Expecting God to Work Through His Word, Part II

Expecting God To Work Through His Word Part 2

1 Thessalonians 2:13

For our guests, we are in a series entitled Expect God. Throughout Bible God calls to believe, have faith, confidence, and trust. We are pursuing an atmosphere of expectancy in God that honors God. This morning I want to continue our look at the work of God through His word. Paul commends the Thessalonians because when they heard God's word they accepted it as the word of God and not the word of men. Paul says that God's word is effectively at work - the Greek word is energeo - in the lives of believers. Last week we considered two ways: God reveals Himself as God in His word, and 2) Guides us in the truth through His word.Today I want us to consider the authority of God's word.

I. The authority of God's word

The Bible claims to be the inspired word of God- and actually a better translation would be expired - breathed out by God. In a way that we can't fully understand God breathed out the words through the human vessels in a way that did not violate their personalities or will, yet preserved God's perfect and infallible word without human error or fallibility.

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:21

God is a God who speaks and commands with authority:

 Genesis God spoke the worlds into being with commands: let there be light, let there be an expanse, let the earth sprout vegetation...
 Gave Adam and Eve one command: not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good/evil.
 Gave Moses the law. 10 commandments.
 When prophets said, "thus says the Lord" it was to be heard & obeyed as the word of the Lord.
 Jesus amazed people cause didn't teach like the religious leaders- taught with authority.
 In the Great Commission Jesus says that all authority in heaven and earth had been given to Him, therefore commissions disciples to GO! Making disciples by teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded them.
 In 2 Tim 3:16-17 Paul writes of the inspiration and the authority of scripture:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 2 Tim. 3:16-17 (ESV)

God's word is not filled with timid suggestions or principles that suggest to us how to live better lives. It gets in our face with its claim on our lives! It reproves, rebukes, corrects, trains, instructs and equips- all with authority. The bible speaks with the full authority of God. Love it or hate it, that's its claim. It's offensive to some - but to water down the claim of God's word to be authoritative simply distorts and twists God's word into something it isn't. Scripture lays a claim upon every life - claim of Creator upon creature.
Paul speaks of the effective work of God's word in those who believe - central to that characteristic must be the belief in the authority of God's word - isn't that what Paul is saying when he says they have accepted it, not as the word of man, but as it really is - the word of God?

Accepting authority means we sit under the word when we read or hear. It judges us, evaluates us, reveals us, instructs us. Segments of the church question the authority of God's word, setting itself as the judges and evaluators of God's word, debating and rejecting what they don't want to believe. Not rightly believing and there will be in little evidence the energeo of the Bible. It is in church where the Bible is accepted and its authority held to tightly that the word works powerfully in the church. The same is true individually - in life of a Christian.

Healthy churches hold to the authority of the word. Period. Two things are true of healthy churches where the word of God is working powerfully:

a. The Church loves and joyfully submits to God's authority

Because we are born in sin, we are born into enmity against God and with an inbred hatred of His authority.

If you are a parent, you know what it's like to pick up a baby who is crawling somewhere they shouldn't be, only to have them scream and arch their back. That baby is sending a clear message: you don't tell me what to do! You are interrupting its fun. Obviously that child needs the authority of parent in its life or won't survive - that baby could be crawling toward a busy street and you could be saving its life - but in its eyes it's ready to rule its own life and choices. When my son Jared was a young toddler, if he didn't get his way, sometimes he would throw himself down on the ground and start pounding his head on the ground. It was painful to watch!

We are born with sinful arch in our backs against authority of God. That back arching against God's authority began in the garden of Eden long ago. When the serpent whispered in Eve's ear "did God really say..." what he was doing was questioning the goodness of God's authority. God said not to do something, but why? Serpent whispered, "God said you'd die - but you won't die, God knows if you eat of that fruit, you're eyes will be opened and you'll be like God. Withholding something good from you."
The serpent isn't questioning whether God is God -  he's questioning whether God is good. And we've been questioning ever since. See, at the heart of the fall is the throwing off of God's authority, and at the heart of the gospel is the joyful acceptance of God's authority.

When Jesus came, he came preaching the kingdom of God - the rulership of God come to earth. And he did what Adam failed to do - he submitted himself totally to the authority of God - he obeyed his Father perfectly. Jesus said in Jn 14:31 "I do as my Father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father." He perfectly obeyed - not out of fear, but out of love - it makes the statement that the Father is good and His commands are best.

So when he gave himself up to be crucified it wasn't for anything he had done - there was no rebellion he had to pay for. He did it to fully please his Father, so his death was sufficient to pay for the sins of all those who would trust in him. On the cross Jesus was made to be sin - not that he sinned in any way, but he perfectly represented our sin - he hung there representing the most rebellious, God-hating, self-ruling, sinful person who ever lived, for he carried all our sin on his shoulders. We will never know what is was for the beloved and obedient Son - he who knew no sin - to become sin for us.

