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Scripture Reading: Acts 1:14; 2:1-4, 14, 32-42
The work of the gospel is not an activity produced out of incitement. It is not the result of stirring up the saints in their natural man to become fervent for the preaching of the gospel. Any result produced by such incitement has no eternal value because it is not of the Holy Spirit. Our gospel work should be the result of receiving a burden from the Lord. Thus, we all should allow the Holy Spirit to impart this burden into us so that we all can bear this burden together in one Body before the Lord.
Although we have no desire to compare ourselves with others, we need to admit that in traditional Christianity many gospel meetings and revival meetings are supported by little spiritual reality. They lack a spiritual base, spiritual weight, and spiritual content.
According to the book of Acts, the church preached the gospel for the first time on the day of Pentecost. For the preaching of the gospel on that day, the believers had a strong and weighty spiritual base. This base was so strong that it enabled them to accomplish God’s desire. If the believers had merely held an outward activity by being stirred up in their natural man, it would have been impossible for them to have the result that they had. Therefore, we need to see that if the church’s preaching of the gospel today is to be full of spiritual weight and is to have authority over people for the accomplishing of God’s desire, we must have a spiritual base as strong as the one that the disciples had on the day of Pentecost.
We realize that all activities produced by stirring up the natural man not only lack eternal value but also do much damage to the practical service of the church. Thus, in the past we did not stir up any kind of zeal or excitement in the saints through incitement or promotion. At the present time, even though we desire to have an enlarged work of preaching the gospel, we have no intention to stir the saints up to do something out of their natural zeal. Therefore, we all need to abandon the excitement that comes by the stirring up of our natural man.
We need to see that he church’s preaching of the gospel on the day of Pentecost was based on the burden that the disciples received from the Lord. Thus, we too should receive a burden from the Lord. At that time the disciples may not have had the words to describe this burden. They may not have known that the burden they had received was that the Christ who was in their spirit would be discharged and released into thousands of people. Although they had received this burden, they may not have had this realization.
After the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, a multitude came together, and Peter, standing with the other disciples, testified and led thousands of people to salvation (Acts 2:6, 14-21). After this, the disciples must have realized that their burden was to release Christ, whom they had known, followed, experienced, and gained, from within them into many people. The burden that they received was Christ the Lord, and they had to impart Him into others. They may have had such a realization only after preaching the gospel and leading thousands to salvation.
Concerning the gospel meetings, we should not be stirred up and excited or enthusiastic in a natural way. Rather, we all need to go before the Lord to receive a burden from Him inwardly. Such a burden is not merely for us to be zealous concerning the salvation of sinners but for each one of us to be filled with the Lord Jesus and to bear Him to others. In order to impart the Lord Jesus into others, we need to be filled with Him as our burden, and we need to be able to discharge Him as our burden into others.
If we have received nothing from the Lord, we will have no burden to discharge into others. A cargo ship or aircraft must first be loaded with various goods as its “burden” before it can transport and unload the goods at its destination. Therefore, we need to receive the Lord as our burden, to be loaded with Him as the heavenly cargo, before preaching the gospel.
We need to see that the burden we have received is not what most people consider to be the burden of the gospel. The burden of the gospel that we have received is Christ the Lord Himself. Jesus is the gospel (5:42; 17:18), and without Him the gospel amounts to nothing. Therefore, to preach the gospel is to preach the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 4:4-5). Such preaching is carried out not merely with words but by persons. Hence, our preaching depends on the kind of person we are. In order to be those who bear the Lord Jesus to others, we must be filled with the Lord Jesus. Our desire is to impart into others the Lord Jesus with whom we have been filled.
Our work of the gospel is not merely a work of being stirred up or being zealous to save sinners for the Lord. Our work of the gospel is to receive the Lord Jesus as our burden from God, to be filled with Him, and to bear Him in our spirit and discharge Him to others so that we can impart Him into them. The Lord Jesus whom we impart is the gospel that sinners need, and whoever receives Him receives the gospel and receives salvation. We all need to have this revelation. Unless we receive the Lord as our burden, we cannot have a weighty gospel work.
