THE RELEASE OF THE SPIRIT—A COMMUNION MESSAGE
TEXT: John 12:23-27
John 12:23-27 KJV And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. [24] Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. [25] He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. [26] If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. [27] Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
I. INTRODUCTION—COMMUNION
-By and large when it comes to the partaking of communion, I always try to take very seriously what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:28 about a man examining himself in the deepest parts of his soul. I have always probably erred more toward the side of caution in taking the Lord’s Supper with that clear command that comes from Scripture.
-However, Paul also very clearly speaks that the breaking of the Lord’s body and the shedding of His blood, brought great hope and prepared for salvation to take place in our soul. The command is that we do this thing in remembrance of the Lord.
-There is great comfort that comes to us when we clearly understand the price of our salvation. The Lord desired for us to remember that regularly.
-This communion message is preached more out of comfort and encouragement than of the need of self-examination. But never neglect that aspect of the Lord’s Supper.
-Portions of this message came to me when I was in Bible College in Houston in a class taught by Rev. A. B. Keating.
II. THE CONCEPT OF JOHN 12:23-27
-There is a test that comes to all Spirit-filled believers: Will you be fully involved in the special test of living Kingdom principles?
-You will be placed in situations where you will be given an opportunity to succeed or fail in it.
-Brother Kelsey Griffin would regularly tell us in my days at Texas Bible College that God is not involved in social promotion—He will not pass you just because you have reached a certain age. The Lord gives us tests and if we pass them, we move on to deeper and higher levels of spiritual maturity. But if we fail the test, that same test will cycle back around at a later point in life. What uniquely happens is that God will place some added material on the test to make it a little more difficult than the previous time.
A. The Sorrow of the Lord & Ourselves
-In the principles of the Kingdom, there must be a breaking of the outward man for the release of the inward spirit. This is the whole concept of the Sermon on the Mount.
-When the spirit in the inward man is released, that man becomes of great worth to the Kingdom of God on the earth.
-What we must know as saints of God is the vehicle to move us toward that place is usually some very painful outward things that will come to pass to bring us to that place.
-The ministry of Jesus proves that to us. You cannot look at the life of the Lord and miss that key point. He was a man of intense passions, he was man who was aware of sorrow and acquainted with grief. Throughout Scripture there are three distinct times that the Lord is mentioned to have been given to tears of great pain and sorrow:
• At the grave of Lazarus—The tears of Jesus many have stunned those who were watching on that day. He pain of Mary and Martha, he stood almost face-to-face with the last enemy, death, and groaned deeply. John records simply, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
• Over the city of Jerusalem—He was in the role as prophet and saw what was to befall them. In His deep sorrow, He said that He would have liked to have been like a mother hen who could gather up her brood under her wings. He was distressed over the coming evil.
• In the Garden of Gethsemane—In Hebrews 5, the writer speaks of the bitter tears that was mingled with the bloody sweat. The Lord now weeps over the great burden of human sin that is about to be pushed on to Him.
-Troubles, afflictions and difficulties have a way of breaking us. Most of us dread when they come our way but it is through them that the Lord often does His greatest work.
John Bunyan—We also, before the temptation comes, think we can walk upon the sea, but when the winds blow, we feel ourselves begin to sink. . . And yet doth it yield no good unto us? We could not live without such turnings of the hand of God upon us. We should be overgrown with flesh, if we had not our seasonable winters. It is said that in some countries trees will grow; but will bear no fruit, because there is no winter there. (From Seasonable Counsel: Or Advice to Sufferers)
-The afflictions of John Bunyan brought Pilgrim’s Progress to the world. The afflictions of William Cowper, the hymn writer, brought to us “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood.” The afflictions of David Brainerd brought to us the Diary of David Brainerd that was later published by Jonathon Edwards.
-Painful sorrow has its own way of working its way into even the greatest of all believers and saints of God. Don’t think it strange when the fiery trial comes in your direction.
B. Resistance Toward the Breaking of Man
-But there can be a resistance to that breaking process that life brings to us at times. There are things that men and women will do sometimes during the designed times that pain comes to their lives. Paul cautions us against one of those deadly traps of the devil.
Galatians 2:18-20 KJV For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. [19] For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. [20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
-Paul was very clearly speaking about the Judaizers in the southern Galatian region reconstructing the tenets of the Mosaic Law. He was attempting to dissuade them from going back into the ritualism of the works and demands of the Law. However, there is a spiritual principle that is being established here as well.
-That principle is related to sin, wickedness, debauchery, immorality, iniquity, and depravity. It also relates to the tendency toward lukewarm, apathetical, and passive attitudes toward the Kingdom of God.
-Don’t build again, Paul says, don’t get immersed in the former life. . . Live out a life that is crucified with Christ being dead to the former lusts. Live in the power of the Cross!
-Those people who are constantly in a struggle with the flesh have never really been dead to self. But those who are spiritually minded, the plain of their lives is set on an entirely different level.
-The contrast is that the Lord is seeking to work from the inside—a man who has been regenerated by the New Birth. He has become a spiritual man—PNEUMATIKOS—a man who has the breath of the Spirit at work in his life. He belongs to the Spirit. He has been filled with and is governed by the Spirit of God.
