This sermon emphasizes the importance of reflecting the glory of Jesus in our lives by being absorbed in His peace, joy, and love. It challenges listeners to seek a living, intimate relationship with the risen Christ, allowing His majesty to transform their attitudes, actions, and demeanor. The message calls for a revival in the church, urging believers to be eternity-conscious, holy, and fully surrendered vessels for God's work.

Go back and see why they should be so happy. Verse 1, They spake to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them. Now you've got the whole load on your back. The priests, the captain of the temple, the Sadducees. And then over in verse 5, you have the rulers and the scribes. Verse 6, Annas the high priest, and Cephas, and John, and Alexander, and many as of the kindred of the high priest, they were gathered together. And when they had set them in the midst, fancy facing that gang, how would you feel? If you were ushered into the high court, and you saw all the big shots there, and you knew that your life was hanging on a thread, would we have boldness? When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, verse 3 says, they laid their hands on them and put them in hold for the next day, for it was eventide. How many of them which heard the word believed? Glory to God. Isn't that preaching? That when you lock the preachers up, the revival still goes? If your revival isn't working in your church, get the sheriff to come and arrest the preacher. Stick him in jail and see if he comes round. You know, the tragic thing about us today is the world can put up with us. It couldn't put up with the early church. The early church was going that way, the world was going that. Now we're running side by side, and God knows, nobody knows. There's no line of demarcation. We're as greedy as the world, as fashionable as the world. We want a place in the sun with our jealousy, our envy, our pride. These men were destitute of all that. Why? Because they gazed on the risen Christ of God. And even though they'd been in jail for days, it didn't brush off. They couldn't be intimidated, no matter what you said to them. They'd seen Jesus. And ungodly men said, there's only one reason why these men are like this, they're like their master, we couldn't intimidate their master. We tried to threaten him, we tried to destroy him, we pushed him over the edge, I tried to push him over the edge of the cliff, and he was as calm as could be. We got men to scream for his death, and he was still the prince of peace, he was still placid. And these men have the same kind of spirit in them. They didn't just take notice of them, look what it says, in the middle of verse 13, they marveled. They marveled, they were astonished, they were dumbfounded. They were saying under their breath, what in God's name is the secret of these men? They're no better than when we put them in jail, their hair hasn't changed a different color, they're not six inches taller, they don't look stronger. They had a living intimate relationship with the risen Son of God, that's why. Preachers argue about what happened in the upper room, no argument about it. Common sense. What does it say, the end of Luke, where it says that when they saw Jesus risen, what did they do? They went roaring back to the temple, filled with ecstasy, filled with joy. Do you think they stopped? I think that ten days that they waited, the last ten days in the upper room, was the most ecstatic meeting that had ever been in the history of the world. I believe it exceeded the joy of Moses when he got all Israel to sing, the horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea. They knew the devil's power was broken. They'd seen Jesus going up, he says, I'll go up there to my Father, and when I get there I'll make perfect your imperfect praying. I think in the upper room they were saying, he's there, he's there at the right hand of the Father, if we just pray, he'll just communicate with the Father. He said, I go to prepare a place for you, he's got angels busy getting your mansion ready. So why worry? They'd lost all fear of men, they'd lost all fear of death, they'd lost all fear of consequences. They lived in this world as though they were already in the next world. Well, isn't that what it's about? Why do you say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, not on earth, in earth, I am earth, I'm of the earth earthy. And the kingdom of God can start now, that's where it starts, not right after I die. I read the other day somewhere about, they buried a man, what did it say, they buried a man yesterday. Or so-and-so died yesterday, and they buried him, and somebody who knew him said he died 45 years ago. He'd been no good for 45 years, he wasted his life. Are you dead or are you alive tonight? If they bury you tomorrow, would you say, well that man's already been