The Pathway to Power
Acts 1:1-9; Galatians 2:20
The book of Acts is a wonderful book and we're going to be looking at it for quite some time; so, open your Bibles to Acts chapter 1
We're beginning a series titled "That Old-Time Religion." The reason I want to call it "That Old-Time Religion" is that we need to take a look back so that we might really face the future. It's important because it is the Old-Time Religion that needs to be the New-Time Religion.
I heard that Billy Graham had come to a particular city for a revival crusade, and there was a preacher who didn't want him to come. The preacher was kind of liberal, and he said, "We don't want that man here in our city. Why, he will set evangelism back fifty years." When Billy Graham heard that, he said, "Well, I didn't want to set evangelism back fifty years; I wanted to set it back two thousand years." Amen? That's what we need to do—get back to the basics.
The book of Acts is the story of success. It is the story of a church triumphant. It is the story of a small group of unlettered, uncultured people with meager resources, very little money, no prestige, no colleges, no seminaries, no radio or television, no printing presses, and no magnificent buildings; a small little group of people who went out to tell the story of a publicly executed Jew.
They went out against great obstacles, the imperial might of Rome, the intellectual sophistication of Greece, the religious bigotry of that day—and they turned that world inside out and upside down, or should I say right side up for Jesus Christ.
They did so much with so little. We do so little with so much. I believe we need to go back and see what they did and how they did it. Acts is the story of a church on fire with evangelism and growth, and I believe it can become our pattern for today. I want God to burn the message into our heart.
The title of my message is "The Pathway to Power." And we're going to be looking at Acts chapter 1, the first nine verses. Are you ready?
Look again in verse 1: "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach" (Acts 1:1). What was the former treatise? It was the Gospel of Luke; the author of the book of Acts is the author of the Gospel of Luke. Luke was a medical doctor. That tells me that you don't have to check your brains at the door when you give your heart to Jesus Christ.
This wonderful book of Acts tells us what happened in those primitive years of the Church, and also, what ought to be the pattern for us who live here in this day and in this age.
I pray the Holy Spirit, will help me to impress upon your hearts and minds three vital truths, which come out of these verses, three things that will help you to live victoriously, and to have power with God and power with men.
Truth number one: I'm talking to Christians—I want you to recognize the presence of Jesus in your life. You say, "that's so simple. What's so earth- shaking about that?" That is one of the most vital, dynamic, electrifying, earth-shaking thoughts that I can ever give to you. Notice how this starts. "The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach" (Acts 1:1).
Notice: The idea is not that Jesus is finished. He is still doing, and He is still teaching. In the gospels, He was here in His physical body. In the book of Acts, He is here in His spiritual Body.
In the Bible that I have, it says across the top: "The Acts of the Apostles." That was put in there by the publisher—that's not a part of the inspired text. This is not really the acts of the apostles. What you have, in the book of Acts, are the acts of the Lord Jesus Christ by way of His Holy Spirit.
In the Gospel of Luke, we find all that Jesus started to do. In the book of Acts all that Jesus continues to do. He just has a different body. Where is the presence of Jesus? In us.
It’s important to understand Jesus doesn't want us to do anything for Him. When will we ever learn this; He wants to do something through us? The Bible says, "Christ in you [is] the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). Jesus Christ is alive, and His Spirit lives in us.
When I was a young Christian, I was told all these things I had to do for the Lord, but it was a great day in my life when I discovered that God didn't want me to do anything for Him. Praise God! As a matter of fact, I couldn't do anything for Him. "That's confusing, I thought we were supposed to serve the Lord?"
The Christian life is not difficult; the Christian life is totally impossible. There's not anybody here who can live the Christian life. There's only one person who ever lived the Christian life; His name is Jesus. There's only one person who can today live the Christian life, and His name is Jesus. If the Christian life is lived where you live, it will be Jesus, in you, living that Christian life.