According to the record in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost the one hundred twenty disciples had no thought of giving a message or preaching the gospel. They had no burden out of themselves. It was not that they desired to save sinners and rescue them from the lake of fire because they had seen that sinners would perish. What the disciples had received and were filled with was the Lord Jesus Himself.
The burden that the disciples received consisted of the Lord Jesus and the various processes He passed through. The disciples knew of the Lord’s incarnation, for they were with Him for three and a half years of His human life on the earth, and they saw how the Lord Jesus died on the cross. On the cross the Lord suffered God’s judgment on our behalf, accomplished God’s redemption, and dealt with Satan, God’s enemy (1 Pet. 3:18; Heb. 9:12; 2:14). After He was raised from the Dead, the Lord Jesus left the tomb empty and manifested Himself to the disciples. He came into their midst and breathed into them the Holy Spirit (John 20:19-22). Thus, they knew the resurrected Christ.
The disciples also saw the Lord Jesus ascend into heaven (Acts 1:9), and the angels said to the disciples as they were watching, “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you beheld Him going into heaven” (vv. 10-11). Thus, they knew not only of the Lord’s resurrection and ascension but also of His second coming.
The disciples, having seen so much concerning the Lord, must have been filled with all that they had seen concerning Him. Their thoughts, concept, and mood were completely saturated with the Lord. Ten days before Pentecost these one hundred twenty disciples, after witnessing the ascension of the Lord Jesus, came to an upper room in Jerusalem (v. 13). They were filled with Christ even before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
The word occupied most adequately expresses the inward condition of the one hundred twenty disciples prior to the day of Pentecost. They were thoroughly occupied with the Lord Jesus. They had nothing else besides Him. Thus, they were able to remain in the hostile environment of Jerusalem. They were not people of the land of Judea or the city of Jerusalem but were Galileans from the northern region of Israel. In the eyes of the priests and the rulers of the people, they were uneducated men and laymen (4:13). However, they listened to the Lord’s word and stayed in Jerusalem. This indicates that only the Lord Jesus had ground in them.
In Jerusalem, at the time when the disciples were waiting for the promise of the Father, there was much opposition to the followers of the Lord Jesus. They were considered to be the “sect of the Nazarenes” (24:5). Thus, those who had a Galilean accent, especially an accent from Nazareth of Galilee, would have suffered hostility and difficulty. Nevertheless, these one hundred twenty people left their hometowns and their families and stayed in Jerusalem under an atmosphere of opposition to pray in one accord (1:14). This proves that they were filled with the Lord Jesus inwardly.
They were filled not only with the Lord Jesus Himself but also with all that He had done. They were filled with His incarnation as God who became flesh, with His living as a man on earth, with His death on the cross, with His burial and resurrection from the dead, with His manifesting Himself to them after His resurrection and His breathing into them the Holy Spirit, with His ascension into heaven before their eyes, and with the angels’ speaking to them concerning His return. All these matters were vividly portrayed before their eyes and imprinted into their being. Each of the one hundred twenty was filled with all these matters.
Furthermore, before His ascension and departure, the Lord Jesus charged the disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so that they would receive power and become His witnesses “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Luke 24:47-49; Acts 1:4, 8). They received the Lord’s commission and remained in Jerusalem. On the one hand, they were filled with Christ, and on the other hand, they were waiting earnestly for the power from on high. However, while they were waiting, they were focused on praying in one accord to God. Their prayers may have been filled with praise and thanksgiving for their experiences of the Lord Jesus, and they may have prayed that they would receive power from on high.
From the experiences and the attitude of the disciples prior to the day of Pentecost, we have seen what kind of persons they were. In addition to this, we need to see what their inward condition was. After the Lord’s ascension the disciples knew that the Lord Jesus had borne their sins on the cross and that their sins were forgiven (1 Pet. 2:24; Eph. 1:7). They had assurance, the peace of forgiveness, and the pleasant sensation of being reconciled to God (Rom. 5:1, 10). They knew that there was no problem between them and God because they had been forgiven of their sins.
