Category: Sermons

Text: John 12

Open your Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 12. In these five sessions I have with you this week, I am going to be talking about Jesus before and after the cross. The gathering storm of victory as Jesus approached the cross, and was on the cross, and then after the cross. The turning point in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ comes within the passage we are reading this morning.

John 12:20-26
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew. Then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone. It remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it. Those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me—and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

Sigmund Freud, who was the father of modern psychiatry and not a Christian, had a favorite story. It was of a sailor who had been shipwrecked and washed upon a tropical island. The natives of that island took him and made him king, absolute ruler for a year. After that year, he was to be banished to a deserted island. They explained to him that he had two choices. With the first choice, everything he wanted during that year of his kingship would be given to him. He could immediately take that which was given to him and use it, consume it, enjoy it for the present, and then be banished to a deserted island without any resources. Or, he had a second choice: he could take all that he received during that year of kingship and conserve it, lay it aside so that when he was banished to that deserted island, he would have resources enough to live.

Two alternatives, two choices. The fact of the matter is that you and I have two choices in life—and only two. There is no third alternative. We can either consume our life for the present, or we can conserve it for the future. We can either enjoy our lives for the present moment, or we can lay them aside and use them in such a way that they will be future resources.

Basically, this is what Jesus is saying as he enunciates this very important principle in verse 24. He says, very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. So if you have a single grain of wheat, you can do two things with it. You can consume it, eat it, to satisfy present need, or you can let that seed die, put it into the ground and cover it up with dirt. For all intents and purposes it will die, but in the dying it will bear much fruit.

A bag of seed setting in a warehouse or barn is not worth much; it is only when that bag of seed is sown into the newly plowed ground that it becomes invaluable. The farmer must give up that present possession if he is going to have a future harvest. You’ll notice that Jesus didn’t answer the Greeks when they came to him. He said, well, the hour has come when the Son of man should be delivered. Later on in the passage he tells what that means: when the Son of man shall be glorified, it means it is time for his crucifixion. As I mentioned last year in our series on John 17, the coming of the Greeks to Jesus symbolized the coming of the world to seek him. So he knew it was time now that he should face the cross and the time of his crucifixion was near at hand. He explained his crucifixion. It was not the death of a martyr, and it was not the slaying of a thief. Rather, it was a grain of wheat sown into the ground so that it must bear much fruit. Jesus enunciates this principle of spiritual harvest and fruitfulness. It is this: if a grain of wheat is not sown into the ground, it abides alone. It remains a single grain of wheat. Those are almost condemning words. How many of us today would have to say, and may have to say at the judgment seat of Christ, here I am, but I am alone. I have no fruit with me. I consumed whatever I had for the present, and I refused to fall in the ground and die. I’m here; but I’m here alone. Jesus says, no, that is not the purpose of a grain of wheat. That’s not the purpose of a seed. The seed is to fall in the ground and die; therefore, it may bring forth much fruit. So, I want us to look at this principle. In this verse, Jesus establishes that principle, and then he goes on to tell us how this works out.

The first thing is this: if I hate my life in this world and I am willing to die and fall in the ground and be covered up, then I will bring forth much fruit. Jesus says, the consequences first of all will be fruitfulness in the life of the believer. Fruitfulness in the life of Jesus was the reason he was dying. He was born to die. What if he had not died. He would be in heaven, but he would be alone. None of us would ever be there with him. Neither would Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, nor any of the Old Testament saints be there. He would be alone.

And for Jesus to have a gathering of fruitfulness into his life–if his life is to mean anything, he cannot preserve it. He must be willing to die. There is nothing in the Scriptures that tells us so much about how out of step with the world we are because the last thing the world wants to do is to die–die to itself. We are living in a culture where we have gone from worshiping God to worshiping self, from character to celebrities, from self restraint to self indulgence, and from self sacrifice to self awareness. The whole theme of our culture is discovering ourselves, and being free to be ourselves and discovering all that is within ourselves. Nothing so strikes against the grain of today’s culture as do the words of Jesus that if we are to bring forth fruit, we must die. Nobody wants to die, not spiritually or physically. Nobody wants to die to themselves. We have the idea that we must live and realize ourselves and come to the consciousness of all that we are within ourselves. Yet, the Lord comes along with direct contrary advice. He says, no, the life is not to be saved; the life is to die so that it can bring forth much fruit. If we are not being fruitful as we ought to be, it is simply because we have not yet learned how to die to ourselves.

You see, the secret of fruitfulness is that life comes out of death. Paul echoed this in 2 Corinthians 4 when he talks about his ministry. He says, we are always carrying in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. (Watch it in verse 12.) So death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

And I want to say to you that anytime life is working in somebody, it is only because death is working in somebody else. For anybody to live, to be born again, to be saved, it requires somebody to die. It required Jesus to die. Now for you and me to bear fruit and to win those who are lost, it requires the same thing of us—that we must die, die to ourselves, die to our own plans, wishes, and will, and to be covered up out of sight so that they no longer see me.

Sarah is a great example of this—life out of death. Why do you suppose God took a barren woman and said, this woman is going to be the mother of generations? That’s not the way we would have done it. It says from the very beginning that Sarah was barren and had no children. Why would it be that God would make to that woman a promise of motherhood and then wait until Abraham was one hundred years old, impossible for him physically to bear children. Sarah had always been dead as far as having children was concerned. Abraham was as good as dead, being one hundred years old. Yet, out of that death came the life of Isaac. God did it that way to demonstrate this principle that life comes out of death. That’s the way God works, contrary to man’s natural reasoning.

I remember some years ago I was in the first church after I had entered into this traveling ministry that I knew was going to give me a great love offering. The pastor had already hinted that it would be around $3,000. This was back in 1975. That was a lot of money back then. I was happy to go to that meeting. I kept thinking, boy, I can’t wait to get my hands on that $3,000. I thought of the bills we could pay off. We were in debt like everybody else. All I could think about all week long was that $3,000 love offering. I am sitting in my motel room one afternoon before the service, and I’m praying, God give us revival; God, come down; and Lord, let there be life born tonight. And do you know what God brought up? He brought up that $3,000 love offering. Basically, what he said was: how badly do you want to see me work? How badly do you want to see life? How badly do you want to see fruit born this week? Oh Lord, (not knowing what was coming, of course, in the arrogance of ignorance) I’ll do anything. And God said, Whatever the offering is, I want you to take it and give it away. Well, we talked about that for awhile. Actually, we didn’t talk about it, I talked about it. God said what he had to say on the matter, and that was all he was going to say. I struggled with that for several hours—I’m sorry to say. Finally, I got down on my knees and I said, Lord, yes. I know it. I’m thinking more about that $3,0000—preserving myself, than I am of seeing what you do in this meeting. I’ll do whatever you say. I’ll give it away. Boy, it was hard. I had to die to that. That night we had 28 people saved. .

That’s the way it is, folks. Life comes out of death. Every time somebody is saved in your church, it is because somebody has died. They have died to convenience in order to pray. They have died to their time in order to visit. They’ve died to their embarrassment in order to share the gospel. Somebody has died. Until people are willing to die, there will be no fruitfulness. We can have all the conferences and conventions we want on why we are so barren, but the main reason we are so barren is because we are so alive to ourselves.