I'm talking about, It is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
He's the only one who can live the Christian life. Somehow, we get the idea that we can live it. We all know that we're not saved by our own works. We all know that salvation is a miracle; that new birth is a miracle. We know that our Christian life commences with a miracle, and we know that our earthly life is going to conclude with a miracle. But I want to tell you not only does it commence with a miracle, and not only does it conclude with a miracle, but it is to continue with a miracle.
You see, there are to be three miracles. The very life that I live is to be a miracle life. It is to be Christ in me. The Apostle Paul said, in Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ..." Well, what can a dead man do? Nothing. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Christ in us.
There was a preacher who used to keep on his desk an old, tattered leather glove; and each Sunday, before he'd go out to preach, he took that old glove off of the desk, and he would slip his hand into the glove and flex it several times. Then he would take the glove off, put it on his desk, and go preach.
Someone asked, "Why do you do that?" He said, "To remind myself that that glove is absolutely impotent and powerless until my hand is slipped into it, and then I say, 'O God, as my hand has activated this glove, I want you, Lord Jesus, to activate my life, and I want you, Lord, to inhabit my humanity and live Your life through me.'"
That's not a bad illustration, because in the Book of Judges the Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord wore Gideon like a suit of clothes.
The reason this early church did what they did with such power is that it really wasn't them doing it. It was Jesus doing it. You may say I'm not adequate." I'm glad that you've learned that. But He is
adequate.
Somebody has coined these words: "Lord, I can't. You never said that I could, but You can, and You always said that You would." The great ability that we need is availability. Bringing the world to Christ is not our responsibility; it is our response to His ability. We have a mission impossible. How are we going to fulfill that mission?
When I look at the Great Commission, what our Lord has told us to do, how inadequate do I feel? But listen, Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church" (Matthew 16:18). Jesus didn't say that we would build His Church. He said that He would build His Church.
If we could just understand that Christ is in us and that He wants to do this in us—what a difference it's going to make!
Turn, if you will, to Acts chapter 5 for a moment, and begin in verse 12, "And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And of the rest dared no man join himself to them; but the people magnified them." Now, watch in verse 14: "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women)" (Acts 5:12-14)—a landslide of souls being saved.
Go back to verse 12: "And by the hands of the apostles..." Look at that little word by. It may be accurately translated "through the hands of the apostles." In other words, it is not what the apostles were doing—it is what the Lord was doing through their hands.
How would you like for Jesus to work through your hands, to speak through your lips, to think through your mind, and to love with your heart?
Jesus Christ now has our body as His body, and He lives in us. If we could only understand this, when we try to live the Christian life without Christ in us it’s impossible, no wonder we fail; why, because we are trying. God doesn't want us to try. It's time that we stop trying and start trusting. Say: "Lord, I can't so I'll quit trying. But now, Lord, You can, and I'm going to let you."
If we do anything that is spiritual, lasting, and worthwhile, then it's not us. It's Jesus in us, and Jesus needs to get the praise and the glory.
The idea is that He has not quit doing it. Won't it be wonderful to see what Jesus does in our church as we begin to let Him work; and, more specifically, what Jesus does in our life? Okay, Number one: If you want to be radically, dramatically transformed, then recognize His presence in you.
Number two: Receive His promise to you. He's made a promise, verse 4, "And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. When they, therefore, were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power..." remember the keynote of our message today is "The Pathway to Power"—"But ye shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:4-8).
Jesus had made a promise. In the Gospel of Luke 24:49, He said, "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." Jesus said, "Don't go out and try to do anything until you're endued with power." It’s foolish to try to do God's work without God's power.
We can receive the promise of the Father, and the promise of the Father is spiritual power through the Holy Spirit to get that work done.
We're all commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 5, verse 18, says, "... Be filled with the Spirit." And, when we're filled with the Spirit of God, we're filled with the Spirit of power. And the Holy Spirit of God is Christ in the Christian.
You said that Christ is in me, and now you say that I need the Holy Spirit. Do I need Jesus or the Holy Spirit?" Yes, you need Christ the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you" (John 14:18), when He was talking about the Holy Spirit. "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you..." (Acts 1:8).