dead about three years? Now there are two classes of people in the world, not rich and poor, not black and white, not bond slaves and free men, just two kinds. Those who are dead in sin, and those who are dead to sin. There's no other cloud. But either dead in trespasses and in sin, or that miracle has taken place in us which has taken place in some of these men, in fact all of them. It says in Ephesians 2, doesn't it, the first verse, ye did in time past, time past, something's happened. In time past you ought to go into the prince of this world, the power of this world, the prince of the power of the air. And yet at the end of that very, very, very same chapter, it says ye are the habitation of God. You can't show me a miracle in the world greater than that. A man is the habitation of fear, the habitation of sins, bondage to habits, and God gets hold of him, kicks the devil out of his life and fills him with God? You know, if we gazed every day on the majesty of the risen Son of God, you'd never backslide, you'd never be afraid, you'd never get depressed. After all, everything's going our way because it's gone his way. They took knowledge of it, they marveled at that. Oh Lord, I'm waiting for us some Sunday, I'm expecting the glory of God to come. We'll walk out of the sanctuary with a different attitude entirely, a revolutionized personality, a consciousness that even now with two feet on earth, I can be in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's what Paul says, we're seated with him. And that's where these disciples were. I went to a little Bible college, I've told you, with 35 students. No girls, they're too distracting. Both before and after marriage, but anyhow. 35 young men, and I sat here and there's a picture of a saintly man here. At one time president of the Methodist Church and president of the college before I get there, his name was Thomas Cook. He wrote a very fine book on holiness which is still printed these days. I used to look up at that when I couldn't answer questions, it didn't help me at all. But he had a marvelous saintly face. And he used to go around the village churches. And one day a little girl went, the old-fashioned way, you know, they used to have a butcher's shop where all they sold was meat. You won't remember those days, you go to supermarkets. You see half a cow here and half a pig there and other pigs outside, but anyhow, then you saw the butcher's meat. And this little girl was restless and the butcher said, now Mary, come on, you're usually so quiet. Now don't step out of line, dear, but, but what? Oh, she said, we're having a visitor at the manse, as they call the pastor's house. Having a visitor at the manse this week. Well, don't you have visitors almost every week? Yes. What's the difference this week? Oh, they've taken the furniture out on the lawn and they've been beating it and beating the manse. And the little girl was 14 and she said, you know, sir, they're making such a fuss, as we say in England, getting excited so much, you'd think Jesus himself was coming. And the butcher laughed and said, well, Annie, that's a nice little thing to say. Next week she went to the butcher's and he said, well, Annie, how are you? She said, he's been. Who's been? I told you last week they were making such a commotion at the house, you'd think Jesus was coming. Well, he came, his name is Thomas Cook. Isn't that nice? The same man was going on a ship off the west coast of Africa. They pulled out from Spain and gone down the coast there. And the first night he was out, he went through the saloon where men were drinking and smoking and playing cards. And suddenly everybody grabs their cards and put them under the table. Did you notice that? Yeah, sure did. I've been on this trip many times. What happened? Everybody grabbed their cards, stuck their pipes underneath. Why did they do it? One man said, well, could you do anything less with a face like that that came through the saloon? He had a face like the Prince of Peace. There was engraved on him, there was a majesty about him, there was something in his walk, something in his talk, something in his actions. And everybody took notice of him that he lived with Jesus. He did because he spent hours every day in the presence of Jesus. They took knowledge of him. Within the veil his fragrance poured upon thee, without the veil that fragrance shed abroad. Within the veil his hand shall tune the music which sounds on earth the praises of thy God. There's something wrong. I think you said today, when you were at the Vanity Fair the other day, Christian Booksellers Association, which is two doors from Babylon. Isn't it something when you have Christians with dogs, little coats on, dogs, Jesus saved, and shirt buttons that have Jesus and other rotten stuff? The man said, well, it's the only testimony some people have. Well, why not get them