"Not By Might, Or By Power, But By Thy Spirit"
Sermon Transcript for June 8, 2003Scripture Reading: Zechariah 4:6
By Rev. Mike Beck
You know I think in many ways of all the church holidays, Pentecost is the most special to me. Not that I don’t thoroughly enjoy Christmas and Easter, but in the celebration of Pentecost maybe one of the reasons I enjoy it more is the secular world doesn’t throw anything in to compete against it. As we celebrate Pentecost today, we’re acknowledging that Christ Himself is present with us through the person of the Holy Spirit. In fact, you never want to refer to the Holy Spirit as “it”. The Holy Spirit is a person, Christ, if you can imagine there in your pew literally seated next to you through the person of His Spirit. In fact, as Jesus gathered with the disciples in the Upper Room, He said to them, “Boys, I’m going to be leaving you and it’s good that I go away.” And the disciples said, “How can that be good? We depend upon your leadership so much.” But what Jesus was speaking of was the fact that if He was here as an individual He would be, He was limited to being one place and one place only at one time. But as Christ has returned and is present with us through the Holy Spirit, He is no longer limited by bounds of time and space.
Pentecost is significant to us because without it we are left to live out the teachings of Christ only in our own strength. That’s a recipe doomed for failure. But through the Holy Spirit we can truly become more and more like Christ and reflect the holiness of God. I also believe Pentecost gives us evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. How else do you explain eleven common, now- afraid-for-their-lives men who in a course of a few decades would go out and turn the world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The only thing that explains that to me is, they saw a man they knew was dead come back to life and then at Pentecost they were filled with the spirit of the risen Christ.
Let me just quickly share with you some of the workings of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals the truth of God to us. Whenever we read Scripture, we ought to first pray, “Lord, illuminate your Word to me by the power of your Spirit.” The Holy Spirit gives us discernment in decision-making. The New Testament said, “The Spirit will lead us into all truth.” The Spirit gives comfort in times of sorrow. I’ve never been a great Greek scholar; I survived Greek so they could hand me my Master of Divinity Degree. But this week at Annual Conference they were collecting books to take to a seminary in Africa and they encouraged pastors to scan their bookshelves for books they hadn’t used in a long time. I quickly found my Greek books and there’s now more space on my bookshelves. But the word for the Holy Spirit is a Greek word I do know. It is the word “paraklate” which means the comforter, the one called along side to help in time of need. The Holy Spirit gives power for holy living. John Wesley came to Annual Conference this year. It was the 300th celebration of his birthday. I was reminded in the person of John Wesley, the call of Methodist to a holy life. It is the spirit that gives us power to live that kind of life. And it is the Holy Spirit that is to give to us the “fruit” of the Spirit. It’s through the Spirit that in greater ways we know love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, thankfulness, and self-control. In fact there is a little chorus that Sarai is going to play. It says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is peace. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is love. There is comfort in life’s darkest hour; there is light in life; there is strength in power in the Spirit of the Lord.” I need that; I want that; I trust you do to. So before we continue on with the message, let’s sing this chorus together as Sarai leads us.
Over this past month or so, this little verse of Scripture has been coming to me over and over again. It’s found in the Old Testament prophet, Zechariah, Chapter 4, Verse 6, where the prophet said to King Zerubbabel, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty”. In this world, we’re conditioned to think that things get accomplished by power and might and human power and might may get things done at least in the short-term. But, friends, the Scripture says that, “God’s ways are not our ways”. As we think about the work of God in our individual lives and in our church, we need to always realize Kingdom’s ways and the world’s ways are often very different. Hear me carefully. Appropriating the work of the Holy Spirit does not mean that we stand passively on the sidelines, that we ignore the talents and gifts that God has given to us. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are to be partners with God in carrying out His work in our lives and in carrying out His work in the church. But the main point I want to make in this message on Pentecost Sunday is this, it is ultimately God’s work through His Spirit; it’s not something we pull off in our own strength.
So I would like for us just to briefly look at a few barriers we can put up that prevent the work of God’s Spirit and then in contrast some bridges that we can build that allow the Spirit to move freely. First of all, let me suggest four barriers to the work of the Spirit.
Lack of Faith and Obedience: If you want to appropriate the power of the Spirit and to know that power in your life, you are going to have to trust and obey. Faith and obedience, and friends, those two words cannot be separated. Faith is always flushed out in action. And when we fail to exercise faith, when we fail to be obedient to the teaching of God that we clearly understand, we have set up a barrier to the work of the Spirit.
Substitute for God: We can substitute things for God that may be good in and of themselves, but when they are placed on too high a pedestal, they become a barrier to God’s Spirit. Tradition is a wonderful thing until people begin to worship tradition instead of the true and living God. Then our traditions become a barrier to the spirit of God. Our structures that we create within the church especially, I believe, can become a barrier to the work of God’s Spirit to where we become more concerned about whether something is United Methodist than rather it is of God. Our structures can be a barrier. Even our good works can be a barrier for when we think we are pleasing God by what we do, we are failing to appropriate His power.