To Christians, power is the means to fulfill a divine mission. Just as a car requires an engine for its purpose, believers need the Holy Spirit's power to fulfill their mission. We are meant to be salt and light, agents of change in the world, guided by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the words of Acts 1:8, Jesus assures us, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you." This empowering presence within us equips us to engage with the external world. This gift of victorious power is echoed in 1 John 4:4 "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world".
The Holy Spirit's role has been subject to debate, yet it's pivotal to our relationship with God. The Spirit resides in believers upon repentance and faith. Obedience to faith invites the Spirit's entry. Without the Holy Spirit, Christianity is incomplete. The Spirit convicts us of sin and directs us to God. This Spirit, through Christ, sets us free from sin's grasp.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is evident through the confession of faith and obedience in Jesus Christ. This acknowledgement aligns with God's truth. As Jesus stated, the Spirit testifies about Him and glorifies Him.
To be filled with the Spirit, as instructed by Paul, implies continuous submission to His control. This grants us the freedom to fulfill our mission, to love, and to resist temptation.
In Christ, we find life, forgiveness, God's love and the power to love others. The Holy Spirit's presence confirms our identity as God's children. Have you embraced God's love in Christ? Let the Holy Spirit revive us, empower us, and embolden us to bring change to the world.
I need that power to enlighten me. I don't know where to go. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say, but He does. Jesus said that He'll guide us.
Not only do I need Him to enlighten me I need Him to enable me, because I can't. He never said I could. It's not enough to know the will of God. You've got to do it. How are you going to do it? It's going to be Him doing it in you. You can't do it. He has to enlighten you, and then He has to enable you.
And then He has to encourage you. The word Comforter—the name for the Holy Spirit—also means encourager: one who is called alongside of me—a paraclete, which means somebody who just gives us strength and encouragement in order to get the job done.
These Christians were going to face persecution. There were going to be heartaches and tears. Some of them were going to be physically threatened, and some of them were going to be killed; but they had the power to live for Christ and to die for Christ, because the Holy Spirit of God had come upon them.
The Bible says, "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all" (Acts 4:33).
There's a third thing we need to do. Do we want to be victorious this year? Do we want that power? Recognize His presence in you. Receive His promise of power to you. And, then respond to His program through you.
Now, look again at Acts 1:8: "But ye shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me."
What is His program through you? To witness; to share the love of Jesus. You say, "Well, I thought He was going to do it." Yes, He's going to do it, but He's going to do it through you; and if you don't allow Him to do it, then it will not be done. We are to be witnesses.
Jesus didn't call us to be lawyers. A lot of you say, "Well, you know, I just can't witness." Of course you can. Suppose you saw an accident, and they brought you into the courtroom, and they said, "Tell us what you saw." "You know, I just can't do that. I'm not a lawyer. I'm not trained. I've never been in a courtroom before." "Look: just the facts, ma'am—just tell us what you saw and what you heard." A witness is not a lawyer. A lawyer argues a case; a witness tells what he has seen and heard.
If Jesus Christ has done anything for you, then you're to witness to it. You're to tell about it. You are to share the love of Jesus. Anybody who is saved can witness. Don't tell me that you can't witness.
If you can't witness, then I doubt that you've been saved. Tell how you got saved. Tell what God’s done for/to you. Perhaps you haven't seen or haven't heard anything, and that's the reason why you can't be a witness.
Make yourself available to His program through you. The greatest ability is availability, just simply saying, "Lord Jesus, You inhabit my humanity; Lord Jesus, by way of the Holy Spirit You have given me power." You can be a witness for Him and share the saving love of Jesus.
Did you know that the word witness and the word martyr are the same word in the Greek language? A martyr is somebody who has been killed for the name of Christ—because of Christ.
"Lord Jesus, I want to be obedient to You. I want to be a witness. And I want to start in my Jerusalem."
A man came to a foreign mission board and said, "I want to be a missionary." They interviewed him and asked, "What are you doing for Jesus here?" He said, "Not much of anything." They said, "Well, please, for God's sake, don't go overseas and do it." Don't export it.
