Life from Above
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 4 viewsNotes
Transcript
Let me ask you a question - would you say that you are a livewire? When people are around you they get a charge or get charged up? Pastor George Whitfield was such a man. It is said of George Whitfield that he was a preacher who was capable of commanding thousands on two continents through the power of his oratory.
A figure of the 18th century, George Whitefield was called the “marvel of the age” by newspapers. It is believed George Whitefield preached at least 18000 times to perhaps as many as 10 million hearers. Traveling on his first trip to America, on his way to Philadelphia, record audiences would come to hear him speak, often exceeding the population of the towns in which he preached. Crowds were aggressive in spirit, elbowing and shoving one another, even trampling over themselves in order to hear of ‘divine things’ from the famed Whitefield.
Even in London, it is spoken of the convinced Calvinist, that frenzied mobs became spellbound and listened in profound silence, as Whitefield took aim at affecting their hearts of being born again or “new birth”. It is said that Whitefield never pleaded with people to give their lives to Jesus, but he simply announced and dramatized the message. Preaching in Scotland, in the small town of Cambuslang, it is said people were in “uncontrollable distress, like a field of battle…all night could be heard the voices of praise and prayer” of 20000 people. Whitefield was a livewire.
Jonathan Edwards, considered America’s greatest theologian, was quite the opposite of George Whitefield. His quiet reserved manner also impacted people as a livewire with the weight of argument. One observer noted “He scarcely gestured of even moved, and he made no attempt by the elegance of his style or the beauty of his pictures to gratify the taste and fascinate the imagination. Instead he convinced with the overwhelming weight of argument and with such intenseness of feeling.”
Edwards sermon, Justification by Faith (1738) and A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God (1737), helped fuel the Great Awakening (1739-1741) in America. It was during this time that Edwards preached, probably his most famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. With this sermon, Edwards was cast as an emotional and judgmental revivalist, but the fact is, he preached this sermon as matter-a-factly and as dispassionately, as any of his other sermons.
Both Edwards and Whitefield were intricately instrumental in the Great Awakening in both America and Great Britian. They were contemporaries, and fellow workers for the LORD in His fields. They were both livewires for the LORD, but complete polar opposties. Edwards is quoted as saying of Whitefield, when he invited Whitefield to preach at his church, “The congregation was extraordinarily melted … almost the whole assembly being in tears for a great part of the time.”, including Edwards himself.
Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, “Introduction,” 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 44.
Are you a livewire for God? of God? The qualifications of a livewire is not one of deep intellectualism or thought, nor one of great speaking skills or ability to entertain or the ability to emote. It’s not even having great social standing, control, influence, and even power; all things that our world and society value and consider of great worth. It does not even bear consideration of one’s age.
Being a livewire is simply to have been with Jesus; being connected with God in a loving relationship.
Consider this passage recorded in Acts 4:13
Acts 4:13 (HCSB)
When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.
What were Peter and John being bold about? Giving witness to the reality of the divine person and power of Jesus, that Jesus was whom He claimed to be, the Son of God, the Messiah. The Religious leaders had arrested Peter and John and assembled an intimidation council, to put to silence Peter and John’s witness to Jesus. All the rulers, elders, scribes, the High Priest, Caiaphas, John, Alexander and all the members of the high-priestly class ordered Peter and John to no longer preach or teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4:5-6; 17). Why? Because a crippled lame man, from birth, whom everyone knew, and everyone saw, was now walking around, leaping, and praising God (Acts 3:8-10). This was the result of two uneducated and untrained men, in the Law, in the traditional, customary, religious ways of the priesthood, ordered the man to stand up and walk (Acts 3:6), and he did.
But Peter said, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”
Then, taking him by the right hand he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong.
So he jumped up, stood, and started to walk, and he entered the temple complex with them—walking, leaping, and praising God.
The testimony of Peter and John - though you killed Jesus, He rose, and still lives today! We know because we have seen Him, and been with Him, and now we are intercessors for Him! Nothing can stop us from preaching this good news!
But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide;
for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Where did this boldness of Peter and John, George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards come from? They believed what they had seen and heard about the reality of Jesus Christ, and the miraculous changed lives witnessed upon the exercise of faith in Jesus. They simply believed that Jesus was from above.
Do you believe that Jesus is from Above? Do you believe that what the Bible professes about Jesus, that He is God, the divine God-man, who came to save man from death and hell, being redeemed unto a heavenly loving Father, through the sacrfice of His only Son on a cross? Who did not just stay dead, but rose from the grave, and who now sits at the right hand of God the Father, interceeding for those who would believe upon Him. Who healed the sick, the lame, those out of their minds, to have eternal health and peace in Him, through Him, and because of Him. Do you believe that Jesus is from Above? By who’s name do you live your life? Jesus’ own words...
“You are from below,” He told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
What do you believe about Jesus? Peter and John were unequivical about their answer before the intimidating gathering of religious force,
There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.”
John the Baptist says further to his own disciples, as Jesus begins his ministry to the people, John 3:31
The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms. The One who comes from heaven is above all.
