Filled with the Spirit's Power 1988

I'd like to begin by reading the start of a passage we started with two weeks ago from Luke 23, verses 15 and 16. As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

The religious leaders in Jerusalem were in a position in many respects very much like ours. They knew their Bibles, and they considered themselves teachers and theologians. They were up on all the burning issues of the day, and they had an answer for every problem in society.

People addressed them by their proper titles. Many of them sat in the chancel. They had better seats at the banquets, and yet they knew that they were not making an impact.

Just as we know that we're not making the impact we need to be making. They knew that the generals, the rich merchants, the big shots in Herod's palace were laughing at them behind their backs. The masses were restive and unruly and would become quiet when these religious men walked by, not out of respect, but out of contempt.

Here comes Jesus out of the Galilean hills, and everybody's electrified. This doesn't sit too well with these religious leaders, and they're going to ignore Jesus if they can. He's just another Jimmy Swagger.

He's a crowd manipulator. He's up to something. But the Jerusalem heavies who have enough integrity left in them to at least stand on the edge of the crowd and watch what Jesus is doing and listen to what Jesus says are absolutely shaken.

This man has power, power all the more frightening because there is absolutely nothing shady about it. Nicodemus, who's one of these men, is especially upset, and he sneaks off to Jesus in the dark for a private interview. Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God.

Nobody can do what you're doing or talk the way you talk unless God is with him. Notice Jesus does not respond by saying, what do you mean unless God is with me? I am God. Because he's not doing what he's doing out of his divinity.

God the Son, though he is, Jesus has divested himself of his divine prerogatives and become truly a human being. Everything that Jesus does, everything that Jesus says, comes from the Spirit of his Father. He is the Messiah, the Anointed One.

He is filled with the Spirit's power. And Nicodemus, a teacher and theologian, will not be able to figure out who Jesus is, what he's doing or how he does it until Nicodemus has his eyes opened and his mind opened and his heart opened by the same Spirit that rests on Jesus. Unless you're born again, unless you're filled with the same Spirit that fills me, you won't be able to see the Kingdom of God, much less enter it.

Now this was the beginning of a pilgrimage which ultimately led Nicodemus to the place where he could see, speak, act, live in the dimension of the Kingdom of God. As the people were in expectation and all questioned in their hearts concerning John whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, I baptize you with water. But he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Now many of us have been struggling for a long time to figure out what that means. How this prophecy, which stands at the beginning of every one of the four Gospels and sets the stage for everything that follows, how that prophecy applies to us, how it can be fulfilled in our lives and in our ministries.

Because we have seen, not only in the New Testament but also in the lives of flesh and blood people that we have met, a power which we lack, a power which has nothing shady about it, which is as clear as the light, has the integrity of the Holy Spirit of God running through it. I indeed baptize you with water. But he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The Apostolic Church came into existence when that prophecy was fulfilled. And to this day, there are men and women who carry in the earthen vessel of their flesh a heavenly treasure which rises up out of every death they die, flows like a river of life out of them as they continuously lay aside their garments, wrap themselves in the towel of servanthood and wash feet.

I'm talking about a power which sets these people free from themselves, imparts to them the mind of Christ, gives them prophetic eyes, a prophetic heart, a prophetic tongue. I'm not talking about charismatic emotional thrills, hooting and hollering and jumping up and down. I'm talking about an anointing, an authentic anointing from God, which enables people to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed, hope to the hopeless with power.

I'm talking about a power which lasts more than a month and a half, which keeps going year after year after year through dry seasons, wet seasons, Red Sea crossings, wilderness journeys, and never wears out. I'm talking about a power, the kind of power, which drove the Apostle Paul through years and years of labor, trouble, persecution, slander, misunderstanding, injustice, bitter opposition, and kept him fresh, clear-minded, effective. That's what it means to be filled with the Spirit's power.

Now that awesome power, which was so real to our Lord and which became so real to His Apostles, is not far from any one of us. It's closer to us really than our own breath. And we can have it when we're clear about how badly we want it.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Here are four considerations which will help us to receive that baptism and keep receiving it and live it. One, we will be filled with the Spirit's power when we despair of our own power.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts. And reading from Luke 4, verse 5, Jesus' second temptation in Luke, And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it shall all be yours.

And Jesus answered him, It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve. This temptation is the place where American Christendom is paralyzed, is hypnotized by the wrong kind of power. For instance, we think if we had more money, we could do more good.

If we had more of the right kind of people in our churches, we could do more good, whatever they are. If we had the right kind of connections, we could do more good. We're forever running after the wrong kind of power.

