OPEN: (Video from the first Iron Man movie of Anthony Stark having his assistant Pepper Potts replace his power core. Begins with Stark contacting Potts asking “How big are your hands” and ends with Stark thanking her for her help)
What you just saw was Iron Man’s assistant replacing his power core or Arc Reactor. According to the legend, this reactor is the source of his power as a superhero. At one point in the movie, the hero informs us that this power core/arc reactor is capable of generating 3 gigajoules (gigawatts) of energy. That’s roughly the amount of power that 3 large nuclear reactors can create, and in movie that power is wrapped up in a piece of metal the size of a tennis ball.
Most everyone in the REAL world admits that’s not even remotely possible. There’s no way anything that small could generate that much power.
But – hey – Iron Man is a comic book character.
He’s not supposed to be bound by the laws of physics.
That’s why he’s a superhero and we’re not!
But in the Bible we’re told that (as Christians) we have an advantage that Iron Man didn’t have. We actually do have a power core inside of us and that power core is far more powerful than any nuclear power plant.
Romans 8:11 tells us “… the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,
he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you”
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of YOU who are Christians.
Imagine the amount of energy that would be required to raise someone from the dead.
That energy, that power is inside your heart.
There isn’t a nuclear power plant on face of the earth could hope to create that much power
And it’s all, right there, inside of you.
Now, that wasn’t always how God did things.
In the Old Testament it appears that God rarely placed His Spirit INSIDE of people. Bezalel (Exodus 35:30ff) the architect of the Tabernacle was one of these. But ordinarily, when God imparted His Spirit to the Old Testament saints, the Scriptures speak of the Spirit coming UPON them.
* In Judges we’re told “…the Spirit of the LORD came UPON Gideon, and he blew a trumpet… and summoned Israel together to challenge the Midianites” Judges 6:34
* In Judges 14 “…The Spirit of the LORD came UPON (Samson) in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat...” Judges 14:6
* 1st Samuel tells us “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed (David) in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came UPON David in power...” 1Samuel 16:13
Again and again (thru-out the Old Testament) God’s Spirit came UPON certain people to give them power. Even then, God’s Spirit only came upon select individuals for specific purposes for God’s Spirit to come upon anyone. And while that Spirit did come upon several Old Testament people, it was rare for the Spirit of God to be INSIDE someone during the Old Testament times.
However, all that changed when Jesus came.
In John 14:16-17 Jesus promised “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be IN you.”
This was going to be different that how the Spirit had interacted with God’s people up until this time.
John 7:38-39 tells us that Jesus declared “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time THE SPIRIT HAD NOT BEEN GIVEN, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
You see, in the Old Testament God’s Spirit only came upon certain select individuals. Judges, Prophets, Kings and such. But in the New Testament God’s Spirit was to be INSIDE each and every Christian.
In 1Corinthians 3:16 Paul told us Christians:
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives IN you?”
Like the power core in Iron Man – the Spirit of God is always inside the Christian. He’s always there to give us His power. His energy.
SO, what exactly does God’s Spirit do for us?
If the Holy Spirit is our POWER source from God… what kind of power does He give me?
1st God’s Spirit gives us the power to deal our broken lives.
One of the writers of the Iron Man movie (Gerry Conway) made this observation: “Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable… just can’t be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan (Lee) made it very much an in-your-face wound, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken.”
Iron man was a wounded man. A broken man.
His life was ruined by a battle wound that should have destroyed him.
But when the power core was installed, Iron man was give the ability to live again
In Romans, Paul tells us how he’s seen his life
In Romans 7:15-24 he tells about the damage sin had done to his heart.
He says because of sin “even when he wanted to do right… he couldn’t get it done.”
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.”
(In other words, his sin proved that the Law was right when it condemned him as a sinner).
“As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; nooo, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
(pause) What a wretched man I am!
(pause) Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
That’s what life is like without God’s Spirit inside us.
It’s like living inside of tomb… inside a body of death.
There’s this nagging feeling that we’ve messed everything up. Sometimes it can even get to the point where we have this feeling that we’re just loser. Wretched creatures.
Who could possibly fix this for us?
Who can rescue from this body of death???
“Ah”, says Paul
“Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! … There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 7:25; 8:1-2)
You see, here’s how it works:
You and I are broken inside.
There’s something inside of our souls we can’t fix.
It’s like having a disease that attacks our bodies.
If I have disease who do I usually go to see? (A doctor)
I go to the doctor because I need someone who can get inside of my body, someone I can trust to remove the diseased cells and help me heal.
That is what God’s Spirit is designed to do.
God’s Spirit gets inside of my heart.
Ø He repairs that which was broken.
Ø He removes the diseased parts of my soul.
Ø and He makes me new again.
And He can do that because He is a living and active. He is God!
He’s right there inside everyone of us who’s a Christian here today.
Ø He’s fixing you on a constant basis
Ø He is continually removing the deadness of sin from your heart
Ø And He is faithfully putting God’s medicine inside of you to heal you.
Thanks be to God - through Christ Jesus - the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.
But wait, there’s more!
