April 20, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God is Power"

Matthew 27:45-53; Acts 1:4-8

His Powerful Death means Our Powerful Life

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Jay Kesler in Campus Life magazine (Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 2) wrote, There are two ways of handling pressure. One is illustrated by a bathysphere, the miniature submarine used to explore the ocean in places so deep that the water pressure would crush a conventional submarine like an aluminum can. Bathyspheres compensate with plate steel several inches thick, which keeps the water out but also makes them heavy and hard to maneuver. Inside they're cramped. When these craft descend to the ocean floor, however, they find they're not alone. When their lights are turned on and you look through the tiny, thick plate glass windows, what do you see? Fish! These fish cope with extreme pressure in an entirely different way. They don't build thick skins: they remain supple and free. They compensate for the outside pressure through equal and opposite pressure inside themselves. Christians, likewise, don't have to be hard and thick skinned--as long as they appropriate God's power within to equal the pressure without (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
2. Context – We all face pressures every day. Financial pressures, relational pressures, time pressures, pressures caused by health issues – all of these pressures try to cut us off from the wonderful life God has for us to live. Through two passages from the Bible, one before Jesus’ resurrection and one after, God reveals to us the power that He has for us to live above the pressures of life.

1. Scripture Passage

1. Matthew 27:45-53 - From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶ About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ⁴⁷ When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He’s calling Elijah." ⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹ The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him." ⁵⁰ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. ⁵² The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
2. Acts 1:4-8 - On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵ For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." ⁶ So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" ⁷ He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
3. Two incidents which both talk about great power. When Jesus died, enough power was released that it brought dead believers back to life. The fact that it happened was corroborated by the many witnesses who saw these folks both as dead and as alive again. After Jesus rose again, He told His disciples about the power that they would receive because He died and rose again: the power of the Holy Spirit available through faith in Him. C. H. Spurgeon, one of the greatest preachers of all time, wrote, Great messages can be sent along slender wires. The peace-giving witness of the Holy Spirit can reach the heart by means of a threadlike faith which seems almost unable to sustain its own weight. Think more of Him to whom you look than of the look itself. You must look away even from your own looking and see nothing but Jesus and the grace of God revealed in Him (as cited on PreachingToday.com). Spurgeon gives us a clue about how we can take this knowledge of the power of the Holy Spirit from our heads into our hearts, where it will transform our lives.

