Okay. Let’s look at it.
I took seriously that you were studying the Gospel of John, so we’re staying in the Gospel of John pretty much. Tonight, in this matter of, “What shall I do, Lord?” we want to look one more time in the Gospel of John.
Would you turn to John 1? We just want to read three verses to refocus on where we were last night. John 1:14 is certainly a central, pivotal verse, as we’ll look at tonight. Let’s look at verse 14, and then verses 16 and 17.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
So it was godly, it was divine, yet it was human, because it was the only begotten of the Father.
For of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Grace and truth—both in John 1:14 and John 1:17.
Then let’s turn to John 16, where we’ll be focusing tonight: John 16, beginning in verse 5.
I thought there was a mouse loose. God bless you.
But now I go unto Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest Thou?
But because I have spoken these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you.
And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
of sin, because they believe not on Me;
of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold Me no more;
of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.
He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.
Then let’s look in 1 John for a couple of verses, because John is continuous in his burden for the people of God. We’ll touch the beginning to cross-reference what we were sharing last night.
The theme is basically the same: “I want you to know the deeper, inner reality so that you can overcome in this world.”
That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life—
and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us—
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write, that our joy may be made full.
That Logos of zoē is what John is saying. “I not only observed it, I heard it, and I touched the Word of life—the generating force.”
The life was manifested. Zoē was manifested. We have seen and testify and proclaim to you this eternal zoē, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
Oh, listen, Christians: there’s life flowing from the fountain named Jesus. When you see Him, touch Him, or hear Him, there is His life, grace, and generation. Even if you’re old like me, you see Jesus, and there’s some regeneration in your life. There’s something vivifying in your life.
This is how Paul could say that even though the outer man is decaying, the new man is being renewed day by day—because there is such life there.
Then John goes on to talk about three of the four corners we discussed the other day. He starts out, “God is light.” Then he says, “God is righteous.” Then he says, “God is love.” He wants them to get back to that seminal, initial understanding of the life of God.
It is His life that is righteous. It is His light—that is Himself—and it is His love. God doesn’t have love; He is love. Do you understand the difference? If I have love, I can say, “Eh, I’m going to give it to you. I’m not going to give it to you.” But if I am love, everything I do is an expression of love.
John obviously has this burden to bring Christians into spiritual reality, and he has brought us to this central verse:
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.
“We beheld” is a word that means we were staring at Him when He first came. As we stared at Him, we began to see what was going on.
So it was a mouse I heard.
As we stared at Jesus, we saw, “Wow, there’s something behind this Man. There’s glory. There’s God—but it is shaped in grace and truth.”
You remember how we talked the first night about how love and truth are found together in the Old Testament? Well, here is another episode of grace and truth found together. We beheld His glory: grace—everything of love flowing from Him, everything of reaching out to you as grace, everything beautiful coming from Him.
Everything in Him was full of generating zoē, just generating. And also truth—His light shines, and you see the truth. You look at Jesus and say, “I got it. Now I understand. We’re such fallen men. Oh man, I’ve been living so low. That’s what a man is supposed to be.”
If you ever see what a man is supposed to be, it far exceeds your grasp. But it begins you on a journey where the Holy Spirit can bring you into that reality. Believe it or not, you have been predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Your character is going to begin to evidence love, righteousness, and the holiness of light.
So get a good look at Jesus. This is what John is saying: “Listen, I want all Christians renewed—not just outward stuff, not just wineskins. I want reality in their lives. I want you to look at Jesus until you behold Him and say, ‘That’s the most beautiful Person I’ve ever seen, and I want to be like Him.’”
When you really are in that attitude, you’ve been captured. You’ve met some handsome guys—I had Noah up here the other day, one of the best. When you see Jesus, you say, “Noah…”
There will be some girl who won’t say that, however, and will fall for his gentlemanly good looks.
Anyway, you’ll never meet another Man so full of grace and truth. He is so tender, so patient, so gentle; and yet He is full of truth.
Jesus, when you see Him as He really is, is a combination of love and truth. Can you handle it? It is all that beautiful stuff that love is and all that grace is about, but He is also honest. Can you take Him?