But he goes on to explain this. In verse 25, he says, those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. He is talking about fullness of life. We already have eternal life. John speaks of eternal life on two planes. For instance, in John 10, Jesus said he came that he might bring life and life more abundant. There is life, and then there is life more abundant. And he says, there will be fullness of life, life abundant. But it is only for those who hate their life in this world; then they will keep it for eternal life. Those who love their life lose it. It is interesting that two different Greek words are used here to translate the word life. The first two words translated life is our word psyche. The last word in eternal life is zoa ?? (like zoology), the quality of life in general. But when he uses the verb psyche, he is talking about the ego. He is talking about the inner person. He is talking about the mind that makes decisions, makes plans, that charts its own course. He is talking about the inner will. He says, unless a person hates that inner will, he cannot enjoy the abundance of life that is in Jesus Christ. That is what dying is—taking your independent self, your wanting to do it your way, your plans, your vision, your ego and burying it in the ground and hating it. Here again, we are in such conflict with the philosophy of the world.

It is also interesting in this passage that he says, those who love their life lose it. It is really the present tense, those who love their life are already losing it. Phillips translates it destroys. Now, think about this for a minute. This is so paradoxical to man’s way of thinking. If you love your life, you are going to retain and guard your ego at any cost. You are actually, even right now, in the process of losing it, of destroying it.

Do you know who the Inuits are? They are the Eskimos of Canada and Greenland. Do you know how they hunt bear? They take a piece of bone, preferably the bone of a wolf, and they whittle each end to a sharp point, coil it, freeze it in blubber, and lay it along the path that the bear travel. They wait and watch. A bear comes along and smells that blubber and swallows it. He has just killed himself, but he doesn’t know it. He thinks by eating this he is going to save his life. The Indians follow along at a distance and watch the bear as he weakens. Every movement the bear makes, the sharp points of that bone tear into his flesh and lance his stomach. He begins to bleed internally, and finally dies. He thought he was saving his life, but the moment he swallowed that blubber, he killed himself. It’s tragic today that many people today think they are saving their lives. Look out for number one. Nobody tells me what to do. I have a right to do with my body as I please. I have a right to choose my own course of life. I have a right to my own way. The minute you do that, you have killed yourself– a slow death.

Well, there’s one last word. When we die, not only will there be fruitfulness, and not only will there be fullness in sharing the abundant life, but there will be faithfulness. Look at verse 26: Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me the Father will honor. Service is an outgrowth of this. You can’t get away from it. No man will serve two lords at the same time. He will hate the one and love the other. It is only as we die to our own egos and our own wills and our own selves then we are qualified to be servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will follow him. Watch this: whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am there will my servant be also. Now, there are two things about that.

1) Where Jesus is, that’s where we’ll be. Wonder where Jesus is? Wherever he is, that is where we ought to be. In our daily life, it may mean one thing for one person, may mean another thing for another person. If Jesus Christ came to Colorado Springs today, where do you think he would be? Where do you think he would go? I have an idea he might go down on skid row, or down on the street and talk to the homeless. He might not go the places we go. But I want to tell you something, wherever Jesus is, there will his servant be also—if you are really his servant. We need to ask ourselves in our own individual lives, where is Jesus? Wherever he is ministering, that’s where I want to be. But it means another thing.

2) It means that wherever I am, there he is also. I am not alone. You cannot separate the servant and his master. Where Jesus is, that’s where I’ll be. Conversely, where I am, that’s where Jesus will be. No matter where I am, perhaps in the most desolate place I could ever imagine, and I feel isolated and cut off from everyone else, Jesus is there. That ought to be enough for us.

When Eisenhower was president there was a story in the newspaper about a reporter who called the church where Eisenhower attended each Sunday. He asked if the president was going to be in the service this Sunday. The pastor replied, I don’t know, but Jesus will be here and that should be enough incentive to get you out. Wherever I am, Jesus is there.

Then he ends with this promise: and my father will honor him. Spurgeon used to tell the imaginative story about a prince and his servant who were traveling. They fell into the hands of bandits. The servant was with the prince. And the prince was more than likely going to be killed, if not ransomed. The prince fell ill, and the servant began to minister to him. There came a day when the servant had an opportunity to escape and save himself, but he stayed with the prince, ministering to him. Then the king found out where they were and sent an army and rescued him. Spurgeon said, now who do you think the king is going to honor? He is going to honor that servant who stayed by his son. I don’t have time to go into what all that may mean. You need to do a little work for yourself—study it for yourself. It ought to be enough for us that whoever serves Jesus will receive the honor and favor of the father.

© Ron Dunn, LifeStyle Ministries, 2006

Text: John 12:1-8

I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, and John, chapter 12. I am going to read two different accounts concerning the same incident. This is the breaking of the alabaster box which you are familiar with. The reason I’m reading from two different accounts is because each gospel writer saw it from an angle that perhaps the other did not. One puts in what the other leaves out. If two or three of us were to write different accounts of this service tonight, you might include an incident or detail that I might leave out. To get a full picture of what really happened, you would need to read the different accounts. Let us read Mark’s and John’s account of this incident:

Mark 14:3-9
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. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

John 12:1-8
Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s [son], which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

Now, Jesus said (Mark records it in verse 6), Let her alone; Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work on me. And verse 8, She hath done what she could: She has come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. And then in verse 9, he makes one of the most fantastic and surprising statements: Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

When I was still in seminary, I was called to pastor a church over in North Dallas. It wasn’t a big church. I think we had about 200 in Sunday School when I went there. It was considered a “full-time” church. By that, I mean they paid me full-time; I don’t mean I worked full-time because I was still going to seminary.

We moved from Fort Worth to Dallas, bought us a home, got some cards printed up with my name on it, and the name of the church. I was really proud. My first full-time church!. I felt like Simeon when he said, Lord, let thy servant now depart for he has seen thy glory. I tell you, I was so proud of that church.

I was having lunch one day with a preacher friend of mine, an older man pastoring quite a large church in Dallas. I was telling him about my church and he was glad to hear about it. He said, well, that’s great Ron, but one of these days the Lord is going to give you a good church to pastor. You know, that was sort of like a pan of cold water thrown on me. I thought it was a good church! Of course, I know what he meant. He was trying to be kind and encouraging. He meant that one day God would give me a big church. That is what he was calling a good church.

I’ve never forgotten that. Through the years, I’ve found that most of us are like my pastor friend. We have a way of highly esteeming that which sometimes to God is an abomination. We evaluate something totally opposite from how God would evaluate it. We call something good if it’s big. A good church today is a church that’s big in size, and budget, and staff. Increasingly I come to realize that what is good is not so much what man calls good, but what Jesus calls good. And that which is highly esteemed among men is sometimes an abomination to God. And that which is an abomination to God is sometimes that which is highly esteemed among men.

When this woman broke her alabaster box, she committed a social grace. The women in that day, particularly in that part of the country, were to stay in the background. They were never to be the center of attention.

And, suddenly, she does something which is so unusual and so out of the ordinary and such a social error that the people immediately begin murmuring against her. She has a very expensive bottle of perfume worth about $50 in our money, which would constitute a full year’s pay for the average laboring man in those days. She breaks that and pours it on the feet and head of Jesus.

Immediately the people begin to criticize her. Judas called it a waste. He said she could have sold it and given the money to the poor. Everybody said, what she had done was a terrible thing; that she should be ashamed of herself. And, you know, they were right. When you get down to think about it, what she did was about the most impractical, useless thing a person could ever do. I think if she had thought a little bit about it, perhaps asked counsel from some people who were wise in those things, she would not have done it. Of what use was it? She wasted that ointment—wasted that perfume. It serve no purpose; it didn’t feed anybody, didn’t clothe anybody, was absolutely useless. They were right to criticize her.

