The Church's source of Power

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. It's with rejoicing that we are gathered together this morning in this place to worship the living God. But I know God has something to tell us all the time. And we want to listen to what He has to say. I want to be reading from John the third chapter. This is about as basic a message that I know to preach. When you read about what it says in John the third chapter, we'll let it be left at that until we're done reading and I'd like to then maybe change course just a little bit. [00:00:50] Beginning at verse 1 down through verse 9 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. [00:01:22] Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except the man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, [00:01:53] but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? In the book of Ezekiel, in chapter 36, Israel was in captivity and received God's promise here about a future time. And he said, A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. [00:02:25] And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. We could look at a number of other New Testament scriptures that refer to this same experience with different words. Jesus said, Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, [00:02:55] you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Paul wrote to Titus not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and again Paul wrote to the Romans be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God [00:03:27] Paul wrote to the Corinthians If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new And again Peter wrote Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises That by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust We find terms here like transformation, new creation, partakers of the divine nature, regeneration, all talking about a new beginning. [00:04:10] Something not remodeled, repaired, but new. Having said that, I'm thinking of what Paul wrote to Timothy in the second letter, I believe it was, chapter 3, when he said, Let this know also that in the latter days something's going to happen. Perilous times shall come. Perilous times are dangerous times. Sometimes when Paul wrote about his peril, he talked about the perils at sea. [00:04:46] Now when Paul was in the ship and it wrecked, one time or different times there were storms, that ship was tossed. There was an imminent danger that he might go under. And the one time they did go under, Paul was hanging on, apparently, to some of the wreckage of the ship, along with his fellow mariners, floating into the shore, hopefully. That was a peril. It was dangerous. They were in a very difficult condition. [00:05:20] Paul said, know this, in the latter days perilous times shall come. Then he mentions something that sounds kind of like the gray area we were hearing about this morning. For men shall be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God. I don't know what we think of this morning when we think about the peril of the latter days. We hear a lot of concerns. In our local community we heard the concern that no longer can they, in the middle of a Mennonite community, study the Bible in school with little children. [00:05:55] because of one little boy's mother's protest. Perilous times. We hear today about the inroads of Islam across the world, the danger. People are concerned there are perilous times. When you and I travel today, we have to take different measures than we used to some years ago because there are perilous times. Is that what Paul was writing about? What was he writing about if he wasn't writing about those perilous times? [00:06:28] It seems to me the peril that he was talking about mostly we could find there in the third chapter down about verse six or somewhere where it says having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. I hope you're not ready. I'm not ready to accept that the church is a goner. That there is no answer. Jesus said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church. [00:06:59] That speaks to me of something glorious. That speaks to me of something with power. But he says that there is coming a time when people have a form of godliness, but they don't have that power any longer. Something happened to the power. And when we look at these different passages of scripture that we looked at this morning We find here, not necessarily the word power, but we do find words that go with power [00:07:33] When you talk about life, life has power Even the life in a little blade of wheat that pushes up through the dirt in the spring Speaks of power There is all that restriction, that thing to hold it back, but that little tender blade comes forth. There is power there. And he talks about different areas of power in the life of the Christian. But when the church has lost its power, that's the real problem today. [00:08:10] There is an answer for the world's needs. There is an answer for sin. There's an answer for Satan, there's an answer for self. The only answer I know for a church without power is revival. Something needs to change. What has contributed, what does contribute to a situation where people have a form of godliness, go through the motions, have lots of activities, have lots of organization, have lots of Bible studies, [00:08:40] have meetings where we talk to each other about the things of God. But the question we leave with us this morning, where is the power? Is it not a valid question? Do we have the power? The next question comes more personally at where is the power in your life and mine? Is it there? And if it is, rejoice in God. If it isn't, where did it go? [00:09:12] What happened? I think it goes very well with the opening thoughts that were shared this morning. It goes with our instruction class as we sat together with several of the youth. And even with our Sunday school lesson. But