saved? That's the only testimony they have? Boy, if your button comes off, has anybody seen my testimony around here? That'd be terrible. The whole thing was Babylon. They had little stuffed dogs with Jesus on them. That's degrading. It's Babylon as far as I'm concerned. Do we have to wear a badge, a sign that the living Christ is in us? Isn't there a dignity about our language, about our attitude? I don't care if you're a deacon or a beacon or what in the world you are. I won't ask your friend what kind of a person you are. I'll slip up to the back door when you're away and ask your wife how you live. Do you get wild? Do you get angry? Do you get distressed? Or do you live as calmly as Jesus would under those circumstances? After all, he has no other lights to shine in the world except you and I. Reflecting is in a mirror. Do you know how to get a mirror so it won't work? Smear it with grease. You don't have to put an inch thick. Just smear it with your hand. It always has oil on it. And the mirror immediately disfigures the reflection. And if there's something in your life of bitterness and strife and envy, or some other thing, the image will be marred. The image of God that should be in us, restored by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and by the abiding Spirit of the Holy Ghost. You see, God only has one class for his people, only one, and that's holiness. I didn't write it. I like that verse in Hebrews, where it says that we, we, we, we, on this earth, while we're here, as the hymn writer says, in this body pent or tied up, we, while we're here on earth, are supposed to be as holy as Jesus Christ was when he was on earth. He didn't die to leave us, moral cripples, leaping around or staggering and falling and stumbling. The ordinary course of the Christian life is victory from morning, time you get up to the time you go to bed. It isn't that we can't sin, it's that we don't want to sin. It's not that it's impossible to sin, it's possible not to sin. There's a big difference. About Jesus Christ expects that you and I to be little Christ while we're here in this world. Reflecting the moral and spiritual glory of God in the face, and not just our physical face, but in our display to other people as they read us, as they see us. We don't need veils on our faces, we don't have enough glory. But it should be that the glory of God is reflected in our demeanor, in our actions, in our attitudes, in our personality. There's nothing more revolutionary than the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ made real in us, putting to death the old man and putting on the new man, and then being indwelt by the Spirit of God. That's not super, that's the normal Christian life. Again, it's not impossible to sin, it's possible not to sin. What a difference when Moses was there in the presence of God, and God was angry, he came down livid with anger, so much so that he threw the stones down, and he broke the Ten Commandments. But in the next chapter it's altogether different. He's a different Moses. When he comes down this time, his face isn't blood-red with anger, his face is radiating a holy God. The reflection of eternity is in the face of the man, and the people are speechless at him, no wonder. You know, if we ever get into the fullness of the blessing, the neighbors will wonder what in the world is wrong with us. I think about half a dozen going down a dark street one night, the street would light up. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm hoping it will work anyhow. It should be that we change the atmosphere in any place that we go to. The Quakers used to say that. You remember that, dear brother, Dale? They used to say, a man is his own atmosphere. If you're on fire for God, you can go into a frozen atmosphere, and it will change like that. If you're holy, the atmosphere will change. You'll send some waves through that audience, because they know the holiness of God is there. And it doesn't reflect on me, it reflects on him, not me. No, we don't have to put veils on our faces. It should be the normal reaction of our lives, that the grace of God is in his, on us to its fullness, that everybody knows every time they see us. There's an evenness. You know, you see some people one day, they have a smile like this. Excuse me, not quite as big, but anyhow, it's from ear to ear nearly. And another day you see them and say, morning, you know. And you think, they're in mourning, if it's really true what we sang tonight. My sin o'er the bliss of this glorious thought, it doesn't have dominion over me, I have it under my feet by the grace of God. All the vain things that charm me most have gone away, the vain things charm me most and help me least. It should be that when we go into an atmosphere that people welcome us, not of our station in life, not that we're wealthy or brilliant, because the grace of