Jesus is from Above, and is above all. Our responsibility is to point the world to the fact that Jesus is from Above, and is above all. After all, only good and perfect gifts are from above according to James 1:17. Jesus was the only one without sin, meaning He is the only one that is, has been, and ever will be perfect. And the fact that the world itself testifies to the goodness of Jesus, cements the fact, Jesus is from Above, and is above all because He is the only one who is perfect and good.
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The Father and I are one.”
“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good but One—God.
Being convinced that Jesus is from Above, and is above all, is perfect, and perfectly good, what should be one’s reaction as a believer and follower of His be? Unstoppable lips, persistent profession, unmistakable boldness, unshakable power…a live wire. Are you a live wire for Christ?
In his book, Hearing God, Dallas Willard, defines an intercessor as “one who is in such vital contact with God and with his fellow men that he is like a live wire closing the gap between the saving power of God and the sinful men who have been cut off from that power. An intercessor is the contacting link between the source of power (the life of the Lord Jesus Christ) and the objects needing that power and life” (Willard, Hearing God, p. 256, Hannah Hurnard)
Are you an intercessor for God? A live wire for God? A live wire is the contact link with a power source. Who is the power source for our lives? God the Father, through God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Are you and I connected to Jesus so much so, that we provide the contact point needed in order that men and women are introduced to the power and life of God that they are in so desperate need of? Peter and John were intercessors, contact points of Christ, for God the Father and the Kingdom. Are you a live wire that introduces people to the power and life they so desperately need in Jesus? Every person who authentically declares and lives Jesus as Lord and believes upon Him for their salvation is a live wire, an intercessor for Christ, an Ambassardor for the One from Above, and is thus known as being Born Again or Born from Above.
Being one ‘Born from Above’ or Born Again - is one who is connected, through faith, to the power source of life, through belief and belonging in Jesus Christ the Son of God. Therefore, a live wire, or an intercessor of God is one who has been born again in the power and life of Jesus Christ. Have you been born from above or born again? Have you assumed, envoked, and exercised that position with it’s power, authority and benefits? You are a co-heir with Christ, if you are a child of Christ (Romans 8:17). You have been given authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, and power over the enemy Satan and his angels (Luke 10:19). You have the power and authority to heal, given by Jesus, and commanded by Jesus (Luke 10:9) to evidence that the Kingdom of God is near. Are you living in step with the Spirit, being born from Above, purposed to be a live wire intercessor of Christ Jesus and the Kingdom of God? Have you been truly saved?
Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3:3-8)
An interesting conversation happens between Jesus and Nicodemus, a Pharisee, teacher, and religious ruler of the Jews. Coming at night, so that he might secretly meet with Jesus, Nicodemus affirms that He believes Jesus is a teacher from God, because no one could possibly do the things that He was doing. But Nicodemus stops short of believing and declaring that Jesus is God the Coming Messiah. Jesus cuts to the chase and says to Nicodemus, basically, no one can enter the Kingdom of God, who lives in the flesh, denying the miracles they have seen from His hand, and have eternal life. One must be born again from above, believing in the divine person of Jesus Christ, being the Son of God.
Jesus replied, “I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” “But how can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked Him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
Jesus answered, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
John speaking to us says, John 3:31
The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth is earthly and speaks in earthly terms. The One who comes from heaven is above all.
To be saved from hell and eternal seperation from Christ, one needs to be born again from above. This is called redemption. One needs to be redeemed because all have sinned and fallen under the curse of sin and death. The first Adam died, so we all have died. The second Adam died and arose, so that we might all arise from sin and death, but only if we are born again from above. The Kingdom of God is only possible for those who have believed upon and received freely the grace of God in and through Jesus Christ the Son. Why? Because we are dead to God without Christ. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, and did not trust Him, they cut themselves, and all of humanity, off from the realm of the Spirit. Thus all became dead in relation to the realm of the Spirit. One must be born of both water and the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
What is life? As Dallas Willard defines it, life is power to act and respond in specific kinds of relations. A cabbage cannot play with a ball like a dog, it does not have that kind of life in it. Though alive as a cabbage, it is dead to the realm of play. Just as a dog can make no response to dividing numbers or poetry, it is dead to the realms of arithmetic and literature. A live cabbage, though dead to one realm (of play), it is yet alive in another, that of soil, sun, and rain. Human beings were once alive to God. We were created to be responsive to and interact with Him, as Adam and Eve did. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed and mistrusted God, they cut themselves, and all of humanity off from the realm of the Spirit. As God said of the forbidden tree, “in the day you eat of it you shall die” (Gen 2:17). Though, biologically we are alive, we are yet dead, unresponsive to, and uninteractive to God and His kingdom. Thus by God’s grace, by His drawing, we have been given the gift of eternal life, to be redeemed, through the perfect birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the LORD and Son of God. Through faith in Him, we are born again from Above, into the realm of the Spirit, and have life in the Kingdom of God - the power to act and respond to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:1-2
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
A live wire requires one to be born of both water and Spirit, and live in the Spiritual realm, not of and in the fleshly realm (the world). What is that of the fleshly realm? The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:19-21 that they are the things such as fornication, impurity, licentiousness, but also jealousy, anger, quarrels, envy, drunkeness, and carousing, and things of the like. Things of the Spirit, or the realm of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Paul says further in Romans 8:5 that those who are living and of the flesh, set their minds on the flesh, but those of the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Of which realm do you think a live wire is to be of? The Spirit realm. But yet, because of our born sinful nature, even the best of Christ, those redeemed, can be mired by that of the fleshly realm. The Apostle Paul speaks of this reality when he expounds upon every person’s inner quarrel with the fleshly realm of sin, in doing what we do not want to do, and not doing what we should do (Romans 7:15-20). Romans 7:15
For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me.
