I've Got the Power

Acts 1:8

When I was a kid, I had a paper route. I walked the route – it was about  1 ½  miles all told – a lot of time to daydream. One of my daydreams was about having super powers. I came to the conclusion on those walks that I would want the super power of teleportation. That would have cut at least nine blocks off my route. Plus, I figured that I would probably use most super powers for evil or at least for mischief if pressured.

Have you ever wished for a super power? What power did you wish for?

Today’s scripture is in the beginning of Acts – which is the second installment of Luke’s orderly account of the Truth concerning Jesus’ life. Luke and Acts are each about the same length, which is not-coincidentally the same length as a scroll was. At the end of scroll 1, which we know as Luke, Jesus told his disciples to stay in the city until they were clothed in power from on high. (Luke 24:49). Luke recaps the end of the first scroll with further details, as the first scroll focused on Jesus and the second on the early church. The disciples were waiting for an earthly kingdom, but Jesus said something else was coming. Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and to the ends of the earth.”

On the day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit was poured out in a dramatic way – we call Pentecost the birthday of the Church because something new was born that day. But when we talk about church today, very rarely do we talk about power. We talk about programs. We talk about worship music. We talk about preaching. We talk about numbers and budgets. But we just don’t talk about power.

The word that Luke used to mean power is from the root word dunamai, which where we get the word dynamo, and it means “to be able or possible.” Now, understand this: there are things that each of us has the power to do. The Olympics is always interesting to me because I do not have the power to do the things that I see done by these athletes. I can’t swim fast. I’m not gymnastically inclined. Olympic runners make me look like a turtle. I suppose I could throw a badminton game, but I couldn’t win an Olympic medal. Every Olympic athlete has worked really hard to get where they are. Most of them have made tremendous sacrifices and have worked and practiced for hours and hours. That sport is their life. But here’s the thing: every one of their accomplishments is within the realm of human power.

In 2006 I ran a 40K trail race up at Hocking Hills (that’s almost 25 miles), and after the race I was limping around talking to another runner and I said something like, “The human body wasn’t meant for this kind of abuse.” The response I got was, “Yes it is; otherwise we couldn’t have done it.” There are lots of things that are possible – maybe not for everyone to do, but possible nonetheless. But when Jesus says, “You will receive power,” this isn’t the kind of power that we get from more and more practice. Jesus is saying that we will receive supernatural power.

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer every week, we finish up ascribing to God the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. True power is God’s alone. It is this power that enables us to affirm with Jesus that with man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God. (Mark 10:27).

Jesus is clearly talking about salvation in this passage, but it holds true for God’s power in other areas as well. Holy Spirit power makes the impossible possible.

In Luke 9, Jesus was sending his disciples out on a mission. Their job was to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. So look at what Jesus did in Luke 9:1: When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases.

Jesus gave his disciples supernatural power and authority. Throughout Luke’s gospel, when healing happens, Luke, who happens to be a physician, always makes it clear that it only happens by God’s power. So this is confirmation that these healings are not happening by medical means. In our culture we value science and technology and we depend on them for our healing, and I’m not saying that it’s wrong to seek medical attention, because God, by his grace, has given people medical knowledge and the ability to treat diseases, but medical technology is not the final word.

So when the disciples went out, the Bible tells us that they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere. (Luke 9:6) From this we can learn that the power and authority Jesus gives are effective. They aren’t mere words. What do you think might happen if we were to see that kind of power today?

As Jesus was preparing to ascend into heaven, he told his disciples “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) These are the disciples who had received Jesus’ power to preach the gospel, to drive out demons, and to heal all kinds of diseases.

Throughout the Bible, power is a clear indicator of the kingdom of God. In Mark 9:1, Jesus tells his disciples, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” Then six days later he goes up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John, and he was transfigured, and God speaks audibly from a cloud (does this remind anyone of God’s appearance in the Exodus?). God kingdom showed up with power.