God is there, and they know that we're people of sound speech, not critical speech, not unkind speech, but holy speech. They took knowledge of them. The hierarchy, the big shots, religious leaders, the other leaders, and these little nobodies come up and they take notice of them and say, you don't see men like this every day. What's the quality of them? What's the quality of their living? And somebody says they've been with Jesus. Just one thing, I remember when we lived just outside of Manchester, that's a place to live. It's one of the darkest towns in England, one of the wettest, it seems to rain every day. And I'd been visiting and boy, it was a pretty miserable day, I was pretty wet. I saw a bus coming and I flagged the fellow down and when I got in, oh mercy, it was overbearing with perfume. It was just fantastic. And then the lady put up her money, the fellow goes down the middle corridor of the bus and you'd hand him your money, and this lady raised her hand and she had a red cuff on a blue thing like this. And she gave her money and as she did, I suddenly realized, you know, some of you guys have some stuff called English leather and it's made at the factory where the bus started and those women had been in that atmosphere all the day. And just as you go home, where have you been? I was on the plane and they were all smoking and it penetrates your clothes. These women had been in that atmosphere, they hadn't put it on but the clothing absorbed it and they were all sitting there in the bus and when I got out of that dirty atmosphere in Manchester, which is a dull atmosphere, and stepped in, it was as fragrant as a garden. It didn't shout, it didn't say look, it spoke for itself. It should be the grace of Jesus Christ, the gentleness and meekness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know, maybe I'll... Will David be here next week? Paul? Well, you'll have a good preacher. One of my sons may be here and he can be preaching. So I'll get the night off. I won't get paid but that's all right. But David always reminds me of that scripture, the gentleness and meekness of Jesus Christ. He was the most nervous boy I think I'd ever seen in my life till the Lord got hold of him and saved him and filled him with the Spirit. Now he's co-pastor in a church of 1,600 every Sunday morning and another 600 in Sunday school running at the same time. God has used him around the world. He's on a trip around now. I say that not to boast of my son, though there's nothing boasting about him I guess. But because if you think it couldn't happen to me, it can. Listen, it's not what you can bring to God that matters, it's what God can bring to you. You've got to be a clean vessel, a purge vessel. You're not wanting to be somebody and hang your hat up with a great preacher or get some society behind your name but just totally glorify him and say I want to sit in your presence until the very fragrance of eternity comes into my being, into my thinking, into my acting, into my talking, into my demeanor. Just like the fragrance got into the clothing of those women. Well, what's this all got to do with praying? Well, if you see the glory of a God like that in all his majesty, you'll have more confidence in prayer, at least you should. I do. I think of that bunch of failures, they almost all let Jesus down and now they're standing up against... You see, the greatest miracle was not Peter and John healing the cripple at the gate of the temple, it's a miracle in John and Peter. Peter that ran away from the finger of a girl and now he stands up against the big hierarchy, the big shots. And he points the finger and says, you crucified the Lord in glory but him hath God raised up. Come on, Jesus has nothing else to do, he's done everything he can for the church. It's just that we have to enter in and we enter in by humility. We enter in by recognizing, again, our weakness and yet his majesty. What the church has had up to this point hasn't shaken the world. And if we go on like this, it'll take a thousand years to get the world turned around and we won't do it then because we're working on the same old formula. We have to behold his glory, we have to behold his majesty, we have to behold him risen in all his glorious power and then let this be absorbed in our lives that people take knowledge of us, not by what we dress or the car we drive, but they take knowledge of us we've been with Jesus. I get bored to death when I'm in places, no matter how nice and smart they are, how big the house is, if the conversation is about Jesus, it's wasting time. When we travel, I don't travel much, I travel seldom. When we go, every time we go, it's an Emmaus journey. Even if it isn't a Cadillac, you have to make the best of it. And you can sing and praise and magnify the Lord. Come on, there's not much time left. I said a phrase, I intended to say it the other