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The Lord Jesus glorified

Reference: SHM-S09-043-Mw-R00-P2

(Originally spoken on 16 January 2014, edited on 17 February 2014)

Web site: http://www.ajourneyinlife.org and http://www.ajourneyinlife.com

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Let us turn to John 7: 37-39.

John 7: 37-39

37. Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
38. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'"
39. But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

"...the Spirit was not yet given" - the word "given" is in italics, which means that it is not in the original; it is written to help us understand the meaning. "...the Spirit was not yet..." - one of the aspects of its meaning is, I see, that the Spirit was not yet given, but you could also place other words there, such as "the Spirit was not yet manifested in the way that God intended": The Holy Spirit was not given to us, not poured forth upon us in the way that God intended and would happen in the future.

So the Spirit was not yet or not yet given. Why? Why was the Holy Spirit not yet?

The answer given here is: because Jesus was not yet glorified. Why is that so? Why is it that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit needed to be given or to take place at such a time when the Lord Jesus was glorified? And we also would need to understand: When was the Lord Jesus glorified?

As we read the Scriptures, we know that God promised that there would be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, He told the people of Israel that there would come a time when He would pour forth of His Spirit upon all mankind.

The Old Testament also told us that the Lord Jesus would come into this world to be the Saviour of the world.

Are these two aspects related?

Certainly: The Scriptures help us to understand that God's intention for the Lord Jesus to come into this world to be the Saviour of the world has very much to do with the working of the Holy Spirit.

We saw that the Holy Spirit empowered the Lord Jesus throughout His life: He was born of the Spirit; the Holy Spirit came upon Him; He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and He ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord Jesus lived His life as the perfect Man in the power of the Holy Spirit. He had to, as the perfect Man, show us how we should live our lives.

We must also live by the power of the Holy Spirit if we are to live a life that is truly pleasing to God.

So the Holy Spirit will be given to us to help us to live like the Lord Jesus Christ in a manner that would be truly pleasing to God.

But the Scriptures also tell us that the Holy Spirit will be given in this way only after the Lord Jesus was glorified.

Acts 2: 32-33

32. "This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
33. "Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear..."

This is the testimony, the proclamation of the apostle Peter with regard to the event of Pentecost. He spoke about the Lord Jesus and he told the people: "This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses." God raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead after He died on the cross; and He rose, went up to heaven.

He was exalted to the right hand of God: that, you can say was the Lord Jesus being glorified. He was "...exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear..."

He has poured forth the Holy Spirit. So now the Holy Spirit has been given; the Holy Spirit has manifested in this form that God intended, being poured forth upon the people.

The Lord Jesus has been glorified because He came into this world in humility, He sacrificed Himself, He lived the perfect life, He died in our place and because of that, God raised Him from the dead, exalted Him to His right hand.

So while the Scriptures tell us that it is God who poured forth the Holy Spirit, we are also told that God poured forth the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ. So He has poured forth this refers to the Lord Jesus Christ having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

So then, the Holy Spirit having been poured forth, what was the intention, what was the purpose?

John 14: 26

• "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you..."

"The Holy Spirit," the Lord Jesus said, "whom the Father will send in My name... ": so, it can be referred to as God the Father sending the Holy Spirit into the world. But we are also told that it is the Lord Jesus who sent the Holy Spirit into the world.

That is because God sent the Holy Spirit into the world through the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what would He do?

"He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you..."

So the ministry of the Holy Spirit, one of its major aspects, primary aspects, is to bring to the disciples knowledge, understanding, and remembrance, of what the Lord Jesus had said, and to continue to teach them whatever the Lord Jesus would have wanted to teach them.

So the Holy Spirit was given after the Lord Jesus was glorified so that He could come and continue to teach them what the Lord Jesus would have wanted to tell them.

It would be not just for the disciples at that time but throughout history until today. The Holy Spirit continues to tell us and speak to us what the Lord Jesus would have wanted to tell us personally.

