Allen Jackson - The Holy Spirit and Power - Part 2
Let's take the balance of our time and process this in the context of Jesus's life and the role of the Holy Spirit in Jesus's life. If Jesus could not fulfill... I'll give you the cliff notes. If Jesus could not have completed his assignment on Earth without the help of the Holy Spirit, the sinless obedient Son of God, will you allow me to suggest you and I will not be able to either? Now, herein lies the rub. I'm not certain we believe we have to complete our God assignment because the language we've learned goes something like this. I've been saved by grace. It's by faith alone, and it's not by works.
And I'm not gonna earn my way into heaven. And while works might be a nice thing to do, they're certainly not a necessary thing to do because I've been saved by faith on Christ alone. Well, we got a whole set of vocabulary phrases that we rip off. So it really doesn't make any difference. Well, imagine if Jesus had said that. "I'm the incarnate Son of God, perfect, sinless. I'm not gonna be bothered with all this works stuff". I'm not suggesting you earn your way into God's favor. I'm suggesting what you do with your life is the expressed value you attach to what Jesus has done for you, and if you don't care enough about him to serve him, there's a legitimate reason to question the authenticity of his lordship in your life.
And I'm not recruiting for anything tonight. When I'm not raising, there's no hands being raised for volunteers, but the role of the Holy Spirit, Luke chapter 1, you know this part, it's Christmas, not too long past, and we've read these verses together: "The angel went to Mary and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.' Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting it might be. And the angel said, 'Don't be afraid,'" that's consistent, "'Mary, you have found favor with God. You'll be with child and give birth to a son, and you're to give him the name Jesus. He'll be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the House of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end,'" and Mary asks a very appropriate question, "'How can this be since I'm a virgin?' And the angel said, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.'"
See, there is no Jesus story without the involvement of the Holy Spirit. His life on Earth is inseparable from the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is Luke's record of the narrative. And in Luke's writing, which includes two books of the New Testament, the gospel that bears his name and what? The Book of Acts. In the Gospel of Luke and in the Book of Acts, the person to the Holy Spirit and the power of God go together. You'll find it over and over again. And it begins at this birth announcement for the very young woman. The angel said, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you".
When you recognize you need God's power, understand scripturally, what we need is the presence of the Spirit of God. Luke chapter 3: "When the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, the heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: 'You're my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.'" At Jesus's baptism, this is the beginning of his public ministry. He's 30 years of age. He's lived those first 30 years, for the most part, in anonymity. A couple of times, he steps out into the light a bit. But when he goes to the Jordan River to be baptized, the Holy Spirit descends upon him in a physical way, and there's a voice from heaven that says, "This is my boy. I like him a lot," living Bible.
It's a fun little study. I didn't put it all in your notes. I'll leave it with you. Read the baptismal account in each of the gospels. It's recorded in each of the gospels, but it's different. The audience that is addressed by the voice from heaven is different. It's worth some personal reflection. But what is consistent across them all is the descent of the Holy Spirit. Now, that's Luke 3. Luke chapter 4 and verse 1 says, "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan," where John was baptizing, "and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry".
Couple of important, to me, very important, ideas here. Jesus, full of the Spirit, is led by the Spirit. If you imagine that the Spirit of God has a full place in your life, there needs to be evidence that he is leading you, which means we're following him. We've got to be willing to follow, folks. It isn't just what we think or what we want or what we prefer or what we would like or what I've always dreamt of or my dream or my hope. Again, none of those things are inherently wrong, but at the end of the day, I'm coming more and more to understand. I have to be willing to follow the leading of the Lord, and it's not always comfortable or convenient or pleasant or easy or without vulnerability.
I started to say, "Without risk". And somebody would say to me, "There's no risk in following the Lord", to-may-to, to-mah-to. I have found that in following the Lord, you will often feel vulnerable. Well, not if you fully trusted him. Oh, stop. Stop following him in careful places, and start to follow him with a bit more abandon. I find Jesus saying, "Father, I don't want to do this. If there's any other way, I would rather go any other way". That feels like vulnerability to me. I find Moses saying, "I'm done with these people".
I mean, I can take you to multiple expressions of our heroes in the Scripture, including our Lord and including his closest friends and followers, where there's a great deal of recognition of the vulnerability of following the Lord. The three Hebrew young men that stood before Nebuchadnezzar and said, "We're not bowing to your statue". It's true. They survived the furnace, but it's equally true that they said, "Listen, our God is able to deliver us, but if he doesn't deliver us, we're not gonna bow". They understood the vulnerability of their position.
See, I'm wearied with the false bravado of people that don't do anything. Stop telling me from the bleachers about your courage. Life isn't lived in the bleachers. Following God is not theoretical. Your knowledge of God isn't gonna be measured on a test or in a Bible study. Your knowledge of God will be evaluated by the fruit of your life. And for far too long, we've been coaching Christians into studies, and I love to learn, and I hope you read on a regular basis. We're gonna talk about it more in the next few sessions. But I'm far more interested in you living in such a way that your life bears the fruit of what you say you believe, and that requires some sense of vulnerability.
