POWER
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted, he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Isaiah 61: 1
The Spirit of
the Lord God is upon me, anointing me with power to do these things. I do not do them out of myself, but under the
anointing of the Spirit.
We are all
aware that to get anything done in this world you have to have power. Without
power you are soon left behind, sitting high and dry, while the world goes on
its merry way, leaving you to starve to death, or to die of loneliness.
The world
offers its own kinds of power, the power of money, the
power of public opinion, political power, the power of guns. The world knows nothing about the power of
God, where it comes from, what it does.
For twenty
centuries, whenever professing Christians have lacked God's power in their
lives, they have turned to one or another of these four sources of this world's
power for support.
We’ve done it
ourselves. How many times have we turned
to money for confidence! Or people’s good opinion. We've tried to establish the
‘right connections'. Some of us have even succumbed to
the temptation to arm ourselves with guns.
It's true that
we need power to survive, power to accomplish our kingdom
purpose. But kingdom power is power of a different order.
Jesus had
power.
He was meek,
lowly of heart, but when Jesus came out of the wilderness temptation, and began
to teach in the synagogues of Galilee, the thing that set him apart from every
other teacher in
When Jesus
spoke, his word had power. When he stretched out his hand to touch the sick,
there was power to heal.
It was not the
power of money. It was not the power of public opinion. It was not the power of
having the right connections. Nor was it the power of swords and spears and
guns. Yet, wherever he went doors opened and chains
broke.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to
What was this
power of the Spirit?
He came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and he
went to the synagogue as was his custom on the Sabbath, and he stood up to read
and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book
and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to
proclaim release to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s
favor.
Luke
4:16-19
The anointing
of the Spirit that was on Jesus was without measure. But it's important to see
is that this power did not just "zap" him a capricious
manner. The Lord Jesus would be the
first to tell us that this power was not his, but the Father's. It was imparted to him by the Father because he is in total submission to the Father's will.
When Nicodemus
came to him by night and said "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher come from
God, for no one can do these work which you do unless
God is with him,” he was saying, “I see God's power. I don’t understand who you
are, but I know that you possess a power which the rest of us lack."
Notice that Jesus did not say to Nicodemus,
“Nicodemus, after all, I’m the Son of God. I’ve got an inside track. I’ve got
something you’re never going to have."
No, Jesus said:
“Nicodemus, you must be born again.”
I.e. "When you are born again, Nicodemus, you will understand where
this power is coming from and you will have it
too!"
When did this
power descend upon Jesus?
It began at his
baptism. When Jesus came out of the
water the Spirit descended on him. He
was now the Anointed One, the Messiah.
Why at his
baptism? Because his baptism was an offering of himself to the Father. His baptism
was the beginning of an awesome worship. His baptism was a death to his own
will, the beginning of his crucified life, culminating at the cross.
He then was
driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. There his
power was increased and refined. Because
in the wilderness, Jesus denied himself in favor of his Father’s pleasure. It
was a further death, an offering of himself as a sacrifice to the Father’s will. From
that point on his ministry was drenched in power, and the source of this power
was the offering up of himself, which continued daily, until
You can only
understand Isaiah 61, ( “His
Spirit is upon me because he has anointed me…”) if you see it in the
light of Isaiah 53, “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by
his stripes we are healed.”
The power comes
upon Jesus because he offers himself up. From the moment Jesus offered himself
to his Father at his baptism, until the moment he finally gave up the ghost and
died on Good Friday, his entire life was worship.— an
offering. He fixed his eye on the goal at the end of the road, where he offered
everything up to the Father on the cross.
Jesus never
wavered. His eye was single. He saluted no man on the
road. He did not allow himself to get distracted. And he shook the dust from
his feet whenever anybody tried to get him off the track, whether it was his
mother, or the apostle Peter, or the scheming Pharisees. Jesus just kept moving
forward.
They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments on it and he sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road. And others spread leafy branches, which they cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom of our Father David that is coming. Hosanna in the highest.”
Mark
11:7
It looks like
he's got it made. He's got them eating
out of the palm of his hand. If he
wants it, he can have financial power.
If he wants to he can now exploit public
opinion. With those crowds behind him,
he’s got political clout. He can broker
this power and take over
But he ignores
this "opportunity." He doesn’t
reach out for money. He does push to take advantage of his
"ratings." He doesn’t become a
politician or a general.
He spurns it
all for the only anointing that really counts—the anointing that brings
real power. The
anointing that’s going to take him to a cross—the anointing that is going to
lead him to offer himself up in an act of consuming worship to his Father on our behalf.
This was the
power of Jesus entire ministry. This is why he could bring good news to the
poor, freedom to the captives, sight to the blind, deliverance to the
oppressed. This is why he inspired hope in the hopeless.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy place taking not the blood of goats and calves but his own blood thus securing eternal redemption For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and the ashes of a heifer sanctifies of the purification of the flesh, how much more should the blood of Christ to the eternal Spirit offer himself without blemish to God purify your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Hebrew
9:11
This in not
theoretical power, but very, very practical power. Power that can transform people
who are slaves of guilt, victims of dead works, finding no peace—into sons and
daughters of the Kingdom, people who are alive with joy, gladness, wisdom, and
freedom, as they serve the Living God.
