We thank the Lord for all the young people who are attending with us this year. I understand the high school department is over one hundred, so be sure to pray for those workers who are working with the children this week.
We also have many young people here this afternoon—and, of course, many who are young in spirit.
We want to read some portions of Scripture, beginning in Acts 1, beginning in verse 3.
To these disciples Jesus presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.
Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Then we turn to Luke 24, beginning in verse 44.
Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
We turn also to the last verses in Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Then we turn to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 22.
For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Then in 1 Corinthians 2, beginning in verse 1:
And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank You that we could gather together this afternoon in the name of the Lord Jesus. We want to learn more of His kingdom, power, and glory.
We believe the promise that the Spirit has come to lead us into all reality regarding these things. We ask that the Holy Spirit would anoint us as we hear and as we speak. Do open the eyes of our heart with a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus.
We pray all these things in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Our God rules over everything. His is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. When He has fully accomplished all of His plans, all will see that He rules.
Mankind lives upon this earth subject to the kingdoms of this world. Most men walk through their whole lives never realizing that there is the kingdom of God over them. But God, by His mercy, touches the earth with His kingdom that we may know of Him.
Just as Jacob ran away from home and lay down with an uncertain future, then the heavens opened and a ladder came down from heaven. Jacob awoke and said, “This is fearful. God is in this place, and I knew it not.”
Is that not our testimony too? We were walking in the kingdoms of this world when God, by His mercy, showed us the Lord Jesus Christ, and the door of heaven was opened to us.
We spoke last time of the hiding of God’s power. One of the great manifestations of the power of God is hidden power. God, who rules over all, is ruling and overruling in your life and mine with His sovereign providence.
Like the apostle Paul, who was high up in the religious kingdoms of this world, one day, by the mercy of God, he saw a heavenly vision. He realized that there was a divine overruling of all of his life up to that point, and he spoke to a Lord who knew him in every detail of his life.
As a Jew, Paul had sought after the kingdom of God, but could only see God through a veil as he read the old covenant. But in that moment of heavenly vision, he saw the King. He spoke those words of a kingdom servant: “Lord, what would You have me to do?”
And so with all of our lives. Many young people are here with many plans: whom to marry, where to go to school, where to live. Perhaps you have grown up among Christians. You have heard of the Lord Jesus with the hearing of the ear.
But, oh, when the kingdom comes into collision with your life, you realize that God has been ruling in your life—moving you to this place, to that church, and to meet these people.
When such a moment occurs, I pray that you will become one of the King’s servants. Every Christian should be two things:
According to our Lord Jesus, these things are not optional. They are the very foundation of our life and of our service.
We read the Scriptures regarding the last days that our Jesus was upon the earth. He wanted to make very real to the disciples: “Thine is the power.” So He came among them after His resurrection and, by many proofs, showed them that He had been victor over death itself.
Then He wanted to connect them to this power in the kingdom of God. He told them the basis upon which power was received from on high. He said that they should wait in Jerusalem, and they would be clothed with power from on high.
Then they watched the Lord Jesus ascend before them. He went up into glory and sat down at the right hand of the Father. When the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, these apostles were connected with power to the kingdom of God.
They remembered that the Lord said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Endued with kingdom power, they began to preach the gospel of the kingdom.
You remember the moment when they raised up the lame man by the temple. A great crowd of people came around, and Peter said, “Do not think that this was done by any power or righteousness of mine. It is the name of Jesus, the One you crucified and God raised again.” They were witnesses of His resurrection.
Wherever they witnessed of the resurrection of their Lord, God manifested kingdom power in their midst. Every time the enemy tried to stop the witness of these disciples, they were overruled by the Lord of lords.
Even when Stephen was martyred and the disciples were scattered abroad, it was all within the great sovereign plan of God to bring the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.
When we read the book of Acts, we see that our Lord Jesus is the King, He is upon His throne, and He is manifesting His kingdom power everywhere the disciples went.
God opened the door of the kingdom in various places. There were great demonstrations of power. In the city of Samaria, the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus was preached by Philip the evangelist. God overruled all Jewish prejudice by bringing many Samaritans to the Lord Jesus.
Peter was in the house of Cornelius. Peter loved to preach, but his preaching got overruled. Right in the middle of his message about Jesus, the Holy Spirit was poured out and stopped his sermon. The kingdom of God had come to these Gentiles as they heard the gospel.
We remember in Acts 19 when Paul came to Ephesus. Of all the cities in which Paul preached and built the church, Ephesus had the most spiritual warfare and resistance. There were those possessed of demons, there were exorcists, and the city was full of people practicing magic.
Many people were under the bondage of the principality connected with the temple of Artemis. But God, with great power, demonstrated the reality of His kingdom, and many miracles ensued during Paul’s ministry in Ephesus.
We have before us in 1 Corinthians 2 a brief testimony of Paul regarding his visit to the Corinthians. He came to the Corinthians, not with his own eloquence nor with the wisdom of men. His words were not of wisdom, but of demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
There was a tremendous work done there. Many Gentiles were saved in Corinth. And so we read through the New Testament of this manifestation of God’s power.
Now, we who preach the kingdom of God today should also expect that our God will demonstrate the reality of kingdom power as we preach the gospel. It is necessary for those who would witness of the kingdom to be clothed with power from on high.
His anointing and His gifts are available to us, that we may be faithful in preaching the gospel of the kingdom.
We talk a lot about being full of the Holy Spirit. It is our regular vocabulary. But would to God it was our reality. Do you know the clothing of power from on high? This is vital to kingdom progress in this world.
But when we speak of this outpouring, we have a problem. God is very sovereign in how every individual receives this power.
Some who are filled with the Spirit have deeply emotional experiences and ecstasies as the Spirit comes upon them. If you have read the testimony of the faithful evangelist D. L. Moody, he testifies that waves of love poured over him—an unceasing strength—until he had to ask God to stay His power.
But then we take the evangelist Billy Graham. A young pastor named Stephen Olford in England spoke to him of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The young Billy Graham got down on his knees and asked God to fill him with the Holy Spirit.
But there was no outward manifestation. That night, however, he went to the gospel crusade where he was preaching. When he gave the invitation to receive Christ, the heavens opened. In one sense, we could say that his effective gospel ministry really began.
God is very sovereign about this matter of being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is not really a matter of experience, but there are some things in common with those who have known such an endowment:
Some know the exact moment of this endowment, and some cannot clearly say. It is not the experience, but the reality, that is important.
Once having been clothed with power from on high, it is also necessary for the servant of the kingdom to follow God’s purposes. God is moving through this world today. He is looking for servants who know the direction and the purpose of His going.
Whenever the powerful providence of God meets a willing and yielded servant, there are demonstrations of kingdom reality.
I do not want to speak more about this matter of the endowment from on high, except to put it in the context of the hiding of His power.
When we study the book of Acts, there are two observations that touch on this matter. The book of Acts, written by Luke, is a telescoping of thirty-three years of the first days of the church.
In those thirty-three years, we can see the sovereign moving of God as the church is built further and further out into the world. Luke records for us, depending on how you count, roughly thirty miracles specifically recounted in the book of Acts.
He was not interested in giving us a history of miracles. But he spoke about those supernatural manifestations of God, especially when God was opening up new doors of the kingdom in places and cities.
Thirty-three years, thirty miracles—less than one a year. Now, we know there were many, many more demonstrations of kingdom power during those thirty-three years.
But we need to balance the manifestations in the book of Acts with the awareness that there were many days when the gospel of the kingdom was faithfully preached without any outward manifestation.
We see some great moments in the book of Acts, but our brothers who went about faithfully preaching the gospel preached many, many times. Many times there were no miracles—only trouble; at times, discouragement; at times, the closing of doors.
But they were faithful. They relied on their King, who opened doors and manifested Himself at certain times. We have to realize that the manifestation of kingdom power is presently in the years of the hiding of His power.