I can hardly wait to hear what the Lord says. I’m sure He must be totally embarrassed, having this done to Him in public. Then He says something, and I can hardly believe my ears. He said, let her alone; she hath wrought a good work on me. I think so highly of what she’s done, I am never going to forget it, and I’m never going to let you forget it. And wheresoever this gospel is preached throughout the whole world, what this woman has done will be spoken of as a monument to her.

I think that qualifies as a good act of service because of what Jesus said about it. The Lord is constantly surprising us.

I remember the widow who was giving her offering. It is interesting thing that Jesus was standing beside the treasury as the people came by and gave their offerings. I have an urge to follow the ushers down the aisles and watch what everybody puts in some Sunday morning when they start taking up the offering.. I wonder if it would affect the offering. If the pastor were to follow the offering plates next Sunday morning and watch what you put in, it might increase the offering. The Lord is standing there watching and evidently from what he says, there were some quite large gifts.. Here comes a widow. Now, when the Bible wants to describe a person who is living on the very barest of minimums, that person who is more destitute than anybody else, in that day and age and that part of the world, it would be a widow. She drops in her two mites—which is less than a penny I suppose, according to our standards today. The amazing thing is that Jesus says she has given more than everybody else put together. Interesting, isn’t it, what the Lord has to say about what we do.

I’ve often thought it might be pretty interesting if the Lord would just show up physically in our services. We could ask, Lord, what do you think about what is going on here? Sometimes we walk away from a service and say, wasn’t that a great service?. Oh, I’m telling you, that was wonderful. And wasn’t that a tremendous message? Yet, I sometimes want to say, Lord what do you think of it? But I’m not sure I really want to know what he has to say about it. The point I’m making tonight is this that the criteria by which your life and my life is judged is not what you think of it and not what people say about it, but what does Jesus have to say about it. How would He evaluate it? It is the desire of my heart to have that kind of commendation. I surely would like to have the Lord to say about me and what I do,” he hath done a good work. And wheresoever this gospel is preached, I am never going to forget what he has done, and I’ll see to it that others don’t forget it either.”

I want to talk to you tonight on how you can have that kind of commendation. What do I have to do as a follower of Jesus so that he can say of me what he said about this woman. What is it that pleases Jesus? Sometimes we have the idea it’s almost impossible to please Him. How much work do I have to do? To what extent do I have to go? How large a sacrifice do I have to make in order to have the Lord say, I am pleased with what you have done, and I will never forget it. I want to make just three very simple statements tonight. These are simply the statements that Jesus made. I believe in these three statements you have what I think are the necessary requirements for having our Lord’s approval and commendation. You say, “what do I have to do?”

1. Do what you can.

What is it that constitutes good service? What is a good preacher? What’s a good deacon? What’s a good Sunday School teacher? What makes a good church member? Jesus says, do what you can. He was pleased with what this woman did. He said “she hath wrought a good work on me and you leave her alone”.

And look in verse 8. He says, she hath done what she could. That was all that it took to please the Lord. Other people thought what she did wasn’t much. I certainly wasn’t very impressed with what she did. As a matter of fact, it seemed to me like a total waste of money and time. Yet, Jesus said, I am pleased with her. While you may say it wasn’t much, yet she did what she could. Jesus said, I don’t judge people by how much they do, or what they do; I judge them by the opportunity that is placed within their hands. Do what you can.

Do you remember in chapter 11 that Lazarus was raised? In chapter 12, John is very careful to mention that Lazarus is present in the room, and Martha is serving. You see, I think what was happening was this: after Lazarus had been raised, they all met for a kind of fellowship service or praise service or celebration. Don’t you know that Mary and Martha were just bursting with love and gratitude for what Jesus has done. Martha wants to express her gratitude. Martha somehow has to express the love that is in her heart for what the Lord has done. Of course, it is very easy for Martha because she is one of those people who have all kinds of talent and ability. Every time you see Martha, she is in the kitchen; she’s serving. The picture you have of Martha is this highly efficient woman. Now, you never find Mary in the kitchen. I think Mary would have been all thumbs in the kitchen. I think Mary was a contemplator, not a cooker. But it was easy for Martha to express her love for what Jesus has done. She’s serving in the kitchen.

I think about Mary being the younger sister. Evidently she was because Luke refers to it as Martha’s house. Mary is obviously the younger sister who lives in the shadow of the older sister. I imagine everywhere she goes that people talk about how wonderful Martha is, and how efficient Martha is… And I see Mary as she sits there, and her heart is just as filled with love and gratitude as is Martha’s. She sees Lazarus raised from the dead, restored to their family. She sees Jesus, and she is just crying out, I’ve got to do something. But what can I do? I’m sure many times she was intimidated by Martha’s efficiency, and how she envies Martha. I can imagine her thinking to herself, oh, I wish there was something I could do. Folks, I want to tell you: love has to do something. Service for the Lord is nothing more than the overflow of a heart filled with gratitude for what Jesus has done for us. She said, I have to do something. Suddenly, she remembers her alabaster box. No Bible scholar has come up with a good answer as to how she was able to acquire such an expensive possession—very unusual for a woman of her position to have an alabaster box of costly perfume. But there she has it. She says, there is something I can do. I doubt if she gave it very much thought. She runs to the hiding place. Maybe it was in a hope chest; maybe she was saving it for the day when she might perhaps marry. Or maybe she was saving it for older age, and in the last years of her life, it would afford her some kind of security. But it is all she had that was meaningful. It was her treasure. She takes it out, and she comes into that room. The house is filled with people, and she is committing a social grace, but it doesn’t occur to her that she doing so. She is oblivious to anybody else who is there. All she sees is her brother resurrected to life, and Jesus the man who raised him. She comes and falls before his feet and breaks that bottle of costly perfume and begins to anoint the head of Jesus. And Jesus said, I like what she has done, because she has done what she could.

You see, all that God demanded of her was simply what he in the first place had given her. The Lord demands nothing more from you than he himself has given you in the first place. You do what you can.

I know that in our contemporary Christianity we exalt and magnify people who have an abundance of ability and talent. I am convinced that a great majority of Christians sit Sunday after Sunday looking at the stars. You know, it was the star system that killed Hollywood. It will kill the church if we are not careful. The majority of believers sit out there and say, well, there is nothing I can do. If I could sing like that, or play the piano like that, or speak like that, but there is nothing I can do. The only thing that God expects from you is this: you do what you can. You say, but it’s not much. You let Jesus decide that.

God said to Moses after 40 years in the back side of the desert, completely stripped of all position and power and prestige, Moses, what is that in your hand? He said, Lord, it’s just a rod. It’s not worth anything.

David went out against Goliath. All he had was a slingshot and five smooth stones.

The widow whose husband had left her with a huge indebtedness, and the predators were about to drag away her sons to pay off the debt, came to Elisha the prophet and told him of her plight. He said, what do you have? There is a famine in the land, and we have to come up with something that we can turn into cash and pay off your debts. What do you have at home that we could sell. She said, thy handmaiden hath nothing in the house save a pot of oil. Just a pot of oil. As an afterthought, she mentions it, almost ashamed to mention it because it is so worthless. He says, I tell you what to do. Tell your boys to go to the neighbors and borrow some vessels. I like the way the King James version says it: and tell them to borrow not a few. That means borrow a whole bunch. And he said, you bring them. You know what happened. They began to fill those vessels, and they got enough oil to pay off the debt and live on for the rest of the famine. What have you got in your house? Nothing. Oh, there’s a little pot of oil.

Andrew comes to Jesus when the 5,000 are dropping from heat and exhaustion and starvation, and he said, here’s a lad with a little lunch his mother fixed him, but what is that among so many? Have you ever felt that way? You just do what you can.

