Fire Power!
Oct 11, 2009
Scripture: Luke 24:13-34 - Emmaeus Rd
1 Cor. 3:10-14; Rev 3:14-22
Exodus 19:16-19; 24:15-18
Read: Rev 3:14-22
Read Text: Matthew 3:11
John was a great preacher. Maybe the greatest preacher of his day and yet he said, “There is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.” He said there is one coming who has power. Now the message that John, and the one whom John said was coming, is not different. John preached the message of repentance, and people believed his message of the necessity of forgiveness of sins and were baptized. But John said there was one coming after him, one who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Look at that text again with me please. Matthew 3:11. (Read again.) It’s in the Bible. This message this morning is not denominational theology - it’s biblical theology - God’s Word. When Jesus comes - in other words when you believe and accept him as Savior - when he comes into your life, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
How many of you played with fire when you were younger? (Go on - you can admit it...).
We’re not talking about playing with fire here. We’re talking about the very nature of God. This is the nature of God that is expressed in the ministry of his son and is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Remember Moses and the burning bush? When God wanted to get Moses’ attention he spoke to him out of the fire. The fire was in the bush. But it didn’t consume the bush. The bush burned from within, - it was not consumed.
And when God gave the ten commandments, Mount Sinai was covered with smoke and the smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace and the voice of God spoke to Moses. In Chapter 24 of Exodus it says that to “the Israelites the glory of God appeared as a fire.” These are revelations about the nature of God. The God who is fire.
When the disciples were walking with Jesus along the Emmaeus road, after they realized who he was, they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us.
When we are walking with Jesus, the very nature of God is within us - like the burning bush, like the hearts of the disciples.
So when we are walking with Jesus - when we are in communion with him, God’s FIRE should be evident.
May I be so bold this morning as to suggest that in the church - in the body of Christ - like we’ve been talking about for the past several weeks - in the church - it’s been a long time since the world has seen Fire. That’s not meant to be a critical statement or some kind of harsh judgement. It just seems to me like it is a fact - we really haven’t seen a whole lot of fire.
I remember an illustration I heard once about a little old country church just outside of a town in Indiana. And one night the old wooden church building caught on fire and the church people came running from all around to help get the fire out and hopefully save the church. And from just down the road a ways an old man came running to see if he could also give some help. Well, one of the church people noticed him helping the very best he could - putting all his effort into it, with all the others - and she said to him, “I’ve never seen you at this church before.” And the old man said, “This church has never been ON FIRE before!!”
Folks, the promise of God’s word is that He will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and with fire. It’s a promise. It’s something we can expect, because God is faithful, and it’s something we should be looking for - something that should be evident as an expression of the very nature of God living and moving and having his presence among us and within us.
I don’t think there are two many here this morning who claim to have Christ as their Savior, who would say that the Holy Spirit is NOT guiding them and leading them, but how about the fire? Can we say with the disciples that our hearts are burning within us?
You know, sometimes, we get all caught up with experiences. And some of us build our lives on what is called experiential theology. But we have to measure our experiences by the truth of God’s word and the expression of His nature among us.
Maybe most of us here this morning can point to an exact time in our lives when we gave our hearts to Christ - when we accepted Jesus as our Savior and Lord. You know, we can say, "On July 24, 1942, sitting around the campfire at Camp "so-and-so" I gave my heart to Jesus. That’s when I got saved. And some people use that one special moment - that time of salvation in order to validate their Christian witness. But my question for all of us today is not, “What was your Christian experience?” But rather, “What is your Christian expression?” I’m not so interested in when the fire first came upon you. Is the fire in you? Is the very nature of God burning in your heart?
Fire, when it comes, is the fire of God’s presence, and when he comes, he burns. In Malachi, the people cried out to God. In fact it says in Malachi 2 that they covered the altar with their tears. And God said to them, “You ask why I am not with you, but I have been watching you, and I have seen what you have been doing. I have seen the sin in your life. You want me to come, but who can endure the day of my appearing because, when I come, I come as a refiner’s fire.
And God is telling the people that his presence goes way past the boiling point. What does water do when it boils - it bubbles, right!! So we’re not just supposed to be bubbling, we’re supposed to be burning - burning that brings warmth and light. God’s fire is white hot - it’s a refiner’s fire. It’s not just smoke from a flame that burns off debris - gets rid of the garbage - it goes way beyond getting rid of that garbage (the baggage we talked about a few weeks ago), it’s the white hot presence of the Holy Living God that takes that which is within us, burns off the dross, and then refines us as pure gold!
And that’s how it is with Jesus. When Jesus comes, it’s not just to strike up a casual personal relationship with an extraordinary man called Jesus. It is that, but it’s more than that. It’s you becoming partners with the Almighty Holy Living God whose very nature and person is that of a consuming fire. He said to worship Him with reverence and with awe - because our God is a consuming fire - and to know the living God means that sin is going to be consumed in your life. Because the fire burns. And from way down deep within your soul and your spirit, as the fire burns, there will be a holy refining that will make your desires for the sinful things of this life, get burned off. There will be a power there that will give you a new kind of freedom from sin like you’ve never seen before. Something unexplainable in your own human reasoning, like when Moses saw the burning bush, or the disciples realized it was Jesus who had been with them.
The fire burns. It burns to set us free, not to hurt or condemn.