Yes, this power
is in the blood. “How much more should the blood of Christ…” There is power in
the blood, indeed, but be careful not to make the blood of the Lord Jesus into
a fetish. His blood has power because he
offers himself up. He offered himself at his baptism. He offered himself at his
temptation. And on Palm Sunday as he rides the donkey down into the city like a
king (which he is), he is on his way to the final sacrifice.
When that
offering of himself gets hold of us, when it gets control of us, we are changed
by it. When our heats see the sacrifice and understand it, we are delivered
from dead works to serve the Living God. We are transformed from slaves to sons
and daughters of the Kingdom. We are caught up in worship of the Father as
Jesus leads us into the Father's presence. We are lifted by him into a
foretaste of glory, and soon, we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. And in this offering of ourselves we enter
the Lord's power.
“I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, without spot to God which is your spiritual worship.”
Romans
12: 1
"Offer yourselves
up." he says to us. Every day. All the time. Just like Jesus.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may prove (demonstrate, show, manifest) what is the good acceptable and perfect will of God.”
The world
says, “Indulge yourself. Pamper yourself. Coddle yourself. Gratify yourself.
Conserve yourself. Take care of yourself."
The Spirit of
the Lord says, “Offer yourself. Offer yourself. Offer yourself”
“Lo, I
come to do your will, O, Lord. In the volume of the book
it is written of me,” says Jesus and we say it with him.
We’re coming to
do his will. And to do his will means that we simply give ourselves, all the
way, to him. All the time. This is not a single momentary act but a daily practice.
The offering of
ourselves means that we commit ourselves to live the life that Jesus describes
in Matthew 5, 6, and 7—The Sermon on The Mount. The Sermon on the Mount becomes
deadly legalism if we just try to make ourselves do it. But the Sermon on the Mount,
when it is lived as worship, when it becomes an offering, it brings with it
tremendous power.
"If you bring your gift to the altar (and the gift is
yourself) and there remember your brother has something against you, Go! Leave
your gift there and go and get reconciled.”
Suppose we're
worshiping, and it suddenly becomes evident to me that I’m not treating my wife
right or my husband right, I’ve been walking around and spouting Bible quotes,
while treating my spouse like a dog---or my fellow worker…or my employee…or my
employer…or my neighbor…or my third cousin…
As I worship, I
become aware of this. So I leave my gift
and I go get reconciled— I make up my mind I’m going to be reconciled to this
person. I’m going to start making it up to them—my wife or my husband –I’m
going to treat them with honor as the Lord has made clear to me.
Now we offer
ourselves up and our worship becomes glorious.
As we are
offering ourselves to the Lord we become aware that
our eye is going off to the side. We are looking upon
that man or that woman with lust or envy or devising a way to exploit that
person for our own ends. Now we take our
right eye and pull it out. We put it under the blood. We confess it, so our eye is single. Now we can worship.
We sing hymns
in our worship that contain tremendous truths--- with tongues which have
gossiped, exaggerated, murmured, complained. And now, we’re saying, “Thank you,
Jesus!”
Yet, as we
worship, it becomes evident that this tongue has to
clean up its act. So we repent of our evil tongue, and
as we cleanse our tongue before the Lord it again becomes possible to offer
ourselves up to him.
Perhaps as we
worship, we become aware that our attitudes toward the people who have wronged
us is destroying us. We’re bitter about this group, or
that group, this race, or that nationality, General Motors, the Republican
Party, Democratic Party, our union, or whoever we’re angry with. With the Spirit's help, we begin to pray for
the person, or the group that inspires our wrath. Now we pray God’s blessing upon them. Suddenly we are set free to offer ourselves
up to God in thanksgiving and praise.
Perhaps we
become aware that our faith is actually less in God
and more in mammon. So
we repent. We know that we can’t serve God and money
too. We’re going to recommit ourselves—we’re going to offer ourselves to the
kingdom, trusting that God will provide whatever money we need.
The source of
our power is the offering of a clean, committed, holy life to God. If we do
this, his power becomes ours. It's a
daily offering of the life.
When a
fellowship offers itself to God in this way, that fellowship is anointed with
unspeakable power. The Spirit of the
Lord is calling our churches to present to present themselves to God as a
living sacrifice. To truly take up the
cross and follow the Lamb with outpoured lives.
Arise, shine, for your light has come for the glory of the
Lord has risen upon you.
To arise and
shine in response to his light is to present ourselves in worship to him. To rise up in the flame that comes down from heaven, and to
give glory to God as the flame consumes us.
As we worship
with our lives, we will have power. Power that will move mountains,
power that will break chains, power that will raise the dead, power that will
heal the sick, power that will bring people from darkness to light and from
Satan's bondage into God's glorious freedom.