Proclamation by the Power of the Holy Spirit

Our Scripture lesson today is taken from Luke 4:14-15:

Luke 4:14–15 ESV

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

May God bless this, the reading of His holy and infallible Word.

In these two verses, Luke provides us with a brief summary of Jesus’ earthly ministry. His ministry can be summarized by two things, with two results:

He ministered by the power of the Holy Spirit, which resulted in the report about Him spreading.

He taught, which resulted in His being glorified.

When we examine Luke’s second volume, the book of Acts, it becomes apparent that these two things, with the resulting fruit, should characterize the church’s ministry as well. This is particularly important for us at this time as we begin the process of refocusing and sharpening our ministry.

We begin with the...

Power of the Holy Spirit

In his twin volumes, Luke directly mentions the Holy Spirit 97 times in 76 verses! The Holy Spirit and His power are everywhere in Luke-Acts!

This is no accident, the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to write this way because He wants the church to understand we cannot do the work of God without the Holy Spirits power. Let me give you a brief overview of the Spirit focused message of Luke: Before he was born, we are told John was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk 1:15); Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:35); Elizabeth (Lk 1:41), Zechariah (Lk 1:67) and Simeon (Lk 2:25) all prophesied by the power of the Holy Spirit. John taught that what would distinguish Jesus’ baptism and ministry from his was that Jesus would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16). When Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit descended upon Him bodily, in the form of a dove (Lk 3:22). After which, being full of the Holy Spirit (Lk 3:22), He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (Lk 4:1), and now He begins His ministry “in the power of the Holy Spirit” (Lk 4:14). Jump forward three years, and we find Jesus commanding the Apostles to remain in Jerusalem until they receive promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5) and receive power (Acts 1:8).

I could continue through the rest of the book of Acts, but I think you get the picture. This leads us to ask, “Why is the power of the Holy Spirit so important for ministry?”

It is because the method is the message!Ours is a supernatural message. It is about a supernatural Savior, who supernaturally saves sinners, and who will supernaturally raisethose who trust in Him for salvation from the death, in order that they might reign with Him eternally in a supernaturally recreated heavens and earth! If we use natural means, we will get natural results. If we use supernatural means, we will get supernatural results!

What do I mean by supernatural power? Not primarily supernatural signs and wonders. The signs and wonders Jesus and His Apostles performed had a temporary authenticating and typological function that ceased with the death of the last Apostle. I will speak of this more next week; today, I want to focus on what it is—the Spirit empowered teaching and preaching of the Word of God. To the Romans, Paul writes:

Romans 1:16 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

In a parallel passage, Paul writes the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

What does it mean to be saved by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Scripture makes it clear that because of Adam’s fall, all human beings are born dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1), and as a result, we were enslaved by both our sin and Satan (Rom 6:17, Eph 2:2-3); consequently, we were unable to obey God and understand truth (Rom 8:7, 1 Cor 2:14). It is only when a person is supernaturally “born again” that they are able to understand the Gospel and place their faith in it (Jn 3:5).

This is why we must pray that we as a congregation be filled with the Holy Spirit, in order that everything we do is done by His power. This is especially true for those who are engaged in the teaching and preaching ministry of our church. The most powerful and effectual prayers are when we pray Scripture back to God. I have placed copies of such a prayer by Matthew Henry on the back table. I urge you to pray this prayer for me and all pastors.

If we minister by the power of the Holy Spirit, what will happen? Our text says “a report about Jesus will spread to all the surrounding regions.” How can we tell whether or not we are a successful church? We can tell if the renown of Jesus’ Name is being spread. Notice that it is not about the fame and renown of our church or its ministers being spread, but Jesus Name being spread. If you read the book of Acts, what you will discover is that it is the renown of Jesus’ Name that was being spread, not the renown of the Apostles and other early Christians. By this criterion, it is easy to see that many churches and ministers are failures, not successes. Worldly successes do not equate to spiritual success. This is why I said earlier that worldly methods will produce worldly results. If we are doing ministry by the power of the Holy Spirit, then we are going to fade into the background and Jesus is going to be in the forefront!

This brings us to the second characteristic of Jesus’ ministry:

Proclamation of the Word of God

In addition to ministering in the “power of the Holy Spirit”, Jesus “taught in the synagogues”. This shows us the focus and priority of His ministry.

It is important that we understand that the Church’s primary calling is to proclaim the Gospel by Word and Sacrament. If you pick up that prayer by Matthew Henry, you will notice that it is entitled, Pray for the Ministers of God’s Holy Word and Sacrament. Every time I preach the Word and administer the Sacraments rightly the Holy Spirit is moving in supernatural power! In a parallel passage in Mark’s gospel to our text next week, Mark writes:

Mark 6:4–6 ESV

And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

Notice what shut down the miraculous working of God in Nazareth—it was their unbelief. A church cannot proclaim the Word of God with supernatural power unless it believes and obeys that same Word! Personal discipleship and personal evangelism go hand and hand. You cannot do one without the other.

If we as a congregation commit ourselves to knowing, believing, obeying and then sharing God’s Word, we are told Christ will be glorified! A healthy Christian and congregation are identified by whether or not they are glorifying Jesus.

Every Sunday morning, we pray the Lord’s prayer together. What is the first petition we pray in that prayer? It is this: “hallowed be thy name”. It means that God’s Name be treated as holy by ourselves and others.

Let me ask you something: “Do you really want that?”

If so, then we must do what Jesus did—we must rely upon the Holy Spirits power as we proclaim the Gospel to others.