Please hear me. Sin is not something WE take care of. Sin is something GOD will take care of if we don’t quench the fire. I said, "IF we don’t quench the Fire." I know Christians who spend a lot of time, and true grit, trying to CONQUER a sin in their life. And God bless them, they mean well. But they get so focused on the sin, they can’t conquer it, and it becomes an addictive cycle that is likely never going to go away. But when the fire comes - when the consuming fire of the very nature of Almighty God is living and burning within us and consuming the dross, and refining the vessel - that vessel before very long becomes as pure gold.
So in the process of burning, the fire builds.
The fire builds.
First Corinthians 3:12 and 13 says that each person’s work will be tested by fire. When Jesus came into your life, the fire came and it began to transform you into the man or woman of God that God designed you to be. So what does it mean to be tested by Fire?
Think about a fireplace. Imagine it’s just a beautiful piece. Intricate ornamentation - detailed in every aspect. Just a gorgeous piece of work. It would look just wonderful in anyone’s home. Now imagine that fireplace made out of wood. Ridiculous isn’t it? No matter how lovely that fireplace is to look at, it won’t stand the test of time if it’s made out of wood. Because wood is what you burn IN the fireplace, not what you make it out of. And if God is going to be present in your life, it must be refined so the fire of his love, and his presence can burn within you, and not consume you. See, people who are trying to be Christians that get cracked and defeated and overwhelmed, they’re trying to live their lives with wood and hay - and they might look good, but GOD’s FIRE is trying to burn within them, and it’s burning them up - it’s consuming them - because they are building out of the wrong stuff - stuff that will not withstand the fire. We have to build our lives from stuff that will be refined by the fire, not consumed by it.
I remember when my mother used to make and teach ceramics. She had 2 or 3 ceramic classes and the whole basement of our house was a ceramic factory - there was a greenware room and a firing room - it was hot in there! - and there was a glaceing room and a room where Dad poured the greenware. And the thing is, I learned something from those ceramic days. I learned that the pieces mom and her students made that were just to look at - they were to be used only inside and they were just for ornamentation - they were given one coat of glace, they were fired once, and they were done. But the most useful pieces - the ones that could go outside, or be used for cooking in the oven - those ones had to have a special glace and they had to be fired and re-fired. But those were the ones that, still looked good, but they could withstand the most as well.
The point is this. God allows us to go through fires in order to transform the things we build our lives out of - from wood and hay - to costly stones and silver and gold. And there’s no short cut to it. But if you believe in the fire of God, the fire inside - the fire inside is far more able to sustain you than any fire you’re going to have on the outside. That’s what it’s all about. If the fire of God burns white hot in your heart, then you can face the fire on the outside - and you can go through it. If the fire of God is going to dwell in our life, he’s got to build our lives out of something better than wood and hay.
The third point I want to make this morning is this. That the promise of God, His promise, will always give us a foretaste of what His passion will bring to completion in our lives if we let it.
The fire blazes. God is passionate. The nature of God as a fire suggests to us that God is passionate about fulfilling his promises to us. Philippians 1:6 promises us that we can be confident - confident - that God, who began a good work in us, will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus. If God began it, He will finish it. The question I have for you today - no matter what it is you are doing: Did God start it? Whatever it is - did God get this thing going? That’s why it is so important in our own lives, and in the life of our church, to make sure that this is GOD’s doing. Remember when Nehemiah rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem against terrible opposition? When the enemy saw that the wall had been built, they were frightened and humiliated because the Bible says, they realized the work had been done with the help of our God.” You want to keep the enemy shaking in his boots - MAKE SURE, that whatever you start - whatever you do - is motivated by GOD’s fire burning within you, and not your own motivations. Then, HE who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it.
In Revelation that we read this morning, the Lord says, “I know your deed that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” He goes on to tell the church at Laodicea, that they thought they were rich and had no needs, and all the while they were wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. THEN, he tells them to buy gold refined I in the fire - that would be like telling us we’re poor and then offering us to buy a few hundred lbs of 24 kt gold!
Now, here’s the thing - Jesus tells them he wishes they were hot or cold. Now, we know that he doesn’t want anyone to be cold - but he’d prefer cold to lukewarm - why? - because people who are cold - they don’t need a prophet - they know they’re cold. But they are lukewarm. They THINK they are rich and clothed in beauty, and they’re poor and naked.
John Wesley said, “The thing I fear the most is the coolness of my own heart.” A man whose preaching blazed a fire that revolutionized England, and he fears the coolness of his heart. Folks, if John Wesley fears that the fire inside of him may be cooling, we had better fear the coolness of our own hearts. Jesus is saying to us - to all of us - “I counsel you.” Please hear me - he said, “I counsel you.” He’s not condemning them - he’s counseling them. He’s just told them they are poor but he’s counseling them to buy gold refined in the fire. How in the world can they buy gold - especially pure gold - gold that has been refined?
Well THAT is the whole point of the message.
When we realize we have nothing to bargain with, with God. Not our good deeds. Not our family. Not our church membership. Not our denomination. Not our wealth. Not our skills or talents. NOTHING. NO THING that we can offer God, apart from ourselves, wretched, poor, and naked - we come to Him. Then - and only then - we are a candidate to become as pure gold - to become rich - to be clothed in more beauty than we could ever imagine - because the fire of HIS presence is burning within us, and nothing - absolutely nothing - that this world offers us, will be as tasteful to us as His fire burning within us.
When He comes, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire.