"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert". The Holy Spirit led Jesus to a place where he was tempted by the devil. Have you got room for that in your imagination? That you could be led by the Holy Spirit to a place of vulnerability. Because if Jesus wasn't vulnerable, it wasn't really a temptation. Again, we impute the Jesus things that we think are different. It was just easier for him. He could fast for 40 days, and it wasn't hard for him. He was special. Well, alright, just start with four days. Start to work on your "special". The Holy Spirit led him to a place where he was tempted.
Chapter 4, verse 13: "When the devil had finished all the tempting, he left him until an opportune time," he wasn't done with him. I'll wait for an opportune time. I'll find a time when he's more vulnerable than he was this time. When he's more weary, more hungry, more exasperated. "Jesus returned to Galilee," this is Luke. How did he return to Galilee? "In the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread throughout the whole countryside," Jesus has lived in Galilee for almost 30 years, and the news about him hasn't spread anywhere. The distinction this time, the distinguishing characteristic, is this time, he returns in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the news about him spread everywhere.
The best agent for the proclamation of the good news about Jesus is the person of the Holy Spirit. He will open doors we can't open. He will create opportunities we can't create. "And Jesus taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him". Now, Luke is going to set up a contrast between two communities, Nazareth and Capernaum. Jesus grew up in Nazareth. It's a sleepy little village, maybe 1,500 people in Jesus's day, tucked away in the hills of Galilee, no major roads, no major water sources. It's really the backwoods. When Jesus was ready to begin his public ministry, he moved to Capernaum. It's a Jewish fishing village on the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, the largest fresh water source in the entire region. And oh, by the way, there's a major Roman road that runs right there adjacent to Capernaum.
So if you wanted to distribute a message, Capernaum is a great place to do that, but it's also going to be a city filled with more ungodliness. It's more exposed. It's more vulnerable. But Luke begins with us in Nazareth, the place where Jesus grew up. And he's just said to us, "He's returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and the news about him is spread through the whole countryside". He's become a thing. "He went to Nazareth, where he'd been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read," they were familiar with him in the synagogue. It was his habit to be there on the Sabbath.
And on this day, "he stood to read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and he found the place where it is written". He's gonna quote Isaiah 61: "The Spirit of the Lord," he's gonna read it, "'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, he's anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.' He rolled up the scroll. He gave it back to the attendant. He sat down," everybody's looking at him. Why are they looking at him? Because they've been hearing about miracles. The news about him spread everywhere. He's been in this synagogue since he was a kid. We haven't seen any miracles. He's back in town. They're all watching, "and he began by saying to them, 'Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'"
Now, there's a couple of distinguishing points. Jesus returns to Nazareth, Luke tells us very expressly, "in the power of the Spirit". And then he looks at the people. He said this Scripture has been fulfilled in front of you. And then he gives them some very pointed historical markers because see their attitude is "if you're such a thing, why haven't you done something here"? And Jesus points out that God had ministered in history that they were all familiar with to non-Jews when the Jewish community was not receptive. He's pointing out how hard your hearts can be because of your proximity to the truth of God.
And before we point a finger at the Jewish people, may I remind you that we have had greater access to the Word of God, to the teaching of the Word of God, to Christian literature, Christian television, Christian radio. We've had more churches available to us than any group of people in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ. If I had to look for a group of people, a culture that would in some way approximate what it would have meant for that audience in Nazareth, it would be current American community. And do you know what their attitude was in Nazareth? They were so offended by Jesus that they tried to kill him. And Luke says in a very understated way, he simply walked through the crowd, but their intent in his hometown was to kill him.
What's the spirit? The spirit of Antichrist. I assure you, the spirit of Antichrist is moving in the Earth with greater authority and greater power than any time in my lifetime. Now, it's moving towards a culmination. At some point in the future, and I don't know when that is, not in my business yet, it will be embodied in an individual. It will be embodied in an individual that will accept the bargain that Jesus rejected. If you'll bow down and worship me, I'll give you the authority over all these kingdoms. What we can see now is the expressions of the spirit of Antichrist. We see it in those elite universities. We see it in Nazareth. He's one of theirs. In most settings, they'd be hanging a sign on the front of his house, "Jesus slept here". They'd be selling trinkets, right? Somebody would be marketing the stuff.
Luke chapter 4, same chapter. Luke says, "Then," then is a timing word, "Then, after Nazareth, he went down to Capernaum," and you walked downhill from Nazareth to Capernaum. The Sea of Galilee is below sea level. "He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath, he began to teach the people," so he's back in a synagogue on the Sabbath, "They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority". In Nazareth, they were offended.