When I was a little boy, around Christmastime my brother and I would always go to my Dad and ask him for some money so we could buy him a Christmas present. He would give us some money, $5 or $7 or $8. We would always go to Walgreen’s drugstore in Fort Smith. Every year we would buy him a pipe. I don’t know why we bought him a pipe. My Dad didn’t smoke a pipe. But we would buy him a pipe every year, wrap it up and put a card on it that said: to Dad, from Barry and Ron. It never occurred to us that it was sort of ridiculous, you know, saying it was from us because we bought it with his money. And on Christmas morning we would proudly present him with that gift. Dad, here’s the gift we bought you—with your money. We never mentioned that. It didn’t occur to me how ridiculous that was until my children started coming to me at Christmastime when they were real small needing some money to buy me a Christmas present. Do you know what we were doing on Christmas morning? We were simply giving back to our Dad what he had given us. My Dad was never disappointed. Why? Because he never expected more from us than he had given to us in the first place. For that matter, all Christian living and Christian service is simply my giving back to God what he has given me. You simply do what you can. Whatever God places in your hand, that’s all he demands of you. So I can say, Lord, demand what you will as long as your provide what you demand. God will never demand more than he provides, and he will always provide exactly what he demands. You do what you can. It may not seem like much to you.

Most of you know, I suppose, that the biggest part of my ministry has been the tape ministry. And it wasn’t even my idea. I can say tonight that practically every door of opportunity that God has opened, he has used that tape ministry to open it. All over the world. It is just amazing. It is the greater part of our ministry.

Well, the funny thing is that years ago, the first time I ever heard myself on tape, I nearly quit the ministry. I was awful! I was born in Oklahoma, raised in Arkansas, and live in Texas. You put those three twangs together, and you’ve got quite a twang. And I’ve always had a sort of nasal tone, and I have an extra long tongue. I forget what they call that, but I can touch the tip of my nose with my tongue. It makes it hard to enunciate. It really does. When I would play the trumpet in high school and college, I never learned to triple tongue. I had too much tongue to negotiate that. I remember while I was pastor here, I practiced for months on learning to say phenomenon. I have a hard time enunciating—getting it all together. To this day, I refuse to listen to one of my tapes. It just discourages me so much. It’s awful.

I never did like my voice, and when I first came here as pastor, I tried to change it. To try to speak deeper. I became hoarse, and stayed hoarse for a couple months. I went to the doctor, and he said, you need to go to a speech therapist and learn how to talk. I went to the Callier Speech Clinic and the first thing they did was give me a test. They said, now, reverend, every person has a natural pitch. You have to speak in that natural pitch or you will ruin your vocal cords. She said your natural pitch is up here. It just decimated me.

I will never forget the first time I heard Adrian Rogers speak, in 1972 in Philadelphia. It is a sin for a man to have such a beautiful voice. It is unbelievable. I wanted to go out and cut my throat. But then I had a better idea: I’ll cut his throat. That’s what I’ll do.

Well, I was in Arizona a few years ago. A fellow in the service came up to me afterward, and he was from California. He was in the television and broadcasting business. He said, do you know that you have the ideal voice for cassette tapes. Your voice is pitched just right. If your voice was lower and deeper (what he meant was if you had a good voice), it would not carry nearly as well on those cassette tapes. He said, I can put on one of your tapes in the kitchen, and I can hear you all over the house. It just carries. He said, you have the perfect kind of voice for making those kind of tapes. You know, I finally had to go back to my room that night and thank the Lord for what he had given me.

I guess the Lord knew what he was doing. I guess he knew years and years ago that one of the things he wanted to do in my ministry was a tape ministry so he gave me the kind of voice I needed. You simply do what you can. You say, I can’t do that much. . . . You let Jesus decide that. All right? Everybody in that room thought what she had done was wrong, and wasn’t worth doing, but Jesus overruled them all. You do what you can….but.

2. Do that much.

Jesus said she had done what she could. The implication is that she had not only done what she could, but she has done all she could. You do what you can, but you make sure you do that much. You see, she broke the box. It is significant that the Bible says she broke it. Well, when she broke it, she had to pour it all out. She didn’t come out with a little measuring spoon and measure out a few drops, do it very rationally and logically. After all, we have to be practical. In the back of her mind, there could have been the thought that things might get bad, and I’m not always going to be young. I need something for security in the declining years of my life. She gave no thought to that. Love never does. It is extravagant. She broke it and poured it all out. There was not a drop left in the alabaster box.

I want to ask you a question tonight. Are there any drops left in your alabaster box? You say, well, I’ve prayed. Yes, but have you prevailed? Well, I’ve done something. But have you done all you know to do? You see, I am convinced that God does not judge me on the basis so much of what I have done, but on what I could have done—not so much on what I have accomplished, but what could I have accomplished. Not so much what I have become, but what I could have been if I had given God the opportunity and used the opportunities God gave me in my life. I must confess to you that I believe tonight as I stand here, the greatest sin of my life is that I have not done all I can. It is so easy to settle for just a little bit. As long as the people are satisfied, that’s enough. No, it’s not enough. Is Jesus satisfied? Is Jesus satisfied.

My seminary professor told me, the easiest place in all the world to be lazy is as a pastor (or church worker for that matter). He said, because you don’t punch a clock and nobody really tells you when to come and when to go and there is really no way they can evaluate if you are really working or not. You can take off half a day, and somebody says, where were you? You say, well, I was out on the field—and it may have been the golf field. You have to discipline yourself. He said, the easiest place in all the world to grow lazy is in a church position. I know that in the ministry, whether on the paid staff or teaching a Sunday School class, we settle for so little. You just be there on Sunday morning. It’s not important whether you’ve really prayed through that lesson, or whether you’ve really studied it, whether you walk into that class with a message from God. As long as the people are satisfied. No, that’s not enough. It is whether or not Jesus is satisfied. Make sure you do that much.

3. Do it now.

Jesus said, let her alone. She hath done what she could. Then he makes a very strange statement: she has come to anoint my body for the burial ahead of time. Isn’t that interesting. Jesus wasn’t dead, gave no evidence of being ill. That would be like if I were to come up to Chuck tonight and say, Chuck, have you got a few minutes after the service. I want to go out and buy you a casket. He would say, well, I’d rather have a suit.

He said, she has anointed my body beforehand for the burial. Why would he say that? One week later, Jesus was dead. If you had been lurking outside the sepulcher that first Easter morning, early in the morning through the mist you could have made out the figure of some women coming down the path. You come out and ask them. Where are you women going this early in the morning? They say, we are going to the tomb of Joseph. Our Lord is buried there. What is that you are carrying? Oh, well, these are spices and perfumes and ointments for burying. When our Lord died, the Roman soldiers guarded him, wouldn’t let anybody near him because there was a rumor that somebody was going to try to steal his body so his body was never anointed for burial. We are going this morning, hoping we can convince the soldiers to roll the stone away so we can do it because it doesn’t seem right for him to be buried without being anointed.

So they go on. Perhaps you drop in behind and follow them. After awhile, you find yourself standing in front of that tomb. No use asking the soldiers to roll the stone away because you can plainly see it has already been rolled away. You follow the women inside, and there is nobody there. Jesus is gone. But we brought spices to anoint him. Too late. You should have done it a week ago. To me, the interesting thing is if Mary had not anointed his body a week ahead of time, his body would never have been anointed for burying. Jesus knew that. Friends, whatever you do, you do it now. You say, next week. Next week may be too late.

And in a sense, isn’t that what we are doing—preparing people for dying. Isn’t that what we are really doing? I know we are preparing them for living too, but you aren’t really ready to live until you are ready to die. You say, well, I will prepare him for dying. I don’t want to bring up the subject. I’ll wait. It may be too late.