Soldiers pounded a crown of thorns on his head to mock him, but it has a profound meaning. At it's deepest, sin is usurping of God's rule in our lives and replacing it with our own rule. Crown represented our self-coronation, the making of ourselves as king of our lives rather than God as king of our lives. That what sin is - rejection of God as our authority and the installation of ourselves as our own ruler.

But the crown of self-rule is a crown of thorns: a barren landscape full of misery, despair, and death.

We find out that the serpent deceived us. We have put ourselves in the place of God, but we are not God and we are not good - and the fruit of our rebellion against God and self-rule is a crown of thorns and a kingdom of misery and death.

But those who believe in Christ and His work on cross will receive a crown of life. Because Jesus once again is our King, and he is a good king and his kingdom is a kingdom of life, we are crowned with life!

Jesus says, "If you love me you will keep my commands." If we love Jesus, we will love His authority in our lives! The apostle John says that His commands are not burdensome. Commands are not burdensome - they are sweet to our soul! God's authority is good - He is a good ruler, and the Christian is to love and submit to authority.

The Christian is to love and joyfully submit to God's authority for it is good, and His commands lead to life. We are to tremble at His word, but as John Piper says, it is a sweet trembling, for we know that God is for us and His commands are all for our best. We can say with the Psalmist:

I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! Psalm 119:32

...I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.
48I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love,
and I will meditate on your statutes. Psalm 119:47-48 (ESV)

For the non-Christian

Whether you believe it or not, God is your Creator and He claims authority over your life. What you need to know is He doesn't command you to do something for God, but to believe in what God has done for you through Jesus Christ. We cannot save ourselves by obeying God; we can only be saved by trusting in the perfect atonement purchased by Jesus on that bloody tree. This is the work of God: to believe on him whom He has sent.

b. God's word is the authority in directing and defining the church's beliefs, practices and experiences

The goal of this series is to strengthen our faith and expectancy of God's powerful move. We are asking God to pour out His Spirit on us in a fresh way and praying for a spiritual awakening in this area. Believe God is still doing powerful things in the earth and in His church. Where the church believes for little and prays little prayers, God will do little. We need to be asking God for specific and big things. But all of that needs to be built on and submitted to the authority of God's Word.

When the church veers from God's word - it veers into dangerous spiritual ground rife with deception and
spiritual harm to its followers. God's word must be the authoritative word. God's Word nterprets our experience, not the other way around.

I watched a video of a revival going on. I noticed an emphasis I have noticed for years and years in the charismatic circles and I don't believe it's a healthy thing: emphasis on visions, dreams, grand proclamations from God on the "newest thing" He is about to do in the church. People who go from year to year feeding on these proclamations of the new thing God is going to do. On charismatic writer observes insightfully:

Isaiah 43:19 has taken on a life of its own in the Charismatic Movement, unfortunately. We've become the Cult of the New Thing. ... I believe this [is] highly dangerous given the movement's willingness to quickly jump on bandwagons that later hurtle off cliffs, hurting many along the way. We in the Charismatic Movement have become addicted to new experiences, be they biblical or not.

An astonishing lack of biblical discernment dogs the 21st century Charismatic Movement. We accept any and all "moves of God" simply because something "new" is happening. Yet too many times those moves attempt to add something to the finished work of Jesus, and that should disturb all of us who consider ourselves charismatics.~ Dan Edelen

Read these amazing verses: Jer. 23:25-29

Even then there were so-called prophets generating from within themselves great spiritual excitement. I had a dream! I had a dream! And of course those dreams said what people wanted to hear. But they had not stood in the council of the Lord. Prophesied lies in the Lord's name.

Word of God has spiritual substance: wheat - feeds and nourishes the soul. Not chaff that has no substance and simply blows away. Power to prevail like a hammer, the power to purify like fire.

When a desire for experience (or for the new) outruns our commitment to God's Word - leave ourselves vulnerable to spiritual deception. Does not please God. God's work is never apart from Word. Word is at work - energeo - in those who believe. Real thing. Hammer, fire, wheat.

God's word is the authority that directs and defines all we believe, practice and experience. Important to keep that central in this message series. That's what we're after. That's what we want to expect.

Application points

1. Love God's authority! The lie that God's authority is not good is forever silenced at the cross where the King died for His subjects, even while they were His enemies.
2. When you read God's word, place your life under it's authority. Posture you heart to obey.
3. Love preaching! Preaching is different than sharing or even teaching God's word. Declaring with authority of word. Pierce the heart with claim of God's word upon lives. Church was birthed through preaching. John the Baptist preached. Jesus preached. Peter preached. Paul preached.
 Emergent church - move away from preaching. Share and discuss.
 Historically one of the marks of church has always been word is preached.

4. Respect authority. Tell children one of ways they obey God is to obey mom and dad. Great disrespect for authority in our culture, not biblical attitude. Kids to parents, wives with husbands, church to pastoral leadership, employees to employers, citizens to civic authority. Bible never says submit only if authority is good. Unless they ask you to sin, are to respect and submit to authority God has place in life - for all authority is set in place by God.