Then we see the disciples wanted to talk about Bible prophecy. They said, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus said, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after the Holy Spirit is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me" (Acts 1:6-8).
They wanted to talk about prophecy—He wanted to talk about proclamation. It's time that some of us got our feet on the sidewalks of soul winning and begin telling others.
I want to share a story with you. There was a man named Mr. Kimball who went to a shoe store in order to witness to a shoe clerk. Mr. Kimball was a Sunday School teacher and this nineteen-year-old boy was in his class. Mr. Kimball laid a trembling hand on the shoulder of that shoe clerk and told him about Jesus. The shoe clerk received Christ into his heart. Do you know that shoe clerk's name? Dwight L. Moody.
Dwight L. Moody, became one of the greatest evangelists God ever put on this green earth. He started out in Chicago just teaching boys and girls in Sunday School and leading a lot of them to Christ. Just a layman, he became a preacher. He was so powerful when he preached the gospel that he was invited over to England to preach.
There in England he preached in the church of F. B. Meyer, a very cultured Englishman. Moody murdered the King's English, and F. B. Meyer was ashamed that he had invited this uncouth, uncultured American. But, yet the fire of God fell on that service. F. B. Meyer said later—he was having tea with one of the ladies in the church—"And how is it with you today, madam?" She said, "Wonderful, Dr. Meyer, "Since Moody has been here, I've won every girl in my class to Jesus Christ." Meyer said, "I learned something that day about the language of the human soul. It transformed my life." Dwight L. Moody touched his life.
F. B. Meyer came to the United States and was preaching in a college. F. B. Meyer was talking about surrender, he said: "If you're not willing to give everything to Jesus Christ, then will you at least tell Him that you're willing to be made willing?" A student named Wilbur Chapman said, "O God, that's me. I haven't been willing." Chapman was ready to quit. He was about to get out of school. But, he said, "God, I'm willing to be made willing." And God took him at that starting place, made him willing, and Wilbur Chapman became a great evangelist.
But wait a minute. Wilbur Chapman, in his later years of evangelism, needed a helper, so he found a young YMCA clerk—an ex-professional baseball player, whose name was Billy Sunday. Chapman said to Billy Sunday, "Would you come help me do the counseling, set up the tent, and do these other things?" Billy Sunday said, "I will." And many of you have heard of Billy Sunday—world-famous like Dwight L. Moody—Billy Sunday began to help Wilbur Chapman. When Chapman became too feeble to carry on, Billy Sunday took over and had a worldwide ministry; and millions of people were impacted by Billy Sunday.
Billy Sunday went to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1924 and held a revival crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina. And there was such a mighty moving of God's power in Charlotte that a prayer meeting got started and continued on through when the Depression came. Those men were praying and said, "O God, send another revival to Charlotte that will shake Charlotte and shake the world." As a result, Mordecai Ham came to Charlotte, North Carolina for another crusade. In that crusade, when Mordecai Ham was preaching, a young, tall, lanky, sixteen-year-old farm lad came forward and gave his heart to Jesus Christ. His name was Billy Graham, who has preached to kings and princes around the world, has been on national television by satellite, and so forth. The impact! But how did all of that start? Trace it on back to a Sunday School teacher who got serious about soul winning and told a shoe clerk about Jesus.
You don't know. You don't know what you may do when you lead a soul to Jesus Christ. Do you want this year to be a great year? Recognize His presence in you, receive His promise to you, and respond to His program through you.
Let's pray. Father, I pray, in the name of Jesus, that You would make me a greater soul winner this year. And, Lord, help me to recognize that, in the truest sense, You are the one who draws those people to Yourself as You inhabit my humanity and display Your deity. In Jesus' name. Amen.
When Voices Of Hope Evangelistic Team is ministering in Word and Song, their Fire Choir will sing several songs and then lead the Congregation in singing. Since that isn't possible on-line, please click here and may you be blessed by the song, "There Is Power In the Blood."