Second, the disciples had forsaken the world. Thus, the things of the world had no power over them. They knew that the Lord Jesus was rejected and crucified by the world but was accepted, raised from the dead, and received into heaven by God (John 19:18-20; 15:18, 20; Acts 1:9-11; 2:24; 4:10-11). They also knew that their Lord was no longer in the world and that they too were rejected by the world. Hence, their heart was not in this world, and the world had no place in them. This was displayed in their actions after the Lord’s ascension and before Pentecost. They left their homes and their families, remained in the hostile environment of Jerusalem, and gave themselves completely to prayer in the upper room. This shows that they had completely forsaken the world.
These one hundred twenty were neither entangled by the world outwardly nor condemned by their conscience inwardly. They had abandoned the world and were forgiven of their sins. Thus, they had the boldness to approach God. Furthermore, their hope was in heaven because the Lord Jesus was there. The One whom they followed and worshipped and into whom they believed was not only the incarnated Jesus, who lived a human life on the earth and was crucified, but also the resurrected and ascended Christ (2:23-24, 36). His resurrection speaks of His power and victory, and His ascension speaks of His position and authority.
The disciples had a full realization that the One into whom they believed was not only the Savior among men on the earth but also the Christ who had resurrected from the dead, ascended to the throne in the heavens, and obtained the highest position with all authority and glory (Phil. 2:9). They were filled with the resurrected and ascended Christ.
Although they may not have been able to speak of their experience as clearly as we can today, the disciples experienced and were one with the resurrected and ascended Lord. They had never experienced resurrection personally, but because they believed into the resurrected Lord, they were in resurrection. They were not only separated from the world and forgiven of their sins; they were also in resurrection.
According to our experience, in order to be free from the defilement of sin and the entanglement of the world, we need to be absolutely in resurrection. Whenever we are not in resurrection, we are entangled by the world and damaged by sins. Only when we are in resurrection can sins and the worldly things be under our feet.
Ten days before Pentecost the disciples apparently were in an upper room in Jerusalem, but actually, they had ascended into the heavens with the Lord Jesus.
The disciples had been with the Lord Jesus for three and a half years. They had followed Him wherever He went. They had seen how the Lord Jesus was crucified and buried and how He resurrected and ascended. In a real sense, the Lord Jesus brought them along with Him through His death, resurrection, and ascension into the heavens. Although they were physically on the earth in Jerusalem, their hearts were in the heavens with Christ. Through Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension the disciples had become a group of heavenly people.
Thus, the disciples’ sins were forgiven, they were separated from the world, they were in resurrection, and their hearts were in the heavens. They were a heavenly people living in the heavenly realm.
The disciples also lived a life of prayer (Acts 1:14; 2:42; 4:24; 6:4). That is, they lived before God, they lived in God, and they lived in the light of God’s face. In order to have a proper understanding of the life of prayer, we need to understand what prayer is. Prayer is not merely man coming before God and asking God for certain persons, things, or matters. This understanding is shallow and superficial. In a deeper sense, prayer is man entering into God and living in the shining of His face.
Many Christians can testify according to their experience that they often begin their prayer by coming to the Lord. However, after praying for some time, they sense that they have entered into God. Whenever we pray in this way and have the realization that we are in God, we touch the reality of prayer. We enter into God, and we touch His heart’s desire.
During the ten days before Pentecost, the disciples “continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer” (1:14) in the upper room in Jerusalem. The Greek word rendered “continued steadfastly” means “continued persistently.” The living that the disciples had was a life of prayer, a life of entering into God’s presence and even into God and of living in the shining of His face. For at least ten days they lived a life that was not only in the heavens but also in God and in His countenance. Only this kind of living can receive the commission of the gospel and generate the power of the gospel.