If you want the package, you have to take the brother and the sister. The sister is grace; the brother is truth. If you take that thought and see how Jesus balances those two things in His life, you can go through the Gospel of John and see it everywhere.
Everywhere He went, He not only deposited life-changing grace; He also deposited truth and reality.
In John 2, what happened? He changed water into wine. That is grace, right? He changed water-life into wine-life. So gracious. But there was also truth: “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” There was a correction there, because His mother was out of line in telling Him what to do when He was serving His Father.
Then He comes to Nicodemus and gives him a good dose of truth: “Wait a minute, you can’t see anything. You’ve got to be born again first.” But, of course, He zapped him with zoē, and he got born again. Grace and truth come in a combined sort of package.
He comes to the woman at the well and says, “Hey, I’ve got some gracious water for you. If you drink it, you’ll never thirst again.” She says, “Gimme, gimme, gimme.” Then He says, “Go call your husband.”
Jesus is a one-two punch. He hits you with His grace, then He hits you with His truth. But that’s the real Jesus. Don’t think Jesus is some manby-pamby, “Oh, I just love you. Whatever you want to do, it’s okay with Me. I’m just a lovey-dovey guy.”
Love and truth have met together. We have to deal with the One with whom we have to do.
There’s that guy in John 5. He has been thirty-eight years on a bed. What did Jesus say? “What do you want Me to do?” The guy has to say, “Could You heal me?” Jesus says, “Then get up.” Grace and truth meet together.
The woman caught in adultery in John 8—what happens to her? “Who has condemned you?” “Nobody.” “Neither do I. Go, sin no more.” Grace and truth.
That is part of the zoē zapper—that is grace—and part of the phōs-er—that is truth. When you meet the gracious Generator, Jesus Christ, you are going to have the most wonderful sense of acceptance and love that you have ever had from His zoē zapper. But you are also going to have to handle the truth.
He is going to bring you back to reality. He has to renew your mind and reshape your thoughts. This whole kind of thing is very important to see.
Now, with this, I want to show you how subtle things can be. Grace—I don’t think I need to make a point here—God has more grace than we can handle. Paul says He lavishes His grace upon us. In another place, he speaks of the exceeding greatness of His grace toward us. How much grace is that? Pretty much unlimited, right?
But there is a popular phrase used nowadays which is not a Bible phrase. It is a human construct, and it is being abused. The phrase is “unconditional grace.”
Now, that is not in the Bible. But it is true as it relates to this fact: when we were saved, there were no conditions on our salvation, no works we had to do. That is what unconditional grace means.
When you are first saved, when you come to Jesus, there are no works you can do. He has done it all.
For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
not of works, that no man should glory.
So if you want to use “unconditional grace,” talk about it in terms of the saving grace that first came to us. There is no condition except that we receive what He has already done. That is a good point.
Today, though, “unconditional grace” is being abused. Here is the point: now that we are saved, how much grace is available to us? Bucket loads? Incredible, exceeding greatness? Immeasurable grace is available to you, but it is not unconditional.
That understanding makes people come to this self-centered lie. They have warped this thing to mean that regardless of our attitude, our walk, our unconfessed sins, our rebellion, our practicing reprobation, or our pride, God has to show us grace. And that is not true.
Grace is available, but it has to be in relationship to her brother, truth. Now, what do I mean? I don’t want to scare you on this. If you use this term “unconditional grace,” it gets sloppy in the way people use it.
That is just man’s doctrine. You will not find that in the Bible. Grace is always available if you will allow truth to correct; if you will allow truth and hold yourself accountable to truth; if you are willing to repent, walk in the light, or confess your sins. Then grace is readily available. But it is not unconditional.
Let me give you three examples from the Bible so you can understand.
Paul does not say, “Any Christian, come to the Lord’s Table and take it. There’s grace. Just come.” No. He says, “Wait a minute. Before you partake of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, examine your lives.”
Have you got some unconfessed sin? Have you got something out there? Are you in willful sin against God right now? Then you had better be careful how sloppy you get about thinking God is going to show you grace anyway, no matter what condition you are in.
Before you take the Table, I think you should confess, come under the blood of Jesus Christ, come in a humble attitude, and receive—not in a proud attitude.
Second thing: James 4:6-8. What does it say?
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.
There is a clue for you. You can have immeasurable grace, but humility is needed when you come to receive it.
The Bible says you can draw boldly to the throne of grace through the precious blood of Jesus, because Jesus the High Priest is bringing you into the throne of grace. You can come boldly, but you do not come proudly.
If you come proudly, God resists pride. What do you want grace for? Your pride obviously believes you do not need it. If you come humbly, grace is there—to receive mercy and find grace in a time of need.
If you are in a time of need, come boldly to the throne of grace, but with humility. Boldness means you can walk right in—humbly.
The Bible says that if you willfully sin, you can insult the Spirit of grace. What am I trying to say? That grace is not available to you? Not at all. Please.
I am just trying to state the truth regarding unconditional grace. It is meant for salvation, but Christians are abusing it. There is a grace movement today that believes you can serve God, take communion, and do anything you want regardless of your lifestyle and acts of sin.
God withholds the supply of grace when we are not in the truth. So who goes together? Sister Grace and Brother Truth—they go together.
When people look at Jesus, they say, “Wow, He loves me.” But they also come humbly to Him because He tells them the truth. How many of you have had God tell you the truth? A reality check on your life—sometimes when you get a little bit of a whippersnapper going, and all He has to do is check you back in line: “Wait a minute.”
Because He wants reality. So grace and truth, brother and sister—you need them both. Don’t separate them. You could be in trouble.
Having said that, I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about this, because this is John’s major point.
When you see Jesus, this is your starting point. You go nowhere without seeing Jesus. First you see Jesus, and He is full of grace and truth. But now we want to define truth in its subjective interpretation, which is reality.
When I look at Jesus, I see grace; and when I look at Jesus, I see reality. I see what God is like. I see what man is like. I see what walking in this world is like. I see what it means to be a testimony for God.
One of the wonderful privileges we have on this earth is to live as a testimony of God—to live to glorify God. When you look at Jesus, you see how that is done. Looking at Him brings us into reality.
He is the I AM. There is nothing more real than that. Jesus said to His confused disciples, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” Either Jesus was crazy, or He was the truth about God.
Look at Jesus and you will see what God is about. You think God does not love you? Look at Jesus. All those fears go away.
When we come to Jesus, we see and are generated into a reality. We see what we ought to be.
John’s Gospel is interesting because he is trying to renew the church. As we mentioned last night, he is a mender of the nets of the church that had gotten torn up, twisted, and tangled by the end of the first century.
Along with the Gospel stories themselves, there is a secondary meaning under the stories: John is speaking to us as Christians about how real we are being in our Christian life and worship together.
In John 4, Jesus speaks to the woman at the well. In John 4:23-24, He says:
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth:
for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Jesus was witnessing to this woman at the well. She obviously got saved, ran into town, and spoke about the Messiah she had met. But there is an underlying story here.
John takes some of the outward forms of Judaism and contrasts them with the new spiritual reality. This verse came out of an argument the woman was having with Jesus about where people should worship. She said, “We should worship on Mount Gerizim, but You say we have to worship in Jerusalem.”
Jesus says, “An hour is coming when you will worship neither on Mount Gerizim nor in Jerusalem.” Here is what He is saying to the church: spiritual reality is that worship is not an outward thing.
The Jews said you had to meet at the special building called the temple or it was not real worship. The Samaritans said Mount Gerizim was the holy mountain, and you could worship only there. They had this argument back and forth.
Jesus says, “You have missed the whole point of worship. Worship is in spirit and in truth, and it can be anywhere. It is not stuck in a place, stuck in a time, stuck in an outward form, or stuck in an outward liturgy.”
Do you think you have not worshiped unless you speak in tongues? Do you think you have not worshiped unless you have said the liturgy and confessed your sins? Do you think you have not worshiped unless we sing six hymns and then break bread together?
No. You cannot restrain true worshipers. True worshipers are always alive in their spirit, and they worship in reality. What is real worship? Being in the right place at the right time and singing the right songs?
The church was beginning to think that worship was outward forms. John pulls them back by telling them this story: “You Christians, do not get outward.”