night. How many of you were there the night I preached on David and Betty, you weren't there, that was the night the glory came. Not because you weren't there. I preached on the judgment seat the other night, how many were there? Some of you, oh good. Wasn't it a gracious meeting? I've preached that a hundred times, but never with as much joy and anointing I think as that night. But one thing I forgot to say, there'll be no maturing after we die. I believe as a tree falls, it lies. I don't think a million years in eternity will make a bit of difference to your standing there or your maturity. All the maturity is here. And that's a very serious thing. There's not much time for many of us, any of us really. And to think that between here and there, that once the thread of life snaps, I'm not going to be maturing. God has given me all I need for maturity in this book. And no man, however tall he was, however strong he was, however great he was, in the kingdom of God ever had more than I have in this book. He just absorbed more of it. He dwelt on it more, he meditated on it. Moses could have run away, oh I've seen the glory of God. He stays there, he isn't caring what's happening. What if they're making another golden calf? Forget it, he says, I'm absorbed with God's glory, with God's majesty, with God's beauty. And if you say God like that, you won't care a hill of beans if somebody leaves you out of some special function they have. They didn't invite you to a wedding or invite you somewhere else. It won't make a bit of difference. The more I'm absorbed in him, the less I care about the things round about. I want to be eternity conscious. I want to be God conscious. I'm going to eternity not for the weekend. If you are, well go, but I'm not going with you. I'm going into his eternal presence forever. So what if I suffer a little? What if I'm not liked? People don't like my preaching. They say, I don't like your preaching. I say, shake hands. I don't like it either. You won't get one over me saying that. It could be a lot better. Maybe it could be worse too. Come on, we're eternity bound people. Are we absorbing all there is in the risen Christ of God? Is your life reflecting his peace, his peace, his joy, his love? It's all there to be absorbed by us. My peace I live with. Not peace, my peace. Joy? No, my joy. No man taketh it from you. Take everything else. Take the shirt off your back. Take the money out of your pocket. Take your friends. You can't take your joy. Joy, he says, your joy. No man taketh it from you. Read the 16th chapter of John. It's his joy, the joy that dominated his life, under pressure, when they threatened him, when they would have killed him. But he was dominated by joy, by peace. And I leave you my peace, by joy. And his joy was doing the will of the Father. This is his legacy to his disciples. Did any king die as poor as Jesus? He didn't have any houses he could share. He didn't have any horses to lead them. He didn't have any money. He says, I'll give you my peace. I'll give you my joy. These are worth a million, million times the other things you have. And if I'm living in less than that, I'm not living where God wants me. And if I'm not living there, I won't reflect his glory. I won't reflect his beauty. Ah, yes. And while we're rejoicing, there's a world outside perishing. The more I see of him, the more I hate sin. The more I see of him, the more I long that what Jesus died for will be accomplished in my generation. It hasn't been accomplished in any other. You've got the greatest chance in the world to make history. And you'll only do it when you're cleansed and filled with the Spirit of God. We're going to pray. If you wish to go, you're free to go as we kneel to pray. We leave the service open-ended because so often we've... Let me find the watch I borrowed. I don't know whose watch was it. Don't all put your hands up. Whose watch was this, some brother? Catch. No. Pass it over to him, please. Thank you so much. It didn't help me too much, but anyhow. Let's pray. We're praying for revival in this community as well as other places. We're praying for revival in your church. I felt there was real blessing down there at, what do you call it, Rose Heights? Church of God. There's a lovely spirit, a very precious man there. I learned to love him in the few nights I was there. And I ask you to pray for that church as well, that the glory will come. I don't care where the fire falls, but it must fall somewhere. So feel free. If you're not in the Spirit, if you say my life doesn't reflect the glory of Jesus, well, cough out what's wrong. Is it pride? Is it envy? What is it? Stubbornness? Jealousy? What is it? Don't say, bless me, Lord, kill this thing in me. Go to the cross. And die. And get resurrection life. So now we're going to pray. And as I say, you're free to leave anytime you like. Thanks, Jesus.