Then we look at Luke 17. Here the Pharisees are asking Jesus to perform some great demonstration of kingdom power. We see in verse 20:
Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, Jesus answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
The Pharisees were asking for some great political sign: the Messiah coming in power with His army to destroy the empire of Rome, or perhaps a sign in the sky and the heavens above. Jesus said, “You will receive no such thing.”
He said, “Do not say, ‘Look over here, here it is. Look over there.’” The kingdom of God is in the day of hiding of the power. But then He said, “You can see the kingdom of God if you have eyes to see. For behold”—that means, “Look”—“the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
What did He mean by that? Of course, He meant that He was the King. If they could see He was the King, they would suddenly realize that they were in the kingdom right there.
This is the basic principle: wherever the presence of the King is, there is a manifestation of the kingdom of God.
In English, this verse has two different translations, and both of them are quite satisfactory. One says, “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” The other says, “Behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Here we understand where we are today regarding the power of the kingdom. When we look around this world, we have to admit that this world is still under the control of darkness. The whole world lies in the evil one.
But wait: there is a manifestation of the kingdom all over this world. Where? In every servant of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is within them, and you can see it.
And regarding the church, wherever two or three are gathered in His name, the kingdom of God is among them. The kingdom can be seen today in the lives of all of His children who are yielded to the King.
Many of us here would confess today that we came to the Lord Jesus because we saw Jesus in some brother or some sister. It is also a wonderful fact that whenever the church gathers together under the headship of the Lord Jesus, you can see the kingdom there.
But it needs to be a church that is learning the headship of the Lord Jesus, a church that is following in the way of God’s purpose, and a church that is praying under an open heaven.
Is that where you gather? Is there a testimony of His kingdom where you meet?
We know that the Lord is very near to all of His people. But there needs to be the way of repentance for us to become a vessel in which the Lord can manifest Himself.
The Lord can sovereignly rend the heavens at any time He wants. In His mercy, He demonstrates His saving power in very sovereign ways. But for us as Christians, it is not for us to go looking here and looking there for some great demonstration.
It is for us to be before our God, that we may know the Lord’s manifestation in our midst. The Lord not only shows His power in the hiding of His providence in circumstances; the Lord also wants to manifest the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe in the church.
Last time I spoke of the hiding of His power. Now let us look at the exceeding greatness of His power.
Let us turn to Ephesians 1. We see Paul praying for a revelation for the saints in Ephesus. He is praying that they could see with revelation what is the hope of His calling, and that we, as Christians, could see the glorious riches of His inheritance in the saints.
But in verse 19, we come to the third matter that Paul is praying regarding the Ephesian Christians:
That it may be revealed to you what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
There is a tremendous kingdom power to be upon the church, but we need revelation to see it. Look how Paul uses power word upon power word to try to give us a notion of how great the power of the kingdom is.
Notice in verse 19: this power is in accordance with the working of the strength of His might—strength, might, working: all power words.
What do these Ephesians need revelation to understand about this incredible power? The Ephesians had already known the clothing of power from on high. They had already known some of the gifts of the Spirit, and they had seen the Lord move in manifest ways in Ephesus.
Yet Paul is pressing upon them the importance of seeing this exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.
What is he talking about? What is the power that Christians must know? Here it would help if we did not have a chapter break at the beginning of Ephesians 2. If we read it continuously, we would see what Paul is after.
In verse 20, he says that this is the great power which God brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.
Then he continues the thought into chapter 2 and says, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Then verse 4:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
What is the exceeding great power that Christians need to see? First, it is the power that raised us from death to life. Then, it is the power that raised us up and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places.
How much power does that take—to raise up a dead man? Can Dr. Frankenstein raise the dead? There is tremendous power necessary to raise the dead.
God, who rules and overrules, raised Jesus from the dead. Death can never hold Him again. He is alive forever before His Father.
And not only that, but the power that raised Him up—how much power does it take to raise an earthbound person into heaven? How much power does it take to bring the Lord Jesus, a human being glorified, to sit down at the right hand of God in glory?
That is how much power is toward us who believe.
Now, I do not know about you, because you all look very religious and you have always been good. But I know the power that it took for the Lord to have mercy on me and raise me from the death of my transgressions and sins.
I was twenty years old when I got saved, and by twenty years old I was already really dead. I was dead and stuck in transgressions and sin. You would never believe what I was like at nineteen years old. But God, in His mercy, saved me.
The Bible tries to describe these things. Paul says to Titus that God has literally regenerated our spirit. My spirit was so dead to God.
But on April 1, 1964—yes, that is right, April Fools’ Day—I prayed the prayer, and I knew Abba was my Father.
I had prayed at times, unbelieving. But on that day my prayer broke through, because I knew Abba. What a resurrection! It is the regeneration of our spirit.
How much power does it take for a spirit to be quickened, to be born again? You remember Paul in 2 Corinthians 4. He is talking about preaching the gospel, and he declares that when we preach the gospel, the same God who said, “Let there be light,” is the same God who brings the light of Jesus Christ into our souls, and we are saved.
What a powerful work this is. He gives us a new spirit. He gives us a new heart. Can you believe it? Now we are seeking first His kingdom and righteousness. What happened to us?
Before I was saved, I sought after many things, but not righteousness, neither His kingdom. When I was saved, I received such a power boost that I read the whole Bible in three months—from Genesis to Revelation. I could not stop.
By His great power, He begins to renew our minds from the world’s understanding. How can we not testify as to the moral power that comes into the newborn’s life by the power of the blood of Jesus?
My worldly friends at school were shaken when they saw me after I got saved. Believe me, I was a carnal creature. I was a baby. But the power of the blood had produced a change in me that people could see.
I think, before us Christians, there is a great repenting necessary when we belittle the great power of God that has raised us from the dead and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places.
This is the second of the great manifestations of God’s power that we see in His kingdom: first, the sovereign ruling of His providence; then, the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.
We turn to Ephesians 3. Paul speaks more on this matter. We pick up in verse 16:
That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Many times, even Christians are very concerned about outward demonstrations of His power. But here is a great hidden, powerful work that is going on. We are being strengthened by the power of His Spirit in the inner man, with the goal that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.
If you are a Christian but you are living your life in a carnal way and at cross-purposes with God, you will find that your circumstances will overrule your desires, because God determines to strengthen your inner man that Christ could dwell in you.
This is the work that is going on today. It is a hidden work. You cannot always see Him working in people’s lives. It is even as the makers of the temple stones were hammering those stones underground in the secret place.
God, by His exceeding great power, is building a home for the Lord Jesus in your life and mine.
Regarding the exceeding greatness of His power, there are two perceptions that enable us to cooperate with this process.
First, there is a turning point that comes in the Christian life when we realize that the exceeding greatness of His power is not a power, but a Person.
We realize that there is a life inside, that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. It is no longer just a sanctifying power, or a power that would make us righteous. It is a Person who would live in us.
For so many Christians, we have to go through a season, as it were, in the wilderness. We strive to be better, want to read our Bible more, but we only know failure. We sense a greater distance from God. We see sin operating in us. We feel captured by the flesh. Our mind seems so ungodly.
Everything we do—all our good intentions—seems to be laid low by the law of sin and death. When a person has really tried to be a Christian, that is when they realize the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
There is the Spirit of God dwelling in you. He can mortify the deeds of the flesh. He can resurrect your spirit. He can renew your mind. He is the Righteous One. He is your life.
When a Christian lays hold of this indwelling life, it makes such a difference in cooperating with God. Galatians 2:20 tells us of this life within. We discover that the basis of our very life is the incredible power of His Spirit working in us.
I give you the secret for righteousness, for wisdom, for overcoming power, for victory: abide in Him, and He in you.
This is the victory that overcomes the world. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. There is a life in you.
But I dare say seven out of ten Christians do not realize this. Oh, to know this revelation! It is rest for your soul.
This is the first perspective: when we realize that the power is not a power but a Person. When you have discovered this, you discover what this means: once it was the blessing; now it is the Lord Himself.
Now there is a second very important perspective that enables us to cooperate with this great working of His power toward us: the cross of Christ is the regulator of the power of God.
We say, “Thine is the power.” God holds His power very fast, but He distributes His great power through the cross.
We read in 1 Corinthians 1 that Paul is talking about the message of the cross:
When we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness; but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Many Christians are hungry for the power. But it comes by way of the cross. “Oh, I do not want the cross; I just want the power.” But God is very jealous about His power.
First, there is the end of yourself. Then, on resurrection ground, there is the place of power. Everybody has to go through that. Do you want His power? There is an undoing in our life that takes place.
The cross is God’s divine veto on our flesh. The cross says no to our self-initiated ideas. As we draw near to the Lord, we find the power working in us.
This power is undoing things in us, tearing down things in us, bringing things to naught—anything superfluous to the kingdom of God. We sense its veto.
Now the cross is the power of God, and it is a mercy to us. What would happen if you and I were given the power of God to use in our own ideas and strength?
The cross works upon His servant. If we would follow after Him, we must deny ourselves, take up His cross, and follow Him. But the cross is there to bring us through to resurrection ground.
We all know the verse in Philippians 3:10, where Paul says, “That I may know the power of His resurrection.” What does Paul mean? Does he want to see more miracles, more powerful demonstrations?
No. He has already seen many of these. He is not looking for miracles. He is in jail when he writes this. He is looking for the overcoming power of an indestructible life for him.
A life on resurrection ground knows victory. It knows buoyancy. It can be knocked down, but it will not be knocked out. “I want to know the power of His resurrection.”
Paul was in jail, and he felt many of the things that we feel. A situation seems to be dying. You may sense a great loss. Maybe in your fellowship things are almost coming to an end, or there is failure, weakness, or defeat.
Then the Lord touches us on resurrection ground, and life comes in among us in a place that we did not expect. Suddenly, we realize that all of this breaking and dealing that has been going on is now releasing His Spirit and new resurrection life.
Paul speaks from experience when he says that God says, “In weakness My power is perfected.”
How many of you want to vote for God’s power? Do not raise your hand. Are we willing to accept weakness as the way for the perfection of His power?
The cross is the great arbiter of the power of God. If you are part of an assembly that really wants the Lord in fullness, then He will deal with your assembly.
As you discover the real practical headship of the Lord Jesus, as you discover the resurrection ground of praying under an open heaven, and as you discover that you have been united in spirit, the trials that you have gone through as a fellowship are bringing you onto the resurrection ground of a unity of the faith.
Such an assembly can say, “Do not look there. Do not look there. The kingdom of God is in our midst.”
I hope that you have a single eye and that you can see how much we need the work of the cross in our life to know the power of God.
The Lord wants men and women that He can use powerfully as His testimony, but they must be proven by this way of the cross.
Our God is moving with tremendous power and providence right now. The day of His power and coming is very soon. He is shaking our country, our city, and our families.
The Holy Spirit is working with exceeding great power to produce the Bride, to gain the kingdom for His King.
Soon He will come, and all of this that was hidden will be shown in the light. All the mysteries of our circumstances, tragedies, and problems will be understood. All the problems in our fellowship and all our heartbreak will be clear.
Do you see that the Lord is ruling right now—ruling over your life, or overruling your life? There is an end of glory soon to come.
May we find ourselves being exercised by this great power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Let us pray.
Lord, we thank You even today for the mercies that have enabled us to share together in this time.
No matter what trials are going on in our life, we confess that Your mercy is new every day. Because You are the same, we are not consumed.
I pray for those who are here who have heard about the kingdom but have never had a divine interception. By Your mercy, show Your King to those who seek Him.
And those saints and seekers who are striving through failure and disappointment—oh, show them the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
We thank You for the mercy of the power of the cross, the wisdom and the power of God.
Lord, give us revelation to see, that we may cooperate fully with You in these last days. We pray in this precious name.