There are Christian groups that get all crazy about the meeting place, as if it were the holy tabernacle. “Did you take your sneakers off in the holy tabernacle?” They are making a little too much of a building.
Jesus is basically saying, “The church is not the building; it is the worshipers.” It seems like an obvious point, but I just wanted to show you that.
Then, when you get to John 6, you see the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand. John puts it in the context of the Passover. It was the time of the Passover when the five thousand were fed.
The Jews were taken with the unleavened bread they had during the Passover because it reminded them of the manna that came down from heaven. So Jesus says in John 6:32:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, It was not Moses that gave you the bread out of heaven;
but My Father giveth you the true bread out of heaven.
For the bread of God is that which cometh down out of heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
God’s bread gives zoē to the world. The people said, “Oh boy, forever give us this bread.” But all they wanted was more outward bread. They chased Him around because Jesus made the best biscuits in town. Jesus made bagels like nobody. His pumpernickel was so good that people ran all the way across from one mountain just to get another good hot pumpernickel.
Jesus says, “No, no. Spiritual reality—that is not what you are after.” They said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, give us that bread.” The holy baker is what they wanted from Jesus.
But Jesus says, “No, no, no, no. Here is the bread you really need.”
I am the bread of life:
he that cometh to Me shall not hunger,
and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
Oh, wait a minute. That is kind of a spooky spiritual thing. He is the bread. Then He goes on to say that unless you eat His flesh and drink His blood, you cannot have fellowship with Him.
The Catholics made that literal. We take some bread, take some wine, go “hocus pocus,” and it turns into the actual body and blood of the Lord. Wouldn’t you say that is a pretty outward understanding of what the Lord’s Table is all about?
But the spiritual reality is: are you eating Jesus? Because that is your life. You want zoē? Eat Jesus.
This is also talking about the Word of God. Moses did not send down the bread from heaven, because they were holding Moses’ law up as number one. No, it is Jesus’ Word that gives life.
The Word of God is involved in this tremendous revelation. You need to look at the Word of God and take one step deeper and say, “Lord, I seek You in Your Word. Break Thou the bread of life.” You know that wonderful hymn? It is talking about reading the Bible, so that I can see Jesus in the pages.
Next, John 7: the Feast of Tabernacles. Big feast. The Jews celebrate by coming together and pitching tents around Jerusalem, saying, “Oh, praise God. God stayed with us forty years in the wilderness. He was faithful to us. He provided for us.”
They have a big feast lasting seven days. Boy, they eat every day. Can you imagine a Chinese banquet seven days? Some of you have, perhaps. As you can see, I have been to a few.
On the last day of the feast, they go down to the Pool of Siloam, come up with a big basin of water, come up to the temple through the Water Gate, and pour out that water. They pray, “Oh Lord, as You gave us water from the rock in the wilderness, supply the waters of life unto us.”
In the middle of these things, John 7:37 says:
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water.
But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believed on Him were to receive:
for the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John is saying, “Dear saints, how could you believe in Jesus and have been generated by Jesus, and yet become so dry?” If you are thirsty, come to Jesus. He will fill you with the Holy Spirit. You will be wet with the dew of the Spirit and alive with the vivification of His zoē. Rivers will even flow out of your life to other people.
Which water is better: the water from the Pool of Siloam, or the Jesus water?
A lot of Christians do not even know what the Holy Spirit is. They are not living in the Holy Spirit. They have never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. They are not swimming in the Holy Spirit. They are not immersed in the Holy Spirit.
Their prayers, their Bible studies—you can hear the whisper of death in their breath. I have heard so much preaching that is so dry. Lord, spare us.
Anyway, I have gotten off the topic. All that is background, but that is not what I want to talk about tonight.
All of this is John leading up to the most important section, in a certain sense, in terms of spiritual reality in the Gospel of John. You all noticed, because you read the book through and through, that something stuck in your mind.
This is a Gospel like Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but suddenly John gets to chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17, and he goes AWOL. Suddenly he goes out into outer space. Then he goes back: Jesus goes into the garden, gets caught, and the whole process of His crucifixion unfolds.
But chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17 are the centerpiece of John’s message. Here it is.
