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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor Pentecost
Sunday The
subject of last
Sunday's
sermon
was "opening our minds to God's
power" in the sense of
empowerment for living -- what
I've called "staying power." It's
the power to "hang in there" when
things get tough, the power to be
the kind and character of person
God wants you to be. We
experience it as the power to
change, the power to stand, and
the power to persevere. 4-Trusting
Grace
and
Grace
Alone Look
with me at Acts 1, verses 7 and
8. The resurrected Jesus is
speaking to the men he has chosen
to be apostles. He's just told
them that in a few days they will
be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
They're curious about this, of
course, and they ask Him if the
giving of the Spirit will mark
the time when He restores the
kingdom to Israel. Jesus'
description of this mission --
the mission of being His
witnesses in the world and
calling people to faith in Him --
explains the reason we need to
understand and receive the "going
power" of the Spirit. The reason
is simply this: we can't possibly
carry out this mission in our own
power. Nor could we accomplish it
if all we had was the "staying
power" I preached about last
week, as wonderful and necessary
as that kind of power
is. Let's
look again at one of the texts I
used last week -- but from a
different angle. It's Romans
1:16: Why
would one be ashamed of the
gospel? Think about what Paul
says in 1 Corinthians
1:18: Foolishness
is just the right word. Listen to
this brief outline of the gospel
as a unsaved person might hear
it: Three
years later the religious
leaders in his country had him
executed for blasphemy. But on
the third day after he was
killed, he rose from the dead,
ascended into heaven to assume
his place as the rightful Lord
over all creation. His
death is the full payment for
all the sins of this world --
and all who will believe this
incredible story, turn away
from sin, and follow this man
whose name is Jesus, can know
the one and only true God and
have a new quality of life
here and and a home in heaven
when they die. My
friends, however you want to
describe what I just said, it is
not a rational appeal to a
person's intellect. To the world
it is just what Paul said:
foolishness. It seems totally
absurd and laughable. We are not
clever enough to convince the
world that this gospel is true --
it takes God's power. How
does that power come to us? How
does it accomplish its intended
purpose? I would submit to you
that that power comes to us in
the form of miracles. Look
at this PowerPoint slide for a
definition of the word
"miracle": But
the world wouldn't call that a
miracle because it's not an
observable violation of the
natural order. It can be
explained as a "psychological
adjustment" or "turning over a
new leaf." When
God got hold of me and changed my
life, most people didn't say, "A
miracle has happened to Jerry
Varnado." They said, "Well, ol'
Jerry is finally getting his life
together." They didn't recognize,
or didn't want to admit, that the
change that occurred in me was
because the hand of God had
touched my life. But
the kind miracles that are
observable and inexplicable are
harder to explain away. To get at
my point I'll turn to a pattern
evident in the New Testament
church, beginning with the events
of Pentecost in Acts
2. The
Day of Pentecost revealed several
miraculous phenomena. First,
there was the sound "like the
blowing of a violent wind" (verse
2). The Bible also describes
"what seemed to be tongues of
fire" (verse 3). And, of course,
there was speaking "in other
tongues" (verse 4). Three
observable, inexplicable
incidents. What was the result of
these combined
miracles? Now,
Peter has the courage to boldly
stand and preach Jesus in a
public setting in Jerusalem, and
the rest of the disciples are
right there with him. Second,
we see the miracle power of God
in the supernatural phenomena.
Without the miracles the crowd
would not have
gathered. Then
we see the power of God change
the hearts of the 3,000 who
believed Peter's message.
God's
power is also evident in Acts 3.
Peter and John are going to the
temple at the time of afternoon
prayer. They encounter a man,
crippled since birth, begging by
the temple gate. He asks them for
money. Peter
replies: "Silver or gold I do not
have, but what I have I give you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, walk" (verse 6). The
man was instantly healed and
follows Peter and John into the
temple courts walking and jumping
(verse 8). The
phenomena was a miraculous
healing. What was the
result? The
Apostle Paul gives a nice summary
statement about all this in 1
Corinthians 4:20: He's
talking here about the full range
of God's power, and the New
Testament record is clear that
that includes
miracles. Now,
I've heard people say that we
should seek the "Miracle Worker"
and not the miracles. I agree
with that in a sense, but didn't
Jesus say about the Kingdom that
if we seek we will find? Well, if
you are seeking the Miracle
Worker, how will you know when
you've found Him? Because He does
miracles! John
Wesley wrestled with this same
issue as he studied church
history. Why,
he wondered, did the church,
which had begun with such an
explosion of God's power, see so
little of His miraculous power
for hundreds of years? In
his journal entry for August 15,
1750, he wrote this: That's
John Wesley, the founder of the
Methodist movement. He was so
convinced that the miraculous
power of God was available in his
day that when that power wasn't
evident in his meetings, he would
fall on his knees and cry out,
"Oh God! Where are Thy
signs?" Why
are miracles are so sparse in our
day, at least here in the U.S.? I
believe we get a good indication
from what Jesus says in Matthew
13. He is in His hometown, and
the hometown folks, for the most
part, refuse to believe He's
anything more than the son of
Joseph the carpenter. Look with
me at verses 57 and
58: The
Bible gives us clear evidence
that a lack of faith inhibits
miracle-working power of God.