-If you have been born again, the devil is constantly at work attempting to subvert the flesh and the soul. He wants that spiritual man to be carnal.
Romans 7:14 KJV For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
1 Corinthians 3:1-3 KJV And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. [2] I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. [3] For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
-A carnal man is a SARX man, a fleshly man. This man is under the control of animal impulses and appetites. He is not governed by the Spirit. This man is always at odds with the things of God. There is another man that the Bible identifies as a man who is at odds with the workings of the Spirit. He is a PSUCHIKOS—a man who is given to using the human mind to figure everything out. Psych, the thinking aspect of the human mind. . .
-The great need for most Christians is the need for brokenness to take place in our lives. . . the thing that we resist the most is the thing we need the most.
C. The Soul of a Spiritual Man
-The enemy of our soul is the devil. He leads the soul captive so it becomes darkened and poisoned with selfish interests, carnality, and worldliness. But the soul of a spiritual man is much different in its response. He has to give himself to a different way of thinking instead of retaliation and rebellion.
-The Key: The life of Christ shows us another principle—in submission and in subjection to God.
Philippians 2:5-8 KJV Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: [6] Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: [7] But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: [8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
-The soul of a spiritual man must be mastered and ruled in a way that it becomes into complete submission to God.
Romans 6:3-6 KJV Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? [4] Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: [6] Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Romans 6:12-13 KJV Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. [13] Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
-Frequently throughout Scripture, the soul is spoken of in a way that you must gain control of it. Through the Spirit, we are to gain and execute spiritual authority over it.
Luke 21:19 KJV In your patience possess ye your souls.
1 Peter 1:9 KJV Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:22 KJV Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
-These are the ways that we come to that place of responsibility.
D. The Breaking of the Inward Man
-We would now interject the text that we read from John 12.
John 12:23-27 KJV And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. [24] Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. [25] He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. [26] If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour. [27] Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
-The Lord said that the life is within that grain of wheat but the problem is that it is surrounded by a very hard shell. Until the seed is split open the wheat cannot sprout and grow. Except the grain of wheat fall into the ground and die. . .
-For the seed to die, for it to have been cracked open so the life can get out of it, the temperature and the humidity of the soil has to be at work with the seed. But when the husk is split open, the wheat starts to grow. The question is actually not whether there is life inside the shell but whether the shell will be cracked open to get the life out of it.
He that loves his life (Greek—PSUCHE—soul) shall lose it, and he that hates his life (Greek—PSUCHE—soul) in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
-The Lord is clear that the outer shell of the wheat is our own life, while the life within is the eternal life which He has given to us. To allow that inner life to prevail, it is imperative that the outward life be replaced. If the outward man never broken, the inner man is never able to come forth.
-The Lord was speaking to two groups of people on that day and for all of eternity:
Those who let their lives become confined, restricted, imprisoned, and unable to come forth.
Those who the Lord has forged a way out and the inner man is released through them.
-In years past, there was a common prayer in the American apostolic church that has utterly disappeared. In fact, it has been years since I have even overheard anyone prayer in this manner—Lord, break me!
-It is vital that the Lord breaks us. Far too often the Lord’s life is so confined within us that nothing can flow forth. If the outward man never gets broken, the inward man can never really bless the church.
Mark 14:1-7 KJV After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. [2] But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people. [3] And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. [4] And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? [5] For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. [6] And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. [7] For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always.
-If the alabaster box is never broken, the pure spikenard will never be able to flow forth. We are ever so guilty of treasuring the alabaster box over the costly ointment that is within it.
• Some treasure knowledge, thinking he is very important.
• Some treasure talents, thinking that he is very valuable to the church.
• Some treasure their emotions, thinking that they are more advanced than others.
• Some simply treasure themselves, thinking they are better than others.
-That is what happens with something that is never broken. So, what will the Lord do? He will come along and enter our lives with something that will break us. Ask yourself. . . What does the Lord want out of my life here on this earth?
-The Lord wants to break that hard outer shell of the hull so the inner man can be released.
-The Lord either comes with that action very suddenly or very gradually. The sudden breaking is sometimes when drastic events take place in our lives:
• Loss of a loved one.
• Loss of a job.
• Loss of relationship.
• Total financial loss.
-There are times when He comes gradually and works with daily trials until one day it seems as if everything breaks down. It is almost like a dam has broken loose and everything in our life is overrun. The daily trials can come from a variety of things:
• Life’s irritations at large
• The fragile nature of health
• The wrestlings of our own mind
• The difficulty of being misunderstood
• The dilemma of temptations that are unceasing
• The burden of legalism
• The aggravations of being slandered
• The irritation of betrayal
• The disappointment of failed dreams
-All of these matters are working seemingly against us. . . but God knows what He is about. He is about our breaking so the inner treasure can be revealed. The timing of the breaking is in the hand of the Lord. We cannot shorten but we can prolong it.
-In some lives, the Lord is able to accomplish the level of spiritual growth in a few years. In others, it becomes more evident that the Lord will be working on them for decades before they finally submit. That kind of delayed growth is dangerous. Nothing is more grievous in our life than wasting the time of the Lord and what He desires to do with us.
-Don’t fight with your trouble! Don’t battle the afflictions that come our way.
III. CONCLUSION
-Personal illustration withheld.
Philip Harrelson
January 8, 2017