Jesus comes to Nicodemus, to the woman at the well, to the woman caught in adultery, to the man born blind—I do not care who you are. When He comes to you, He is the Generator. He is the grace-giver. He comes and gives you His life, His zoē. He comes and shines His light upon you, His phōs. He is the great Generator.
Jesus startled His disciples in John 13:33:
Little children, yet a little while I am with you.
Ye shall seek Me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you.
The disciples went dark. Peter said, “Of course I can go. Wherever You go, I go. Why, I’d never betray You.” A little lacking of reality there, huh?
Their whole life, their kingdom ministry, their miracles, and everything were predicated on the fact that Jesus was there in the midst. When Jesus was there, they were bold as lions. If Jesus was gone, what would they do?
They were happy with the way church was going. They were preaching, seeing miracles, and saying, “This is really cool.” But they had to have Jesus around because every once in a while they had to say, “Jesus, fill me up. Thank You.” Then they went out and preached.
But what would they do without their Generator in the middle anymore? “Oh my goodness, what are we going to do? Where are You going? What’s going on?”
Jesus said, “I am going away to My Father’s house to prepare a place for you, and I will come back.” Then He says, “Besides, you know where I am going.”
That really messed with their heads. “What do You mean, we know where You are going? The Father’s house? Where is it—New Jersey?” They said, “We do not know where You are going. How do we know the way?”
Jesus said, “I am the way.”
That is just as clear as mud. Did all twelve disciples say, “Ah, now I understand. Yeah, You are the way. Okay, all right”? No.
Jesus was saying, “I am the way to the Father’s house. Nobody gets to the Father except through Me.” But they were all over the map, trying to pinpoint where the Father’s house was. Some thought it was in Shanghai, some Toronto, whatever it was.
Here is what is going on: Jesus is preparing His disciples for the transition from the outward to the inward—from a ministry that involved Jesus outwardly present with them to a ministry that involved Jesus within them.
This is a transition, a spiritual reality that moves from outward things to inward things. It is a difficult transition. I point to the disciples as evidence.
In your life, which is primarily outward—and I do not say that to be mean; that is just where we start from—piece by piece, the Lord will bring you into inward reality of His life and how things are done.
The more you understand the inward side, the more you are shaped into the very likeness of the One whom you love. That takes a while.
John the Baptist said, “You see my Crocs? There is Somebody coming, and I am not even worthy to take off His Crocs.” He said, “I baptize with Crocs in the water—that is the guard against crocodiles.”
But when Jesus comes, He is going to immerse you in the Holy Spirit. That is what he said: baptized. When He comes, He is going to baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is getting them ready for this whole new change of life. It is a whole new epoch, a whole new era, a whole new age. It is the age of the Spirit.
Jesus is a Generator, right? What have you got here? A zoē zapper. What have you got here? A phōs-er. What is His real secret weapon? The realitizer.
That is the Spirit of reality, the Spirit of truth—the realitizer. The way He uses that weapon is that He sticks that realitizer inside of you. You cannot find Him in your pockets: “Wait a minute, where is He?” But that realitizer starts working.
That is His greatest secret weapon. That is what He is trying to tell the disciples about. When you are immersed in the Holy Spirit, it is a full-blown thing.
There are four aspects to it. Being immersed in the Holy Spirit means a total dunking, a total soaking.
When I baptize somebody in water, they had better be scared, because when I take them down—when we were down at the ocean, LB baptized Sammy and held Sammy down as long as possible, to be sure he was dead to the old man. But unfortunately, they could not cover his hair completely. Only kidding.
When you get immersed by the Holy Spirit, it is a total soaking. Here is what happens.
The power of the Holy Spirit is poured out on you. As Jesus told His disciples, “Wait in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”
I am telling you, brothers and sisters, as a Christian, the most common practice I do is get down and say, “God, fill me with the Holy Spirit, or I have nothing to say with any life.”
I cannot believe Christians do not get down every day and say, “I want to be immersed in Your Spirit.” We need the power of the Holy Spirit when we are witnessing, preaching, loving, and generating with the Gospel. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit, not the weakness of our own efforts.