Pride: Pride becomes a barrier to God’s Spirit. For in pride, if you think that through, the attention gets on us and what we’ve done instead of the credit belonging to God and His work.
Busyness: Then one that I often struggle with—our busyness. Busyness even in doing things for God can actually become a barrier to the work of the Spirit for we get so wrapped up in doing that we’re not taking time for being, for listening to the still small voice of the Spirit.
Look there at the screen. Are there any things in your life, are there any things in my life that are creating barriers to the work of God’s Spirit? Let’s think now of some bridges that can be built to the free movement of God’s Spirit.
Trust and Obey: The first one corresponds to the first barrier. We said unless we have faith and obedience we set up a barrier to God’s work. When we trust and obey we build a bridge to the Spirit. Here the words of that great hymn, “When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way. While we do His goodwill, He abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey. But we never can prove that the lights of His love until all on the alter we lay. For the favor God shows and the joy he bestows are with them who will trust and obey.” So if you as individuals, if we as God’s church, want to appropriate the power of the Spirit we build a bridge of trusting God and obeying what He says to us.
Turn your radio on!: The second bridge I didn’t really know quite how to describe; so I came up with the words of that old southern gospel hymn, we appropriate the power of the Spirit when we “Turn the radio on!” Let me flush that out. I think the Scripture clearly teaches that for all who have accepted Christ as Savior, the Holy Spirit is given to them at salvation. What we as believers often are guilty of is we don’t appropriate the power of that Spirit within us. The AM station I listen to most is 1070; and right now in this room now it is filled with the frequency of how many hertz it is. It’s right here with us now. How do we grab a hold of it? When we take a radio and turn the on switch, tune the dial to 1070, and then we pick up what’s already here right now. In our Christian life, when we exercise the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, fasting, Scripture, worship, we turn our radio on to appropriate the Spirit. We put a lot of energy this last spring needfully so to raising money to expand our facilities, but I want to assure you as family of faith here at Grace, your pastors and staff put in an equal amount of energy this summer moving us back to opportunities for significant Spiritual growth.
Life’s Challenges: The third bridge is one we might not want to realize, but it’s true. The challenges of life become a bridge to God’s Spirit. Let me ask you to reflect back in your life to when you’ve grown the most in trusting God. Was it in times of great ease and comfort or was it in the struggles of life? The challenges of life, both individually and as a church, become a bridge for the movement of God’s Spirit. That’s true for us as a church. Whenever we seek to move forward in ways that we can’t figure out how in the world that could ever take place, we’re building a bridge to the Spirit because we know in our own strength we can’t pull it off. We need the power of God. I read in a book several years ago a very sobering statement. A person said, “In 90% of our churches, if the power of the Spirit were suddenly withdrawn, nobody would notice any difference.” What that statement is saying is in all too many churches it is just about what we know we can do in our own strength and we leave out the bridge of a challenge where God’s Spirit has to direct.
Personal Weakness: And then fourthly, our own personal weaknesses can become a bridge over which God’s Spirit can flow. Let me share with you on a personal basis here. Following the Capital Campaign I was pretty exhausted; and then the last Botox injection a couple of months ago that keeps my voice reasonably functional had complications. It’s been two months and I’m just now getting a little bit of strength of voice back. I share this next thing with you not in any way to alarm you but just so you can pray for Mickey and I. Over the last year or so, the same distonia that effects my voice is now effecting my right hand to where it’s become very difficult if almost impossible to hold a pen and to write. And God and me have had some good arguments over the last few weeks. Because I’ve said to God, “Lord it seems to me in the pastoral ministry speaking and writing are pretty important.” Over the last week, here’s what god has whispered back to me. He whispered it to me last Sunday as you came and knelt at this alter for communion, and as I looked down the communion rails at the countless individuals where I know full well the Spirit is God is so very much at work in your lives. And then I look around the church and see what God is doing in the area of giving which is absolutely miraculous. And I look and see 29 youth and 8 adults leaving this Thursday on a Mission trip and in countless other areas that God whispers back to your pastor, “You’ve got an awful thick skull, Mike. When will you realize it’s not about you, it’s about the power of my Spirit? And I am delighted, down through history, using broken, weak vessels as a means of making sure people know it’s a God thing.”
It’s not by might, it’s not by power, but it’s by His Spirit. And so I ask in our individual lives and in our church, does God see barriers or bridges to the work of His Spirit? Are you trying to live out your faith in your own strength alone or have you invited the Spirit of God to come in and truly take control of your life? Here at Grace Church, is it mostly about “us” or as Dan and I keep saying to you over and over again and I hope it’s sinking in, are we looking for where God is at work and then seeking to join Him in that work? For, friends, what God wants to do in our individual lives and in our church, it is “not by might or by power, but by His Spirit”.
I want us in closing to sing a little chorus that says, “Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place.” Too often in Christ’s church and too often in our individual lives, we’ve been afraid of the Spirit of God. We have this excessive need to be in control. When we surrender to the Spirit of God, we say, “Lord, your will be done.” So I hope the Spirit is welcome in your life and that He is welcome in this church. Let’s sing together.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn