OPEN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW5OBrB4MRM (0:0 thru 1:52 - where the speaker begins to introduce next video) The video describes how chemicals are used to create the different colors in fireworks.
How many of you knew that stuff? Isn’t that cool? All those beautiful fireworks on the 4th of July - and it’s all because they mixed different chemicals together to get the wonderful and vibrant colors.
(PAUSE – shifting from a joyful look to one of puzzlement)
Did you know that fireworks are dangerous? Do you know why they’re dangerous? Yeah - it’s because they mix…all those different chemicals together to create an explosion. That’s why they have to have a license to set off those huge fireworks displays and that also why there needs to be a fire department on hand during the shows.
There is explosive power in those fireworks, and if they’re not handled properly – they can be dangerous. They have a power that needs to be respected; a power-needs to be controlled by someone who knows what they’re doing
In our text this morning we read an interesting statement about POWER:
We’re told that “… POWER came out from (Jesus) and healed them all.” Luke 6:19
Now, that caught my attention, because this isn’t the only time that POWER was mentioned when speaking of people being healed by Jesus
Luke 5:17 says “On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the POWER of the Lord was with him to heal.”
In Luke 8:43-46 we read the story about “… a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. She came up behind (Jesus) and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.
And Jesus said, ‘Who was it that touched me?’ When all denied it, Peter said, ‘Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!’ But Jesus said, "Someone touched me, for I perceive that POWER has gone out from me.’”
The Gospel of Mark 5:30 tells the story of the healing of this woman and says it a little differently: “Jesus, perceiving in himself that POWER had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my garments?’”
It says Jesus “perceived” that power had gone out from Him. Now I MIGHT be wrong here… but when Jesus healed this woman it almost seems as if He was taken by surprise when she touched Him. But hold that thought in the back of your mind for a couple moments and we’ll get back to it later in the sermon.
The first thing I want you to notice in this passage is this: “…(there was) a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.” Luke 6:17-19
People came to Jesus because they wanted to be touched by Him. They wanted the power to come out from Jesus to change their lives.
You know… that’s why many of us are here today. This is not a “religious ritual” we’re going through here. Yes, we sing and we pray and we take of communion and we listen to a sermon, but the real reason we’re here to be touched by Jesus. In fact, that’s why we became Christians. We wanted Jesus to touch us. We wanted HIS power in our lives. We came to Jesus so HIS POWER could change us and so that we’d have His POWER TO OVERCOME the difficulties we face.
When Jesus really touches you… He fixes you inside. He changes who you are, He cleans up what you’ve fouled up, He fixes what you’ve broken in your life. And that’s why many of us are here. If we do this "church thing" right… we can lay hold of the power that Jesus can give us.
So, the first thing I want to see is that the touch of Jesus can give us God's power. The next thing I want you to notice in this passage is this: “… power came out from him and healed them all.” Luke 6:19
In Mark 5:30 - it says pretty much the same thing: “… POWER had gone out from him”
Where did that power come from? That’s right - the power came from Jesus. My point is this: if you want God’s power in your life you need to get it from Jesus. Too many people (even Christians) believe they have sufficient power in their lives to handle whatever comes there way and so they don’t bother to have Jesus touch their lives. But it’s not true.
ILLUS: (I went down to the main floor where I’d placed a carpet sweeper)
This is a sweeper. It’s a wonderful device, all gleaming and powerful. All I have to do to turn this thing on is switch this switch.
(I turn on the switch, but nothing happens. I repeat the action a couple of times and feign surprise). Wait a minute, why won’t this turn on? (After the audience responds) It’s not plugged in? (I made a big display of reeling in the power cord till I got to the plug).
Well, by gum, you’re right. I have to put this plug into something that has power don’t I? (I then gave the sweeper plug to someone in the first 2 rows of the audience and made a big display of trying to turn the sweeper on again). Hey! This still isn’t working. What’s going on?
(Again I let the audience respond) That’s right – there’s no power in that person that can turn this sweeper on. If I’m going to get the sweeper to work I need to plug it into something that has power in it. I need to plug it into something like this socket on the wall.
In the same way, in order to have the kind of power God wants me to have in my life I need to plug my life into someone who actually has the power to give me. I need to plug my life into Jesus.
Of course the question is – how do we PLUG IN to Jesus’ power? Well, I searched all through the Bible and this is what I found: “… if 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.” Romans 8:11
God’s power comes to me through the Spirit of God. When we became Christians, God made the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to live inside us. The presence of that Spirit inside of us is what gives us the power Jesus died to make sure that we had.
We have a song we sing in 2nd Service that celebrates that truth (“Same Power” by Jeremy Camp). This is how the chorus goes (I sang it to the audience)
“The same power that rose Jesus from the grave.
The same power that commands the dead to wake - lives in us, lives in us.
The same power that moves mountains when He speaks.
The same power that can calm a raging sea - lives in us, lives in us, lives in us.”
So, what does that power do for us? Ephesians 3:20 tells us - “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, ACCORDING TO THE POWER at work within us”
So, God can do all kinds of things for us because of the POWER (Holy Spirit) that He put inside us. And God can do far more abundantly than all we ask or think. That’s what God’s power can do for you. I recall a statement God made to King David “…I gave you your master’s house … and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!” II Samuel 12:8
God would have given David far more abundantly than all he could ask or think - and that’s the same promise you have from God. Once Jesus touched us we have access to ALL the power and blessings God could give.
But what if He doesn’t? What if God DOESN’T give me everything that I can think or ask to have? This is where I want to go back to the beginning of the sermon. Do you remember how I said – it seemed JESUS was “surprised” when the woman touched Him and power went out from Him? Now I’m speculating here… but I believe when the woman touched Jesus, she was healed even though Jesus didn’t realize it had happened.