The thing that intrigues me is that Jesus said, she hath anointed my body for the burying. Notice that was Jesus’ interpretation of what she did. I think Mary was surprised at what Jesus says. I don’t Mary came out there consciously to anoint his body for the burying, do you? She didn’t know he was going to die in a week’s time. Jesus said, you let her alone. She hath anointed my body for the burying. That teaches me that sometimes when we just do what Jesus tells us to do, we don’t really have any idea what we are really doing. Mary had no idea the great significance of what she was going. To her, it seemed like a ridiculous, stupid, senseless act. Yet, far beyond that simple act of obedience was the true meaning. I’ll tell you, folks, a lot of things God asks us to do, we don’t have any idea what we are really doing Beyond that simple act of obedience lies a meaning and interpretation known only to God. I think someday when we stand in his presence, and he makes all things known, we are going to be highly surprised at the repercussions of some very little simple things we did.

I have a very good friend named Paul Tsika, I met Paul in 1973 while I was in Archer City preaching in a little Bible conference. I was preaching that night. Manley Beasley was there. It was Saturday night, and I was going to drive Manley back here, and he was starting a revival here the next day. Well, we were both preaching in Archer City. I was sitting in the car in the driveway of the pastor’s home, and it was pouring down rain. Bro. Manley was still in the pastor’s house, picking up a few things and talking. I was sitting in the car with the motor running, waiting for Manley. Suddenly, there was a knock on the window, and I opened the door. There was a fellow that I did not know, and had never seen—Paul Tsika ? He said, where is Bro. Manley? I said, he is in the pastor’s house. He said, would you give these to him? And he handed me a pair of shoes. Now, folks, they were not an extra pair of shoes. They were the shoes he was wearing. He said, would you see that Bro. Manley gets these shoes? I said, well, just lay them there in the back seat. I asked his name and he said it wasn’t important and left.. Manley got in the car later on and I told him what had happened. That I was sitting out here, and some nut comes up, takes off his shoes, and said God told him to give them to Manley. They were a brand new pair of patent leather shoes, size 8D. Manley said, I can’t wear an 8D. I told him they were his.

Later, when I got to know Paul, he told me about the story.. He was a fairly new Christian—a Brooklyner, a New Yorker.. He was an insurance salesman. God saved him and called him to preach. No formal education. Finished high school, and that was it. And so, he began trying to hear men he thought would help him. Oh, he admired Manley Beasley. He said I was sitting on the front row when Manley Beasley was preaching, and suddenly I had on a brand new pair of shoes. At that time, I had given up my job. We didn’t have any money at all, and my wife had just bought me a brand new pair of shoes. I was wearing them. God said, give those shoes to Manley Beasley. He said, I just sat there. I looked at his feet, and I knew that he couldn’t wear 8Ds. I said, Lord, he can’t wear them. Obviously, they are not his size. They are brand new. My wife bought these for me. These are a gift from my wife. God said, I want him to have those shoes. He said he just pushed it out of his mind because it seemed so ridiculous and unbelievable. I was getting in the van with this other friend. We were driving back together. But, as we drove by the pastor’s house, God said, give him those shoes. He said, I knew I had to do it. He said, stop the van. I got out, went over to the car and gave him the shoes. I got back in the van, and my friend said, where are your shoes? I said, don’t ask any questions. He said, I got home that night, and my wife said, where are your shoes? He said, honey, you’ll never believe this.

Several years later, Paul Tsika ? ran into Manley Beasley in one of the hotel lobbies over in Fort Worth during the evangelism conference. Manley said, I want you to have dinner with me—he had just met him. They sat down. Paul told him about himself and what he was trying to do—trying to learn the ministry, and learn how to trust God. Manley said, I’m wanting someone right now to travel with me, just to be with me all the time, sort of like an intern. Of course, Paul was wanting to say, I’m the one. I’ll do it. Manley said, I’m looking for a certain young man, and when I find him, God has told me he is the man who is to go with me and travel with me. Paul said, well, who are you looking for? He said, I don’t know his name, but two or three years ago I was in Archer City. Some fellow I didn’t know left me a pair of shoes, said God told him to give them to me. They were patent leather, 8Ds. I had no idea what to do with them. I couldn’t wear them. I couldn’t understand why in the world somebody would give me a pair of shoes. I started that revival meeting at MacArthur Boulevard, and Ron and Pat Owens were there in the meeting. One night I was preaching on faith, believing God, and Pat, Ron’s wife, came to the altar and began to pray. I talked with her. She said, Bro. Manley, I guess this sounds silly to you, but Ron just bought a new suit the other day, and it is a certain color, and he doesn’t have any shoes to go with it. For some reason, I think I ought to believe God that he is going to supply a pair of shoes. Would you like to hazard a guess as to what color he needed and what size shoes he wore? Those shoes were the right size and the right color. Manley told that story. Paul said, Bro. Manley, you are not going to believe this, but I am that fellow that gave those shoes.

You know, if Paul Sika ? had not taken that alabaster box and broken it that night because it seemed so foolish and ridiculous, two things would not have happened. Ron would not have had a pair of shoes. Three things, really. Pat wouldn’t have had the joy of believing God. And number 3, Paul would never have gotten to travel with Bro. Manley and learn from him. What I am saying to you is that what you and I do, we never really know the significance of it. You never really know. It reaches far beyond that.

The reason I had us to read from both accounts is that Mark said she anointed his head; John said she anointed his feet. Which is right? Well, either she anointed both his head and feet (which is probably what happened), or she anointed his head, and the oil ran down his body and got on his feet. Anyway, she anointed his feet. As she kneels before him, John says she does something. She sees that costly perfume as it dropped from his feet onto the floor. In her haste she wasn’t thinking clearly. She didn’t bring a towel. Suddenly she reaches over her shoulder and grasps that long black hair that was so customary among those women and pulls it over her shoulder and makes a towel out of her hair. She begins to wipe the perfume from the feet of Jesus with her hair. Something happens. The Scripture says that when she did that the house was filled with the fragrance. You see, when she wiped his feet with her hair, the fragrance that was on Jesus now was on her. What she had poured out on Jesus suddenly came back on her, and she smelled just like her Lord. What I want to say to you, friends, is that whatever you pour out on Jesus will always come back on you. You can tell when you are around someone who has poured their life out on Jesus. You know why? They have a certain fragrance about them. There is a certain perfume to their life. Whatever you pour out on Jesus will come back on you.

This past fall Kaye and I were in England at the Filey ? Christian Crusade—meets every year, about 6,000 people. I was preaching at night; Dr. Stephen Olford preaching in the mornings. Thursdays they give over to world missions day. They bring in a lot of missionaries to give testimonies so neither one of us preached. Kaye and I were sitting on the platform next to Dr. Olford and his wife. One of the men who came up to speak was a missionary neither one of us knew. He gave his testimony. He said, I have been serving the Lord as a missionary in Ethiopia for the past 25 years. He said, 27 years ago I attended the Keswick Convention in England, and I went as a young Christian. I knew I was saved, but I had never given any thought at all of what to do with my life. I was in business—hadn’t given any thought to serving the Lord. That Thursday night when they had the emphasis on missions, a man got up to preach and he preached such a powerfully anointed message on missions and committing your life, God spoke to my heart. For the first time, I realized that I’m not my own. I’ve been bought with a price. He said when the minister finished his sermon and gave the invitation, I left where I was and walked down that aisle, and that night 27 years ago I committed my life to serve God as a missionary. For the past 25 years I have been serving him in Ethiopia. I have never had an opportunity to thank that preacher for the sermon he preached that night 27 years ago. Tonight, I’m going to do so. He turned around and walked over to Dr. Olford and stuck out his hand and said, Dr. Olford, I want to thank you for the sermon you preached 27 years ago.

