts and our movement and all our teachings,
everything that has become a part of Christianity
has got to be tested by one rule.
Is it resulting in the reproduction of Jesus
Christ in the lives of men and women
so that it is demonstrated from heaven that
Jesus is as truly here in this world
now as ever he was in history?
Yes, not only as powerfully but more so
because he spoke of his being limited until
the Spirit came.
Present not only in the works that he
did but according to his own words, in
greater works than these shall he do because
I go to him.
That's how it was in those first 30
years.
And the presence of Christ was the great,
the great interest.
That was the thing that men everywhere realized
that is why the believers were called Christians,
Christ ones, Christ ones.
The only way of explaining it.
The Holy Spirit came for that and if
there's going to be any continuation or any
repetition of things then it will only be,
it will only be as we come right
back to this.
Not only belief in Jesus Christ, his deity,
his sinlessness, his atonement as doctrines but as
by the Holy Spirit he is livingly present
in us.
When it's like, you see, the thing was
just that by the Holy Spirit Christ was
present in these believers in a mighty way.
When you think and speak of being filled
with the Spirit what do you mean?
What do we mean?
What the New Testament means by being filled
with the Spirit is being filled with the
Lord Jesus.
I've got to stop there for this afternoon
but that is just the point where we
move on and over into the real significance
of Pentecost.
It is, so to speak, the bringing of
Christ back again in a new mighty advent,
this time not externally but inwardly.
Inwardly.
Let us leave it there unfortunately for the
moment but we are now getting near to
the meaning of the Holy Spirit.
It is just that and I repeat everything
has got to be judged according to that.
Oh yes, when he, when he has his
place, the place that he ought to have
and the measure that he ought to have,
things will happen.
They will happen spontaneously and mightily as they
did then.
It is all resolved into this matter of
Jesus glorified.