Friday, April 6, 2018

Preaching with Power

Friday, April 6, 2018
As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said.  When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God:  “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying,
‘Why were the nations so angry?  Why did they waste their time with futile plans?  The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’
“In fact, this has happened here in this very city!  For Herod Antipas, Pontius Pilate the governor, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were all united against Jesus, your holy servant, whom you anointed.  But everything they did was determined beforehand according to your will.  And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word.  Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.  Then they preached the word of God with boldness.  Acts 4:23-31(NLT)
The one thing that drives this preacher about preaching is the desire to proclaim God’s holy word in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  This was the example of the early church.  Peter and John kept telling the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection, and how that proves beyond doubt that he was the Messiah.  The number of believers in Jerusalem grew to over 5,000.  This new move of God’s Spirit proved a thorn in the side for the ruling Jewish elders, and they wanted to imprison Peter and John.  But they couldn’t lock them up without starting a riot.  This was business as usual turned on its ear; the powerful Sanhedrin was stymied and powerless before two uneducated fishermen.  They just had to let them go, and that’s not something you see every day.
When Peter and John got back to the church meeting they told what had happened, and a spontaneous season of prayer broke out, with all the believers imploring Heaven to give them boldness against the coming persecution.  They knew evil doesn’t give up its’ place without bloodshed; this was warfare on bended knee – prayers of desperation!
The church prayed for power to do God’s bidding – they wanted a voice to use in glorifying God.  The fact that God answered is seen in God’s Spirit giving all the believers great boldness to proclaim His word. 
That is much different than “church” done in the 21st century.  After all, when you look at the early church’s prayer it was boldness in proclaiming the Kingdom of God for which they’d asked – not success, wealth, or to heal Aunt Susie’s bunions.  We maintain that we are God’s Gospel Lighthouse, but more than not we are a powerless, flickering, used-up match of cultural compromise.  We hold the mantel of proclamation of the fire of God, but the message hardly calls for the righteousness of holiness; instead we preach the lukewarm pabulum of tolerance and inoffensive niceness.
I believe Jesus had something to say about that to the church at Ephesus:
“I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish that you were one or the other!  But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!  You say, ‘I am rich.  I have everything I want.  I don’t need a thing!’  And you don’t realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.  Revelation 3:15-17(NLT)
For You Today
The call of God to the people of God hasn’t changed.  If you think you’re too old to change, and allow the fire of God to light your path, let’s listen to God speaking to old Abraham:
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’  Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. 
Genesis 17:1(NLT)
1 Hand-PenYou chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO



[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

No comments:

Post a Comment