The one hundred twenty disciples had five characteristics. First, they had received the forgiveness of sins. Second, they were separated from the world. Third, they lived in resurrection. Fourth, their hearts and their entire being were in the heavens. Fifth, they lived a life of prayer as their practical living. They were before God, and they entered into God.
Anyone who has these five characteristics will be filled outwardly, economically, with the Holy Spirit. Many Christians earnestly seek the outward filling of the Holy Spirit. However, we need to see that as long as a person has the five characteristics of having received the forgiveness of sins, of being separated from the world, of living in resurrection, of living in the heavens, and of living a life of prayer, he will surely receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Whoever has reached such a state will be filled economically with the Holy Spirit.
Those who desire the economical filling of the Holy Spirit for the preaching of the gospel need to experience the forgiveness of sins based on the shedding of the Lord’s blood on the cross. They also need to be severed, separated, from the world through the resurrection of Christ. The world should have no place in them. Rather, they should be weaned from the world. They must know resurrection and what it means to live in resurrection. They should have an inward realization that the One into whom they have believed is not only the incarnated Savior who became a man, lived a human life, and was crucified for redemption but is also the resurrected Christ who was raised from the dead and became the life-giving Spirit to enter into them. In addition, they should know what ascension is and know that the life they have received is a heavenly life. They should be aware of the fact that they have ascended into the heavens with the Lord and are thus heavenly persons (Eph. 2:6). Outwardly, they are still living on the earth, but inwardly, with respect to their inner life and mood, they are in the heavens. Finally, in their practical living on the earth, they must be persons who pray continually by coming before God, entering into Him, and living in the light of His face. If this is our condition, we must believe that the Holy Spirit has come upon us to fill us outwardly. This is a fact whether or not we have the feeling that the Spirit has come upon us.
My burden is neither to describe the feeling of being filled with the Holy Spirit nor to help others seek this feeling. Although we may have a feeling when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we should not care for this feeling. Rather, we need to believe that if we have the five characteristics of the experience and living of the one hundred twenty, the Holy Spirit will come upon us. This economical filling of the Holy Spirit will result in the overflowing of life from within us. No matter what the manifestation of this filling is, once we are filled, we will be full of power and burden to the extent that we cannot help but flow out what is within us. This is the gospel, and this is the power of the gospel.
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we receive an inward burden, and this burden is the Lord Jesus Himself. The Spirit with whom we are filled is the Lord Jesus Himself (2 Cor. 3:17). At such a time, what fills our entire being is the Lord as the Spirit. We are filled with Him to the extent that others may think that we are drunk with wine (Acts 2:13). However, we will not be full of wine but full of Christ, full of life, and full of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we cannot help but overflow.
This is the normal situation required of everyone who would preach the gospel. Our gospel is the overflow of life, the discharging of Christ as our burden from within. It is neither the issue of being stirred up in the natural man nor the result of our enthusiasm. We do not preach the gospel merely because we see the urgency of tens of thousands of souls who need to be saved and the misery of people in bondage. This is not the focus of our work. Our gospel issues from the need to unload Christ, to impart Him into others, because we have been filled with Him inwardly. We preach the gospel because we have experienced Christ in the forgiveness of sins and in being separated from the world. Furthermore, we have experienced Him as the resurrection life and as the ascended Savior. Because we have experienced Christ in such a way, we live before God and in God. Because we are in such a condition, all that is in the Holy Spirit has come into us and overflowed upon us. Inwardly and outwardly we are filled; what is in our mind, our concept, our mood, and everything related to us is entirely Christ and entirely the Spirit. Thus, we cannot help but rise up and preach the gospel.
Stirring others up is useless, and our natural enthusiasm is in vain. Every one of the saints needs to have dealings with God concerning the five characteristics of the one hundred twenty disciples, until each one is able to declare, “I know that my sins have been forgiven; I am a saved person, and my sins have been dealt with. The earthly things have no place in me, and I have no worldly entanglements. All the earthly things are under my feet, and I have left the world behind me forever. I can testify that the One into whom I have believed is not only the incarnated and crucified Savior but also the resurrected Christ. I live in Him, and He lives in me. I know the resurrection life, and I also know the power of Christ’s resurrection and ascension. Just as the Lord is in the heavens, I also am in the heavens, and my disposition is altogether heavenly. There is nothing between God and me. I am living before God and in God, and my practical life on earth is a life of prayer in the shining of God’s countenance.” Then we will be able to preach the gospel. Some may say that in order to have the power of the gospel, we need to have the outpouring of the Spirit. However, if we take care of these five characteristics and meet these five conditions, we can have the assurance that the Holy Spirit has already been poured upon us, without any other requirements.
If the Lord’s blood has washed away our sins, if His cross has separated us from the world, if we have experienced resurrection and ascension, and if we are living before God, it will be difficult for us not to have the outpouring of the Spirit when we pray. When this is our situation, we will be filled with an inward burden, which is nothing less than the Lord Jesus, and we will bear Him to others by preaching the gospel.
In our preaching of the gospel, our desire is not to have a great gospel move. Rather, it is that many saints will go before God to pursue and to have dealings until their condition matches that of the one hundred twenty disciples on the day of Pentecost. In this way the saints will have their sins forgiven, the world will have no place in them, and they will be people in resurrection and ascension, living before God and in God so that they may receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and be mingled with God as one. When this is their condition, they will be manifested as a testimony of the gospel. When they speak concerning sin or forsaking the world, they will not speak mere doctrine. Rather, they will stand as a living testimony of the reality of what they speak.
On the day of Pentecost, when Peter stood up with the eleven and began to speak, he was very bold (Acts 2:14). Later, he went to the temple, healed a lame man, and took the opportunity afforded by the healing to speak a strong word to many in the temple (3:1-26). He said, “You denied the holy and righteous One...whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses” (vv. 14-15). According to verse 14, Peter used the word denied in referring to the Jews’ rejection of the Lord. Although about fifty-three days earlier Peter had denied the Lord three times, he condemned the Jews for denying and rejecting Jesus. Someone listening could have said, “On the night that the Lord Jesus was taken way, did you not also deny and reject Him three times?” We need to see that on the one hand, Peter had failed because he had denied the Lord. However, on the day of Pentecost Peter became a different person, for he had received the Holy Spirit inwardly and outwardly.
Both the disciples and the Jews had committed the sin of denying and rejecting the Lord. However, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter seemed to say to the Jews, “You denied Jesus; you committed this sin.” Peter had the boldness to say this because he had experienced the forgiveness of his sins. He realized that his sins were forgiven and that his conscience was no longer under condemnation. He knew the meaning of the cross and the effectiveness of the precious blood (1 Pet. 1:18-19). He recognized that he was forgiven before God and reconciled to God. He knew that his denial of the Lord did not cause the Lord to disown him but that, through his repentance and the cleansing of the Lord’s blood, his sins were forgiven by God. Thus, on the day of Pentecost he and the others could receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and he could later speak boldly in the temple, telling the Jews that they had committed the sin of denying the Lord Jesus and that their sin still remained.
Someone among the crowd could have said, “Peter, you also denied the Lord,” but Peter would have been able to reply, “Yes, over fifty days ago I denied Him, but He did not disown me. I have repented, and now my sins are forgiven. I am no longer denying the Lord but preaching Him. In the past I was like you, but now I am different from you. If you want to be like me, you must confess your sins and repent.”
Suppose a person, prior to his salvation, enjoyed gambling, drinking, and smoking, but one day after receiving the Lord he speaks to unbelievers, saying, “You are sinners. You like to gamble, dance, smoke, and drink. You are wallowing in sins.” A friend of his who hears him may sneer at him and ask, “Were you not also like me some time ago?” However, the truth is that the one preaching is not the same person anymore. Prior to his salvation he was like his friends, wallowing in his sins, but after his salvation he became different from them. Before receiving the Lord, he could join his friends in gambling and drinking. However, after he received the Lord, he could no longer do such things. While his friends are indulging in sin, he remains in Christ. When they gamble, he remains in God’s presence. He is greatly different from what he formerly was. His sins have been forgiven, and he is separated from all the worldly things. Thus, when he speaks concerning the forgiveness of sins, he is not giving a message on the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins. Rather, he, the person speaking, is standing as a living testimony of the forgiveness of sins. This is the gospel.
Such a person will be able to say, “Previously, I loved the world just like you. I did not know Christ’s resurrection and ascension, but now I have been separated from the world. If Christ were not raised from the dead, I would have no power to overcome sin and death. If He did not ascend to heaven, I would have no way to be severed from the entanglements of the world. Without His resurrection and ascension, I would not have the boldness or the utterance to preach the Lord Jesus to you. I can speak to people because my sins have been forgiven, and I have been separated from the world. I am one with God in resurrection and ascension. Thus, I am not afraid, because I have boldness before God, and I am in God when I speak to you. I am standing before you as a testimony of Christ’s resurrection and ascension.” This is the real gospel.
In the past, before any gospel campaign many saints were occupied with making outward preparations, including the preparation of gospel vests, advertisements, tracts, hospitality arrangements, the obtaining and setting up of a meeting place, and many other things. Although we need these outward preparations, even more we need a genuine preparation in spirit before God. We need to deal with the sins that hinder our fellowship with God, with the affairs of this world that entangle us, and with the things that hinder us from living in resurrection and ascension. Not only a few of the leading ones but also all the saints should have dealings concerning these matters in a detailed way.
This does not mean that we do not need the outward preparations. The outward preparations are necessary, but they are secondary. We need to invite people to the gospel meeting, to pray for the ones coming, and to make all the various practical preparations. If we did not invite people, labor in prayer, or prepare practically for the meeting, we would be unbalanced. However, some things are more important than others. Thus, everything should be taken care of in an orderly way and at the proper time. We must see and care for the most important matters by taking care of them in a thorough way. Then, we can care for items of secondary importance in an orderly manner.
Our primary concern before a gospel meeting is that all who are burdened for the gospel and all who have a part in the gospel meeting would come into God’s presence to deal with every aspect of their inward condition. We must deal with our sins, the world, our realization of the Lord’s resurrection, our experience of the ascended Lord, and our practical living before God. If we have thorough dealings concerning these five items, we will immediately see that we are joined to God and mingled with God and have become one with God. After these dealings the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will spontaneously be ours. We will be filled with the Spirit outwardly, and inwardly we will be filled with the Lord Jesus as our burden. Thus, we will be able to declare Him and be a testimony of Him.
When we have thorough dealings before the Lord with matters such as sins, the world, our living in resurrection and ascension, and our living before God and in God, we will be full of Christ and full of the Holy Spirit within. Then our inviting people to the gospel meeting will be living, and our interceding for others, distributing gospel tracts, putting up gospel posters, and singing of hymns also will be living. Whatever we do related to the gospel meeting will be living, including our service during the meeting, our speaking to our gospel friends and leading them to pray at the end of the meeting, and our visiting them after the meeting.
I am afraid that many brothers and sisters are enthusiastic toward the gospel but have not had sufficient dealings before God concerning their sins and concerning the world. They also do not live in resurrection, have not touched the position of ascension, and do not live in God. They have only been stirred up in their feelings and influenced by the excitement in the atmosphere. Thus, when they see others preaching the gospel, inviting people to the gospel meeting, and serving in the meeting, they desire to do the same things. If this situation continues, all our activities will be man-made, and even though we may be able to bring many to the meeting, our efforts will be of little spiritual value.
The fruit of a tree tells what kind of tree it is. The children we bear tell what sort of persons we are. If we are shallow, have little weight and authority, and rely merely on excitement and enthusiasm to preach the gospel, those whom we bring to the Lord will be like us — shallow and without much weight before God.
We need the Lord’s mercy to see that the preaching of the gospel on the day of Pentecost was not a result of man’s stirring up and enthusiasm but of God’s gaining a group of people as His testimony. This group of people had dealt with the problem of sins before God. Within them the world had lost its place. They knew that Jesus had been raised and that He was living in them. They realized that He had ascended into heaven and that they were people in the heavens. Their hearts were in heaven, and they were on the earth to testify concerning Christ. They were a group of people living in God. In them heaven and earth were connected, and God and man were joined as one. As a result, they were full of Christ as the Spirit. Thus, He became their burden, and they could not help but impart Him into others. It was a small matter whether or not people perished, but it was a great matter whether or not they gained Christ.
On the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached the gospel, he did not mention the matter of perishing or of going to the lake of fire or to heaven. Rather, he spoke concerning Jesus Christ, a man shown by God to be approved, who was rejected and crucified by the Jews yet resurrected by God, exalted to the right hand of God, and made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:22, 24, 32-33, 36). Peter’s gospel preaching was to present Christ as the Savior to all the people and to have them receive Him. This Christ had ascended to heaven and had sent down the Holy Spirit as the promise of the Father. Because the Holy Spirit had descended upon them, the apostles appeared to the people to be drunk with wine. Because they were full of Christ within, they were burdened to overflow Christ to others through their speaking. This is the real significance of Pentecost, and this is the real gospel.
The disciples practiced the proper way of preaching the gospel on the day of Pentecost. They were full of Christ within and were burdened to impart Him into others. They did not decide to hold a great gospel meeting because they were full of natural enthusiasm. I hope that many of us will enter into God’s presence by praying together in groups of three to ten people. However, this should not be done in a legalistic way. For various reasons, some may not be able to gather together with other saints, but they should still go to God on their own.
Instead of caring first for the salvation of others, including our relatives and friends, we should go to the Lord first to have dealings concerning sins, the entanglement and usurpation of the world, our living in the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, and our living before God and in God. After such dealings, the Spirit of God will fill us within and clothe us outwardly. Then we will know whom we should pray for, whom we should invite to hear the gospel, and whom we should bear as a burden. In this condition, whatever we do will be living, including our inviting people, interceding for others, bringing people to hear the gospel, speaking with others, passing out gospel tracts, or putting up gospel posters. Everything we do will be living.
We all need to go before God to practice dealing with each of the five points mentioned earlier. Only then will it be easy for us to come together and pray of the gospel in one accord, just as the disciples prayed for ten days before Pentecost. As a result of our dealings and our prayer, when the day of the gospel meeting comes and the gospel is preached, the meeting will be full of Christ.
Christ is salvation, life, power, authority, and everything (Luke 2:27-30; John 11:25; 14:6; 1 Cor. 1:24; Col. 2:10; 3:11). When we are filled with such a Christ and He is released from within us into others, they will be saved because they will gain the Christ who has been imparted into them. Once they contact Christ in this way, they will be thoroughly saved, and they will be in a position where their usefulness to the Lord in their service, function, and coordination to build up the church can eventually surpass ours.
May the Lord speak to all of us so that, on the one hand, our outward enthusiasm and excitement can be reduced, but on the other hand, the fire in our spirit will be actively kindled so that we can deal with sins and the world, with our living in the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, and with our living before God and in God. This will result in the Holy Spirit’s coming upon us and filling us outwardly so that the burden of the gospel may be released from within us.
Gospel preaching is not merely an outward activity. It is a matter of allowing the divine fire to burn within us. It is not a matter of outward excitement but of allowing God to gain our inner being. It is not motivated by something outward but is an inward rising up because we are filled with the Lord as our burden inwardly and with the Holy Spirit outwardly. Thus, the gospel is preached by a group of people who are the testimony of the gospel. What we bear is what we are filled with. When we sing, speak, contact others, lead others to pray, or visit others, we are full of Christ, and we allow Him to flow like an electrical current out from us and into others. This is the church’s preaching of the gospel.