In Capernaum, they're amazed. "In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit," the language, I think, is unhelpful because the man we're gonna meet is an observant Jewish man. He's in the synagogue on a Sabbath. He's living in the full light of the truth that's available to him. And when we think of the word "possessed," we think of someone that has lost all autonomy. They no longer have any ability to self-direct. I think a more accurate translation is: There's a man in the synagogue who's demonized, who is influenced. He's impacted by a demon. He still could choose to go to the synagogue.
So the question comes up: can a Christian be demonized? And there's some schools of thought. It's much easier to say, "Oh, absolutely not". Well, I don't think a Christ-follower can be totally controlled by the devil, but I think a Christ-follower can be seriously influenced by unclean spirits. "So in the synagogue there's a man who's possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. And he cried out at the top of his voice, 'Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God!'"
Now, remember this is all in the same chapter with his visit to Nazareth, the village where he grew up, the synagogue where he sat. They had a seat that they were familiar with him sitting in, and they tried to kill him because they were offended by him. But there's an unclean spirit in Capernaum that knows he's the Messiah. Again, why do we need help from the Holy Spirit? Because there is a spiritual realm that is real, every bit as real as the seats you're seated on or the screen that you're watching on and that there are aspects of that spiritual realm that exceed our abilities, both of the Holy Spirit and of unclean spirits. And therefore, we are dependent upon the help of the Holy Spirit.
"'Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are.' And Jesus said sternly, 'Be quiet! And come out of him!' The demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him," it's a very stark contrast, Nazareth and Capernaum. In Nazareth, they tried to kill him. In Capernaum, they're amazed at his teaching. He taught with authority. And then God gives him an opportunity for that authority to be demonstrated in the full view of those people. How many of you think that message wouldn't be on the synagogue? I promise. Even the synagogue rulers eventually coming back to Jesus and say, "Can you come and heal my daughter"? Because he's seen Jesus's authority.
Remember the discussion a moment ago about the fruit of your life versus the information of your life? They have seen Jesus demonstrate the power of the Spirit, and it caused faith to grow in the hearts of those people. I don't believe it's an accident that Luke gives us those two parallel presentations. Then I would point out to you, at least in passing, that in the synagogue is a demonized man. I suspect that, I heard it said and I don't disagree, I can't improve on it, that in most contemporary worship settings, we would remove the person, and Jesus removed the demon and left the person free. But what they did see in Capernaum was Jesus demonstrate his authority over unclean spirits.
Now, we very clearly read. Jesus said it repeatedly over the objections of his friends, the significance of his Spirit, that we should recognize him as counselor, as guide, that it will bring his power to bear in our lives. It will help us overcome fear and anxiety and over every expression of evil that comes before us. So my question to you, it's not complicated: do you think you are adequate in yourself, in your knowledge, in your strength, in your wisdom, to overcome every expression of evil that will be before you? If you do, you probably don't need to listen to this. You probably need to listen to something else. But I would very humbly submit. I don't believe there is any chance we flourish apart from the help of the Holy Spirit.
So let's determine to make him our friend, whatever that means. Stop with the preconditions. Well, I don't wanna be... I do. Well, I'm not... yes, I am. I'm not raising my... I'm raising my hands. I'm not gonna be one of those emotional.... If I need to be, watch me get emotional. Whatever it may be, I'm not speaking, okay, I am. You see, the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life is not a validation of your maturity. It's not an expression of accomplishment. It's simply a part of the preparation to fulfill your assignment.
If Jesus needed the help of the Holy Spirit to complete his assignment, what makes you and me think we can complete ours apart from his help? And we have flipped this around with pride and arrogance and diminishing other people that we think are less spiritual than we are. The most intensely spiritual people I have ever known have been the most pragmatic, and the people who have all sorts of spiritual language and whatever I have found that to be very different. You don't have to use bizarre language. You don't have to be weird. Weird does not make you spiritual. Stop it. It doesn't. Impromptu doesn't always make you spiritual.
Yes, sometimes we have to be flexible. Sometimes we have to be willing to change, but God has a plan or prophecy wouldn't work. It was such a breakthrough for me to discover that if I would listen, God could tell me on Tuesday what he wanted me to do on Saturday. I brought you a prayer, but it really isn't mine. I adopted it from Ephesians chapter 3. I just changed the pronouns to make it personal. If that offends you, you can go back to Ephesians 3. I gave you the reference. But to pray a prayer without making it personal didn't make sense. I believe the reason we have the Scripture is to make it personal in our lives. So if you'll stand with me, we'll read the prayer together. It's an invitation to the Holy Spirit in our lives. You found it?
I pray that out of his glorious riches. God may strengthen me with power through his Spirit in my inner being, so that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. And I pray that, being rooted and established in love, I may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that I may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, amen.