Unfortunately, churches these days are known more for our potlucks than for our power. When I ask people what is the hallmark of their church, the first thing I hear is, “We’re a really friendly church.” Friendly is good; we don’t want to be really nasty and chase people away, and some churches really are friendly while others are friendly to themselves but you’d better not ever make the mistake in sitting in someone else’s seat or breaking the unwritten rules because we’ll friendly you right out the door. But even the most friendly church isn’t being faithful just because we’re friendly! When the church shows up in power, Jesus himself says that even the very gates of Hell cannot prevail against it! (Matthew 16:18)

The devil quakes when the church embraces the power of the Holy Spirit. The sad thing is that we haven’t done much to make the devil quake. While I was writing this sermon, I saw that the US Olympic basketball team had defeated Nigeria 156-73. Do you think the mention of the Nigerian basketball team will cause opponents to shake in fear? Opponents are not trying to come up with special plays to stifle Al-Farouq Aminu. But we’ve been behaving as if we are the Nigerian basketball team! We sit in our little room together and we don’t take the fight to the devil because we don’t think we have power.

At the end of Luke (Luke 24:49), Jesus tells his disciples, “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” And the disciples did… until the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit, the one who God promised, was poured out upon them. The command was to stay in the safe place until… and then, once they had power, to go!

In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit is poured out dramatically, and the church is born – 3000 were baptized in one service, and Acts 2:47 records that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Not yearly, monthly, or weekly. But daily. I read this week that the average United Methodist invites someone to church once every… wait for this… 38 years. That’s not living in the power of the Spirit.

In Acts 4:33, we see the apostles at work! With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and his grace was upon them all. It’s not easy to share Christ – at least not on our own. But the Holy Spirit gives us the power to have a testimony – and then to share it. I like to listen to sermon podcasts while I am running, and phrase I heard recently in a sermon was “God wants to give us a former life.”

“I was… but now I am…”  a former life. The apostles gave their testimony of how Jesus’ resurrection transformed them, and that is powerful beyond measure. People don’t want to know that Jesus is just a remote historical figure, but that he is real in my life, that having the Holy Spirit living within me makes a difference in me daily. There are people out there who are just argumentative and want to debunk Christianity just because they are hard-hearted and deceived, but for the majority of people who aren’t Christians, it’s because they’ve never seen the benefit in it. They hear us complain about our churches and they think, “Why would I want to be a part of that?” They never see God working in power. They don’t see a former life transformed.

How do we start living in power? It takes faith. We have to believe that God will give it. In the first chapter of James, he is talking about asking God for wisdom, and that God, who gives generously to all without finding fault will give it to him. But James 1:6-8 says, But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Do you really believe the Holy Spirit can give you power? Do you trust that the same God is still God?  So if we believe that we serve the same God who was God in the Bible, why don’t we see him working in power? Doubt is one reason; we don’t think God will really work, so, as James tells us, the person who thinks that way won’t receive anything from God.

In the conclusion to his letter, James tells the church this: Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. (James 5:13-18)

According to James, there are several reasons our prayers aren’t answered: the first, as we looked at earlier is doubt. If you are mired in doubt, read the scriptures and remember that the same God who was active then is the same God who is active today. And ask God to build your faith.

Another reason James gives for our lack of power is sin. When we continue in sin, we allow Satan to have power over our lives, and so it’s no wonder we aren’t living in God’s power! James says if this is the case, confess our sins to one another and pray for each other so we can be healed. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we see neither mutual confession of sins nor Holy Spirit power in most of our churches these days.

In one of the most understated verses of scripture, James says that Elijah was a man just like us. We think of him as a spiritual giant, a spiritual superman, but he wasn’t. He was a normal human. But when he prayed, God answered in power! Why? Because the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. What would happen if we believed that God still works in power? What would happen if we confessed our sins and repented (turned 180* from them)? What would happen if we prayed, believing that God would answer? What would Hope Church look like? What would Wellston look like? Instead of praying limp, lifeless prayers, let’s pray that God will do something in Wellston that only God can take credit for, something that we can’t do on our own.