The Spirit of God can't possibly begin to move among us and in us individually, and all as it goes together, until we give up all that, and repent of our chasing around for the wrong kind of power, and confess Lord God. What I need, what I really and only need, is the power of your Spirit, fill me and rule me. The Holy Spirit will not share the throne of our hearts with all this other junk, until we get our eyes off these other hopes and pin our hopes utterly on the life of the Spirit.

Nothing happens, but when we do that, wonderful things begin to happen. If we spent the effort we put into chasing after 101 useless kinds of power into seeking the Spirit, we would soon be wearing Elijah's mantle. Number two, we will be filled with the Spirit's power when we repent of our peer fear.

Our fear that our friends and colleagues might catch us getting a little too pious as we seek the life of God. From John chapter 3, Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Now we know why Nicodemus came by night. He didn't want his buddies and church headquarters to find out that he was getting serious with Jesus. So it slowed down his search.

The woman at the well, on the other hand, may have come at high noon because she figured nobody would be around to bother her. They'd be having their siesta. But at least she came in the daylight.

And her conversation with Jesus was open and unguarded. Nor was she worried about what their opinion of her would be when she returned to her village and said, Come see a man who told me all I ever did. It's not this, the Messiah.

You want the power of the Holy Spirit, look for it. But look for it out in the open, out in the daylight. What does it matter if some of your best friends think differently of you? You lose ground in their opinion.

It's worth it. Thirdly, we will be filled with the Spirit's power when we get desperate enough to ask. And by asking I don't mean a little whimper every three months when you get depressed.

I mean relentless, aggressive, persistent asking. Which Jesus talks about in Luke 11, verse 5. And he said to them, which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him. And he will answer from within, Do not bother me.

The door is now shut, my children are with me in bed, I cannot get up and give you anything. I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. Now this man went next door for bread, not something he could have a few loaves to put in his window or decorate his table.

He went there and he banged on the door and hollered and screeched and cried until he got the bread because someone came to him hungry and he had nothing to give. And I tell you, asking it will be giving you. Seeking you will find, knocking it will be open to you.

For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be open. What father among you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? When I see how utterly inadequate I am to bring any help to these people who come to me, when I see how empty I am of any wisdom, how lacking I am in power to bring any healing, then I'm driven to God to ask for his Spirit. Lord, you told me to feed your sheep.

Give me some food for them. Give me living bread. Give me a living word.

Give me your Spirit. And he will. And finally, we will be filled with the Spirit's power when we fit in with the Lord instead of forever trying to make the Lord fit in with our arrogant strategies.

From Acts chapter 13. Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manion, a member of the court of Herod, the Tetrarch, and Saul.

While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Notice, they didn't have a committee meeting where they put a list of priorities on the blackboard and then boiled it down to a statement and called out their strategy and then have a little prayer and ask God to bless it.

They worshipped God, fasted, waited, believing that God might just have a plan of His own. Here we see poverty of spirit, childlike submission, willingness to yield and fit in. And pretty soon here comes a word, which they all agreed has come from God.

This work, which is going on in this wonderful mixed church at Antioch, with its mixed races and mixed cultures and mixed nations, I want to do in other places. Separate Barnabas and Saul for this work. Barnabas and Saul? What will happen here at Antioch if we lose Barnabas and Saul? We're not ready to let go of them yet.

And more, that's not what happened. There was hushed, awed submission. They fasted and prayed, obeyed, laid their hands on them, sent them out, and the spirit moved powerfully through Barnabas and Saul and the spirit moved with increased power in the church at Antioch.

It did not fall apart. Now, that kind of thing is kind of scary and nutty for us mainline type Christians. And yet, what do we got to lose? It's worth an earnest attempt to fit in corporately with the mind of the spirit.

As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, I baptize you with water. But he who is mightier than I is coming. The thong of loose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Now, this baptism is not a ritual which we control. It's an invasion of life from God which will utterly disrupt our dull, predictable lives.

But with that disruption will come power. We can have this baptism of the spirit in its fullness when we make clear to God and to ourselves that we want it. We will be filled with the spirit's power when we despair of our own power and seek the spirit from the Lord who gives the spirit.

We will be filled with the spirit's power when we repent of our peer fear and seek the spirit from the Lord who gives the spirit. We will be filled with the spirit's power when we get desperate enough to ask. We will be filled with the spirit's power when we fit in with the Lord instead of forever trying to make Him fit in with our arrogant strategies.

If you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Let's wait upon the spirit now in silence and let the Lord speak to our hearts.