Friends, we must begin to foster
a firm faith in the present power
of God to do miracles in our
midst. Several
years ago, when Dr. Russell
Goodwin, one of our Methodist
evangelists, was here for a
series of special services, this
church was teetering on the edge
of revival. And my wife Beverly
and I asked Dr. Goodwin, "Where
do we go from here? What has to
happen?" Do you know what he told
us? "Move into the
miraculous." I
keep hoping and praying that in
the future our "celebration"
time, our time of testimonies in
Sunday morning worship, will
begin to a witness to God's
miracles, because it's going to
take that kind of observable,
inexplicable activity to break
this city out of the mind lock
that "education" has on this
community. The
Scriptures make plain to us that
it was always the intent of Jesus
for His church to move in miracle
power. Look with me at what Jesus
said John 14:12-13: I
think "greater" here is talking
about quantity, not quality. We
should see the miraculous power
of God spreading around the world
as the Kingdom
advances. Let
me make this clear so that you
don't misunderstand: It's not
that we seek miracles for the
sake of the miracles. Rather we
seek them because they are
necessary to do the work Jesus
gave us to do, and they are the
undeniable evidence of His
presence with us. It is what
Jesus intended all along for His
Church. We
need to open our minds to God's
power. It's tough to do in this
culture. It's hard. But if we
expect to be the church that
God's wants us to be -- if we
want to see the kind of Kingdom
growth that the church in Acts
experienced -- we need to believe
and expect to see God's power
regularly manifested in
miraculous ways. Through
God's grace we receive "staying
power": the power to change, the
power to stand, the power to
persevere. We thereby become
vessels fit for God's use. We
become a true habitation of the
Spirit, filled with the love,
grace and power of Almighty
God. By
that same grace we receive "going
power" -- the power to go into
all the world and make disciples
of all nations. God desires to
exert his power through us by
giving supernatural results to
our preaching and witnessing, by
healing the sick, by delivering
the oppressed, even raising the
dead. But
these things will not happen
until we really open our minds to
God's power -- until we really
believe that God can and will
exert that kind of power through
us. Let's
open our minds to God's power --
"going power," the power of
Pentecost.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
Going
power
(Last
in the series, Opening Ourselves to
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
May 19, 2002
Today I want to talk about a
different aspect of God's power
that's available to us: the power
Pentecost -- or "going power."
This is power exerted a different
way for a different
purpose.
In
this
series
He
said to them: "It is not for
you to know the times or dates
the Father has set by his own
authority. But you will
receive power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you; and you
will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the ends
of the earth."
A
'foolish' gospelI
am
not
ashamed
of the gospel, because it is
the power of God for the
salvation of everyone who
believes: first for the Jew,
then for the Gentile.
For
the message of the cross is
foolishness
to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved
it is the power of God.
Two-thousand
years ago, an unmarried Jewish
teenager, while she was still
a virgin, gave birth to the
God who has no end or
beginning. He grew up as a
carpenter, but when he was 30
years old, he turned to
itinerant preaching.
A
miraculous method
In
other words, we're talking about
an observable violation of the
laws of nature. Now,I don't mean
to insinuate that the
inner
work of the Holy Spirit isn't a
miracle. Certainly one of the
greatest miracles we are
privileged to witness is a soul
set free by the power of
God.
A
broad range of God's power is
clearly evident in this event.
First, we can recognize God's
"staying power" in the disciples,
especially Peter. Less than two
months prior to Pentecost, Peter
had three times denied he even
knew Jesus. The other disciples,
too, had spent time laying low
for fear they might get exactly
what Jesus got.
We
see something like this pattern
throughout the New Testament as
the church goes into the world to
"make disciples of all
nations."For
the kingdom of God is not a
matter of talk but of
power.
Miracles?
Or the 'Miracle
Worker'?
I am convinced that we need to
quit trying to explain away
miracles and start searching our
hearts and lives to determine why
God doesn't do them around us
regularly and consistently.
"By
reflecting on an odd book...,
The General Delusion of
Christians With Regard to
Prophesy, I was fully
convinced of what I had long
suspected:
1. That the Montanists" (--
they were sort of the
charismatics of the 2nd and
3rd centuries --) " that the
Montanists... were real,
scriptural Christians;
and,
2. that the grand reason why
the miraculous gifts were so
soon withdrawn, was not only
that faith and holiness were
well nigh lost; but that dry,
formal, orthodox men began
even then to ridicule whatever
gifts they had not themselves,
and to decry them all as
either madness or
imposture."
The
faith factorAnd
they took offense at him. But
Jesus said to them, "Only in
his hometown and in his own
house is a prophet without
honor." And he did not do many
miracles there because of
their lack of faith.
I
tell you the truth, anyone who
has faith in me will do what I
have been doing. He will do
even greater things than
these, because I am going to
the Father. And I will do
whatever you ask in my name,
so that the Son may bring
glory to the Father.
God's
power in us and through
us
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020519a: Going Power.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado