Flinders Park Community Church, 30.04.2007
Introduction
Topic for today is “the will to be empowered”, and it was sparked off by an unusual dream. Jesus said“ “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses …to the end of the earth.”” (Acts 1:8; 1:4). Today however there is a tremendous lack of interest in what it takes to be empowered by God to testify to Jesus (Rev 19:10). We are missing something at the heart of the New Testament witness and unless it is restored we are dead (Rev 3:1).
[Jesus had a will to receive power. In response to his praying (Luke 3:21) God anointed him “with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38). The persecuted early church wanted power “when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31).]
Soon after my conversion someone shared with me a text that relates to spiritual power, 2 Timothy 1:7, “God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control”. They did this was because I was coming out of such a state of fear so that I could not initiate a conversation with strangers, walk down streets and at times not even move. Few Christians not admit fear of rejection, but our lack of effective presence in society shows deep afraid, while not many talk about a lack of spiritual power”, our evangelistic impotence shows we do, while only a minority recognise their love has grown cold (Matt 24:12), isolation and personal prayerlessness reveals that it has. Finally, materialism amongst believers reflects a lack of self –control.
To grasp what is behind this paralysis of power it helps to do our devotions with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. (Biggest story of the past week? Anzac Day.) Something inwardly very powerful urged 40,000 people to be in Kings Park before dawn, and 8,000 to travel to an isolated beach on the other side of the world. Something extremely deep was moving in the heart of a young adult as she talked on radio about how much the previous generation showed they “loved us”. When the TV reporter calls ANZAC cove “sacred ground”, they are telling us that Anzac Day is the only truly holy day in the national experience. What we are observing is a shameless testimony to the power of self- sacrifice- this is the witness Australian culture has recovered, but the church has lost.
While in prayer several years ago I had an image of a person who symbolised the church inPerth. They were clothed with layer after layer of garments to cover up their shame. God was in the process of stripping these clothes off one by one until all we could glory in was Christ (Gal 6:14). The foundational block in the church to receiving God’s power is shame.
Shame and Fear
Jesus promised, ““when.. I ..send to you ..the Spirit of truth.., he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness..”(John 15:26-27) The power of the Spirit is the enablement to testify that Jesus is Lord in every sphere of life – marriage, family, work, leisure, on the street, in the home, in the sports club, school, university – everywhere. Spiritually however much of the church is like the disciples before the coming of the Holy Spirit, behind locked doors fearing persecution from those who crucified Jesus (John 20:19). Shames paralyzing power is fear.
[Immediately after contrasting the spirit of fear and power Paul says, “do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord” (2 Tim 1:8), a little later he says, “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim1:12).]
The relationship between fear and shame begins inEden. As created innocent, Adam and Eve were “were both naked and were not ashamed” (Gen2:25). Immediately after they sinned however we read the follwong dsequence
1. “the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.”
2. “they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”
3. “they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God”
4. Adam confessed “I was afraid, because I was naked” (Gen 3:7 -10).
If human beings are lacking the manifest presence of God (i.e. his undeniable visible or tangible actions) it is because the fear of judgement that is inside of shame is causing them to hide from him. [God speaks to Israel through Isaiah, “Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendour of his majesty….And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendour of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.” (Isa 2:10; 19 (21);Rev 6:16).]
The fear that is embedded in shame is a fear of “getting caught”, “being exposed”, of others knowing who you really are. Shame is a sense of something wrong with our being, not just our actions, and in biblical thought shame is a sense of the loss of glory, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”(Rom 3:23). Shame tells us that we are hollow on the inside, that we lack dignity, authority, honour, splendour and all the fullness that God willed to place in our lives from the beginning.
This is why guilty human beings fear being confronted with the glory of God – they do not want a manifestation of his inner moral worth. (e.g. Oxford John Wesley preached on moral reformation –banned from preaching again in the university) The more God’s glory is revealed the deeper the conviction that we are not living as the fullness of his image. The more God’s purity and holiness are made known to those who in themselves lack inner purity the more they must resort to the cover ups of idolatry to avoid the sheer embarrassment of being exposed as empty on the inside. [This is the story of Romans one, because they sensed the “glory of God” i.e. his eternal worth (vv.23, 19) – in nature, conscience and other human beings (cf. Scottish women re colours on the Nullabor plain) – that humanity has had to resort to idols (“other glories”) in order to avoid the searing pain of a guilty conscience that places our selves at the centre of our worth.]
When God speaks to his people in this way he is speaking to Western Australians, “she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. 9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. (viz. shame)” (Hos 2:8 – 9 ). Consumerism is a sign of deep shame. Cf. God has given WA iron, gas, gold, diamonds, pearls etc. What for – to build bigger houses, overseas holidays, spend more on clothes, cars, entertainment, comfortable retirement?
The self –esteem movement is humanity’s own answer to shame, but it cannot touch our deepest need, because our deepest need is not for a positive self image but for the indwelling of the glory of God. This is why the spiritual entrepreneurs of our time are so destructive – they keep people in their shame by substituting a desire for wealth for the glory of God.