1. Power for Living

1. It’s really easy for us to look at the Bible and see it as being merely a bunch of rules. But the reality is that the Bible is all about relationship: relationship between God and man. Jesus died to bring us back into relationship with God, and that power that was released at His death was relational power – it brought people who knew God personally back to life so that they could invest themselves in relationships with others to bring them to God. And the power the Holy Spirit brings into our lives is relational power – power to bring us into close relationship with God, and power to transform our relationships with other people. We’ve seen the before and after, but what about the middle? What happens to make the power of the Holy Spirit real in our lives? The answer, once again, is relationship.
2. As I was praying and seeking God about how to communicate this power and how it can become real in our hearts and lives on a daily basis, He revealed my own heart to me. He showed me those areas where His power works and those areas where His power is still cleaning me out. And He revealed to me that the key to appropriating that relational power in our lives every day is the same key that He showed me before the start of this year. So please don’t tune me out when I say this again – if we’re going to see the power of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts and lives, we’ve got to center on three aspects of our relationship with God and with others: prayer, Bible study, and accountability.
3. Prayer is perhaps the most significant activity we can involve ourselves in. And the more we pray, the more we change. The more we pray, the more God can use us. E. M. Bounds, in Power through Prayer, wrote, We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God's method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.... What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use—men of prayer, mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but man—men of prayer. And let’s not think that this is some commentary on the church growth fads of the last twenty years – Bounds wrote this book over forty years ago. What was true forty years ago was also true two thousand years ago. The apostles and those with them didn’t receive the power of the Holy Spirit until they had spent considerable time in prayer. And, as the book of Acts records it, they prayed often and hard in order to keep that power. If we want to see God’s power work in our hearts and lives, we’ve got to pray. Not two minute prayers thrown up here and there, although those have their place. But prayer that is intense and focused, prayer that costs us emotional and even physical energy. Prayer like that changes us, and empowers us to change our world. If you don’t like who you are and what you’re doing, pray. Pray for God’s will, not yours. Pray for God’s kingdom, not yours. I know that prayer had changed me. I know I am not the same person I was before I joined accountability groups and began increasing my daily prayer commitment. There are days when those prayer times are very dry, but I keep at it. There are days when those prayer times leave me weeping and crying out and praising God. I know prayer has changed me. I’m not sure how in some areas, but I know I am a different person than I was before I started taking prayer seriously. And the most effective prayers I pray are those that focus on Who God is and how He can and will impact our hearts, our lives, and our world. That’s how we all need to pray.
4. Prayer changes us and helps our relationship with God, but the only way we can know Who He is, is through studying the Bible. We run a very serious danger. We have a tendency to focus on how we feel, even the most logical of us. Even Mr. Spock on Star Trek eventually got in touch with his emotional side. So if we allow our feelings to run away in our prayer times, we lose sight of the Truth, Jesus Christ. So much of the time when I pray I begin to become emotionally involved in the issue, and I want consequences to be changed, and I want God to change Who He is and how His character works, and so I begin to get off base. God’s Word, the Bible, keeps me in line when I pray. It helps me understand Who God is and how He works in the world, and the kind of person He wants to change me to be. Otherwise it would be too easy to just do whatever I want to do and say, "Whenever God wants to deal with this issue in my life is fine, but I’m gonna just keep on doing it until He does!" We all say that from time to time. The Bible tells me what is expected of me, and what I can expect of God. It tells me about people just like me who have had their lives turned around by God. It tells me about character traits that God will help me pursue so I can be more like Him. And it tells me how much power He wants to release in my heart and life. That’s great news! I’ve heard it said before, and I’ve said it myself, that "I just can’t understand the Bible. I just can’t get into it." Get a different translation! There are lots of good English translations of the Bible like the New International, or the New Living, or the Updated New American Standard, or The Message. We have no excuses, unless we just plain don’t want to change. You see, prayer and Bible study have changed me, and they will change you, if you let God use them to change you. Do you want to see the power of the Holy Spirit work mightily in your life? Spend quality time in prayer and in the Word.
5. The third one is what I believe is the toughest one for us. Accountability. I hate it! Getting up Wednesdays at four-thirty and having to look those guys in the eye and be honest just grates on something inside of me. Sending out those email reports to other pastors who are a lot more disciplined in my weak areas just grates on that something inside of me. Being honest and open and transparent and vulnerable with people who love me in this church just grates on that something inside of me. That something inside of me is my sinful nature trying to resurrect from the last time Jesus slammed it down. So why in the world do it? Why be open? Why be honest? Why be vulnerable? Why submit to someone else’s authority? After all, I am the pastor. For two reasons. First, I know very well the evil I am capable of. I know that in a heartbeat I could destroy my life and the lives of my family and friends I love so dearly. I know I could very easily get hooked on drugs or booze or porn or illicit activities. I know what my sinful nature is capable of, and it scares me! Second, there is something inside of me that delights in accountability. It delights in being honest and open and vulnerable and submissive. It delights in the fact that my being a pastor is an honor and a privilege and not a right. That part of me is God’s nature living in me, the Holy Spirit, and only He can empower me to become so much more than I am. God’s image planted within me at my conception is purified by the power of the Holy Spirit as I spend time in prayer and Bible study, and as I allow others to help knock those sharp edges off of my character. Accountability does that for me. It enables the Holy Spirit to change me, because when people I know and trust hold me accountable I can’t run from those changes. And that is the best thing in the world for me. Accountability enables the Holy Spirit to bring the changes wrought by prayer and Bible study to life within me so that I can become more and more like Jesus. I can’t make it on my own, and neither can you! If you are serious about following and serving Jesus and becoming more like Him, you will join an accountability group. I can’t put it any more clearly than that. If you are serious about following Jesus and becoming more like Him, you WILL join an accountability group. There’s no way around it, because without others to hold us accountable, we’ll never become the people God created us to be. We’ll always keep spinning our wheels and dreaming of becoming who God created us to be. We can’t do it without accountability!
6. I would like to start a coed one based on the spiritual disciplines soon, but we’ve got to have folks with the courage to move forward and join. I’d like for us to start more Discipleship Training groups so we learn how to pray and study the Bible and put discipline into our spiritual lives, but we’ve got to have folks with the courage to move forward and join. I’d like to see the power of the Holy Spirit overwhelm and transform this church, but that won’t happen until we allow Him to overwhelm and transform us. And He won’t do it unless we submit to Him through prayer, Bible study and accountability.
7. Illustration - J. B. Phillips wrote, Every time we say, "I believe in the Holy Spirit," we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it (as cited on PreachingToday.com). How much do we really believe in the Holy Spirit and His power to transform us? Enough to really do something about it?
8. Illustration - Corrie Ten Boom wrote, I have a glove here in my hand. The glove cannot do anything by itself, but when my hand is in it, it can do many things. True, it is not the glove, but my hand in the glove that acts. We are gloves. It is the Holy Spirit in us who is the hand, who does the job. We have to make room for the hand so that every finger is filled (as cited on PreachingToday.com).

1. Conclusion

1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. I don’t like change any more than you do – in fact, I probably like it a lot less than many of you. But when I look at the power that was released when Jesus died and the power that was poured onto the disciples when He sent the Holy Spirit, that’s the kind of power I want to see overwhelming our church. That’s the kind of power I want to see overwhelming each and every one of us. So that makes me willing to pay the price, to spend the time in prayer and Bible study, to be held accountable by people I love and trust. Are you willing to pay the price?
2. That’s the bottom line question today. Are you willing to pay the price to see the Holy Spirit work in us with power? Are you willing to see the powerful death and resurrection of Jesus translate into powerful life for us? Are you willing to spend at least half an hour a day in prayer (and that’s a bare minimum)? Are you willing to spend at least fifteen minutes a day in Bible study? Are you willing to join an accountability group and be help accountable for the spiritual disciplines and for how you are allowing God to change you? Are you willing to join a Discipleship Training group and learn how to become more Christ-like? If you are willing to devote yourself to prayer, Bible study, and accountability so that you can see the power of the Holy Spirit pour out in your life and in the life of our church, make that commitment with God in your heart right now. And this week do something about it!!!