We are told: "He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you..."

In our lives, we know that it is very easy for us not to be conscious of God but to be conscious of our environment, of the things around us and it is very easy for us to go astray.

And we can be very thankful that God watches over us all the time, and He is watching over us in order to help us. But it is very precious for us to understand that God is not only watching over us from heaven: He is actually dwelling in our heart by the Holy Spirit in us guiding us, teaching us His ways, showing us the path to live.

However, many Christians may not be very conscious of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, wanting to teach them God's ways to guide them.

And so, if we do not listen, if we do not seek the Lord, seeking to understand His ways, it is true God may leave us to our own ways: We can go astray and there can be the consequences of going our own way.

Let us go on to see what the Lord Jesus elaborated on in terms of what the Holy Spirit would do.

John 16: 12-15

12. "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13. "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
14. "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
15. "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you..."

We are told that the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. But the Lord Jesus told His disciples, "When the Holy Spirit comes, He will glorify Me". But isn't it so that when the Lord Jesus sent the Holy Spirit into the world, He was already glorified?

Why then did He say, "He will glorify Me"?

He explains here: "...for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you."

The way the Holy Spirit will glorify the Lord Jesus is first: He will bring to us what is of the Lord Jesus - He will teach us the Lord's ways, He will show us what is in the heart of the Lord. We can say that is one aspect in which the Lord Jesus is glorified. The Holy Spirit will show us the glory of the Lord Jesus, how wonderful He is, how good are His ways.

But there is one aspect which I see is primary in terms of the Holy Spirit coming to glorify the Lord Jesus.

Why would the Holy Spirit take of the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and disclose to His disciples? What is the purpose of that?

Is it just to show to us that the Lord Jesus is good, He is great, and help us understand how wonderful He is? Certainly that is not the only purpose, nor the primary purpose. It is a very important aspect but the purpose of the Holy Spirit revealing the Lord Jesus Christ to us is to help us to be transformed, to be like the Lord Jesus.

And when we are transformed to become like the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus will be glorified.

This is the aspect of the glory of God that He wants to bring into the world: the glory of God first and foremost in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and then in the lives of the disciples.

When our light shines in the world, men will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. When we are faithful ambassadors for Christ, when we proclaim what is in His heart, when we transmit the reality of Christ by our lives, we will glorify Him because men will behold the glory of the Lord Jesus.

God can manifest His glory directly to all mankind but that is very different from God manifesting His glory in the perfect Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we behold God in all His transcendent glory, we see God as being very far away: so majestic we cannot come near to Him.

But when we see the Lord Jesus Christ, He draws us to Himself by His love and His compassion and by His identification with us in our difficulties, our pains, our sorrows, in our common daily lives.

We see that He understands us, He goes through with us in our situations. He has gone through various of these things that we go through because He dwelt in a body like ours. He experienced pain, hunger, suffering; not only that, He experienced misunderstanding, rejection by men, ill treatment. The Lord Jesus suffered in many ways, in various ways that we can identify with and in which He identifies with us.

And so when we come to the Lord Jesus, we know we come to someone who understands us as we go through our life situation.

When we become transformed and we become like the Lord Jesus, we will also be bringing this message to the people of the world in a context of our lives transmitting the life of God. People will recognize that God is good and God is great, that God is understanding, and God cares for us.

A very important aspect for us to be conscious of in terms of bringing glory to the Lord Jesus Christ is the whole approach that we take to life. God wants us to live our lives such that we glorify the Lord Jesus, but how do we do that? One primary aspect as we have seen is that we manifest the character of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many ways in which we can seek to manifest the character of the Lord Jesus.

How did the Lord Jesus manifest the glory of God? As the only begotten Son, we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. How did He manifest the glory of God? He said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father." What did the Lord Jesus do that resulted in that?

The answer is quite clear.