Jesus warns the affluent church at Laodicea, “you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me [gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and] white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen” (Rev 3:17 – 18). Like the Western church, the Laodiceans had covered up spiritual nakedness by clothing itself with an image of wellness, it committed the idolatry of walking in the light of its own fire. [“10 Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord and relies upon his God? 11 But all of you are kindlers of fire, lighters of firebrands. Walk in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that you have kindled!”(Isa 50:10- 11)]
If the glory of God is his all powerful self – manifestation, then powerlessness in the church means we have robbed God of his glory. And robbing him of his glory means we are afraid to testify that in the End his presence in judgement is unavoidable, “those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 … will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.” (2 Thess 1:7- 10). The testimony that Paul brought had power to convert because he believed in the final revelation of the fullness of the glory of God and he believed that some of that final glory was manifest every time he shared the gospel.
The Glory of God in the Gospel
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom1:16)
If we were not ashamed of the gospel we would already be experiencing it as the life – giving power of God. “”Do you know, …(says Spurgeon), what God’s estimate of the gospel is? Do you not know that it has been the chief subject of his thoughts and acts from all eternity? He looks on it as the grandest of all his works.”
“The gospel” is the unveiling from heaven of the personal experience of Jesus Christ. When the gospel is shared in the power of the Spirit, Jesus shares his own experience of what has made him Lord and Saviour. Since the Son has no shame in sharing about what the Father asked him to endure for us (Heb 12:2) he bears witnesses with total authority (Matt 28:18), and since the Father’s own testimony concerning his Son is full of glory (2 Pet 1:17) there is no limit to the manifest power of God.
The cross is the key to experiencing the spiritual power to get out of our powerlessness. “he had no form or majesty (visible glory) that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.[4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.]” (Isa 53:2b – 5)
On the cross Jesus endured what the ANZACS never had to endure – social exclusion. (cf. mental breakdown of Vietnam vets). Our fear of social isolation is enormous e.g. obsession of the young with contact by mobile phone, MSN etc. (DY ex- student phone answered as crossing road killed by car.) How deep was the inner emptiness of this child? What do you fear most, isolation from acceptance by man or isolation from the glory of God?
When it says Jesus had “no form or majesty” on the cross, it does not refer primarily to his social rejection by nation and family (John 1:11; 7:5), or to his physical condition, but to the loss of the manifest presence of God, to his experience of being stripped of his glory as a Son (i.e. the pleasure of the Father), it refers to his being immersed/clothed in the condition of our shame. This is what it means to say that Jesus endured the wrath of God (Rom 3:25; Heb2:17; 1 John 2:2;4:10). Yet in the midst of this, Jesus does not hide from God but empthatically seeks him (Mark 15:34 citing Ps 22:1 only use of repeated “my God” in scripture).
The resurrection reverses the absence of the presence of God. You may know the hymn, “The head that once was crowned with thorns is clothed with glory now.” (Cf. Job 40:10; Ps 93:1; 104:1). Jesus has “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10). The resurrection is the manifestation that a human being has entered into a state beyond suffering under the threat of judgement and death. Where a human being suffers without the fear of judgement and death they can experience no shame.
To put this in a slightly different way, let me ask, “Does Jesus still suffer in any way today?” Yes! (“And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Acts 9:4- 5; Eph 4:30 “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”)
“Is his suffering a shameful thing?” No! His suffering today is part of his glory, not a sign of the loss of glory!
The Mystery of Suffering
If you understand this you will have insight into the mystery of the potency of suffering for Christ. You will begin to grasp that for a believer (2 Cor 5:17) the meaning of suffering has been radically transformed. The apostles understood these things:
“I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, 12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed” (2 Tim 1:11 – 12)
“So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.” (Eph 3:13)
“Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” (1 Pet 4:16)
When you suffer willingly for someone else you honour them, you give them worth and glory. This is what people intuitively know about the ANZAC sacrifice. Unknowingly they sense something of the reality of the power of the cross that eternally dignifies all genuine human sacrificial love.
Satan has only one fundamental deception in his war on the saints (Dan 7:21; Rev 13:7) – he tells us that suffering is a cause of shame rather than a cause of glory (cf. Luke 24:26; Heb 2:9). It is the experience of shame associated with social rejection, loss of friendship, exclusion from mainstream life, the fear of being made to “feel foolish” etc, that continuously hinders Christian testimony and is “the spirit of fear” (1 Tim 1:7) that Jesus came to deliver us from.
Remember a story about the early days of the Salvation Army, when, unlike today, this organisation was moving in revival power and fiercely hated by traditional religion and the general public. During one of their street marches a heckler spat on the uniform of a salvo, one of his friends wanted to remove it with a handkerchief, “Leave it there, (he said)it is a badge of honour.” “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Pet 4:14)
When we “obey the gospel” (Rom 10:16; 1:5; 16:19) by testifying about Jesus we will be persecuted in some way (2 Tim 3:12) e.g. JY at uni and high and as high school teacher, but our suffering produces joy at the manifest presence of God – “God shows up!”. What happened to Paul in Philippi is an excellent illustration of this.