He doesn’t just set you free from sin… He empowers you to live a power filled life
ILLUS: Just this past week, the power was out on the north side of town. I first noticed it when I saw that the traffic lights weren’t working. I didn’t think much about it until I tried to stop into CVS and pick up some batteries and one of the clerks met me at the door and explained:
“I’m sorry we have no electricity. We can’t sell you anything.”
That’s odd! Such a thing never occurred to me. I just took it for granted that I could walk into that store – even in a power outage – and get whatever I wanted. But that wasn’t true.
They had no electricity. They had no power.
Without that electricity , their machines wouldn’t work. They couldn’t run their computers, they couldn’t open their cash registers. They couldn’t log their sales. They were literally shut down because they had no power.
It was only when that clerk told me they couldn’t sell anything that I realized how important electricity had been for their store. Electricity empowered them to do what they were meant to do.
In the same way, God’s Spirit empowers you and me to do what God designed us to do.
For instance, the Bible tells me that I am designed to pray.
In Romans 8:26 says “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
Have you ever felt like God wasn’t hearing your prayers?
Like you could pray and pray and pray and you just weren’t getting through?
Of course you have. We all have. But Romans 8 says - don’t worry about it.
You have a direct line to God!
You’re patched directly into God, because God is patched directly into you.
You don’t even have to say anything. God’s Spirit is so in tune with your spirit that God senses your every emotion as you feel them. He knows your joys and your sorrows even when you have trouble putting those emotions into words. God understands everything you feel, because God’s Spirit is right there inside you
So, don’t worry about having WEAK prayers and your prayers making it to God. The Spirit of God is your power line, and He gives a special umph to your petitions.
So He empowers when we feel our prayers are weak.
And He empowers us when we feel our lives are weak.
Romans 8:27 & 28 says “…the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
God’s Spirit is active in helping turn our lives around.
He’s interceding for you at the throne
He is petitioning on your behalf
What that says to me is: When your life seems to be falling apart, God is actively planning how to fix it. He’s thinking about you in your specific circumstances. He isn’t going to churn out some “cookie cutter” solution to your problem. He is planning a specific response to your specific difficulty.
One person put it this way
“When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something!!!”
There seems to be a direct tie between the Spirit interceding for us and “all things working together for the good of those who love God.”
Notice it doesn’t say “all things are good”.
And it doesn’t say that “all things that happened to you were from God” (though they may be)
What it does say is this: it doesn’t matter what happens in your life. The Spirit is interceding for you… and all things WILL work together for your good.
Now you might ask how do I receive this Spirit?
In Acts 2, we’re told of how the church began. The Holy Spirit comes down in power upon the apostles and they begin to speak in languages they’ve never learned. A large crowd begins to gather and Peter stands up and delivers a powerful sermon describing how Jesus had come to fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah… and they he said this:
"… let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Acts 2:36
You crucified the Messiah! It’s your fault He died! You’re in trouble boys!
Then, in Acts 2:37 it says “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’"
The crowd was so convicted by Peter’s sermon that they interrupt him to ask what they need to do to fix their relationship with God.
Acts 2:38 tells us Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive (what) the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
That’s God’s promise.
He promised that if we responded in faith and repented of our past and were immersed water in name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, we would receive His Spirit.
You accept Jesus on HIS terms, and He places the power core in your heart.
A couple of weeks ago I explained one of the reasons that this is God’s way of doing things. Some churches will lead folks in a “Sinner’s Prayer” and tell people to ask Jesus into their hearts. But there’s a major problem with that. Do you know what it is? That’s right – it’s not in Scripture. It wasn’t how God apparently wanted it done. God chose baptism as His way for us to respond to Him because baptism required a Christian there to help new believers in their new-found faith.
Just like that clip in Iron Man showed that he needed someone to help install his power core so also God requires us to have another Christian on hand for us to have His power placed inside us.
If you’ll noticed in the movie, Stark’s assistant didn’t feel “qualified” to help him in this way. The hero’s response was “you’re the most qualified person I know”.
In the same way, you may not feel “qualified” to baptize someone into Christ, but God thinks you are. If you love Jesus, you’ll be able to help new believers walk the new walk in Christ.
One last thing I noticed about the Iron Man clip.
Iron Man’s power core was essential for his survival.
Without the power core his heart would fail and his body would shut down.
If that power core were ever removed… he would die.
In the same way WITHOUT the Spirit of God inside you and I – we will die.
God’s Spirit inside of us is the only thing between us and judgment.
Without God’s Spirit inside us would face eternity in hell.
And God doesn’t want that.
But Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us that once we became Christians we “…were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”
In that Last Day - when we come before the Judgment Seat of God – God isn’t going to look over our past to see if we’ve done enough good to be saved. You couldn’t be good enough to be good enough to get into Heaven anyway. God’s not into Karma.
Instead, on the day of judgment, He’s going to look and see if we’ve been sealed with His Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is there, we will LIVE for eternity.
We will not face the 2nd death
We will not endure the fires of hell.
We will LIVE because of the power of God’s Holy Spirit!