Number one: He pours out His power upon you. I hope you know the power of the Holy Spirit, even miraculous power. I sang that song last night: “Miracles, miracles, everywhere He went, there were miracles.”
For the life of me, I believe Jesus is just the same today as He was yesterday. But we need the endowment with power from on high. If you do not have it, you should seek for it.
Number two: the Holy Spirit indwells you. As Jesus said to His disciples, “He has been with you. You have known that anointing, but He will come in you and indwell you.”
This is the realitizer who is going to bring you into reality. That is the key one right there.
The other reference is that you are going to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. The Holy Spirit comes down with sanctifying fire to give you holy zoē.
The pouring out is for an outpouring of power, zoē. The indwelling is for indwelling zoē. The fire comes down for sanctifying, holy zoē.
The last part of your immersion is that you are immersed into the body of Christ—in corporate zoē.
That takes some renewal of our minds to understand, because every one of us, alienated by sin, thinks, “I am an individual unit, an entity, an independent automaton.” But we are not.
You are now part of a larger corporate zoē. Part of your zoē depends on another’s zoē, and we are going to learn that. This is a real immersion. Your whole life is immersed in the Holy Spirit.
Ah, brothers and sisters, what shall we do? You see Jesus, and you want to be like Him. How are you going to become like Him? It is impossible. The secret: the realitizer.
He is going to transform you as you gaze on Jesus. You are going to be transformed from glory unto glory into the image of the One you see. That is why you need to get it right who Jesus is—to see reality about Jesus. He is really wonderful, wonderful.
The Holy Spirit will work in your life to bring you into the reality that you see. I hope your goal exceeds where you are at. I hope you want to be more than you are right now. I hope you have seen more of Him to drive you to be hungry to be like that.
It is wonderful when you see a reality ahead of you and realize, “I have not attained to that.” That does not make you a hypocrite if you are pursuing.
That is the only deal. The whole secret is so simple:
Come unto Me.
Pursue Me.
Draw near to Me.
That is the secret to transformation by the Holy Spirit.
Let’s look at a couple of the things Jesus says in John 14. In verse 16, He tells the disciples:
And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever,
even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him:
ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.
The disciples were outward. There is only one group of people I know that was more outward than us: the disciples.
Jesus says this two days after they had Him up on the Mount of Olives saying, “Look at the temple. Oh, wowzers. Man, it is the greatest monument to God I have ever seen. Look at the gold and the rays of sunset just glowing on that temple. Oh, God, that temple is so beautiful.”
Jesus says, “Yeah, well, that thing is going to collapse pretty soon.”
They were so outward. Jesus says, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.” One of the disciples says, “Oh, we forgot the bread.” What is the matter with you?
They were clueless. They saw things according to what was tangible and tactile. Jesus was trying to bring them into a whole new thing.
He says, “Look, I am going away.” “No, no, Jesus.” “When I go, the Holy Spirit is going to come, and He is going to come into your life much closer than Me. He is going to be with you forever.”
The Spirit of reality, the realitizer, is going to come into your life and bring Christlikeness into your life.
Jesus left. He went to Calvary, rose again, gave them a few final instructions—whoop!—and went up. Then the Holy Spirit came down as promised.
They heard a voice. It was a voice inside. It sounded like Jesus. It began to tell them what to do, where to preach: “Start in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria.” The Holy Spirit led them.
They had no blueprint of the church. Peter might have said, “Well, I know I am the head of the church because I am the tallest guy. So how do we build a church, Jesus?”
Jesus never gave them blueprint instructions for how to build a church. Have you noticed that? But here is how you build a church: the Holy Spirit will lead you to build a corporate Jesus—brothers and sisters gathered together who look like Jesus.
The Holy Spirit came in them, and it was like they were hearing Jesus’ voice, but now it was an internal voice. They understood: “Wait a minute. It is almost as if Jesus is still with us.”
Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I come unto you.” But He comes by His Spirit. “You will like My Spirit. I know you like Me better because I shave and the Spirit does not, but the Spirit is holy and loving and righteous and true.”
As they went about preaching the Gospel through Jerusalem and beyond, the Holy Spirit started working in their lives—making Peter more like Christ, making John more like Christ, making Paul more like Christ.