But how could that be? How could she be healed if Jesus didn’t even know she was there? Well her faith healed her. Jesus said to her "Daughter, YOUR FAITH has made you well; go in peace." Luke 8:48
Jesus didn’t need to know she’d touched Him, because this CONTACT she’d made (that brought her healing) was based upon the “CONTRACT” that God had made. That contract was this: OUR FAITH IN HIM turns on the power.
ILLUS: It’s like this electrical socket… there is POWER in this socket. I don’t have to plug anything into it – but the power is still there. The power is there, because the Electrical Company has a contract with us, so that any time I plug something into that socket… the juice is already there. The Electric Company doesn’t need to know that I’ve plugged anything in - because it has a CONTRACT with us that the power will be there whenever we plug something into it.
In the same way… whenever you come to Jesus with faith you plug into His power. The power is there and it’s on at all times.
But if you don’t get what you want/need? Is it Jesus’ fault you didn’t get it? Or is there something else that is wrong?
ILLUS: Last week lightning paid my house a visit. It struck the TV/internet cable outside my home and now my TV don’t work so good anymore. Now what would happen if I brought that TV here to the church building and plugged it into that plug over there? That’s right – it wouldn’t work any better here than it does at my home. Why? Because the problem isn’t with the Electrical Co – the problem is with the TV set.
In the same way – when we don’t get all we get all we ask/think - the problem isn’t with God. There’s something else wrong. Sometimes the problem is with our faith (we don’t really believe He’ll do anything). Or sometimes the problem is with our lives (we have a sin in our lives we’re trying to cover believing God won’t know it’s hidden in the closet). Or sometimes what we’re asking for would hurt us or our witness. I mean – just because I think it’s a good idea, doesn’t mean it will be good for me.
But there’s ONE MORE THING that robs us God’s power and blessings in our lives. And to discover what that is, let’s look again at Luke 6:12 “He went out to the mountain to PRAY, and all night he continued in prayer to God.”
The problem for many of us is that we don’t receive what God would give us because we don’t ask (James 4:3). Jesus had power, because He prayed. Philippians 2:6-7 tells us that “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” It’s not like he simply took the nameplate “God” off the executive desk. Philippians is saying that Jesus literally removed took off His Godhood – with all of its POWER - and allowed Himself to become mortal just like you and I. Thus, in order to have the power He needed to perform miracles and healings… Jesus needed to pray.
And Jesus did that a lot… Jesus prayed before healing the crowds (Mark 1:35), He prayed before He fed over 5,000 people (Mark 6:41), He prayed before healing the man who was deaf and mute (Mark 7:34), and He prayed before bringing the dead back to life (John 11:41-43). He prayed every time He needed to do anything that needed POWER.
A lot of times we don’t have the power of God in our lives because we don’t spend any time in prayer. We forget to, or we’re “too busy”, or we just don’t think it will do any good. But Jesus showed us in His earthly ministry that if you’re going to have access to the power of God – you need to pray.
Now, don’t get intimidated by the fact that Jesus prayed all night. Jesus was a professional at this. He understood prayer’s power and effectiveness in ways we can only guess at. Most of us get frustrated when we have to pray more than 5 minutes at a time – we run out of things to say. That’s OK… just pray. Pray for 5 minutes, or 2 minutes, or whatever. Just talk to God. Talk to Him like you’d talk to your spouse or a friend or a family member. Tell Him what you’re thinking. Tell Him what you’re grateful for. Tell Him what frustrates you (that’ll take a while). But don’t worry about filling a time gap. It’s not like God’s up there with a stop watch and saying “Well, they didn’t pray that extra few minutes, so I’m not going to listen to them.” NO! That’s not how it works. God wants you to talk with Him. So do it. Do it as long as you feel comfortable and don’t worry about filling time with stuff that doesn’t matter to you. The more you do talk with God like this, the more likely you are to pray longer and longer – till it will seem like you can’t pray enough when you do so.
But pray, because prayer turns on the power of God.
CLOSE: One last thought - the Greek word for power here is “dunamis”. Now of course, most of us don’t speak Greek, but we get an English word from the Greek “dunamis.” Do you know what it is? That’s right - it’s the word we get “DYNAMITE” from. The folks who invented those explosive sticks used that word dynamite to describe their invention, because they understood that God’s power was like the explosive force of the dynamite they’d just created.
ILLUS: Years ago, there was a farmer who had a problem. He had a BIG tree in the field that had died. He was sad that the tree had died, but now that it was dead he wanted it removed so he could plow that ground more effectively. But once he cut the tree down, there was still this HUGE stump left over. What was he going to do with that stump? Well, he could go out with an ax and whittle it down little by little but that was an awful lot of work. So he went to a friend of his that had done this before, and his friend went out into the field with him and looked the stump over. Then the friend went back to his truck and got out some dynamite and carried it over to the stump. They dug a few holes around the stump, strategically placed the explosive, lit the fuse… and ran like the dickens to hide behind the truck. BAM! The explosion lifted that stump right out of the ground and scattering its fragments all over the place.
If you can imagine the power of that dynamite… then you have an idea of the kind of power God has placed inside of us. But now how did we get that power inside of us to begin with? How did God put His Spirit inside of us? Well in Acts we’re told that Peter preached a powerful sermon to the crowds at Pentecost and the people were so convicted by what Peter preached that they asked “What shall we do?” To which 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 the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
When we became Christians, God has placed the power of Jesus (the Holy Spirit) inside of us. And we got that Spirit (God’s Power inside of us) from God by claiming HIS promise – by our believing in Jesus (John 3:16), by our repenting of our sin (Acts 2:38), by our confession Jesus as Lord (Romans (10:9) and by allowing ourselves to be buried in the waters of baptism and being raised up to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).
INVITATION