The Lord Jesus said again and again: "I can do nothing on My own initiative. I can do nothing of Myself or out of Myself." Whatever He did, He did with the consciousness of God the Father. He did it with the desire to honour God. He did it in the spirit of obedience and submission to Him. He was not seeking to draw attention to Himself. And it is in that spirit that the glory of God shone forth in His life.

When people saw the Lord Jesus Christ, if their hearts were right, they would see the glory of God.

The same principle applies to us. If we are preoccupied with ourselves, we want others to know our lives, how much we have done for God, how we have served Him, and we communicate in that spirit, then we will not in that situation bring glory to the Lord.

If our concentration is on the Lord, our focus is on Him, whatever we say, whatever we share, whatever we communicate has a direction. Yes, we can share what God has done through us, but the spirit is always directed towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Our purpose is to honour Him; our purpose is to help men to recognize how good He is, so that they can trust Him, they can love Him, they can walk with Him.

If we live our lives well, if we communicate in this way then our light will shine forth and people will see the glory of God: the Lord Jesus Christ formed in us.

So the Lord Jesus said, "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you." This principle is very important in our spiritual development.

Are we constantly receiving from the Lord Jesus what is in His heart so that we can live it out, we can manifest it, we can communicate the will of God?

What is a significant problem is that very often, we want to do the things of God but in our own way.

The Lord Jesus never did that. He was always seeking to understand what was it that the Father wanted to accomplish. And even in the event of the cross, in the most difficult of times, in such great pain and anguish, He said, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not My will but Yours be done."

He came from heaven with the purpose of fulfilling the will of God and at that point of time, He was not in any way withdrawing. He would proceed all the way. But He was expressing a great pain and anguish in His heart. If it were possible, if there were any other way to fulfil the will of God, He would not want to drink that cup. It was something that was very, very difficult and painful. But He said, "Not My will but Yours be done."

Right until the very end, His commitment, His choice was always the will of God: nothing more; nothing less. And this has to be our attitude - if we want to enter into a deep fellowship with God, we want to bring glory to Him, we want to honour Him in our lives.

Ultimately, we need to consider: How much do we really want God in our lives?

The Lord Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let Him come to Me and drink."

Do we really thirst for Him? Do we really want Him in our lives?

And when we can have Him in our lives, do we want to glorify Him, do we want to honour Him? Is that what motivates us?

When we seek for the rivers of living water, is it to satisfy ourselves or is it so that we can fulfil the will of God, we can transmit what God wants to accomplish?

So the Spirit was not yet, or not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. But that does not mean that the Holy Spirit was not existing before then. It does not mean that the Holy Spirit was not working before then.

We all know that the Holy Spirit worked significantly throughout the history of mankind; God was always at work, the Holy Spirit was at work.

But this manifestation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, where God wants us to know in experience His presence in a way that is different from the general, so that as we respond well, the realities of the spiritual realm can become our daily experience and that we can be transformed by the power of God.

So when we live our lives in this world, if we are to be faithful disciples of the Lord, we can ask ourselves: what is it that characterizes our lives?

When people look at us, when they evaluate our lives, when we go through each day, what is it that impresses them?

Are they struck by our cleverness, are they struck by our power, our intelligence, our capabilities? Or are they struck by the grace of God, the holiness of God, the love of God?

Are they struck by the fact that God is someone worthy of worship and that this is what we are transmitting; that what we live for has eternal value and we will proceed in that direction always.

So then let us, as we come before the Lord, ask Him to help us to appreciate more what it is that is important in our lives.

When we say we believe in the Lord Jesus, when we seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, what is the direction, what is the effect, what is the outcome?

Would the Lord Jesus truly be glorified in us by the way that we live our lives?

Christ in you the hope of glory: When Christ is formed in us, there will be glory - glory that will be manifested in us, glory that will manifest God's greatness and His goodness and the character of the Lord Jesus.

So let us ask Him to help us to appreciate what He has done for us, provided for us, and to help us to know how we can properly benefit from all that He has given to us.