For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it.
For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.
Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but it is the sin that lives in me.
The only way that one can live as a live wire of Jesus is to be born again from above. On our own we are mired in flesh, which leads to death. Only by believing upon Jesus, belonging to Jesus, and being blessed by Jesus, with the Holy Spirit, can we live the way of Jesus. Thus we become a connecting point for the life and power of Jesus to a dark and needy world, lost in sin and death.
To be a connecting point of Jesus does not require intelligence, power, and/or money and influence. What being a connecting point for Jesus requires is an active love relationship with Jesus that exercises His authority, power, and love in a lost world, free from living in the flesh. Whatever is born in the flesh, will live in the flesh. But those who are born in the Spirit, will live in the Spirit. Therefore, one must be born again to be a live wire for Jesus. Are you and I a live wire for Jesus, or is the connection dead? To push back the darkness of our world, we need to be live wire intercessors for Jesus.
How can we know that we are live wire intercessors for Jesus?
When is the last time someone said to you, “You’ve been with Jesus, haven’t you.” The religious authorities were were amazed my Peter and John when they spoke because they recognized that they had been with Jesus, or were companions of Jesus. I believe the highest praise one could ever receive here on earth is the statement, you are a companion of Jesus. Would their be enough evidence to convict you and I of that charge in the court of law? Or would we rather be known as a companion of men, or of the flesh? The Bible instructs each one of us to “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.”
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
What mind was that of Christ? He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, or taken advantage of. He emptied himself of being God, and instead became a slave, to the will of His Father. He therefore humbled himself to be something less than what he was. When is the last time we humbled ourselves to be and do that which was less of us in order to serve God or the better good, or order to connect people with the power and love of God? When have we put ourselves - our needs, wants, goals, and objectives - to death in order to benefit another? To be of benefit to God and the kingdom in order to connect people with the love and power of Christ? We cannot be a connecting point for the Kingdom of God, if we are living for ourselves and the fleshly things of this world.
What was the mind of Christ in the encounter with Peter, John, and the Lame beggar? Jesus commanded His disciples to go out with His power and His authority to make disciples, heal, exorcise, baptize, and teach the Kingdom of God.
Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Summoning His 12 disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them out and to heal every disease and sickness.
Is this same command, the mind of Christ for believers and followers of Jesus today? YES! It’s called the ministry of reconciliation.
Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”
When is the last time you appealed to your lost brother or sister, spouse, neighbor, and/or co-worker to be reconciled to God? When was the last time you said to Jesus let me be a contact point for the lost and needy for you today? Are you born from above? Are you born of both water and Spirit? Or is Christianity just a social activity, a religious exercise to make you and I feel good about ourselves? He who is not about the Father’s business, is not of the Father.
And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
You are My friends if you do what I command you.
Therefore, what are the qualifications, if we wish to speak in terms of measurement and business, of a live wire?
Live with Jesus - by believing in Him, belonging to Him, and being blessed by Him. Be in an active loving relationship with Him.
One is born from above or “Born Again”
One is to be about things of the Spirit, not things of the flesh
Live in the realm of the Spirit, not in the realm of the flesh
Empty oneself of fleshly things, and instead humble oneself with the spiritual things; “Have the mind of Christ”
Conclusion
I embarked on a hunting trip last week. In the fleshly realm, I was unsuccessful because I did not come home with a trophy to put in my freezer (though I choose not to pull the trigger on one). But in the Spirit realm, I was, as a contact point for Jesus and the Kingdom of God. If we have believed upon Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we have been given the Spirit of life to be a live wire intercessor for God and His Kingdom. We have been given the ability, the tools, and the knowledge. But the question is, do we have the will to obey the command of our Lord and Savior to love the world as He has loved us, laying down our lives, so as to give life to another, as a connecting point for the Gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God? Those who know and love Jesus are willing connecting wires for the love of Jesus. Are we a connecting wire for, and to, Jesus and the Kingdom? Kingdom citizens are connecting wires to Jesus and the Kingdom. It does not matter who we are, what level of intelligence, influence, power, ability, and/or talent. God simply needs on who is willing to be a connecting wire for Him. Whether that be a George Whitefield, a Jonathan Edwards, John, Paul, Ringo or a Shannon. If we have been indeed be born from Above, we are equipped to live as citizens of the Kingdom Above, and invite others to do so as well, through the power and life of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.