It was the work of the Holy Spirit, a transforming work within them. It is a wonderful thing.
Again, we find it in John 16. Look with me at John 16:12.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Isn’t that an interesting statement? Do you not like to know everything right now? “Can I have the whole load now? God, who am I going to marry, and how much money am I going to make?”
He says, “I have many more things to tell you, but you cannot take them now.” What if Jesus were to tell them the whole truth? They would not have been able to handle it.
For starters, John would have heard that his brother would be martyred within two years: “They are going to kill your brother. Just thought I’d tell you.” They could not bear it then. But when the time came, the Holy Spirit helped them get through it.
There are things the Lord would tell you. There are wonderful blessings and surprises in your life, and there are tragedies you are going to face. But He spares telling you them right now. When the time comes, He will let you know, and He will give you the grace to get through that time.
Isn’t that wonderful? But this is what the Holy Spirit is going to do.
But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth:
for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak:
and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.
He will give you whatever Jesus thinks you should have. He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He receives from Jesus, He will pass on to you. There are some things coming up, and He will show you them, even as John saw in the Book of Revelation.
He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.
Jesus is saying, “Disciples, you see the Word made flesh right here, and I am about to go back to the Father. You have no idea who I am. But the Holy Spirit is going to show you.”
You will be pushing back and saying, “Move back the camera. I just saw some more of how big, how wonderful, how gracious, how full of light Jesus really is. Move back the camera.”
For the rest of your life, He will glorify Jesus, and you will come to know more and more how big, glorious, and wonderful Jesus really is. They had no idea, while He was walking on earth, what they were dealing with.
The practical way this reality is transformed—in John’s language; Paul has his own language, like Galatians 2:20 and living the Christ-life, being crucified with Christ, and all that—here is John’s way.
John uses Jesus’ own words, spoken intimately to His disciples just before He went to Calvary. Here is what He said: do you really want to be like Jesus? Then here is what you have to do:
Abide in Me, and I in you.
That is John 15. Jesus starts out that chapter by saying, “I am the true vine, the real vine.” Who was the supposed vine? Israel was called the vine.
Jesus is saying, “Do you want real life, juiciness, fruitfulness? Do you want the sap of generation flowing through your life? I am the true vine. Stick with Me. You will bear much fruit.”
There are two parts to this: “Abide in Me, and I in you.” “Abide in Me” is our objective position by faith.
In the morning, you wake up and say, “Today, I step into Christ by faith. I live in Christ, under His blood, clothed in His righteousness, following His will. I am in Christ.”
That is why I am saying the most important thing you can do is pursue. You can see the Word, claim it, confess it, pursue it, lay hold of things, possess it, step forward, make progress forward in Christ.
If you abide in Me, then here is the deal: this you cannot do—He will abide in you. You cannot force Him to, but if you are there, if you are on location, that is, if you live in Christ—
I tell all the kids going off to college: when you go to college and fill out all the forms asking where you live, just put, “In Christ.” I guarantee the administrative office will be getting in touch with you.
You live in Christ today by faith—not perfectly. Have you ever found a perfect Christian? Have you ever found a Christian who is all reality? Well, we are a combination, but He is working on us.
You come into Christ every day of your life. Just do it by faith. Open your Bible and say, “By faith, now I come to Your Word. Show me something.” Maybe today you will see something; maybe not. It is okay. But you are moving in. That is your position.
When you are in that position, then He is in His position right there. The realitizer is right there, and He speaks to you. He abides in you. This is the most important thing you can do in your life.
Should I give you bad news? There will be necessary pruning to get you to reality. You have wild hair; it has to be cropped back to reality in order to bear fruit.
You are going to be pruned. But He says, “I only prune those people who are alive.” Are you alive? Praise God that He is going to prune you.
Why? Because He likes to chop people back? “Ah, you are getting a little too big for your britches, Ben. I am going to have to chop you back.” Sometimes we have parents who chop us just because they like to. But why does Jesus prune us?
John 15:2: so that they can bear more fruit.
He says, “Hmm, I like that wonderful muscatel that you were this year. I am pruning you back because I want it a little sweeter next year.” It is because you are alive that He prunes you.
