Empowered
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Life’s easier when you know how to use your tools
Sam not knowing about staple removers
Jesus has been preparing his disciples for his departure
Sounds sad - but it’s all for their benefit
Jesus is going to prepare a place for them with the Father
He’s going to be the one to take them to that place with him
But in the meantime, there’s work to be done
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by that work
Wouldn’t it be nice if Jesus had given us some tools?
That’s what Jesus is going to teach us today - that he’s given us a whole bunch of help to do some incredible things
Philip’s Question
Philip’s Question
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Philip just wants to see the Father
Maybe he’s impatient
Maybe he doesn’t understand that the place is with the Father
Maybe he doesn’t get anything of what Jesus is saying
I just want God - simple as that!
Knowing Jesus is knowing God
Jesus: Have “I” been with you so long?
Jesus is the best way to know God
Since the first verse - Jesus is the word of God
Everything that God has commanded, everything he desires, is found in Jesus
If you wanted to see everything in the bible lived out exactly as it should be - you’d have Jesus
Emphasis on see - Jesus makes his relationship with the Father obvious through his works
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
It’s the works that show how Jesus and the Father are with and in each other
We’ve been reading about his works the entire gospel - his signs
Turning water to wine
Healing the sick and the crippled
Feeding the 5,000
Raising Lazarus from the dead
The miracles show that God is active and Jesus is at the center of it all
And he expects you to be involved in works as well.
Doing the Works of God
Doing the Works of God
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
If you believe, you’re going to work
If we truly believe that Jesus performed these signs, and mean what we think they do, then something’s gonna change
If I believe...
That a tornado is coming, I’m working to secure the home
A criminal plans on breaking into my house tonight, the cops (or maybe Wes and I) are waiting for him
Our beliefs determine our behaviors everywhere
Belief in good grades and a college education makes us sacrifice countless hours and dollars
Belief in our business gets us to advertise it and network
Belief in our politics gets us to the polls
How has your belief in Jesus determined your week?
We believe that we need to show up, so we’re here
Do you believe that nobody else will beleive the gospel unless we teach them? Rom 10:14
Do you believe that we need to be the light of the world, or that it’s somebody elses problem?
We can talk all we want, but Jesus says pay attention to the works
Show the world a new way of life
That find purpose and fulfillment in greater things than ‘things’
Have people been with us for so long, and they haven’t seen Jesus?
One of the worst things someone can say is “I didn’t know you were a Christian!”
Blake told me of a local baseball league team, and he was shocked that they were organized by a local church!
Greater Works
Greater Works
Doing the works of Jesus already sounds like a tall order
To sacrifice like he did
To humble ourselves and wash feet
To die to our old ways of life
But Jesus tells us we have even more on our plate - we’re to do greater works than Jesus
If it had been anybody else who said this, we’d call them a heretic
How can anything we do be greater than Jesus?
How can we, covered in the filth of sin, show people what Jesus looks like?
Two questions we need to answer:
What works does Jesus have in mind?
How can we go them in a greater fashion?
What are the Works?
What are the Works?
The miracles!
Those are the works Jesus has been doing throughout the gospel
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”
15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
But this leads to an immediate problem - we’re not seeing anything close to what Jesus has been doing
The apostles come close through their miracles in Acts, but…
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.
Whoever believes will be doing greater works, not just the apostles
Instead, we should look at what the miracles pointed to
He is ushering in a new age where the mountains drip with wine
He is empowering a new way of life
He gives us fulfillment beyond this life
He gives life beyond the grave
These signs of Jesus pointed to a greater reality
Jesus pointed to them - this is what will happen
They happen through us
How?
How?
Again, this sounds like blasphemy, but look at how these works are done by us
Jesus is going to the Father - It’s not anything inherent in us
After Jesus is crucified and raised from the dead some important things happen
Primarily - a sacrifice has been offered on our behalf, enabling us to be with God
This is the place the Jesus is preparing - a place with God
Now that we have a new relationship with God via Jesus, we have his help
Through Prayer
Through the Holy Spirit
This is the only reason we do anything greater - because God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all working together through us
Help #1 - Prayer
Help #1 - Prayer
13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
We can do greater works because we can ask God to do them
This doesn’t mean God is Santa Claus
Qualified by asked in his name
Jesus’ will
Qualified by glorifying the Father
Not our desires but God’s
Glory is weight - God has more weight in our decisions
If we are dedicated to following Jesus’ will and glorify the Father - put his desires above our own - we’re going to be able to do it
This is in stark contrast to how people prayed to other gods
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Jesus isn’t teaching against repeating a prayer, or praying for the same more than once. He’s teaching us that we don’t need to pester our God to get his attention. Don’t babble like the pagans who believed that to get a prayer answered you had to get the attention of the gods. This was done at times like the annoying kid getting mom’s attention. MomX100.
The goal was to wear the god down so that they got so annoyed they had to give you some attention. Once you annoyed them to the point of exhaustion they’re much more likely to grant your request just to get rid of you!
Your prayers are heard not because of who you are but because of where Jesus is.
So pray! Work at it because you believe that he’ll answer it.
Our prayers are answered and our works are enabled through Jesus. He’s the one making answered prayer and greater works possible.
Help #2 - the Holy Spirit
Help #2 - the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Jesus leaving means the Spirit is coming
We’ll see this in John 20
The Spirit is being given is a very new way
Notice the shift - he is with, but he will be in
The disciples have experienced some presence of the Spirit through Jesus
He was baptized with the Spirit
The Spirit remained on him
Now they get to be filled with the Spirit themselves - forever
This was not how it was in the Old Testament
God’s Spirit and presence was in the temple and difficult to get to
We see some people being filled with the Spirit
Bezalel and Oholiab to construct the tabernacle
Judges to lead Israel
Saul to be king over Israel
Prophets to declare the words of God
But they were temporary, and not for everyone
25 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied. But they did not continue doing it.
29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
We receive that same Spirit
28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.”
You have been empowered by God’s Spirit
Ritz-Carlton empowerment
Flying to Hawaii to deliver a laptop
Gas in the car for an early mroning departure
Building a deck for a handicapped couple
You’ve been empowered with a lot more than $2,000
You can bring your neighbors to tears by loving them
You can help raise the dead by preaching the word of life
You can help free people from the prisons of shame and fear
If we don’t realize what God is capable of doing through us, then we’ll never do greater works
We need to rebalance the humility scale - yes “I’m” incapable but I’m also not alone
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
God wants to be seen in us
He hasn’t left us powerless
Invite into the work by receiving the Spirit through baptism.