the real question this morning is, where is the power of the people of God? The power of the new birth. I tend to think, to believe, certainly it merits the question, the consideration. [00:09:46] If we talk here about what Jesus said in John the third chapter, That when Nicodemus came to him, I thought, what an answer to his question. When Nicodemus said, Master, well it wasn't even a question perhaps that he asked, but he said, Master, we know that unless, no, pardon me, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. For no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. [00:10:19] The evidence was there in his mind that Jesus was a man sent from God. Why did he say what he said to Jesus? I don't know for sure. We could speculate, but I still probably wouldn't really know why he said that. Was it to kind of pat him on the back? Or was he giving recognition to what the Jews were expecting? That there is coming a Messiah to set up a new kingdom here on the earth. The Jews are once again going to be a nation, free, and a glorious people of God. [00:10:51] We don't know really what he had in mind. But after Nicodemus said what he did, Jesus just kind of interrupted and said, Nicodemus, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He was seeing another kingdom, a Jewish kingdom. Jesus was interested in a kingdom of God, a kingdom of heaven. And he said to see that you're going to need something different than what you have today. [00:11:25] He was directing him to the very purpose of Jesus' coming. That he came to set up a different kingdom. And it was a kingdom that exceeded all other kingdoms. Perhaps we referred to that a week or so ago just by talking about the stone that was cut out of the mountain that overcame all the other empires that had been set up in the history of mankind. That new kingdom, that stone was an eternal kingdom. [00:11:56] It was one that lasted and will last till the very end. It's the kingdom of a new life. We would raise the question, at least this morning, if it may not well be that one of the reasons there is something like a form of godliness without the power is that we may not be quite clear on the question what it is to be born again. We know that a person has to be born and then after that there is an ongoing walk. [00:12:31] The scripture said, Paul says, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. It is a walk. It is an ongoing experience. But really, what did Jesus mean when he said, if a man is not born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. And secondly, he said, if a man is not born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Something needs to change. And Jesus was really directing some thoughts that hopefully and I would think very likely penetrated Nicodemus' conscience [00:13:09] and caused him to see, though he was a Pharisee, Jesus said, Are you a Pharisee? Are you a leader of your people and you don't know these things? It wasn't a very flattering speech Jesus gave to Nicodemus. Here was a man with a title, a man with a pedigree, a man with a degree perhaps in studies. And Jesus was saying, Nicodemus, where you're at is not going to get you where you want to go. [00:13:41] You need something you don't have. What Jesus was helping him do was to see his own need. Nicodemus, you need more than you have. Something different than you have. You must be born again. And Nicodemus raised that question. What are you talking about, Jesus? An old man being born again. This question, this powerlessness, this situation. [00:14:13] As I was preaching a couple weeks ago for a week, something stood out to me like it never has before. It seems there is a united agreement amongst the religious people today that we are living in perilous times, that there are many needs. We discuss needs, we talk about areas that we fall short. The thing that's alarming to me, the peril in the thing is, nothing changes. We diagnose the case. [00:14:47] We agree that there is need. We agree I have need. I don't always attain what I should. And things go on the same. Is that perhaps the peril? When nothing changes and things go on, we recognize we're short, we go to sleep. It dissipates the power of the people of God. If we don't meet God on his terms and have the experience that he's talking about. [00:15:25] Well, these scriptures talk about all these different terms that are used. Perhaps we could illustrate something this morning on the board a bit. That seems to me that might help us understand what Jesus meant when he talked about being born again. A new birth. Before I say that, though, I think of the words of Isaiah. When God was speaking through the prophet, he said, [00:15:57] Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? Can you imagine this morning, especially mothers, being in the midst of a birth and never terminating? A half-born person. Is there such a thing, spiritually perhaps? Forget which, Hosea perhaps was the prophet that spoke about Ephraim being a half-turned cake. [00:16:29] In other words, he was baked on one side but not on the other. What is a half-turned cake? What is a half-born child? Well, we know that the ultimate of a half-born child is nothing less than death. A half-turned cake. Not sure what all that is, or how it might be. But it certainly speaks of something less than what it was intended for. [00:17:01] Less than what it might be. I'd like to make this little diagram. Some years ago in studying about different things in the scriptures, this was a man's way of depicting the human person. What is man? Man is body, soul, and spirit. Paul makes it clear in difference of his writings. In the book of Hebrews it talks about dividing between soul and spirit. [00:17:31] Thessalonians, it talks about being sanctified, being made whole, body, soul, and spirit. Man has a body. We all, we relate to each other, we see the body. Have you ever seen a man's soul? Sometimes