“The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them…the jailer …24 … put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God” (Acts 16:22- 25). [Cf. Acts 5:40- 41, “and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus,..Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the name.”]
Paul describes the outcome of this experience, “But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, …we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.” (1 Thess 2:2).
[The obedient believer in Christ is progressively enfolded in the love of God that removes all fear of eternal punishment and so all cause of shame, “[By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ]18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” (1 John 4:17- 18)]
The Spirit is outpoured for testimony, testimony leads to suffering, which leads to further outpourings of the Spirit and so on. God keeps on giving the Holy Spirit to those who keep on obeying him in witnessing to the gospel (Acts 5:32).
Little testimony, little trouble, little trouble, little power. That’s how it is. If you want a quiet life you will never have spiritual power.
The Failure of the Charismatic Movement
This leads me on to say a few words that are particularly relevant to the history of this congregation. I want to talk briefly about the failure of the charismatic movement in the traditional church. (Not denying it helped many people.)
“Jesus …cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (John 7:37- 39)
The reason the Spirit has stopped flowing in most churches touched or founded in the charismatic movement is that they did not enter into the deep inner spiritual connection between the glorification of Jesus and the power of the Spirit. In failing to address the most fundamental issues of human existence the charismatic movement rarely risking persecution in its denominations. [“before God” (coram deo). The expression, “before God” means – from Genesis 3 onwards, before the judgement court of God (e.g. Rom 2:13; 4:2; Gal 3:11; Rev 8:2)].
In many places this movement was biblically superficial because it assumed that when people had renewal experiences of joy, love and liberty, the issues of the heart were dealt with. [We may be critical of the modern shallow and hedonistic mega churches, but we most likely are an earlier generation that has shared their most fundamental error.] This movement committed the most common error of the church – assuming that something other than the gospel of God is the key to the power of his kingdom. God judged this movement for the same reason he judges any failed renewal movement, because it did not centre on Christ in the gospel.
Conclusion and Application
Jesus said he would “clothe us with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). If you are not moving in the power of God it is because you are no longer manifestly and openly confessing that – in yourself - you are naked and ashamed! “Remember the height from which you have fallen.” (Rev 2:5). At the individual or congregational level you are still clothing yourself with man – made garments. Things like respectability, decency, orthodoxy, moral integrity, and carefulness come to mind, and they are all grounded in fear. The only clothes God recognizes as covering nakedness are those of Christ [, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Gal 3:27).]
“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:9 – 10) [cf.“These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev 7:14]
Do you grasp this – only as we obediently give testimony to Jesus in the midst of tribulation are we experientially clothed with the power of God in Christ.
The Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. What is the meaning of the vulgarity and drug abuse in the West Coast Eagles? Or, more pointedly, what is our Father saying to us through the publishing on the internet of mobile phone photos taken of a drunken rugby player and an “iron woman” having sex in a toilet cubicle. The editor of The Daily Telegraph online says it is their second most read article of the year.
The Father is telling us that we live in an increasingly shameless culture. This is very serious, because a culture that knows no shame (Rom 1:27) is a society that cannot be redeemed. However painful shame may be it infallibly points us to the fact that we have fallen away from our ultimate origin, that we have lost the glory of God. Where there is no shame there can be no hope, no meaning, no anything.
What are the people of God doing in response to this? Some are getting moralistic, which is completely useless. Most are passive- either because they are too busy trying to make their own lives comfortable, or because it all seems just too hard. There is lacking a holy passion that is absolutely indispensable for any spiritual transformation in our nation.
[JY St Patrick’s Cathedral Dublin Jonathan Swift author of Gulliver’s Travels (which are critiques of the politics of his day) epitaph “He lies where furious indignation can no longer rend his heart.” i.e. furious heart felt indignation over the injustice of humanity’s self – destruction. This is to be in touch with the anger of God – an anger that cannot passively sit by and watch human beings destroy themselves an anger that has stirred itself up to love in the fierce action of the cross.]
If a testimony is to arise in our nation with the spiritual power to break through the apathy of Australians it is absolutely essential that we outdo our fellow countrymen in the area of shamelessness. If they are boasting about their economic, intellectual, sporting, drinking or sexual achievements our boasting about Jesus must be bolder or else it can only be seen as pathetic. We must learn to move past fearing for ourselves to fearing for the state of the lost. We must confess our fears for what they are – finite and temporary obstacles to getting I touch with the infinite and eternal power of God.
The starting point is this. When Jesus wanted to explain how “the heavenly Father give(s) the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13), he told a parable of a man who banged on the door of his friend in the middle of the night to get help, (no doubt disturbing the whole neighbourhood), literally, this man was heard and his request granted, because of his “shamelessness” (anaideia) (Luke 11:8).
Shameless prayer is the start of every spiritual revival. Let us pray. (cf. Dan 9:7 – 8)