Paul talks about us being crucified with Christ. The Scriptures talk about taking the cross, denying ourselves, and the discipline of the Holy Spirit. All of that is involved, but stick with this simple thing: He is your vine.
You need to step in and grab hold of that vine every day by faith. Then life pulsates through you, His realitizer starts working through you, and you begin bearing fruit.
There is one other application He mentions. In John 15:7, this abiding involves abiding in His Word:
If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you,
ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
By the way, that word is rhēma, for those of you who care to know the difference. If you abide in Me and My rhēma abides in you—ah, you have been steeped in the Word a little while, you are beginning to see reality in the Word, and it is starting to percolate in your life.
The Holy Spirit always uses the Word of God when you offer it to Him. Your life of abiding in Christ also involves abiding in the Word. Then He can speak through you.
Because you are abiding in the Word, you can pray, and He will answer your prayers, because you are in Him, He is in you, He is leading, and reality is the result.
You have already been zoē-zapped, and you have already been phōs-ered. The good news is that the realitizer lives inside of you, and He is going to do that work that you are so fearful is not going to work out.
Do not worry about that. Let’s have an arm wrestle right now. Who is stronger: the Holy Spirit or you? You are resisting by your flesh: “I am not going to grow. I am not going to be more Christlike.” The Holy Spirit goes, “Boink. Next.”
The Holy Spirit is just as gracious and just as gentle as Jesus. He will just keep telling you, “Psst. Draw near to Him. Your vision is getting a little foggy. Draw near to Him. Come on, come on.”
Practically speaking, I want to say the best Friend I have in this world is the Holy Spirit. If He abandoned me, I would last a day.
He does not even like it when I say that, because He wants me to say Jesus is my best Friend. Well, Jesus is my best Friend, but it is the Holy Spirit who is in me, working, keeping me, helping me keep reverencing God, and helping me keep loving His people.
It is the Holy Spirit. He is your best Friend, and He lives inside. He is the realitizer.
So what is your life?
Draw near to Me, and I will draw near to you.
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.
Come on, come on. The Holy Spirit.
If I could say one more thing: I hope you will take this seriously and really seek the Lord to know the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Be clothed with His power. Know His indwelling life generating you. Titus 3 says that the Holy Spirit is the One who renews us and regenerates us. You can look that up for yourself.
My point is: let the Holy Spirit work in you. Let Him sanctify you. Cooperate with Him. Do not always resist Him so much.
The whole problem is that we are so outward, but the work of the Holy Spirit is from spirit to soul to body. He sanctifies inside, into the soul, and into the body. There is a lot of inner reality that you need to see.
I absolutely loved what Jim Boggs said this morning, because he said all God is trying to do is show you what He has already put inside of you of His life.
That is the great discovery as you go through the adventures of life, like Abraham and the rest of them. You discover Christ’s life in you through these things. It is already there. Let it well up.
Also, really be immersed in the body of Christ. You are not alone. You cannot grow up as a Christian all isolated. You are in something. That is your strength, your life, your vivification, your generation.
Oh, how wonderful when the body of Christ is one. It is so wonderful to be with all of you because we touch a certain oneness here, even though you are from various disparate parts.
Absolutely wonderful. I do believe that Canada and the United States should unite as one nation, but that is another service.
Let’s just have a final prayer.
Jesus, Lover of our souls, we are so thankful You came down from heaven to generate us in a new birth. Now open our eyes so that we can see, and put the realitizer in us so that the guaranteed finished work would be done.
We just want to yield our lives to that work of the Spirit. We pray, Lord, help us not to be in the way when Your Spirit is trying to move.
Help us to be that branch on the vine, just letting the life of God flow through us in cooperation, obedience, and submission.
We come humbly to You, Lord, in the light of this great promise of the Holy Spirit’s full work in our lives. We come humbly before You, not proud. There is no other way this could be accomplished. There is no strength we have in ourselves to do these things.
But Your Holy Spirit is a master Worker, the greatest Engineer of circumstances there has ever been, and You know how to bring us to the likeness of Christ.
May every dear child of God here who has been born again know Your generating power from within. We thank You for this precious gift. In Jesus’ name.