you can get a sense of a person's soul. Have you ever seen a man's spirit? What is it then? Can we know what it is? Certainly what I'm going to say this morning is limited by my own inability to understand it all. [00:18:08] But man has a body. That's where his five senses are. You can see, you can feel, you can smell, you can hear, and something else. I can't think of this now. Next you have the soul. That's where man's intellect is. That's where man's will is. that's where his emotions are in a sense that's the real us is the soul when God created Adam he breathed into his nostrils [00:18:40] and he became a living soul Adam had a mind he was different from the rest of God's creation in that he became a living soul he had an intellect he could think he had a will he could choose he had emotions he felt And then in the center is man's spirit. When God created Adam and Eve, the Bible says that, if I can get the words, [00:19:15] He created him in his own image, in his own likeness. There was something that interacted with God in Adam's life. Then came sin. God had said, the day you eat of that tree, you're going to die. Adam and Eve ate, as we know the story. And they walked. And they talked. And they felt. Did they die? [00:19:48] Was God right when he said, the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die? Certainly God was true. And what happened is, as I understand, Adam and Eve's spirit died. It became unconscious toward God. They lost the image of God. They were as the woman living in pleasure that Paul wrote of when he said, She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth. [00:20:18] Okay, Adam and Eve were dead here while they lived here. That's why God took them out of the Garden of Eden so that they wouldn't eat of that tree of life and live forever dead or be dead forever and continue going on. He wanted them to know that something had changed. That's why they were ashamed. Sin is always a shame. For people to live in. The Bible speaks about the shame of their sinfulness. There is something, the nakedness of, the shame of nakedness is what the Bible, the term that the Bible used. [00:21:03] It's talking about being exposed before a holy God in our sin. Adam and Eve were dead while they lived. Could it be that part of the issue of having a form of godliness is that we never get back to having this relationship with God restored? Let's look a bit at that question this morning as we continue together. [00:21:36] The new birth. The new birth is the foundation. It is the beginning. It is the thing that we need where all the rest of the Christian life is based on. If we get to a partial birth or a lack of a birth, in our intellect, we can make choices, we can feel, we can make some right decisions, and we might do a whole lot of right things, but unless that relationship within is restored, are we born again? [00:22:15] That thing has to be taken care of, or a person is not born again. Now, does it really matter? Jesus said, except, unless. It is an imperative. It's one of the have-tos. If a person is not born again, he cannot see, he cannot understand spiritual things, neither can he enter the kingdom of heaven. It is entirely possible, I believe, that people can feel guilty because of wrongs that they have done. [00:22:48] They can confess those sins and not be born again. I don't know if we agree together on that or not. Take a child who does something wrong. That child feels bad because they know they've done wrong. Their conscience bothers them. They confess and they're forgiven. They're forgiven. They feel relief. Are they born again? Being born again is more than just reaching for forgiveness. [00:23:24] Salvation is more than an escape from hell. Salvation is more than just being forgiven. Salvation means that the part of man that has died needs to be brought to life. So many people have already made some wrongs right, but they have never been born again. Maybe we would say they are those that came to the birth. [00:23:56] There were some birth pangs. There were some steps that led up to the delivery. but something failed to be accomplished. And so from that point on they knew how they should live but let me say this morning it's hard work to try to live the Christian life if we're still dead. In fact it's worse than that. It's not just hard work, it's impossible. [00:24:27] I don't know if we're still together or not. When the scriptures speak, like one of the scriptures we read said, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Further it says, Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. When there is life, there is no question whether there is change. Physically, if a child is born, it makes grandmas come from Arkansas to Indiana. because there is something personal and special about that new life. [00:25:04] And we're glad it's so. It ought to be so. It is something that is dramatic. It's something you can see. It's something that impacts life. It changes life. And that life has now an opportunity to develop that it didn't have before in a whole new dimension. Is it any different, spiritually speaking, is the question this morning. Why did Jesus use that comparison if it doesn't fit? It fits. This was a question that caused Nicodemus to ask a question. [00:25:39] How can these things be? And you know that's an age-old question. It's a good question. The people at the day of Pentecost, what shall we do? The jailer said, what must I do? And how many people have since uttered that cry? What should I be doing? What does it take to have my life restored with God? To have that connection with God? Let's look just a little bit this morning. [00:26:10] There won't be time to finish all the details that could be brought into this message. But when the question was asked, what shall we do? After Peter said, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Other places it says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth and is baptized, the same shall be saved. [00:26:42] We have scripture after scripture that speaks about these things. Well, repentance is very much a part of this experience of restoration. But repentance is more than feeling guilty and confessing where I have done wrong. Like Nicodemus, we must get to the place that it's not only a matter of saying I have done wrong. Like many people today say, in German we used to say, We often fail is the literal interpretation. [00:27:17] We all know that already. We often fail. Is that repentance? Then we confess it and then we often fail, then we confess it, then we often fail, then we confess it. Is that repentance? It is more than that. We all know that. Nicodemus not only discovered that he failed, that he sinned sometimes but he discovered something that was far more painful than that I believe [00:27:50] he discovered what the prodigal discovered when he was out there, he left home, he abandoned his parental home he did his thing, he lived his life But besides recognizing that he had done wrong, he recognized that he was wrong. He said, I am not worthy to be called your son. Once the prodigal got to the place where he could acknowledge, where he understood, and where he recognized, [00:28:27] and he said, Father, I didn't just do wrong, I am wrong. The publican was a man that when he saw himself before God he didn't just say I have done this, I have cheated the tax payers and all the other things that publicans might have done but the Bible says he didn't even look up he couldn't so much as lift his eyes to heaven he saw he was condemned and he said [00:28:57] God be merciful to me of sinner when that was done when people recognize their need when it's done even today in our life part of this process of becoming born again does include repentance it does include confession it does include making restitution but it also includes acknowledging I'm not worthy [00:29:28] I have no hope. I'm without God. And Jesus said, if a person does not become born again, he can't understand and he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. It has to be that at some point there is a time when this image of God is again restored in the spirit of man. And when that is restored, then we are partakers of the divine nature. The Bible says, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is, what? [00:30:03] None of his. If we don't have that spirit of Christ in our hearts again, that little thing there, that's a throne. And one of the things that has to happen to be born again is that when man sinned, remember what Satan had said? he had said God knows that if you eat of that you're going to be like God and you shall know good and evil in other words man could be his own God [00:30:35] his own decision maker run his own life make his own choices so Adam got right up there he sat on that throne and here in his soul his intellect, his reason his feelings determined what he was going to do How he was going to do it. He was going to choose which fruit you can eat, which you can't. He was going to be his own God. The only way he could have that image of God restored was to get off the throne. [00:31:10] Get off. That's where we come to this thing. Acknowledging needs, but nothing changes. The power of a godly life lies not in a joint venture with God. It lies not in making an agreement so God and I are together going to plan life today. But it means repentance gets off the throne. It acknowledges the need and it says I choose by the grace of God to turn it all over to Him. [00:31:47] and let God be the Lord in my life. And when that takes place, when God gets an opportunity to restore His Spirit in man's life and sit on the throne, you think God will take the opportunity. That's what He's been waiting for. That's why He sent Jesus. So that self would die, would be laid down. We heard this morning about choices How our choices are involved. That's one of the places that choice comes into play. We choose to get off the throne. We are not going to enter a partnership with God. We are going to enter a servant-master relationship. [00:32:37] And of course, the good part about that is that you can never out give God. When we are ready to be His servants, you know what He's ready for? To be our Father. He says, I will no longer call you servants, but you shall be my sons and daughters. But I must take the place of a servant, a slave, for Him to have the authority in my life. Can you see how that opens up a whole new dimension in the Christian relationship with God? [00:33:13] Then God brings to us His blessings. But He says, unless, unless, you cannot see nor enter. The scriptures talk about receiving Him. Jesus came to His own in John, the first chapter, it says how that He was in the beginning, He was with God. He came to His own, but His own received Him not. But to them that received Him, He gave what? Power to become the sons of God. [00:33:49] The power of a godly life, the power that goes with the form, is restored, first of all, in the new birth. And then it's a walk with God from that point on. The real question that comes in relation to being born again is whether we have only confessed sin, we've only confessed our need, or if we have turned over ourselves to God. We have surrendered and given God all the authority, all the right of way in our life that he wants. [00:34:26] Well, some of these passages that we read talked about being baptized. I think we've talked about that in the past here. Just in reference, one of the explanations for baptism has to do with being brought under the authority of. In Corinthians, we read how that the people were baptized into Moses and the sea. And we'll just be a little repetitious and refer to that again. How that the people came to the Red Sea with the army behind, the waves before, God opened the sea, it is true, that was a miracle, but it took something still