I want you to know, folks, the house was filled with the fragrance of that ointment. Whatever you pour out on Jesus is going to come back on you. Jesus simply says this: you do what you can, do that much, and do it now.

Would you bow your heads for a moment?

© Ron Dunn, LifeStyle Ministries, 2006

Text: John 7:37-39

Would you open your Bibles tonight to the gospel of John, chapter 7, verses 37 – 39?
Several weeks ago on a Wednesday night, I took this passage of Scripture and gave you a little bit of this passage.  I warned you at that time at a later date on some Sunday morning or Sunday night I wanted to do a complete message on this passage of scripture.  That night is upon us.

This is one of the tremendous statements of Jesus in the New Testament concerning the fullness of the Spirit.
In the last day, that 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, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

From time to time visitors in our services and new members come to me and say what really is the answer to some of the things you talk about, and you preach about.  You preach so much, and people in my class talk so much about life in the Spirit and about the abundant life.  Constantly, I hear people referring to something that happened sometime ago, a new revelation of Jesus, a new experience with him.  What really are you referring to?  You speak about this abundant life and living a victorious life and being filled with the Spirit.  How do you come to that?

I think sometimes that we forget that people come into our church every Sunday and sometimes we just assume that everyone knows exactly what we have been talking about.  We assume that everyone knows exactly what it means to be filled with the Spirit.  We assume that everyone knows how to appropriate for themselves that filling of the Holy Spirit.  We need to remind ourselves, just like preaching from time to time on how to be saved, we need from time to time to go back to basics on how to enter into the fullness of life which is in Jesus Christ.  As far as I’m concerned, it is just as important for a Christian to know how to enter into abundant life as it is for him to know how to enter into eternal life in the first place.

In this message I want us to go back to some basics.  I want to speak to you about the steps to fullness.  Of all the Scriptures in the New Testament that talk about being filled with the Spirit and the fullness of the Spirit in a person’s life, these three verses come closer than any others in giving us a step-by-step way by which we enter into the Spirit-filled life.

Let me preface this message by saying that there are two stages in the Christian life.  These two stages are best illustrated by the experience of Israel as it came out of Egypt in salvation and then wandered in the wilderness for some 40 years and then crossed over into Canaan.  I’m being very Scriptural when I use that because Paul did it.  In 1 Corinthians 10 Paul speaks about the wanderings in the desert of the people of Israel, and he said everything that happened to them happened as examples to us.  So the Scriptures say we can go back and look at the experience of Israel as it was led out of Egypt into the wilderness, through the wilderness and into the promised land.  That is a picture of our own Christian experience.

In their experience there were two definite stages.  There was first of all the crossing of the Red Sea.  That was deliverance from Egypt.  Egypt in the Bible always is a picture of lostness of the world, of the bondage in which Satan has men held tonight.  When the people of Israel were led out of Egypt, they crossed through the Red Sea.  That night God said the death angel would pass over Egypt and every home in which they did not find blood applied to that door, the death angel would take the life of the firstborn.  That night the believing Jews put the blood over the doorpost of their home.  When the death angel flew over and saw the blood, he passed over them.  From that experience we get that hymn we used to sing:  When I see the blood, I will pass over you.  So they were led out of Egypt through the Red Sea, a miraculous deliverance of God for his people.  When the nation of Israel would look back to their time of salvation, their time of deliverance, they would always look back to the Red Sea.
By the way, they had what was called proselyte baptism.  If a Gentile wanted to embrace the Hebrew faith, they had to be baptized.  The reason is that baptism was a picture of the Israelites passing through the Red Sea.  Every person in order to embrace that faith had to pass through the Red Sea.  If you were a Gentile, and you did not pass through that Red Sea, none of your ancestors passed through that Red Sea, you passed through that Red Sea symbolically through baptism.  For them the passage of the Red Sea was their redemption, their salvation.  That was the first stage in their Christian life.

The second stage is symbolized by crossing over Jordan, the River Jordan.  Contrary to what our hymns say, Jordan is not dying physically, and Canaan is not heaven.  On Jordan’s storm banks I stand, and cast a wishful eye, to Canaan’s fair and happy land where my possessions lie.  That’s right.  Most of us sing that talking about heaven.  Canaan in the Bible never typifies heaven; it typifies the promised land, the life of fullness, the life of victory.

There were giants in Canaan; there are no giants in heaven.  There were battles to be fought in Canaan; there are no battles to be fought in heaven.  The people of God even experienced defeat.  There was sin in Canaan; there is no sin or defeat in heaven.  So Canaan symbolizes that passing into the fullness of life where my possessions lie.  It is entering into the fullness of blessing, everything that is mine by virtue of redemption.   Red Sea:  salvation experience, crossing over into life.

The Jordan River:  crossing over into abundant life.
In between:  desert, wilderness, murmurings, griping, complaining
—sustained but not satisfied.

It seems to me that every Christian passes through the wilderness before he gets to that second stage.  There are two stages in the Christian life.  There is that stage of entering into life, and then that stage of entering into abundant life.  There is that life of fullness that lies beyond salvation and is a part of salvation.  I think one thing that scares some Baptists away from talking like this is “second blessing” talk and “second work of grace” talk.

I think Jack Taylor has said it best.  He said it’s not a second blessing; it’s just the second half of the first blessing.  It is simply moving into everything that I received when I was originally saved.  Just as Israel, God said, I brought out that I might bring you in.  Why did God bring them out of Egypt?  Simply to save them from Egypt?  No!  I wasn’t just interested in saving you out of Egypt. I brought you out that I might bring you in.  I brought you out of Egypt that I might bring you into Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.  The reason God has saved you, Christian friend, is not that you escaped hell.  That was not God’s intention; it was to save you that he might fill you so that you might experience not the sweet by and by, but the sweet here and now.  In this life, right now, to know Jesus real and to know the fullness of life right now.  Then when we step over into heaven, it won’t be such a shock to our systems.  Already he is preparing us for that time.  There are two stages in the Christian life.  In between those two stages is a wilderness period.  They are saved, sustained, but they are not satisfied.  There is no power.  They are up and down, on and off, a roller coaster experience.  There is no consistency, no victory, no life of abundance.

The reason this Scripture that we have read tonight is so important is that the Feast of the Tabernacles was a celebration of the desert wanderings.  I wonder tonight how many of you are in the desert.  You know you are saved, but there is no peace, victory, abiding joy.  You have occasions of victory, but you cannot really say you are living an abundant life, a life overflowing, more than enough of God’s blessings.  You are in the wilderness.  You know that you are saved.  If you were to die tonight, thank God, you would go to heaven.  But this life right now is a life of defeat, nagging habits, of not really experiencing Jesus Christ real and as Lord in your life.

Over and over again in Romans 5, Paul says there is much more to it than simply being saved.  Being saved is chapter 1.  Being saved is walking inside the door, but inside that door there are treasures our God has for us.  The abundant life is walking  inside that door, and beginning to live off all the treasures that God has provided for us by grace through faith.  The way that you come into that abundant life is through the filling and the fullness of the Holy Spirit of God.  John 16 says the reason Jesus has given the Holy Spirit to us is so that the Holy Spirit may take what is Jesus and give it to us.  Jesus is everything, and Jesus has everything.  Everything I need is in Jesus, and Jesus is everything.  How can I appropriate, come into contact, that which is Jesus?  The Holy Spirit indwells me tonight, and Jesus says the Holy Spirit will take of mine and give it unto you.  So the Holy Spirit is the channel between the first stage and the second stage. The Holy Spirit is the channel through which all that Jesus is and all that Jesus has floods into my very being, helping me to experience the life more abundant here and now.  It is my relationship to the Holy Spirit that determines the life of fullness.

