Expecting The Power of The Spirit

Expecting The Power of the Spirit

Acts 1:4-9

Luke opens up the book of Acts by writing that in his gospel he wrote of all that Jesus began to do and teach, up to day when Jesus was taken up into heaven. But wait a minute - how can Luke say he wrote of what Jesus began to do? Didn't Jesus cry out on the cross, "It is finished?"

If Jesus finished the work, in what sense did He only begin the work? In what sense is the work of Christ incomplete?

The answer is that the sufficiency of Christ's work to redeem fallen man was completed on cross. Nothing could be added to that work. It alone is sufficient to save sinful man. But the application of Christ's work was now just beginning - that good news of God's grace in Christ needed to be preached to all the world.

Now as the resurrected Jesus spends last moments on earth with His disciples before He ascends, He leaves them with that mission - take this good news to the ends of the earth! It is the Great Commission. The are to go - but before they go, Jesus tells them they need to wait for power.

These are men who have walked with Jesus and lived with Jesus for three years, have heard his teaching, beheld his sinless and perfect life, watched Him heal the sick, cast out demons and do miracles - even had the opportunity to do some of that themselves - yet they are not ready. Even with all that they would not be able to fulfill the work Jesus was giving them. They needed the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not optional - it is impossible for them to do the great work Jesus had given them without the power of Spirit.

The church needs power.

The church today needs the power of the Holy Spirit every bit as much today as then. We can have meetings and run programs and do stuff without the power of the Spirit, but we cannot do the work Jesus gave us apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. Charles Spurgeon writes:

"Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots without steeds. Like branches without sap, we are withered. Like coals without fire, we are useless."

Useless! Without the power of the Holy Spirit, churches will see little of the work that Jesus commissioned the church to do. We are like the disciples rowing the boat against the wind and waves and getting nowhere. When Jesus appeared he calmed the winds and waves and they quickly came to shore. We can be like disciples and think: just got to row harder. A little more effort. A little more energy...

The Lord has been showing me recently different ways that I have been guilty of this very attitude. Maybe I'm pressed for time to get ready for a ministry context, whether a meeting or a sermon or counseling or something else and I feel like I don't have time to pray because I need to prepare. Now we need both - preparation and prayer. But what this reveals is I have more confidence in preparation than in prayer. It is so easy for me when pressure comes to feel like I need to row harder - can't take time to pray. I show that I have more confidence in myself than in God.

Maybe you're in a situation like that right now. Rowing with all your might - getting nowhere. Hear this voice: don't have time to stop rowing and pray. The currents are too strong - you'll lose ground if you stop to pray.

Churches can fall into same mindset. Start this program or that program to address some need when what we really need most is the power of the Spirit to fall. There's nothing wrong with programs -God can use them. God uses means. It's good to have a boat. It's good to row. But we need the power of Spirit to get us where Jesus has called us to go.

What does the power of the Spirit do?

What does that mean? What does the power of the Spirit do? How does His power manifest itself in the church? I think a lot think of large crusade services where people are falling after being prayed for, others shake or laugh or experience some other physical manifestation. I remember one preacher who would wave his microphone in the direction of whole groups of standing people and they would fall. It was pretty theatrical - he could just point and folks would drop.

Think of enhanced church services where "God shows up and people are blessed."

But is that primarily what Jesus has in mind when He speaks of the Holy Spirit's power? Not saying the Lord can't or doesn't do these things, but it seems that when we compare these images of power to the book of Acts, we are talking about very different things.

It's all become very ingrown - the power of Spirit is all about Christians experiencing unusual blessings.
Honest, vulnerable to excess and even charlatans who exploit Christian's thirst for powerful encounters with God by manufacturing the illusion of power in their services. The
world looks in on services and is not impressed - mocks. Some stuff is worthy of being mocked. Let's be honest, some of it is just weird. Weird. Freaky.

The power of the Spirit as evidenced in book of Acts doesn't make for revival services in the upper room - it explodes the disciples out of the upper room to the streets with a power that sees thousands get saved in one day, and the world turned upside down in a few years.

We need to recapture a bigger understanding of the power of God than just looking for certain manifestations like falling down or shaking or even being healed.

Before we think about what the power does, we need to think about Who the power is: the Holy Spirit.

Gordon Fee describes the Holy Spirit as God's Empowering Presence. He is the active and empowering Presence of God in our midst. Through the Holy Spirit, God the Father is in our midst. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ is with us as we gather in His name. The Holy Spirit is the active Presence of God in the church.

After the Israelites sinned against God by making and worshipping a golden calf, God told Moses to go up to the land that God had promised, but that God's presence would not go with him or the Israelites. Moses intercedes and says,

If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth? Ex. 33:15-16
For Moses, the marker of their being a distinct people belonging to God was God's presence being with them. God relented and declared He would go with them. The marker for God's people today is God's empowering presence going with us.

So the power we see in Acts (and in the church throughout history) manifests in many different ways - speaking in tongues, boldness to preach to masses, thousands being saved in one day, healings, miracles, prison doors being opened, confidence in the face of threats, joy in the face of death.

All of these displayed this glorious truth: God is with His people in power. There was great joy among Christians and awe and wonder in those who observed them. And Christ was exalted.

So what does the Spirit of God empower us to do?

Simply this: the impossible. Not the difficult. Not the weird. Impossible. What the Lord calls the church to do cannot be done apart from the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. How's that for motivation?

