The Greatest Need of the Church
II Corinthians 3:12-18
IF I WAS TO ASK YOU WHAT YOU THINK THE GREATEST NEED OF THE CHURCH IS, WHAT WOULD YOU ANSWER? Some church surveys have provided interesting answers, such as:
- Better facilities
- Friendlier people
- Better preachers
- Shorter sermons
- More love and caring
- Better music
- Outreach programs
- More emphasis on missions
- Trained lay workers
- More involved people
- Loyalty
- More money
Now, these are all important to any congregation, but they are not the GREATEST need of the church. The greatest need of the church all over the world today is that all of its members be filled with the Holy Spirit!
The Lord Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing.” Christ is in believers in the person of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if we are filled with His Spirit, He works fruitfully through us. If we are not filled with the Holy Spirit, we are unproductive.
It’s almost impossible to exaggerate how dependent we are on the Spirit of God. For example, we need Him to convict us of sin before and after our salvation. We need Him to give us understanding concerning spiritual things. We need Him to empower us to witness. We need Him to guide us in life’s decisions. Its no wonder that evil spirits have tried to counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit and confuse His work.
There’s probably no subject in the Bible upon which there is more confusion today than that of being filled with the Holy Spirit. There are many fine Christian people who seem to equate the filling with some purely emotionally ecstatic experience.
There are others who because of excesses observed or heard of in this direction have all but eliminated the teaching of the filling of the Spirit. They just don’t recognize His importance in their lives.
Satan places two primary obstacles before men:
1. He tries to keep them from committing their lives to Christ, because that is the doorway to the life of victory.
2. If he fails in this, he then tries to keep people from understanding the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
Once a person gets converted, Satan seems to have two different approaches. He tries to get men to associate the filling with emotional excesses or the opposite swing of the pendulum—to ignore the Spirit altogether.
Understand this: The Holy Spirit is the agent for change in the life of every non-believer and every Christian. It is He who transforms us when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. It is He who makes us more Christ-like.
One day after church, the pastor asked his little boy what he learned in Sunday school. The lad said, “I learned that God loves me more than anything else in the whole world.” “What else did you learn?” asked his dad. “I learned that when I’m bad He spanks real hard.” “What else did you learn?” “I learned that after He spanks you He picks you up and hugs you and holds you close and says, ‘Son, it hurts me more than it hurts you. Say, Dad, are you God?’” The pastor said, “No, son, I’m not God but I’m sure glad you got us confused.”
That’s what Paul meant when he wrote II Corinthians 3:18: “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
God is as we are in this world. He has no hands but our hands to do His work today. He has no feet but our feet to take the message of His love, He has no tongue but our tongue to speak of His saving grace. We are the only Bible that most people will read. What if the type is blurred or the ink is smeared? What if our hands are busy with other works than His? What if our feet are taking us to places we ought not be? What if our tongues are silent when we should be declaring His glory?
We are called to be like Christ in every realm of life---in our home, our church, our school, our office, and our factory. If we do not let Him live in us and through us, then He will not be known in our world.
If you were to take a complete concordance of the Bible and look up the verses that speak about “being like Jesus” you would be absolutely amazed! We are called upon to emulate Him, to follow His example, to live as He lived.
Paul wrote to the Philippians, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” The Holy Spirit wants us to be like Him---to have His temperament, His compassion, His forgiving heart, and His desire to do only that which pleases the Father’s heart.
Romans 8:11 tells us that as the Holy Spirit comes in us in power, then we are able to live like Jesus.
In Ephesians 5:18, Paul issues a command to the church. He says, “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
As a comparison, he shows that just as wine or strong drink can control a man---effect his eyes, his lips, his brain, his hands, his speech, his walk, his appearance—so he can be controlled by the Holy Spirit
To be drunk means to be “under its influence.” To be filled with the Spirit means to be totally under the influence of the Spirit.
Now the Holy Spirit dwells in every Christian, but it is another thing to be so filled with Him that He becomes the source of each thought and deed so that what the heart produces is the fruit of His presence. While every Christian has all of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit does not necessarily possess all of him!
However, when we yield ourselves to His control, we are able to walk in power—power to do His will completely.
George Duncan once went to visit some friends in the English countryside. For years they had lived in an old-fashioned, rundown building. To Mr. Duncan’s surprise, he discovered that the house had been completely remodeled. The people had installed new lights, an electric stove, and many other pieces of modern equipment. But he was even more surprised to see the lady of the house still using a kerosene stove for cooking and oil lamps for lighting. After greeting him, she said, “George, don’t look so confused. We’ve had a great change here, but we just haven’t turned on the power yet.”
That’s the problem with many Christians and hence the church. We lack the power of God to accomplish our mission.
The human spirit Fails unless the Holy Spirit FILLS.
HOW TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. Confess all known sin (I John 1:9)
2. Submit yourself completely to God (Rom. 6:11-13)
3. Ask to be filled (Luke 11:13)
4. Believe that you are filled---don’t wait for feelings
or physical signs
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN FILLED
1. An overwhelming desire to glorify Christ (John 16:14)
2. Victory over sin and temptation—the Spirit within will kill within you the desire to please yourself
3. A joyful, thankful heart.
4. An increased understanding of the Bible and spiritual things.
5. Courage to share your faith (Acts 1:8)
6. To manifest the 9 fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, and self-control.
Decades ago, I visited a ministry center in West Africa and saw a little girl climb onto a truck that had a public address system. Smiling, she began to sing over the microphone:
It’s bubbling, it’s bubbling,
it’s bubbling in my soul;
I’m singing and laughing
since Jesus made me whole.
Since Jesus came within,
and cleansed my heart from sin,
It’s bubbling, bubbling, bubbling,
bubbling, bubbling in my soul!
I heard her sing that song only once. But the joy in her voice was so evident and powerful that I remember the lyrics and tune to this day. The parallel in the song between water and spiritual refreshment is a biblical one. During the Feast of Tabernacles, a Levite priest would pour out water as a symbol of God providing water for Israel in the wilderness. During that feast, “Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’?” (John 7:37-38). Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit promised to those who would believe in Him (v.39). This thirst-quenching water is a picture of the spiritual satisfaction that only He can provide.
Perhaps you’ve lost that joy you first experienced at salvation. Confess all known sin right now (1 John 1:9). Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18), and let Him provide you with a “bubbling in your soul.” (Dennis Fisher, Radio Bible Class)