How do you come into this life of fullness?  How is a person filled with the Holy Spirit?    In this passage I think Jesus comes closer than anywhere else in the Bible in giving us a formula, a method, a plan, steps by which we come into the fullness of the Spirit.
Let’s read these verses again.  Jesus says,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.  (But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Let me make five suggestions that Jesus Christ reveals to us here as to the steps to the Spirit’s fullness.

I.  There must be an appetite.
Notice that Jesus says if any man thirst let him come to me.  That is the first condition.  God always meets his people at the level of their expectation, but it is also true that God meets his people at the level of their desire.  Jesus is saying that right here in this verse.  If any man thirst, let him come to me.  The first step is an appetite, a thirst to know the fullness of Jesus in our lives.  God can not do anything with a man who does not have this hunger and thirst.
Let me say two things about this.

1.  If you are miserable, if you are longing, if there is a tearing within you that yearns and longs to know more, to know the fullness, and to have a Christian life that really means something, I have great news for you.  The Spirit of God is already doing a  work in your life.  You rejoice and praise the Lord when you get sick and tired of your Christian life because before God can move in with his fullness, he first of all must give us a holy dissatisfaction for what we are and what we have.  There must be a thirst.

Someone asked me today when I came to know experientially Jesus as Lord and the fullness of the Spirit if I had been expecting it, if I had been looking for it.  I replied I think most Christians are always looking for something more than they have experienced in the Christian life.  I really believe that if most Christians in our churches would be honest, they would stand up and say the most disillusioning thing in my life has been my Christian experience.

When I first came to Jesus Christ, everything was light and roses, everything was exuberant joy, an ecstatic joy as though I could never be defeated.  Since that time, my Christian experience has ebbed lower and lower and lower.  One of the greatest disappointments in my life has been my Christian experience.

One of the first things God does when he wants to come to us with abundance is to give to us a holy dissatisfaction.  He makes us thirsty, hungry.  There must be an appetite.  Yes, I had an appetite.  I can’t tell you how many times I would kneel in my office, bury my face in the chair and say Lord, I don’t know what it is, but I need something.  There’s got to be more to it than this.  I read what you say the Christian life really is in the Bible.  I measure it by my own life, and there is something wrong.  I meet other Christians who seem to have something else that I do not know about.  There seems to be something wrong somewhere.  Yes, I had a thirst, an appetite, but I didn’t know what I had an appetite for.  Notice that Jesus doesn’t identify the thirst.  I thank God for that.  He doesn’t say if you are thirsty for this or that; he says if any man thirst.  I don’t care what your thirst is; the Spirit’s fullness can satisfy it.

You may be thirsty for a lot of things.  I know some men who have been thirsty for money.  The got filled with the Spirit, and that thirst was quenched.  Isn’t that amazing?  I’ve known young people who were thirsty for impure living.  They got filled with the Spirit, and their thirst was quenched.  Isn’t that amazing?  I’ve known people who were thirsty for material things.  They measured their lives by the abundance of their possessions.  They were thirsty for the things of this world.  The Spirit of God filled them, and it quenched their thirst.  I don’t care what your thirst is.  That’s just an indication that Jesus hasn’t done all he wants to do for you—if any man thirst.

Are you a candidate for the fullness of Christ?  Let me ask you a question.  Is there a holy dissatisfaction about you?  Are you thirsty to know more than you know?  Are you thirsty to know more victory than you know?  Is Jesus Christ somebody you still pray at, instead of to?  Is Jesus Christ no more real to you than Santa Claus?  Do you have a thirst?  That’s the first thing.  If you are thirsty, if there is this nagging disappointment about your Christian life, thank God for it because the Holy Spirit is the only one who can make you thirst.  That is how he prepares your heart.

2.  If you do not have a thirst, if you are not hungry, you need to go home and pray O, God, make me hungry, make me thirsty.
I have stood beside the bed of a great many people who have died.  One of the last indications that death is close is when that person loses all appetite.  He no longer eats, no longer has an appetite, no longer wants to eat.  I am convinced that when a Christian has no appetite to know Jesus more and more every day, when his soul is not crying out of thirst for the fountains of living water to flow through him, that Christian is at the point of death spiritually.  If you are saved and satisfied and cannot say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 I count everything but loss that I may know him even better, you need to go home and say O, God, whatever it takes I want you to make me hungry and make me thirsty.

II.  There must be an approach.
Jesus said, if any man thirst, let him come to me.  I have underlined that little word me.  Let him come to me.  That is an invitation from Jesus.  The significant thing is that Jesus is speaking about the fullness of the Spirit.  He doesn’t say if you are thirsty, go to the Spirit, does he?  He says if you are thirsty, you come to me.  I’m afraid that some people who are thirsty and have an appetite are going to the wrong places.  He doesn’t say if any man is thirsty, let him seek an experience.  He doesn’t say that.  Let him seek a gift.  He doesn’t say that.  Let him come to the Holy Spirit.  He doesn’t say that.  He says if any man thirst, let him come to ME.
The Holy Spirit is Christocentric.  That is a theological term that means the only thing the Holy Spirit cares about is Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is Christ-centered.  Your relationship to the Holy Spirit revolves around your relationship to Jesus.  If you want to be filled with the Spirit, he doesn’t tell you to come to the altar and tarry and beg and plead and cry and seek the Holy Spirit.  Jesus simply says, if you are thirsty, you come to ME.

I know there are a great many people today who are scared to death with this idea of being filled with the Spirit.  They don’t want you to talk about it because there are so many extreme positions and so much misunderstanding.  I will agree with you that you are in danger if you go to seed on the Holy Spirit.  You are in danger if you go to seed on any manifestation of the Spirit.  You are in danger if you go to seed on any particular gift.  There is only one thing that it is safe to go to seed on, and that’s Jesus!  I can talk about Jesus, and ride that hobby horse, have that one message and go to seed on Jesus, and I will always be straight and narrow as far as the Word of God is concerned.  The Spirit of God is always pointing men to Jesus.  Anything that points you away from Jesus is not of God.  Jesus stands at the center.  He says there must be an approach. You have to come to Jesus.

First of all, an appetite, then the approach. You realize that it is your relationship to Jesus that determines the fullness of the Holy Spirit.  If you have an appetite, you are going to have to come to Jesus and get rightly related to him.  If there is sin between you and Jesus, that is going to have to be confessed.  If reconciliation needs to be made, that will have to be done.  You may have to make restitution.  Jesus is going to have to be Lord.  I repeat:  your relationship to Jesus determines your relationship to the Holy Spirit.  Nobody can be filled with the Spirit who is wrongly related to Jesus.  There must be an approach.  Third, there must be an appropriation.

III.  There must be an appropriation.
I love the simple way Jesus puts it.  I apologize for all us preachers who have made the filling of the Holy Spirit such a complicated matter.  It is not.  Notice what Jesus says.  If any man is thirsty, let him come to me, and do what?  Drink!  Let him come to me and drink.  Isn’t that simple?  Drinking is one of the simplest acts of human life.  It is easy to drink.  It doesn’t take any special gifts.  It doesn’t take any special training.  I know exactly what Jesus means.  When you take a drink, you just appropriate what is there.  Jesus says if you are thirsty, come to me and take what you need.