The impossible call to evangelize.

Last week Alex prayed a prayer that caught my heart: that God would give us the joy of seeing many, many salvations in coming years. One of the things we should ask God for would be that our spiritual legacy as a church might be that many are born into the kingdom of God and become followers of Jesus Christ through our labor.

Do you know how impossible that is? Not difficult, impossible. If we think that if we just have a good presentation and get out there and speak clearly, people will come to Christ then we have no understanding of what it takes to see someone truly saved.

Real conversion by the Holy Spirit is as distinct and radical a change as though an old man were placed in a mill and ground young again. ~ Spurgeon

It's that impossible. Every now and then you will hear of some poor soul who while putting wood into a chipper gets caught and pulled through the chipper. Not that rare. But what I have never heard happen is that one of them came out the other side 15 years younger!

Impossible. So too is our ever saving someone. To raise the spiritually dead takes a power that we in no way possess, any more than we could raise a corpse by our own power. Conversion is as distinct and radical a change as that. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit.

I don't want to discourage us - I want to make us completely desperate. Impossible. It is what He calls us to: You will be my witnesses... (vs. 8), but we need power.

The impossible fight against sin.

We need the power of the Spirit in our fight against sin. Again, not difficult. Impossible.

In 1st Corinthians 6, after listing some specific chains of unrighteousness, Paul writes, and such were some of you...what broke the chains that bound them? But you were washed, you were sanctified (set apart), you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Power of the work of Jesus Christ (power of His name) applied by the Spirit of God. Only power that can cleanse and free the lost sinner from their sin.

But Christian, do we realize that our fight against sin and powers of darkness are also far beyond our strength? Chains of sin are stronger than our ability to free ourselves from it. Before say, "I know, I know", stop and ask yourself, do you really? Really know that the sin that binds you can never be broken by your own strength? You need to turn to God for power.

I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me to speak specifically to someone here held in bondage. Don't know what it is, but I think you will know who you are, and when I say bondage I mean it brings a torment to your soul, but you can't free yourself. Might be pornography, or bitterness, or fear. It doesn't matter what it is, you need to hear and believe.

You can't free yourself. None of us can. Don't be discouraged. Be desperate. You need power.

Reading about some versions of Jaws of Life that can apply 80,000 pounds per square inch of pressure to free entrapped people from cars or collapsed buildings or such. What is impossibly beyond the power of human arms is easily possible for the Jaws of Life.

You need to really believe that the Holy Spirit is the only power that can free us from the chains of sin. He is the Holy Spirit - not the loving Spirit or the Just Spirit, or the Omnipotent Spirit. He is all these things, but He is the Holy Spirit - holiness that best describes Him and where His power is at work, where there is growing holiness. John the Baptist said that Jesus baptizes us in the Spirit and in fire - the purifying effect of the Spirit of God is to refine our soul with His blazing heat.

Come to God in repentance and faith. Come to God and confess your sin - ask God to cleanse you by the blood of Jesus Christ. Yield yourself afresh to Jesus' lordship and recommit yourself to serving Him with your entire life. Ask Holy Spirit to pour out His power upon you to set you free.

Impossible fight against Satan.

But it's not just sin we fight. Our real enemy in Satan - there is real confrontation between kingdom of darkness and kingdom of God. Jesus said that you can't plunder the strong man unless first bind the strong man. There is a confrontation between the kingdoms - and we'd be a fool to fight that in our own strength.

Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

Impossible displays of God's presence with us for the joy of His people and the wonder of the world.

Of the 9 times that the word power is used in Acts, once refers to powerful preaching that leads to thousands being cut to heart and saved. The other eight refer to miracles. In gospel of Luke, the word for power frequently refers to miracle working power. So the disciples would understand that to at least be a part of the power.

God still wants to show Himself powerful among His people. I'm not talking about people falling or shaking or laughing uncontrollably. That has little impact on the world and brings little wonder (sadly, the excesses leave the world mocking). I'm talking about glorious examples of answered prayer, of lives being transformed, of spiritual awakening, of people being healed from diseases. Impossible. Pray for power of Holy Spirit to fall.

I'm talking about smaller but daily displays to the world and to our souls that God is with us like homes being sold after years of being on market and other answers to prayers. God is with us. Like Moses, the church should say, if Your Presence doesn’t go with us don’t send us. How will world know that we belong to Christ? Jesus knew this – why when He sends the disciples on the Great Commission, He also promises, “Lo I am with you even to the end of the age.”

Nothing brings joy to God’s people like knowing God is glorious in our midst! Displays to the world (whether they believe or reject it) that we belong to Christ and that He is the true way.

Where the church receives power: the place of prayer

How does the church receive such power? The answer won’t surprise you: the first church received the power of the Spirit while in the place of prayer and so it is for the church today. The Holy Spirit has already been given – the Christian doesn’t need to “receive” the Spirit. He needs to be filled with Spirit. Filled with power that only the Spirit can give.

We need a fresh wind of His power. As I was working on this in a park, suddenly the wind picked up significantly, and realized, we can’t manufacture the wind – it's tragic when church or crusade tries to manufacture the illusion of power. There is real power – we need to ask God to fill us, to empower us, to show Himself mighty in our midst.

But we are to let our sails down. In faith ask. In faith call upon the Lord. In faith pray.