to walk through that sea because there were walls, liquid walls on both sides that according to reason and experience could at any instance rejoin. [00:35:22] And it says there in Corinthians that they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea. They were baptized to Moses. They were not baptized with water in the sea. They were not baptized like we think of baptism. But they were baptized into Moses. God said to Moses, lead my people. Moses said, come. And he went. And the people went. I don't know how they felt. I can't say that this morning. [00:35:56] But they accepted Moses' authority. They said, Moses, in another case, what you say we will do. They were baptized into Moses. That's partly what it means. To get off of that throne and to let God on the throne is... And baptism is a statement. It's a declaration. I'm ready to get off the throne. I'm ready to let God say what he wants to say, what he has to say, no matter the cost. [00:36:28] Can we follow Jesus? Can we be a disciple of Jesus? Can we have the power of a godly form without that experience? I don't know how. The church could be restored. And when I say the church, I'm not saying this critically about our congregation. Neither am I patting a son on the back, but I'm saying in general, Christendom today has lost the vision of the power of the new birth. When people are born again, that divine nature is again put within, the spirit of Christ is in the people, and guiding the people, there is a power there that could be another message. [00:37:16] But you get a mind of understanding. Paul said the carnal mind cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. You can't understand. I can't understand. Some things just plain don't make sense in the Christian life according to the intellect of man. But they make a lot of sense from God's viewpoint. How is humility ever going to be greater than opposition? how can love be stronger than force [00:37:47] and many such things how can be brokenness be greater than great gifts how can prayer be stronger or the life of a godly example in a person sitting in the back pew be greater than an eloquent preacher depends on what's controlling the inside. Being born again means something happened on the inside. [00:38:19] It's invisible. When Nicodemus said, how can it be? Jesus said, well, the wind blows where it wants to. You can not see it. You can hear it. You can see its evidence, but you cannot see the wind. Did a mother ever give birth to a child and not find it out? Can a person be born spiritually and it's not evident? [00:38:51] We're not saying this morning that we need to be able to explain all of this. That we need to understand all the details of it. I don't think many of us, it could well be that many of us did not understand all this when it took place. But we insist this morning on one thing, that when there is a new birth, there is a change of life. Before the directions came from the wrong place, the way we lived was wrong, our perception was wrong, our destination was wrong. [00:39:27] You cannot enter unless you're born again. But if you come to the Lord Jesus and you repent, you make your commitment, your declaration, I'm ready to turn it all over to God. I am a sinner. I believe what Jesus has done is my salvation. Something's going to happen. God will take us up on that. And when God moves into our life, things begin. God's word opens up, a relationship with God opens up, there is the way of forgiveness that works in our hearts, there is power to overcome sin and the world and self. [00:40:12] There are scriptures that speak to all of those issues. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ but that's not all he says by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world and when that experience takes place we find suddenly that we are in two different camps we are in two different kingdoms [00:40:43] and we can write big standards say this is what you do to not follow the world but you can't ever outright God's standard that if we are crucified with Christ the world loses its glory, its glamour because that world is under the jurisdiction of the prince of this world which is Satan himself and God's archenemy. [00:41:16] When a person has the power of God within, this is a new nature, this is a new life and that life is not attractive at all to the world. They are mortal enemies. Jesus and Satan had their combat at Calvary. The line is drawn, the line is clear. And when the line is clarified in our hearts, it's the same way for us. [00:41:48] We'll leave the rest of this. But I trust that in a new way, a deeper way, we can understand the tremendous need to be truly born again. If today we have seen only salvation as a fire escape from hell, we invite you to take a look at what has happened in our heart in a new birth experience [00:42:23] where we can have that inner witness where the self was in control today. Jesus Christ is Lord that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved let's bow our heads and pray Father this morning we again thank you for your word [00:42:54] we thank you for your remedy for sin and we pray oh God that you would help us all to Have our calling and election made sure That there might be an interchange That the empty spot in our heart might be filled with you Help us, Father, not to just go through motions Not just to study teachings Not just to do things But to surrender our hearts to you [00:43:25] So that we might have the new life within We pray that you would make it clear to each of us where we stand with you. For Lord, we desire to see that not only would there be a form in our day, but there would be the power of godliness that would help people to repent, would help people come to you, have a hope for eternity, that would change ungodly conditions, that would bring an attraction to Jesus Christ himself. [00:43:57] We give ourselves to you in Jesus' name. Amen.