I wish I had learned this a long time ago.  I think I began praying to be filled with the Spirit when I was in college.  I would pray, beg, plead, read books, anything.  And right here, all along, it says Jesus simply says if any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

Let me illustrate it like this.  Let’s suppose you are thirsty.  There is a water fountain out here in the foyer of the building.  You go out there and say to yourself:  I am thirsty; I need to go to that water fountain and quench my thirst.  I go out there after while and see you standing by that water fountain saying oh, water fountain, please give me a drink of water.  Oh, water fountain, please give me a drink of water.  I beg you; I plead with you; I’m not going to move until you give me a drink of water.  Oh, water fountain, please give me a drink of water.

Excuse me for interrupting your praying, but if you want a drink of water, why don’t you just take it.  You can stand there all day and beg and plead and talk to that water fountain for a drink of water.  Why don’t you just take a drink, friend?  It’s that simple.  I wrote down a little poem.
I simply take him at his Word,
I praise him that my prayer is heard,
And claim my answer from the Lord.
I take, and he undertakes.

I take, and he undertakes.  It’s that simple.
You say what about the disciples?  They had to tarry for ten days.  No.  They prayed for ten days, not to bring the Holy Spirit to them; they prayed for ten days just waiting until the promise was fulfilled.  The minute the Holy Spirit arrived on the scene, that quick they were filled.   If they had to pray ten days after Pentecost, then you would have an argument for tarrying.  They were praying for ten days because the Holy Spirit had not been given.  But the moment the Spirit of God was sent from the throne of heaven to earth to indwell the church, they were filled that very moment.

The Spirit of God has been given, and has never taken away.  He indwells me.  I do not have to beg, and plead, and tarry.  I simply by faith take what is mine by birthright.  By faith I take the filling of the Holy Spirit.  It is that simple.  I wish I had known that so long ago.  If you have been begging, and pleading, and tarrying, and trying to pray through to be filled with the Spirit, the Bible nowhere indicates that is the way to be filled with the Spirit.  If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  You just take what he offers.  That’s all.  Fourth, there must be an abiding.

IV.  There must be an abiding.
Notice in verse 38:  He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.  There are two Greek participles in that verse.  The first one, believeth, is found in verse 38.  That means he that continually believes.  He that continually has faith on me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being shall continually flow rivers of living water.

I would not give a dime a carload for once-for-all experiences that never last.  I am not preaching or teaching an experience that you have, reach a high for awhile, and then go back to the same old life, same old emptiness, and same old defeat.  The Bible indicates clearly that God wants us to live a consistently full life.

It is not a matter of my having been filled with the Spirit twenty years ago.  That was sure great, and I’ve got fond memories of it, but there have been a lot of doubts and defeats in between.  That is not the scriptural pattern.  The scriptural pattern is for me to be filled every day with the Holy Spirit, a continual filling, every day a fresh filling of the Spirit.

I believe there is an initial filling of the Spirit, and then there are subsequent fillings.  Every day, a hundred times a day as is needed, the Spirit of God fills me as long as I what?—as long as I abide in him.  Jesus said he that continually believes in me, out of him shall continually flow rivers of living water.  I have learned to begin the day by saying, Father, I take by faith right now the filling of the Spirit.  That’s all.  I begin the day like that every day of my life.  Father, by faith now, I take the filling of the Spirit.  I thank you that the Holy Spirit is filling me.  Do you feel anything?  I don’t most of the time.  It’s not a matter of feeling.  It doesn’t say he that goes on feeling good will have the Holy Spirit.  It says he that continually believes in me.  It is taking it by faith.
It is the greatest liberation of my life to know what it means to believe, to take it by faith, to not worry and fret about it.  It is just to say Father, I know it’s mine.  It is your appropriation for my life, what Jesus paid for on the cross.  I thank you that the blessed Holy Spirit now indwells me, and I take by faith your filling of the Spirit.  Then go out and live the day in light of that—abiding.

V.  There must be an availability.
There is one more thing.  There must be an availability.  That word keeps cropping up, doesn’t it?  You just can’t get away from it.  There must be an availability.  Jesus says whoever continues to believe in me, out of him shall continue to flow what? —rivers of living water.  I want you to get this.  This is beautiful to me.  Jesus says the fullness of the Spirit is when rivers of living water are flowing out of you.

There is one prerequisite for a river.  You’ve got to have a riverbed; you can’t have a river flowing without a riverbed.  Do you know what Jesus is saying?  You provide the riverbed; I’ll provide the river.  Jesus is saying if you want the fullness of the Spirit, here is what it means.  It means that rivers of living water are going to be flowing out of you.  That indicates service, overflowing your life, blessing others.  The Christian is not a reservoir in which he holds his deeper life.  But he is a riverbed through which, over which, the Spirit of God flows through him to meet the needs of others.

I’ll tell you why some people are seeking the fullness and never coming into it; it is because they want to be simply a reservoir.  They simply want to have their own thirst quenched.  They simply want the thrill of the fill, the ecstatic experience, the ecstatic joy, but Jesus is saying the fullness of the Spirit simply means that out of your innermost being are going to be continually flowing, flowing, flowing rivers of living waters reaching out to others.  If you are not willing for my Spirit to flow out of you, to make yourself available for service, then forget about it.

You notice that the fellow starts out thirsty, and he ends up a fountain.  He starts out needing his thirst quenched, and he ends up able to quench the thirst of others.  The amazing thing about it is that Jesus never says another word about his thirst.  You and I have all the emphasis upon having our little personal thirst quenched.  Oh, preacher, I’m thirsty, depleted, defeated, have this problem.  I want the Holy Spirit to fill me because then I know I’ll be happy, and have love, and joy, and peace.  My problems will be gone. Jesus never says another word about that man’s thirst, does he?  That’s not the point.  Jesus says the purpose of the filling of the Holy Spirit is not to quench your thirst, not to give you love, joy and peace.  That happens, but the purpose of the Spirit’s fullness is so that out of you can flow rivers of living water.  If all you want is your own thirst quenched, your little problems solved, the love, joy and peace for yourself, and you are not interested at all in becoming a riverbed through which the Spirit of God can flow through your life and touch the lives of others, you cannot know the Spirit’s fullness in your life.  There must be an availability.

The motive for being filled with the Spirit is not my own personal enjoyment, but divine employment so that God can use my life through which to bless others.  If I am thirsty, I recognize my thirst.  I come to Jesus knowing he can meet my need.  I must be rightly related to him.  I confess my sin, make wrongs right.  Then by faith, I say thank you, Father, as I yield myself to the Lordship of Jesus, I ask you to fill me with the Spirit.  I thank you for it.  I believe that right now I am filled with the Spirit.  I make myself available to you.  You use my life, my talents, my possessions anyway you want to.  You use me as a riverbed and let the Spirit of God flow through me.  I think that is the simple way that Jesus intended us to come into the fullness of the Spirit.

There are two stages to the Christian life.  Every Christian is in one of two places.  You are either in the wilderness or in Canaan.  I want to ask you:  what are you doing in the wilderness?  God never intended you to stay there.  You are out of place.  Your possession is over across the River Jordan, over there.  Everything that God wanted you to be when he saved you, and everything that God has promised you as one of his saved ones, lies across the river.  If you are willing as a child of God, in your heart right where you sit, to say Lord, I come to Jesus, sins confessed, restitution made, reconciliation effected, I come to you.  I take, I yield, I make myself available.  Fill me with your Spirit.  I believe Jesus will keep his Word.  And out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water.
Let’s bow our heads . . .

© Ron Dunn, LifeStyle Ministries, 2006